• BMB Reports
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• 제44권8호
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• pp.523-528
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• 2011

To identify novel genes that are regulated by promoter methylation, a combinational approach involving in silico mining followed by molecular assay was performed. From the expression microarray data registered in the European bioinformatics institute (EBI), genes showing downregulation in breast cancer cells were initially screened and then selected by e-Northern analysis using the Unigene database. A series of these in silico methods identified CAMK2B and ARFGEF1 as candidates, and the two genes were revealed to be hypermethylated in breast cancer cell lines and hypomethylated in normal breast cell lines. Additionally, cancer cell lines showed downregulated expression of these genes. Furthermore, treatment of the cancer cell lines with a demethylation agent, 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine, recovered expression of CAMK2B and ARFGEF1, implying that hypermethyaltion silenced gene activity in cancer cells. Taken together, promoter methylations of CAMK2B and ARFGEF1 are novel epigenetic markers identified in breast cancer cell lines and can be utilized for the application to clinical cancer tissues.

• BMB Reports
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• 제57권7호
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• pp.324-329
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• 2024

The aim of the present study is to provide a rational background for silencing the V-set and transmembrane domain containing 2 like (VSTM2L) in consort with recognising soluble VSTM2L against cholangiocarcinoma. A therapeutic target against cholangiocarcinoma was selected using iterative patient partitioning (IPP) calculation, and it was verified by in vitro and in silico analyses. VSTM2L was selected as a potential therapeutic target against cholangiocarcinoma. Silencing the VSTM2L expression significantly attenuated the viability and survival of cholangiocarcinoma cells through blockade of the intracellular signalling pathway. In silico analysis showed that VSTM2L affected the positive regulation of cell growth in cholangiocarcinoma. Liptak's z value revealed that the expression of VSTM2L worsened the prognosis of cholangiocarcinoma patients. In addition, soluble VSTM2L was significantly detected in the whole blood of cholangiocarcinoma patients compared with that of healthy donors. Our report reveals that VSTM2L might be the potential therapeutic target and a soluble prognostic biomarker against cholangiocarcinoma.

• 한국생물정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국생물정보시스템생물학회 2003년도 제2차 연례학술대회 발표논문집
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• pp.221-228
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• 2003

This paper presents a novel method that can identify the individual's haplotype from the given genotypes. Because of the limitation of the conventional single-locus analysis, haplotypes have gained increasing attention in the mapping of complex-disease genes. Conventionally there are two approaches which resolve the individual's haplotypes. One is the molecular haplotypings which have many potential limitations in cost and convenience. The other is the in-silico haplotypings which phase the haplotypes from the diploid genotyped populations, and are cost effective and high-throughput method. In-silico haplotyping is divided into two sub-categories - statistical and computational method. The former computes the frequencies of the common haplotypes, and then resolves the individual's haplotypes. The latter directly resolves the individual's haplotypes using the perfect phylogeny model first proposed by Dan Gusfield [7]. Our method combines two approaches in order to increase the accuracy and the running time. The individuals' haplotypes are resolved by considering the MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimation) in the process of computing the frequencies of the common haplotypes.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제34권4호
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• pp.1051-1054
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• 2013

Closo-carborane has been considered as an efficient boron-carrier for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) and an attractive surrogate of lipophilic phenyl or cyclohexyl ring in drug design. Despite a great number of carborane-containing ligands have been synthesized and evaluated, molecular modeling studies of carborane ligands with macromolecules have been rarely reported. We herein describe a facile docking and scoring-function strategy of 16 carborane ligands with an estrogen receptor by using the commercial Gaussian, Chem3D Pro and Discovery Studio (DS) computational programs. Docked poses of the carborane ligands in silico exhibited similar binding modes to that of the crystal ligand in the active site of estrogen receptor. Score analysis of the best docked pose for each ligand indicated that the Ligscore1 and the Dockscore have a moderate correlation with in vitro biological activity. This is the first report on the scoring-correlation studies of carborane ligands with macromolecules. The integrated Gaussian-DS approach has a potential application for virtual screening, De novo design, and optimization of carborane ligands in medicinal chemistry.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.36.1-36.19
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• 2023

The LIM domain-containing proteins are dominantly found in plants and play a significant role in various biological processes such as gene transcription as well as actin cytoskeletal organization. Nevertheless, genome-wide identification as well as functional analysis of the LIM gene family have not yet been reported in the economically important plant sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.). Therefore, we conducted an in silico identification and characterization of LIM genes in S. bicolor genome using integrated bioinformatics approaches. Based on phylogenetic tree analysis and conserved domain, we identified five LIM genes in S. bicolor (SbLIM) genome corresponding to Arabidopsis LIM (AtLIM) genes. The conserved domain, motif as well as gene structure analyses of the SbLIM gene family showed the similarity within the SbLIM and AtLIM members. The gene ontology (GO) enrichment study revealed that the candidate LIM genes are directly involved in cytoskeletal organization and various other important biological as well as molecular pathways. Some important families of regulating transcription factors such as ERF, MYB, WRKY, NAC, bZIP, C2H2, Dof, and G2-like were detected by analyzing their interaction network with identified SbLIM genes. The cis-acting regulatory elements related to predicted SbLIM genes were identified as responsive to light, hormones, stress, and other functions. The present study will provide valuable useful information about LIM genes in sorghum which would pave the way for the future study of functional pathways of candidate SbLIM genes as well as their regulatory factors in wet-lab experiments.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.307-313
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• 2018

탈모증상은 겉으로 보이는 모습으로 인해 정신적인 스트레스로 작용한다. 그래서 탈모 방지관련 제품의 글로벌 시장 규모는 지속적으로 성장하고 있다. Timosaponin A III는 지모 추출물에서 발견되는 대표적인 saponin 계열의 생리 활성 효능 성분이다. 본 연구에서는 5-beta reductase 단백질 길항제(antagonist) finasteride, androgen receptor 단백질 길항제 minoxidil, 그리고 지모 추출물의 효능 성분 timosaponin A III의 각각의 타깃 단백질 활성 부위에 대한 친화도 분석 실험을 in silico 컴퓨터 분자결합 분석 방법을 통해 비교하였다. 5-beta reductase 및 androgen receptor 의 3차원 구조 정보는 PDB database (5-beta reductase PDB ID: 3G1R / androgen receptor PDB ID:4K7A)를 활용하였다. In silico 결합 분석을 수행하기 위해 PyRx, Autodock Vina, Discovery Studio Version 4.5, and NX-QuickPharm 프로그램을 각 분석 조건에 따라 활용하였다. 5-beta reductase 활성 부위에 대한 timosaponin A III의 최대 결합친화도는 -12.20 kcal/mol으로 나왔으며 이는 -11.70 kcal/mol으로 분석된 finasteride의 5-beta reductase 활성부위에 대한 결합 친화도 보다 훨씬 더 높고 효율적인 것으로 분석되었다. Androgen receptor 활성 부위에 대한 timosaponin A III의 최대결합친화도 또한 -9.00 kcal/mol으로 -7.40 kcal/mol의 minoxidil에 비하여 훨씬 우수한 결합친화도 값을 나타내었다. Finasteride와 timosaponin A III의 5-beta reductase 단백질 활성 부위에 대한 X,Y,Z Grid 값은 유사한 좌표로 분석되었으나 minoxidil과 timosaponin A III의 androgen receptor 활성 부위에 대한 X,Y,Z centroid grid 좌표는 상당한 거리를 두고 떨어져 있음이 확인 되었다. 즉, timosaponin A III는 minoxidil이 androgen receptor에 결합하는 부위와는 다른 부위에 결합하여 단백질 활성에 영향을 주는 것으로 사료되었다. 이상의 연구 결과들을 바탕으로 분석해 볼 때, 5-beta reductase 길항제 finasteride와 androgen receptor 길항제 minoxidil보다 지모 추출물 생리 활성 물질인 timosaponin A III가 보다 더 효율적인 길항제로 작용할 수 있음을 확인하였다. 결론적으로 지모 추출물 또는 timosaponin 계열이 함유된 효능 성분은 탈모 방지 효능 및 모발 건강 개선을 위한 의약품, 의약외품 및 신물질 연구 개발 분야에 효율적으로 활용할 수 있을 것으로 사료된다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제34권9호
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• pp.1836-1847
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• 2024

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most widely used plastics in the world, causes serious environmental problems. Recently, scientists have been focused on the enzymatic degradation of PET, an environmentally friendly method that offers an attractive approach to the degradation and recycling of PET. In this work, PET hydrolase from Streptomyces sp. W2061 was biochemically characterized, and the biodegradation of PET was performed using the PET model substrate bis (2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate) (BHET). PET hydrolase has an isoelectric point of 5.84, and a molecular mass of about 50.31 kDa. The optimum pH and temperature were 7.0 and 40℃, respectively. LC-MS analysis of the enzymatic products showed that the PET hydrolase successfully degraded a single ester bond of BHET, leading to the formation of MHET. Furthermore, in silico characterization of the PET hydrolase protein sequence and its predicted three-dimensional structure was designed and compared with the well-characterized IsPETase from Ideonella sakaiensis. The structural analysis showed that the (Gly-x1-Ser-x2-Gly) serine hydrolase motif and the catalytic triad (Ser, Asp, and His) were conserved in all sequences. In addition, we integrated molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to analyze the variation in the structural stability of the PET hydrolase in the absence and presence of BHET. These simulations showed the formation of a stable complex between the PET hydrolase and BHET. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on Streptomyces sp. W2061 to investigate the BHET degradation activity of PET hydrolase, which has potential application in the biodegradation of plastics in the environment.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제26권11호
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• pp.1863-1870
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• 2016

Antimicrobial peptides/proteins (AMPs) are present in all types of organisms, from microbes and plants to vertebrates and invertebrates such as insects. The grasshopper Oxya chinensis sinuosa is an insect species that is widely consumed around the world for its broad medicinal value. However, the lack of available genetic information for this species is an obstacle to understanding the full potential of its AMPs. Analysis of the O. chinensis sinuosa transcriptome and expression profile is essential for extending the available genetic information resources. In this study, we determined the whole-body transcriptome of O. chinensis sinuosa and analyzed the potential AMPs induced by bacterial immunization. A high-throughput RNA-Seq approach generated 94,348 contigs and 66,555 unigenes. Of these unigenes, 36,032 (54.14%) matched known proteins in the NCBI database in a BLAST search. Functional analysis demonstrated that 38,219 unigenes were clustered into 5,499 gene ontology terms. In addition, 26 cDNAs encoding novel AMPs were identified by an in silico approach using public databases. Our transcriptome dataset and AMP profile greatly improve our understanding of O. chinensis sinuosa genetics and provide a huge number of gene sequences for further study, including genes of known importance and genes of unknown function.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.7.1-7.11
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• 2023

The gram-positive bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne intracellular pathogen that is widespread in the environment. The functions of hypothetical proteins (HP) from various pathogenic bacteria have been successfully annotated using a variety of bioinformatics strategies. In this study, a HP Imo0888 (NP_464414.1) from the Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e strain was annotated using several bioinformatics tools. Various techniques, including CELLO, PSORTb, and SOSUIGramN, identified the candidate protein as cytoplasmic. Domain and motif analysis revealed that the target protein is a PemK/MazF-like toxin protein of the type II toxin-antitoxin system (TAS) which was consistent with BLASTp analysis. Through secondary structure analysis, we found the random coil to be the most frequent. The Alpha Fold 2 Protein Structure Prediction Database was used to determine the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the HP using the template structure of a type II TAS PemK/MazF family toxin protein (DB ID_AFDB: A0A4B9HQB9) with 99.1% sequence identity. Various quality evaluation tools, such as PROCHECK, ERRAT, Verify 3D, and QMEAN were used to validate the 3D structure. Following the YASARA energy minimization method, the target protein's 3D structure became more stable. The active site of the developed 3D structure was determined by the CASTp server. Most pathogens that harbor TAS create a crucial risk to human health. Our aim to annotate the HP Imo088 found in Listeria could offer a chance to understand bacterial pathogenicity and identify a number of potential targets for drug development.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제43권1호
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• pp.19-26
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• 2022

The Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmic Assay(CiPA) project was launched for solving the hERG assay problem of being classified as high-risk groups even though they are low-risk drugs due to their high sensitivity. CiPA presented a protocol to predict drug toxicity using physiological data calculated based on the in-silico model. in this study, features calculated through the in-silico model are analyzed for correlation of changing action potential in the near future, and features are verified through predictive performance according to drug datasets. Using the O'Hara Rudy model modified by Dutta et al., Pearson correlation analysis was performed between 13 features(dVm/dtmax, APpeak, APresting, APD90, APD50, APDtri, Ca_peak, Ca_resting, CaD90, CaD50, CaDtri, qNet, qInward) calculated at 100 pacing, and between dVm/d_{tmax_repol} calculated at 1,000 pacing, and linear regression analysis was performed on each of the 12 training drugs, 16 verification drugs, and 28 drugs. Indicators showing high coefficient of determination(R²) in the training drug dataset were qNet 0.93, AP resting 0.83, APDtri 0.78, Ca resting 0.76, dVm/dt_max 0.63, and APD90 0.61. The indicators showing high determinants in the validated drug dataset were APDtri 0.94, APD90 0.92, APD50 0.85, CaD50 0.84, qNet 0.76, and CaD90 0.64. Indicators with high coefficients of determination for all 28 drugs are qNet 0.78, APD90 0.74, and qInward 0.59. The indicators vary in predictive performance depending on the drug dataset, and qNet showed the same high performance of 0.7 or more on the training drug dataset, the verified drug dataset, and the entire drug dataset.