• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.59 no.sup1
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• pp.53-56
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• 2016

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is the most common Mendelian autoinflammatory disease, characterized by uncontrolled activation of the innate immune system that manifests as recurrent brief fever and polyserositis (e.g., peritonitis, pleuritic, and arthritis). FMF is caused by autosomal recessive mutations of the Mediterranean fever gene, MEFV which encodes the pyrin protein. Although FMF predominantly affects people from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ethnic origins, 3 cases of FMF have been reported in Korea since 2012. We report another case of FMF in Korea in which the patient presented with a month-long fever without serositis. After treatment with colchicine was initiated, the patient's symptoms quickly subsided. The response to colchicine was helpful for diagnosis. We compare the FMF genotypes in Korea with in other countries. Studying FMF cases in Korea will help establish the best MEFV exons to use for screening and diagnosis of Korean FMF.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2021

Pyometra, a common disorder in intact bitches, can lead to canine sepsis. Identification of biomarkers for sources of infection in the uterus using two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE)-mass spectrometry (MS) analysis may enable the discovery of novel diagnostic markers of sepsis. Toward this end, surgically resected uterus samples from four bitches (three pyometra and one healthy) were randomly selected for 2-DE-MS, which identified 32 differentially expressed proteins, including seven inflammatory proteins, five non-inflammatory proteins, and 20 functionally unknown proteins. Despite the limited information on canine uterus proteomics, we suggest the potential use of differentially expressed uterus proteins as candidate biomarkers to discover targets to attenuate inflammation in pyometra. Further identification of the functionally unknown proteins is warranted.

• BMB Reports
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.157-163
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• 2021

The transient interactions between cellular components, particularly on membrane surfaces, are critical in the proper function of many biochemical reactions. For example, many signaling pathways involve dimerization, oligomerization, or other types of clustering of signaling proteins as a key step in the signaling cascade. However, it is often experimentally challenging to directly observe and characterize the molecular mechanisms such interactions-the greatest difficulty lies in the fact that living cells have an unknown number of background processes that may or may not participate in the molecular process of interest, and as a consequence, it is usually impossible to definitively correlate an observation to a well-defined cellular mechanism. One of the experimental methods that can quantitatively capture these interactions is through membrane reconstitution, whereby a lipid bilayer is fabricated to mimic the membrane environment, and the biological components of interest are systematically introduced, without unknown background processes. This configuration allows the extensive use of fluorescence techniques, particularly fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy and single-molecule fluorescence microscopy. In this review, we describe how the equilibrium diffusion of two proteins, K-Ras4B and the PH domain of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk), on fluid lipid membranes can be used to determine the kinetics of homodimerization reactions.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2023

Pumilio (Pum) is an RNA-binding protein and translational repressor important to diverse biological processes. In the Drosophila ovary, Pum is expressed in female germline stem cells (GSCs), wherein it acts as an intrinsic stem cell maintenance factor via repressing target mRNAs that are as yet mostly unknown. Pum recognizes the Pum binding sequence (PBS) in the mRNA 3'UTR through its C-terminus Puf domain. Translational repression is mediated through its N-terminal domain, but the molecular mechanism remains largely unknown. We previously showed that Bag-of-marbles, a critical differentiation-promoting factor of female GSCs, physically interacts with the N-terminus of Pum. We further showed that this interaction is critical to Bam inhibition of Pum repressive action in cultured cells, but the physiological relevance was not addressed. Here we design an in vivo GFP translational reporter bearing the PBS in its 3'UTR and show that GFP expression is reduced in cells wherein Pum is known to be active. Furthermore, we demonstrate in pum mutant ovary that this GFP repression requires Pum, and also that the sensor faithfully monitors Pum activity. Finally, we show that forced expression of Bam inhibits Pum-mediated repression, validating that Bam inhibits Pum activity in vivo.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 1981

Protein compositions of filefish (Navoden modestus) skeletal muscle and their changes in postmortem with reference to freshness kept at $0^{\circ}C$ were investigated. The muscle protein was approximately composed of $31\%\;sarcoplasmic,\;55\%$ myofibrillar, $10\%$residual intracellular, and $4\%$stroma protein. The sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar protein decreased while the residual intracellular protein increased with the decline of freshness during post-mortem lapse. In the analysis of electrophoretograms and its densitograms, the myofibrillar protein resembled to other fishes in protein composition: $70\%$ actin and myosin, $20\%$ regulatory proteins, and $10\%$ unknown proteins. And most of the residual intracellular protein was estimated as myofibrillar protein. Troponin T, troponin C and myosin light chain 2 of the myofibrillar protein constituents were decreased during storage. Amino acid composition of the protein from the at-death muscla was similar to those of other fishes except that tryptophan and sulfur-containing amino acids were scant. Proline and cysteine were remarkably decreased whereas leucine, isoleucine and phenylalanine were slightly increased in the protein from the muscle lapsed of 18 days. In free amino acid composition, alanine, glycine, lysine, and especially taurine were rich in the at-death muscle. The muscle lapsed of 18 days showed an increase of taurine, histidine, valine and methionine, and a decrease of lysine, arginine, aspartic acid, threonine, leucine, and isoleucine.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.617-626
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• 2011

Transglutaminase from Streptomyces mobaraensis is an enzyme of unknown function that cross-links proteins to high molecular weight aggregates. Previously, we characterized two intrinsic transglutaminase substrates with inactivating activities against subtilisin and dispase. This report now describes a novel substrate that inhibits papain, bromelain, and trypsin. Papain was the most sensitive protease; thus, the protein was designated Streptomyces papain inhibitor (SPI). To avoid transglutaminase-mediated glutamine deamidation during culture, SPI was produced by Streptomyces mobaraensis at various growth temperatures. The best results were achieved by culturing for 30-50 h at $42^{\circ}C$, which yielded high SPI concentrations and negligibly small amounts of mature transglutaminase. Transglutaminasespecific biotinylation displayed largely unmodified glutamine and lysine residues. In contrast, purified SPI from the $28^{\circ}C$ culture lost the potential to be cross-linked, but exhibited higher inhibitory activity as indicated by a significantly lower $K_i$ (60 nM vs. 140 nM). Despite similarities in molecular mass (12 kDa) and high thermostability, SPI exhibits clear differences in comparison with all members of the wellknown family of Streptomyces subtilisin inhibitors. The neutral protein (pI of 7.3) shares sequence homology with a putative protein from Streptomyces lavendulae, whose conformation is most likely stabilized by two disulfide bridges. However, cysteine residues are not localized in the typical regions of subtilisin inhibitors. SPI and the formerly characterized dispase-inactivating substrate are unique proteins of distinct Streptomycetes such as Streptomyces mobaraensis. Along with the subtilisin inhibitory protein, they could play a crucial role in the defense of vulnerable protein layers that are solidified by transglutaminase.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.456-466
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• 2000

Aquaperin 4 (AQP4) is the mercurial water channel expressed abundantly in brain, especially the region related with cerebrospinal fluid reabsorption and osmoregulation. The primary structure of AQP4 water channel was elucidated but the molecular mechanism of AQP4 channel regulation is still unknown. To investigate the possible regulation of AQP4 water channel by phosphorylation via various protein kinases, osmotic water permeability of AQP4 expressed in Xenopus oocytes was measured by videomicroscopy technique. Forskolin (10 $\mu$M) did not affect osmotic water permeability of oocytes injected with AQP4 cRNA, excluding the regulation of AQP4 water cnannel by protein kinase A. Osmotic water permeability (P아래첨자) of AQP4-expressed oocytes was ingibited by the pretreatmeat of BAPTA/AM (up to 500$\mu$M), an intracellular Ca윗첨자 chelator, and calmidazolium (100$\mu$M), a specific Ca윗첨자/calmodulin antagonist, in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibition of osmotic water permeability (P아래첨자) by the calmidazolium treatment was completely reversed by the addition of calyculin A (0.1$\mu$M), a nonspecific phosphatase inhibitor. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), a protein kinase C activator, had biphasic effects on osmotic water permeability in AQP4 cRNA injected oocytes depending on its concentration; 21% increase by 100 nM PMA, 35% decrease by 1$\mu$M PMA. These effects were reversed with 2$\mu$M staurosporine, a nonspecific PKC inhibitor. These results suggest that phosphorylation of AQP4 water channel by Ca윗첨자/calmodulin kinase and protein kinase C might regulate the osmotic water permeability.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.501-505
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• 2009

In this study, we evaluated the effect of soluble EPCR(Soluble Endothelial Protein C Receptor, sEPCR) on the anti-inflammatory activities by activated protein C(APC) in endothelium. We demonstrated that sEPCR inhibited the barrier protective activity, the inhibition of neutrophils adhesion toward endothelial cells and the inhibition of transendothelial migration by APC in endothelial cells. Interestingly, sEPCR also blocked the mechanism by which APC inhibited the expression of cell adhesion molecules(CAM) by TNF-alpha in endothelial cells. These results suggested that the anti-inflammatory activities of APC was inhibited by sEPCR which blocked the binding motifs of Gla domain of APC to membrane bound EPCR. This finding will provide the important evidence in the development of new medicine for the treatment of severe sepsis and inflammatory diseases and good clue for understanding unknown mechanisms by which APC showed the anti-inflammatory activities in endothelium.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2007

Nebulin, a giant modular protein from muscle, is thought to act as molecular ruler in sarcomere assembly. In skeletal muscle, the C-terminal ${\sim}50 kDa$ region of nebulin extends into the Z-line lattice. The most recent studies implicated highlighting its extensive isoform diversity and exciting reports revealed its expression in cardiac and non-muscle tissues containing brain. Also these novel findings are indicating that nebulin is actually a multifunctional filament system, perhaps playing roles in signal transduction, contractile regulation, and myofibril force generation, as well as other not yet defined functions. However the binding protein of nebulin and function in brain is still unknown. A novel binding partner of nebulin C-terminal region was identified by screening a human brain cDNA library using yeast two-hybrid system. Nebulin C-terminus binding protein 51 (NCBP51) was contained a RING-finger domain and identified a new isoform of RING finger protein 125 (RNF125). The interaction was confirmed using the GST pull-down assay. NCBP51 belongs to a family of the RING finger proteins and its function remains to be identified in brain. The role of nebulin and NCBP51 will be studied by loss-of-function using siRNA technique in brain.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.751-758
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• 2016

This study aimed at constructing a draft genome of the adult female worm Toxocara canis using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and de novo assembly, as well as to find new genes after annotation using functional genomics tools. Using an NGS machine, we produced DNA read data of T. canis. The de novo assembly of the read data was performed using SOAPdenovo. RNA read data were assembled using Trinity. Structural annotation, homology search, functional annotation, classification of protein domains, and KEGG pathway analysis were carried out. Besides them, recently developed tools such as MAKER, PASA, Evidence Modeler, and Blast2GO were used. The scaffold DNA was obtained, the N50 was 108,950 bp, and the overall length was 341,776,187 bp. The N50 of the transcriptome was 940 bp, and its length was 53,046,952 bp. The GC content of the entire genome was 39.3%. The total number of genes was 20,178, and the total number of protein sequences was 22,358. Of the 22,358 protein sequences, 4,992 were newly observed in T. canis. Following proteins previously unknown were found: E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase cbl-b and antigen T-cell receptor, zeta chain for T-cell and B-cell regulation; endoprotease bli-4 for cuticle metabolism; mucin 12Ea and polymorphic mucin variant C6/1/40r2.1 for mucin production; tropomodulin-family protein and ryanodine receptor calcium release channels for muscle movement. We were able to find new hypothetical polypeptides sequences unique to T. canis, and the findings of this study are capable of serving as a basis for extending our biological understanding of T. canis.