• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1663-1665
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• 2008

Acyl-coenzyme A: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) catalyzes cholesterol esterification and plays an important role in the intestinal absorption of cholesterol, hepatic production of lipoproteins, and accumulation of cholesteryl ester within cells. During the course of screening to find ACAT inhibitors from microbial sources, the present authors isolated pyripyropene A from Penicillium griseofulvum F1959. Pyripyropene A, an ACAT2-specific inhibitor, has already been produced from Aspergillus fumigatus. Yet, Aspergillus fumigatus is a pathogen and only produces a limited amount of pyripyropene A, making the isolation of pyripyropene A troublesome. In contrast, Penicillium griseofulvum F1959 was found to produce approximately 28 times more pyripyropene A than Aspergillus fumigatus, plus this report also describes the ideal conditions for the production of pyripyropene A by Penicillium griseofulvum F1959 and its subsequent purification.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.384-396
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• 1999

Acyl-CoA: Cholesterol Acyltransferase (ACAT) is a key enzyme responsible for cholesteryl ester formation in atherogenesis and in cholesterol absorption from the intestines. In addition under pathological conditions, formation and accumulation of cholesteryl ester as lipid droplets by ACAT within macrophages constitute a characteristic feature of early lesions of atherosclerotic plaques. ACAT inhibitors are expected to be effective for treatment of atherosclerosis and hypercholesterolemia. ACAT inhibitors of natural origin have been rarely reported. In our screening program for ACAT inhibitors, 303 plants were extracted with methanol or ethanol, and screened for the inhibitory activity against ACAT from the rat liver microsome. Extracts of 13 plants including Quercus aliena, Diospyros kaki, Platycarya strobilacea and Hibiscus syriacus inhibited more than 90% of ACAT activity and 43 samples in alcohol extracts such as Magnolia obovata and Panax ginseng also inhibited more than 70% of ACAT activity at a concentration of $100\;{\mu}g/ml$.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.47-58
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• 2014

The effect of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers esterified in diacylglycerol (DAG)-rich oil on lipid metabolism was investigated. Since dietary DAG has been known to induce the regression of atherosclerosis, CLA-DAG and olive-DAG oils containing similar levels of DAG (51.4~54.2%) were synthesized from olive oil. Hyperlipidemic C57BL/6J mice were then fed high-fat high-cholesterol diets supplemented with these oils (5% each) for 7 wk. The CLA-DAG diet containing 2.1% CLA isomers (0.78% c9,t11-CLA; 1.18% t10,c12-CLA) remarkably increased the levels of total plasma cholesterol and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) along with hepatic cholesterol and triacylglycerol (TAG) contents. Furthermore, the CLA-DAG diet inhibited fat uptake into adipose tissue whereas fat deposition (especially in the liver) was increased, resulting in the development of fatty livers. Hepatic fatty acid composition in the CLA-DAG mice was different from that of the olive-DAG mice, showing higher ratios of C16:1/C16:0 and C18:1/C18:0 in the liver. The activity of hepatic acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) was higher in CLA-DAG mice while plasma lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity and the ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) were lower in CLA-DAG mice compared to the olive-DAG animals. Results of the present study suggest that CLA incorporation into DAG oil could induce atherosclerosis in mice.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.626-635
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• 2006

Lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase (LPAAT) is an intrinsic membrane protein that catalyzes the synthesis of phosphatidic acid (PA) from lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). It is well known that LPAAT is involved in lipid biosynthesis, while its role in tumour progression has been of emerging interest in the last few years. To date, seven members of the LPAAT gene family have been found in human. Here we report a novel LPAAT member, designated as LPAAT-theta, which was 2728 base pairs in length and contained an open reading frame (ORF) encoding 434 amino acids. The LPAAT-theta gene consisted of 12 exons and 11 introns, and mapped to chromosome 4q21.23. LPAAT-theta was ubiquitously expressed in 18 human tissues by RT-PCR analysis. Subcellular localization of LPAAT-theta-EGFP fusion protein revealed that LPAAT-theta was distributed primarily in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of COS-7 cells. Furthermore, we found that the overexpression of LPAAT-theta can induce mTOR-dependent p70S6K phosphorylation on Thr389 and 4EBP1 phosphorylation on Ser65 in HEK293T cells.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.223-227
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• 2009

The fruits of Cornus kousa Burg. were extracted with 80% aqueous methanol (MeOH) and the concentrated extract was partitioned with ethyl acetate (EtOAc), n-butanol (n-BuOH), and $H_2O$. From the EtOAc traction, 5 triterpenoids were isolated through repeated silica gel ($SiO_2$), octadecyl silica gel (ODS), and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography (c.c.). These compounds were determined to be ursolic acid (1), corosolic acid (2), taraxasterol (3), betulinic acid (4), and betulinic aldehyde (5) on the basis of their spectroscopic data including electronic ionization mass spectrometry, ultraviolet spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance. This is the first reported isolation of these compounds from this plant. Also, compounds 1, 3, 4, and 5 show a relatively high inhibitory activity against human acyl-CoA: cholesterol acyltransferase-1 (hACAT-1) with inhibition values of $52.8{\pm}0.7$, $91.1{\pm}0.4$, $93.0{\pm}0.7$, and $96.2{\pm}0.2%$ at a concentration of $100{\mu}M$, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Entomolohy Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.122-122
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• 2002

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.341-348
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• 2008

Cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) catalyzes the acylation of cholesterol to cholesteryl ester with long chain fatty acids and ACAT inhibition is a useful strategy for treating hypercholesterolemia or atherosclerosis. Inhibitory effects on ACAT of the MeOH extracts prepared from 163 edible plants were evaluated. 15 species out of 163 species exhibited higher than 50% of inhibition on the hACAT-1 and 9 species exhibited higher than 50% of inhibition on the hACAT-2 activity at their concentration of $100\;{\mu}g/mL$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.67-67
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• 1995

Acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT, EC 2.3.1.26) plays an important role in the control of intracellular free cholesterol content via its cholesterol esterifying activity. ACAT inhibitors are expected to be effective for treatment of atherosclerosis and hypercholesterolemia. In the course of a screening program for ACAT inhibitors from microbial sources, GERI-BP001 M, A, and B were isolated from the fermentation broth of a fungal strain. GERI-BP001 compounds were isolated from a culture broth of Aspergillus fumigatus F37 by acetone extraction, EtOAc extraction, SiO$_2$ column chromatography, and reverse phase HPLC. The structure of GERI-BP001 coumpounds were determined by $^1$H-NMR, $\^$l3/C-NMR, 2D-NMR, NOESY, and long range C-H COSY experiments. GERI-BP001 M, A, and B inhibit ACAT activity in an enzyme assay system using rat liver microsomes by 50% at concentrations of 75, 147, and 71 ${\mu}$M, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1785-1788
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• 2008

Phenylpyropenes A, B, and C, isolated from Penicillium griseofulvum F1959, inhibited DGAT in rat liver microsomes with $IC_{50}$ values of $78.7{\pm}1.6$, $21.7{\pm}0.2$, and $11.04{\pm}0.2{\mu}M$, respectively. In addition, a kinetic analysis using a Lineweaver-Burk plot revealed that phenylpyropene C was a noncompetitive inhibitor of DGAT. The apparent Michaelis constant ($K_m$) value and inhibition constant ($K_i$) value were calculated to be $8{\mu}M$ and $10.48{\mu}M$, respectively. Moreover, phenylpyropene C inhibited triglyceride formation in HepG2 cells.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1297-1304
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• 2009

A novel series of imidazo[1,2-$\alpha$]pyridines was designed, synthesized, and tested for their ability to inhibit acyl- CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase. Preliminary lead optimization efforts resulted in the identification of ACAT inhibitors represented by analogues 5b, 5c, 6a, 6c, 7b, and 7c. The ACAT inhibitory activity of these compounds was further established by potent inhibition of cholesteryl ester formation in HepG2 cells by a representative analogue 7b.