• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1416-1423
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• 2018

With strong biotin binding affinity ($K_D=10^{-14}M$), the tetrameric feature of streptavidin could be used to increase the antigen binding activity of a camel heavy chain (VHH) antibody through their fusion, here stained with biotinylated horseradish peroxidase and subsequent immunoassays ELISA and Western blot analysis. For this application, we cloned the streptavidin gene amplified from the Streptomyces avidinii chromosome by PCR, and this was fused to the gene of the 8B9 VHH antibody which is specific to green fluorescent protein (GFP) antigens. To express a soluble fusion protein in Escherichia coli, we used the pUC119 plasmid-based expression system which uses the lacZ promoter for induction by IPTG, the pelB leader sequence at the N-terminus for secretion into the periplasmic space, and six polyhistidine tags at the C-terminus for purification of the expressed proteins using an $Ni^+$-NTA-agarose column. Although streptavidin is toxic to E. coli because of its strong biotin binding property, this soluble fusion protein was expressed successfully. In SDS-PAGE, the size of the purified fusion protein was 122.4 kDa in its native condition and 30.6 kDa once denatured by boiling, suggesting the tetramerization of the monomeric subunit by non-covalent association through the streptavidin moiety fusing to the 8B9 VHH antibody. In addition, this fusion protein showed biotin binding activity similar to streptavidin as well as GFP antigen binding activity through both ELISA and Western blot analysis. In conclusion, the protein resulting from the fusion of an 8B9 VHH antibody with streptavidin was successfully expressed and purified as a soluble tetramer in E. coli; it showed both biotin and GFP antigen binding activity suggesting the possible production of a tetrameric and bifunctional VHH antibody.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 2016

Enzyme immunoassay to analyze specific binding activity of antibody to antigen uses horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or alkaline phosphatase (AP). Chemical methods are usually used for coupling of these enzymes to antibody, which is complicated and random cross-linking process. As results, it causes decreases or loss of functional activity of either antibody or enzyme. In addition, most enzyme assays use secondary antibody to detect antigen binding activity of primary antibody. Enzymes coupled to secondary antibody provide a binding signal by substrate-based color development, suggesting secondary antibody is required in enzyme immunoassay. Additional incubation time for binding of secondary antibody should also be necessary. More importantly, non-specific binding activity caused by secondary antibody should also be eliminated. In this study, we cloned AP isolated from Escherichia coli (E. coli) chromosome by PCR and fused to) hAY4 single-chain variable domain fragment (ScFv) specific to death receptor (DR4) which is a receptor for tumor necrosis factor ${\alpha}$ related apoptosis induced ligand (TRAIL). hAY4 ScFv-AP expressed in E. coli showed 73.8 kDa as a monomer in SDS-PAGE. However, this fusion protein shown in size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) exhibited 147.6 kDa as a dimer confirming that natural dimerization of AP by non-covalent association induced ScFv-AP dimerization. In several immunoassay such as ELISA, Western blot and immunocytochemistry, it showed antigen binding activity by color development of substrates catalyzed by AP directly fused to primary hAY4 ScFv without secondary antibody. In summary, hAY4 ScFv-AP fusion protein was successfully purified as a soluble dimeric form in E. coli and showed antigen binding activity in several immunoassays without addition of secondary antibody which sometimes causes time-consuming, expensive and non-specific false binding.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.265-271
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• 2011

Lymphoma is the most common hematopoietic malignancy in dogs. Diagnosis of lymphoma is classically performed by morphological assessment and immunohistochemistry. But some cases in the early stage are difficult to distinguish and need more objective and accurate methods. So, Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for antigen receptor rearrangements (PARR) and flow cytometric immunophenotype of lymphoma have been developed continuously. In this study, we performed these two methods to classify lymphoma type in 3 cases. According to PARR analysis, B cell origin lymphoma was diagnosed in two of three cases by testing PBMC and lymph node. All fine needle aspiration (FNA) samples of lymph nodes had high expression of CD21 on >88% of total cell population and PBMC samples also showed high expression of CD21 on >30% of total lymphocytes in those two cases, while the expression of CD3, CD4 and CD8 was absent. These results suggest that concurrent use of PARR and flow cytometric immunophenotype is more effective and valuable tool for the diagnosis and monitoring of canine lymphoma patients.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.328-335
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• 1998

Outer membrane proteins(OMPs) of Brucella abortus 1119-3 strain were extracted by Triton X-100 treatment, and fractionated by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography and Sephacryl S-300 column chromatography. The antigenic proteins in these fractions were identified by Western blot analysis. In Western blot analysis, a single band(38kDa) was observed in the DEAE fractions from 36th fraction to 38th fraction against sera of cattle infected with B abortus. And other fractions have several bands. However, the Sephacryl S-300 fractions exhibited a total of 3 peaks of proteins with a broad range from about 30 to 116kDa. In order to characterize further, the extracted OMPs and the DEAE fractions were analyzed by two dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(2-DE) and Western blot using serum from naturally infected cattle with Brucella spp. The 2-DE immunoblots of DEAE fraction showed immunoreactive spots more than twenty two. The major protein spots have ranging from about 32 to 47kDa. The pI values of the spots were detected from pH 4.7 to 5.4. Among the major protein spots, the 38kDa protein which is a specific antigen, located at the point of approximately a pI 4.8.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 1992

The present study describes the production of monoclonal antibodies against cultured chick myoblast to pursue critical proteins in muscle cell fusion. Among a panel of monoclonal antibodies, three, Mll-3H 13, Mll-3Hl8 and Mll-3H35 were inhibited movblast fusion. A single 101-kDa antigen reactive with monoclonal antibody Mll-3H35 was detected by radioimmu-noprecipitation or by immunoblotting. During the course of myogenesis, the level of the protein remarkably decreased as the cells there differentiated. These results suggest that the protein platys a direct role in the process of myoblast fusion mechanism.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.389-400
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• 2002

Background : The rapid diagnostic tests for tuberculosis are needed to facilitate early treatment of tuberculosis and prevention of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission. The Xeniss Rapid TB kit is a rapid, card-based immunochromatographic test for the detection of antibodies directed against M. tuberculosis antigens including antigen 5(38-kDa antigen). The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Xeniss Rapid TB kit for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis with serums from patients, asymptomatic healthy and close contact controls. Methods : 188 patients with active tuberculosis were tested; 177 with pulmonary tuberculosis(18 with combined pleurisy), and 11 with extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The control groups were composed of 82 close contacts and 57 healthy adults. Study subject were drawn from one national tuberculosis hospital for patients and close contacts, and another private hospital for healthy adults in Masan city, Korea. The Xeniss Rapid TB kit(Xeniss Life Science Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea) was evaluated by using serum samples according to the instructions of the manufacturer by an investigator masked to the clinical and microbiological status of the study subjects. Results : The diagnostic sensitivity of the Xeniss Rapid TB kit was 73.9% in patients and specificities were 73.2% and 93.0% in close contact and healthy adults respectively. The positive predictive value in patients was 84.2% and the negative predictive value in controls was 85.8%. Conclusion : This study shows that the Xeniss Rapid TB test is a simple and fast method to diagnose active TB. The results of the sensitivity and specificites suggest that serodiagnosis using this point of care testing(POCT) device would be valuable and advantageous for screening tuberculosis in the clinical field.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.249-256
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• 2003

An immunological method was developed in this study to quantify reproductive output of the female butter clam, Saxidomus purpuratus. A clam egg-specific polyclonal antibody was developed using the purified butter clam egg as an antigen. An indirect Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was used in quantitative measurement of the eggs. Size of the butter clam eggs ranged from $70.81{\pm}7.52{\mu}m$ in histology or $88.56{\pm}11.31{\mu}m$ in intact eggs. The predominant egg constituent was protein (37.44%), followed by lipids (11.40%) and carbohydrates (9.68%). The SDS-PAGE showed that the egg proteins are composed of several peptides of molecular weights consisting of 247, 200, 99, 91, 54 and 47 kDa. ELISA indicated that the clams collected from Geoje Island in May 2002 produced 8.2 to 26.8% of their body weight as eggs or 9,307,309 to 31,156,333 with a mean of 16,931,893 eggs per individual clam. The results of this study thus suggest that indirect ELISA using rabbit anti-clam egg IgG as a primary antibody is a rapid, affordable and sensitive method to assess reproductive output of 5. purpuratus and possibly other bivalves using a small amount of eggs.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.375-380
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• 2016

Angiostrongyliasis is difficult to be diagnosed for the reason that no ideal method can be used. Serologic tests require specific equipment and are not always available in poverty-stricken zone and are time-consuming. A lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) may be useful for angiostrongyliasis control. We established a LFIA for the diagnosis of angiostrongyliasis based on 2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against antigens of Angiostrongylus cantonensis adults. The sensitivity and specificity were 91.1% and 100% in LFIA, while those of commercial ELISA kit was 97.8% and 86.3%, respectively. Youden index was 0.91 in LFIA and 0.84 in commercial ELISA kit. LFIA showed detection limit of 1 ng/ml of A. cantonensis ES antigens. This LFIA was simple, rapid, highly sensitive and specific, which opened an alternative approach for the diagnosis of human angiostrongyliasis.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 1998

Immunotherapy has been used in support of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole treatment for Pneumocvstis corinii pneumonia. The present study investigated the therapeutic or preventive effects of heterogeneous hyperimmune IgG antibody (HIA) in experimental rats. Their immunity was suppressed by steroid injection, and they were also injected peritoneally with HIA which reacted with 40-55, 92, 116, and 200 kDa bands of the crude antigen. All rats were infected by p. ccrinii and the cystic forms on lung impression smears were counted. The count was 20.5-76.5 (mean 52.5 ± 19.)1 in those which received steroid only, but decreased to 6.0-21.0 (mean 13.5 : 10.6) in those of group 3 which received HIA for the same duration. In other groups, the mean count ranged from 29.9 t 32.9 to 54.1 t 47.7, and in those which received 13.7 mg HIA the reduction effect was greater than in those which received 6.8 mg or 20.5 mg HIA. The present finding confirmed that in rats during the early stage of infection, the heterogeneous HIA to MSG antigen bands had a partial effect on p. cori,nii pneumonia, both prophylactically and therapeutically.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.1944-1948
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• 2007

Silkworm hemolymph (SH), prepared from fifth-instar larvae of Bombyx mori and heat-treated at $60^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, was used to improve cell viability and the production of human cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4-immunoglobulin (hCTLA4Ig) in transgenic Oryza sativa L. cell suspension cultures. Even though SH could not elevate cell viability at the concentrations up to 3% (v/v), addition of 0.3% (v/v) SH to a culture medium enhanced the production of hCTLA4Ig by 36.8% over an SH-free medium. Moreover, the production period of hCTLA4Ig could be shortened in a 0.3% (v/v) SH-added medium compared with that in an SH-free culture. As a result, addition of 0.3% (v/v) SH improved the productivity of hCTLA4Ig significantly in transgenic rice cell cultures.