• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.212-216
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• 2009

The short in vivo half-life of GLP-1 prevents it from being used clinically. This short half-life occurs because GLP-1 is rapidly degraded by dipeptidyl peptidases such as DPP-IV. To overcome this obstacle, a GLP-1/Fc was constructed and evaluated to determine if it was degraded by DPP-IV and in serum. When the degradation of GLP-1/Fc by human DPP-IV and rabbit serum was compared with that of GLP-1 it was found to be reduced by approximately 5- and 4-fold, respectively. Furthermore, GLP-1/Fc showed a potent activity for human GLP-1 receptor activation ($EC_{50}$ approximately 6 nM). Taken together, these results indicate that GLP-1/Fc may have an extended half-life in vivo that occurs as a result of inhibition of degradation by human DPP-IV. Due to the extended half life, GLP-1/Fc may be useful for clinical treatments.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.102-108
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• 2002

Background: This study was aimed to differentiate two forms of CTLA-4 (CD152) in activated peripheral blood lymphocyte and clarify the mechanism how cytoplasmic form of this molecule is targeted to cell surface. Methods: For this purpose we generated 2 different anti-human CD152 peptide antibodies and 5 different N'-terminal deletion mutant CTLA4Ig fusion proteins and carried out a series of Western blot and ELISA analyses. Antipeptide antibodies made in this study were anti-CTLA4pB and anti-CTLA4pN. The former recognized a region on extracellular single V-like domain and the latter recognized N'-terminal sequence of leader domain of human CD152. Results: In Western blot, the former antibody recognized recombinant human CTLA4Ig fusion protein as an antigen. And this recognition was completely blocked by preincubating antipeptide antibody with the peptide used for the antibody generation at the peptide concentration of 200 ug/ml. These antibodies were recognized human CD152 as a cytoplasmic sequestered- and a membrane bound- forms in phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated peripheral blood lymphocyte (PBL). These two forms of CD152 were further differentiated by using anti-CTLA4pN and anti-CTLA4pB antibodies such that former recognized cytosolic form only while latter recognized both cytoplasmic- and membraneforms of this molecule. Furthermore, in a transfection expression study of 5 different N'-terminal deletion mutant CTLA4Ig, mutated proteins were secreted out from transfected cell surface only when more than 6 amino acids from N'-terminal were deleted. Conclusion: Our results implies that cytosolic form of CTLA-4 has leader sequence while membrane form of this molecule does not. And also suggested is that at least N'-terminal 6 amino acid residues of human CTLA-4 are required for regulation of targeting this molecule from cytosolic- to membrane- area of activated human peripheral blood T lymphocyte.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.493-499
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• 2024

Antimicrobial peptides are antimicrobial substances inherent in animals and plants, with strong antibacterial activity even in small amounts and with various other functions such as antiviral and antioxidant actions. Plants can be grown with just water and sunlight, allowing for their mass production at low costs. However, transforming a chloroplast into one that produces antimicrobial peptides, rather than growing plants, increases the amount of protein expression and minimizes contamination of the ecosystem because gene transfer by pollen does not occur. In that context, using transgenic plant chloroplasts to produce recombinant proteins increases protein degradation and reduces the solubility of proteins. To solve this problem, we fused SUMO, a fusion protein, with a recombinant protein. We also used a 6xHis tag to purify the fusion protein. The antimicrobial peptide stomoxyn is an antibacterial substance found in stable flies. Stomoxyn has an α-helix structure and is amphiphilic, which allows it to dissolve bacterial cell membranes. In this study, we constructed a transformation vector to express stomoxyn in both plant chloroplasts and Escherichia coli and used this vector to confirm the expression of stomoxyn in E. coli. The expression of the protein was then confirmed in E. coli using a transformation vector. The expressed stomoxyn was purified by nickel column and SUMOase treatment, and its antibacterial activity was confirmed using an agar diffusion assay. The EGFP gene was used to ensure that the transformed vector was inserted into the chloroplast.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2008

Vibrio vulnificus produces siderophores, low-molecular-weight iron-chelating compounds, to obtain iron under conditions of iron deprivation. To identify genes associated with the biosynthesis of siderophore in V. vulnificus MO6-24/O, we screened clones with mini-Tn5 random insertions for those showing decreased production of siderophore. Among 6,000 clones screened, nine such clones were selected. These clones contain the transposon inserted in VV2_0830 (GenBank accession number) that is a homolog of a nonribosomal peptide synthase (NRPS). There is an another NRPS module, VV2_0831, 49-bp upstream to VV2_0830. We named these two genes vvs (Vibrio vulnificus siderophore synthase) A and B, respectively. Mutation of either vvsA or vvsB showed a decreased production of siderophore. The expression of an NRPS-lux fusion was negatively modulated by the presence of iron, and the regulation was dependent on Fur (ferric uptake regulator). However, the expression of the NRPS genes was still not fully derepressed in the iron-rich condition, even in furnull mutant cells, suggesting that some other unknown factors are involved in the regulation of the genes. We also demonstrated that the NRPS genes are important for virulence of the pathogen in a mice model.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2013

Coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1) is included in the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family, which methylates histone arginine residues through posttranslational modification. It has been proposed that CARM1 may up-regulate the expression of pluripotency-related genes through the alteration of the chromatin structure. Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) are pluripotent and have the ability to self-renew. The cells are mainly used to study the genetic function of novel genes, because the cells facilitate the transmission of the manipulated genes into target mice. Since the up-regulated methylation levels of histone arginine residue lead to the maintenance of pluripotency in embryos and stem cells, it may be suggested that CARM1 overexpressing mESCs elevate the expression of pluripotency-related genes in reconstituted embryos for transgenic mice and may resist the differentiation into trophectoderm (TE). We constructed a fusion protein by connecting CARM1 and 7X-arginine (R7). As a cell-penetrating peptide (CPP), can translocate CARM1 protein into mESCs. CPP-CARM1 protein was detected in the nuclei of the mESCs after a treatment of 24 hours. Accordingly, the expression of pluripotency-related genes was up-regulated in CPP-CARM1-treated mESCs. In addition, CPP-CARM1-treated mESC-derived embryoid bodies (EBs) showed an elevated expression of pluripotency-related genes and delayed spontaneous differentiation. This result suggests that the treatment of recombinant CPP-CARM1 protein elevates the expression of pluripotency-related genes of mESCs by epigenetic modification, and this protein-delivery system could be used to modify embryonic fate in reconstituted embryos with mESCs.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.816-823
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• 2022

The rapid spread of superbugs leads to the escalation of infectious diseases, which threatens public health. Endolysins derived from bacteriophages are spotlighted as promising alternative antibiotics against multi-drug resistant bacteria. In this study, we isolated and characterized the novel Salmonella typhimurium phage PBST08. Bioinformatics analysis of the PBST08 genome revealed putative endolysin ST01 with a lysozyme-like domain. Since the lytic activity of the purified ST01 was minor, probably owing to the outer membrane, which blocks accessibility to peptidoglycan, antimicrobial peptide cecropin A (CecA) was fused to the N-terminus of ST01 to disrupt the outer membrane. The resulting CecA::ST01 has been shown to have increased bactericidal activity against gram-negative pathogens including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, and Enterobacter cloacae and the most affected target was A. baumannii. In the presence of 0.25 µM CecA::ST01, A. baumannii ATCC 17978 strain was completely killed and CCARM 12026 strain was wiped out by 0.5 µM CecA::ST01, which is a clinical isolate of A. baumannii and resistant to multiple drugs including carbapenem. Moreover, the larvae of Galleria mellonella could be rescued up to 58% or 49% by the administration of CecA::ST01 upon infection by A. baumannii 17978 or CCARM 12026 strain. Finally, the antibacterial activity of CecA::ST01 was verified using 31 strains of five gram-negative pathogens by evaluation of minimal inhibitory concentration. Thus, the results indicate that a fusion of antimicrobial peptide to endolysin can enhance antibacterial activity and the spectrum of endolysin where multi-drug resistant gram-negative pathogens can be efficiently controlled.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.597-604
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• 2014

$\small{D}$-Phenylglycine aminotransferase ($\small{D}$-PhgAT) from Pseudomonas stutzeri ST-201 is useful for enzymatic synthesis of enantiomerically pure $\small{D}$-phenylglycine. However, its low protein solubility prevents its application at high substrate concentration. With an aim to increase the protein solubility, the N-terminus of $\small{D}$-PhgAT was genetically fused with short peptides ($A_1$ ${\alpha}$-helix, $A_2$ ${\alpha}$-helix, and ALAL, which is a hybrid of $A_1$ and $A_2$) from a ferredoxin enzyme of a halophilic archaeon, Halobacterium salinarum. The fused enzymes $A_1$-$\small{D}$-PhgAT, $A_2$-$\small{D}$-PhgAT, and ALAL-$\small{D}$-PhgAT displayed a reduced pI and increased in solubility by 6.1-, 5.3-, and 8.1- fold in TEMP (pH 7.6) storage, respectively, and 5-, 4.5-, and 5.9-fold in CAPSO (pH 9.5) reaction buffers, respectively, compared with the wild-type enzyme (WT-$\small{D}$-PhgAT). In addition, all the fused $\small{D}$-PhgAT displayed higher enzymatic reaction rates than the WT-DPhgAT at all concentrations of L-glutamate monosodium salt used. The highest rate, $23.82{\pm}1.47$ mM/h, was that obtained from having ALAL-$\small{D}$-PhgAT reacted with 1,500 mM of the substrate. Moreover, the halophilic fusion significantly increased the tolerance of $\small{D}$-PhgAT in the presence of NaCl and KCl, being slightly in favor of KCl, where under the same condition at 3.5 M NaCl or KCl all halophilic-fused variants showed higher activity than WT-$\small{D}$-PhgAT.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.136-141
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• 2009

Familial Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS) is a progressive neurodegenetative disorder induced by mutations of the SOD1 gene. Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) is well-defined as a stress-inducible protein, however the its role in ALS protection has not yet been established. To investigate the role HSP27 may have in SOD1 mutant-mediated apoptosis, human SOD1 or HSP27 genes were fused with a PEP-1 peptide in a bacterial expression vector to produce a genetic in-frame fusion protein, which was then transduced into cells. We found the purified PEP-1-HSP27 fusion proteins can be transduced efficiently into neuronal cells and protect against cell death by enhancing mutant SOD1 activity. Moreover, transduced PEP-1-HSP27 efficiently prevents protein aggregation produced by oxidative stress. These results suggest that transduced HSP27 fusion protein may be explored as a potential therapeutic agent for FALS patients.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.468-472
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• 2003

Recently, genetic engineering techniques have been used to display various heterologous peptides and proteins (enzyme, antibody, antigen, receptor and fluorescence protein, etc.) on the yeast cell surface. Living cells displaying various enzymes on their surface could be used repeatedly as 'whole cell biocatalysts' like immobilized enzymes. We constructed a yeast based whole cell biocatalyst displaying T. reesei cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I ) on the cell surface and endowed the yeast-cells with the ability to degrade cellulose. By using a cell surface engineering system based on ${\alpha}-agglutinin,$ CBH I was displayed on the cell surface as a fusion protein containing the N-terminal leader peptide encoding a Gly-Ser linker and the $Xpress^{TM}$ epitope. Localization of the fusion protein on the cell surface was confirmed by confocal microscopy. In this study, we report on the genetic immobilization of T. reesei CBH I on the S. cerevisiae and hydrolytic activity of cell surface displayed CBH I.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.187-191
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• 2012

Two-component system (TCS)-based bacterial zinc and copper biosensors, in which green fluorescent protein (GFP) is expressed under the control of zraP and cusC promoter in ZraS/R and CusS/R TCS, were evaluated in artificial wastewater. Bacterial biosensors developed in this study efficiently expressed GFP by the recognition of $Zn^{2+}$ and $Cu^{2+}$ in artificial wastewater. Secondly, TCS-based zinc and copper removing bacteria with the peptide displayed on cell surface were examined in artificial wastewater. Zinc and copper removing bacteria expressed the peptide as a fusion protein such as OmpC-ZBP (zinc binding peptide) and OmpC-CBP (copper binding peptide) on the cell surface when sensing exogenous $Zn^{2+}$ and $Cu^{2+}$ through ZraS/R and CusS/R TCS. The recombinant cell expressing metal-adsorbing peptide could efficiently remove copper and zinc (15 and 18 mg/g dry cell weight, respectively) in artificial wastewater. Therefore, it was demonstrated that the TCS-based recombinant cell for the recognition or removal of heavy metal functions well in artificial wastewater environment.