• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.7.1-7.7
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• 2009

"To be, or not to be?" This question is not only Hamlet's agony but also the dilemma of mitochondria in a cancer cell. Cancer cells have a high glycolysis rate even in the presence of oxygen. This feature of cancer cells is known as the Warburg effect, named for the first scientist to observe it, Otto Warburg, who assumed that because of mitochondrial malfunction, cancer cells had to depend on anaerobic glycolysis to generate ATP. It was demonstrated, however, that cancer cells with intact mitochondria also showed evidence of the Warburg effect. Thus, an alternative explanation was proposed: the Warburg effect helps cancer cells harness additional ATP to meet the high energy demand required for their extraordinary growth while providing a basic building block of metabolites for their proliferation. A third view suggests that the Warburg effect is a defense mechanism, protecting cancer cells from the higher than usual oxidative environment in which they survive. Interestingly, the latter view does not conflict with the high-energy production view, as increased glucose metabolism enables cancer cells to produce larger amounts of both antioxidants to fight oxidative stress and ATP and metabolites for growth. The combination of these two different hypotheses may explain the Warburg effect, but critical questions at the mechanistic level remain to be explored. Cancer shows complex and multi-faceted behaviors. Previously, there has been no overall plan or systematic approach to integrate and interpret the complex signaling in cancer cells. A new paradigm of collaboration and a well-designed systemic approach will supply answers to fill the gaps in current cancer knowledge and will accelerate the discovery of the connections behind the Warburg mystery. An integrated understanding of cancer complexity and tumorigenesis is necessary to expand the frontiers of cancer cell biology.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.59-64
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• 2015

Lactic acid-producing bacteria such as Lactobacillus spp. function to ferment carbohydrates and produce ATP. Such Lactobacillus spp. are used for the production of commercial yogurts. Lactobacillus spp. are beneficial to the intestinal tract, and Lactobacillus acidophilus-containing yogurts have received considerable attention because of their preventive effects against early-stage cancer of the large intestine. In this study, lactic acid-producing bacteria were cultured from three different groups: commercial solid yogurt (for eating), commercial liquid yogurt (for drinking), and Lactobacillus acidophilus-containing yogurt. We first determined the optimum culture conditions for Lactobacillus spp. and then analyzed turbidity and pH in order to compare the growth abilities and lactic acid-production capacities among the groups. Finally, high-performance liquid chromatography was used to measure the lactic acid content in the culture supernatants, and the antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were compared among the three groups. The optimum culture conditions for Lactobacillus spp. were MRS medium at $25^{\circ}C$, for 24 h. The highest turbidity was found in L. acidophilus-containing yogurt, followed by liquid yogurt and solid yogurt. Similarly, the highest lactic acid production ability was found in L. acidophilus-containing yogurt, followed by liquid yogurt and solid yogurt. Culture supernatants from the three groups did not show any antibacterial activity towards S. aureus; however, supernatants derived from L. acidophilus-containing yogurt resulted in a 1.8 mm inhibitory zone against E. coli in a paper disk diffusion test. These results revealed the high level of lactic acid-production capacity and antibacterial activity in L. acidophilus-containing yogurt.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.97-101
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• 1994

Platelets play a very important role in nomal hemostasis and their functions are more enhanced in various pathogenic states than in normal state. Especially it has been postulated that abnormal platelet and endothelium function might be major factors of microcirculatory disturbance in diabetes mellitus. Hydroxybrazilin, a phenolic constituent of Hematoxylon campechianum has been examined for its inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation. Its antiaggregatory effect might be mediated through the decrease of ATP release from dense granule and those of thromboxane $A_2$ production in normal and streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. The present study was undertaken to gain insight into the mechanism that hydroxybrazilin inhibited thromboxane $A_2$ production in platelets. Thus we measured the effect of hydroxybrazilin on phospholipase $A_2$, a rate limiting step of thromboxane $A_2$ production, in normal and streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. Hydroxybrazilin significantly inhibited the platelet phospholipase $A_2$ activity in normal and streptozotocin induced diabetic rats.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.665-672
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• 2004

D-Ribose is a five-carbon sugar used for the commercial synthesis of riboflavin, antiviral agents, and flavor enhancers. Batch fermentations with transketolase-deficient B. subtilis JY1 were carried out to optimize the production of D-ribose from xylose. The best results for the fermentation were obtained with a temperature of $37^{\circ}C$ and an initial pH of 7.0. Among various sugars and sugar alcohols tested, glucose and sucrose were found to be the most effective for both cell growth and D-ribose production. The addition of 15 g/l xylose and 15 g/l glucose improved the fermentation performance, presumably due to the adequate supply of ATP in the xylose metabolism from D-xylulose to D-xylulose-5-phosphate. A batch culture in a 3.7-1 jar fermentor with 14.9 g/l xylose and 13.1 g/l glucose resulted in 10.1 g/l D-ribose concentration with a yield of 0.62 g D-ribose/g sugar consumed, and 0.25 g/l-h of productivity. Furthermore, the sugar utilization profile, indicating the simultaneous consumption of xylose and glucose, and respiratory parameters for the glucose and sucrose media suggested that the transketolase-deficient B. subtilis JY1 lost the glucose-specific enzyme II of the phosphoenolpyruvate transferase system.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.258-263
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• 2013

We demonstrate herein that silibinin, a polyphenolic flavonoid compound isolated from milk thistle (Silybum marianum), inhibits LPS-induced activation of macrophages and production of nitric oxide (NO) in RAW 264.7 cells. Western blot analysis showed silibinin inhibits iNOS gene expression. RT-PCR showed that silibinin inhibits iNOS, TNF-${\alpha}$, and $IL1{\beta}$. We also showed that silibinin strongly inhibits p38 MAPK phosphorylation, whereas the ERK1/2 and JNK pathways are not inhibited. The p38 MAPK inhibitor abrogated the LPS-induced nitrite production, whereas the MEK-1 inhibitor did not affect the nitrite production. A molecular modeling study proposed a binding pose for silibinin targeting the ATP binding site of p38 MAPK (1OUK). Collectively, this series of experiments indicates that silibinin inhibits macrophage activation by blocking p38 MAPK signaling.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1348-1357
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• 2016

An enzymatic reaction system was developed and optimized for bioconversion of resveratrol from glucose. Liquid enzyme extracts were prepared from Alternaria sp. MG1, an endophytic fungus from grape, and used directly or after immobilization with sodium alginate. When the enzyme solution was used, efficient production of resveratrol was found within 120 min in a manner that was pH-, reaction time-, enzyme amount-, substrate type-, and substrate concentration-dependent. After the optimization experiments using the response surface methodology, the highest value of resveratrol production (224.40 μg/l) was found under the conditions of pH 6.84, 0.35 g/l glucose, 0.02 mg/l coenzyme A, and 0.02 mg/l ATP. Immobilized enzyme extracts could keep high production of resveratrol during recycling use for two to five times. The developed system indicated a potential approach to resveratrol biosynthesis independent of plants and fungal cell growth, and provided a possible way to produce resveratrol within 2 h, the shortest period needed for biosynthesis of resveratrol so far.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2019

To study the effect of nicorandil pretreatment on ketone body metabolism and Acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase (ACAT1) activity in hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced cardiomyocytes. In our study, we applied H9c2 cardiomyocytes cell line to evaluate the cardioprotective effects of nicorandil. We detected mitochondrial viability, cellular apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and calcium overloading in H9c2 cells that exposed to H/R-induced cytotoxicity. Then we evaluated whether nicorandil possibly regulated ketone body, mainly ${\beta}$-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and acetoacetate (ACAC), metabolism by regulating ACAT1 and Succinyl-CoA:3-ketoacid coenzyme A transferase 1 (OXCT1) protein and gene expressions. Nicorandil protected H9c2 cardiomyocytes against H/R-induced cytotoxicity dose-dependently by mitochondria-mediated anti-apoptosis pathway. Nicorandil significantly decreased cellular apoptotic rate and enhanced the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax expressions. Further, nicorandil decreased the production of ROS and alleviated calcium overloading in H/R-induced H9c2 cells. In crucial, nicorandil upregulated ACAT1 and OXCT1 protein expressions and either of their gene expressions, contributing to increased production of cellular BHB and ACAC. Nicorandil alleviated cardiomyocytes H/R-induced cytotoxicity through upregulating ACAT1/OXCT1 activity and ketone body metabolism, which might be a potential mechanism for emerging study of nicorandil and other $K_{ATP}$ channel openers.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.488-497
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• 1999

Probing Streptomyces albus ATCC 21838 chromosomal DNA with a proline tRNA sequence resulted in an isolation of a putative integrating element in the 6.4-kb EcoRI fragment. It was found that Streptomyces lividans TK-24 transformed with a cloned DNA fragment on a multicopy plasmid, produced a higher level of spore pigment and mycelial red pigment on a regeneration agar. Furthermore, the transformant S. lividans TK-24 produced a markedly increased level of undecylprodigiosin in a broth culture. A nucleotide sequence analysis of the cloned region revealed several open reading frames homologous to the integrases of integrating plasmids or temperate bacteriophages, signal-transducing regulatory proteins with a conserved ATP-binding domain, oxidoreductases ($\beta$-ketoacyl reductase), and an AraC-like transcriptional regulator. To examine the effect on antibiotic production, each coding region was overexpressed separately from the other genes in the region in S. lividans TK-24 with; pJHS3044 for the expression of the signal-transducing regulatory protein homologue, pJHS3045 for the homologue of oxidoreductase, and pJHS3051 for the homologue of the AraC-like transcriptional regulator. Phenotypic studies of S. lividans TK-24 strains harboring plasmids for the overexpression of individual genes suggested the following effects of the genes on antibiotic production: The oxidoreductase homologue stimulated the production of actinorhodin and undecylprodigiosin, which was influenced by the culture conditions; the homologue of the AraC-like transcriptional regulator was the most effective factor in antibiotic production within all the culture conditions tested; the signal-transducing regulatory protein homologue repressed the effect due to the homologue of the AraC-like transcriptional regulator, however, the antibiotic production was derepressed upon entering the stationary phase.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.665-670
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• 2016

This study deals with the possible degradation of toluene and acetic acid when subjected to cell-free enzyme system from the toluene degrading bacteria Pseudomonas putida and acetic acid degrading bacteria Cupriavidus necator. P. putida produces toluene dioxygenase only under the existence of toluene in culture medium and toluene is degraded to cis-toluene dihydrodiol by this enzyme. C. necator produces acetyl coenzyme A synthetase-1 and converts acetic acid to acetyl CoA in order to synthesize ATP to need for growth or PHA which is biodegradable polymer. In case of toluene degradation, the experiment was conducted before and after production of toluene dioxygenase as this enzyme, produced by P. putida, is an inducible enzyme. Toluene was detected using gas chromatography (GC). Similar amount of toluene was found in control group and before production of toluene dioxygenase (experimental group 1). However, reduction in toluene was detected after the production of toluene dioxygenase (experimental group 2). Acetic acid was detected through application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The results showed the acetic acid peak was not detected in the experimental group to apply cell-free enzyme system. These results show that the cell-free enzyme system obtained from P. putida and C. necator retained the ability to degrade toluene and acetic acid. However, P. putida needs to produce the inducible enzyme before preparation of the cell-free enzyme system.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.139-147
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• 2018

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a useful biotechnological tool for animal cloning. Until now, SCNT has been inefficient, especially in dog. It is believed that an embryo developmental block in SCNT embryos is cause of low production efficiency. However, no studies have been performed on canines for embryo developmental block. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the beneficial role of EDTA in canine parthenogenic (PA) embryos development to overcome embryo developmental block. The PA embryos were divided into 0.01 mM EDTA treated and non-treated groups. Embryo developmental efficiency was measured by activating chemically parthenote. After EDTA induction, PA embryos were evaluated for embryonic development, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) activity, mitochondrial integrity, ATP production and genomic activation. The EDTA treated PA embryos showed significantly higher survival rate and improved cavity formation compared to non-treated. Furthermore, cytoplasmic ROS level was mitigated and mitochondrial membrane potential was found significantly higher in EDTA treated group followed by higher ATP production. Moreover, major embryonic genomic activation specific markers/factors were also elevated in EDTA treated group. Conclusively, we elucidated that EDTA showed substantially positive effect to overcome embryo developmental block in canine.