• 미생물학회지
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

Due to the major role played by several species of Streptococcus in the etiology of periodontitis, it is important to assess the pattern of Streptococcus pathogenic pathways within the infected subgingival pockets using a bacterial specific 16S rRNA fragment. From the total of 50 patients with periodontitis included in the study, only 23 Streptococcal isolates were considered for further analyses, in which their 16S rRNA fragments were amplified and sequenced. Then, a comprehensive phylogenetic tree was constructed and in silico prediction was performed for the observed Streptococcal species. The phylogenetic analysis of the subgingival Streptococcal species revealed a high discrimination power of the 16S rRNA fragment to accurately identify three groups of Streptococcus on the species level, including S. salivarius (14 isolates), S. anginosus (5 isolates), and S. gordonii (4 isolates). The employment of state-of-art in silico tools indicated that each Streptococcal species group was characterized with particular transcription factors that bound exclusively with a different 16S rRNA-based secondary structure. In conclusion, the observed data of the present study provided in-depth insights into the mechanism of each Streptococcal species in its pathogenesis, which differ in each observed group, according to the differences in the 16S rRNA secondary structure it takes, and the consequent binding with its corresponding transcription factors. This study paves the way for further interventions of the in silico prediction, with the main conventional in vitro microbiota identification to present an interesting insight in terms of the gene expression pattern and the signaling pathway that each pathogenic species follows in the infected subgingival site.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제19권4호
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• pp.43.1-43.12
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• 2021

Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most prevalent organisms associated with foodborne illness across the globe causing campylobacteriosis and gastritis. Many proteins of C. jejuni are still unidentified. The purpose of this study was to determine the structure and function of a non-annotated hypothetical protein (HP) from C. jejuni. A number of properties like physiochemical characteristics, 3D structure, and functional annotation of the HP (accession No. CAG2129885.1) were predicted using various bioinformatics tools followed by further validation and quality assessment. Moreover, the protein-protein interactions and active site were obtained from the STRING and CASTp server, respectively. The hypothesized protein possesses various characteristics including an acidic pH, thermal stability, water solubility, and cytoplasmic distribution. While alpha-helix and random coil structures are the most prominent structural components of this protein, most of it is formed of helices and coils. Along with expected quality, the 3D model has been found to be novel. This study has identified the potential role of the HP in 2-methylcitric acid cycle and propionate catabolism. Furthermore, protein-protein interactions revealed several significant functional partners. The in-silico characterization of this protein will assist to understand its molecular mechanism of action better. The methodology of this study would also serve as the basis for additional research into proteomic and genomic data for functional potential identification.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.104-112
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• 2023

COVID-19 caused a catastrophe in human health. People infected with COVID-19 also suffer from various clinical illnesses during and after the infection. The Boerhavia diffusa plant is well known for its antihypertensive activity. ACE-II inhibitors and calcium channel blockers are reported as mechanisms for the antihypertensive activity of B. diffusa phytoconstituents. Various studies have said ACE-II is the virus's binding site to attack host cells. COVID-19 treatment commonly employs a variety of synthetic antiviral and steroidal drugs. As a result, other clinical illnesses, such as hypertension and hyperglycemia, emerge as serious complications. Safe and effective drug delivery is a prime objective of the drug development process. COVID-19 is treated with various herbal treatments; however, they are not widely used due to their low potency. Many herbal plants and formulations are used to treat COVID-19 infection, in which B. diffusa is the most widely used plant. The current study relies on discovering active phytoconstituents with ACE-II inhibitory activity in the B. diffusa plant. As a result, it can be used as a treatment option for patients with COVID-19 and related diseases. Different phytoconstituents of the B. diffusa plant were selected from the reported literature. The activity of phytoconstituents against ACE-II proteins has been studied. Molecular docking and ligand-protein interaction computation tools are used in the in-silico experiment. Physicochemical, drug-likeness, water solubility, lipophilicity, and pharmacokinetic parameters are used to evaluate phytoconstituents. Liriodenine has the best drug-likeness, bioactivity, and binding score characteristics among the selected ligands. The in-silico study aims to find the therapeutic potential of B. diffusa phytoconstituents against ACE-II. Targeting ACE-II also shows an effect against SARS-CoV-2. It can serve as a rationale for designing a drug for patient infected with COVID-19 and associated diseases.

• 한국정보통신학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정보통신학회 2022년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.270-272
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• 2022

임상을 거친 약물이 시중에 유통되지 못하는 요인 중 하나는 안전성이다. 약물 부작용으로 인해 발생하는 안전성 문제의 주된 원인인 신경독성의 경우, 사전에 약물이나 화합물에 대한 위험 평가가 필요하다. 현재 약물의 안전성 검사를 위한 실험들은 동물 실험을 기반으로 하고 있으며, 이는 시간과 비용이 많이 든다는 단점을 갖는다. 따라서 위 문제를 해결하기 위해 in silico 실험을 통한 신경독성 예측모델을 제안하고자 한다. 본 연구에서는 의학 언어 시스템 (Unified Medical Language System)을 이용해 신경독성의 범주를 확대하고, 통합 데이터베이스를 기반으로 다양한 관련 화합물 데이터를 얻었다. 얻은 화합물들의 SMILES (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System)를 fingerprint로 변환시키고 이를 사용한 기계학습 기반의 모델을 만들었다. 모델은 최종적으로 신경독성의 유무를 예측한다. 해당 연구에서 제안된 실험은 in vivo 실험에 소요되는 시간 및 비용을 줄일 수 있다. 더 나아가 신약 개발 연구 기간을 단축하고 개발 중지 등의 부담을 줄일 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.31.1-31.7
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• 2019

We sought the novel concept, transcript capacity (TC) and analyzed TC. Our approach to estimate TC was through an in silico method. TC refers to the capacity that a transcript exerts in a cell as enzyme or protein function after translation. We used the genome-wide association study (GWAS) beta effect and transcription level in RNA-sequencing to estimate TC. The trait was body fat percent and the transcript reads were obtained from the human protein atlas. The assumption was that the GWAS beta effect is the gene's effect and TC was related to the corresponding gene effect and transcript reads. Further, we surveyed gene ontology (GO) in the highest TC and the lowest TC genes. The most frequent GOs with the highest TC were neuronal-related and cell projection organization related. The most frequent GOs with the lowest TC were wound-healing related and embryo development related. We expect that our analysis contributes to estimating TC in the diverse species and playing a benevolent role to the new bioinformatic analysis.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.253-258
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• 2016

본 연구에서는 울금의 주요 성분인 커큐민과 나노 마이셀링 기법을 적용한 신규 조성물인 염화 커큐민(NMC)의 트랜스타이레틴(TTR) 단백질 활성 부위에 대한 in silico 분자 결합 친화도를 비교 분석하였다. 우선 NMC신규 조성물의 결정학적 구조를 광학 및 전자현미경을 활용하여 관찰하였을 때, 나노 마이셀링 적용 NMC 결정은 일반 천일염에 비하여 색상 및 질감이 전체적으로 균일화 되었고, 천일염과 NMC성분이 강하게 일체화되어 기간이 상당히 경과 되더라도 쉽게 분리가 되지 않는 고기능성 안전성 구조물이 형성되었다. TTR단백질의 3차원 구조 활성 부위에 대한 in silico 분자 결합 친화도는 NMC가 일반 커큐민에 비하여 상대적으로 높은 결합 친화도를 나타나었고, pharmacophore 모델링 분석에서도 NMC가 일반 커큐민에 비하여 TTR 활성 부위에서 현저하게 pharmacophore 각도의 차이가 나타났었으며 패턴 또한 밀집된 특징을 나타내었다. 결론적으로, 나노 마이셀링 적용 NMC가 일반 커큐민에 비하여 상대적으로 우수하게 TTR 단백질의 활성 부위에 결합하는 것을 확인하였고, 이는 TTR 활성에 의해 유도되는 질병 조절 물질로의 적용 가능성이 있다고 판단된다. 결론적으로 일반 커큐민과 같은 생리 활성 효능 성분에 나노 마이셀링 기법을 적용하므로서 효율적인 결합 타깃 단백질 활발 조절 및 이러한 성분을 활용한 기능성 식품 산업에 나노 마이셀링 기법을 효율적으로 적용할 수 있음을 확인하였다.

• 한국발생생물학회지:발생과생식
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.1-11
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• 2014

Early growth response 1 (Egr1) is a zinc-finger transcription factor to direct second-wave gene expression leading to cell growth, differentiation and/or apoptosis. While it is well-known that Egr1 controls transcription of an array of targets in various cell types, downstream target gene(s) whose transcription is regulated by Egr1 in the uterus has not been identified yet. Thus, we have tried to identify a list of potential target genes of Egr1 in the uterus by performing multi-step in silico promoter analyses. Analyses of mRNA microarray data provided a cohort of genes (102 genes) which were differentially expressed (DEGs) in the uterus between Egr1(+/+) and Egr1(-/-) mice. In mice, the frequency of putative EGR1 binding sites (EBS) in the promoter of DEGs is significantly higher than that of randomly selected non-DEGs, although it is not correlated with expression levels of DEGs. Furthermore, EBS are considerably enriched within -500 bp of DEG's promoters. Comparative analyses for EBS of DEGs with the promoters of other species provided power to distinguish DEGs with higher probability as EGR1 direct target genes. Eleven EBS in the promoters of 9 genes among analyzed DEGs are conserved between various species including human. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that analyses of mRNA expression profiles followed by two-step in silico analyses could provide a list of putative Egr1 direct target genes in the uterus where any known direct target genes are yet reported for further functional studies.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제41권1호
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• pp.128-134
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• 2013

Salmonella enterica serovar typhi, a Gram-negative food-borne pathogen, causes typhoid fever in humans. OmpC is an outer membrane porin of S. typhi expressed throughout the infection period. OmpC is potentially an attractive antigen for multivalent vaccines and diagnostic kit designs. In this study we combined in silico, in vitro and in vivo approaches to analyze various aspects of OmpC's antigenic properties. The conserved region, in addition to secondary and tertiary structures, and linear B cell epitopes, were predicted. A number of results obtained from in silico analyses were validated by experimental studies. OmpC was amplified, cloned and then expressed, with the recombinant protein then being purified. BALB/c mice were immunized by purified denatured OmpC. The titer of antibody was raised. Results of challenges with the pathogen revealed that the immunity is non-protective. Most of the theoretical and experimental results were in consensus. Introduced linear B cell epitopes can be employed for the design of diagnostic kits based on antigen-antibody interactions.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제32권5호
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• pp.1645-1649
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• 2011

[ ${\beta}$ ]Ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase I (KAS I) is involved in the elongation of unsaturated fatty acids in bacterial fatty acid synthesis and a therapeutic target of designing novel antibiotics. In this study, we performed receptor-oriented pharmacophore-based in silico screening of E. coli KAS I (ecKAS I) with the aim of identifying novel inhibitors. We determined one pharmacophore map and selected 8 compounds as candidates ecKAS I inhibitors. We discovered one antimicrobial compound, YKAe1008, N-(3-pyridinyl) hexanamide, displaying minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values in the range of 128-256 ${\mu}g/mL$ against MRSA and VREF. YKAe1008 was subsequently assessed for binding to ecKAS I using saturation-transfer difference NMR spectroscopy. Further optimization of this compound will be carried out to improve its antimicrobial activity and membrane permeability against bacterial cell membrane.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권23호
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• pp.10137-10142
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• 2015

Apoptosis is a general phenomenon of all multicellular organisms and caspases form a group of important proteins central to suicide of cells. Pathologies like cancer, Myocardial infarction, Stroke, Sepsis, Alzheimer's, Psoriasis, Parkinson and Huntington diseases are often associated with change in caspase 3 mediated apoptosis and therefore, caspases may serve as potential inhibitory targets for drug development. In the present study, two series of synthetic acetylated tetrapeptides containing aldehyde and fluromethyl keto groups respectively at the C terminus were proposed. All these compounds were evaluated for binding affinity against caspase 3 structure. In series 1 compound Ac-DEHD-CHO demonstrated appreciable and high binding affinity (Rerank Score: -138.899) against caspase 3. While in series 2 it was Ac-WEVD-FMK which showed higher binding affinity (Rerank Score: -139.317). Further these two compounds met ADMET properties and demonstrated to be non-toxic.