• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.225-231
• /
• 2014

In this study we aim to extensively investigate the anti-influenza virus immune responses in human pharyngeal epithelial cell line (Hep-2) and evaluate the protective role of Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands in seasonal influenza A H1N1 (sH1N1) infections in vitro. We first investigated the expression of the TLRs and cytokines genes in resting and sH1N1 infected Hep-2 cells. Clear expressions of TLR3, TLR9, interleukin (IL)-6, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$ and interferon (IFN)-${\beta}$ were detected in resting Hep-2 cells. After sH1N1 infection, a ten-fold of TLR3 and TLR9 were elicited. Concomitant with the TLRs activation, transcriptional expression of IL-6, TNF-${\alpha}$ and IFN-${\beta}$ were significantly induced in sH1N1-infected cells. Pre-treatment of cells with poly I:C (an analog of viral double-stranded RNA) and CpG-ODN (a CpG-motif containing oligodeoxydinucleotide) resulted in a strong reduction of viral and cytokines mRNA expression. The results presented indicated the innate immune response activation in Hep-2 cells and affirm the antiviral role of Poly I:C and CpG-ODN in the protection against seasonal influenza A viruses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.53 no.4
• /
• pp.49-69
• /
• 2003

The purpose of the study is to develop the competitive swimming suit design with Korean traditional images. which excels in dimension of functionality, aesthetics, and symbolism. To accomplish this study, first. a theoretical examination about Korean image was added, on the basis of the practical research about professional swimmers' preferences as well as the theoretical research about the history of swimming suits and the qualifications of competitive swimming suits in the prior study. Next, practical designing was performed to achieve the creative designs according to Lamb & Kallal's design process. and the superiority of the newly designed swimming suits was evaluated by using Grant's alpha-beta model. The results of this study can be summarized as follows : First. in the problem apprehension stage. the need for swimming suit designs with Korean traditional images for professional swimmers was acknowledged, and three major criteria. which are functionality, aesthetics. and symbolism has been verified. Second. in the preliminary brainstorming stage, considerable amounts of data for the design concept considering the criteria above have been gathered. The athletic one-piece for women and the brief for men in style and nylon/lycra in fabric were used in the aspect of functionality. And the S Korean traditional colors in color and Tae-guk motive and others in pattern were selected to apply Korean traditional images in the aspects of aesthetics and symbolism. Finally, the 13 series of creative designs with 4 themes( l17pieces in total) have been suggested. Third, in the design improvement stage. after the preference to each design was surveyed, reformation of the designs was arranged on the basis of the results. Fourth, in the prototyping stage. the 17 actual prototypes, including 13 pieces for women and 4 pieces for men were produced. Fifth. in the evaluation stage. the evaluation procedure using Grant's alpha-beta model was performed. As a result, the newly designed swimming suits were rated above other existing ones in all three aspects of functionality, aesthetics, and symbolism.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.118-122
• /
• 2016

Integrin ${\alpha}_v{\beta}_3$ plays an important role in the tumor metastases and angiogenesis. Arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) peptide motif binds to the integrin ${\alpha}_v{\beta}_3$. General $^{68}Ga$-labeled cyclic RGD peptides was rapidly eliminated from the circulatory system by renal excretion because of its hydrophilic property. The purpose of this study was to develop a novel $^{68}Ga$-labeled cyclic RGD peptides, which could acquire enhanced PET tumor images with improved pharmacokinetics by adopting biphenyl group between chelator and RGD peptides. $^{68}Ga$-DOTA-2P-c(RGDyK) was demonstrated a 12% higher lipophilicity level than $^{68}Ga$-DOTA-c(RGDyK) as a reference compound. In the animal PET, $^{68}Ga$-DOTA-2P-c(RGDyK) represented relatively lower blood-clearance, and an increased signal to noise ratio compared to $^{68}Ga$-DOTA-c(RGDyK). From these perspective, $^{68}Ga$-DOTA-2P-c(RGDyK) could be a good candidate for in integrin ${\alpha}_v{\beta}_3$-expressed tumor imaging.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.19 no.11
• /
• pp.1306-1318
• /
• 2009

The filamentous ascomycete Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is well known for its ability to produce a large variety of hydrolytic enzymes. Two $\alpha$-amylases ScAmy54 and ScAmy43 predicted to play an important role in starch degradation were showed to produce specific oligosaccharides essentially maltotriose that have a considerable commercial interest. Primary structure of the two enzymes was established by N-terminal sequencing, MALDI-TOF masse spectrometry and cDNA cloning. The two proteins have the same N-terminal catalytic domain and ScAmy43 derived from ScAmy54 by truncation of 96 amino acids at the carboxyl-terminal region. Data of genomic analysis suggested that the two enzymes originated from the same $\alpha$-amylase gene and that truncation of ScAmy54 to ScAmy43 occurred probably during S. sclerotiorum cultivation. The structural gene of Scamy54 consisted of 9 exons and 8 introns, containing a single 1,500-bp open reading frame encoding 499 amino acids including a signal peptide of 21 residues. ScAmy54 exhibited high amino acid homology with other liquefying fungal $\alpha$-amylases essentially in the four conserved regions and in the putative catalytic triad. A 3D structure model of ScAmy54 and ScAmy43 was built using the 3-D structure of 2guy from A. niger as template. ScAmy54 is composed by three domains A, B, and C, including the well-known $(\beta/\alpha)_8$ barrel motif in domain A, have a typical structure of $\alpha$-amylase family, whereas ScAmy43 contained only tow domains A and B is the first fungal $\alpha$-amylase described until now with the smallest catalytic domain.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.159-169
• /
• 2011

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) have ice binding affinity, depress freezing temperature and inhibit ice recystallization which protect cellular membranes in polar organisms. Recent structural studies of antifreeze proteins have significantly expanded our understanding of the structure-function relationship and ice crystal growth inhibition. Although AFPs (Type I-IV AFP from fish, insect AFP and Plant AFP) have completely different fold and no sequence homology, they share a common feature of their surface area for ice binding property. The conserved ice-binding sites are relatively flat and hydrophobic. For example, Type I AFP has an amphipathic, single ${\alpha}$-helix and has regularly spaced Thr-Ala residues which make direct interaction with oxygen atoms of ice crystals. Unlike Type I AFP, Type II and III AFP are compact globular proteins that contain a flat ice-binding patch on the surface. Type II and Type III AFP show a remarkable structural similarity with the sugar binding lectin protein and C-terminal domain of sialic acid synthase, respectively. Type IV is assumed to form a four-helix bundle which has sequence similarity with apolipoprotein. The results of our modeling suggest an ice-binding induced structural change of Type IV AFP. Insect AFP has ${\beta}$-helical structure with a regular array of Thr-X-Thr motif. Threonine residues of each Thr-X-Thr motif fit well into the ice crystal lattice and provide a good surface-surface complementarity. This review focuses on the structural characteristics and details of the ice-binding mechanism of antifreeze proteins.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.69-79
• /
• 2011

HP0827 has two RNP motif which is a very common protein domain involved in recognition of a wide range of ssRNA/DNA.We acquired 3D NMR spectra of HP0827 which shows well dispersed and homogeneous signals which allows us to assign 98% of all $^1H_N$, $^{15}N$, $^{13}C_{\alpha}$, $^{13}C_{\beta}$ and $^{13}C$=O resonances and 90% of all sidechain resonances. The sequence-specific backbone resonance assignment of HP0827 can be used to gain deeper insights into the nucleic acids binding specificity of HP0827 in the future study. Here, we report secondary structure prediction of HP0827 derived from NMR data. Additionally, ssRNA/DNA binding assay studies was also conducted. This study might provide a clue for exact function of HP0827 based on structure and sequence.

• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
• /
• 2003.06a
• /
• pp.70-70
• /
• 2003

Active sites and substrate bindings of 1-aminoxyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase (MD-ACO1) catalyzing the oxidative conversion of ACC to ethylene have been determined based on site-directed mutagenesis and comparative modeling methods. Molecular modeling based on the crystal structure of Isopenicillin N synthase (IPNS) provided MD-ACO1 structure. MD-ACO1 protein folds into a compact jelly roll shape, consisting of 9 ${\alpha}$-helices, 10 ${\beta}$-strands and several long loops. The MD-ACO1/ACC/Fe(II)/Ascorbate complex conformation was determined from automated docking program, AUTODOCK. The MD-ACO1/Fell complex model was consistent with well known binding motif information (HIS177-ASP179-HIS234). The cosubstrate, ascorbate is placed between iron binding pocket and Arg244 of MD-ACO1 enzyme, supporting the critical role of Arg244 for generating reaction product. These findings are strongly supported by previous biochemical data as well as site-directed mutagenesis data. The structure of enzyme/substrate suggests the structural mechanism for the biochemical role as well as substrate specificity of MD-ACO1 enzyme.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.206-212
• /
• 1997

Heliobacillus mobilis is a strictly anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium which contains a primitive Photosystem I-type reaction center. The membrane-bound cytochrome $C_{553}$ from the heliobacterium suggested to be the immediate electron donor to the photooxidized pigment (P798+) has been isolated and characterized. The heme protein was visualized as a major component with an apparent molecular size of 17kDa in TMBZ-staining analysis of the membrane preparation and showed characteristic $\alpha$ (552.5 nm), $\beta$ (522nm), and Soret absorption (416 nm) peaks of a typical reduced c-type cytochrome in the partially purified sample. The internal 43 amino acid sequence of the electron donor was obtained by chemical agent and protease treatments followed by N-terminal sequencing of the resulting fragments. The internal sequence carries lots of lysine residues and a Cys-X-X-Cys-His sequence motif which are the characteristics of typical c-type cytochromes. The analysis of the sequence by FAST or FASTA program, however, did not show any significant similarity to other known heme proteins.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.56-66
• /
• 2019

Histidine triad nucleotide-binding protein (HINT) is a member of the histidine triad (HIT) superfamily, which has hydrolase activity owing to a histidine triad motif. The HIT superfamily can be divided to five classes with functions in galactose metabolism, DNA repair, and tumor suppression. HINTs are highly conserved from archaea to humans and function as tumor suppressors, translation regulators, and neuropathy inhibitors. Although the structures of HINT proteins from various species have been reported, limited structural information is available for fungal species. Here, to elucidate the structural features and functional diversity of HINTs, we determined the crystal structure of HINT from the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans (CaHINT) in complex with zinc ions at a resolution of $2.5{\AA}$. Based on structural comparisons, the monomer of CaHINT overlaid best with HINT protein from the protozoal species Leishmania major. Additionally, structural comparisons with human HINT revealed an additional helix at the C-terminus of CaHINT. Interestingly, the extended C-terminal helix interacted with the N-terminal loop (${\alpha}1-{\beta}1$) and with the ${\alpha}3$ helix, which appeared to stabilize the dimerization of CaHINT. In the C-terminal region, structural and sequence comparisons showed strong relationships among 19 diverse species from archea to humans, suggesting early separation in the course of evolution. Further studies are required to address the functional significance of variations in the C-terminal region. This structural analysis of CaHINT provided important insights into the molecular aspects of evolution within the HIT superfamily.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.54 no.6
• /
• pp.759-768
• /
• 2016

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) treatment urgently requires a novel drug. The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are a family of Ser/Thr protein kinases, but still have to be characterized in Echinococcus granulosus. We identified a 1,107 bp cDNA encoding a 368 amino acid MAPK protein (Egp38) in E. granulosus. Egp38 exhibits 2 distinguishing features of p38-like kinases: a highly conserved T-X-Y motif and an activation loop segment. Structural homology modeling indicated a conserved structure among Egp38, EmMPK2, and H. sapiens $p38{\alpha}$, implying a common binding mechanism for the ligand domain and downstream signal transduction processing similar to that described for $p38{\alpha}$. Egp38 and its phosphorylated form are expressed in the E. granulosus larval stages vesicle and protoscolices during intermediate host infection of an intermediate host. Treatment of in vitro cultivated protoscolices with the p38-MAPK inhibitor ML3403 effectively suppressed Egp38 activity and led to significant protoscolices death within 5 days. Treatment of in vitro-cultivated protoscolices with $TGF-{\beta}1$ effectively induced Egp38 phosphorylation. In summary, the MAPK, Egp38, was identified in E. granulosus, as an anti-CE drug target and participates in the interplay between the host and E. granulosus via human $TGF-{\beta}1$.