• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.409-412
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• 2009

In this experiment, the correlation between antigenemia and specific antibody responses in Toxoplasma gondii-infected rabbits was assessed. We injected 1,000 T. gondii tachyzoites (RH) subcutaneously into 5 rabbits. Parasitemia, circulating antigens, and IgM and IgG antibody titers in blood were tested by ELISA and immunoblot. For detection of parasitemia, mice were injected with blood from rabbits infected with T. gondii and mice died between days 2 and 10 post-infection (PI). Circulating antigens were detected early on day 2 PI, and the titers increased from day 4 PI and peaked on day 12 PI. Anti-Toxoplasma IgM antibody titers increased on day 6 PI and peaked on days 14-16 PI. IgG was detected from day 10 PI, and the titers increased continuously during the experiment. The antigenic protein patterns differed during the infection period, and the number of bands increased with ongoing infection by the immunoblot analysis. These result indicated that Toxoplasma circulating antigens during acute toxoplasmosis are closely related to the presence of parasites in blood. Also, the circulating antigen levels were closely correlated with IgM titers, but not with IgG titers. Therefore, co-detection of circulating antigens with IgM antibodies may improve the reliability of the diagnosis of acute toxoplasmosis.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.300-304
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• 2001

Epstein-Barr Virus(EBV)-transformed lymphoblastoid B cell lines, BLCL which expresse antigens, are potential antigen-presenting cells(APCs) for the induction of CTL in vitro. However transfection of BLCLs with subsequent selection by antibiotics is notoriously difficult because plating efficiencies of BLCLsare reported to be 1% or less. To generated stable transfectants of BLCLs we produced high titers of retroviruess encoding pp 65 antigen of human cytomegalovirus of foreign antigens and trans-duced them of BLCLs. The pp 65 gene was cloned into the retroviral vector pLXSN. The recombinant retroviral vector was transfected to ecotropic packaging cell line, CP&E86, and this polyclonal recom-binant retrovirus was transduced to PA317 that is amphotropic pakaging cell line. The titers of colned PA317 amphotropic retroviruses ranged from 5 to $\times$10$^{6}$ colony forming units (CFU)per ml (CFU/ml) We performed three rounds of consecutive transductions to BLCLs in order to improve the clon-ing effieiencies. The expression of recombinant HCMV-pp65 antigen was more than 20% after the final transduction. THe third-transduced BLCLs were easily selected in optimal concentration of G418. BLCLs expressing foreign antigens could be used as target cells for CTL assay and/or as APCs for induction of in vitro CTL responses specific for viral and tumor antigens.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.306-313
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• 2015

Objectives: Molecular mechanism of the pathogenicity of Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis), a suspected endodontic pathogen, has not yet been adequately elucidated due to limited information on its virulence factors. Here we report the identification of in vivo expressed antigens of E. faecalis by using a novel immunoscreening technique called change-mediated antigen technology (CMAT) and an experimental animal model of endodontic infection. Materials and Methods: Among 4,500 E. coli recombinant clones screened, 19 positive clones reacted reproducibly with hyperimmune sera obtained from rabbits immunized with E. faecalis cells isolated from an experimental endodontic infection. DNA sequences from 16 of these in vivo-induced (IVI) genes were determined. Results: Identified protein antigens of E. faecalis included enzymes involved in housekeeping functions, copper resistance protein, putative outer membrane proteins, and proteins of unknown function. Conclusions: In vivo expressed antigens of E. faecalis could be identified by using a novel immune-screening technique CMAT and an experimental animal model of endodontic infection. Detailed analysis of these IVI genes will lead to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the endodontic infection of E. faecalis.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2011

This study was carried out to develope enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of canine brucellosis in dogs experimentally inoculated with Brucella abortus 1119-3 and B. canis RM666. Groups A, B and C of dogs (each group consisting of three dogs) were orally inoculated with approximately $5{\times}10^9$ colony-forming units of B. abortus and B. canis, and with sterile pyrogen-free PBS, respectively. The animals were monitored at regular intervals upto the 12th week post inoculation (PI) by standard tube agglutination test (STAT), plate agglutination test (PAT), Rose Bengal test (RBT), 2-mercaptoethanol rapid slide agglutination test (2ME-RSAT) and ELISA. The induced antibody titers in group A dogs were detected from the first week PI to the eighth week PI in STAT, PAT and RBT using the inactivated whole cells of B. abortus 1119-3 as antigens, while no sera in groups B and C dogs reacted with the antigens. In 2ME-RSAT using whole cells of B. canis M-strain as antigens, the induced antibody titers in group B dogs were observed at the second week PI and persisted for the 12th week PI, while sera of groups A and C dogs did not react with the whole cells. In ELISA using cytoplasmic fractions antigen of B. abortus 1119-3, the mean optical density of antibodies in groups A and B was detected from the first and second weeks PI, respectively, and persisted for 12th week PI, while sera of group C did not cross-react with the fractions antigen. However, in ELISA using the hot saline extracts of B. canis M- as an antigen, the induced antibody titers in only group B dogs were detected from second week PI and persisted for until the end of this study. These results indicate that the ELISA using B. abortus 1119-3 cytoplasmic fractions as antigens can be a good candidate for detection of brucellosis by B. abortus as well as B. canis in dogs.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.63-70
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• 2017

Selecting an appropriate antigen with optimal immunogenicity and physicochemical properties is a pivotal factor to develop a protein based subunit vaccine. Despite rapid progress in modern molecular cloning and recombinant protein technology, there remains a huge challenge for purifying and using protein antigens rich in hydrophobic domains, such as membrane associated proteins. To overcome current limitations using hydrophobic proteins as vaccine antigens, we adopted in silico analyses which included bioinformatic prediction and sequence-based protein 3D structure modeling, to develop a novel periodontitis subunit vaccine against the outer membrane protein FomA of Fusobacterium nucleatum. To generate an optimal antigen candidate, we predicted hydrophilicity and B cell epitope parameter by querying to web-based databases, and designed a truncated FomA (tFomA) candidate with better solubility and preserved B cell epitopes. The truncated recombinant protein was engineered to expose epitopes on the surface through simulating amino acid sequence-based 3D folding in aqueous environment. The recombinant tFomA was further expressed and purified, and its immunological properties were evaluated. In the mice intranasal vaccination study, tFomA significantly induced antigen-specific IgG and sIgA responses in both systemic and oral-mucosal compartments, respectively. Our results testify that intelligent in silico designing of antigens provide amenable vaccine epitopes from hard-to-manufacture hydrophobic domain rich microbial antigens.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.203-207
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• 2003

An ELISA was developed for the diagnosis of vivax malaria using multiple stage-specific recombinant antigens of Plasmodium vivax. The DNA from the whole blood of a malaria patient was used as template to amplify the coding regions for the antigenic domains of circumsporozoite protein (CSP-1), merozoite surface protein (MSP-1), apical merozoite antigen (AMA-1), serine repeat antigen (SERA), and exported antigen (EXP-1). Each amplified DNA fragment was inserted into pQE30 plasmid to induce the expression of His-tagged protein in Escherichia coli (M15 strain) by IPTG. His-tagged proteins were purified by Ni-NTA metal-affinity chromatography and used as antigens for ELISA with patient sera that were confirmed previously by blood smear examinations. When applied to patient sera, 122 (80.3%) out of 152 vivax malaria cases reacted to at least one antigen, while no reactions were observed with 128 uninfected serum samples. We applied this ELISA to the screening of 3,262 civilian residents in endemic regions near the DMZ, which resulted in 236 positively detected (7.2%) cases. This method can be applied to serological diagnosis and mass screening in endemic regions, or can be used as a safety test for transfusion blood in endemic areas.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.520-528
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• 2021

Plesiomonas shigelloides, a member of the family Vibrionaceae, is a gram-negative, rod-shaped, facultative anaerobic bacterium with flagella. P. shigelloides has been isolated from such sources as freshwater, surface water, and many wild and domestic animals. P. shigelloides contains 102 O-antigens and 51 H-antigens. The diversity of O-antigen gene clusters is relatively poorly understood. In addition to O1 and O17 reported by other laboratories, and the 12 O serogroups (O2, O10, O12, O23, O25, O26, O32, O33, O34, O66, O75, and O76) reported previously by us, in the present study, nine new P. shigelloides serogroups (O8, O17, O18, O37, O38, O39, O44, O45, and O61) were sequenced and annotated. The genes for the O-antigens of these nine groups are clustered together in the chromosome between rep and aqpZ. Only O38 possesses the wzm and wzt genes for the synthesis and translocation of O-antigens via the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter pathway; the other eight use the Wzx/Wzy pathway. Phylogenetic analysis using wzx and wzy showed that both genes are diversified. Among the nine new P. shigelloides serogroups, eight use wzx/wzy genes as targets. In addition, we developed an O-antigen-specific PCR assay to detect these nine distinct serogroups with no cross reactions among them.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2001

The identification of tumor-specific antigens has represented a critical milestone in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Clinical research in this area for leukemia has also been driven over the past few decades by the hope that surface antigens with restricted tissue expression would be identified. Disappointingly, only a small number of the leukemic antigens identified to date, meet sufficient criteria to be considered viable immunophenotypic markers. In this paper, we nominate anti-JL1 monoclonal antibody as an immunodiagnostic and immunotherapeutic candidate for leukemia. The JL1 molecule appears to be a novel cell surface antigen, which is strictly confined to a subpopulation of limited stages during the hematopoietic differentiation process. Despite the restricted distribution of the JL1 antigen in normal tissues and cells, anti-JL1 monoclonal antibody specifically recognizes various types of leukemia, irrespective of immunophenotypes. On the basis of these findings, we propose JL1 antigen as a tumor-specific marker, which shows promise as a candidate molecule for diagnosis and immunotherapy in leukemia, and one that spares normal bone marrow stem cells.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.4-7
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• 2009

Although the success of trastuzumab and rituximab for treatment of breast cancer and non-Hodgkins lymphoma, respectively, suggests that monoclonal antibodies(mAbs) will become important therapeutic agents against a wider range of cancers, useful therapeutic Abs are not yet available for the majority of the human cancers because of our lack of knowledge of which antigens (Ags) are likely to become useful targets. We established a procedure for comprehensive identification of such Ags through the extensive isolation of human mAbs that may be therapeutic. Using the phage-display Ab library we isolated a large number of human mAbs that bind to the surface of tumor cells. They were individually screened by immunostaining, and clones that preferentially and strongly stained the malignant cells were chosen. The Ags recognized by those clones were isolated by immunoprecipitation and identified by mass spectrometry(MS). We isolated 2,114 mAbs with unique sequences and identified 25 distinct Ags highly expressed on several carcinomas. Of those 2,114 mAbs 434 bound to specifically to one of the 25 Ags. I am going to discuss how we could select proper target Ags for therapeutic Abs and candidate clones are therapeutic agents.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.122-128
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• 2000

With the rising innovative antigens(such as intruders and viruses) through Internet, new secure schemes are expected to perceptively detect and put them down. However, the current hosts over Internet could not properly analyze Internet antigens due to limitations of their system and network resources. In this paper, we introduce an Antibody Layer that mediates proper security services based on the biological mechanism to mpidly disclose and remove innovative antigens. The proposed Antibody Layer also provides three classes to make agreed-on security parameters set up easily with respect to real-time security QoS for one host as well as host alliances.