• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.178-181
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• 2000

In order to develop the novel gene expression system, we introduced new control elements which could influence the foreign gene expression in animal cells. When the foreign genes are introduced into the genome of higher eukaryotic cells, the expressions from these integrated genes are often low and can vary greatly depending on the positions of the integration sites due to the complex nature of the chromatin structures (1). First we screened the various DNA sequence elements which can function as an insulator of gene expression from these position effects and can cooperate with the SV40 enhancer/promoter. Among the several DNA elements from the various sources, we identified the particular DNA element which confers the increased frequency of the positive colonies, assayed by the reporter gene from stable selections indicating significantly reduced position effects. This element also showed the several fold-increased expression level as well as the copy-number dependent expression with host cell specificity. Second we modified the transcription termination element where we introduced the specific terminator in combination with SV40 polyA signal. This modified terminator showed the increased efficiency and the level of the gene expression. By combining these two elements, we made the animal cell expression system and tested successfully for the recombinant protein productions of TGF ${\beta}$-soluble receptor, Antithrombin III, and single chain Pro-Urokinase. [Supported by grants from MOCIE]

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.1163-1172
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• 2016

The Ω-loop is a nonregular and flexible structure that plays an important role in molecular recognition, protein folding, and thermostability. In the present study, molecular dynamics simulation was carried out to assess the molecular stability and flexibility profile of the porcine trypsin structures. Two Ω-Loops (fragment 57-67 and fragment 78-91) were confirmed to represent the flexible region. Subsequently, glycosylation site-directed mutations (A73S, N84S, and R104S) were introduced within the Ω-loop region and its wing chain based on its potential N-glycosylation sites (Asn-Xaa-Ser/Thr consensus sequences) and structure information to improve the thermostability of trypsin. The result demonstrated that the half-life of the N84S mutant at 50℃ increased by 177.89 min when compared with that of the wild-type enzyme. Furthermore, the significant increase in the thermal stability of the N84S mutant has also been proven by an increase in the T_m values determined by circular dichroism. Additionally, the optimum temperatures of the wild-type enzyme and the N84S mutant were 75℃ and 80℃, respectively. In conclusion, we obtained the thermostability-improved enzyme N84S mutant, and the strategy used to design this mutant based on its structural information and N-linked glycosylation modification could be applied to engineer other enzymes to meet the needs of the biotechnological industry.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.143-147
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• 2010

Since it is of great importance to know how a ligand binds to a receptor, there have been a lot of efforts to improve the quality of prediction of docking poses. Earlier efforts were focused on improving search algorithm and scoring function in a docking program resulting in a partial improvement with a lot of variations. Although these are basically very important and essential, more tangible improvements came from the reduction of search space. In a normal docking study, the approximate active site is assumed to be known. After defining active site, scoring functions and search algorithms are used to locate the expected binding pose within this search space. A good search algorithm will sample wisely toward the correct binding pose. By careful study of receptor structure, it was possible to prioritize sub-space in the active site using "receptor-based pharmacophores" or "hot spots". In a sense, these techniques reduce the search space from the beginning. Further improvements were made when the bound ligand structure is available, i.e., the searching could be directed by molecular similarity using ligand information. This could be very helpful to increase the accuracy of binding pose. In addition, if the biological activity data is available, docking program could be improved to the level of being useful in affinity prediction for a series of congeneric ligands. Since the number of co-crystal structures is increasing in protein databank, "Ligand-Guided Docking" to reduce the search space would be more important to improve the accuracy of docking pose prediction and the efficiency of virtual screening. Further improvements in this area would be useful to produce more reliable docking programs.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.82-88
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• 2007

From the EtOAc fraction of Eugenia caryophyllata, four compounds were isolated through activity-guided silica gel column chromatography, From the result of spectroscopic data including NMR, MS and IR, the chemical structures of the compounds were determined as 1-allyl-4-hydroxy-3-methoxybezene acetate (eugenol acetate, 1), 1-allyl-4-hydroxy-3-methoxybezene (eugenol, 2), $3{\beta}-hydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic$ acid (oleanolic acid, 3) and $2{\alpha}$, $3{\beta}-dihydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic$ acid (maslinic acid, 4). Compounds 3 and 4 were isolated for the first time from this plant. Also, compounds 1, 2 and 3 exhibited relatively high platelet aggregation inhibitory activity with the $IC_{50}$ values of 0.24, 0.09 and 0.07 mM, respectively. Compound 2 significantly prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) with the value of $124{\pm}11.2$ seconds as compared to the control with the value of $37.5{\pm}2.2$ seconds at the concentration of 50 ${\mu}g/ml$. Compounds 1 and 3 revealed inhibitory activity on farnesyl protein transferase (FPTase) with the $IC_{50}$ values of 0.49 and 0.24 mM and compounds 1 and 2 highly inhibited the growth of rat-H-ras cells with the $Gl_{50}$ values of 6.63 and 5.70 ${\mu}M$, respectively.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2283-2287
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• 2007

Amyloid fibril formation of amyloid β/A4 protein (Aβ) is critical to understand the pathological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease and develop controlling strategy toward the neurodegenerative disease. For this purpose, dequalinium (DQ) has been employed as a specific modifier for Aβ aggregation and its subsequent cytotoxicity. In the presence of DQ, the final thioflavin-T binding fluorescence of Aβ aggregates decreased significantly. It was the altered morphology of Aβ aggregates in a form of the bundles of the fibrils, distinctive from normal single-stranded amyloid fibrils, and the resulting reduced β-sheet content that were responsible for the decreased fluorescence. The morphological transition of Aβ aggregates assessed with atomic force microscope indicated that the bundle structure observed with DQ appeared to be resulted from the initial multimeric seed structure rather than lateral association of preformed single-stranded fibrils. Investigation of the seeding effect of the DQ-induced Aβ aggregates clearly demonstrated that the seed structure has determined the final morphology of Aβ aggregates as well as the aggregative kinetics by shortening the lag phase. In addition, the cytotoxicity was also varied depending on the final morphology of the aggregates. Taken together, DQ has been considered to be a useful chemical probe to control the cytotoxicity of the amyloid fibrils by influencing the seed structures which turned out to be central to develop therapeutic strategy by inducing the amyloid fibrils in different shapes with varied toxicities.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.973-978
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• 2007

Septins are a family of conserved cytoskeletal GTPase forming heteropolymeric filamentous structure in interphase cells, however, the mechanism of assembly are largely unknown. Here we described the characterization of SEPT12, sharing closest homology to SEPT3 and SEPT9. It was revealed that subcelluar localization of SEPT12 varied at interphase and mitotic phase. While SEPT12 formed filamentous structures at interphase, it was localized to the central spindle and to midbody during anaphase and cytokinesis, respectively. In addition, we found that SEPT12 can interact with SEPT6 in vitro and in vivo, and this interaction was independent of the coiled coil domain of SEPT6. Further, co-expression of SEPT12 altered the filamentous structure of SEPT6 in Hela cells. Therefore, our result showed that the interaction between different septins may affect the septin filament structure.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.468-472
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• 2011

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern recognition receptors that recognize molecular structures derived from microbes and initiate innate immunity. TLRs have two downstream signaling pathways, the MyD88- and TRIF-dependent pathways. Dysregulated activation of TLRs is closely linked to increased risk of many chronic diseases. Previously, we synthesized fumaryl pyrrolidinone, (E)-isopropyl 4-oxo-4-(2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)-2-butenoate (IPOP), which contains a fumaric acid isopropyl ester and pyrrolidinone, and demonstrated that it inhibits the activation of nuclear factor kappa B by inhibiting the MyD88-dependent pathway of TLRs. However, the effect of IPOP on the TRIF-dependent pathway remains unknown. Here, we report the effect of IPOP on signal transduction via the TRIF-dependent pathway of TLRs. IPOP inhibited lipopolysaccharide- or polyinosinic-polycytidylic acidinduced interferon regulatory factor 3 activation, as well as interferon-inducible genes such as interferon inducible protein-10. These results suggest that IPOP can modulate the TRIF-dependent signaling pathway of TLRs, leading to decreased inflammatory gene expression.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.907-911
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• 2014

The function of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as second messengers in cell differentiation has been demonstrated only for a limited number of cell types. Here, we used a well-established protocol for BMP2-induced neuronal differentiation of neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) to examine the function of BMP2-induced ROS during the process. We first show that BMP2 indeed induces ROS generation in NCSCs and that blocking ROS generation by pretreatment of cells with diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) as NADPH oxidase (Nox) inhibitor inhibits neuronal differentiation. Among the ROS-generating Nox isozymes, only Nox4 was expressed at a detectable level in NCSCs. Nox4 appears to be critical for survival of NCSCs at least in vitro as down-regulation by RNA interference led to apoptotic response from NCSCs. Interestingly, development of neural crest-derived peripheral neural structures in Nox4-/- mouse appears to be grossly normal, although Nox4-/- embryos were born at a sub-Mendelian ratio and showed delayed over-all development. Specifically, cranial and dorsal root ganglia, derived from NCSCs, were clearly present in Nox4-/- embryo at embryonic days (E) 9.5 and 10.5. These results suggest that Nox4-mediated ROS generation likely plays important role in fate determination and differentiation of NCSCs, but other Nox isozymes play redundant function during embryogenesis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.1100-1108
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• 2011

The immunomodulating effects of moxifloxacin seem to be effective in downregulating inflammatory reactions. This presumed effect was tested in endotoxin (ETX)-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in rats. After moxifloxacin treatment (10 mg/kg) of ETX-given rats, lung myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, bronchoalveolar-lavage (BAL) protein, and the number of neutrophils in the BAL cells were measured. Light and electron microscopic structures were also examined. Electron microscopic $CeCl_3$ histochemistry for the detection of hydrogen peroxide in the lungs and immunohistochemistry of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) in the lung tissues and BAL cells were performed. To examine the expression of TNF${\alpha}$ in the lungs, western blotting was carried out with the lung tissues. ETX had accumulated neutrophils in the lungs, which was followed by lung leak. Oxidative stress occurred, and increased expression of cPLA2 in the lung tissues and BAL cells was observed in the ETX-given rats. Simultaneously, the expression of TNF${\alpha}$ was enhanced by ETX. Moxifloxacin, however, decreased all these parameters, indicating that ALI may have been ameliorated. Moxifloxacin appears to ameliorate ETX-induced ALI partially through the suppression of cPLA2 in the lungs of rats.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.367-373
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• 2001

Glycoproteins PAS-6(50 kDa) and -7(47 kDa) from the bovine milk fat globule membrane share a common protein core but differ in their carbohydrate moiety. We have analyzed and proposed the structures of the N-linked sugar chains of PAS-7 by Oxford Glyco System(OGS) RAAM2000. The N-linked sugar chains were liberated from PAS-7 by hydrazinolysis and, after modifying the reducing ends with 2-aminobenzamide(2-AB), were separated into one neutral(7N, 55%) and two acidic(7M, mono-, 43%; 7D, di-, 2%) sugar chain groups. 7N was finally separated into 5 chains(a, b, c, d, and e), respectively. The structure of this 2AB-neutral sugar chain was determined by sugar analysis, exoglycosidase digestion with OGS glycosidase Kit and OGS RAAM2000 system. The results show that fraction e was the same of reported 7N1A, the biantennary complex type with a fucose on reducing end and two N-acetyllactosamine branch on non-reducing end. Therefore, it was proved that OGS RAAM2000 method is in conformity with conventional analysis of sugar chain structure from bovine PAS-7.