• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.73-81
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• 1997

Diphtheria was the world-spread, respiratory infectious disease in the past. But after developing the diphtheria toxoid, diphtheria vaccine, composed of diphtheria toxoid, is generalized, so prevalence of diphtheria is sharply dropped. But diphtheria is come back in NIS(New Independent States) in 1990s. It is believed that recurrence of diphtheria is mainly due to shortage of protective diphtheria antibody titer in adults. And it is related to 70% prevalence in adults, not in children. Considering this changing environment, this study was designed to research the diphtheria antibody titer of whole population and existence of titer difference by sex. Also it was studied whether ELISA has fitness as determination method of diphtheria antibody titer compared with neutralization method on microcell culture. This study was done to 277 samples of three hospitals in Seoul area, and sera was tested by neutralization method on microcell culture and ELISA method. The results of this study were as follows 1) Of this studied population, 31.05% had an antibody titer below the protective level (<0.01 IU/ml), 40.79% had a titer of a relative degree of protection (0.01-0.09 IU/ml) and 28.16% had a reliable degree of protection ($\geq$0.1 IU/ml). Therefore, 68.95% had a basic protective antibody titer level. 2) 20-40 age group showed the lowest diphtheria antibody titer among the studied population. 3) GMT of diphtheria antibody titer was the highest in the children. But, after child period, GMT was fallen. Standard deviation value was the lowest in older group. 4) Protective level of diphtheria antibody titer of male was slightly higher than female (70.94% vs 66.66%). But this difference was not statistically significant. 5) Diphtheria antibody titer by ELISA method was wholly higher than by neutralization method on microcell culture. Compared the two results by ELISA and neutralization, the regression coefficient was 0.38. And in titer, which was obtained by ELISA method, false-positive results was abundant.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.491-504
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• 2011

This review article provides an overview of the evolution of diphtheria vaccine, its value and its future. Diphtheria is an infectious illness caused by diphtheria toxin produced by pathogenic strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. It is characterized by a sore throat with membrane formation due to local tissue necrosis, which can lead to fatal airway obstruction; neural and cardiac damage are other common complications. Diphtheria vaccine was first brought to market in the 1920s, following the discovery that diphtheria toxin can be detoxified using formalin. However, conventional formalin-inactivated toxoid vaccines have some fundamental limitations. Innovative technologies and approaches with the potential to overcome these limitations are discussed in this paper. These include genetic inactivation of diphtheria toxoid, innovative vaccine delivery systems, new adjuvants (both TLR-independent and TLR-dependent adjuvants), and heat- and freeze-stable agents, as well as novel platforms for producing improved conventional vaccine, DNA vaccine, transcutaneous (microneedle-mediated) vaccine, oral vaccine and edible vaccine expressed in transgenic plants. These innovations target improvements in vaccine quality (efficacy, safety, stability and consistency), ease of use and/or thermal stability. Their successful development and use should help to increase global diphtheria vaccine coverage.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2015

The effect of diphtheria toxin on cell membrane lipids was studied by examining the phospholipase D (PLD) activity and free fatty acids (FFA) release in HepG2 cells. The diphtheria toxin effects on lipid alteration show apparently maximal at pH 5.1, stimulating PLD activity nearly 3.5 fold and enhancing FFA release approximately 5 fold over the control. These results indicate that the membrane is perturbed and its lipid component is rearranged during the diphtheria toxin translocation. Digitonin, a random membrane perturbing detergent, exhibit about four-fold higher perturbation effect over the diphtheria toxin at neutral pH. This observation suggests that the membrane perturbation induced by diphtheria toxin appears to be rather selective. To investigate the cause of the membrane perturbation, Cibacron blue, an inhibitor of membrane pore formation, and hemagglutinin, an influenza virus with fusion peptide, were tested for their effects on diphtheria toxin action. Cibacron blue decreased the diphtheria toxin effect by almost 50%, but the lipid alteration induced by hemagglutinin was similar to the diphtheria toxin effect. These observations imply that the membrane perturbation induced by diphtheria toxin may be caused by a combination of pore formation and insertion of hydrophobic peptide of toxin to the membrane as well. Additionally, we found that the diphtheria toxin increased the HepG2 cells permeability but the cells viability was maintained at high level at the same time. DNA fragmentation which is related to apoptosis was not induced by the toxin. Under these conditions, we could demonstrate that the lipid alteration of HepG2 cells was brought about by diphtheria toxin at acidic pH.

• Proceedings of the KOR-BRONCHOESO Conference
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• 1983.05a
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• pp.12.1-12
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• 1983

Diphtheria is now very rare condition because of generalized preventive immunization. Authors recently experienced a case of diphtheria involving nasal cavity, fauces and laryngotrachea in a 16-year-old female with 4 days history of throat pain, malaise and moderate pyrexia with chill. This is the report of the case with review of the literature.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.155-168
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• 2012

Therapeutic cancer is a long lasting and turbulent history accompany with the milestones in surgical intervention, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In the past decade, however, metastatic cancer still obstinately exists challenging the professional scientist. Beside the major forms of cancer treatment, Diphtheria toxin (DT) which is produced by a pathogenic strain of bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheria to shield themselves against the other dangerous organism, have been researched as a potential candidate to overcome the drawback such as non-specific, non-effect to drug resistant cancer cell and side effects when using chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In the context of suicide gene therapy, the DT expression under controlling of tissue-specific promoter will be targeted in cancer cell but defect in normal cell. The molecular mechanism, characteristic of DT-bases therapy and prominent achievements of preclinical and clinical studies for the past decade are summarized and discussed in this review.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2004

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst-stage embryos that can be propagated indefinitely and, at the same time, can be differentiated into all the cell types that constitute the body. Current research using ES cells is mainly focused on the efficient generation of specific cell types by employing optimal differentiation conditions, which often requires the genetic manipulation of ES cells. As a way of developing an efficient system to regulate foreign gene expression in ES cells, we have inserted the gene encoding Corynebacterium diphtheria toxin-A (DTA) into an autonomously induced plasmid under positive doxycycline control ('Tet-on' system). In this study, we demonstrate that this system can lead to the cell death of mouse ES cells by the induction of DTA expression when exposed to the tetracycline derivative, doxycycline. MTT assay showed that this induction resulted in the apoptosis of ES cells.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.3 no.4 s.12
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• pp.23-32
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• 1964

• KSBB Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.241-247
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• 1999

Experimental studies were carried out to optimize the culture conditions of Corynebacterium diphtheriae for the production of diphtheria toxin. A new media which does not contain any meat digest products was selected. The main ingredient of new medium was enzymatic digests of casein known as NZ-Case. In fermenter experiments, the toxin production was increased with the increase of cell growth. The optimum initial pH of media, air flow rate and agitation speed were 7.0, 0.22, vvm and 400 rpm, respectively. The contents of iron and calcium-phosphate precipitate were important for maximal cell growth and toxin production. The optimum concentration of iron was 0.3 mg/L and calcium-phosphate precipitate could serve in gradual supply of iron to maintain the optimal culture condition which is required for enhanced yield of toxin production. In potency test, the potency of toxoid from fermentor culture was higher than that from static culture. When diphtheria toxin is produced by fermentor culture, it is possible to produce higher levels of toxin and better toxoid quality in terms of safety, yield, productivity and immunity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.622-627
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• 2002

Diphtheria toxin repressor (DtxR) binds to approximately 30 to 35-bp regions containing an interrupted 9-bp inverted repeat within a 19-bp core sequence. The core sequence is fairly conserved and critical for DtxR binding. The flanking regions that are consisted of 5 to 8 more of nucleotides from the core are also required for DtxR binding. The nucleotides in both flanking regions are A-T rich. To examine whether the A-T nucleotides in both flanking regions from the core have significant roles for DtxR binding, a DNA fragment was constructed based on the diphtheria tox promoter/operator, and DNA fragments with substitution of A and T nucleotides In the flanking regions to G and C were also constructed. To assess the effect of these substitutions on binding of DtxR and repressibility by DtxR, $\beta$-galactosidase activity from lacZ fused to the region was assessed. Gel mobility shift of the region by purified DtxR was also examined. The DNA fragments containing the mutations in the flanking regions still exhibited repression and mobility shift with DtxR. The core segment with the mutation is still, therefore, recognized by DtxR. Nonetheless, the results from the assays indicated that the substitution significantly decreased repression of the operator by DtxR in vivo under high-iron condition and decreased binding of DtxR to the operator. These results suggest that A and T nucleotides fur both flanking regions are preferred for the binding of DtxR.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.144-149
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• 1997

An expression vector was constructed containing the gene encoding diphtheria toxin A (DTA) which was placed after a T7 promoter. Cytoplasmic expression of the DTA gene resulted in the formation of an insoluble inclusion body. The inclusion body was collected after the complete lysis of the cell, and subsequent washing with 0.1% Triton X-100 released 16~30% of DTA protein from the inclusion body along with other contaminating proteins. The released DTA protein was purified by dialysis. The remaining pellet was dissolved in 8 M urea containing 5% ${\beta}-mercaptoethanol$, and the denatured DTA was renatured by the dilution-dialysis method. The total yield was 35%, and about 5 mg DTA was obtained from 1 L culture. The DTA protein has a free sulfhydryl group exposed to the protein surface, and was shown to have a tendency to dimerize through disulfide formation in the absence of ${\beta}-mercaptoethanol$. The utility of the sulfhydryl group was tested for the construction of recombinant toxins.