• Journal of Life Science
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.241-249
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• 1996

A collagenase was isolated from the culture filtrate of Vibrio mimicus (ATCC 33658). The enzyme was purified to homogeneity by ammonium sulfate precipitation and DEAE-Sephadex A-50 chromatography, which an activity recovery of 22%. The molecular weight of the purified enzyme was estimated to be 42 kDa by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and gel filtration, indication a monomer structure. The optimum pH and temperature od the enzyme for insoluble collagen (Type I) were around 7.75 and 28$\circ$C, respectively. Some chelating agents and serine protease inhibitor inactivated the enzyme, but L-cysteine and histidine did not affect the activity. The amino acid composition indicated that the collagenase contained high amounts of amino acid residues of glycine and alanine. The K$_{m}$ and R$_{cat}$/K$_{m}$ values for the collagenase, using insoluble collagen (type I) as substrate, were 2.86 mg/ml and 972.28 U/mg-protein, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.472-476
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• 2005

The present study was untaken to assess the capacity of Bacillus pumilis KHS-1 to grow on chicken flour and to prepare feather digest as fertilizer. To increase keratinolytic activity, the addition of cysteine (5.0 mM) showed the highest keratinolytic activity (245 unit) among the reducing agents tested. The production of soluble protein (feather digests) paralleled the tendency to the production of keratinolytic protease. In the growth curve of B. pumilis KHS-1 at $30^{\circ}C$ in the feather medium with 5 mM cysteine, the maximum keratinolytic activity of B. pumilis was about 161 units/ml after 84 h of incubation. The maximum enzyme activities were observed at the late logarithmic growth phase, and remained thereafter with little changes. Using 27-day plant growth assays on carrot and Chinese cabbage, feather digests and reference fertilizer were compared. In terms of the length and the weight of the above-ground vegetations, feather digests showed the same effect as that of the fertilizer. Therefore, our investigation shows that the feather digests can be used in agriculture.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.119-125
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• 1990

A Potent inhibitor of trypsin and other various serine proteases including chymotrypsin, elastase, kallikrein, plasmin and subtilisin, has been purified to homogeneity from chick skeletal muscle by convendonal chromatographic procedures. The Inhibitor has an apparent molecular weight of 66, 000 dalton as determined by gel filtration. When the purified inhibitor was electrophoresed in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate, there appeared rwo protein bands having molecular weights of 66, 000 and 64, 000 dalton. The 64, 000 dalton protein seems to be the product of 66, 000 dalton protein by a lin'ited proteolysis during the purification procedure or in viuo. Thus, it seems to consist of a single polypeptide. The inhibitor appeared to be glycoprotein and have an isoelectric point of 7.4. It contains relatively large amount (8.33 mole%) of cysteine residues.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.753-763
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• 2018

Cysteine cathepsins are lysosomal enzymes that belong to the papain family and can induce the degradation of damaged proteins through the endo-lysosomal pathway. It is highly upregulated in many cancers by regulating gene amplification and transcriptional, translational, and post-transcriptional modifications. Cathepsin S is part of the cysteine cathepsin family. Many studies have demonstrated that cathepsin S not only plays a specific role in MHC class II antigen presentation but also plays a crucial role in cancers. Cathepsin S is more stable at a neutral pH compared to other cysteine cathepsins, which supports the importance of cathepsin S in disease microenvironments. Therefore, the dysregulation of cathepsin S has participated in a variety of pathological processes, including cancer, arthritis, and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, a decrease or depletion in the expression of cathepsin S has been implicated in the processes of tumor growth, invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis. Taken together, cathepsin S has been suggested as an attractive therapeutic target for cancer therapy. In this review, the known involvement of cathepsin S in diseases, particularly with respect to recent work indicating its role in cancer therapy, is examined. An overview of current literature on the inhibitors of cathepsin S as a therapeutic target for cancer is also provided.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.617-626
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• 2011

Transglutaminase from Streptomyces mobaraensis is an enzyme of unknown function that cross-links proteins to high molecular weight aggregates. Previously, we characterized two intrinsic transglutaminase substrates with inactivating activities against subtilisin and dispase. This report now describes a novel substrate that inhibits papain, bromelain, and trypsin. Papain was the most sensitive protease; thus, the protein was designated Streptomyces papain inhibitor (SPI). To avoid transglutaminase-mediated glutamine deamidation during culture, SPI was produced by Streptomyces mobaraensis at various growth temperatures. The best results were achieved by culturing for 30-50 h at $42^{\circ}C$, which yielded high SPI concentrations and negligibly small amounts of mature transglutaminase. Transglutaminasespecific biotinylation displayed largely unmodified glutamine and lysine residues. In contrast, purified SPI from the $28^{\circ}C$ culture lost the potential to be cross-linked, but exhibited higher inhibitory activity as indicated by a significantly lower $K_i$ (60 nM vs. 140 nM). Despite similarities in molecular mass (12 kDa) and high thermostability, SPI exhibits clear differences in comparison with all members of the wellknown family of Streptomyces subtilisin inhibitors. The neutral protein (pI of 7.3) shares sequence homology with a putative protein from Streptomyces lavendulae, whose conformation is most likely stabilized by two disulfide bridges. However, cysteine residues are not localized in the typical regions of subtilisin inhibitors. SPI and the formerly characterized dispase-inactivating substrate are unique proteins of distinct Streptomycetes such as Streptomyces mobaraensis. Along with the subtilisin inhibitory protein, they could play a crucial role in the defense of vulnerable protein layers that are solidified by transglutaminase.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.225-238
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• 1989

These studies were conducted to investigate the extraction, purification and characterization of oriental pear (Niitaka. Pyrus pyrifolia Nak.) protease, and the results obtained were as follows: 1. Oriental pear protease was effectively extracted by the method of homogenizing pear pulp with 0.7 volume of 0.1M-sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.5 containing 5mM-cysteine, 40mM-2-mercaptoethanol and 2mM-EDTA at 10,000 rpm for 5 min. 2. The protease was purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation, Sephadex G-100 filtration and DEAE-Sephadex A-50 column chromatography, and the purified enzyme gave a single protein band on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. 3. The specific activity of purified enzyme was 29.65 unit/mg protein and the yield was 7.22%. 4. The moecular weight of the protease was estimated to be about 51,000 by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and the enzyme had Km value of 54.5 mg/ml for casein. 5. The purified enzyme had a maximum activity at pH 6.0 and $50^{\circ}C$, and was stable from pH 5.5-6.5 and at temperatures below $50^{\circ}C$ 6. Casein was a better substrate for this protease compared to hemoglobin. 7. The enzyme activity was markedly inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoic acid and heavy metal salts such as $HgCl_2$ and $MnSO_4$ also considerably inhibited the enzyme activity.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.215-223
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• 2001

Cadmium is an ubiquitous toxic metal and chronic exposure to cadmium results in the accumulation of cadmium in the liver and kidneys. In contrast, acute exposure leads to damage mainly in the liver. Apoptosis induced by cadmium has been shown in many tissues in vivo and in cultured cells in vitro. However, the molecular mechanism of cadmium-induced apoptosis is not clear in hepatocyte. To investigate the induction of apoptosis in the hepatocyte, we used mouse hepatoma cell line, Hepalclc7 cells, and analysed the molecules that involved in cadmium-induced apoptosis. Cadmium induced the genomic DNA fragmentation, PARP cleavage, and activation of caspase-3 like protease. Caspase-9 cysteine protease was activated in a time-dependent manner but caspase-8 cysteine protease was not significantly activated in cadmium-treated Hepalclc7 cells. Cadmium also induced mitochondrial dysfunction including cytochrome c release from mitochondria, change oj mitochondrial membrane potential tranition, and tranlocation of Bax Protein into mitochondria. These results strong1y indicated that the signal Pathway of apoptotic death in cadmium-treated Hepalclc7 cells is modulated by caspase cascade via mitochondria.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.188-195
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• 2016

Neutrophils and lymphocytes are essential inflammatory cells in the pathogenesis of allergy. In this study, we evaluated the role of house dust mite (HDM) in the interaction between allergic lymphocytes and neutrophils. The extract of Dermatophagoides pteronissinus (DP) showed a stronger anti-apoptotic impact on neutrophil apoptosis in the coculture of allergic neutrophils with allergic lymphocytes when compared with that in allergic neutrophils alone. DP increased IL-6, IL-8, MCP-1, and GM-CSF in allergic lymphocytes, and the increased cytokines were inhibited by rottlerin-an inhibitor of the protein kinase C (PKC) ${\delta}$, as well as by SB202190-a p38 MAPK inhibitor. DP activated p38 MAPK in a time-dependent manner. The activation of p38 MAPK was suppressed by PAR2i, which is a protease-activated receptor (PAR) 2 inhibitor, and rottlerin. Both aprotinin-a serine protease inhibitor-and E64-a cysteine protease inhibitor-were not effective on cytokine secretion of lymphocytes. These results, despite increased cytokines in allergic lymphocytes via DP, did not show any differences between asthma and allergic rhinitis. Molecules, including cytokines, released by DP in lymphocytes inhibited the migration of neutrophils. This finding may further elucidate the pathogenic mechanism of allergic diseases due to HDM.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.69-73
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• 1999

In plants as well as in other multicellular organisms, programmed cell death plays essential roles in the abortion or formation of specific cells and tissues during development to organize the plant [11, 15, 18]. A typical example of developmentally programmed cell death in plants is the death during differentiation of tracheary elements which are components of vessels and tracheids, a water-conducting system. The programming of cell death during tracheary element differentiation has been revealed to be unique to plant cells by using the in vitro Zinnia mesophyll cell culture system. In particular, new biosynthesis of autolysis-related enzymes such as cysteine proteases and nucleases, their accumulation of the vacuole and the programmed collapse of the vacuole are essential to the death of tracheary elements and differ greatly from the process of the apoptotic cell death in animals.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.227-230
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• 1992

Spirometra mansoni plerocercoid (sparganum) was incubated in saline at $4^{\circ}C{\;}or{\;}37^{\circ}C$ up to 100 hours. Protein contests in the excretory$.$secretory product (ESP) were rather constant (mean 7.7 mg of protein/gram of sparganum) in the preparations. Reducing SDS-PAGE of ESP showed similar protein subunit compositions with those in crude extract. Antigenic 36 and 31 kDa Proteins were major bands in ESP. ESP exhibited specific activities of protease(2.9~5.3 units/mg) at pH 6.0 and pH 7.5. Presence of protease activity in ESP may be a supporting evidence that hitherto known cysteiRe protease of sparganum is possibly secreted.