• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.88-94
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• 2006

This study was carried out to produce antimicrobial peptides from casein using various proteases. To examine whether the hydrolysis of casein would produce antimicrobial substance and the application as natural antimicrobial material, casein was hydrolyzed by five different proteases. The casein hydrolysate was fractionated with regenerated membrane filter (molecular weight cut-off 30,000 10,000 and 3,000) and antimicrobial activity was measured for each fraction. Antimicrobial activity appeared great in the fraction below 3,000 molecular weight The fraction was re-fractionated by high performance liquid chromatography and substance of main peak (retention time: 13.2 min) collected was used as a sample to measure antimicrobial activity. Among the casein hydrolysates produced by protease, antimicrobial activity was observed the greatest in hydrolysate treated with Aspergillus oryzae protease. The minimum inhibition concentrations of the Asp. oryzae protease hydrolysate were 1.0-1.5 mg/mL. This hydrolysate was a heat stable peptide since antimicrobial activity was maintained after treating with heat for 20 min at $121^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.95-111
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• 2012

Objective : The water extract of Danguiyonghoihwan (DGYHW) has been traditionally used in treatment of tinnitus in Oriental Medicine. However, little is known about the mechanism by which DGYHW rescues auditory neuronal cells from injury damages. Therefore, in this study I effort to elucidate the mechanism of the cytoprotective effect of the DGYHW extract on glutamate-induced auditory sensorineuronal cell death. Methods : I determined the elevated cell viability by DGYHW extract on glutamate-induced auditory sensorineuronal cell death. Glutamate induced neuronal damage in oranotypic explant culture also, glutamate decreased cell viability on VOT-33 cells but pretreatment with DGYHW inhibited cell death. Results : One of the main mediator of glutamate-induced cytotoxicity was known to generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Pretreatment with DGYHW inhibited this ROS generation from glutamated-stimulated VOT-33 cells. Also, I identified that the ROS-induced DCF-DA green fluorescence is reduced by DGYHW pretreatment. The critical markers of apoptotic cell death were cleavages of procaspase-3 protease protein. So I checked the expression level and cleavage of procaspase-3 protease protein. Glutamate-treated VOT-33 cells were shown to have cleavage of procaspase-3 protease proteins and following reduction of expression of these proteins. But I found that pre-treatment with DGYHW protects glutamate-induced changes of biochemical marker protein, caspase-3. Conclusion : These findings indicated that DGYHW may prevent cell death from glutamate induced VOT-33 cell death by inhibiting the ROS generation and modulation of protein expressions in procaspase-3, catalase and Bcl-2.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.651-661
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• 2019

Targeting the pathogen viability using drugs is associated with development of drug resistance due to selective pressure. Hence, there is an increased interest in developing agents that target bacterial virulence. In this study, the inhibitory effect of ciclopirox, an antifungal agent with iron chelation potential, on the microbial virulence factors was evaluated in 26 clinical MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates collected from Alexandria Main University Hospital, a tertiary hospital in Egypt. Treatment with 9 ㎍/ml ciclopirox inhibited the hemolytic activity in 70% isolates, reduced pyocyanin production, decreased protease secretion in 46% isolates, lowered twitching and swarming motility, and decreased biofilm formation by 1.5- to 4.5-fold. The quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that treatment with ciclopirox downregulated the expression levels of alkaline protease (aprA) and pyocyanin (phzA1). Ciclopirox is used to treat hematological malignancies and the systemic administration of ciclopirox is reported to have adequate oral absorption with a satisfactory drug safety profile. It is important to calculate the appropriate clinical dose and therapeutic index to reposition ciclopirox from a topical antifungal agent to a promising virulence-modifying agent agent against P. aeruginosa, a problematic Gram-negative pathogen.

• ALGAE
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.295-306
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• 2023

Human coronavirus diseases, particularly severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, still remain a persistent public health issue, and many recent studies are focusing on the quest for new leads against coronaviruses. To contribute to this growing pool of knowledge and explore the available marine natural products against coronaviruses, this study investigated the antiviral effects of fucoxanthin isolated from Sargassum siliquastrum-a brown alga found on Jeju Island, South Korea. The antiviral effects of fucoxanthin were confirmed in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-infected Vero cells, and its structural characteristics were verified in silico using molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulations and in vitro colorimetric method. Fucoxanthin inhibited the infection in a concentration-dependent manner, without showing cytotoxicity. Molecular docking simulations revealed that fucoxanthin binds to the angiotensinconverting enzyme 2-spike protein (binding energy -318.306 kcal mol^-1) and main protease (binding energy -205.118 kcal mol^-1). Moreover, molecular dynamic simulations showed that fucoxanthin remains docked to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2-spike protein for 20 ns, whereas it breaks away from main protease after 3 ns. Also, the in silico prediction of the fucoxanthin was verified through the in vitro colorimetric method by inhibiting the binding between angiotensinconverting enzyme 2 and spike protein in a concentration-dependent manner. These results indicate that fucoxanthin exhibits antiviral effects against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 by blocking the entry of the virus. Therefore, fucoxanthin from S. siliquastrum can be a potential candidate for treating coronavirus infection.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 1989

The parasporal crystals of Bacillus thuringinsis subspecies kurstaki, dendrolimus, finitimus, aizawai and israelensis were compared by polyacrylamide electrophoresis, amino acid composition and immunological analysis. In the subspecies of kurstaki, dendrolimus, finitimus and aizawai, the molecular weights of main subusnits of crystal solubilized by alkaline solution were 1.3${\times}$105 and 6.5${\times}$104 while those of subsp. israelensis were 4${\times}$104 and 1,4${\times}$104. The degradation of lepidopteran toxic subspecies crystals by silkworm midgut protease showed 6.0-6.4${\times}$104 molecular weight and the pattern of degradation of subsp. israelensis crystals was similar to that of alkaline solution treatment. In the amino acid composition, aspartic acid in subsp. israelensis and glutiamic acid in the other four subspecies were the most abundant. The immunological characteristics of the crystals revealed that the antibody produced against the alkali-solubilized crystal protein of subsp. israelensis reacted with only its antigen, but the crystal antigens from the other four lepidopteran toxic subspecies did cross-react with each other as well as with their own homologous antisera.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.54-65
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• 2010

Objective : The water extract of Chungsimyeonja-eum (CSYJE) has traditionally been used in treatments of heart diseases and brain diseases in Oriental medicine. However, little is known about the mechanism by which CSYJE protects neuronal cells from injury damages. Therefore, in this study we attempted to elucidate the mechanism of the cytoprotective effect of the CSYJE extract on glutamate-induced C6 glial cell death. Methods : Cultured cells were pretreated with CSYJE and exposed to glutamate, cell damage was assessed by using MTT assay and propidium iodide (PI), probe 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCF-DA) staining. Western blotting was performed using anti-procaspase-3 and anti-PARP, respectively. Result : We determined the elevated cell viability by CSYJE extract on glutamate-induced C6 glial cell death. Glutamate induced DNA fragmentation on C6 glial cells but pre-treatment with CSYJE inhibited DNA fragmentation. One of the main mediators of glutamate-induced cytotoxicity was known to generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Pre-treatment with CSYJE inhibited this ROS generation from glutamate-stimulated C6 glial cells. Also, we identified that the ROS-induced DCF-DA green fluorescence was reduced by CSYJE pre-treatment. The critical markers of apoptotic cell death are the cleavages of procaspase-3 protease and PARP proteins, so we checked the expression level and cleavages of procaspase-3 protease and PARP proteins. Glutamate-treated C6 glial cells showed the cleavages of procaspase-3 protease and PARP proteins and followed the reduction of expression of these proteins. Conclusion : These findings indicate that CSYJE may prevent cell death from glutamate-induced C6 glial cell death by inhibiting the ROS generation and procaspase-3 and PARP expression.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.794-801
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• 2013

This paper reports the production and characterization of crude xylanase from the newly isolated Humicola sp. Ly01. The highest (41.8 U/ml) production of the crude xylanase was obtained under the optimized conditions (w/v): 0.5% wheat bran, 0.2% $KH_2PO_4$, and 0.5% peptone; initial pH 7.0; incubation time 72 h; $30^{\circ}C$; and 150 rpm. A considerable amount of the crude xylanase was induced using hulless barley bran or soybean meal as the carbon source, but a small amount of the enzyme was produced when supplementary urea was used as the nitrogen source to wheat bran. The crude xylanase showed apparent optimal cellulase-free xylanase activity at $60^{\circ}C$ and pH 6.0, more than 71.8% of the maximum xylanase activity in 3.0-30.0% (v/v) ethanol and more than 82.3% of the initial xylanase activity after incubation in 3.0-30.0% (v/v) ethanol at $30^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. The crude xylanase was moderately resistant to both acid and neutral protease digestion, and released 7.9 and 10.9 ${\mu}mol/ml$ reducing sugar from xylan in the simulated gastric and intestinal fluids, respectively. The xylooligosaccharides were the main products of the hydrolysis of xylan by the crude xylanase. These properties suggested the potential of the crude enzyme for being applied in the animal feed industry, xylooligosaccharides production, and high-alcohol conditions such as ethanol production and brewing.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.142-146
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• 2017

More effective production of human insulin is important, because insulin is the main medication that is used to treat multiple types of diabetes and because many people are suffering from diabetes. The current system of insulin production is based on recombinant DNA technology, and the expression vector is composed of a preproinsulin sequence that is a fused form of an artificial leader peptide and the native proinsulin. It has been reported that the sequence of the leader peptide affects the production of insulin. To analyze how the leader peptide affects the maturation of insulin structurally, we adapted several in silico simulations using 13 artificial proinsulin sequences. Three-dimensional structures of models were predicted and compared. Although their sequences had few differences, the predicted structures were somewhat different. The structures were refined by molecular dynamics simulation, and the energy of each model was estimated. Then, protein-protein docking between the models and trypsin was carried out to compare how efficiently the protease could access the cleavage sites of the proinsulin models. The results showed some concordance with experimental results that have been reported; so, we expect our analysis will be used to predict the optimized sequence of artificial proinsulin for more effective production.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.351-355
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• 2003

Response surface methodology was employed to study the interactive effect of sucrose, nitrogen, temperature and to optimize their levels to enhance the production of human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulation factor from Nicotiana tabacum cell suspension cultures. A 15-runs Box-Behnken design including three center points was the response surface method selected for the initial set of experiments. The analysis of the data from the Box-Behnken experiments showed interactive effects of sucrose:nitrogen, sucrose:temperature and nitrogen:temperature. The optimal combinations of sucrose, nitrogen and temperature for hGM-CSF production from surface plot were sucrose 90 g/L, nitrogen 41 mM and 22$^{\circ}C$, respectively. The optimization of there factors enhanced the hGM-CSF production by 2 times because high sucrose concentration stimulated the secretion of hGM-CSF and low temperature prevented hGM-CSF degradation in media by pretenses.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1105-1110
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• 2014

Objective: Metastases and invasion are the main reasons for oncotherapy failure. Momordica cochinchinensis (Mu Bie Zi in Chinese) had been used for a variety of purposes, and shown anti-cancer action. In this article, we focused on effects on regulation of breast cancer cell ZR-75-30 metastases and invasion by extracts of Momordica cochinchinensis seeds (ESMCs). Methods: Effect of ESMCs on ZR-75-30 human breast cancer cells proliferation were evaluated by MTT assay and on invasion and migration by wound-healing and matrigel invasion chamber assays. Expression and protease activity of two matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), MMP-2 and MMP-9, were analyzed by Western blotting and gelatin zymography, respectively. Results: ESMC revealed strong growth inhibitory effects on ZR-75-30 cells, and effectively inhibited ZR-75-30 cell invasion in a dose-dependent manner. Western blot and gelatin zymography analysis showed that ESMC significantly inhibited the expression and secretion of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in ZR-75-30 cells. Conclusions: ESMC has the potential to suppress the migration and invasion of ZR-75-30 cancer cells, and it might prove to of interest in the development of novel inhibitors for breast cancer.