• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.189-193
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• 2001

Curcumin a yellow pigment from Curcuma Tonga, has been known to possess antioxidative and anticarcinogenic properties, as well as to induce apoptosis in some cancer cells. There have been, however, several contradictory reports that hypothesized curcumin (a hydrophobic molecule) can bind a membrane Gpid bilayer and induce nonspecific cytotoxicity in some cell lines. Why curcumin shows these contradictory effects is unknown. In A-431 cells, growth inhibition by curcumin is due mostly to the specific inhibition of the intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity of the epidermal growth factor receptor, as reported earlier by Korutla et al. Thus, we assumed that the cell death of A-431 by curcumin might be due to the specific induction of apoptosis. In this paper we clearly show that curcumin induces apoptosis in A-431 cells. The cureumin-induced cell death of A-431 exhibited various apoptotic features, including DNA fragmentation and nuclear condensation. Furthermore, the curcumin-induced apoptosis of A-431 cells involved activation of caspase-3-like cysteine protease. Involvement of caspase-3 was further confirmed by using a caspase-3 specific inhibitor, DEVD-CHO. In another study, decreased nitric oxide (NO) production was also shown in A-431 cells treated with curcumin, which seems to be the result of the inhibition of the iNOS expression by curcumin, as in other cell lines. However, 24 h after treatment of curcumin there was increased NO production in A-431 cells. This observation has not yet been clearly explained. We assumed that the increased NO production may be related to denitrosylation of the enzyme catalytic site in caspase-3 when activated. Taken together, this study shows that the cell death of A-431 by curcumin is due to the induction of apoptosis, which involves caspase-3 activation.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.162-167
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• 2016

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) producing phenyllactic acid (PLA), which is known as antimicrobial compound, was isolated from button mushroom bed and the isolated LAB was identified to Lactobacillus casei by 16 rRNA gene sequence analysis. Cell-free supernatant (CFS) from L. casei was assessed for both the capability to produce the antimicrobial compound PLA and the antifungal activity against three fungal pathogens (Rhizoctonia solani, Botrytis cinerea, and Collectotricum aculatum). PLA concentration was investigated to be 3.23 mM in CFS when L. casei was grown in MRS broth containing 5 mM phenylpyruvic acid as precursor for 16 h. Antifungal activity demonstrated that all fungal pathogens were sensitive to 5% CFS (v/v) of L. casei with average growth inhibitions ranging from 34.58% to 65.15% (p < 0.005), in which R. solani was the most sensitive to 65.15% and followed by C. aculatum, and B. cinerea. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for commercial PLA was also investigated to show the same trend in the range of 0.35 mg mL-1 (2.11 mM) to 0.7 mg mL-1 (4.21 mM) at pH 4.0. The inhibition ability of CFS against the pathogens were not affected by the heating or protease treatment. However, pH modification in CFS to 6.5 resulted in an extreme reduction in their antifungal activity. These results may indicate that antifungal activities in CFS was caused by acidic compounds like PLA or organic acids rather than protein or peptide molecules.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.440-446
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• 1989

Penicillium sp. CB-20 was selected for its strong polygalacturonase activity among various strains of molds found in soil. It was found that the production of polygalacturonase reached to maximum when on the wheat bran medium containing pectin as carbon source, the strain was cultured for 60 hours at 3$0^{\circ}C$. The enzyme was purified to 29.21 food by ammonium sulfate treatment, Sephadex G-25, G-15, G-150 gel filtration, DEAE-cellulose and DEAE-Sephadex A-50 ion-exchange chromatography. Yield of the enzyme purification was 2.31 %. When the purified enzyme was applied to sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the molecular weight was estimated 21, 000. The amino acid composition indicated relatively high contents of gultamic acid, glycine and histidine.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 2015

Prions are proteinaceous infectious particles that cause neurodegenerative diseases, such as scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. Although the detailed process, regarding the abnormal conversion of prion proteins (PrP), remains to be fully elucidated, a number of environmental factors appear to affect the formation of misfolded PrP, termed PrP^Sc. Because oceanic algae contain mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), which exhibit cellular defensive activities under a variety of stress conditions, we investigated the level of PrP^Sc in prion-infected neuroblastoma cells using mycosporine-glycine, porphyra-334 and shinorine. When judged by the level of protease-resistant PrP^Sc in western blots, porphyra-334 and shinorine increased the level of PrP^Sc in cells, but mycosporine-glycine did not. The current results indicate that the MAAs tested in this study enhance the formation of PrP^Sc.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.245-253
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• 2014

A fibrinolytic enzyme was produced by an edible mushroom of Pleurotus ostreatus using submerged culture fermentation. The enzyme was purified from the culture supernatant by applying a combination of freeze-thaw treatment, ammonium sulfate precipitation, hydrophobic interaction, and gel filtration chromatographies. The enzyme was purified by a 147-fold, with a yield of 7.54%. The molecular masses of the enzyme an determined by gel filtration and SDS-PAGE were 13.6 and 18.2 kDa, respectively. The isoelectric point of the enzyme was 8.52. It hydrolyzed fibrinogen by cleaving the ${\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$ chains of fibrinogen followed by the ${\gamma}$ chains, and also activated plasminogen into plasmin. The enzyme was optimally active at $45^{\circ}C$ and pH 7.4. The enzyme activity was completely inhibited by EDTA, whereas protease inhibitors of TPCK, SBTI, PMSF, aprotinin and pepstatin showed no inhibition on its activity. The partial amino acid sequences of the enzyme as determined by Q-TOF2 were ATFVGCSATR, GGTLIHESSHFTR, and YTTWFGTFVTSR. These sequences showed a high degree of homology with those of metallo-endopeptidases from P. ostreatus and Armillaria mellea. The purified enzyme can also be applied as a natural agent for oral fibrinolytic therapy or prevention of thrombosis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1493-1501
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• 2015

A Bacillus species, EMD4, with strong antibacterial activity was isolated from ganjang (soy sauce) and identified as B. subtilis. B. subtilis EMD4 strongly inhibited the growth of B. cereus ATCC14579 and B. thuringiensis ATCC33679. The antibacterial activity was stable at pH 3-9 but inactive at pH 10 and above. The activity was fully retained after 15 min at 80℃ but reduced by 50% after 15 min at 90℃. The activity was completely destroyed by proteinase K and protease treatment, indicating its proteinaceous nature. The bacteriocin (BacEMD4) was partially purified from culture supernatant by ammonium sulfate precipitation, and Q-Sepharose and Sephadex G-50 column chromatographies. The specific activity was increased from 769.2 AU/mg protein to 8,347.8 AU/mg protein and the final yield was 12.6%. The size of BacEMD4 was determined to be 3.5 kDa by Tricine SDS-PAGE. The N-terminal amino acid sequence was similar with that of Subtilosin A. Nucleotide sequencing of the cloned gene confirmed that BacEMD4 was Subtilosin A. BacEMD4 showed bactericidal activity against B. cereus ATCC14579.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1062-1068
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• 2004

Leptin has a major role in the regulation of food intake and energy homeostasis. In addition, leptin participates in many physiological functions including regulation of lipid metabolism. Bovine recombinant leptin protein was produced in E. coli cells in order to understand function of leptin in the regulation of lipid metabolism. The leptin expression vector was constructed in pGEX-4T-3 vector and transformed into E. coli BL21 cells. Expression of the GST-leptin fusion protein was induced with IPTG. The fusion protein was purified using glutathione sepharose 4B batch method, and the recombinant leptin was eluted after thrombin protease digestion. The effect of leptin on glucose transport was examined in the differentiated adipocytes of 3T3-L1 cells. Leptin had no effect on basal and insulin-stimulated glucose transport in 3T3-L1 cells (p>0.05). Effect of recombinant leptin on glucose and acetate transport was examined in adipose tissues of Korean cattle (Hanwoo). Insulin stimulated glucose transport in both intramuscular and subcutaneous adipose tissues (p<0.05), but leptin did not affect glucose transport in both adipose tissues (p>0.05). Insulin stimulated acetate transport in bovine adipose tissues (p<0.05), but leptin did not affect acetate transport (p>0.05). Northern and RT-PCR analyses showed that mRNA levels of uncoupling protein-2 were increased by leptin treatment in 3T3-L1 cells without statistical difference (p>0.05). In conclusion, bovine recombinant leptin did not affect glucose and acetate transport in both 3T3-L1 adipocytes and bovine adipose tissues, while it stimulates UCP-2 mRNA expression in 3T3-L1 cells.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.270-276
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• 2008

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of exogenous non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) enzymes on performance, intestinal content viscosity and digestive enzyme activities of growing pigs fed a rough rice-based diet. A total of 60 crossbred barrows with an initial body weight of 35.16 kg (SD = 0.82) were blocked by body weight and randomly assigned to two treatments with three replications. Each group was fed the diet based on rice with or without exogenous NSP enzymes (2 g/kg of diet). During the 70 days of the feeding trial, all pigs were given free access to feed and water. At the end of the feeding trial, six pigs from each treatment were randomly selected and slaughtered to collect intestinal digesta, intestinal mucosa, and pancreas. The addition of NSP enzymes improved average daily gain (p<0.05) and feed:gain (p<0.05), and decreased viscosity of digesta in the jejunum (p<0.001) and ileum (p<0.01) of pigs. The supplementation of NSP enzymes increased activities of protease (p<0.01), trypsin (p<0.01) and ${\alpha}$-amylase (p<0.05) in duodenal contents. However, digestive enzymes in the pancreas, jejunal and ileal mucosa were unaffected by the supplemental NSP enzymes (p>0.10). The results indicate that the addition of NSP enzymes to rough rice-based diets improved performance of pigs, reduced viscosity and increased digestive activity in the small intestine.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.326-333
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• 2002

The possibility of using the dried powder form of Sarcodon aspratus fruitbody (a kind of mushrooms) as a meat tenderizer was explored in this study. The freeze dried powder had higher protease activity compared to the hot air dried powder of S. aspratus. The powder kept higher activity when preserved at -2$0^{\circ}C$ than at ambient temperature. The hardness of the meat decreased and the cooking loss increased more rapidly when the meat was treated with the mushroom powder at ambient temperature than at -4$^{\circ}C$. In terms of sensory evaluation, 0.1% of the powder based on the meat and 3 hours of treatment at 4$^{\circ}C$ gave the highest acceptability score. In the comparison test the meat was more acceptable when treated with the mushroom powder than with the imported commercial tenderizer. This led to the conclusion that it is quite feasible to develop a natural meat tenderizer using the Sarcodon aspratus fruitbody.

• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.459-467
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• 1998

A new set of functional group interaction energy descriptors relevant to the ACE (Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme) inhibitory peptide, QSAR (Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships), is presented. The functional group interaction energies approximate the charged interactions and distances between functional groups in molecules. The effective energies of the computationally derived geometries are useful parameters for deriving 3D-QSAR models, especially in the absence of experimentally known active site conformation. ACE is a regulatory zinc protease in the renin-angiotensin system. Therapeutic inhibition of this enzyme has proven to be a very effective treatment for the management of hypertension. The non bond interaction energy values among functional groups of six-feature of ACE inhibitory peptides were used as descriptor terms and analyzed for multivariate correlation with ACE inhibition activity. The functional group interaction energy descriptors used in the regression analysis were obtained by a series of inhibitor structures derived from molecular mechanics and semi-empirical calculations. The descriptors calculated using electrostatic and steric fields from the precisely defined functional group were sufficient to explain the biological activity of inhibitor. Application of the descriptors to the inhibition of ACE indicates that the derived QSAR has good predicting ability and provides insight into the mechanism of enzyme inhibition. The method, functional group interaction energy analysis, is expected to be applicable to predict enzyme inhibitory activity of the rationally designed inhibitors.