• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.654-660
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• 1999

Folate, a precursor of the coenzyme tetrahydrofolate, plays an important role in DNA replication and cell proliferation, and thus could influence rapidly proliferating immune cells such as leukocytes and splenocytes. The effects of dietary folate on folate concentrations of plasma, thymus, spleen and leukocytes were investigated in rats. The animals were raised for 6 weeks on semipurifed experimental diets containing 0mg, 2mg, 4mg, 8mg folate/kg diet. Folate concentrations were determined microbiologically using Lactobacillus casei(ATCC 7469), and DNA strand breaks produced by alkaline treatment were analyzed fluorometrically. When compared to folate adequate diet, the folate deficient diet(0mg folate/kg diet) resulted in lowest folate levels in plasma, thymus, spleen and leukocytes, and the highest DNA strand breaks in spleen cells and leukocytes. Dietary folate levels significantly increased folate concentrations of immune tissues, leukocytes, and the plasma in a dose dependent manner, folate concentrations being highest with a diet providing 8mg folate/kg diet. The percentages of the double strand DNA remaining in the splenocytes and leukocytes after alkaline treatment were significantly increased with higher amounts of dietary folate in a dose dependent manner. Folate intakes of 8mg than 4mg/kg diet was found to be more effective in the prevention of DNA strand breaks. The results of this study suggest that increased folate above the requirement level could improve DNA stabilities in immune cells.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.428-436
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• 2005

DNA topoisomerase I(TOP1) helps the control of DNA replication, transcription and recombination by assist­ing breaking and rejoining of DNA double strand. Camptothecin (CPT) and its derivative, topotecan, are known to inhibit TOP1 by intercalating into TOP1-DNA complex. Recently various non-CPT intercalators are synthesized for a new class of TOP1 inhibitors. In this study, six compounds isolated from Poria cocos were investigated for their interaction with TOP1­DNA complex using the flexible docking program, FlexiDock. The binding modes were analyzed and compared with the TOP1 inhibition activities. The compounds that showed potent activity were intercalated between the + 1/-1 base pairs of DNA, located near the active site phosphotyrosine723 and formed hydrogen bonds with active site residues. On the other hand, compounds with no activity were not docked at all. The binding modes were well correlated with the inhibition activity, suggesting the possibility that potent inhibitors can be designed from the information presented by the docking study.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2008

Inhibition of proteasome activity may reduce many types of cancer, so it's pathway is effective in cancer as well as in clinical fields. Here the author has carried out experiment targeting on the elevation of apoptosis in oral cancer cells by combination of proteasome inhibitor, lactacystin, and DNA replication inhibitor, etoposide. The growth of KB cells was measured by MTT methods and apoptosis was analyzed by DNA fragmentation and Hochest nucleus staining. The proteasome activity was analyzed by fluorescent tagged peptide and cellular protein expression was detected by Western hybridization. Though lactacystin and etoposide inhibited KB cell growth alone, but low combined doses inhibited cell growth more strongly and induced apoptosis. The proteasome activity was also seriously inhibited by the combination of both chemicals. Tumor suppressor proteins and apoptosis inducing proteins were highly increased under the combination of both chemicals. From above studies we can conclude that proteasome inhibitors may be used for the treatment of oral cancer and proteasome inhibitors with DNA replication inhibitors may be effective in clinical trials of oral cancer.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.269-274
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• 2004

DNA polymerases without the 3' exonuclease function ($exo^-$ pol) have been widely used in sequencing and SNP genotyping. As a major player that expedited the coming of the postgenomic era, $exo^-$ polymerases worked remarkably well in the Human Genome Sequencing Project. However, it has become a challenge for this class of polymerases to efficiently screen the large number of SNPs that are found in the human genome. For more than three decades it has been recognized that polymerase fidelity varied according to the presence of proofreading activity that is mediated by its internal 3' exonuclease. Polymerases with proofreading function are famous for their high fidelity in DNA replication both in vivo and in vitro, but this well-known class of polymerases has been almost completely neglected in genetic analysis in the postgenomic era. We speculate that $exo^+$ polymerases may exhibit higher nucleotide identification ability when compared to $exo^-$ polymerases for an in vitro genetic analysis. With the application of $exo^+$ polymerases in SNP assays, a novel mechanism for the maintenance of DNA replication, the on/off switch, was discovered. Two new SNP assays have been developed to carry out genome-wide genotyping, taking advantage of the enzymatic properties of $exo^+$ polymerases. Furthermore, the on/off switch mechanism embodies a powerful nucleotide identification ability, which can be used to discriminate the bases that are upstream of the 3' terminus, and thus defines a new concept in de novo sequencing technology. Application of $exo^+$ polymerases to genetic analysis, and especially SNP assays, will greatly accelerate the pace to personalized medicine.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.278-281
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• 2012

Comparative sequence analyses were conducted on complete mtDNA sequences from four small mammal species in Korea and revealed the presence of 30 well conserved sequences in various regions of the complete mtDNA sequences. The conserved sequences were found in 9 regions in protein coding genes, 10 regions in tRNA genes, 10 in rRNA genes, one region in replication origin and 2 regions in D loop. They could be used to design primers for amplifying complete mtDNA sequences of small mammals.

• BMB Reports
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.305-311
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• 2003

A modified actinomycin D was prepared with a hydroxyl group that replaced the amino group at the chromophore 2-position, a substitution known to strongly reduce affinity for double-stranded DNA. Interactions of the modified drug on single-stranded DNAs of the defined sequence were investigated. Competition assays showed that 2-hydroxyactinomycin D has low affinity for two oligonucleotides that have high affinities ($K_a\;=\;5-10{\times}10^6\;M^{-1}$ oligomer) for 7-aminoactinomycin D and actinomycin D. Primer extension inhibition assays performed on several single-stranded DNA templates totaling around 1000 nt in length detected a single high affinity site for 2-hydroxyactinomycin D, while many high affinity binding sites of unmodified actinomycin D were found on the same templates. The sequence selectivity of 2-hydroxyactinomycin D binding is unusually high and approximates the selectivity of restriction endonucleases. Binding appears to require a complex structure, including residues well removed from the polymerase pause site.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2008

The genotoxicity of mercury compounds have been investigated with a variety of genetic endpoints in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The mercury ions are positively charged and easily form complexes with DNA by binding with negatively charged centers to cause mutagenesis. Further, the mercury ions can react with sulfhydryl (-SH) groups of proteins associated with DNA replication and alter genetic information. Another mechanism by which mercury damages DNA molecule is via its probable involvement of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and induces DNA strand breaks. In order to investigate whether the ROS production was induced by mercury, we performed ROS assay. As the result, the ROS production was significantly increased when it grows dose-dependently and time-dependently. We compared mercury alone-treated group and mercury co-treated with Vitamin C or glutathione group. As the result, the ROS production induced by mercury was decreased by Vitamin C and glutathione. Co-treated with Vitamin C and glutathione group was the most effective to lowering ROS production induced by mercury.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.48-55
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• 2001

When an elongating RNA polymerase encounters DNA damage on the template strand of a transcribed gene it can either be arrested by or be transcribed through the lesion. Lesions that arrest RNA polymerases are thought to be subject to transcription-coupled repair, whereas that damage that is bypassed can cause miscoding, resulting in mutations in the transcript (transcriptional mutagenesis). We have developed a technique using a plasmid-based luciferase reporter assay to determine the extent to which a particular type of DNA base modification is capable of causing transcriptional mutagenesis in vivo. The system uses Escherichia coli strains with different DNA repair backgrounds and is designed to detect phenotypic changes caused by transcriptional mutageneis under nongrowth conditions. In addition, this method is capable of indicating the extent to which a particular DNA repair enzyme (or pathway) suppresses the occurrence of transcriptional mutagenesis. Thus, this technique provides a tool with which the effects of various genes on non-replication-dependent pathways resulting in the generation of mutant proteins can be gauged.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.359-366
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• 2000

Epigenetics represents a chromatin-mediated transcriptional repression which plays a control role in both animal and plant development. A number of different mechanisms have been described to be involved in the formation of chromatin structure: especially DNA methylation, nucleosomal histone modification, DNA replication timing, and binding of chromatin remodelling proteins. Epigenetic phenomena include genomic imprinting, dosage compensation of X-chromosome linked genes, mutual allelic interactions, paramutation, transvection, silencing of invasive DNA sequences, etc. They are often unstable and inherited in a non-Mendelian way. A number of epigenetic defects has been preferentially described in floral development. Here, epigenetic phenomena in model angiosperm plants and their corresponding mechanisms are reviewed.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.118-120
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• 2002

Genetic materials including DNA plasmid are effective delivery vehicle to express interesting gene efficiently and safely not to generate replication competent virus. Moreover, it has advantages to design a better vector and to simplify manufacturing and storage condition. To understand a possible pathogenic mechanism by a flavivirus, West Nile virus (WNV), WNV genome sequence was aligned to other pathogenic viral genome. Interestingly, WNV capsid (Cp) amino acid sequence has some homology to HIV-l Vpr protein. These proteins induce apoptosis in human cell lines as well as in vivo and cell cycle arrest. Therefore, DNA plasmid carrying apoptosis-inducing and cell cycle arresting viral proteins including a HIV-1 Vpr and a WNV Cp protein can be useful for anti-cancer therapeutic applications. This WNV Cp protein is an early expressed protein which can be a reasonable target antigen (Ag) for vaccine design. Immunization of a DNA construct encoding WNV Cp protein induces a strong Ag-specific humoral and Th1-type immune responses in animal. Therefore, DNA plasmid encoding apoptotic viral proteins can be useful tool for therapeutic and prophylactic applications.