• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.219-226
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• 1998

Cytosine arabinoside(AraC) inhibits DNA synthesis and ${\beta}$-DNA polymerase, an enzyme involved in DNA repair. This, a potent antimitotic agent, is clinically used as an anticancer drug with side effect of severe neurotoxicity. Earlier reports suggested that inhibition of neuronal survival by AraC in sympathetic neuron may be due to the inhibition of a 2'-deoxycytidine-dependent process that is independent of DNA synthesis or repair and AraC induced a signal that is triggers a cascade of new mRNA and protein synthesis, leading to apoptotic cell death in cultured cerebellar granule cells. The present study would suggest whether caspase family(ICE/CED-3-like protease) involved in AraC-induced apoptosis pathway of PC12 cells. It was observed that treatment of PC12 cells with AraC led to decrease of viability by MTT assay and morphology changes, which did not suggest that AraC induced apoptosis in PC12 cells. The mRNA of caspase-1/caspase-3 were expressed in PC12 cells constitutively, and AraC did not activate caspase family. These results suggest that caspase-1/caspase-3 may not be required for AraC-induced cell death pathway in PC12 cells.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.242-249
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• 2019

Biosynthesis of indole-3-acetate (IAA) from L-tryptophan via indole-3-pyruvate pathway requires three enzymes including aminotransferase, indole-3-pyruvate decarboxylase, and indole-3-acetate dehydrogenase. To establish a bio-based production of IAA, the aspC, ipdC, and iad1 from Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, and Ustilago maydis, respectively, were expressed under control of the tac, ilvC, and sod promoters in C. glutamicum. Cells harboring ipdC produced tryptophol, indicating that the ipdC product is functional in this host. Analyses of SDS-PAGE and enzyme activity revealed that genes encoding AspC and Iad1 were efficiently expressed from the sod promoter, and their enzyme activities were 5.8 and 168.5 nmol/min/mg-protein, respectively. The final resulting strain expressing aspC, ipdC, and iad1 produced 2.3 g/l and 7.3 g/l of IAA from 10 g/l L-tryptophan, respectively, in flask cultures and a 5-L bioreactor.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.184-190
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• 1993

The effect of ${\delta}-aminolevulinic\;acid$ (ALA) biosynthetic precursors and related compounds on the ALA productivity from a strain of Rhodobacter sphaeroides has been examined in vivo and in vitro systems. The relative ratios of ALA productivities by $C_{4}$- pathway to that by $C_{5}$-pathway in vivo and in vitro systems were 0.78 and 1.37, respectively. Although the expression rates of $C_{4}-$ and $C_{5}-pathways$ in cell-free systems prepared after precursors supplemented cultivations were increased 1.35 and 1.52 folds, respectively, the rate increase of $C_{4}-pathway$ was accompanied by the rate decrease of the $C_{5}-pathways$, and vice versa, as that the rates of both $C_{4}-$ and $C_{5}-pathways$ were lowered to be 0.91, 0.83, respectively. The order of cellular uptake rates of ${\gamma}-glutamyl$ derivatives relative to that found with L-glutamic acid were shown to be D-glutamic acid, 0.55: D-glutamine, 0.5: L-glutamine, 0.4: ${\gamma}-L-glutamyl$ ethylester, 0.3: GSH and Glu-pNA, 0. L and D configurations of glutamine were indicated as better substrates in vivo for ALA yields than those of glutamic acid, respectively.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.202-209
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• 2011

Tuberculosis is a major health problem in humans because of its multidrug resistance and discovering new treatments for this disease is urgently required. The synthesis of isoprenoids in Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been reported as an interesting pathway to target. In this context, 2C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway of M. tuberculosis has drawn attention. The MEP pathway begins with the condensation of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and pyruvate forming 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate (DXP) which is catalyzed by 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase (DXS). As there is no X-ray structure was reported for this target, comparative modeling was used to generate the three dimensional structure. The structure was further validated by PROCHECK, VERIFY-3D, PROSA, ERRAT and WHATIF. Molecular docking studies was performed with the substrate (Thiamine pyrophosphate) and the reported inhibitor 2-methyl-3-(4-fluorophenyl)-5-(4-methoxy-phenyl)-4H-pyrazolol[1,5-a]pyrimidin-7-one) against the developed model to identify the crucial residues in the active site. This study may further be useful to provide structure based drug design.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.169-174
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• 2017

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect and action mechanism of quercetin on penile corpus cavernosum smooth muscle (PCCSM). PCCSM precontracted with phenylephrine (Phe) was treated with four different concentrations of quercetin ($10^{-7}$, $10^{-6}$, $10^{-5}$ and $10^{-4}M$). PCCSM were preincubated with N-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-NAME) and 1H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ) to block nitric oxide synthase and guanylate cyclase, respectively. The changes in PCCSM tension were recorded, and cyclic nucleotides in the perfusate were measured by radioimmunoassay. The interactions of quercetin with phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5-Is) such as sildenafil, udenafil and mirodenafil, were also evaluated. PCCSM relaxation induced by quercetin occurred in a concentrationdependent manner. The application of quercetin to PCCSM pre-treated with L-NAME and ODQ significantly inhibited the relaxation. Quercetin significantly increased cGMP in the perfusate. Furthermore, quercetin enhanced PDE5-Is-induced relaxation of PCCSM. Quercetin relaxed the PCCSM by activating the NO-cGMP signaling pathway, and it may be a therapeutic candidate or an alternative treatment for patients with erectile dysfunction who do not completely respond to PDE5-Is.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.35-39
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• 2006

One of the fermentative metabolism of enteric Escherichia coli was imitated after rumen bacteria, which have high C4 metabolism. E. coli expresses phosphenolpyruvate carboxylase (PPC) for the pathway between phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) and oxaloacetate (OAA) during glycolytic condition while expresses phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PCK) during gluconeogenic condition. In contrast to enteric E. coli, rumen bacteria express the PEP-OAA pathway only by PCK. To verify the effect of the regulation imitation on the C4 metabolism of E. coli, PPC-deficient E. coli strain with PCK expression in glycolytic condition was constructed. The PEP-OAA regulation modified E. coli strain increased 2.5-folds higher C4 metabolite than the wild type strain. The potential use of C4 metabolism by regulation control is discussed.

• ALGAE
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.359-377
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• 2017

Pyropia haitanensis (T. J. Chang et B. F. Zheng) N. Kikuchi et M. Miyata is one of the most commercially useful macroalgae cultivated in southeastern China. In red algae, the biosynthesis of terpenoids through 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway can produce a direct influence on the synthesis of many biologically important metabolites. In this study, two genes of cDNAs, 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXS) and 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate reductase (DXR), which encoding the first two rate-limiting enzymes among MEP pathway were cloned from P. haitanensis. The cDNAs of P. haitanensis DXS (PhDXS) and DXR (PhDXR) both contained complete open reading frames encoding polypeptides of 764 and 426 amino acids residues, separately. The expression analysis showed that PhDXS was significant differently expressed between leafy thallus and conchocelis as PhDXR been non-significant. Additionally, expression of PhDXR and its downstream gene geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase were both inhibited by fosmidomycin significantly. Meanwhile, we constructed types of phylogenetic trees through different algae and higher plants DXS and DXR encoding amino acid sequences, as a result we found tree clustering consequences basically in line with the "Cavalier-Smith endosymbiotic theory." Whereupon, we speculated that in red algae, there existed only complete MEP pathway to meet needs of terpenoids synthesis for themselves; Terpenoids synthesis of red algae derivatives through mevalonate pathway came from two or more times endosymbiosis of heterotrophic eukaryotic parasitifer. This study demonstrated that PhDXS and PhDXR could play significant roles in terpenoids biosynthesis at molecular levels. Meanwhile, as nuclear genes among MEP pathway, PhDXS and PhDXR could provide a new way of thinking to research the problem of chromalveolata biological evolution.

• BMB Reports
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.748-753
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• 2012

A sequence of 10 amino acids at the C-terminus region of methylglyoxal synthase from Escherichia coli (EMGS) provides an arginine, which plays a crucial role in forming a salt bridge with a proximal aspartate residue in the neighboring subunit, consequently transferring the allosteric signal between subunits. In order to verify the role of arginine, the gene encoding MGS from a thermophile species, Thermus sp. GH5 (TMGS) lacking this arginine was cloned with an additional 30 bp sequence at the 3'-end and then expressed in form of a fusion TMGS with a 10 residual segment at the C-terminus ($TMGS^+$). The resulting recombinant enzyme showed a significant increase in cooperativity towards phosphate, reflected by a change in the Hill coefficient (nH) from 1.5 to 1.99. Experiments including site directed mutagenesis for Asp-10 in TMGS and $TMGS^+$, two dimentional structural survey, fluorescence and irreversible thermoinactivation were carried out to confirm this pathway.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.211-217
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• 2007

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon growth from cyclopentadiene (CPD) pyrolysis was investigated using a laminar flow reactor operating in a temperature range of 600 to $950^{\circ}c$. Major products from CPD pyrolysis are benzene, indene and naphthalene. Formation of observed products from CPD is explained as follows. Addition of the cyclopentadienyl radical to a CPD $\pi$-bond produces a resonance-stabilized radical, which further reacts by one of three unimolecular channels: intramolecular addition, C-H bond $\beta$-scission, or C-C bond $\beta$-scission. The intramolecular addition pathway produces a 7-norbornenyl radical, which then decomposes to indene. Decomposition by C-H bond $\beta$-scission produces a biaryl intermediate, which then undergoes a ring fusion sequence that has been proposed for dihydrofulvalene-to-naphthalene conversion. In this study, we propose C-C bond $\beta$-scission pathway as an alternative reaction channel to naphthalene from CPD. As preliminary computational analysis, Parametric Method 3 (PM3) molecular calculation suggests that intramolecular addition to form indene is favored at low temperatures and C-C bond $\beta$-scission leading to naphthalene is predominant at high temperatures.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2005

Background: Cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) and opioid receptors are involved in the modulation of nociception. Although the opioid receptors agonists are active in pain, the effect of an phospodiesterase inhibitor (zaprinast) for increasing the level of cGMP has not been thoroughly investigated at the spinal level. This study examined the effects of intrathecal zaprinast and morphine in a nociceptive test and we also examined the nature of the pharmacological interaction after the coadministration of zaprinast with morphine. The role of the nitric oxide (NO)-cGMP-potassium channel pathway on the effect of zaprinast was further clarified. Methods: Catheters were inserted into the intrathecal space of male SD rats. For the induction of pain, $50{\mu}l$ of 5% formalin solution was applied to the hindpaw. Isobolographic analysis was used for the evaluation of the drug interaction between zaprinast and morphine. Furthermore, NO synthase inhibitor ($_L-NMMA$), guanylyl cyclase inhibitor (ODQ) or a potassium channel blocker (glibenclamide) were intrathecally administered to verify the involvement of the NO-cGMP- potassium channel pathway on the antinociception effect of zaprinast. Results: Both zaprinast and morphine produced an antinociceptive effect during phase 1 and phase 2 in the formalin test. Isobolographic analysis revealed a synergistic interaction after the intrathecal administration of the zaprinast-morphine mixture in both phases. Intrathecal $_L-NMMA$, ODQ and glibenclamide did not reverse the antinociception of zaprinast in either phase. Conclusions: These results suggest that zaprinast, morphine and the mixture of the two drugs are effective against acute pain and they facilitated pain state at the spinal level. Thus, the spinal combination of zaprinast with morphine may be useful for the management of pain. However, the NO-sensitive cGMP-potassium channel pathway did not contribute to the antinocieptive mechanism of zaprinast in the spinal cord.