• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.1107-1115
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• 2013

The Cyt1Aa protein of Bacillus thuringiensis susbp. israelensis elaborates demonstrable toxicity to mosquito larvae, but more importantly, it enhances the larvicidal activity of this species Cry proteins (Cry11Aa, Cry4Aa, and Cry4Ba) and delays the phenotypic expression of resistance to these that has evolved in Culex quinquefasciatus. It is also known that Cyt1Aa, which is highly lipophilic, synergizes Cry11Aa by functioning as a surrogate membrane-bound receptor for the latter protein. Little is known, however, about whether Cyt1Aa can interact similarly with other Cry proteins not primarily mosquitocidal; for example, Cry2Aa, which is active against lepidopteran larvae, but essentially inactive or has very low toxicity to mosquito larvae. Here we demonstrate by ligand binding and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays that Cyt1Aa and Cry2Aa form intermolecular complexes in vitro, and in addition show that Cyt1Aa facilitates binding of Cry2Aa throughout the midgut of C. quinquefasciatus larvae. As Cry2Aa and Cry11Aa share structural similarity in domain II, the interaction between Cyt1Aa and Cry2Aa could be a result of a similar mechanism previously proposed for Cry11Aa and Cyt1Aa. Finally, despite the observed interaction between Cry2Aa and Cyt1Aa, only a 2-fold enhancement in toxicity resulted against C. quinquefasciatus. Regardless, our results suggest that Cry2Aa could be a useful component of mosquitocidal endotoxin complements being developed for recombinant strains of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis and B. sphaericus aimed at improving the efficacy of commercial products and avoiding resistance.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.730-736
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• 2007

The interaction of a polyoxometal (POM), K6SiW11Co(H2O)O39.10H2O (K6) as a Keggin, with human serum albumin (HSA) was studied by different methods and techniques. Binding studies show two sets of binding sites for interaction of POM to HSA. Binding analysis and isothermal calorimetery revealed that, the first set of binding site has lower number of bound ligand per mole of protein (ν), lower Hill constant (n), higher binding constant (K), more negative entropy (ΔS) and more electrostatic interaction in comparison to the second set of binding site. In addition, differential scanning calorimetery (DSC) and spectrophotometery data showed that, there are two energetic domains. The first domain is less stable (lower Tm and Cp) which corresponds to the tail segment of HSA and another with more stability is related to the head segment of HSA. Polyoxometal also decreases the stability of protein as Tm, secondary and tertiary structure as well as quenching of the fluorescence decrease. On other hand, perturbations in tertiary structure are more than secondary structure.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.2008-2014
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• 2011

Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine subtype 2C ($5-HT_{2C}$) receptor belongs to class A amine subfamily of G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) super family and its ligands has therapeutic promise as anti-depressant and -obesity agents. So far, bovine rhodopsin from class A opsin subfamily was the mostly used X-ray crystal template to model this receptor. Here, we explained homology model using beta 2 adrenergic receptor (${\beta}$2AR), the model was energetically minimized and validated by flexible ligand docking with known agonists and antagonists. In the active site Asp134, Ser138 of transmembrane 3 (TM3), Arg195 of extracellular loop 2 (ECL2) and Tyr358 of TM7 were found as important residues to interact with agonists. In addition to these, V208 of ECL2 and N351 of TM7 was found to interact with antagonists. Several conserved residues including Trp324, Phe327 and Phe328 were also found to contribute hydrophobic interaction. The predicted ligand binding mode is in good agreement with published mutagenesis and homology model data. This new template derived homology model can be useful for further virtual screening based lead identification.

• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.194-200
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• 2001

Secreted arginase from Evernia prunastri thallus has been purified 616-fold from the incubation medium. Purified arginase was resolved as only one peak in a capillary electrophoresis with a pI value of 5.35. The protein contained high amounts of acidic amino acids, such as Asx and Glx, and a relatively high quantity of Ser and Gly. The molecular mass of native, purified arginase was estimated as about 26 kDa by SE-HPLC. Substrate saturated kinetic showed a typical Michaelis-Menten relationship with a K_m value of 3.3 mM L-arginine. Atranorin behaved as a mixed activator of the enzyme (apparent $K_m$ = 0.96 mM); whereas evernic and usnic acid were revealed as non competitive inhibitors (apparent $K_m$ values were 3.16 mM and 3.05 mM, respectively). Kinetics of atranorin binding indicated that saturation was reached from 0.18 ${\mu}mol$ of the total atranorin and the occurrence of multiple sites for the ligand. This agrees with a possible aggregation of several enzyme subunits during the interaction process. A value of binding sites of about 12 was obtained. The binding of evernic acid was saturated from 23 nmol of total phenol. The number of binding sites was about 5. The loss of the binding ability of evernic acid could be interpreted as a single negative cooperatively. Usnic acid behaves in a similar way to evernic acid, although the binding saturation occurs at $0.14\;{\mu}moles$ of the ligand. This binding appears to be unspecific, and has 28 usnic acid binding sites to the protein.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.196-203
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• 2002

A novel process for urokinase purification was studied using p-aminobenzamidine as the ligand and sepharose 4B as the matrix. The adsorption, washing, and elution conditions were optimized by an unusual method. An adsorption buffer containing 2.5 M NaCl and $1\%$ Tween 80 facilitated the adsorption of urokinase on the affinity media and prevented contaminants from binding to the p-aminobenzamidine affinity gel. It was found that $5\%$ Tween 80 removed most of the contaminants from the affinity column. A 0.2 M glycine elution buffer containing 0.5 M NaCl (pH 3.0) was found to have a strong elution ability with a high recovery and purity of urokinase. A crude urokinase material of231 IU/mg protein from human urine was purified to 124,300 IU/mg protein with a purification factor of 538 and yield of $86.7\%$. As a result, a high purity urokinase was obtained with only a single affinity chromatography step. The purification process was successfully scaled-up to a 2-1 chromatography column. The resulting urokinase eluate could be directly lyophilized, thereby complying with Chinese pharmacopoeia (1995 version) standards.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.86-86
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• 1995

The analysis of membrane receptors for hormones and neurotransmitters has progressed considerably by pharmacological and biochemical means and more recently by the use of specific anti-receptor antibodies. A 14-mer peptide (from Phe102 to Leu115 of ${\beta}$2-adrenergic receptor) was synthesized and this peptide was coupled to carrier protein Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin(KLH) by glutaraldehyde method. A 0.5mg of KLH-coupled peptide was emulsified with equal volume of complete Freund's adjuvant and injected via popliteal lymph node to each of the three Newzealnd White rabbits. Booster injections were repeated at 4 weeks interval for three times with incomplete Freund's adjuvants. One week after the final injection, serum was prepared from ear artery. Nonspecific immunoglobulins were removed by passing the serum through KLH-Sepharose 6B affinity matrix and further by incubation with bovine lung aceton powder. The titer of the antibody for synthetic peptide which was determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) was about l/l,000. The antibody produced in this study revealed 67kDa protein band in the western blot of partially purified guinea pig lung ${\beta}$-adrenergic receptor preparation. The antibody inhibited ${\beta}$-adrenergic antaginist [3H] Dihydroalprenolol binding to soluble ${\beta}$-adrenergic receptor by 25% while control sera did not show any inhibitory effects, The result of this study suggests that the peptide sequence selected in this study may play some important roles in adrenergic receptor-ligand interaction.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.427-434
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• 2022

The drug repurposing strategy has been applied to the development of emergency COVID-19 therapeutic medicines. Current drug repurposing approaches have been directed against RNA polymerases and viral proteases. Recently, we found that the inhibition of the interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 structural nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S) proteins decreased viral replication. In this study, drug repurposing candidates were screened by in silico molecular docking simulation with the SARS-CoV-2 structural N protein. In the ChEMBL database, 1994 FDA-approved drugs were selected for the in silico virtual screening against the N terminal domain (NTD) of the SARS-CoV-2 N protein. The tyrosine 109 residue in the NTD of the N protein was used as the center of the ligand binding grid for the docking simulation. In plaque forming assays performed with SARS-CoV-2 infected Vero E6 cells, atovaquone, abiraterone acetate, and digoxin exhibited a tendency to reduce the size of the viral plagues without affecting the plaque numbers. Abiraterone acetate significantly decreased the accumulation of viral particles in the cell culture supernatants in a concentration-dependent manner. In addition, abiraterone acetate significantly decreased the production of N protein and S protein in the SARS-CoV-2-infected Vero E6 cells. In conclusion, abiraterone acetate has therapeutic potential to inhibit the viral replication of SARS-CoV-2.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 2012

The small molecule binding to the c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3 (JNK3) was examined by the measurements of saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR experiments. The STD NMR experiment of ATP added to JNK3 clearly showed the binding of the nucleotide to the kinase. The STD NMR spectrum of dNTPs added to JNK3 discriminated the kinase-bound nucleotide from the unbound ones. After the five-fold addition of ATP to the dNTPs and JNK3 mixture, only signals of the cognate substrate of JNK3, ATP, were observed from the STD NMR experiment. These results signify that by the STD NMR the small molecules bound to JNK3 can be discriminated from the pool of the unbound molecules. Furthermore the binding mode of the small molecule to JNK3 can be determined by the competition experiments with ATP.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.282-288
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• 2013

The molecular vibration-activity relationship in the receptor-ligand interaction of adenosine receptors was investigated by structure similarity, molecular vibration, and hierarchical clustering in a dataset of 46 ligands of adenosine receptors. The resulting dendrogram was compared with those of another kind of fingerprint or descriptor. The dendrogram result produced by corralled intensity of molecular vibrational frequency outperformed four other analyses in the current study of adenosine receptor agonism and antagonism. The tree that was produced by clustering analysis of molecular vibration patterns showed its potential for the functional classification of adenosine receptor ligands.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.153-166
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• 2012

A variety of ligands differ in their capacity to bind the receptor, elicit gene expression, and modulate physiological responses. Such receptors include Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which recognize various patterns of pathogens and lead to primary innate immune activation against invaders, and G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), whose interaction with their cognate ligands activates heterotrimeric G proteins and regulates specific downstream effectors, including immuno-stimulating molecules. Once TLRs are activated, they lead to the expression of hundreds of genes together and bridge the arm of innate and adaptive immune responses. We characterized the gene expression profile of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in RAW 264.7 cells when it bound with its ligand, 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonate (KDO), the active part of lipopolysaccharide. In addition, to determine the network communications among the TLR, Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT), and GPCR, we tested RAW 264.7 cells with KDO, interferon-${\beta}$, or cAMP analog 8-Br. The ligands were also administered as a pair of double and triple combinations.