• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.1315-1320
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• 2011

Whey protein (WP) is a mixture of proteins, and is of high nutritional values. WP has become an important source of functional ingredients in various health-promoting foods. In this study, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AsFlFFF) were used for separation and analysis of whey proteins. It was found that a lab-prepared WP from raw milk is mostly of ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin with small amount of higher molecular weight components, while a commercial whey protein isolate (WPI) powder contains relatively larger amount of components other than ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin, including IgG and protein aggregates. Results suggest that AsFlFFF provides higher resolution for the major whey proteins than SEC in their normal operation conditions. AsFlFFF could differentiate the BSA and Albumin, despite a small difference in their molecular weights, and also was able to separate much smaller amount of aggregates from monomers. It is noted that SEC was able to show the presence of low molecular weight components other than the major whey proteins in the WP samples, which AsFlFFF could not show, probably due to the partial loss of those low molecular weight species through the membrane.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.433-444
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• 1996

We describe a novel approach to evaluate quantitatively the amounts of denatured proteins in cells upon heat exposure. A thiol compound, diamide [azodicarboxylic acid bis (dimethylamide)] causes protein cross-linking with exposed sulfyhydryl residues of denatured proteins. Since denatured proteins expose normally well-hidden sulfhydryl groups, these will be preferentially cross-linked by diamide. Thus diamide acts to 'trap' denatured proteins. We observed that protein aggregates (high molecular weight protein aggregates, HMA) appeared on SDS-polyacrylamide gels run under non-reducing conditions and that the amount of HMA can be quantified by scanning the gels using a gas flow counter. Heating cells followed by a fixed dose of diamide exposure resulted in HMA increases in a heat-dose dependent manner, demonstrating that the quantitation of HMA could serve as a measure of heat-denatured proteins. We compared thermotolerant and nontolerant cells and found decreased HMA in tolerant cells upon heat treatment. As an attempt to examine the kinetics of protein renaturation (or 'repair'), we measured the amounts of aggregates formed by the addition of diamide at various times after heat shock. Such experiments demonstrate an equally rapid disappearance of HMA in previously unheated and in thermotolerant cells. Levels of HMA in tolerant cells increased significantly after electroporation of HSP70 specific mAbs, suggesting an involvement of HSP70 in reducing HMA levels in thermotolerant cells upon heat exposure. Immunoprecipitation studies using anti-HSP70 antibody indicated an association of HSP70 with heat-denatured proteins. Our results suggest that heat induces protein denaturation, and that elevated level of HSP70 present in thermotolerant cells protects them by reducing the level of protein denaturation rather than by facilitating the 'repair' (or degradation) process.

• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.635-639
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• 2008

Acrolein is a highly reactive by product of lipid peroxidation and individuals with neurodegenerative disorders have been shown to contain elevated concentrations of this molecule in the brain. In the present study, we examined the pattern of neurofilament-L (NF-L) modification elicited by acrolein. When NF-L was incubated with acrolein, protein aggregation occurred in a acrolein concentration-dependent manner. Exposure of NF-L to acrolein also led to the generation of protein carbonyl compounds. Through the addition of free radical scavengers we observed a significant decrease in acrolein-mediated NF-L aggregation. These results indicate that free radicals may be involved in the modification of NF-L by acrolein. In addition, dityrosine crosslink formation was observed in acrolein-mediated NF-L aggregates and these aggregates displayed thioflavin T reactivity, reminiscent of amyloid. This study suggests that acrolein-mediated NF-L aggregation might be closely related to oxidative reactions, thus these reactions may play a critical role in neuro-degenerative diseases.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1732-1736
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• 2008

The endogenous dipeptides, carnosine and related compounds, are the naturally occurring dipeptides with multiple neuroprotective properties. We have examined the protective effects of carnosine, homocarnosine and anserine on the aggregation of neurofilament-L (NF-L) induced by neurotoxin, acrolein. When NF-L was incubated with acrolein in the presence of carnosine, homocarnosine or anserine, protein aggregation was inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner. These compounds inhibited the formation of protein carbonyl compounds and dityrosine in acrolein-mediated NF-L aggregates. The aggregates of NF-L displayed thioflavin T reactivity, reminiscent of amyloid. This thioflavin T reactivity was inhibited by carnosine and related compounds. This effect was associated with decreased formation of oxidatively modified proteins. Our results suggested that carnosine and related compounds might have protective effects to brain proteins under pathophysiological conditions leading to degenerative damage such as neurodegenerative disorders.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.605-614
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• 2021

Autophagy is an important degradative pathway that eliminates misfolded proteins and damaged organelles from cells. Autophagy is crucial for neuronal homeostasis and function. A lack of or deficiency in autophagy leads to the accumulation of protein aggregates, which are associated with several neurodegenerative diseases. Compared with non-neuronal cells, neurons exhibit rapid autophagic flux because damaged organelles or protein aggregates cannot be diluted in post-mitotic cells; because of this, these cells exhibit characteristic features of autophagy, such as compartment-specific autophagy, which depends on polarized structures and rapid autophagy flux. In addition, neurons exhibit compartment-specific autophagy, which depends on polarized structures. Neuronal autophagy may have additional physiological roles other than amino acid recycling. In this review, we focus on the characteristics and regulatory factors of neuronal autophagy. We also describe intracellular selective autophagy in neurons and its association with neurodegenerative diseases.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.185-194
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• 2021

Polyglutamine extension in the coding sequence of mutant huntingtin causes neuronal degeneration associated with the formation of insoluble polyglutamine aggregates in Huntington's disease (HD). Mutant huntingtin can form aggregates within the nucleus and processes of neurons possibly due to misfolding of the proteins. To better understand the mechanism by which an elongated polyglutamine causes aggregates, we have developed an in vitro binding assay system of polyglutamine tract from truncated huntingtin. We made GST-HD exon1 fusion proteins which have expanded polyglutamine epitopes (e.g., 17, 23, 32, 46, 60, 78, 81, and 94 CAG repeats). In the present emergence of new study adjusted nanotechnology on protein chip such as surface plasmon resonance strategy which used to determine the substance which protein binds in drug discovery platform is worth to understand better neurodegenerative diseases (i.e., Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease and Huntington disease) and its pathogenesis along with development of therapeutic measures. Hence, we used strengths of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology which is enabled to examine binding specificity and explore targeted molecular epitope using its electron charged wave pattern in HD pathogenesis utilize conjugated mutant epitope of HD protein and its interaction whether wild type GST-HD interacts with mutant GST-HD with maximum binding affinity at pH 6.85. We found that the maximum binding affinity of GST-HD17 with GST-HD81 was higher than the binding affinities of GST-HD17 with other mutant GST-HD constructs. Furthermore, our finding illustrated that the mutant form of GST-HD60 showed a stronger binding to GST-HD23 or GST-HD17 than GST-HD60 or GST-HD81. These results indicate that the binding affinity of mutant huntingtin does not correlate with the length of polyglutamine. It suggests that the aggregation of an expanded polyglutamine might have easily occurred in the presence of wild type form of huntingtin.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.456-460
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• 1996

Recombinant Pseudomonas lipase was used to study protein aggregation and adsorption upon in vitro refolding. Protein adsorption as well as aggregation was responsible for major side reactions upon in vitro refolding as a function of protein concentration. The optimal range of protein concentration was determined by the relative contribution of protein aggregation and adsorption. Above the optimal range, the yield of active lipase inversely correlated with protein aggregation, showing a competition between folding and aggregation. However, adsorption of protein rather than protein aggregation is thought to contribute as a major side reaction of the refolding process at sub-optimal concentrations at which the formation of aggregates should be more reduced. Protein aggregation was influenced by the amount of guanidine hydrochloride in the refolding solvent. The refolding temperature was a critical factor determining the extent of protein aggregation. The refolding yield was also affected by the dilution fold and dilution mode, which suggests that the refolding process might kinetically compete with the rate of mixing.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2283-2287
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• 2007

Amyloid fibril formation of amyloid β/A4 protein (Aβ) is critical to understand the pathological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease and develop controlling strategy toward the neurodegenerative disease. For this purpose, dequalinium (DQ) has been employed as a specific modifier for Aβ aggregation and its subsequent cytotoxicity. In the presence of DQ, the final thioflavin-T binding fluorescence of Aβ aggregates decreased significantly. It was the altered morphology of Aβ aggregates in a form of the bundles of the fibrils, distinctive from normal single-stranded amyloid fibrils, and the resulting reduced β-sheet content that were responsible for the decreased fluorescence. The morphological transition of Aβ aggregates assessed with atomic force microscope indicated that the bundle structure observed with DQ appeared to be resulted from the initial multimeric seed structure rather than lateral association of preformed single-stranded fibrils. Investigation of the seeding effect of the DQ-induced Aβ aggregates clearly demonstrated that the seed structure has determined the final morphology of Aβ aggregates as well as the aggregative kinetics by shortening the lag phase. In addition, the cytotoxicity was also varied depending on the final morphology of the aggregates. Taken together, DQ has been considered to be a useful chemical probe to control the cytotoxicity of the amyloid fibrils by influencing the seed structures which turned out to be central to develop therapeutic strategy by inducing the amyloid fibrils in different shapes with varied toxicities.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.275-280
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• 2005

For most of proteins to be active, they need well-defined three-dimensional structures alone or in complex. Folding is a process through which newly synthesized proteins get to the native state. Protein folding inside cells is assisted by various chaperones and folding factors, and misfolded proteins are eliminated by the ubiquitin-proteasome degradation system to ensure high fidelity of protein expression. Under certain circumstances, misfolded proteins escape the degradation process, yielding to deposit of protein aggregates such as loop-sheet polymer and amyloid fibril. Diseases characterized by insoluble deposits of proteins have been recognized for long time and are grouped as conformational diseases. Study of protein folding mechanism is required for better understanding of the molecular pathway of such conformational diseases.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1773-1777
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• 2002

Reactive oxygen species(ROS) have been investigated to have pivotal roles on amyloidogenecity of $\beta-amyloidpeptide(A\beta)$, the major component of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease(AD) brain. Addition of radical scavengers is one of the on-going strategies for therapeutic treatment for AD patients. Hsp104 protein including two ATP binding sites from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as a molecular chaperone, was known to function as a protector of ROS generation when exposed to oxidative stress in our previous study. This observation has led us to investigate Hsp104 protein as a molecular mediator of $A{\beta}$ aggregation in this study. We have developed a new way of expression for Hsp104 protein using GST-fusion tag. As we expected, formation of $A{\beta}$ aggregate was protected by wild type Hsp104 protein, but not by the two ATP-binding site mutant, based on Thioflavin-T fluorescence. Interestingly, Hsp104 protein was observed to keep $A{\beta}$ from forming aggregates independent of ATP binding. On the other hand, disaggregation of $A{\beta}$ aggregates by wild type Hsp104 was totally dependent on the presence of ATP. On the other hand, mutant Hsp104 with two ATP binding sites altered exhibited no inhibition. Another effective antioxidant, hydrazine analogs of curcumin were also effective in $A{\beta}$ fibrilization as protectors against oxidative stress. Based on these observations we conclude that Hsp104 and curcumin derivatives, as protectors of oxidative stress, inhibit $A{\beta}$ aggregation in virto and can be candidates for therapeutic approaches in cure of some neurodegenerative disease.