• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제62권3호
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• pp.330-341
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• 2024

The Trichinella spiralis novel cystatin (TsCstN) inhibits cathepsin L (CatL) activity and inflammation of macrophages during lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induction. To identify the protease inhibitory region, this study applied an in silico modeling approach to simulate truncation sites of TsCstN (Ts01), which created four truncated forms, including TsCstN^∆1-39 (Ts02), TsCstN^∆1-71 (Ts03), TsCstN^{∆1-20, ∆73-117} (Ts04), and TsCstN^{∆1-20, ∆42-117} (Ts05). The superimposition of these truncates modeled with AlphaFold Colab indicated that their structures were more akin to Ts01 than those modeled with I-TASSER. Moreover, Ts04 exhibited the closest resemblance to the structure of Ts01. The recombinant Ts01 (rTs01) and truncated proteins (rTs02, rTs03, and rTs04) were successfully expressed in a prokaryotic expression system while Ts05 was synthesized, with sizes of approximately 14, 12, 8, 10, and 2.5 kDa, respectively. When determining the inhibition of CatL activity, both rTs01 and rTs04 effectively reduced CatL activity in vitro. Thus, the combination of the α1 and L1 regions may be sufficient to inhibit CatL. This study provides comprehensive insights into TsCstN, particularly regarding its protein function and inhibitory domains against CatL.

• Kidney Research and Clinical Practice
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.338-346
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• 2018

Background: The most common cause of acute kidney injury (AKI) in pregnancy is preeclampsia. Serum cystatin C (CysC) is a potential biomarker of early kidney damage as its levels are not disturbed by volume status changes in pregnancy, and serum CysC levels could serve as a replacement for conventionally used creatinine. In this study, we investigated the serum levels of CysC in severe preeclampsia cases and the associations between CysC levels and poor obstetric outcomes. Methods: Our cohort included severe preeclampsia patients with a normal serum creatinine level. Creatinine was measured to calculate estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) based on the Cockcroft and Gault, Modification of Diet in Renal Disease Study (MDRD), and Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equations, while CysC was measured to calculated eGFR based on a CysC-based equation. We then evaluated the correlations between serum CysC level, eGFR, and obstetric outcomes. Results: Twenty-six patients were evaluated of which 38.5% delivered preterm and 30.8% had low-birth weight babies. Unlike creatinine-based eGFR and CysC-based eGFR, serum CysC demonstrate significant negative correlation with gestational age. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that serum CysC is a potential biomarker of preterm delivery with a cut-off serum level of 1.48 mg/L with 80% sensitivity and 75% specificity. Conclusion: GFR estimation using CysC is likely to be inaccurate in pregnancy. However, we found a significant correlation between preterm delivery and serum CysC level. Our results suggest that serum CysC level has the potential to predict preterm delivery in severe preeclampsia patients.

• 한국발생생물학회지:발생과생식
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.67-77
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• 2000

심해에서 서식하며 특이한 조직형태를 갖고 있는 꼼치조직에서 cDNA를 제작하여 클로닝을 통해서, 꼼치에서 특이하게 발현하는 유전인자를 검색하였다. 그 결과 62례의 클론이 알려진 유전자에 동질성이 있었는데 이들은 thioesterase가 9례, myosin이 8례, creatine kinase가 7례, skeletal alpha-actin이 6례, parvalbumin b와 ribosomal protein이 각각 5례, type I collagen과 muscle troponin이 각각 3례, dopamine receptor, histatin, 그리고 heat shock protein이 각각 2례, cystatin, lectin, statherin, secretory carrier membrane protein, keratin type I, desmin, chloroplast, muscle tropomyosin, reticulum calcium ATPase, ribonucleoprotein이 각각 1례로 나타났다. 나머지 클론은 동질성이 낮거나 비반복성으로 나타났으며, 이 중 in situ hybridization으로 조직에서 특이하게 발현되는 5종류의 클론을 선택하여 분석하였으며, C 말단 단백질 구조와 특색(motif)을 분석하였다. 5종류의 클론에서 C9O-77은 약 5000bp 크기로 상피조직, 점액조직, 섬유조직 그리고 교원질 조직에서 강한 양성반응을 보이는 세포의 기질단백질로 예상되었다. C9O-116은 약 1500bp 크기로 섬유조직, 상피조직 그리고 점액조직에서 약한 양성반응을 보였고, 근육 다발 주변 부위 세포에서 매우 강한 양성반응을 보이는 막투과성 단백질로 예상되었다. C9O-130은 약 1200bp 크기로 상피조직, 근육조직 그리고 점액조직에서 양성반응을 나타냈으며, 특히 상피조직에서 강한 양성반응을 나타내는 세포내 단백질로 예상되었다. C9O-161은 약 2000bp 크기로 상피조직 과 근육조직 그리고 점액성 섬유조직에서 약한 양성반응을 보였고, 상피세포에서 강한 양성반응을 보였으며, 근육다발을 둘러싸는 섬유성 세포에서도 강한 양성반응을 보이는 세포외 기질단백질로 추측되었다. C9O-171은 약 1000bp크기로 상피조직, 근육조직 그리고 섬유기질 조직에 널리 강한 양성반응을 나타냈으며 교원띠조직에서도 양성반응을 보이는 전사인자로 추측되었다.