• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.190-197
• /
• 2004

Apoptosis plays a role in the pathophysiology of many kinds of diseases and in the response of treatment. Compared to the necrosis, the apoptosis is a genetically controlled and energy-dependent process which removes the unwanted cells from the body; programmed cell death or cell suicide. During the apoptosis, phosphatidylserine is expressed in the cytoplasmic outer membrane in the early phase. Annexin V, an endogenous human protein (MW=35 kD), has an affinity of about $10^{-9}\;M$ for the phosphatidylserine exposed on the outer membrane of apoptotic cells. Annexin V can be radiolabeled with $^{99m}Tc$ by HYNIC or EC chelators, which can be used as an radiotracer for the in vivo imaging of apoptosis. In this article, we reviewed the apoptosis, radiolabeling of annexin V, and the experimental and clinical data using annexin V imaging.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.128-134
• /
• 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.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.37 no.8
• /
• pp.592-597
• /
• 2014

The cell membrane provides critical cellular functions that rely on its elaborate structure and organization. The structure of turtle membranes is an important part of an ongoing study of erythrocyte membranes. Using a combination of atomic force microscopy and single-molecule force spectroscopy, we characterized the turtle erythrocyte membrane structure with molecular resolution in a quasi-native state. High-resolution images both leaflets of turtle erythrocyte membranes revealed a smooth outer membrane leaflet and a protein covered inner membrane leaflet. This asymmetry was verified by single-molecule force spectroscopy, which detects numerous exposed amino groups of membrane proteins in the inner membrane leaflet but much fewer in the outer leaflet. The asymmetric membrane structure of turtle erythrocytes is consistent with the semi-mosaic model of human, chicken and fish erythrocyte membrane structure, making the semi-mosaic model more widely applicable. From the perspective of biological evolution, this result may support the universality of the semi-mosaic model.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.603-609
• /
• 2016

Brucellosis affects a wide range of host species, including humans and many livestock animals. Chronic infections of the disease make antibiotic treatment costly, and the current vaccine used in livestock has not been approved for human use. This study investigated the possible use of the Brucella abortus outer membrane protein A (OmpA) as a candidate subunit vaccine in an infected mouse model. The ompA gene was cloned and overexpressed, and the recombinant OmpA (rOmpA) protein fused to maltose binding protein (MBP) was purified in Escherichia coli. Immunogenicity was verified through western blotting, and mice were immunized and challenged to evaluate its protective effect. Mice treated with rOmpA exhibited induced humoral and host cell-mediated responses, with a significant increase in immunoglobulin G (IgG1 and IgG2a) and cytokine levels, especially TNF-α and IL-12, compared with the control groups treated with either MBP or PBS. In conclusion, rOmpA should be highly considered as a future subunit vaccine for brucellosis, and further studies regarding rOmpA and its protective ability are suggested.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.407-409
• /
• 2000

Outer envelope membrane proteins of chloroplasts encoded by the nuclear genome are transported without the N-terminal transit peptide. Here, we investigated the targeting mechanism of AtOEP7, an Arabidopsis homolog of small outer envelope membrane proteins in vivo. AtOEP7 was expressed transiently in protoplasts or stably in transgenic plants as fusion proteins with GFP. In both cases AtOEP7:GFP was targeted to the outer envelope membrane when assayed under a fluorescent microscope or by Western blot analysis. Except the transmembrane domain, deletions of the N- or C-terminal regions of AtOEP7 did not affect targeting although a region closed to the C-terminal side of the transmembrane domain affected the targeting efficiency. Targeting experiments with various hybrid transmembrane mutants revealed that the amino acid sequence of the transmembrane domain determines the targeting specificity The targeting mechanism was further studied using a fusion protein, AtOEP7：NLS：GFP, that had a nuclear localization signal. AtOEP7：NLS：GFP was efficiently targeted to the chloroplast envelope despite the presence of the nuclear localization signal. Taken together, these results suggest that the transmembrane domain of AtOEP7 functions as the sole determinant of targeting specificity and that AtOEP7 may be associated with a cytosolic component during translocation to the chloroplast envelope membrane.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.594-599
• /
• 2007

It is well known that the Escherichia coli inner membrane-bound protease DegS is a periplasmic stress sensor for unfolded outer membrane proteins (OMPs). Previous studies have also shown that the outer membrane protease OmpT activates plasminogen in vitro and this may be exploited by bacteria in the course of pathogenesis. However, there has been no research on the plasminogen activation ability of the important periplasmic protein DegS. Accordingly, in this study, the whole-length and truncated degS genes were separately overexpressed in Escherichia coli, the recombinant proteins purified by affinity chromatography, and their plasminogen activator role tested in vitro. The results suggested that the whole-length DegS was able to activate plasminogen on a plasma plate. The truncated form of DegS (residues 80-345), designated ${\Delta}DegS$, also acted as a plasminogen activator, as confirmed by different assays. The serine protease property of ${\Delta}DegS$ was verified based on the complete inhibition of its enzyme activity by PMSF (phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride). Therefore, the present results indicate that DegS is a plasminogen activator in vitro.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.137-143
• /
• 2003

The present study was performed to identify pathogenic factors of Chlamydia trachomatis, which invade the host cell membrane. We prepared monoclonal antibody against C. trachomatis and searched for pathogenic factors using this antibody, and subsequently identified the surface components of the elementary body of C. trachomatis, i.e., major outer membrane protein (MOMP), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and two other surface exposure proteins. These proteins are believed to be important in the pathogenesis of host cell chlamydial infection. Additionally, to identify factors related to the host cell and C. trachomatis, we prepared C. trachomatis infected and non-infected McCoy cell extracts, and reacted these with anti-chlamydial LPS monoclonal antibody. We found that anti-chlamydial LPS monoclonal antibody reacted with a 116 kDa proteinaceous McCoy cell membrane component.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.297-303
• /
• 1990

Secretion of Serratia marcescens nuclease by E. coli harboring pNUC4 was investigated. 29.2, 54.2 and 16.6% of total nuclease were observed in culture medium, periplasm, and cytoplasm of E. coli, respectively. To investigate the secretion mechanism of Serratia nuclease by E. coli, secretion kinetics of nuclease was examined in the presences of sodium azide, and energy metabolism inhibitor; procaine, an exoprotein processing inhibitor; and chloramphenicol, a protein synthesis inhibitor. In the presence of sodium azide, periplasmic unclease was gradually decreased and the extracellular nyclease was linearly increased according to the incubation time. Similar results were obtained in presences of procaine and chloramphenicol. From these results, we concluded that two transport processes are involved in nuclease secretion: secretion of nuclease through the inner membrane is occurred by an energy-dependent process and probably requiring precusor processing: secretion of nuclease through outer membrane does not require energy, de novo protein synthesis, and precursor processing.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.30 no.7
• /
• pp.1097-1103
• /
• 2020

Bacterial surface display systems have been developed for various applications in biotechnology and industry. Particularly, the discovery and design of anchoring motifs is highly important for the successful display of a target protein or peptide on the surface of bacteria. In this study, an efficient display system on Escherichia coli was developed using novel anchoring motifs designed from the E. coli mipA gene. Using the C-terminal fusion system of an industrial enzyme, Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase, six possible fusion sites, V¹⁴⁰, V¹⁷⁶, K¹⁷⁹, V²²⁶, V²³², and K²³⁴, which were truncated from the C-terminal end of the mipA gene (MV¹⁴⁰, MV¹⁷⁶, MV¹⁷⁹, MV²²⁶, MV²³², and MV²³⁴) were examined. The whole-cell lipase activities showed that MV¹⁴⁰ was the best among the six anchoring motifs. Furthermore, the lipase activity obtained using MV¹⁴⁰ as the anchoring motif was approximately 20-fold higher than that of the previous anchoring motifs FadL and OprF but slightly higher than that of YiaTR232. Western blotting and confocal microscopy further confirmed the localization of the fusion lipase displayed on the E. coli surface using the truncated MV¹⁴⁰. Additionally the MV¹⁴⁰ motif could be used for successfully displaying another industrial enzyme, α-amylase from Bacillus subtilis. These results showed that the fusion proteins using the MV¹⁴⁰ motif had notably high enzyme activities and did not exert any adverse effects on either cell growth or outer membrane integrity. Thus, this study shows that MipA can be used as a novel anchoring motif for more efficient bacterial surface display in the biotechnological and industrial fields.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.57 no.2
• /
• pp.161-166
• /
• 2019

This study was done to characterize distribution of Rickettsia spp. in ticks in the northwestern and southwestern provinces in the Republic of Korea. A total of 2,814 ticks were collected between May and September 2009. After pooling, 284 tick DNA samples were screened for a gene of Rickettsia-specific 17-kDa protein using nested PCR (nPCR), and produced 88 nPCR positive samples. Of these positives, 75% contained 190-kDa outer membrane protein gene (ompA), 50% 120-kDa outer membrane protein gene (ompB), and 64.7% gene D (sca4). The nPCR products of ompA, ompB, and sca4 genes revealed close relatedness to Rickettsia japonica, R. heilongjiangensis, and R. monacensis. Most Rickettsia species were detected in Haemaphysalis longicornis. This tick was found a dominant vector of rickettsiae in the study regions in the Republic of Korea.