• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.541-551
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• 2009

Amyloidogenesis defines a condition in which a soluble and innocuous protein turns to insoluble protein aggregates known as amyloid fibrils. This protein suprastructure derived via chemically specific molecular self-assembly process has been commonly observed in various neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Prion diseases. Although the major culprit for the cellular degeneration in the diseases remains unsettled, amyloidogenesis is considered to be etiologically involved. Recent recognition of fibrillar polymorphism observed mostly from in vitro amyloidogeneses may indicate that multiple mechanisms for the amyloid fibril formation would be operated. Nucleation-dependent fibrillation is the prevalent model for assessing the self-assembly process. Following thermodynamically unfavorable seed formation, monomeric polypeptides bind to the seeds by exerting structural adjustments to the template, which leads to accelerated amyloid fibril formation. In this review, we propose another in vitro model of amyloidogenesis named double-concerted fibrillation. Here, two consecutive assembly processes of monomers and subsequent oligomeric species are responsible for the amyloid fibril formation of $\alpha$-synuclein, a pathological component of Parkinson's disease, following structural rearrangement within the oligomers which then act as a growing unit for the fibrillation.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 2008

Formation of ${\beta}$-amyloid $(A{\beta})$ fibrils has been identified as one of the major characteristics of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Inhibition of $A{\beta}$ fibril formation in the CNS would be attractive therapeutic targets for the treatment of AD. Several small compounds that inhibit amyloid formation or amyloid neurotoxicity in vitro have been known. Citrate has surfactant function effect because of its molecular structure having high anionic charge density, in addition to the well-known antibacterial and antioxidant properties. Therefore, we hypothesized that citrate might have the inhibitory effect against $A{\beta}$ fibril formation in vitro and have the protective effect against $A{\beta}$-induced neurotoxicity in PC12 cells. We examined the effect of citrate against the formation of $A{\beta}$ fibrils by measuring the intensity of fluorescence in thioflavin-T (Th-T) assay of between $A{\beta}_{25-35}$ groups treated with citrate and the control with $A{\beta}_{25-35}$ alone. The neuroprotective effect of citrate against $A{\beta}$-induced toxicity in PC12 cells was investigated using the WST-1 assay. Fluorescence spectroscopy showed that citrate inhibited dose-dependently the formation of $A{\beta}$ fibrils from ${\beta}$-amyloid peptides. The inhibition percentages of $A{\beta}$ fibril formation by citrate (1, 2.5, and 5 mM) were 31%, 60%, and 68% at 7 days, respectively in thioflavin-T (Th-T) assay. WST-1 assay revealed that the toxic effect of $A{\beta}_{25-35}$ was reduced, in a dose-dependent manner to citrate. The percentages of neuroprotection by citrate (1, 2.5, and 5 mM) against $A{\beta}-induced$ toxicity were 19%, 31 %, and 34%, respectively. We report that citrate inhibits the formation of $A{\beta}$ fibrils in vitro and has neuroprotective effect against $A{\beta}$-induced toxicity in PC12 cells. Neuroprotective effects of citrate against $A{\beta}$ might be, to some extent, attributable to its inhibition of $A{\beta}$ fibril formation. Although the mechanism of anti-amyloidogenic activity is not clear, the possible mechanism is that citrate might have two effects, salting-in and surfactant effects. These results suggest that citrate could be of potential therapeutic value in Alzheimer's disease.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.93-94
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• 2003

beta-Amyloid peptide is considered to be responsible for the formation of senile plagues that accumulate in the brains of patients with Alzheimers disease. There has been a paucity of evidence to support the involvement of reactive oxygen and/or nitrogen species (ROS and/or RNS) in beta-amyloid-induced neuronal cell death. (omitted)

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.175-186
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• 2011

Amyloid fibrils have long been known to be the well known ${\alpha}$-helix to ${\beta}$-sheet transition characterizing the conversion of cellular to scrapie forms of the prion protein. A very short sequence of Yeast prion-like protein, GNNQQNY (SupN), is responsible for aggregation that induces diseases. KSI-fused tandem repeats of SupN vector are constructed and used to express SupN peptide in Escherichia coli (E.Coli). A method for a production, purification, and cleavage of tandem repeats of recombinant isotopically enriched SupN in E. coli is described. This method yields as much as 20 mg/L of isotope-enriched fusion proteins in minimal media. Synthetic SupN peptides and $^{13}C$ Gly labeled SupN peptides are studied by Congo Red staining, Birefringence and transmission electron microscopy to characterize amyloid fibril formation. To get a better understanding of aggregation-structure relationship of 7 residues of Yeast prion-like protein, the change of a conformational structure will be studied by $^{13}C$ solid-state nmr spectroscopy as powder of both amorphous and fibrillar forms.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.3542-3546
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• 2014

Relationship between molecular freedom of amyloidogenic protein and its self-assembly into amyloid fibrils has been evaluated with ${\alpha}$-synuclein, an intrinsically unfolded protein related to Parkinson's disease, by restricting its structural plasticity through an end-to-end disulfide bond formation between two newly introduced cysteine residues on the N- and C-termini. Although the resulting circular form of ${\alpha}$-synuclein exhibited an impaired fibrillation propensity, the restriction did not completely block the protein's interactive core since co-incubation with wild-type ${\alpha}$-synuclein dramatically facilitated the fibrillation by producing distinctive forms of amyloid fibrils. The suppressed fibrillation propensity was instantly restored as the structural restriction was unleashed with ${\beta}$-mercaptoethanol. Conformational flexibility of the accreting amyloidogenic protein to pre-existing seeds has been demonstrated to be critical for fibrillar extension process by exerting structural adjustment to a complementary structure for the assembly.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.190-198
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• 2007

Alzheimer's disease, a representative neurodegenerative disorder, is characterized by the presence of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles accompanied by neuronal damages. b-Amyloid peptide is considered to be responsible for the formation of senile plagues that accumulate in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. There has been compelling evidence supporting that b-amyloid-induced cytotoxicity is mediated through generation of reactive oxygen species. In this study, we have investigated the possible protective effect of Rehmannia glutihosaagainst b-amyloid-induced oxidative ceil death in cultured human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. SH-SY5Y cells treated with b-amyloid underwent apoptotic death as determined by morphological features and positive in situterminal end-labeling (TUNEL staining). Rehmannia glutinosawater extract, wine, and vinegar pretreatments attenuated b-amyloid-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis. Rehmannia glutinosa vinegar exhibited maximum protective effect by increasing the expression of anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2. in addition to oxidative stress, b-amyloid-treatment caused nitrosative stress via marked increase in the levels of nitric oxide, which was effectively blocked by Rehmannia glutinosa. To further explore the possible molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effect of Rehmannia glutinosa, we assessed the mRNA expression of cellular antioxidant enzymes. Treatment of Rehmannia glutinosa vinegar led to up-regulation of heme oxygemase-1 and catalase. These results suggest that Rehmannia glutinosa could modulate oxidative neuronal cell death caused by b-amyloid and may have preventive or therapeutic potential in the management of Alzheimer's disease. Particularly, Rehmannia glutinosa vinegar can augment cellular antioxidant capacity, there by exhibiting higher neuroprotective potential.

• BMB Reports
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2015

Alzheimer's disease severely compromises cognitive function. One of the mechanisms to explain the pathology of Alzheimer's disease has been the hypotheses of amyloid-pore/channel formation by complex $A{\beta}$-aggregates. Clinical studies suggested the moderate alcohol consumption can reduces probability developing neurodegenerative pathologies. A recent report explored the ability of ethanol to disrupt the generation of complex $A{\beta}$ in vitro and reduce the toxicity in two cell lines. Molecular dynamics simulations were applied to understand how ethanol blocks the aggregation of amyloid. On the other hand, the in silico modeling showed ethanol effect over the dynamics assembling for complex $A{\beta}$-aggregates mediated by break the hydrosaline bridges between Asp 23 and Lys 28, was are key element for amyloid dimerization. The amyloid pore/ channel hypothesis has been explored only in neuronal models, however recently experiments suggested the frog oocytes such an excellent model to explore the mechanism of the amyloid pore/channel hypothesis. So, the used of frog oocytes to explored the mechanism of amyloid aggregates is new, mainly for amyloid/pore hypothesis. Therefore, this experimental model is a powerful tool to explore the mechanism implicates in the Alzheimer's disease pathology and also suggests a model to prevent the Alzheimer's disease pathology.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.1505-1509
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• 2008

Comparative molecular simulations were performed to establish molecular interaction and inhibitory effect of flavonoid myricetin on formation of amyloid fibris. For computational comparison, the conformational stability of myricetin with amyloid $\beta$ -peptide (A$\beta$ ) and $\beta$ -amyloid fibrils (fA$\beta$) were traced with multiple molecular dynamics simulations (MD) using the CHARMM program from Monte Carlo docked structures. Simulations showed that the inhibition by myricetin involves binding of the flavonoid to fA$\beta$ rather than A$\beta$ . Even in MD simulations over 5 ns at 300 K, myricetin/fA$\beta$ complex remained stable in compact conformation for multiple trajectories. In contrast, myricetin/A$\beta$ complex mostly turned into the dissociated conformation during the MD simulations at 300 K. These multiple MD simulations provide a theoretical basis for the higher inhibitory effect of myricetin on fibrillogenesis of fA$\beta$ relative to A$\beta$ . Significant binding between myricetin and fA$\beta$ observed from the computational simulations clearly reflects the previous experimental results in which only fA$\beta$ had bound to the myricetin molecules.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2003

Criticisms about amyloid cascade hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease(AD) are based on the findings, first, that the degree of dementia does not correlate with the number of plaques, and second, that the neurofibrillary tangle formation seems to predate plaque formation. In addition, neurofibrillary tangle counts correlate well with the degree of cognitive impairment. These findings suggest the independent importance of tau abnormality in AD research which is involved in the neurofibrillary tangle formation. Recently, tau pathology without amyloid deposits and mutations in tau protein gene were reported to be the major pathogenic mechanism in Pick's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration and FTDP-17(frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked with chromosome 17). These data suggest that understanding the causes and consequences of tau dysfunction might give new clinical and therapeutic solutions to many known tauopathies.

• 한국약용작물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.121-135
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• 2006