• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.546-551
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• 1995

The conformation studies of myelin P2 protein and two of its major peptides were carried out using circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy in water and in lipid environments. Significant conformational changes occur when the protein or peptides were bound to gangliosides. Similar effects were also found in trifluoroethanol solutions. The conformational features of P2 protein and its major peptides were discussed in relation to the environmental changes and the disease-inducing effects.

• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.281-286
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• 1998

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core proteins from two different isolates (HCV-1 and HCV-RH) were expressed in Spotioptera Jrugiperda (Sf9) insect cells. The RH core consisted of two major species of proteins (21 kDa and 19 kDa). On the other hand, the HCV-1 core was approximately 16 kDa in a SDS-PAGE gel. Both core proteins were phosphorylated in vivo on serine residues. Furthermore, the RH core but not HCV-1 core formed dimers, indicating that the protein conformation of the core in these two isolates is dfferent from one another. Immunofluorescence studies showed that the RH core was present in the cytoplasm, whereas the HCV-1 core was localized predominantly to the nucleus in recombinant baculovirus-infected insect cells. Since the major difference between the two isolates is the codon 9 of the core protein, a single amino acid substitution appears to play a major role in the protein conformation and these properties may reflect the different biological functions of core proteins in HCV-infected cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
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• 1997.07a
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• pp.41-41
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• 1997

The conformation studies of tenecin 3, which has been purified from the hemolymph of the meal worms Tenebrio molitor, was carried out by CD and NMR. This highly Gly-rich protein consisting of 78 amino acid residues shows similar biochemical features such as heat stability, humoral existence, and high contents of Gly and His residues to other insect antifungal proteins. (omitted)

• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.529-534
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• 1999

Asymmetric PCR and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) methods were combined to analyze human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB allele polymorphism. Asymmetric PCR amplification was applied to generate single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) using the nonradioactive oligonucleotide primers desinged for the polymorphic exon 2 region. The conformational differences of ssDNAs, depending on the allele type, were analyzed by nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and visualized by ethidium bromide staining. The ssDNAs were clearly separated from double-stranded DNA without interference and obviously migrated depending on their allele type. This method was applied to the genomic DNA either from homozygous or from heterozygous cell lines containing the DR4 allele as template DNA using DR4-specific primers, and satisfying results were obtained. Compared to the standard PCR-SSCP method, this asymmetric PCR-SSCP method has advantages of increased speed, reproducibility, and convenience. Along with PCR-SSP or sequence-based typing, this method will be useful in routine typing of HLA-DRB allele.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.352-355
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• 1997

The surface adsorbed protein conformations onto the vaccine adjuvants were observed with a Raman spectroscopy by using the maximum adsorption conditions described previously. The adsorbed state Raman vibrational spectra and subsequent spectral analysis display no conformational changes for BSA or IgG relative to their native species in solution.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.269-274
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• 1996

The binding interactions between human serum albumin (HSA) and the edible food dyes amaranth, tartrazine and sunset yellow have been studied. Intrinsic association constants and the free energy changes associated with dye-protein binding at physiological pH for amaranth and tartrazine, and at two different pH values for sunset yellow have been calculated from ultrafiltration data. The temperature dependence $(20-40^{\circ}C)$ of the intrinsic association constants at pH 7.4 for amaranth-HSA and tartrazine-HSA mixtures have been measured, from which a plot of the van't Hoff isochore exhibits a marked change in slope around $30^{\circ}C$ indicating a possible change in protein conformation. The number of dye binding sites on HSA is reported for all the above conditions. HSA-ligand binding enthalpies have been used in conjunction with the N-B transitional binding enthalpy for HSA, to calculate the enthalpy for the N-B transition when ligands are bound with the protein.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.86-87
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• 2000

Protein folding is a fundamental problem in structural bioinformatics and so numerous studies have been devoted to the subject. As the most common regular secondary conformation in proteins, helix has been an important ingredient of the protein folding problem. In particular, alanine based polypeptides are widely studied to identify the helix folding process in that the aianine amino acid is known to have one of the highest helix propensities. In principle, intrinsic helix propensities can be obtained from gas-phase measurements where solvent effect is absent. Hudgins et al. studied alanine-based peptides in vacuo using high-resolution ion mobility measurement technique. It was reported that introduction of a single Iysine at the C terminus resulted in the formation of very stable, monomeric polyalanine helices. We also have investigated helix formation in vacuo with different terminal charge conditions; we have found a new type of helix motif, To the best of our knowledge, this type of helix conformation has not been characterized before and we name it as I-helix.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.59-73
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• 1989

To investigate the effect of cadmium and cadmium binding protein on the electron transport system and conformational changes of rat kidney mitochondria, various cadmium concentration were treated in vitro and respiration rate, NADH-CoQ reductase activity were measured. Ultrastructural changes at state IV respiration were also observed. CdBP was isolated from the rat liver by Sephadex G-75 column fractionation and treated in vitro with cadmium. Also mitochondrial state IV respiration rate was measured. When cadmium was treated in vitro, state IV respiration and enzyme activity were decreased and ultrastructural transformation of mitochondria from a condensed to an orthodox conformation was inhibited under state IV respiration. In case cadmium and CdBP were treated together, oxygen consumption was more increased than cadmium only. Conformational changes of mitochondria from a condensed to orthodox conformation were also observed. This indicates that CdBP have a protective effect against cadmium toxicity.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.259-265
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• 2005

Proteins must fold into their correct three-dimensional conformation in order to attain their biological function. Conversely, protein aggregation and misfolding are primary contributors to many devastating human diseases, such as prion-mediated infections, Alzheimer's disease, type II diabetes and cystic fibrosis. While the native conformation of a polypeptide is encoded within its primary amino acid sequence and is sufficient for protein folding in vitro, the situation in vivo is more complex. Inside the cell, proteins are synthesized or folded continuously; a process that is greatly assisted by molecular chaperones. Molecular chaperones re a group of structurally diverse and mechanistically distinct proteins that either promote folding or prevent the aggregation of other proteins. With our increasing understanding of the proteome, it is becoming clear that the number of proteins that can be classified as molecular chaperones is increasing steadily. Many of these proteins have novel but essential cellular functions that differ from that of more 'conventional' chaperones, such as Hsp70 and the GroE system. This review focuses on the emerging role of molecular chaperones in protein quality control, i.e. the mechanism that rids the cell of misfolded or incompletely synthesized polypeptides that otherwise would interfere with normal cellular function.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.166-171
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• 2009

Hsp70s assist in the process of protein folding through nucleotide-controlled cycles of substrate binding and release by alternating from an ATP-bound state in which the affinity for substrate is low to an ADP-bound state in which the affinity for substrate is high. It has been long recognized that the two-domain structure of Hsp70 is critical for these regulated interactions. Therefore, it is important to obtain information about conformational changes in the relative positions of Hsp70 domains caused by nucleotide binding. In this study, analytical ultracentrifugation and dynamic light scattering were used to evaluate the effect of ADP and ATP binding on the conformation of the human stress-induced Hsp70.1 protein. The results of these experiments showed that ATP had a larger effect on the conformation of Hsp70 than ADP. In agreement with previous biochemical experiments, our results suggest that conformational changes caused by nucleotide binding are a consequence of the movement in position of both nucleotide- and substrate-binding domains.