• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2010

As the causative agent of Anthrax, Bacillus anthracis causes an acute fatal disease in herbivores such as cattle, sheep, and horses as well as humans. The therapeutics and prevention of anthrax currently available are based on antibiotics and the live attenuated vaccine strains, which may be problematic due to the emergency of antibiotic resistant strains or residual virulence in those vaccine strains. Therefore, it has been required to develop novel therapeutics and vaccines which are safer and applicable to humans. Recently, the development of the multivalent vaccine targeting both spores and vegetative cells of B. anthracis along with anthrax toxin has been reported. In our attempts to screen potential candidates for those multivalent vaccines, the whole genomic expression library of B. anthracis was constructed in this study. To the end, the partial digests of the genomic DNA from B. anthracis (ATCC 14578) with Sau3AI were ligated with the inducible pET30abc expression vectors, resulting in approximately $1{\times}10^5$ clones in E. coli BL21(DE3). The redundancy test by DNA nucleotide sequencing was performed for the randomly selected 111 clones and found 56 (50.5%) B. anthracis genes, 17 (15.3%) vector sequences, and 38 (34.2%) unknown genes with no sequence homology by BLAST. An inducible expression of the recombinant proteins was confirmed by Western blot. Interestingly, some clones could react with the antiserum against B. anthracis. These results imply that the whole genomic library constructed in this study can be applied for analyzing the immunomes of B. anthracis.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.66
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• pp.519-526
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• 2023

Present study explored immunostimulatory effects of Astragalus membranaceus and Zanthoxylum schinifolium 1:1 (w:w) mixture (AZM-1:1) in Raw264.7 cells, mouse macrophage derived cells. Treatment with 100-400 ㎍/mL of AZM-1:1 in Raw264.7 cells significantly increased nitric oxide production in parallel with inducible nitric oxide synthase mRNA expression without affecting cytotoxicity. In addition, AZM-1:1 dose-dependently increased prostaglandin E₂ production in conditioned medium along with cyclooxygenase-2 mRNA induction. Moreover, AZM-1:1 induces the transcription of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1. Immunoblot analyses revealed that AZM-1:1 significantly increased the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases, provoked phosphorylation-mediated degradation of inhibitory-κBα, and phosphorylated p65. Furthermore, treatment with AZM-1:1 promoted phagocytosis of Escherichia coli particle labeled with green fluorescence. Taken together, AZM-1:1 may be a promising nutraceutical for stimulation the innate immune system, including macrophages.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2012

Helicobacter pylori is an important factor of chronic gastritis, digestive ulcer, and stomach cancer. CagL, a virulence factor of H. pylori, is well-known as a pilus protein which acts as adhesion to host cell and a component of Type 4 secretion system. In this study, we evaluated the protective response of recombinant CagL protein (rCagL) using Mongolian gerbil animal model for H. pylori infection. The cagL gene was cloned from 26695 H. pylori followed by over-expression and purification of the protein in E. coli. Mongolian gerbils were immunized with rCagL protein mixed with aluminum adjuvant via intramuscular injections once a week during 4 weeks. At a week after the last immunization, the Mongolian gerbils were administrated with H. pylori 7.13 strain into the stomach and sacrificed to measure antibody titer on rCagL by ELISA and bacterial colonization in the stomach, and to examine the histopathological changes and cytokine expression at 6 week after challenge. Antibody titers on recombinant protein were significantly increased from a week after the first immunization. There was no significant change of the number of bacterial colony between control group and immunized group. The relative stomach weight was significantly decreased in immunized group, but the significant change of histopathological assessment was not observed in the stomach. Cytokine expression such as IL-$1{\beta}$ and KC also was not significantly different between control and immunized groups. These results indicate that rCagL could effectively induce the formation of the specific IgG antibodies. However, bacterial colonization and histopathological lesions could not be inhibited by the immunization in the stomach, indicating not enough protection against H. pylori infection. We consider that along with CagL other adequate antigens could be needed stimulating immune response and inducing protective effects against gastric disease, and also a better adjuvant could be considered.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.665-680
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• 1996

Bovine Pneumonic Pasteurellosis는 수송열(輸送熱)로 일반적으로 알려져 있는 질병으로서, 여러가지 요인의 복합적(複合的)인 작용에 의해 발병하는 것으로 알려져 있으나, Pasteurella haemolytica A1이 가장 주요(主要)한 인자(因子)로 밝혀져 있다. P haemolytica A1은 leukotoxin(LKT), lipopolysaccharide(LPS), capsular polysaccharide 등 여러가지의 병원성인자(病原性因子)을 생성한다. 이들 인자중 LKT가 가장 중요한 병원성인자로 밝혀져 있다. 이에 본 실험은 P haemolytical A1의 LKT 유전자를 Bacillus subtilis에서 발현(發現)시킴으로서 LPS에 오염(汚染)되지 않은 LKT을 대량으로 생산할 목적으로 실시되었다. 실험의 첫 단계(段階)로서 pLKT52 plasmid을 Sau3 A1의 제한효소을 이용하여 부분소화(部分消化)시킨 후 이 부분 소화(消化)된 유전자들로부터 3~5kb 크기의 유전자들을 순수분리하여 pUC18와 결합시킨 후 E coli NM522에 형질전환(形質轉換)시켰다. 이때 형질전환된 균주들은 LKT에 대한 단크론 항체인 MAb601을 이용하여 colony blot 법에 의해서 LKT 유전자 보유 및 발현여부(發現與否)을 조사하였다. 이들 양성 clone들은 제한효소분석(制限酵素分析), 염기서열분석(鹽基序列分析) 및 Western blot 등에 의해서 재확인(再確認)하였다. 총 9개의 양성 clone중 위의 방법에 의해서 한 clone을 선택(選擇)하여 lktCA insert를 재분리하여 shuttle vector에 subcloning 하였다. Subcloning된 LKT 유전자들은 shuttle vector의 종류(種類)(pHPS9, p602/20, pHPS9-Sac)와 각기(各其) 다른 종류(種類)의 B subtilis(spoO12A, BR121, WB3O, Raj1105) 숙주내(宿主內)에서 발현정도를 Western blot 법에 의해서 비교(比較)하였다. 이때 최적발현조건(最適發現條件)은 p602/20와 pBL1의 dual plasmid system을 이용하여 B subtilis spoO12A에서 2시간동안 IPTG로 발현을 유도(誘導)하는 것이었다. B subtilis에서 발현된 LKT을 visual 법과 neutral red uptake 법을 이용하여 소 폐포(肺胞) 대식구(大食求)에 대한 biological activity를 확인하였다. 발현된 LKT에 대한 LPS 오염은 LKT을 SDS-PAGE 후 silver stain에 의해서 확인하였다. 본 실험을 통해서 볼 때에 lktCA 유전자를 보유(保有)하고 있는 p602/20는 B subtilis에서 매우 불안정(不安定)하였고, 발현된 LKT는 세균자체(細菌自體)에서 생성되는 protease들에 의해서 파괴(破壞)됨으로서 농도(濃度)가 매우 낮았다. 이러한 문제점들은 다음 단계(段階)의 실험에서 해결되어야할 문제들이다.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.208-219
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• 2018

Emergence of drug resistant strains of Salmonella enterica threatens milk processing and related dairy industries, thereby increasing the need for development of new anti-bacterials. Developments of antibacterial drugs are largely aimed to target the bacterial envelope, but screening their efficacy on bacterial envelope is laborious. This study presents a potential biosensor for envelope-specific stress in which a gfp reporter gene fused to spy gene encoding a periplasmic chaperone protein Spy (spheroplast protein y) that can sense envelope stress signals transduced by two major two-component signal transduction systems BaeSR and CpxAR in Salmonella enterica serovars Enteritidis and S. Gallinarum. Using spy-gfp operon fusions in S. Enterititis and S. Gallinarum, we found that spy transcription in both serovars was greatly induced when Salmonella cells were forming the spheroplast and were treated with ethanol or a membrane-disrupting antibiotic polymyxin B. These envelope stress-specific inductions of spy transcription were abrogated in mutant Salmonella lacking either BaeR or CpxR. Results illustrate that induction of Spy expression can be efficiently triggered by two-component signal transduction systems sensing envelope stress conditions, and thereby suggest that monitoring the spy transcription by spy-gfp operon fusions would be helpful to determine if developing antimicrobials can damage envelopes of S. Enteritidis and S. Gallinarum.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.356-365
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• 2021

Recently, we sequenced the entire genome of a freshwater agar-degrading bacterium Cellvibrio sp. KY-GH-1 (KCTC13629BP) to explore genetic information encoding agarases that hydrolyze agarose into monomers 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose (L-AHG) and D-galactose. The KY-GH-1 strain appeared to possess nine β-agarase genes and two α-neoagarobiose hydrolase (α-NABH) genes in a 77-kb agarase gene cluster. Based on these genetic information, the KY-GH-1 strain-caused agarose degradation into L-AHG and D-galactose was predicted to be initiated by both endolytic GH16 and GH86 β-agarases to generate NAOS (NA4/NA6/NA8), and further processed by exolytic GH50 β-agarases to generate NA2, and then terminated by GH117 α-NABHs which degrade NA2 into L-AHG and D-galactose. More recently, by employing E. coli expression system with pET-30a vector we obtained three recombinant His-tagged GH50 family β-agarases (GH50A, GH50B, and GH50C) derived from Cellvibrio sp. KY-GH-1 to compare their enzymatic properties. GH50A β-agarase turned out to have the highest exolytic β-agarase activity among the three GH50 isozymes, catalyzing efficient NA2 production from the substrate (agarose, NAOS or AOS). Additionally, we determined that GH117A α-NABH, but not GH117B α-NABH, could potently degrade NA2 into L-AHG and D-galactose. Sequentially, we examined the enzymatic characteristics of GH50A β-agarase and GH117A α-NABH, and assessed their efficiency for NA2 production from agarose and for production of L-AHG and D-galactose from NA2, respectively. In this review, we describe the benefits of recombinant GH50A β-agarase and GH117A α-NABH originated from Cellvibrio sp. KY-GH-1, which may be useful for the enzymatic hydrolysis of agarose for mass production of L-AHG and D-galactose.