• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.365-377
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• 2022

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine-threonine kinase member of the cellular phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway, which is involved in multiple biological functions by transcriptional and translational control. mTOR is a downstream mediator in the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and plays a critical role in cell survival. In cancer, this pathway can be activated by membrane receptors, including the HER (or ErbB) family of growth factor receptors, the insulin-like growth factor receptor, and the estrogen receptor. In the present work, we congregated an electronic network of mTORC1 built on an assembly of data using natural language processing, consisting of 470 edges (activations/interactions and/or inhibitions) and 206 nodes representing genes/proteins, using the Cytoscape 3.6.0 editor and its plugins for analysis. The experimental design included the extraction of gene expression data related to five distinct types of cancers, namely, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, hepatic cirrhosis, cervical cancer, glioblastoma, and anaplastic thyroid cancer from Gene Expression Omnibus (NCBI GEO) followed by pre-processing and normalization of the data using R & Bioconductor. ExprEssence plugin was used for network condensation to identify differentially expressed genes across the gene expression samples. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis was performed to find out the over-represented GO terms in the network. In addition, pathway enrichment and functional module analysis of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were also conducted. Our results indicated NOTCH1, NOTCH3, FLCN, SOD1, SOD2, NF1, and TLR4 as upregulated proteins in different cancer types highlighting their role in cancer progression. The MCODE analysis identified gene clusters for each cancer type with MYC, PCNA, PARP1, IDH1, FGF10, PTEN, and CCND1 as hub genes with high connectivity. MYC for cervical cancer, IDH1 for hepatic cirrhosis, MGMT for glioblastoma and CCND1 for anaplastic thyroid cancer were identified as genes with prognostic importance using survival analysis.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.927-937
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• 2021

This study was performed to screen the antimicrobial activities of the extract from the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas against skin pathogens and to purify the relevant antibacterial peptide. The acidified extract showed potent antibacterial activities against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria but showed no activity against Candida albicans and no significant cell toxicity. Among acne-causing pathogens, the acidified extract showed potent antibacterial activity only against Staphylococcus aureus, and its antibacterial activity was completely abolished by treatment with trypsin or chymotrypsin, and was inhibited by salt treatment. The acidified extract showed strong DNA-binding ability but did not show bacterial membrane permeabilizing ability. Based on antimicrobial activity screening and cytotoxic effects, a novel antibacterial peptide was purified from the acidified gill extract using solid-phase extraction, cation-exchange, and reversed-phase HPLC. The resulting peptide had a molecular weight of 4800.8 Da and showed partial sequence homology with the carbonic anhydrase 4 (CA4) protein in the hard-shelled mussel. Overall, we purified a novel antibacterial peptide, named cgCAFLP, which is related to carbonic anhydrase 4 (CA4) protein, against skin pathogens. Our results suggest that the Pacific oyster extract could be used as an additive to control some acne-related skin pathogens (S. aureus).

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.679-684
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• 2007

Purpose: DMH(1,2-dimethylhydrazine) has been known to induce vascular neoplasm such as malignant endothelioma in animal experiment, through induction of abnormal proliferation of HUVECs. In our previous studies, 11 types of PKC isoenzymes were determined by RT-PCR and the expression of $PKC{\alpha}$, and ${\mu}$ was more prominent than other PKC isoenzymes in the DMH-treated group. However, this result was not based on objective assessment. In this study, we further evaluated the role of $PKC{\alpha}$ on the DMH-induced abnormal proliferation of HUVECs by two different methods to identify its presence with high relevance in objective view. $PKC{\mu}$ will be investigated in further study. Methods: The study was conducted with the cultured HUVECs group(control) and the $0.75{\times}10^{-9}M$ DMH-treated group. After processing protein extraction in 0 and 24 hour, extracted protein was treated of quantitative test through BCA protein assay. In the western blot analysis, electrophoresis was performed in the order of gel preparation, sample preparation, and gel running. Electrotransfer to nitrocellulose membrane and reaction with antibody were done. Detection of $PKC{\alpha}$ was achieved through "Gel Image Analysis System". In the fluorescence immunocytochemical analysis, the grading of radiance of the intracellular $PKC{\alpha}$ particles was detected with confocal microscope after treating with primary and fluorescent secondary antibody in 0 and 24 hours. Results: The Western blot analysis showed increased $PKC{\alpha}$ expression from the specimen obtained in 24 hour of the DMH treatment group when compared to those in control group. Under confocal fluorescence microscope, the emitting radiance in the DMH treated group was brighter at 24 hours as well. Conclusion: We believe that $PKC{\alpha}$ plays a role in DMH-induced abnormal proliferation of the vascular endothelium, which may provide insights in understanding the vascular neoplasm.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.417-426
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• 1997

Rice bran protein hydrolysates were prepared and some of their physicochemical properties were investigated to utilize rice bran as starting material for functional food ingredient. Rice bran proteins (RBP) were prepared from defatted rice bran by alkaline extraction and isoelectric precipitation. The enzyme for hydrolysis of RBP was selected through measuring relative activity by pH-drop method and comparing the degree of hydrolysis (DH) of hydrolysates. The enzymatic hydrolysates prepared by $Esperase^{\circledR}$ treatment were partitioned into two fractions by ultrafiltration(UF) with a 10 kDa molecular weight cut-off membrane. Each fraction was applied to a cholic acid-conjugated ${\omega}-aminohexyl$ Sepharose 4B column and the bile acid-binding components were obtained by eluting with deoxycholate. Gel permeation chromatography on a Sephadex G-50 column revealed that molecular weight of the bile acid-binding fraction of UF permeate was distributed in ranges of $2\;kDa{\sim}10\;kDa$ and $0.2\;kDa{\sim}0.6\;kDa$. Three peaks (R-1, R-2 and R-3) were obtained by prep-HPLC of bile acid-binding fraction of UF retentate and analyzed for total and free amino acid composition. The results showed that proline content of the bile-acid binding polypeptides and peptides was four times as much as that of rice bran protein and that the peak corresponding to higher average hydrophobicity had a higher free amino acid content. Average hydrophobicity slightly increased with enzymatic hydrolysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.85-91
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• 1981

The growing cells of S. aureus were fractionated along the Schmidt-Thannhauser-Schneider's technique into several fractions such as TCA(trichloroacetic acid)-soluble, lipid, nucleic acid, protein and residue fraction. They were also fractionated according to their cellular structure into Sonic-supernatant, SDS(sodium lauryl sulfate)-soluble, Formamide-soluble and Residue fraction. Fractionation was carried out by orderly treatment of the Sonic pellet with 1.0% SDS and hot$(150^{\circ}C)$ formamide, and the pellet was prepared by centrifugation of the cells sonic osillated for 20 minutes at 150 watt. Sonic-supernatant fraction contained a 91.3% of total DNA while other fractions contained less than 9.5%. SDS-soluble fraction showed a high activity of malate dehydrogenase(13.67 unit/mg protein) and which was higher 22.3 times than the activity found from unsoluble fraction. Formamide-soluble fraction prepared from SDS-undoluble pellet by using the hot formamide exhibited a clear action of reducing sugars against the Anthronesulfate, while it exhibited no clear action against the ninhydrin. However, contrastly, the residue remainnning after extraction with formamide exhibited a clear action against ninhydrin and glucosamine was detected form the hydrolysate of residue by paper chromatography. From these results it is considered that the Sonic-supernatant fraction is mainly consisted of plasmic component of the cells. Other fractions, SDS-soluble, Formamide-soluble and Residue, should be consisted of plasma membrane, lipoplysaccharide and peptidoglycan of the cell, respectively.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.217-221
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• 1999

We have isolated an antithrombin active polysaccharide in red ginseng by procedures comprising three major steps involving alkaline extraction, anion exchange and gel permeation chromatography. Active polysaccharide behaved as a single band on cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis. The average molecular mass was estimated to be about 177 kDa by gel filtration. This polysaccharide was found to be an acidic heteropolysaccharide that contains uronic acid moiety $(40.2\%)$, sulfate group $(9.2\%)$ and protein $(1.5\%)$ in addition to neutral sugar consisted of rhamnose, mannose, galactose, arabinose, glucose, fucose and xylose in a molar ratio of 1.00 : 0.88 : 0.86 : 0.78: 0.70 : 0.33 : 0.22. This polysaccharide inhibited blood coagulation via the intrinsic pathway like heparin in a dose-dependent manner. The clotting of fibrinogen by thrombin was also mitigated by the presence of this polysaccharide.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2010

Bovine brucellosis, an important zoonosis, is diagnosed with serological tests such as the RBT, TAT using inactivated whole bacterial cells or bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antigen in Korea. However, a strong cross-reaction between Brucella spp. and Yersinia enterocolitica O9 in these tests has seriously complicated the diagnosis of animal brucellosis because Brucella spp. shares common antigenic determinants with Y. enterocolitica O9 in the smooth LPS region. In this study, Brucella-field strains were isolated from Brucellapositive Hanwoo in Kimhae, Korea and outer membrane protein (omp) which has low cross-reaction with Y. enterocolitica O9 and high immunogenicity was extracted from the field strains Then we compared ELISA using the extract with RBT-TAT. Fifteen field strains were isolated from 47 supra-mammary-lymph nodes, which were collected from 18 farms. Isolation rate was 32%. Brucella-specific antigen was identified by performing SDS-PAGE or Western blotting on extracted omp with at 0.5% n-lauroylsarcosine One hundred and ninety-two serum-samples were used in the experiment: 142 negative and 50 positive samples verified by RBT-TAT. According to ELISA results, 127 samples were negative and 15 appeared positive among 142 negatives by RBT-TAT, while 42 samples were positive and 8 were negative among 50 positives by RBT-TAT. Therefore, it showed 89.4% of specificity and 84% of sensi-tivity. Through the current experiments, we could set up an ELISA based on the omp which has low cross-reaction and high immunogenicity and concluded that the omp could be a good material for accurate diagnosis of bovine brucellosis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1039-1046
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• 2009

The cytochrome P450s (P450s) metabolizing natural products are among the most versatile biological catalysts known in plants, but knowledge of the structural basis for their broad substrate specificity has been limited. The activity of p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H) is thought to be essential for the biosynthesis of lignin and many other phenylpropanoid pathway products in plants however, all attempts to express and purify the protein corresponding C3H gene have failed. As a result, no conditions suitable for the unambiguous assay of the enzyme are known. The detailed understanding of the mechanism and substrate-specificity of C3Hdemands a method for the production of active protein on the milligram scale. We have developed a bacterial expression and purification system for the plant C3H, which allows for the quick expression and purification of active wild-type C3H via introduction of combinational mutagenesis. The modified cytochrome P450 C3H ($C3H_{mod}$) could be purified in the absence of detergent using immobilized metal affinity chromatography and size exclusion chromatography following extraction from isolated membranes in a high salt buffer and catalytically activated. This method makes the use of isotopic labeling of C3H for NMRstudies and X-ray crystallography practical, and is also applicable to other plant cytochrome P450 proteins.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.1 s.246
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• pp.38-43
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• 2005

Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) is a class of proteolytic enzymes that digest collagen type IV and other components of the basement membrane. It plays a key role in the local invasion and the formation of distant metastases by various malignant tumors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the activity of MMP-2 and its significance as a prognostic marker in resected stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Material and Method: In this study we obtained fresh-frozen samples of tumor and non-tumor tissues from 34 patients with stage I NSCLC who underwent resection without preoperative radiotherapy or chemotherapy. After the extraction of total protein from tissue samples, MMP-2 activities were assessed by gelatin-substrate-zymography. The activities were divided into the higher or lower groups. Result: The MMP-2 activities were higher in tumor tissues than in non-tumor tissues. The MMP-2 activity of non-tumor tissues in recurrent group was higher than in non-recurrent group (p<0.01). Also the patients with higher MMP-2 activity of non-tumor tissues showed poor 5 year survival (p<0.01). Conclusion: This result indicates that the higher level of MMP-2 activity in the non-tumor tissue is associated with the recurrence and survival after the resection of stage I NSCLC. Therefore, MMP-2 activity in the non-tumor tissue could be used as a potential prognostic marker for the resected stage I-NSCLC.