• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2011

This study was carried out to develope enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of canine brucellosis in dogs experimentally inoculated with Brucella abortus 1119-3 and B. canis RM666. Groups A, B and C of dogs (each group consisting of three dogs) were orally inoculated with approximately $5{\times}10^9$ colony-forming units of B. abortus and B. canis, and with sterile pyrogen-free PBS, respectively. The animals were monitored at regular intervals upto the 12th week post inoculation (PI) by standard tube agglutination test (STAT), plate agglutination test (PAT), Rose Bengal test (RBT), 2-mercaptoethanol rapid slide agglutination test (2ME-RSAT) and ELISA. The induced antibody titers in group A dogs were detected from the first week PI to the eighth week PI in STAT, PAT and RBT using the inactivated whole cells of B. abortus 1119-3 as antigens, while no sera in groups B and C dogs reacted with the antigens. In 2ME-RSAT using whole cells of B. canis M-strain as antigens, the induced antibody titers in group B dogs were observed at the second week PI and persisted for the 12th week PI, while sera of groups A and C dogs did not react with the whole cells. In ELISA using cytoplasmic fractions antigen of B. abortus 1119-3, the mean optical density of antibodies in groups A and B was detected from the first and second weeks PI, respectively, and persisted for 12th week PI, while sera of group C did not cross-react with the fractions antigen. However, in ELISA using the hot saline extracts of B. canis M- as an antigen, the induced antibody titers in only group B dogs were detected from second week PI and persisted for until the end of this study. These results indicate that the ELISA using B. abortus 1119-3 cytoplasmic fractions as antigens can be a good candidate for detection of brucellosis by B. abortus as well as B. canis in dogs.

• Journal of the korean veterinary medical association
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.645-649
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• 1998

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.482-489
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• 2020

We previously identified β-sitosterol (BS) as one of the most abundant compounds found in Korean red ginseng oil. BS is a widely prevalent vegetable-derived phytosterol with many known health benefits. Here, we investigated the efficacy of BS against Brucella (B.) abortus infection. BS showed no effect on bacterial growth but attenuated internalization, intracellular survival and MAPKs-linked intracellular signaling in RAW264.7 cells. BS treatment in cells is also associated with increased nitrite concentration during infection at 24 h. Slightly enhanced resistance to B. abortus infection was observed in mice orally given BS, which could be mediated by induced production of proinflammatory cytokines. Taken together, our study demonstrates the contribution of BS treatment against B. abortus infection although further investigation is encouraged to maximize its beneficial effects against intracellular infection.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 2009

Subtyping of Brucella abortus isolates is epidemiologically important for monitoring of bovine brucellosis outbreaks. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is considered as a gold standard of molecular typing methods to study the DNA polymorphisms of bacteria. In this study, we analyzed using PFGE the DNA fragment profiles of B. abortus isolated in Gyeongbuk province from 1998 to 2006. The genomic DNA was digested with the restriction endonuclease Xba I, Xho I and Smi I followed gel electrophoresis. No distinguishable patterns of the genomic DNA digested with Xba I and Xho I were observed among the field isolates of B. abortus tested in this study. But Smi I restriction enzyme resulted in two PFGE patterns consisting of 13-15 bands that ranged in size from 33 to 668bp by standard marker. The cluster analysis by DNA fingerprinting software showed 93.75% similarity between two PFGE patterns. No different PFGE patterns were recognized among the isolates originated from various years, regions and cow breeds.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.227-234
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• 2011

Brucella (B.) abortus is a facultative intracellular pathogen that infects a wide variety of animal species and human. Brucellosis is the zoonosis and an extremely important disease around the world. Although the eight species can be differentiated by conventional phenotypic tests, these species display a high degree of DNA homology in DNA-DNA hybridization assay (>90%). Various methods have been established for genotyping of Brucella species, but most of analytical methods are lack reproducibility and limited capability to differentiate them. The attempt of this study was to evaluate multiple-locus VNTR analysis (MLVA) for use of epidemiological trace-back analysis in bovine brucellosis. Ninety-four B. abortus isolates from Gyeongbuk province during 2006~2010 were analyzed using 16 VNTR locus. High resolution automatic capillary electrophoresis system was used for more throughput, simpleer, faster, and better discriminable than conventional gel electrophoresis. As a result, 13 different genotypes were identified from 94 B. abortus isolates. MLVA could contribute to epidemiological trace-back analysis of bovine brucellosis.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.71-74
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• 2008

Chromosomal abnormalities of abortus have also been used to investigate the most common etiology of spontaneous abortion, but the frequency and the types of spontaneous abortions have also demonstrated considerable variation among in different countries and races. A cytogenetic analysis of 75 abortuses was performed at the GenDix, Inc. from January, 2006 to December, 2007. The frequency of chromosome abnormalities in abortus was 32.0% (24/75 cases). Among the chromosomal abnormalities, trisomy was 62.5% (15/24 cases) and the most frequent trisomy was trisomy 21 with 26.6% (4/15 cases). The average maternal age of normal and abnormal karyotypes was $34.1{\pm}3.3$ and $34.3{\pm}3.3$. Cytogenetic analysis of abortus is important for diagnosis and genetic counseling for parents with spontaneous abortion.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.190-196
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• 2016

In this study, the Brucella abortus ohr gene coding for an organic hydroperoxide resistance protein (Ohr) was cloned into a maltose fusion protein expression system (pMAL), inserted into Escherichia coli, and purified, and its immunogenicity was evaluated by western blot analysis using Brucella-positive mouse sera. The purified recombinant Ohr (rOhr) was treated with adjuvant and injected intraperitoneally into BALB/c mice. A protective immune response analysis revealed that rOhr induced a significant increase in both the IgG1 and IgG2a titers, and IgG2a reached a higher level than IgG1 after the second and third immunizations. Additionally, immunization with rOhr induced high production of IFN-γ as well as proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF, MCP-1, IL-12p70, and IL-6, but a lesser amount of IL-10, suggesting that rOhr predominantly elicited a cell-mediated immune response. In addition, immunization with rOhr caused a significantly higher degree of protection against a virulent B. abortus infection compared with a positive control group consisting of mice immunized with maltose-binding protein. These findings showed that B. abortus rOhr was able to induce both humoral and cell-mediated immunity in mice, which suggested that this recombinant protein could be a potential vaccine candidate for animal brucellosis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1885-1891
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• 2017

In this study, we evaluated the inhibitory effect of a rice bran mixture extract (RBE) on Brucella abortus pathogenesis in professional (RAW 264.7) and nonprofessional (HeLa) phagocytes. We fermented the rice bran mixture and then extracted it with 50% ethanol followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify the components in RBE. Our results clearly showed that RBE caused a significant reduction in the adherence of B. abortus in both cell lines. Furthermore, analysis of phagocytic signaling proteins by western blot assay revealed that RBE pretreatment resulted in inhibition of phosphorylation of JNK, ERK, and p38, leading to decline of internalization compared with the controls. Additionally, the intensity of F-actin observed by fluorescence microscopy and FACS was remarkably reduced in RBE-pretreated cells compared with control cells. However, the intracellular replication of B. abortus within phagocytes was not affected by RBE. Taken together, these findings suggest that the phagocytic receptor blocking and suppressive effects of RBE on the MAPK-linked phagocytic signaling pathway could negatively affect the invasion of B. abortus into phagocytes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.854-861
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• 2014

The diagnosis of Brucella abortus is mainly based on serological methods using antibody against LPS, which has diagnostic problems. Therefore, to solve this problem, we evaluated two proteins of B. abortus, Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SodC) and outer membrane proteins 2b porin (Omp2b). The genes were cloned and expressed in a pMAL system, and the recombinant proteins, rOmp2b and rSodC, were purified as fusion forms with maltose-binding protein. The identity of the proteins was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis with sera of mice infected with B. abortus. Production of cytokines and nitric oxide (NO) was investigated in RAW 264.7 cells and mouse splenocytes after stimulation with the proteins. Moreover, cellular and humoral immune responses were investigated in BALB/c mice after immunization with the proteins. TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6, and NO were significantly inducible in RAW 264.7 cells. Splenocytes of naive mice produced IFN-${\gamma}$ and IL-4 significantly by stimulation. Moreover, number of IgG, IFN-${\gamma}$, and IL-4 producing cells were increased in immunized mice with the two proteins. Production of IgG and IgM with rOmp2b was higher than those with rSodC in immunized mice. These results suggest that the two recombinant proteins of B. abortus may be potential LPS-free proteins for diagnosis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.616-623
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• 2017

Ginsenoside Rg3, a saponin extracted from ginseng, has various pharmacological and biological activities; however, its effects against Brucella infection are still unclear. Herein, the inhibitory effects of ginsenoside Rg3 against intracellular parasitic Brucella infection were evaluated through bacterial infection, adherence assays, and LAMP-1 colocalization, as well as immunoblotting and FACS for detecting MAPK signaling proteins and F-actin polymerization, respectively. The internalization, intracellular growth, and adherence of Brucella abortus in Rg3-treated RAW 264.7 cells were significantly decreased compared with the Rg3-untreated control. Furthermore, an apparent reduction of F-actin content and intensity of F-actin fluorescence in Rg3-treated cells was observed compared with B. abortus-infected cells without treatment by flow cytometry analysis and confocal microscopy, respectively. In addition, treating cells with Rg3 decreased the phosphorylation of MAPK signaling proteins such as ERK 1/2 and p38 compared with untreated cells. Moreover, the colocalization of B. abortus-containing phagosomes with LAMP-1 was markedly increased in Rg3-treated cells. These findings suggest that ginsenoside Rg3 inhibits B. abortus infection in mammalian cells and can be used as an alternative approach in the treatment of brucellosis.