• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.55-57
• /
• 2013

Growing numbers of studies employ cell line-based systematic short interfering RNA (siRNA) screens to study gene functions and to identify drug targets. As multiple sources of variations that are unique to siRNA screens exist, there is a growing demand for a computational tool that generates normalized values and standardized scores. However, only a few tools have been available so far with limited usability. Here, we present siMacro, a fast and easy-to-use Microsoft Office Excel-based tool with a graphic user interface, designed to process single-condition or two-condition synthetic screen datasets. siMacro normalizes position and batch effects, censors outlier samples, and calculates Z-scores and robust Z-scores, with a spreadsheet output of >120,000 samples in under 1 minute.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.6.1-6.12
• /
• 2012

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complicated neurodegenerative disorder although it is oftentimes defined by clinical motor symptoms originated from age dependent and progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. The pathogenesis of PD involves dopaminergic and nondopaminergic neurons in many brain regions and the molecular mechanisms underlying the death of different cell types still remain to be elucidated. There are indications that PD causing disease processes occur in a global scale ranging from DNA to RNA, and proteins. Several PD-associated genes have been reported to play diverse roles in controlling cellular functions in different levels, such as chromatin structure, transcription, processing of mRNA, translational modulation, and posttranslational modification of proteins. The advent of quantitative high throughput screening (HTS) tools makes it possible to monitor systemic changes in DNA, RNA and proteins in PD models. Combined with dopamine neuron isolation or derivation of dopamine neurons from PD patient specific induced pluripotent stem cells (PD iPSCs), HTS techonologies will provide opportunities to draw PD causing sequences of molecular events in pathologically relevant PD samples. Here I discuss previous studies that identified molecular functions in which PD genes are involved, especially those signaling pathways that can be efficiently studied using HTS methodologies. Brief descriptions of quantitative and systemic tools looking at DNA, RNA and proteins will be followed. Finally, I will emphasize the use and potential benefits of PD iPSCs-derived dopaminergic neurons to screen signaling pathways that are initiated by PD linked gene mutations and thus causative for dopaminergic neurodegneration in PD.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.25-29
• /
• 2009

Microarrays can be used to screen thousands of binding events in a parallel and high throughput fashion and are of major importance in disease diagnosis and drug discovery. The use of radioisotope is conventionally regarded as one of the most sensitive detection methods. Atherosclerosis is a common disorder affecting arterial blood vessels. It happens when fat, cholesterol, and other substances made in the arterial blood vessels form a hard substances called plaque. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase $A_2$ ($Lp-PLA_2$), a phospholipase $A_2$ enzyme, is used as a marker for cardiac disease. The detection of $Lp-PLA_2$ was accomplished by using radioactive [$^3H-acetyl$] PAF as a substrate and a feasibility study on RI biochip application to detection of $Lp-PLA_2$, a risk factors of atherosclerosis was performed. Inhibitive activity of a native plant extract was also determined by using the RI biochip. It was found to be applicable to a high-throughput screening of inhibitors for developing atherosclerosis therapeutic agents.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.10
• /
• pp.1153-1158
• /
• 2011

Roll-to-roll process is an emerging mass production method for printed and flexible electronics such as touch screen panel, RFID tag, thin film solar cell, and flexible display due to its high throughput. High precision in printing and coating is required to apply functional materials onto substrate. For such reason, every part of the roll-to-roll equipment needs to be precisely fabricated and to retain its precision under regular operation. In this article, the precision of cantilever type idler roller and a novel method to mitigate its deflection under web tension loading are discussed and the method is verified using both the numerical and the experimental works. The proposed method improves the structural rigidity of cantilever type roller whose advantages, such as low capital cost and high web path configurability, are maintained.

• Food Science and Preservation
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.482-488
• /
• 2005

Oxidant stress is well-known for a pivotal parameter related to neuro-inflammatory diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). In order to effectively screen for anti-inflammatory agents, we first established the infrastructure of high throughput screening for anti-oxidant agents from medicinal insect library extracted with water, methanol, ethanol, and dimethyl sulfoxide. By the screening system, we found that Tenodera angustipennis Saussure, Pyrocoela rupa Olivier and Papilio maackii Mntris had strong anti-oxidant activity. Moreover, Tenodera angustipennis Saussure and Tenodera aridifolia (Stoll) exhibited protection effects of cellular damage by treatment of an oxidant hydrogen peroxide. Together, the results suggest that some selected hits could be a potential agent against neuro-inflammation, although the in vivo studies should be clearly tested.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.43-50
• /
• 2012

The use of high throughput screening (HTS) in drug development is principally for the selection new drug candidates or screening of chemical toxicants. This system minimizes the experimental environment and allows for the screening of candidates at the same time. Umbilical cord-derived stem cells have some of the characteristics of fetal stem cell and have several advantages such as the ease with which they can be obtained and lack of ethical issues. To establish a HTS system, optimized conditions that mimic typical cell culture conditions in a minimal space such as 96 well plates are needed for stem cell growth. We have thus established a novel HTS system using human umbilical cord derived-mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs). To determine the optimal cell number, hUC-MSCs were serially diluted and seeded at 750, 500, 200 and 100 cells per well on 96 well plates. The maintenance efficiencies of these dilutions were compared for 3, 7, 9, and 14 days. The fetal bovine serum (FBS) concentration (20, 10, 5 and 1%) and the cell numbers (750, 500 and 200 cells/well) were compared for 3, 5 and 7 days. In addition, we evaluated the optimal conditions for cell cycle block. These four independent optimization experiments were conducted using an MTT assay. In the results, the optimal conditions for a HTS system using hUC-MSCs were determined to be 300 cell/well cultured for 8 days with 1 or 5% FBS. In addition, we demonstrated that the optimal conditions for a cell cycle block in this culture system are 48 hours in the absence of FBS. In addition, we selected four types of novel small molecule candidates using our HTS system which demonstrates the feasibility if using hUC-MSCs for this type of screen. Moreover, the four candidate compounds can be tested for stem cell research application.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.118-123
• /
• 2015

Metagenomics is a powerful tool to isolate novel biocatalyst and biomolecules directly from the environmental DNA libraries. Since the metagenomics approach bypasses cultivation of microorganisms, un-cultured microorganisms that are majority of exists can be the richest reservoir for natural products discovery. To discover novel herbicidal substances from soil metagenome, we established three easy, simple and effective high throughput screening methods such as cucumber cotyledon leaf disc assay, microalgae assay and seed germination assay. Employing the methods, we isolated two active single clones (9-G1 and 9-G12) expressing herbicidal activity which whitened leaf discs, inhibited growth of microalgae and inhibited root growth of germinated Arabidopsis seeds. Spraying butanol fraction of the isolated active clones' culture broth led to growth retardation or desiccation of Digitalia sanguinalis (L) Scop. in vivo. These results represent that the screening methods established in this study are useful to screen herbicidal substances from metagenome libraries. Further identifying molecular structure of the herbicidal active substances and analyzing gene clusters encoding synthesis systems for the active substances are in progress.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.105-109
• /
• 2013

Raman spectroscopy provides many advantages compared to other common analytical techniques due to its ability of rapid and accurate identification of unknown specimens as well as simple sample preparation. Here, we described potential of Raman spectroscopic technique as an efficient and high throughput method to detect plants infected by economically important viruses. To enhance the detection sensitivity of Raman measurement, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) was employed. Spectra of extracts from healthy and Turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV) infected Chinese cabbage leaves were collected by mixing with gold (Au) nanoparticles. Our result showed that TYMV infected plants could be discriminated from non-infected healthy plants, suggesting the current method described here would be an alternative potential tool to screen virus-infection of plants in fields although it needs more studies to generalize the technique.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.480-494
• /
• 2019

Aggregates of disease-causing proteins dysregulate cellular functions, thereby causing neuronal cell loss in diverse neurodegenerative diseases. Although many in vitro or in vivo studies of protein aggregate inhibitors have been performed, a therapeutic strategy to control aggregate toxicity has not been earnestly pursued, partly due to the limitations of available aggregate models. In this study, we established a tetracycline (Tet)-inducible nuclear aggregate (${\beta}23$) expression model to screen potential lead compounds inhibiting ${\beta}23$-induced toxicity. High-throughput screening identified several natural compounds as nuclear ${\beta}23$ inhibitors, including peucedanocoumarin III (PCIII). Interestingly, PCIII accelerates disaggregation and proteasomal clearance of both nuclear and cytosolic ${\beta}23$ aggregates and protects SH-SY5Y cells from toxicity induced by ${\beta}23$ expression. Of translational relevance, PCIII disassembled fibrils and enhanced clearance of cytosolic and nuclear protein aggregates in cellular models of huntingtin and ${\alpha}$-synuclein aggregation. Moreover, cellular toxicity was diminished with PCIII treatment for polyglutamine (PolyQ)-huntingtin expression and ${\alpha}$-synuclein expression in conjunction with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) treatment. Importantly, PCIII not only inhibited ${\alpha}$-synuclein aggregation but also disaggregated preformed ${\alpha}$-synuclein fibrils in vitro. Taken together, our results suggest that a Tet-Off ${\beta}23$ cell model could serve as a robust platform for screening effective lead compounds inhibiting nuclear or cytosolic protein aggregates. Brain-permeable PCIII or its derivatives could be beneficial for eliminating established protein aggregates.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.36 no.9
• /
• pp.1336-1349
• /
• 2023

Objective: The study was conducted to screen differentially expressed miRNAs in sows at early pregnancy by high-throughput sequencing and explore its mechanism of action on embryo implantation. Methods: The blood serum of pregnant and non-pregnant Landrace×Yorkshire sows were collected 14 days after artificial insemination, and exosomal miRNAs were purified for high throughput miRNA sequencing. The expression patterns of 10 differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs were validated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The qRT-PCR quantified the abundance of serum exosomal miR-192 in pregnant and control sows, and the diagnostic power was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The target genes of DE miRNAs were predicted with bioinformatics software, and the functional and pathway enrichment analysis was performed on gene ontology and the Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes terms. Furthermore, a luciferase reporter system was used to identify the target relation between miR-192 and integrin alpha 4 (ITGA4), a gene influencing embryo implantation in pigs. Finally, the expression levels of miRNAs and the target gene ITGA4 were analyzed by qRT-PCR, and western blot, with the proliferation of BeWo cells detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8). Results: A total of 221 known miRNAs were detected in the libraries of the pregnant and non-pregnant sows, of which 55 were up-regulated and 67 were down-regulated in the pregnant individuals compared with the non-pregnant controls. From these, the expression patterns of 10 DE miRNAs were validated. The qRT-PCR analysis further confirmed a significantly higher expression of miR-192 in the serum exosomes extracted from pregnant sows, when compared to controls. The ROC analysis revealed that miR-192 provided excellent diagnostic accuracy for pregnancy (area under the ROC curve [AUC]=0.843; p>0.001). The dual-luciferase reporter assay indicated that miR-192 directly targeted ITGA4. The protein expression of ITGA4 was reduced in cells that overexpressed miR-192. Overexpression of miR-192 resulted in the decreased proliferation of BeWo cells and regulated the expression of cell cycle-related genes. Conclusion: Serum exosomal miR-192 could serve as a potential biomarker for early pregnancy in pigs. miR-192 targeted ITGA4 gene directly, and miR-192 can regulate cellular proliferation.