• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.441-445
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• 2003

New sulfonated amino ribofuranans were synthesized to elucidate the relationship between structure and specific biological activities such as anti-HIV and blood anticoagulant activities. The synthesis was performed by sulfonation of copolymers having various proportion of (1$\rightarrow5)-\alpha$-D-ribofuranosidic unit. The sulfonation with piperidine N-sulfonic acid produced the sulfonated amino ribofuranans in high yield. The anti-HIV activity of sulfonated 3-amino-3-deoxy-(1$\rightarrow5)-\alpha$-D-ribofuranan showed more potent by increasing the degree of sulfonation and the average molecular weights. This activity was almost equal to the activities of sulfonated ribofuranans and ribopyranans reported before in spite of low molecular weight. The blood anticoagulant activities was observed at 36-48 mg/units, more potent than standard dextran sulfonate, 22.7 mg/units. In addition, the blood anticoagulant activities of sulfamide-copolysaccharide consisting various proportion of (1$\rightarrow5)-\alpha$-D-ribofuranan units were potentiated by increasing sulfonated amino-ribofuranan units from 13 to 21 mg/units.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.115-121
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• 2006

Objectives : For the purpose of developing new anti-HIV agents from natural sources, the extracts of Actinidia arguta were tested for their inhibitory effects on essential enzymes as the reverse transcriptase (RT), protease and ${\alpha}-\;glucosidase$. And we predicted inhibition activity of major compounds of Actinidia arguta using Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR). Methods : In this assay the activity of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase is measured as the formation of a strand of copy-DNA (cDNA) using RNA as a template. The activity of HIV-1 protease is measured as the cleavage of an oligopeptide by HIV-1 protease. Results : In the anti-HIV-1 RT using Enzyme Linked Oligonucleotide Sorbent Assay (ELOSA) method, water extracts (100ug/ml) of stem and leaf showed strong activity of 93.9% and 91.9%, respectively. In the HIV-1 protease inhibition assay, aqueous stem extract inhibited the activity of the enzyme to cleave an oligopeptide, resembling one of the cleavage sites in the viral polyprotein which can only be processed by HIV-1 protease with 56.8%. In the ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibition assay, aqueous stem extract showed activity of 73.1%. Conclusion : We found out this result, for these samples it is possible that the inhibition of the viral replication in vitro is due to the inhibition at least one of RT and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$. It would be of great interest to identify the compounds which are responsible for this inhibition, since all therapeutically useful agent up to date are RT, PR and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitors.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.263-268
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• 1993

Seventeen strains were isolated from soil, cattle rumen, cereal sewage dregs, insect on agar plate containing insoluble glucan as a sole carbon source from immobilized Streptococcus mutans, which produced alpha-1,3 glucanase for lysis of dental plaque. Among these strains isolated from soil, SW-522 and SW-713 that had appeared to produce the high level of alpha-1,3 glucanase, degraded insoluble glucan from S. mutans 97.6% and 49.4%, respectively in 5 hours. The activity of crude alpha-1,3 glucanase from SW-522 was 1.3mg insoluble glucan/min.mg protein. This enzyme was entirely degraded insoluble glucan on glass tube which produced by S. mutans in TH medium with 5% sucrose.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 1989

To find ${\alpha}-amylase$ inhibitors produced by microorganisms from soil, a strain which had a strong inhibitory activity against bacterial ${\alpha}-amylase$ was isolated from the soil sample collected in Korea. The morphological and physiological characteristics of this strain on several media and its utilization of carbon sources showed that it was one of Streptomyces species according to the International Streptomyces Project method. The amylase inhibitor of this strain was purified by active carbon adsorption, silicagel column chromatography, SP-Sephadex C-25 column chromatography, adsorption on Amberlite XAD-2. The inhibitor was oligosaccharide which was composed of glucose. The inhibitor had inhibitory activity against other amylase such as salivary ${\alpha}-amylase$, pancreatic ${\alpha}-amylase$, fungal ${\alpha}-amylase$ and gluco-amylase.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.667-671
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• 2009

Extract of water-soluble polysaccharide (CFWx), showing inhibiting activity on ${\alpha}-glucosidase$, was prepared from the fruiting bodies of Cordyceps militaris by hot-water extraction, and ethanol precipitation. Chemical characteristics of CFWx were as follows: carbohydrate content 30% including 16% of uronic acid; 51% protein content; monosaccharide composition, Man:Glu:Gal (30:43:27); molecular weight $3-5{\times}10^4$. CFWx was further purified by ion-exchange, gel-permeation, and affinity chromatography and $CFWx-AH-{\alpha}$ fraction was isolated. Fundamental structure of $CFWx-AH-{\alpha}$ was deduced as ${\alpha}-(1{\to}4$)-D-glucan with ${\alpha}-(1{\to}3$)- and/or ${\alpha}-(1{\to}6$)-D-glycosidic side chains based on methylation analysis.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-24
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• 2012

$5{\alpha}$-Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the primary active metabolite of testosterone, catalyzed by $5{\alpha}$-reductase ($5{\alpha}R$) in the skin, prostate, and liver. In this study, the $5{\alpha}R$ activity in rat liver S9 fraction in the presence of a NADPH-generating system was evaluated and compared by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based in vitro assays. Testosterone and a $5{\alpha}R$ inhibitor, finasteride, were added to the S9 fractions and incubated at $37^{\circ}C$ for 1 h. Both testosterone and DHT were quantitatively measured and compared with two different GC-MS-based steroid profiling techniques. DHT was not detected by conventional GC-MS analysis in the absence of finasteride when the concentration of testosterone in the S9 fraction was less than $0.2{\mu}M$, whereas the isotope-dilution GC-MS (GC-IDMS) system was able to evaluate the $5{\alpha}R$ activity. Because the S9 fraction contains more reactive enzymes and is easier to collect from tissues compared with a microsomal solution, the combination of the S9 fraction and GC-IDMS technique may be a promising assay for evaluating the $5{\alpha}R$ activity in large-scale clinical studies.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.238-247
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• 2015

Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum Sieb. Et Zucc) leaves were collected, air-dried and extracted with 70% aqueous acetone, then concentrated and sequentially fractionated using n-hexane, $CH_2Cl_2$, EtOAc, and $H_2O$ to be freeze dried for antioxidant and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibition activity tests. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was evaluated using DPPH (1,1-diphenyl 2-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging assay. The test concentrations were adjusted to 500, 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25, 15.62, 7.81, 3.9, 1.95 and 0.97 ppm. The $H_2O$ and EtOAc fractions showed higher activities compared with the control, ${\alpha}$-tocopherol, at all concentrations. The crude fraction also gave better activity at the concentrations lower than 62.5 ppm. However, the nonpolar n-hexane and $CH_2Cl_2$ fractions gave prominently lower activities compared with the control at all concentrations. The $IC_{50}$ values of the crude, EtOAc, and $H_2O$ fractions exhibited 11.78, 4.29 and $9.80{\mu}g/m{\ell}$, respectively, compared with $12.08{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ of the control. But the n-hexane and $CH_2Cl_2$ fractions indicated 300 and $91.85{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ of $IC_{50}$, respectively. ${\alpha}$-Glucosidase inhibition activity was evaluated at the concentrations of 50, 25, 12.5, 6.3, 3.1, 1.6 and 0.8 ppm. The inhibition activities were increased according to as the increase of sample concentrations. However, the nonpolar n-hexane and $CH_2Cl_2$ fractions indicated very low inhibition activities compared with acarbose, a positive control. The EtOAc fraction showed very good capability as almost 100% compared with the control at the higher concentrations than 12.5 ppm and the crude fraction also indicated good potential as 95% and 100% at 25 and 50 ppm, respectively. The $H_2O$ fraction gave good inhibition value as 90% at 50 ppm although the value was lower than the control. These results showed that the polar fractions had better ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibition activities. The $IC_{50}$ values of the nonpolar fractions, n-hexane and $CH_2Cl_2$, showed very lower values as 468 and $103.6{\mu}g/m{\ell}$, respectively, than the control. ${\alpha}$-Glucosidase Inhibition Activity of the Extracts of Katsura Tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum Sieb. Et Zucc) Leaves However, the polar fractions, crude, EtOAc and $H_2O$, showed 7.1, 3.7 and $13{\mu}g/m{\ell}$, respectively, indicating that these fractions can be used as natural bioresources for treating diabetes mellitus. Also ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibition activity had a positive correlation with antioxidant activity of the extracts.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2016

Glutaraldehyde was used as a cross-linking agent for immobilization of purified ${\alpha}$-amylase from Exiguobacterium sp. DAU5. Befitting concentration of glutaradehyde and cross-linking time is the key to preparation of cross-linking chitosan beads. Based on optimized immobilization condition for ${\alpha}$-amylase, an overall yield of 56% with specific activity of 2,240 U/g on chitosan beads and 58% with specific activity of 2,320 U/g on chitosan-carbon beads was obtained. The optimal temperature and pH of each immobilized enzyme activity were $50^{\circ}C$ and 50 mM glycine-NaOH buffer pH 8.5, respectively. Those retained more than 75 and 90% of its maximal enzyme activity at pH 7.0-9.5 and after incubation at $50^{\circ}C$ for 1 h, respectively. In addition, the immobilization product showed higher organic-solvent tolerance than free enzymes. The mode of hydrolyzing soluble starch revealed that the ${\alpha}$-amylase possessed high hydrolyzing activity. These results indicate that chitosan is good support and has broad application prospects of enzyme immobilization.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.176-182
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• 2011

The study objective was to prepare biodegradable branched dextran microspheres encapsulated with His-tagged interferon-alpha (BDM-hIFN-${\alpha}$) and evaluate its activity in vitro and in vivo. The glycidyl methacrylate derivatized dextrans (Dex-GMA) as precursor was primarily synthesized by substituting hydroxyl groups of either the branched or linear type of dextran with GMA. Dex-GMA microspheres loaded with hIFN-${\alpha}$ was then prepared by the water-in-water emulsion technique. In vitro release and Western blotting experiments demonstrated the retained activity of hIFN-${\alpha}$ released from branched dextran microspheres at 24 h by inducing phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator transcription-1 (STAT-1), a down-stream effector of IFN-${\alpha}$, in HepG2 cells. Animal data further revealed a peak of plasma levels of IFN-${\alpha}$ in rats injected intravenously with BDM-hIFN-${\alpha}$ at 10 min post-injection, but a sharp decline at 2 h. High plasma levels of neopterin, a plasma protein induced by IFN-${\alpha}$, were also detected in rats injected with BDM-hIFN-${\alpha}$ at 10 min post-injection. Notably, plasma levels of neopterin remained high at 4 h, but largely declined thereafter.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1589-1603
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• 2018

Twenty analogs of $[Orn^6,D-Ala^9]{\alpha}-factor$ were synthesized and assayed for their biological activities: seven analogs of $[Orn^6,X^9]{\alpha}-factor$, seven analogs of $[X^6,D-Ala^9]{\alpha}-factor$, five analogs of $[X^5,X^6,D-Ala^9]{\alpha}-factor$, and native ${\alpha}-factor$ (X = amino acids). Their biological activities (halo, gene induction, and affinity) were measured using S. cerevisiae Y7925 and LM102 and compared with those of native ${\alpha}-factor$ (100%). G protein-coupled receptor was expressed in strain LM102 containing pESC-LEU-STE2 vector. $[Dap^6,D-Ala^9]{\alpha}-factor$ with weak halo activity (10%) showed the highest receptor affinity (> 230%) and the highest gene induction activity (167%). $[Arg^6,D-Ala^9]{\alpha}-factor$ showed the highest halo activity (2,000%). The number of active binding sites per cell (about 20,000 for strain LM102) was determined using a newly-designed fluorescence-based detector, $[Arg^6,D-Ala^9]{\alpha}-factor-Edan$, with high sensitivity (12,500-fold higher than the absorption-based detector $[Orn^6]{\alpha}-factor-[Cys]_3$).