• Molecules and Cells
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• 제39권8호
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• pp.611-618
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• 2016

Fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) with aberrant expression of microRNA (miRNA) are critical pathogenic regulators in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Previous studies have found that overexpression or silencing of miRNA can contribute to the development of miRNA-based therapeutics in arthritis models. In this study, we explored the effects of miR-27a on cell migration and invasion in cultured FLS from RA patients. We found that miR-27a was markedly downregulated in the serum, synovial tissue, and FLS of RA patients. Meanwhile, the expression of follistatin-like protein 1 (FSTL1) was upregulated, which suggests that FSTL1 plays a key role in RA development. The results of a Transwell assay showed that miR-27a inhibited FLS migration and invasion. However, miR-27a inhibition promoted the migration and invasion of FLS. In addition, the down-regulated expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP2, MMP9, and MMP13) and Rho family proteins (Rac1, Cdc42, and RhoA) was detected after treatment with miR-27a in RA-FLS by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR and western blot analysis. Then, a luciferase reporter assay validated that miR-27a targeted the 3-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of FSTL1. Moreover, miR-27a caused a significant decrease of FSTL1. In addition, the expression of TLR4 and $NF{\kappa}B$ was inhibited by miR-27a but increased by FSTL1 overexpression. In conclusion, we found that miR-27a inhibited cell migration and invasion of RA-FLS by targeting FSTL1 and restraining the $TLR4/NF{\kappa}B$ pathway.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.351-357
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• 1998

In order to understand the mechanism of the regulation of CYPIAI gene expression and ethoxy-resorufin deethylase (EROD) activity in ex vivo system, we have studied the action of TCDD and 3MC in theisolated perfused male rat liver. CYPIAI myNA level and EROD activity were measured in rat liver that wasisolated and perfused with va.ious chemicals such as 2,3,7,8-tet.achlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), 3-methyl-cholanthrene (3MC), $17{\beta}$-est.adios ($E_2$), morin. TCDD or 3MC alone perfusion into male rat liver resulted in increase of CYPIAI mRNA level and the magnitude of stimulation was one and half times higher with TCDD treatment than 3MC treatment. However $E_2$ perfusion into male rat liver showed slight stimulation of CYPIAI mRNA level. When $10_{-8}$ M $E_2$ was perfused concomitantly with either $10_{-9}$ M TCDD or $10_{-9}$ M 3MC, stimulated CYPIAI mRNA by either TCDD or 3MC was inhibited. Morin was examined for its effects on CYPIAI mRNA level and result was similar to that was observed with estrogen except that morin alone did not change the level of CYPIAI mRNA. EROD activity was also stimulated with either TCDD or 3MC perfusion, and the magnitude of EROD stiumlation was similar to that of CYPIAI mRNA stimulation in response to TCDD or 3MC perfusion. This data is different from the data that we have obtained with female rat liver. Concomitant perfusion either $E_2$ or morin with TCDD or 3MC inhibited 3MC perFusion or TCDD perfusion stimulated EROD activity. These data confirm the hypothesis that TCDD and 3MC might act through the same mechanism of action on the regulation of CYPIAI gene expression in male rat liver.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.149-159
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• 2022

Cancers of the lung and liver are the top 10 leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Thus, it is essential to identify the genes specifically expressed in these two cancer types to develop new therapeutics. Although many messenger RNA (mRNA) sequencing data related to these cancer cells are available due to the advancement of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, optimized data processing methods need to be developed to identify the novel cancer-specific genes. Here, we conducted an analytical comparison between Bowtie2, a Burrows-Wheeler transform-based alignment tool, and Kallisto, which adopts pseudo alignment based on a transcriptome de Bruijn graph using mRNA sequencing data on normal cells and lung/liver cancer tissues. Before using cancer data, simulated mRNA sequencing reads were generated, and the high Transcripts Per Million (TPM) values were compared. mRNA sequencing reads data on lung/liver cancer cells were also extracted and quantified. While Kallisto could directly give the output in TPM values, Bowtie2 provided the counts. Thus, TPM values were calculated by processing the Sequence Alignment Map (SAM) file in R using package Rsubread and subsequently in python. The analysis of the simulated sequencing data revealed that Kallisto could detect more transcripts and had a higher overlap over Bowtie2. The evaluation of these two data processing methods using the known lung cancer biomarkers concludes that in standard settings without any dedicated quality control, Kallisto is more effective at producing faster and more accurate results than Bowtie2. Such conclusions were also drawn and confirmed with the known biomarkers specific to liver cancer.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제65권5호
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• pp.230-238
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• 2022

Myocarditis was previously attributed to an epidemic viral infection. Additional harmful reagents, in addition to viruses, play a role in its etiology. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine-induced myocarditis has recently been described, drawing attention to vaccine-induced myocarditis in children and adolescents. Its pathology is based on a series of complex immune responses, including initial innate immune responses in response to viral entry, adaptive immune responses leading to the development of antigen-specific antibodies, and autoimmune responses to cellular injury caused by cardiomyocyte rupture that releases antigens. Chronic inflammation and fibrosis in the myocardium eventually result in cardiac failure. Recent advancements in molecular biology have remarkably increased our understanding of myocarditis. In particular, microRNAs (miRNAs) are a hot topic in terms of the role of new biomarkers and the pathophysiology of myocarditis. Myocarditis has been linked with microRNA-221/222 (miR-221/222), miR-155, miR-10a^*, and miR-590. Despite the lack of clinical trials of miRNA intervention in myocarditis yet, multiple clinical trials of miRNAs in other cardiac diseases have been aggressively conducted to help pave the way for future research, which is bolstered by the success of recently U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved small-RNA medications. This review presents basic information and recent research that focuses on myocarditis and related miRNAs as a potential novel biomarker and the therapeutics.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.262-270
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• 2010

CD95 receptor is a member of tumor necrosis factor receptor family that mediates apoptosis in many cell types when bound by CD95 ligand or cross-linked by agonistic anti-CD95 antibodies. To determine the role of neutral sphingomyelinase (nSMase) on CD95-mediatd apoptosis, human Jurkat T lymphocytes were exposed to recombinant human CD95 ligand. Treatment with CD95 ligand induced cell death in a concentration and time-dependent manner. CD95-induced cell death was suppressed by inhibitors of SMase such as AY9944 or desipramine. Transfection with human nSMase1 siRNA plasmid into CD95 ligand-treated cells significantly prevented CD95-mediated cell death. CD95-mediated elevation of intracellular ceramide level detected by FACS analysis with anti-ceramide antibody was also decreased by nSMase1 siRNA. Knock-down of nSMase1 expression also blocked cytochrome c release into cytosol and caspase-3 cleavage in CD95-treated cells. Taken together, these results suggest that nSMase1 may play an important role in CD95-mediated apoptotic cell death in Jurkat T cells.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.306-311
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• 2008

Although hepatic microcirculatory dysfunction occurs during endotoxemia, the mechanism responsible for this remains unclear. Since Kupffer cells provide signals that regulate hepatic response in inflammation, this study was designed to investigate the role of Kupffer cells in the imbalance in the expression of vasoactive mediators. Endotoxemia was induced by intraperitoneal E. coli endotoxin (LPS, 1 mg/kg body weight). Kupffer cells were inactivated with gadolinium chloride ($GdCl_3$, 7.5 mg/kg body weight, intravenously) 2 days prior to LPS exposure. Liver samples were taken 6 h following LPS exposure for RT-PCR analysis of mRNA for genes of interest: endothelin (ET-1), its receptors $ET_A$ and $ET_B$, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), heme oxygenase (HO-1), and tumor necrosis factor-$\alpha$ (TNF-$\alpha$). mRNA levels for iNOS and TNF-$\alpha$ were significantly increased 31.8-fold and 26.7-fold in LPS-treated animals, respectively. This increase was markedly attenuated by $GdCl_3$, HO-1 expression significantly increased in LPS-treated animals, with no significant difference between saline and $GdCl_3$ groups. ET-1 was increased by LPS. mRNA levels for $ET_A$ receptor showed no change, whereas $ET_B$ transcripts increased in LPS-treated animals. The increase in $ET_B$ transcripts was potentiated by $GdCl_3$. We conclude that activation of Kupffer cells plays an important role in the imbalanced hepatic vasoregulatory gene expression induced by endotoxin.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.22-28
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• 1999

Induction of apoptosis is considered to be the underlying mechanism that accounts for the efficiency of chemotherapeutic drugs. It has recently been proposed that doxorubicin (DOX) can induce apoptosis in human leukemic cells via the Fas/Fas Ligand (FasL) system. Comparison of Fas and FasL mRNA expression between drug- and anti-Fas antibody(Fas-Ab)- induced apoptosis was analyzed for examining the role of Fas/FasL system in the mediation of drug-induced apoptosis. After HL-60 cells were routinely cultured, MTT assay was performed for cytotoxicity test. Giemsa staining was carried out to monitor the apoptosis morphologically. By semiquantitative RT-PCR analysis, the expression of Fas and FasL at 4, 10, 24 hours was determined after DOX and Fas-Ab treatment. Dose-dependent cytotoxicity was induced by DOX-treatment, while Fas-Ab treatment showed the similar dose-dependent pattern but the cytotoxicity is not reached at LD$_{50}$ at 100 ng/ml concentration of Fas-Ab. In the 10ng/m1 DOX and 10ng/m1 Fas-Ab treated group, typical apoptotic cell morphology was shown such as fragmented nuclei and cell membrane budding in the Giemsa-stained slide. Fas mRNA expression was not changed significantly in the both groups. But, FasL mRNA expression was induced significantly at initial period of apoptosis. In this study, Fas/FasL interaction assumed to be involved in drug-induced apoptosis.s.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.177-185
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• 2017

Auranofin has been developed as antirheumatic drugs, which is currently under clinical development for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Previous report showed that auranofin induced apoptosis by enhancement of annexin A5 expression in PC-3 cells. To understand the role of annexin A5 in auranofin-mediated apoptosis, we performed microarray data analysis to study annexin A5-controlled gene expression in annexin A5 knockdown PC-3 cells. Of differentially expressed genes, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-2 was increased by annexin A5 siRNA confirmed by qRT-PCR and western blot. Treatment with auranofin decreased PAI-2 and increased annexin A5 expression as well as promoting apoptosis. Furthermore, auranofin-induced apoptosis was recovered by annexin A5 siRNA but it was promoted by PAI-2 siRNA. Interestingly, knockdown of annexin A5 rescued PAI-2 expression suppressed by auranofin. Taken together, our study suggests that induction of annexin A5 by auranofin may enhance apoptosis through suppression of PAI-2 expression in PC-3 cells.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제28권5호
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• pp.405-413
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• 2020

Fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) play a crucial role in initiating rheumatoid arthritis. B-cell activating factor (BAFF) plays a role in FLS survival as well as in B cell maturation and maintenance. Here, we investigated whether tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced BAFF expression controls FLS migration and whether BAFF expression in FLS could be regulated by KR33426 which is the inhibitor of BAFF binding to BAFF receptors (BAFF-R) by using MH7A synovial cells transfected with the SV40 T antigen. More TNF-α-treated cells migrated compared to the control. TNF-α increased BAFF expression in FLS, significantly. FLS migration was inhibited by the transfection with BAFF-siRNA. KR33426 also inhibited BAFF expression increased by TNF-α treatment in FLS as judged by western blotting, PCR, and transcriptional activity assay. Kinases including JNK, p38 and Erk were activated by TNF-α treatment. While JNK and p38 were inhibited by KR33426 treatment, no changes in Erk were observed. Transcription factors including p65, c-Fos, CREB and SP1 were enhanced by TNF-α treatment. Among them, c-Fos was inhibited by KR33426 treatment. Small interference(si)-RNA of c-fos decreased BAFF transcriptional activity. FLS migration induced by TNF-α was inhibited by the transfection with BAFF-siRNA. KR33426 increased Twist, Snail, Cadherin-11 and N-Cadherin. In contrast, KR33426 decreased E-cadherin and TNF-α-enhanced CCL2. Taken together, our results demonstrate that synovial cell migration via CCL2 expression could be regulated by BAFF expression which is decreased by KR33426 and c-Fos-siRNA. It suggests for the first time that the role of BAFF-siRNA on FLS migration might be matched in the effect of KR33426 on BAFF expression.

• 미생물학회지
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• 제43권3호
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• pp.159-165
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• 2007

C형 간염바이러스(hepatitis C virus; HCV)증식을 효과적이며 특이적으로 제어할 수 있는 유전산물을 개발하기 위하여 HCV 중식조절이자인 NS5B RNA replicase 존재에 의해 allosteric하게 그 활성 이 조절될 수 있는 HCV internal ribosome entry site (IRES) 표적 hammerhead 리보자임을 개발하였다. 우선 HCV IRES 염기서열 중+382 nucleotide(nt) 부위가 리보자임에 의해 가장 잘 인식되었음을 관찰하였다. 이러한 allosteric 리보자임은 NS5B RNA replicase와 특이적으로 결합하는 RNA aptamer 부위, aptamer와 NS5B와의 결합에 의해 리보자임 활성을 유도할 수 있도록 구조적 변이를 전달할 수 있는 communication module부위 및 HCV IRES의 +382 nt를 인지하는 hammerhead 리보자임 등으로 구성되도록 설계하였다. 특히 in vitro selection기법을 활용하여 NS5B 의존적으로 리보자임 활성을 증가시킬 수 있는 communication module 염기서열을 밝혀내었다. 이러한 리보자임은 단백질이 없거나 대조 단백질인 bovine serum albumin이 존재할 때에는 절단반응을 유도하지 못하였으나 HCV NS5B 단백질이 존재할 매에만 효과적으로 NS5B 농도 의존적으로 절단 반응을 유도할 수 있음을 관찰하였다. 이러한 allosteric 리보자임은 HCV중식의 효과적인 증식 억제 선도물질 뿐만 아니라 HCV 치료선도물질의 스크리닝용 도구 및 HCV 조절 인자를 탐색할 수 있는 HCV 진단용 리간드로서도 활용될 수 있을 것이다.