• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.133-137
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• 1986

원생동물인 Tetrahymena thermophila의 17S-rDNA구조 및 hygromycin 내성 기구에 대한 연구의 일부로서 hygromycin 내성변이주 hmr3의 17S-rDNA를 대장균의 vector pBR 322에 cloning하였다. 우선 rDNA는 hot phenol-cresol 용액으로 추출하여 제한효소 Hind III 처리로서 약 2.2kbp의 17S-rDNA를 agarose 전기영동상에서 분리하였다. 이를 pBR 322에 cloning하여 wild type의 17S-rDNA probe와 colony hybridization시켜 선별하였다. 그중 5-19 균주의 recombinant plasmid로부터 17S-rDNA 의 전사 orientation위치가 pBR322의 tetracyline내성 유전자 쪽으로 삽입되어 있는 것을 확인하였다.

• 미생물학회지
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• 제35권3호
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• pp.211-217
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• 1999

표적 RNA 의 구조가 Tetrahymena thermophila 의 group I intron 에 의한 trans-splicing 반응에 미치는 영향을 분석하기 위해 강력한 stem-loop 형태의 안정된 구조를 갖고 있는 표적 RNA mapping 분석 방법을 이용한 결과 in vitro 뿐만 아니라 in vivo 에서도 stem 부위의 염기들에 반해 loop 부위의 염기들이 ribozyme 에 의해 잘 인지되었으며 이러한 결과는 그러한 부위들을 인지할 수 있는 ribozyme 들에 의한 trans-cleavage 그리고 trans-splicing 반응을 수행함으로써 검증하였다. 또한 이러한 trans-splicing 반응은 정확하게 일어남을 반응 산물의 염기서열 결정을 통해 확인하였다. 따라서 표적 RNA 의 구조가 in vitro 및 in vivo 에서의 ribozyme 활성에 매우 중요한 요인임을 확인하였다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.1408-1413
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• 2005

Elevated expression of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) has been implicated in various biological aspects of neoplasia such as tumor cell adhesion, metastasis, blocking of cellular immune mechanisms, and antiapoptosis function. Thus, the CEA could be an important target for anticancer therapy. In this study, we developed Tetrahymena group 1 intron-based trans-splicing ribozymes that can specifically target and replace CEA RNA. To this end, we first determined which regions of the CEA RNA were accessible to ribozymes by employing an RNA mapping strategy that was based on a trans-splicing ribozyme library. Next, we assessed the ribozyme activities by comparing the trans-splicing activities of several ribozymes that targeted different regions of the CEA RNA, and then the ribozyme that could target the most accessible site was observed to be the most active with high fidelity in vitro. Moreover, the specific trans-splicing ribozyme was found to react with and altered the target CEA transcripts in mammalian cells with high fidelity. These results suggest that the Tetrahymena ribozyme can be utilized to replace CEA RNAs in tumors with a new RNA-harboring anticancer activity, thereby hopefully reverting the malignant phenotype.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• 제41권4호
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• pp.340-344
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• 2003

The group I intron from Tetrahymena thermophila has been demonstrated to employ splicing reactions with its substrate RNA in the trans configuration. Moreover, we have recently shown that the transsplicing group I ribozyme can replace HCV-specific transcripts with a new RNA that exerts anti-viral activity. In this study, we explored the potential use of RNA replacement for cancer treatment by developing trans-splicing group I ribozymes, which could replace tumor-associated RNAs with the RNA sequence attached to the 3' end of the ribozymes. Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) RNA was chosen as a target RNA because it is known as a valid cancer prognostic factor. By performing an RNA mapping strategy that is based on a trans-splicing ribozyme library, we first determined which regions of the TP RNA are accessible to ribozymes, and found that the leader sequences upstream of the AUG start codon appeared to be particularly accessible. Next, we assessed the ribozyme activities by comparing trans-splicing activities of several ribozymes that targeted different regions of the TP RNA. This assessment was performed to verify if the target site predicted to be accessible is truly the most accessible. The ribozyme that could target the most accessible site, identified by mapping studies, was the most active with high fidelity in vitro. Moreover, the specific trans-splicing ribozyme reacted with and altered the TP transcripts by transferring an intended 3' exon tag sequence onto the targeted TP RNA in mammalian cells with high fidelity. These results suggest that the Tetrahymena ribozyme can be utilized to replace TP RNAs in tumors with a new RNA harboring anti-cancer activity, which would revert the malignant phenotype.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제19권9호
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• pp.1070-1076
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• 2009

Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), which prolongs the replicative life span of cells, is highly upregulated in 85-90% of human cancers, whereas most normal somatic tissues in humans express limited levels of the telomerase activity. Therefore, TERT has been a potential target for anticancer therapy. Recently, we described a new approach to human cancer gene therapy, which is based on the group I intron of Tetrahymena thermophila. This ribozyme can specifically mediate RNA replacement of human TERT (hTERT) transcript with a new transcript harboring anticancer activity through a trans-splicing reaction, resulting in selective regression of hTERT-positive cancer cells. However, to validate the therapeutic potential of the ribozyme in animal models, ribozymes targeting inherent transcripts of the animal should be developed. In this study, we developed a Tetrahymena-based trans-splicing ribozyme that can specifically target and replace the mouse TERT (mTERT) RNA. This ribozyme can trigger transgene activity not only also in mTERT-expressing cells but hTERT-positive cancer cells. Importantly, the ribozyme could selectively induce activity of the suicide gene, a herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene, in cancer cells expressing the TERT RNA and thereby specifically hamper the survival of these cells when treated with ganciclovir. The mTERT-targeting ribozyme will be useful for evaluation of the RNA replacement approach as a cancer gene therapeutic tool in the mouse model with syngeneic tumors.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.45-52
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• 2004

The self-splicing group I intron from Tetrahymena thermophila has been demonstrated to perform splicing reaction with its substrate RNA in the trans configuration. In this study, we explored the potential use of the trans-splicing group I ribozymes to replace a specific RNA with a new RNA that exerts any new function we want to introduce. We have chosen thymidine phosphorylase (TP) RNA as a target RNA that is known as a valid cancer prognostic factor. Cancer-specific expression of TP RNA was first evaluated with RT-PCR analysis of RNA from patients with gastric cancer. We determined next which regions of the TP RNA are accessible to ribozymes by employing an RNA mapping strategy, and found that the leader sequences upstream of the AUG start codon appeared to be particularly accessible. A specific ribozyme recognizing the most accessible sequence in the TP RNA with firefly luciferase transcript as a 3' exon was then developed. The specific trans-splicing ribozyme transferred an intended 3' exon tag sequence onto the targeted TP transcripts, resulting in a more than two fold induction of the reporter activity in the presence of TP RNA in mammalian cells, compared to the absence of the target RNA. These results suggest that the Tetrahymena ribozyme can be a potent anti-cancer agent to modify TP RNAs in tumors with a new RNA harboring anti-cancer activity.

• 미생물학회지
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• 제29권5호
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• pp.284-289
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• 1991

the nucleotide sequence of the 3' terminal 568 bases of the 18S rRNA gene from Mucor racemosus was determined. The 3' end of the structural gene was identified by comparison with the published sequence for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene. The M. racemosus gene was found to share 83.8% homology with that of S. cerevisiae and 71-81% homology with those of human, mouse, maize, Xenopus laevis and Tetrahymena thermophila. The known methylation sites in X. laevis and human were also highly conserved in M. racemosus and located within most conserved regions of 18S RNA gene throughout evolution.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• 제42권4호
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• pp.361-364
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• 2004

Internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is known to be essential for HCV replication and most conserved among HCV variants. Hence, IRES RNA is a good therapeutic target for RNA-based inhibitors, such as ribozymes. We previously proposed a new anti-HCV modulation strategy based on trans-splicing ribozymes, which can selectively replace HCV transcripts with a new RNA that exerts anti-HCV activity. To explore this procedure, sites which are accessible to ribozymes in HCV IRES were previously determined by employing an RNA mapping method in vitro. In this study, we evaluate the intracellular accessibility of the ribozymes by comparing the trans-splicing activ­ities in cells of several ribozymes targeting different sites of the HCV IRES RNA. We assessed the intra­cellular activities of the ribozymes by monitoring their target-specific induction degree of both reporter gene activity and cytotoxin expression. The ribozyme capable of targeting the most accessible site iden­tified by the mapping studies then harbored the most active trans-splicing activity in cells. These results suggest that the target sites predicted to be accessible are truly the most accessible in the cells, and thus, could be applied to the development of various RNA-based anti-HCV therapies.