• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.452-457
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• 1994

The water soluble long-chain crosslinker, sulfo-succinimidyl-6-[3'-(2-pyridyldithio)-propion-amido]hexanoate (S-LC-SPDP) was used to prepare ricin A chain (RAT) immunotoxins constructed with whole igG and Fab fragments of the anti-common acute lymphoblastic leukemiz antigen (CALLA)monoclonal antibody. In this study, a) S-LC-SPDP modification efficiencies immunoreactivity and cytotoxicity of immunotoxins constructed were examined. IgG-RTA and Fab-RTA immunotoxins were prepared with 67.3% and 57.0% conjugation yields, respectively. These long spacer intemolecular linked immunotoxins were selectively immunoreactive and to antigen K562 cells. Both IgG-RAT and Fab-RAT immunotoxins were 210-and 45-fold more active than intavt RAT in vitro, respectively.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.459-463
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• 1999

The effects of the hindered and non-hindered water soluble long-chain disulfide bonds on the stability and cytotoxicity of the ricin A chain (RTA) immunotoxin were examined. The RTA immunotoxins were prepared with the Fab fragments of anti-common acute lymphoblastic leukemia antigen (CALLA) monoclonal antibody (Fab-RTA) using sulfosuccinimidyl-6-[(-methyl-(-2-pyridyldithio)toluamido]toluamido]hexanoate (S-LC-SMPT) and sulfosuccinimidyl-6-[3-(2-pyridyldithio-propionamido]hexanoate (S-LC-SPDP). The prepared Fab-RTA immunotoxins were evaluated for their conjugation yield, immunoreactivity, thermal and disulfide bond stability and cytotoxicity. The conjugation yield of the Fab-RTA immunotoxin from the water soluble long chain crosslinking agents, S-LC-SMPT and S-LC-SPDP, were comparable. Both Fab-RTA immunotoxins exhibited a similar immunoreactivity and thermal stability in aqueous solution. However, S-LC-SMPT -mediated Fab-RTA, sterically hindered, showed an enhanced disulfide bond stability in vitro over S-LC-SPDP mediated one. In the cytotoxicity against antigenic cell Daudi, the S-LC-SMPT -mediated RTA immunotoxin maintained a comparable cytotoxicity, compared with S-LC-SPDP mediated Fab-RTA immunotoxin.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.304-310
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• 2024

Ricin is a highly toxic protein which is produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant. Ricin toxin A chain has ribosomal RNA N-glycosylase activity that irreversibly hydrolyses the N-glycosidic bond of the adenine residue at position 4324 within the 28S rRNA. In this study, we developed non-toxic recombinant ricin vaccine(R51) in E. coli expression system, and evaluated efficacy of the R51 according to adjuvants. When the R51 was administered using aluminum hydroxide as an adjuvant, the vaccine efficacy was higher than that of TLR agonists or aluminum phosphate. Because it is time-consuming to administer the vaccine three times at three-week intervals, we investigated the survival rate and antibody titer of mice according to the change of time interval of vaccination. Interestingly, there was no difference in survival rate and antibody titer when R51 was administered at 0, 1, and 3 weeks or 0, 2, and 4 weeks compared to when administered at 0, 3, and 6 weeks. Therefore, the developed R51 vaccine is promising to protect soldiers from Ricin attack.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.269.2-270
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• 2000

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17
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• pp.109-115
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• 2001

Abrus agglutinin was purified from the kernels of Abrus precatorius by Sepharose 4B affinity column chromatography followed by Sephadex G-100 gel filtration column chromatography. About 1.25 g of abrus agglutinin was obtained from 1 kg of the kernels. The LD$_{50}$ of abrus agglutinin is 5 mg/kg of body weight, which is less toxic than that of abrin, 20$\mu\textrm{g}$/kg body weight. The amino acid sequence of abrus agglutinin was determined by protein sequencing techniques and deduced from the nucleotide sequence of a cDNA clone encoding full length of abrus agglutinin. There are 258 residues, 2 residues and 267 residues in the A-chain, the linker peptide and the B-chain of abrus agglutinin, respectively. Abrus agglutinin had high homology to abrin-a (77.8%). The 13 amino acid residues involved in catalytic function, which are highly conserved among abrin and ricin, were also conserved within abrus agglutinin. The protein synthesis inhibitory activity of abrus agglutinin ($IC_{50}$/ = 3.5 nM) was weaker than that of abrin-a (0.05 nM). By molecular modeling followed by site-directed mutagenesis showed that Pro199 of abrus agglutinin A-chain located in amphipathic helix H and corresponding to Asn200 of abrin A-chain, can induce bending of helix H. This bending would presumably affect the binding of abrus agglutinin A-chain to its target sequence GpApGpAp, in the tetraloop structure of 285 r-RNA subunit and this could be one of major factors contributing to the relatively weak protein synthesis inhibitory activity and toxicity of abrus agglutinin.n.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1153-1162
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• 1995

The conformational details of β-lactose are investigated through molecular dynamics simulations in conjunction with the adiabatic potential energy map. The adiabatic energy map generated in vacuo contains five local minima. The lowest energy structure on the map does not correspond to the structure determined experimentally by NMR and the X-ray crystallography. When aqueous solvent effect is incorporated into the energy map calculation by increasing the dielectric constant, one of the local minima in the vacuum energy map becomes the global minimum in the resultant energy map. The lowest energy structure of the energy map generated in aquo is consistent with the one experimentally determined. Molecular dynamics simulations starting from those fivelocal minima on the vacuum energy map reveal that conformational transitions can take place among various conformations. Molecular dynamics simulations of the lactose and ricin B chain complex system in a stochastic boundary indicate that the most stable conformation in solution phase is bound to the binding site and that there are conformational changes in the exocyclic region of the lactose molecule upon binding.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.560-570
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• 2006

Mistletoe (Viscum album) lectins, which are classified as a type II ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) due to their unique biological function and the potential medical and therapeutic application in cancer cells, receive a rising attention. The heterodimeric glycoproteins contain the A-chain with catalytic activity and the B-chain with sugar binding properties. In recent years, studies involving the lectins from the white berry European mistletoe (Viscum album) and the yellow berry Korean mistletoe (Viscum album coloratum) have been described. However, the detailed mechanism in exerting unique cytotoxic effect on cancer cells still remains unclear. Here, we aim to understand and define the molecular basis and biological effects of the type II RIPs, through the studies of the recombinant Korean mistletoe lectin. To this end, we expressed, purified the recombinant Korean mistletoe lectin (rKML), and investigated its molecular characteristics in vitro, its cytotoxicity and ability to induce apoptotic cell death in cancer cells. To gain structural basis for its catalytic activity and sugar binding properties, we performed homology modeling studies based on the high degree of sequence identity and conserved secondary structure prediction between Korean and European, Himalayan mistletoe lectins, and Ricin.