• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.99-106
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• 2008

A ligand - whether an endogenous hormone, neurotransmitter, exogenous toxin or synthetic drug - binds to plasma membrane proteins (e.g., ion channels, receptors or other functional proteins) to exert its physiological or pharmacological effects. Ligands can also have functional groups, showing stereospecificity for interaction sites on their counterpart plasma membrane proteins. Previous reports have shown that the ginsenoside Rg$_3$, a bioactive ginsenoside, meets these criteria in that: 1) an aliphatic side chain of $Rg_3$ plays a role as a functional group, 2) Rg$_3$ regulates voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels in a stereospecific manner with respect to carbon-20, and 3) $Rg_3$ regulates subsets of ligand-gated and voltage-gated ion channels through specific interactions with identified amino acid residues inside the channel pore, in the outer pore entryway, or in toxin binding sites. Rg$_3$, therefore, could be a candidate for a novel ginseng-derived glycosidic ligand regulating ion channels and receptors. This review will examine how Rg$_3$ regulates voltage-gated and ligand-gated ion channels through interactions with its target proteins in the plasma membrane. Hopefully, this review will advance understanding of ginseng pharmacology at the cellular and molecular levels.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.383-389
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• 2003

1845 bp의 SeMIPS cDNA를 발육종자에서 분리하고 이 cDNA의 구조와 특성을 분석하였다. 이 cDNA는 엽록체로 향하는 신호펩타이드의 아미노산 서열이 존재하지 않아서 세포질형 MIPS로 예상되었다. 또한 이 cDNA의 아미노산 서열의 유사성은 다른 MIPS와 비교한 결과 60-94%의 높은 아미노산 서열 유사성을 보여주었으며, 특히 식물끼리의 유사성이 훨씬 높았다. Northern blot분석에서 볼 때 참깨의 조직별 SeMIPS mRNA는 완숙종자, 줄기, 뿌리에서는 약하게 발현되었고, 잎에서는 비교적 강하게 발현되는 현상을 보여주었다. Yeast 돌연변이체를 통한 활성 시험에서는 SeMIPS가 myo-inositol 1-phosphate synthase의 효소활성을 가지고 있다는 실험적 증거를 얻었으며, C-말단 아미노산 20개가 효소활성에 필수적이라는 사실이 본 실험에서 검증되었다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.404-409
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• 2008

The brown-rot basidiomycete Fomitopsis palustris is known to degrade crystalline cellulose (Avicel) and produce three major cellulases, exoglucanases, endoglucanases, and ${\beta}$-glucosidases. A gene encoding endoglucanase, designated as cel12, was cloned from total RNA prepared from F. palustris grown at the expense of Avicel. The gene encoding Cel12 has an open reading frame of 732 bp, encoding a putative protein of 244 amino acid residues with a putative signal peptide residing at the first 18 amino acid residues of the N-terminus of the protein. Sequence analysis of Cel12 identified three consensus regions, which are highly conserved among fungal cellulases belonging to GH family 12. However, a cellulose-binding domain was not found in Cel12, like other GH family 12 fungal cellulases. Northern blot analysis showed a dramatic increase of cel12 mRNA levels in F. palustris cells cultivated on Avicel from the early to late stages of growth and the maintenance of a high level of expression in the late stage, suggesting that Cel12 takes a significant part in endoglucanase activity throughout the growth of F. palustris. Adventitious expression of cel12 in the yeast Pichia pastoris successfully produced the recombinant protein that exhibited endoglucanase activity with carboxymethyl cellulose, but not with crystalline cellulose, suggesting that the enzyme is not a processive endoglucanase unlike two other endoglucanases previously identified in F. palustris.

• BMB Reports
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• 제53권5호
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• pp.248-253
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• 2020

Gene expression in HIV-1 is regulated by the promoters in 5' long-terminal repeat (LTR) element, which contain multiple DNA regulatory elements that serve as binding sites for cellular transcription factors. YY1 could repress HIV-1 gene expression and latent infection. Here, however, we observed that virus production can be increased by YY1 over-expression and decreased under YY1 depleted condition by siRNA treatment. To identify functional domain(s) of YY1 activation, we constructed a number of YY1 truncated mutants. Our data show that full-length YY1 enhances the viral transcription both through U3 and U3RU5 promoters. Moreover, the C-terminal region (296-414 residues) of YY1 is responsible for the transcriptional upregulation, which could be enhanced further in the presence of the viral Tat protein. The central domain of YY1 (155-295 residues) does not affect LTR activity but has a negative effect on HIV-1 gene expression. Taken together, our study shows that YY1 could act as a transcriptional activator in HIV-1 replication, at least in the early stages of infection.

• 한국축산식품학회지
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• 제30권1호
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• pp.20-27
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• 2010

Deer velvet antler was subjected to the extraction process using boiling water at three different temperatures (100, 110 and $120^{\circ}C$) and 70% ethanol solution. Functional components such as uronic acid, sulfated-glycosaminoglycans (sulfated-GAGs) and sialic acid in the extracts were analyzed, and their antioxidant activities were investigated using several in vitro models. Uronic acid and sulfated-GAGs content of each extract significantly decreased with increasing extraction temperature (p<0.05), while the residues obtained from the upper and middle part of the antler had a higher uronic acid content than the residues obtained from the base section. Sialic acid contents were highest in compounds extracted at $110^{\circ}C$, followed by 120 and $100^{\circ}C$. The 70% ethanol extracts also had a high levels of uronic acid content, but not for sulfated-GAGs and sialic acid. All extracts showed good antioxidant ability in a dose-dependant manner, with the $100^{\circ}C$ residue exhibiting the strongest activity compared to the 110 and $120^{\circ}C$ extracts. In relation to the hydroxyl radical scavenging activity and reduction power, the 70% ethanol extract exhibited the strongest activity. Furthermore, the velvet antler extracts inhibited apoptosis in hydrogen peroxide-induced PC-12 cells.

• 한국자원식물학회지
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.38-42
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• 2007

The present study was conducted to investigate the translocation of polyphenols, especially catechin derivatives, from mushroom medium mixed with green tea residues into fruiting body of Pleurotus eryngii. Pleurotus eryngii was grown on the media incorporated by mixing or surface-treated with dry materials including leaf petioles and young stems or leaves of green tea. The dry materials treated in medium did not affect plant height and fresh weight of Pleurotus eryngii body. From the samples of Pleurotus eryngii, the eight main catechin derivatives (-)-gallocatechin(GC), (+)-catechin (C), (-)-epicatechin (EC), (-)-epigallocatechin (EGC), (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), (-)-gallocatechin gallate (GCG), (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECG), and (-)-catechin gallate (EGCG), and caffeine were analyzed quantitatively by HPLC. The results showed that EGC in Pleurotus eryngii was 45% more detected, when incorporated with the dry materials, than untreated control. Especially, content of EGCG was increased in surface-treated Pleurotus eryngii up to 3.2 ppm, while it was not detected or reduced in control and other treatments. Caffeine content was greatly increased regardless of treatment method, compared with control (0.1ppm), showing 44 fold-amount in Pleurotus eryngii at early growth stage when incorporated with the dry materials into medium. The results indicates that functional catechin derivatives of green tea would be partly translocated into Pleurotus eryngii throught incorporation and surface treatment with residues of green tea plants.

• BMB Reports
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• 제40권2호
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• pp.163-171
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• 2007

Functional elements of the conserved helix 7 in the poreforming domain of the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry $\delta$- endotoxins have not yet been clearly identified. Here, we initially performed alanine substitutions of four highly conserved aromatic residues, $Trp^{243}$, $Phe^{246}$, $Tyr^{249}$ and $Phe^{264}$, in helix 7 of the Cry4Ba mosquito-larvicidal protein. All mutant toxins were overexpressed in Escherichia coli as 130-kDa protoxins at levels comparable to the wild-type. Bioassays against Stegomyia aegypti mosquito larvae revealed that only W243A, Y249A or F264A mutant toxins displayed a dramatic decrease in toxicity. Further mutagenic analysis showed that replacements with an aromatic residue particularly at $Tyr^{249}$ and $Phe^{264}$ still retained the high-level toxin activity. In addition, a nearly complete loss in larvicidal activity was found for Y249L/F264L or F264A/ Y249A double mutants, confirming the involvement in toxicity of both aromatic residues which face towards the same direction. Furthermore, the Y249L/F264L mutant was found to be structurally stable upon toxin solubilisation and trypsin digestion, albeit a small change in the circular dichroism spectrum. Altogether, the present study provides for the first time an insight into the highly conserved aromaticity of $Tyr^{249}$ and $Phe^{264}$ within helix 7 playing an important role in larvicidal activity of the Cry4Ba toxin.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.105-115
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• 2015

Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) is critical for the triggering of innate immune response by recognizing the conserved molecular patterns of single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses and mediated antigenic adaptive immunity. To understand how TLR7 distinguish pathogen-derived molecular patterns from the host self, it is essential to be able to identify TLR7 receptor interaction interfaces, such as active sites or R848-agonist binding sites. The functional interfaces of TLR7 can serve as targets for structure-based drug design in studying the TLR7 receptor's structure-function relationship. In contrast to mammalian TLR7, chicken TLR7 (chTLR7) is unknown for its important biological function. Therefore, it has been targeted to mediate contrasting evolutionary patterns of positive selection into non-synonymous SNPs across eleven species using TLR7 conservation patterns (evolutionary conserved and class-specific trace residues), where protein sequence differences to the TLR7 receptors of interest record mutation that have passed positive section across the species. In this study, we characterized the Lys609 residue on chTLR7-ECD homodimer interfaces to reflect the current tendency of evolving positive selection to be transfer into a stabilization direction of the R848-agonist/chTLR7-ECDs complex under the phylogenetically variable position across species and we suggest a potential indicator for contrasting evolutionary patterns of both the species TLR-ECDs.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.364-369
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• 2002

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is remarkably efficient at establishing chronic infection. One of the reasons for this appears to be the suppression of the accessory cell function of professional antigen presenting cells. In the present study, the immunosuppressive activity of HCV protein was examined on dendritic cells (DCs) generated from mouse bone marrow progenitor cells in vitro. We found that the DCs forced to express HCV protein have defective allostimulatory ability. DCs expressing HCV protein were phenotypically indistinguishable from normal DCs. However, they were unable to produce IL-12 effectively when stimulated with lipopolysaccharide. The functional domain of the HCV protein essential for immunosuppression was determined using a series of ${NH_2}-and$ C-terminal deletion mutants of HCV core protein. We found that amino acid residues residing between the 21 st and the 40th residues from the ${NH_2}-terminus$ of HCV core protein are required for immunosuppression. These findings suggest that HCV core protein suppresses the elicitation of protective Th1 responses by the inhibition of IL-12 production by DCs.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.138-143
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• 2004

Soybean curd residues (SCR) obtained from hot and cold manufacturing processes were fermented by indigenous microorganisms, Lactobacillus rhamnosus LS and Bacillus firmus NA-l for 15 h at 37$^{\circ}C$. The pH, acidity, viable cell counts, and tyrosine content were evaluated in samples with variations in sugar, starter and type of SCR. The raw Doowon SCR (D-SCR, cold-processed) fermented by indigenous microorganism had a 0.9% acidity and 6.7 ${\times}$ 10$^{7}$ CFU/g viable cell counts, compared with the 0.11 % acidity and 6.7 ${\times}$ 10$^{6}$ CFU/g viable cell counts of raw fermented Pulmuwon SCR (P-SCR, hot-processed). After fermentation of raw P-SCR with 1 % glucose and 1 % L. rhamnosus LS starter, the viable cell counts, tyrosine content and acidity were 4.7 ${\times}$ 10$^{8}$ CFU/g, 16.3 mg% and 0.9%, respectively. In addition, the raw P-SCR fermented with Bacillus firmus NA-l as co-starter had a 0.45% acidity, 2.4 ${\times}$ 10$^{8}$ CFU/g lactic acid bacteria, and 3.3 ${\times}$ 10$^{6}$ CFU/g Bacillus sp. In particular, the tyrosine content was increased 5 fold. The drying of fermented SCR was completed by hot-air drying (5$0^{\circ}C$) within 12 h; the dried P-SCR and D-SCR had 1.8 ${\times}$ 10$^{7}$ CFU/g and 5.3 ${\times}$ 10$^{6}$ CFU/g viable cell counts, respectively. The concentrate of methanol extract from fermented D-SCR inhibited the initial cell growth of E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in liquid culture.