• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.461-467
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• 1999

Recombinant Mycobacterium smegmatis expressing ovalbumin was used to immunize C57BL/6(H-$2^b$) mice, and the humoral immunity against recombinant ovalbumin was analyzed. Antibodies were purified by denatured ovalbumin-conjugated affinity chromatography. The epitopes of the antibodies were screened with a random peptide library displayed on the tip of fUSE5 filamentous phage pIII minor coat proteins. Two peptides, IRLADR and SPGAEV, were selected predominantly by the recognition of purified antibodies using biopanning methods. The composition of the peptide sequence with the primary structure of OVA revealed that the peptide sequence analogizes to INEAGR, part of the $^{323}ISQAVHAAHAEINEAGR^{339}$ sequence previously reported as the antigenic determinant for murine Band also Th cell epitopes (I-$A^d$ binding). Also, the structures of these mimotopes obtained from restrained molecular dynamic computations resulted in the formation of a $\beta$-turn proven to be a secondary structure of the parent peptide within the ovalbumin molecule, enabling us to confirm the structural similarity. This study demonstrates that immunization with recombinant M. smegmatis can generate neutralizing antibodies identical with those induced by the administration of natural antigenic proteins and supports the potential use of mycobacteria as vaccine delivery vehicles.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.252-257
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• 2004

We developed a polyclonal antibody based-ELISA system to monitor inocula accurately and rapidly before onset of anthracnose on soybean sprouts. Titer of mouse antisera against conidia of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, determined by indirect ELISA, was high enough to be detectable up to ${\times}$25,600 dilutions. Both PAb1 and PAb2 had the highest level of reactivity to Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. Absorbance readings exceeded 0.15. Sensitivity of PAb to C. gloeosporioides was precise enough to detect spore concentration as low as 500 conidia/well by indirect ELISA. Both antibodies are very sensitive and highly specific to the target pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, apparently discriminating other unrelated pathogen, or epiphytes. This kit fulfills the requirements far detecting inocula before infection and onset of anthracnose. Our ELISA system should also be feasible to detect C. acutatum (Mungbean sprouts rot) and G. cingulata (C. gleosporioides), (apple, pepper). It was remarkable that absorbance value was not reduced even after 4 consecutive washings (Fig.4), suggesting that antigenic determinants are on the surface of conidia. Antigenic determinant was characterized by heating and enzyme treatment: Both PAb1 and PAb2 bind to protein epitope that does not contain residue of amino acid, arginine, and Iysine, even though more work needs to be done.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.211-218
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• 1988

Polyhedral proteins and the endogenous alkaline protease associated with larval-derived polyhedra of nuclear viruses isolated from Spodoptera litura, Bombyx mori, and Hyphantria cunea were investigated. Polyhedral proteins prepared under alkaline protease heat-inactivated condition were separated as one band with 31Kd in S. litura a H. cunea NpV and 30Kd in B. mori NPV by the SDS-polyacrylamide gel electroptoresis. Whereas polyhedral proteins without heat-inactivation were degraded into smaller polypeptides with a certain pattern in alkaline solution. The results of double-immunodiffusion and western blot analysis with antisera against polyhedral proteins indicated that those three polyhedral proteins had common antigenic determinants and the degradation of polyhedral proteins by alkaline protease could be confirmed.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 1990

A DNA sequence encoding the adr subtype preS2 region of hepatitis B virus envelope protein was fused to 5' end of lacZ gene yielding a plasmid pTSZ, in order to produce a preS2-$\beta$-galactosidase fusion protein. Serial deletions from 3' and 5' end of preS2 were constructed in plasmids, which were expressed and their antigenicities were examined with the monoclonal antibody H8. Deletions from amino and carboxy terminal to certain points did not affect the antigenicity, but the longer deletions destroyed the antigenicity. End points of deleted preS2 sequence were determined by DNA sequencing. As a result, each end of preS2 epitope was located in the region of amino acid residue 130-132 and 140-142, respectively. Residue 143 may be supplementary for antigenic epitope since the deletion from carboxy terminal to residue 143 revealed partial defect of antigenicity. In the interval of antigenic epitope the amino acid differences between adr and adw2 subtype occurred ar residue 130, 132, and 141. This result indicated that one or more of the three residues are responsible for the binding specificity of monoclonal antibody H8 to adr subtype preS2 fusion protein.

• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.353-358
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• 1995

Epitope tagging is the process of fusing a set of amino acid residues that are recognized as an antigenic determinant to a protein of interest. Tagging a protein with an epitope facilitates various immunochemical analyses of the tagged protein with a specific monoclonal antibody. The monoclonal antibody H8 has subtype specificity for an epitope derived from the preS2 region of hepatitis B virus surface antigen. Previous studies on serial deletions of the preS2 region indicated that the preS2 epitope was located in amino acid residues 130~142. To test whether the amino acid sequence in this interval is sufficient to confer on proteins the antigenicity recognizable by the antibody H8, the set of amino acid residues in the interval was tagged to the amino terminal of ${\beta}$-galactosidase and to the carboxyl terminal of the truncated $p56^{lck}$ fragment. The tagged ${\beta}$-galactosidase, expressed in Escherichia coli, maintained the enzymatic activity and was immunoprecipitated efficiently with H8. The tagged $p56^{lck}$ fragment, synthesized in an in vitro translation system, was also immunoprecipitated specifically with H8. These results demonstrate that the amino acid sequence of the preS2 region can be used efficiently for the epitope tagging approach.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.175-177
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• 2003

An ELISA was established to measure bovine IgG directed against the recombinant antigenic determinant of Nc-p43, a major surface antigen of Neospora caninum. In a previous study, two thirds of the C-terminal of the molecule was expressed as a $6{\;}{\times}{\;}His$ tagged protein (Ncp43p) for ELISA using 2/3 of the N-terminal of SAG1 from Toxoplasma gondii as a control (TgSAG1A). Among 852 cattle sera collected from stock farms scattered nation-wide, 103 sera (12.1％) were found to react with Ncp43p positively, but no positive reaction was observed with TgSAG1A. This study shows that Ncp43p could be available as an efficient antigen for the diagnosis of neosporosis in cattle. Furthermore, it together with TgSAG1A, could be useful for the differential diagnosis of N. caninum and T.gondii infections in other mammals.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.832-838
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• 1999

Two different types of lipases (lipase I and lipase II) secreted into culture medium by Rhizopus sp. L-I were purified using a hydrophobic chromatography and were partially characterized. Both enzymes were monomeric as revealed by SDS-PAGE and gel filtration. The molecular masses of the enzymes were identified as 45 kDa (lipase I) and 69 kDa (lipase II). The isoelectric points were estimated to be 3.6 and 5.2 for lipase I and lipase II, respectively. pH and temperature activity optima for lipase I were as 7.5 and $50^{\circ}C$, respectively, whereas the corresponding parameters for lipase II were 6.0 and $45^{\circ}C$. The amino terminal sequences of lipase I and lipase II, determined by Edman degradation, were found to be Leu-Val-Met-Ile-Gln-Arg and Leu-Val-Met-Lys-Gln-Arg, respectively. By western blotting analysis, the two lipases were found to have a common antigenic determinant. Immuno-electron cytochemistry conducted with polyclonal anti-lipase I antibody indicated the enzyme located in both the periplasm and the adjacent vesicles of fungal hyphae. Fortunately, the sites on the cell envelope where lipase was exported into the culture medium was also identified.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.221-227
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• 2008

Bordetella pertussis is pathogenic bacteria causing pertussis, a infectious respiratory disease for the infants. The incidence rate of pertussis was significantly decreased after introduction of vaccine. However, increased pertussis cases are recently reported in several countries with high vaccine coverage. One of the inferred reasons is genotype or serotype variation between circulating strains and vaccine strains. Therefore, it is required to confirm the variation status of the isolates by genotype or serotype analysis and the possibility of pertussis outbreak in Korea should be estimated. For this, the serotype variations of the isolates from $1999\sim2006$ were investigated in agglutinogen and fimbriae. As the result, the most frequent serotype in the isolated strains was agglutinogen 1 and fimbriae 2 serotypes. Moreover, serotype transition from vaccine serotypes to non-vaccine serotypes was observed. Especially, the transition pattern of agglutinogen serotype was directed to increase a different type (agg 1) from the vaccine type (agg 1,2). However, in case of fimbriae, the same type (fim 2) with vaccine strain was increased. These results were also observed in other countries with increasing incidence of pertussis. For more predictable results to know increasing possibility of pertussis incidence in Korea, the studies on genetic variations of antigenic determinant genes and prevalence of antibody titer in normal population should be performed in the further.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 1985

An immunoassay may be defined as an analytical procedure involving the competitive reaction between a limiting concentration of specific antibody and two populations of antigen, one of which is labelled or immobillized. The advent of immunoassay has revolutionised our knowledge of reproductive physiology and the practice of veterinary and clinical medicine. Radioimmunoassay (RIA) was the first of these methods to be developed, which meausred the analyte with good sensitivity, accuracy and precision (1,2). The essential components of RIA are:-(i) a limited concentration of antibodies, (ii) a reference preparation, and (iii) an antigen labelled with a radioisotope (usually tritium or iodine-125). Most procedures invelove isolating the antibody-bound fraction and measuring the amount of labelled antigen. Good facilities are available for scintilltion counting, data reduction nd statistical analysis. RIA is undergoing refinement through:-(i) the introduction of new techniques to separate the antibody-bound and free fractions which minimize the misclassification of labelled antigen into these compartments, and the amount of non-specfic binding. (3), (ii) the development of non-extration for the measurement of haptens (4), (iii) the determination of a, pp.rent free (i.e. non-protein bound) analytes (5), and (iv) the use of monoclonal antibodies(6). In 1968, Miles and Hales introduced in important new type of immunoassay which they termed immunora-diometric assay (IRMA) based on t도 use of isotopically labelled specific antibodies(7) in a move from limited to excess reagent systems. The concept of two-site IRMAs (with a capture antibody on a solid-phase, and a second labelled antibody to a different antigenic determinant of the analyte) has enabled the development of more sensitive and less-time consuming methods for the measurement of protein hormones ovar wide concentration of analyte (8). The increasing use of isotopic methos for diverse a, pp.ications has exposed several problems. For example, the radioactive half-life and radiolysis of the labelled reagent limits assay sensitivity and imposes a time limit on the usefulness of a kit. In addition, the potential health hazards associated with the use and disposal of radioactive cmpounds and the solvents and photofluors necessary for liquid scientillation counting are incompatable with the development of extra-laboratory tests. To date, the most practical alternative labels to radioisotopes, for the measurement of analytes in a concentration > 1 ng/ml, are erythrocytes, polystyrene particiles, gold sols, dyes and enzymes or cofactors with a visual or colorimetric end-point(9). Increased sensitivity to<1 pg/ml may be obtained with fluorescent and chemiluminescent labels, or enzymes with a fluorometric, chemiluminometric or bioluminometric end-point. The sensitivity of any immunoassay or immunometric assay depends on the affinity of the antibody-antigen reaction, the specific activity of the label, the precision with which the reagents are manipulated and the nonspecific background signal (10). The sensitivity of a limited reagent system for the measurement of haptens or proteins is mainly dependent upon the affinity of the antibodies and the smalleest amount of reagent that may be manipulated. Consequently, it is difficult in practice to improve on the sensitivity obtained with iodine-125 as the label. Conversely, with excess reagent systems for the measurement of proteins it is theoretically possible to increase assay sensitivity at least 1000 fold with alternative luminescent labels. To date, a 10-fold improvement has been achieved, and attempts are being made to reduce the influence of other variables on the specific signal from the immunoreaction.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.7-17
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• 1985

Many investigators have been pursuing various attempts so far to produce hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg) vaccines using the techniques such as isolation from plasma of chronic HBsAg carrier, recombinant DNA technique or preparation of synthetic peptides specific for immunogenic determinants. Hepatitis B virus can not grow on any cell lines by the tissue culture technique at the present time. The plasma of chronic HBsAg carrier is expensive and its source is limited. The HBsAg from the recombinant DNA technique gave still very low yield. Another approach, therefore, has been initiated to develop a synthetic hepatitis B virus vaccine. The possible use of several distinct synthetic vaccines in prophylaxis can be facilitated by availability of full synthetic immunogens. Peptides synthesized for potential application as antiviral vaccines have been mostly tested in the form of conjugates with carrier proteins, although the free synthetic peptide can be immunogenic. To understand basic knowledges on the antigenicity and immunogenicity of a synthetic peptide specific for major immunogenic determinant of HBsAg, a nonapeptide, $H_2N^{139}Cys-Thr-Lys-Pro-Thr-Asp-Gly-^{146}Asn-Aba$ COOH, which corresponds to HBsAg amino acid residues 139 to 147, was synthesized by the Merrifield's solid-phase method with a slight modification. The antigenicity and immunogenicity of this specific synthetic peptide were examined comparing with purified plasma-derived natural HBsAg. The results obtained are as follows; 1. The peptide synthesized showed the identical amino acid composition to the theoretical value. The degree of purification and molecular weight were acertained by methods of high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. 2. Using m-maleimidobenzoyl-N-hydroxysuccinimide ester as a conjugating agent, the synthetic peptide was conjugated to rabbit albumin and ${\gamma}$-globulin, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, and keyhole limpet hemocyanin. Their conjugation yields were 8.3, 9.5, 15.8, 13.5, and 11.2%, respectively. 3. The natural HBsAg was purified from plasma of chronic HBsAg carrier. By the electron microscopic observation of the purified natural HBsAg preparation, no Dane particles were observed and the preparation showed negative DNA polymerase activity. 4. Antigenicity of the synthetic peptide and the plasma-derived natural HBsAg was determined by competition radioimmunoassay using $^{125}I$-natural HBsAg. Their 50% inhibitions appeared as $90{\mu}g/ml$ and $0.12{\mu}g/ml$ for the synthetic peptide and the natural HBsAg, respectively. This indicates that the former was about 750-fold less antigenic than the latter. 5. Immunogenicity of the synthetic peptide was determined by administering the peptide-carrier conjugates into rabbits with and without Freund's complete adjuvant. Regardless the carrier proteins and adjuvant, positive immune responses to the synthetic peptide were observed. The higher antibody titers, however, were shown in the groups administered with Freund's complete adjuvant. 6. Immunizing dose 50% in mice of the various peptide-carrier conjugates was 5.47, 6.00, 65.16, 31.25 and $13.03{\mu}g/dose$ for rabbit albumin and ${\gamma}$-globulin, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, and keyhole limpet hemocyanin, respectively, while the natural HBsAg showed $0.65{\mu}g/dose$. 7. It was postulated that homologous proteins prefer to heterologous ones as the carriers.