• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.101-108
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• 2022

Because of their specificity to target insects and relatively low toxicity to non-target organisms, insect growth regulators (IGRs) have been regarded as attractive alternatives to chemical insecticides. Commercially available IGRs are classified into juvenile hormone agonists (JHAs), ecdysone agonists (EAs), and chitin synthesis inhibitors (CSIs) according to their mode of action. Recently, JH-mediated interaction of methoprene-tolerant (Met), which is JH receptor, and its binding partners have been replicated in vitro using yeast cells transformed with the Met and FISC/CYC genes of A. aegypti. Using this in vitro yeast two-hybrid β-galactosidase assay, juvenile hormone antagonists (JHANs) have been identified from various sources including chemical libraries, plants, and microorganisms. As juvenile hormone (JH) is an insect specific hormone and regulates development, reproduction, diapause and other physiological processes, JHANs fatally disrupt the endocrine signals, which result in abnormal development and larval death. These results suggested that JHANs could be efficiently applied as IGR insecticides with a broad insecticidal spectrum. This review discuses JH signaling pathway mediated by Met and future prospects of JHANs as environmentally benign IGR insecticides.

• Implantology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.120-138
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to review the outcomes of a series of studies on tissue regeneration conducted in multiple institutions including the Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, Yonsei University. Materials and Methods: Studies were performed divided into the following three subjects; 1) Development of three-dimensional nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) scaffold for facilitating drug release and cell adhesion. 2) Synergistic effects of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSC) application simultaneously with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on HA scaffolds. 3) The efficacy of silk scaffolds coated with n-HA. Also, all results were analyzed by subjects. Results: Hollow hydroxyapatite spherical granules were found to be a useful tool for the drug release and avidin-biotin binding system for cell attachment. Also, BMMSC simultaneously with PRP applied in an animal bone defect model was seen to be more synergistic than in the control group. But, the efficacy of periodontal ligament cells and dental pulp cells with silk scaffolds could not be confirmed in the initial phase of bone healing. Conclusion: The ideal combination of three elements of tissue engineering-scaffolds, cells and signaling molecules could be substantiated due to further investigations with the potentials and limitations of the suggested list of studies.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.73.1-73.16
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• 2023

Background: Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) is considered a global threat to both human health and the poultry industry. MicroRNAs (miRNA) can modulate the immune system by affecting gene expression patterns in HPAIV-infected chickens. Objectives: To gain further insights into the role of miRNAs in immune responses against H5N1 infection, as well as the development of strategies for breeding disease-resistant chickens, we characterized miRNA expression patterns in tracheal tissues from H5N1-infected Ri chickens. Methods: miRNAs expression was analyzed from two H5N1-infected Ri chicken lines using small RNA sequencing. The target genes of differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs were predicted using miRDB. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis were then conducted. Furthermore, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, we validated the expression levels of DE miRNAs (miR-22-3p, miR-146b-3p, miR27b-3p, miR-128-3p, miR-2188-5p, miR-451, miR-205a, miR-203a, miR-21-3p, and miR-200a3p) from all comparisons and their immune-related target genes. Results: A total of 53 miRNAs were significantly expressed in the infection samples of the resistant compared to the susceptible line. Network analyses between the DE miRNAs and target genes revealed that DE miRNAs may regulate the expression of target genes involved in the transforming growth factor-beta, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and Toll-like receptor signaling pathways, all of which are related to influenza A virus progression. Conclusions: Collectively, our results provided novel insights into the miRNA expression patterns of tracheal tissues from H5N1-infected Ri chickens. More importantly, our findings offer insights into the relationship between miRNA and immune-related target genes and the role of miRNA in HPAIV infections in chickens.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.66
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• pp.250-257
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• 2023

Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter distributed in the central nervous system of mammals. However, high concentrations of glutamate are known to cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and stroke by causing nerve cell death. In this study, the antioxidant activity and neuroprotective effect of subtropical natural products were analyzed. Among 11 subtropical plant extracts mainly tested, Sallacca wallichiana extract (SE) showed the greatest free radical scavenging activity. Then, we confirmed through WST-1 assay that SE protected HT22 cells against glutamate-induced cell death in a concentration-dependent manner. The protective effects of SE against glutamate-induced apoptosis in HT22 cells were also confirmed by flow cytometry analysis using Annexin V/PI double staining. We also confirmed using H₂DCF-DA single staining that SE inhibits glutamate-induced intracellular reactive oxygen species. And we were confirmed through that SE inhibited glutamate-induced phosphorylation of Mitogen-activated Protein kinases. Consequently, our results propose that SE may contribute to the development of therapeutics to prevent neurodegenerative diseases.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.127-147
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• 2020

The world is suffering from numerous human and economic losses due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). The Korean government established a strategy to overcome the national infectious disease crisis through research and development. It is difficult to find distinctive features and changes in a specific R&D field when using the existing technical classification or science and technology standard classification. Recently, a few studies have been conducted to establish a classification system to provide information about the investment research areas of infectious diseases in Korea through a comparative analysis of Korea government-funded research projects. However, these studies did not provide the necessary information for establishing cooperative research strategies among countries in the infectious diseases, which is required as an execution plan to achieve the goals of national health security and fostering new growth industries. Therefore, it is inevitable to study information services based on the classification system and classification model for establishing a national collaborative R&D strategy. Seven classification - Diagnosis_biomarker, Drug_discovery, Epidemiology, Evaluation_validation, Mechanism_signaling pathway, Prediction, and Vaccine_therapeutic antibody - systems were derived through reviewing infectious diseases-related national-funded research projects of South Korea. A classification system model was trained by combining Scopus data with a bidirectional RNN model. The classification performance of the final model secured robustness with an accuracy of over 90%. In order to conduct the empirical study, an infectious disease classification system was applied to the coronavirus-related research and development projects of major countries such as the STAR Metrics (National Institutes of Health) and NSF (National Science Foundation) of the United States(US), the CORDIS (Community Research & Development Information Service)of the European Union(EU), and the KAKEN (Database of Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) of Japan. It can be seen that the research and development trends of infectious diseases (coronavirus) in major countries are mostly concentrated in the prediction that deals with predicting success for clinical trials at the new drug development stage or predicting toxicity that causes side effects. The intriguing result is that for all of these nations, the portion of national investment in the vaccine_therapeutic antibody, which is recognized as an area of research and development aimed at the development of vaccines and treatments, was also very small (5.1%). It indirectly explained the reason of the poor development of vaccines and treatments. Based on the result of examining the investment status of coronavirus-related research projects through comparative analysis by country, it was found that the US and Japan are relatively evenly investing in all infectious diseases-related research areas, while Europe has relatively large investments in specific research areas such as diagnosis_biomarker. Moreover, the information on major coronavirus-related research organizations in major countries was provided by the classification system, thereby allowing establishing an international collaborative R&D projects.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 2000

Zinc is one of the most abundant oligoelements in the living cell. It appears tightly bound to some metalloproteins and nucleic acids, loosely bound to some metallothioneins or even as free ion. Small amounts of zinc ions (in the nanomolar range) regulate a plentitude of enzymatic proteins, receptors and transcription factors, thus rolls need accurate homeostasis of zinc ions. Zinc is an essential catalytic or structural element of many proteins, and a signaling messenger that is released by neural activity at many central excitatory synapses. Growing evidences suggest that zinc may also be a key mediator and modulator of the neuronal death associated with transient global ischemia and sustained seizures, as well as perhaps other neurological disease stoles. Some neurons have developed mechanisms to accumulate zinc in specific membrane compartment ('vesicular zinc') which can be evidenced using histochemical techniques. Substances giving a bright colour or emitting fluorescence when in contact with divalent metal ions are currently used to detect them inside cells; their use leads to the so called 'direct' methods. The fixation and precipitation of metal ions as insoluble salt precipitates, their maintenance along the histological process and, finally, their demonstration after autometallographic development are essential steps for other methods, the so called 'indirect methods'. This study is a short report on the autometallograhical approaches for zinc detection in the central nervous system (CNS) by means of a modified selenium method.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.248-257
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• 2009

The inhibitors against Vibrio harveyi quorum sensing (QS) signaling were developed by modifying the molecular structure of the major signal, N-3-hydroxybutanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (3-OH-$C_4$-HSL). A series of structural derivatives, N-(3-hydroxysulfonyl)-L-homoserine lactones (HSHLs) were synthesized by the solid-phase organic synthesis method. The in vivo QS inhibition by these compounds was measured by a bioassay system using the V. harveyi bioluminescence, and all showed significant inhibitory effects. To analyze the interaction between these compounds and LuxN, a 3-OH-$C_4$-HSL receptor protein of V. harveyi, we tentatively determined the putative signal binding domain of LuxN based on the sequence homology with other acyl-HSL binding proteins, and predicted the partial 3-D structure of the putative signal binding domain of LuxN by using ORCHESTRA program, and further estimated the binding poses and energies (docking scores) of 3-OH-$C_4$-HSL and HSHLs within the domain. In comparison of the result from this modeling study with that of in vivo bioassay, we suggest that the in silica interpretation of the interaction between ligands and their receptor proteins can be a valuable way to develop better competitive inhibitors, especially in the case that the structural information of the protein is limited.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.119-126
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• 2011

There is a growing recognition of the significance of $H_2S$ as a biological signaling molecule involved in vascular and nervous system functions. In mammals, two enzymes in the transsulfuration pathway, cystathionine ${\beta}$-synthase (CBS) and cystathionine ${\gamma}$-lyase (CGL), are believed to be chiefly responsible for $H_2S$ biogenesis. Genetic inborn error of CGL leads to human genetic disease, cystathioninuria, by accumulating cystathionine in the body. This disease is secondarily associated with a wide range of diseases including diabetes insipidus and Down's syndrome. Although the human CGL (hCGL) overexpression is essential for the investigation of its function, structure, reaction specificity, substrate specificity, and protein-protein interactions, there is no clear report concerning optimum overexpression conditions. In this study, we report a detailed analysis of the overexpression conditions of the hCGL using a bacterial system. Maximum overexpression was obtained in conditions of low culture temperature after inducer addition, performing low aeration during overexpression, and using a low concentration inducer (0.1 mM, IPTG) for induction. Expressed hCGL was purified by His-tag affinity column chromatography and confirmed by Western blot using hCGL antibody and enzyme activity analysis. We also report that the His tag with TEV site attached protein exhibits 76% activity for ${\alpha}-{\gamma}$ elimination reaction with L-cystathionine and 88% for ${\alpha}-{\beta}$ elimination reaction with L-cysteine compared to those of wild type hCGL, respectively. His tag with TEV site attached protein also exhibits a 420 nm absorption maximum, which is attributed to the binding cofactor, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP).

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.170-176
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• 2014

In this study, the anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory activities of Euptelea pleiosperma ethanol extract (EPEE) were evaluated using in vitro assays and cell culture model systems. EPEE possessed a more potent scavenging activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl than the ascorbic acid used as a positive control. EPEE effectively suppressed lipopolysaccharide (LPS), in addition to hydrogen peroxide induced reactive oxygen species on RAW 264.7 cells. Furthermore, EPEE induced the expression of the anti-oxidative enzyme heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) and its upstream transcription factor, nuclear factor-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), dose and time dependently. The modulation of HO-1 and Nrf2 expression might be regulated by mitogen-activated protein kinases and phosphatidyl inositol 3 kinase/Akt as their upstream signaling pathways. On the other hand, EPEE inhibited LPS induced nitric oxide (NO) formation without cytotoxicity. Suppression of NO formation was the result of the down regulation of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) by EPEE. Suppression of NO and iNOS by EPEE may be modulated by their upstream transcription factor, nuclear factor ${\kappa}B$, and AP-1 pathways. Taken together, these results provide important new insights into E. pleiosperma, namely that it possesses anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory activities, indicating that it could be utilized as a promising material in the field of nutraceuticals.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.289-296
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• 2008

BPES (Blepharophimosis/Ptosis/Epicanthus inversus Syndrome) is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in FOXL2. Affected individuals have premature ovarian failure (POF) in addition to small palpebral fissures, drooping eyelids, and broad nasal bridge. FOXL2 is a member of the forkhead family transcription factors. In FOXL2-deficient ovaries, granulosa cell differentiation dose not progress, leading to arrest of folliculogenesis and oocytes atresia. Using yeast two-hybrid screening of rat ovarian cDNA library with FOXL2 as bait, we found that small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO)-conjugating E2 enzyme UBE2I protein interacted with FOXL2 protein. UBE2I also known as UBC9 is an essential protein for processing SUMO modification. Sumoylation is a form of post-translational modification involved in diverse signaling pathways including the regulation of transcriptional activities of many transcriptional factors. In the present study, we confirmed the protein-protein interaction between FOXL2 and UBE2I in human cells, 293T, by in vivo immunoprecipitation. In addition, we generated truncated FOXL2 mutants and identified the region of FOXL2 required for its association with UBE2I using yeast-two hybrid system. Therefore, the identification of UBE2I as an interacting protein of FOXL2 further suggests a presence of novel regulatory mechanism of FOXL2 by sumoylation.