• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.89-100
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• 2019

In our previous studies, we developed a ¹⁸F-labeled TSPO-binding ligand, named [¹⁸F]CB251, which has been proved to be a promising TSPO-binding PET radiotracer for the detection and monitoring of TSPO expression in pathological diseases. (Ki = 0.27 nM for TSPO, 1.96% ID/g of tumor uptake at 1h post-injection) Based on these results, we utilized 6,8-dichloro-2-phenylimidazo[1,2-a]pyridineacetamide analogs, CB185 (1) as a targeting moiety for the selective delivery of probes and anticancer molecules to TSPO-overexpressed tissues. In this study, we designed CB185 derivatives contains different PEG chains (n = 1, 3 and 5) and fluorescence dye (Cy5) to identify the necessary space between a TSPO-binding ligand and an anticancer agent. Three CB185 derivatives (11a-c) which contains Cy5 and PEG chain, were synthesized and the effect of PEG additive on their TSPO-binding affinities were evaluated using in vitro assays. The binding affinity for compounds 11a-c was lower than that of PK11195 (Ki = 3.2 nM), but still characterized by nanomolar binding affinity for TSPO (Ki = 46.5 nM for 11a, 51.0 nM for 11b, and 388.5 nM for 11c). These results showed that the conjugates are characterized by a moderate binding affinity toward TSPO except for compound 11c, which PEG chain consist of five PEG monomers. Our finding might add useful information to decide the appropriate PET chain length for developing new TSPO-targeting drug carriers.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.402-409
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• 2016

It has been found that 4-isopropyl-2,6-bis(1-phenylethyl)phenol (KTH-13), a novel compound isolated from Cordyceps bassiana, is able to suppress tumor cell proliferation by inducing apoptosis. To mass-produce this compound, we established a total synthesis method. Using those conditions, we further synthesized various analogs with structural similarity to KTH-13. In this study, we aimed to test their anti-cancer activity by measuring anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities. Of 8 compounds tested, 4-methyl-2,6-bis(1-phenylethyl)phenol (KTH-13-Me) exhibited the strongest anti-proliferative activity toward MDA-MB 231 cells. KTH-13-Me also similarly suppressed the survival of various cancer cell lines, including C6 glioma, HCT-15, and LoVo cells. Treatment of KTH-13-Me induced several apoptotic signs in C6 glioma cells, such as morphological changes, induction of apoptotic bodies, and nuclear fragmentation and chromatin condensation. Concordantly, early-apoptotic cells were also identified by staining with FITC-Annexin V/PI. Moreover, KTH-13-Me highly enhanced the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, and decreased the protein level of Bcl-2. In addition, the phosphorylation levels of Src and STAT3 were diminished in KTH-13-Me-treated C6 cells. Therefore, these results suggest that KTH-13-Me can be developed as a novel anti-cancer drug capable of blocking proliferation, inducing apoptosis, and blocking cell survival signaling in cancer cells.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.344-350
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• 1996

Purpose : Noninvasive imaging of tumor cell proliferation could be helpful in the evaluation of tumor growth potential and could provide an early assessment of treatment response. Radiolabeled thymidine, uridine and adenosine have been used to evaluate tumor cell proliferation. These nucleoside analogs are incorporated into DNA during proliferation. Iodine-131-Iodomethyluridine, an analog of Iodine-131-Iododeoxyuridine, is also involved in DNA/RNA synthesis. The purpose of this study was to develop Iodine-131-Iodomethylurdine and image tumor proliferation using Iodine-131-Iodomethyluridine. Materials and Methods : Radiosynthesis of Iodine-131-5-Iodo-2'-O-methyluridine (Iodine-131-Iodomethyluridine) was prepared from 10 mg of 2'-O-methyluridine(Sigma chemical Co., St. Louis, Missouri) and 2.1 mCi(SP. 10Ci/mg) of Iodine-131-labeled sodium iodide in $100{\mu}l$ of water using iodogen reaction. Female Fischer 344 rats were inoculated in the thigh area with breast tumor cells(13765 NF, $10^5$ cells/rat S.C.). After 14 days, the Iodine-131-Iodomethyluridine $10{\mu}Ci$ was injected to three groups of rats(3/group). The percent of injected dose per gram of tissue weight was determined at 0.5-hours, 2-hours, 4-hours, and 24-hours respectively. Tumor bearing rats after receiving Iodine-131-Iodomethyluridine($50{\mu}Ci$ IV) were euthanized at 2 hours after injection. Autoradiography was done using freeze-dried $50{\mu}m$ coronal section. After injection of Iodine-131- Iodomethyluridine ($10{\mu}Ci$/rat, IV) in three breast tumor-bearing rats, planar scintigraphy was taken at 45 minutes, 90 minutes and 24 hours. Results : Iodine-131-Iodomethyluridine was conveniently synthesized using iodogen reaction. The biodistribution showed fast blood clearance and the tumor-to-tissue uptake ratios showed that optimal imaging time was at 2 hours postinjection. Autoradiogram and planar scintigram indicated that tumor could be well visualized. Conclusion : The findings suggest that Iodine-131-Iodomethyluridine, a new radio-iodinated nucleoside, has potential use for evaluation of active regions of tumor growth.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2004

Dynamic modification of cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins by O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) on Ser and Thr residues is ubiquitous in higher eukaryotes. And this modification may serve as a signaling mod-ification analogous to protein phosphorylation. Addition and cleavage of O-GlcNAc are catalyzed by O-linked GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-linked N-acety1glucosaminidase (O-GlcNAcase), respectively. Two types of human O-GlcNAcase gene were cloned and expressed as three fusion proteins in Escherichia coli. O-GlcNA-case activity showed in the order of thioredoxin fusion> $6{\times}His$ tag> GST fusion. O-GlcNAcase had enzy-matic activity against only ${\rho}$NP-GlcNAc of seven tested substrate analogs. Blast search revealed that O-GlcNAcase has two conserved domains, amino terminal hyaluronidase-like domain and carboxy terminal N-acetyltransferase domain. Extensive deletion studies were done to define catalytically important domains. The deletions of hyaluronidase-like domain and N-acetyltransferase domain abolished enzyme activity. But, N-ter-minal 55 amino acid deletion and C-terminal truncation showed lower activity. Based on deletion analysis, we suggest that hyaluronidase-like domain is essential for enzyme activity and carboxy terminal N-acetyltrans-ferase domain may be modulatory function.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.18-25
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• 2002

The pikromycin biosynthetic system in Streptomyces venezuleae is unique for its ability to produce two groups of antibiotics that include the 12-membered ring macrolides methymycin and neomethymycin, and the 14-membered ring macrolides narbomycin and pikromycin. The metabolic pathway also contains two post polyketide-modification enzymes, a glycosyltransferase and P450 hydroxylase that have unusually broad substrate specificities. In order to explore further the substrate flexibility of these enzymes a series of hybrid polyketide synthases were constructed and their metabolic products characterized. The plasmid-based replacement of the multifunctional protein subunits of the pikromycin PKS in S. venezuelae by the corresponding subunits from heterologous modular PKSs resulted in recombinant strains that produce both 12- and 14-membered ring macrolactones with predicted structural alterations. In all cases, novel macrolactones were produced and further modified by the DesVII glycosyltransferase and PikC hydroxylase leading to biologically active macrolide structures. These results demonstrate that hybrid PKSs in S. venezuelae can produce a multiplicity of new macrolactones that are modified further by the highly flexible DesVII glycosyltransferase and PikC hydroxylase tailoring enzymes. This work demonstrates the unique capacity of the S. venezuelae pikromycin pathway to expand the toolbox of combinatorial biosynthesis and to accelerate the creation of novel biologically active natural products. The polyketide backbone of rifamycin B is assembled through successive condensation and ${\beta}$-carbonyl processing of the extender units by the modular rifamycin PKS. The eighth module, in the RifD protein, contains nonfunctional DH domain and functional KR domain, which specify the reduction of the ${\beta}$-carbonyl group resulting in the C-21 bydroxyl of rifamycin B. A four amino acid substitution and one amino acid deletion were introduced in the putative NADPH binding motif in the proposed KR domain encoded by rifD. This strategy of mutation was based on the amino acid sequences of the corresponding motif of the KR domain of module 3 in the RifA protein, which is believed dysfunctional, so as to introduce a minimum alteration and retain the reading frame intact, yet ensure loss of function. The resulting strain produces linear polyketides, from tetraketide to octaketide, which are also produced by a rifD disrupted mutant as a consequence of premature termination of polyketide assembly. Much of the structural diversity within the polyketide superfamily of natural products is due to the ability of PKSs to vary the reduction level of every other alternate carbon atom in the backbone. Thus, the ability to introduce heterologous reductive segments such as ketoreductase (KR), dehydratase (DH), and enoylreductase (ER) into modules that naturally lack these activities would increase the power of the combinatorial biosynthetic toolbox. The dehydratase domain of module 7 of the rifamycin PKS, which is predicted to be nonfunctional in view of the sequence of the apparent active site, was replaced with its functional homolog from module 7 of rapamycin-producing polyketide synthase. The resulting mutant strain behaved like a rifC disrupted mutant, i.e., it accumulated the heptaketide intermediate and its precursors. This result points out a major difficulty we have encountered with all the Amycolatopsis mediterranei strain containing hybrid polyketide synthases: all the engineered strains prepared so far accumulate a plethora of products derived from the polyketide chain assembly intermediates as major products instead of just analogs of rifamycin B or its ansamycin precursors.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.344-351
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• 2009

A biocontrol bacterium Bacillus licheniformis N1 grown in nutrient broth showed no chitinolytic activity, while its genome contains a gene which encodes a chitinase. The gene for chitinase from B. licheniformis N1 was amplified by PCR and the deduced amino acid sequence analysis revealed that the chitinase exhibited over 95% identity with chitinases from other B. licheniformis strains. Escherichia coli cells carrying the recombinant plasmid displayed chitinase activity as revealed by the formation of a clear zone on chitin containing media, indicating that the gene could be expressed in E. coli cells. Chitinase gene expression in B. licheniformis N1 was not detected by RT-PCR analysis. The protein was over-expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) as a glutathione S-transferase fusion protein. The protein could also be produced in B. subtilis 168 strain carrying the chitinase gene of N1 strain. The crude protein extract from E. coli BL21 carrying GST fusion protein or culture supernatant of B. subtilis carrying the chitinase gene exhibited enzyme activity by hydrolyzing chitin analogs, 4-methylumbelliferyl-$\beta$-D-N,N'-diacetylchitobioside and 4-methylumbelliferyl-$\beta$-D-N,N',N"-triacetylchitotrioside. These results indicated that even though the chitinase gene is not expressed in the N1 strain, the coding region is functional and encodes an active chitinase enzyme. Furthermore, B. subtilis 168 transformants expressing the chitinase gene exhibited antifungal activity against Fulvia fulva by suppressing spore germination. Our results suggest that the proper engineering of the expression of the indigenous chitinase gene, which will lead to its expression in the biocontrol strain B. licheniformis N1, may further enhance its biocontrol activity.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 1982

It has been known that retinoids are intrinsically of critical importance for control of premalignant epithelial cell differentiation. In the absence of retinoids, normal cellular differentiation and growth does not occur in epithelia such as those of trachea and bronchi. Furthermore, it was also reported that retinoid deficiency enhanced susceptibility to chemical carcinogenesis in the respiratory system, in the bladder, and in the colon of the experimental animal. In 1974, Bollag examined the effects of synthetic retinoids in prevention of development of cancer and demonstrated synthetic retinoids to have more favorable therapeutic index than retinoic acid for causing regression of skin papilloma in mice. Therefore, it was assumed that this anticarcinogenic effect of vitamin A derivatives could be due to modification of the metabolism of the carcinogenic polycyclic hydrocarbon, which must first be activated to exert their effect. Hill and Shih reported that vitamin A compounds and analogs had inhibitory effect on drug metabolizing enzyme from liver and lung tissue of mouse and hamster. Lucy suggested that the chemoprevention effect of vitamin A derivatives is due to reaction with molecular oxygen, and it is possible that inhibition of hydroxybenzpyrene formation is a result of this property. On the other hand, butylated hydroxytoluene which is a potent antioxidant strongly inhibited the formation of mammary tumor induced by dimethylbenranthracene. Also, it was observed that this antioxidant inhibited cancer induction in rats by N-2-fluo-renylacetamide. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effect of vitamin A derivatives such as retinoic acid and retinoid on drug-metabolizing enzyme and to determine whether riboflavin tetrabutylate or vitamin E could prevent of modify any changes induced by vitamin A delivatives in the rats. The results obtained were as followings. 1) Body weight was significantly reduced by retinoic acid, but not by retinoid. 2) Retinoic acid markedly increased liver weight while retincid showed no effect on liver weight. Treatment of riboflavin tetrabutylate did not affect retinoic acid-induced change in both body weight and liver weight. 3) Both retinoic acid and retinoid remarkably decreased the activity of aminopyrine demethylase. Pretreatment of riboflavin tetrabutylate, however, prevented inhibitory effect of retinoic acid on the enzyme activity. 4) No significant effect of vitamin E on aminopyrine demethylase was observed in both groups treated with retinoic acid and retinoid.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 1988

Various Benzylacyclouridine (BAU, HM-BAU, suc-BAU, BBAU, HMBBAU, suc-BBAU, and BBBAU) developed as specifc inhibitors of uridine phosphorylase (UrdPase), inhibit transport (zero-trans influx) of ridine (Urd) in human erythrocytes. The inhibition pattern of these compounds is competitive, though suc-BBAU and BBBAU show a slight noncompetivieness. The order of potency as an inhibitor of the nucleoside transport system is BBAU ${\sim}$ HM-BBAU ${\sim}$ suc-BBAU > BBBAU > BAU ${\sim}$ suc-BAU ${\sim}$ HM-BAU ($K_1$ values of 19, 23, 38, 112, 124, 174 and 176 ${\mu}M$, respectively). These data indicate that there is a differnece in potency of Urd transport inhibition between the analogs of BAU and BBAU. Further, the potency correlates with the hydrophobicity of the compound, but it has a limit in the size of $C_5$ substitution. Abbreviation: BAU (5-benzylacyclouridine), 5-benzyl-1-(2'-hydroxyethoxymethyl) uracil; HM-BAU (3'-hydroxymethyl-BAU), 5-benzyl-1- [(1',3'-dihydroxy-2-propoxy) methyl]uracil; suc-BAU, 3'-succinyl-BAU; BBAU (benzyloxybenzylacyclouridine), 5-( m-benzyloxybenByl)-1-(2'-hydroxyethoxymethyl)uracil; HM-BBAU (3'-hydroxymethyl-BBAU), 5-(m-benzyloxybenzyl)-1- [(1'3'-dihyd.oxy-2-p.epoxy)methyll u.acil; suc-BAU, 3'-succinyl-BBAU; BBBAU, 5- f 3-(4-benzyloxyben-Eyl)benzyll -1-(2'-hydroxyethoxymethyl)uracil; Urdpase, uridine phosphorylase; Urd, Uridine; Fd-Urd, 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine; AcThd, aoyclothyrnidine; AcUrd, acyclouridine; dThd, thymidine; NBMPR, nitrobenzylthioisone; FUra, 5-fluorouracil.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2005

Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) assumes the relatedness between physical property and biological activity. However, activity data measured at single concentration such as percent activity have not been used extensively for modeling purpose. This probably comes from the fact that these values are qualitative instead of quantitative. To utilize percent activity data for molecular modeling, we classified the whole data into two classes. One class represents the active while the other signifies the inactive. The percent activity data of ${\beta}$-Ketoacetoanilides measured for TLB (Tomato Late Blight) were investigated. CoMFA (Comparative Molecular Field Analysis) was used as a discriminant function. Using CoMFA provides 3D (three dimensional) information, which is crucial for chemical insight. It can also serve as a predictive model. The resultant model classified the given data correctly (98%). When LOO (leave-one-out) crossvalidation procedure was applied, the classification accuracy was 69%. Therefore two class approximation of percent activity data with CoMFA can be utilized to understand the relationship between chemical structure and biological activity and design subsequent chemical analogs.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.84-90
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• 1994

Kinetic parameters of various substrates and inhibitors were measured to elucidate the binding requirements of the active site of intracellular adenosine deaminase (ADA) in Aspergillus oryzae. 3'-Deoxyadenosine was the best substrate according to the value of relative kcat/$K_m$. Purine riboside was found to be the strongest inhibitor with the $K_i$ value of $3.7{\times}10^{-5}$M. Adenine acted neither as a substrate nor as an inhibitor, suggesting the presence of ribose at N-9 of adenosine was crucial to binding. ADA also catalyzed the dechlorination of 6-chloropurine riboside, generating inosine and chloride ions. Substrate specificity of 6-chloropurine riboside was 0.86% of adenosine. Purine riboside, a competitive inhibitor of ADA, inhibit the dechlorination with similar $K_i$ value, suggesting that the same binding site was involved in deamination and dechlorination. Among the sulfhydryl group reagents, mercurials, pchloromercuribenzoate (PCMB), mersalyl acid and $HgCl_2$ inactivated the enzyme. Mersalyl acid-inactivated ADA was reactivated by thiol reagents, but PCMB-inactivated enzyme was not. When ADA was treated with the mercurial reagents, the inhibition constants and inhibition patterns were determined. Each inhibition was competitive with substrate. The $K_i$ values of these mercurial reagents were lower in 10 mM phosphate buffer than in 100 mM phosphate buffer, showing phosphate dependency.