• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.182-187
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• 2006

6-Phosphogluconolactonase (6PGL) is one of the key enzymes in the ubiquitous pathways of central carbon metabolism, but bacterial 6PGL had been long known as a missing enzyme even after complete bacterial genome sequence information became available. Although recent experimental characterization suggests that there are two types of 6PGLs (DevB and YbhE), their phylogenetic distribution is severely biased. Here we present that proteins in COG group previously described as 3-oarboxymuconate cyclase (COG2706) are actually the YbhE-type 6PGLs, which are widely distributed in Proteobacteria and Fimicutes. This case exemplifies how erroneous functional description of a member in the reference database commonly used in transitive genome annotation cause systematic problem in the prediction of genes even with universal cellular functions.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.18-22
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• 2005

Pompe disease is a genetic disorder caused by a deficiency of acid ${\alpha}$-glucosidase (GAA). This enzyme defect results in lysosomal glycogen accumulation in multiple tissues and cell types, with cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle cells the most seriously affected. Infantile-onset Pompe disease is uniformly lethal. Affected infants present in the first few months of life with hypotonia, generalized muscle weakness, and a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, followed by death from cardiorespiratory failure or respiratory infection, usually by 1 year of age. Late-onset forms is characterized by a lack of severe cardiac involvement and a less severe short-term prognosis. Enzyme replacement therapy for Pompe disease is intended to address directly the underlying metabolic defect via intravenous infusions of recombinant human GAA to provide the missing enzyme. We experienced one case of Pompe disease in 3-years old boy that has improved his exercise ability and cardiac function after GAA enzyme replacement therapy.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.75-82
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• 2001

Effect of single pre-administration of Cordyceps militaris(Cm) extract on the survival ratio, body weight and organ weight changes and blood cell counts after whole-body ${\gamma}-irradiation$ were investigated. The single pre-administration of Cm extract at 24 hrs before ${\gamma}-irradiation$ increased the 40-day survival ratio of irradiated mice from 60.1% to 71.4%. The administration of Cm extract completely prevented weight reductions of spleen and thymus produced by ${\gamma}-irradiation$ (P<0.01, P<0.05). Similar but somewhat less radioprotective effect was also found In the testis of the Cm treated mice. The administration of Cm extract retarded the reduction of both leukocyte and lymphocyte counts occured during the first 7 days and accelerated the recovery of the counts thereafter. The exrtract also acclerated the recovery of the erythrocyte counts occured after the day 21th. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the soluble proteins extracted from various organs did not reveal differences to any extent in all groups except in the livers of the irradiated and extract treated groups, in which some proteins were missing or less present. Also, the result of general intra and extra mycelial enzyme assays with Cm, extramycelial enzyme activity was relatively higher than the intramycelial enzyme, Cm appeared to indicate that ${\alpha}-amylase$ was the highest among the enzymes and gluosidase and chitinase were followed. Since the spleen, thymus and testis have been well known as radiosensitive organs, the protective action of Cm extract on irradiated mice may be responsible for its enhancing recovery of these organs. Although the exact mechanism in protective effect of Cm extract on irradiated mice is not clear yet, the present study is the first report regarding the Cm which was tested and found to be a potential radioprotective agent.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2005

Myo-inositol monophosphate phosphatase (IMPP) is a key enzyme in the phosphoinositide cell-signaling system. This study found that incubating the IMPP from a porcine brain with pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) resulted in a time-dependent enzymatic inactivation. Spectral evidence showed that the inactivation proceeds via the formation of a Schiff's base with the amino groups of the enzyme. After the sodium borohydride reduction of the inactivated enzyme, it was observed that 1.8 mol phosphopyridoxyl residues per mole of the enzyme dimer were incorporated. The substrate, myo-inositol-1-phosphate, protected the enzyme against inactivation by PLP. After tryptic digestion of the enzyme modified with PLP, a radioactive peptide absorbing at 210 nm was isolated by reverse-phase HPLC. Amino acid sequencing of the peptide identified a portion of the PLP-binding site as being the region containing the sequence L-Q-V-S-Q-Q-E-D-I-T-X, where X indicates that phenylthiohydantoin amino acid could not be assigned. However, the result of amino acid composition of the peptide indicated that the missing residue could be designated as a phosphopyridoxyl lysine. This suggests that the catalytic function of IMPP is modulated by the binding of PLP to a specific lysyl residue at or near its substrate-binding site of the protein.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.337-346
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• 2018

Purpose: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a form of arteriosclerosis that occurs in the extremities and involves ischemia. Previous studies have reported that patients with periodontitis are at high risk for PAD. However, the relationship between these 2 diseases has not yet been fully elucidated. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated this relationship by comparing patients with PAD to those with arrhythmia (ARR) as a control group. Methods: A large-scale survey was conducted of patients with cardiovascular disease who visited Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital. We investigated their oral condition and dental clinical measurements, including probing pocket depth, bleeding on probing, clinical attachment level, and number of missing teeth; we also collected salivary and subgingival plaque samples and peripheral blood samples. All patients with PAD were extracted from the whole population (n=25), and a matching number of patients with ARR were extracted (n=25). Simultaneously, ARR patients were matched to PAD patients in terms of age, gender, prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, and the smoking rate (n=25 in both groups). Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to measure the bacterial counts, while the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method was used to measure anti-bacterial antibody titers and proinflammatory cytokine levels in serum. Results: PAD patients had more missing teeth ($18.4{\pm}2.0$) and higher serum levels of C-reactive protein ($1.57{\pm}0.85mg/dL$) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha ($70.3{\pm}5.7pg/mL$) than ARR patients ($12.0{\pm}1.7$, $0.38{\pm}0.21mg/dL$, and $39.3{\pm}4.5pg/mL$, respectively). Meanwhile, no statistically significant differences were found in other dental clinical measurements, bacterial antibody titers, or bacterial counts between the 2 groups. Conclusions: Our findings suggested that PAD patients had poorer oral and periodontal state with enhanced systemic inflammation.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.213-217
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• 2007

Pompe disease is a genetic disorder caused by a deficiency of acid ${\alpha}$-glucosidase (GAA). Infantile onset Pompe disease is uniformly lethal. Affected infants generally present in the first few months of life with hypotonia, generalized muscle weakness, and a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is rapidly followed by death, usually by the age of one. The late-onset form is characterized less severe symptoms and prognosis. Therapy for Pompe disease is intended to directly address the underlying metabolic defect via intravenous infusions of recombinant human GAA to replace the missing enzyme. We report a case of atypical infantile-onset Pompe disease that presented symptoms in infancy but had less severe clinical manifestations and improved after GAA enzyme replacement ($Myozyme^{(R)}$, Genzyme Co., MA, USA) therapy. It is very important that pediatricians become aware of signs and symptoms of Pompe disease, such as a nasal voice or a waddling gait at an early stage so that these patients can benefit from appropriate GAA replacement therapy as soon as possible.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.105-110
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• 2007

Aspartyl-tRNA synthetase (AspRS) exists in two different forms with respect to tRNA recognition. The discriminating enzyme (D-AspRS) recognizes only tRNA$^{Asp}$, while the non-discriminating one (ND-AspRS) also recognizes tRNA$^{Asn}$ and therefore forms both Asp-tRNA$^{Asn}$ and Asp-tRNA$^{Asp}$. Plus primary sequence distinguishes two general groups of AspRS. There is a predominantly bacterial-type, larger AspRS (about 580 aa) in addition to a shorter archaeal/eukaryotic type (about 430 aa). In vivo data made clear that discriminating and non-discriminating enzymes exist in both groups. The determinants in the protein sequence responsible for tRNA discrimination are not hewn. The AspRS from Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans might be suggested ND-AspRS fur missing of AsnRS in genomic sequencing data. Therefore, we analyzed the AspRS from A. ferrooxidans with in vitro aminoacylation assay with E. coli unfractionated tRNA, in vivo missense suppression assay with tipA34 mutant and Northern hybridization with probes which were specific with tRNA$^{Asp}$ or tRNA$^{Asn}$. The AspRS from A. ferrooxidans produced more Asp-tRNA than that from E. coli. Only aspS gene from A. ferrooxidans suppressed trpA34 strain in minimal media without tryptophan. Only AspRS from A. ferrooxidans showed mischarged Asp-tRNA$^{Asn}$ band. Therefore, AspRS from A. ferrooxidans is definitely ND-AspRS.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6208-6214
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• 2012

The most essential but missing components to understand and use toxic substances from marine microalgae are developing the fast, easy and economical determining technology for detecting it. In this paper we produced the antibodies against saxitoxin (STX). Mariculture keyhole limpet hemocyanin (mcKLH) and ovalbumin (OVA) were used as carrier proteins. mcKLH-STX conjugates were injected into the peritonial cavity of BALB/c mouse for immunization. After bleeding from mouse, anti-STX antiserum was isolated. Indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) was performed to determine antiserum titer using the microtiter plate coated with free STX and OVA-STX. A goat anti-mouse IgG-phosphatase conjugate was used as secondary antibody to enable chromogenic reaction. Reactions of anti-STX antiserum were very specific on the OVA-STX and free STX. Sensitivity of anti-STX antiserum on STX was very high and STX detection limit was to be 64.9 ng/kg for indirect ELISA.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.2695-2699
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• 2011

${\beta}$ Ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase III (KAS III) initiates fatty acid synthesis in bacteria and is a key target enzyme to overcome the antibiotic resistance problem. In our previous study, we found flavonoid inhibitors of Enterococcus faecalis KAS III and proposed three potent antimicrobial flavonoids against Enterococcus faecalis and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis with MIC values in the range of 128-512 ${\mu}g/mL$ as well as high binding affinities on the order from $10^6$ to $10^7\;M^{-1}$. Using these series of flavonoids, we conducted biological assays as well as docking study to find potent flavonoids inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus KAS III with specificities against Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Here, we propose that naringenin (5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavanone) and eriodictyol (5,7,3',4'-tetrahydroxyflavanone) are potent antimicrobial inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus KAS III with binding affinity of $3.35{\times}10^5$ and $2.01{\times}10^5\;M^{-1}$, respectively. Since Arg38 in efKAS III is replaced with Met36 in saKAS III, this key difference caused one hydrogen bond missing in saKAS III compared with efKAS III, resulting in slight discrepancy in their binding interactions as well as decrease in binding affinities. 4'-OH and 7-OH of these flavonoids participated in hydrogen bonding interactions with backbone carbonyl of Phe298 and Ser152, respectively. In particular, these flavonoids display potent antimicrobial activities against various MRSA strains in the range of 64 to 128 ${\mu}M$ with good binding affinities.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.5257-5261
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• 2012

Background: High incidence of breast cancer and its fatal effect has reached an alarming stage across the globe, including the third world countries. Many factors have been reported to be associated with the development of breast cancer but detailed structural and functional information is missing. CA 15-3 is one of the known potential tumor marker of breast cancer; however little is known about structure and functional site of this protein. Present study aims to investigate the functional role of CA 15-3 in breast cancer, especially in development and metastasis. Material and Methods: Hundred female breast cancer patients confirmed by histopathological reports were included in the study. Their physiological characters were recorded in a performa. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique was used to estimate serum CA 15-3 level. Immunohistochemistry was done for estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) and Her2/neu receptors expression. Results: The study revealed the details of physiological characteristics of female breast cancer. Mean age was $37.72{\pm}5.99$ and $55.05{\pm}7.28$ years and serum CA 15-3 (MUC1) level was $60.47{\pm}8.59$ and $63.17{\pm}4.58$ U/ml in pre and post-menopause respectively, and both groups of women had sedentary life style. Their receptor status especially of progesterone, estrogen and HER-2/neu were positive in 50% of premenopausal women and 65% of postmenopausal women. Conclusion: There are multiple physiological factors promoting breast cancer. High serum CA 15-3 level and hormonal imbalance of ER, PR and Her2/neu appears to be the main cause of breast cancer. It may be possible that the functional sites of these proteins may be altered which may increase the chances of metastasis in breast cancer.