• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.503-510
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• 2013

Toxoplasma gondii is an apicomplexan parasite with a broad host range of most warm-blooded mammals including humans, of which one-thirds of the human population has been infected worldwide which can cause congenital defects, abortion, and neonatal complications. Here, we developed a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for T. gondii infection. Antigenic N-terminal half of the major surface antigen (SAG1) was linked with intrinsically unstructured domain (IUD) of dense granule protein 2 (GRA2). The recombinant GST-GRA2-SAG1A protein was successfully expressed and purified as 51 kDa of molecular weight. Furthermore, antigenicity and solubility of the rGST-GRA2-SAG1A protein were significantly increased. The overall specificity and sensitivity of GST-GRA2-SAG1A loaded RDT (TgRDT) were estimated as 100% and 97.1% by comparing with ELISA result which uses T. gondii whole cell lysates as the antigen. The TgRDT tested with Uganda people sera for field trial and showed 31.9% of seroprevalence against T. gondii antibody. The TgRDT is proved to be a kit for rapid and easy to use with high accuracy, which would be a suitable serodiagnostic tool for toxoplasmosis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.431-431
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• 2011

Graphene, two dimensional sheet of sp2-hybridized carbon, has attracted an enormous amount of interest due to excellent electrical, chemical and mechanical properties for the application of transparent conducting films, clean energy devices, field-effect transistors, optoelectronic devices and chemical sensors. Especially, graphene is promising candidate to detect the gas molecules and biomolecules due to the large specific surface area and signal-to-noise ratios. Despite of importance to the disease diagnosis, there are a few reports to demonstrate the graphene- and rGO-FET for biological sensors and the sensing mechanism are not fully understood. Here we describe scalable and facile fabrication of rGO-FET with the capability of label-free, ultrasensitive electrical detection of a cancer biomarker, prostate specific antigen/${\alpha}1$-antichymotrypsin (PSA-ACT) complex, in which the ultrathin rGO sensing channel was simply formed by a uniform self-assembly of two-dimensional rGO nanosheets on aminated pattern generated by inkjet printing. Sensing characteristics of rGO-FET immunosensor showed the highly precise, reliable, and linear shift in the Dirac point with the analyte concentration of PSA-ACT complex and extremely low detection limit as low as 1 fg/ml. We further analyzed the charge doping mechanism, which is the change in the charge carrier in the rGO channel varying by the concentration of biomolecules. Amenability of solution-based scalable fabrication and extremely high performance may enable rGO-FET device as a versatile multiplexed diagnostic biosensor for disease biomarkers.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.50.1-50.12
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• 2022

Background: There is an urgent need to find reliable and rapid bovine tuberculosis (bTB) diagnostics in response to the rising prevalence of bTB worldwide. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) recognizes components of bTB and initiates antigen-presenting cells to mediate humoral immunity. Evaluating the affinity of antigens with TLR2 can form the basis of a new method for the diagnosis of bTB based on humoral immunity. Objectives: To develop a reliable and rapid strategy to improve diagnostic tools for bTB. Methods: In this study, we expressed and purified the sixteen bTB-specific recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli. The two antigenic proteins, MPT70 and MPT83, which were most valuable for serological diagnosis of bTB were screened. Molecular docking technology was used to analyze the affinity of MPT70, MPT83, dominant epitope peptide of MPT70 (M1), and dominant epitope peptide MPT83 (M2) with TLR2, combined with the detection results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to evaluate the molecular docking effect. Results: The results showed that interaction surface Cα-atom root mean square deviation of proteins (M1, M2, MPT70, MPT83)-TLR2 protein are less than 2.5 A, showing a high affinity. It is verified by clinical serum samples that MPT70, MPT83, MPT70-MPT83 showed good diagnostic potential for the detection of anti-bTB IgG and M1, M2 can replace the whole protein as the detection antigen. Conclusions: Molecular docking to evaluate the affinity of bTB protein and TLR2 combined with ELISA provides new insights for the diagnosis of bTB.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.61-74
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• 2016

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells that sample their environment and present antigens to naïve T lymphocytes for the subsequent antigen-specific immune responses. DCs exist in a range of distinct subpopulations including plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) and classical DCs (cDCs), with the latter consisting of the cDC1 and cDC2 lineages. Although the roles of DC-specific transcription factors across the DC subsets have become understood, the posttranscriptional mechanisms that regulate DC development are yet to be elucidated. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are pivotal posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression in a myriad of biological processes, but their contribution to the immune system is just beginning to surface. In this study, our in-house probe collection was screened to identify miRNAs possibly involved in DC development and function by targeting the transcripts of relevant mouse transcription factors. Examination of DC subsets from the culture of mouse bone marrow with Flt3 ligand identified high expression of miR-124 which was able to target the transcript of TCF4, a transcription factor critical for the development and homeostasis of pDCs. Further expression profiling of mouse DC subsets isolated from in vitro culture as well as via ex vivo purification demonstrated that miR-124 was outstandingly expressed in CD24⁺ cDC1 cells compared to in pDCs and CD172α⁺ cDC2 cells. These results imply that miR-124 is likely involved in the processes of DC subset development by posttranscriptional regulation of a transcription factor(s).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.823-828
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• 2000

The complete nucleotide sequence of hepatitis B virus DNA isolated from Korean patient serum was determined and characterized, and its phylogenetic relation was then investigated. The viral genome was 3,215 base pairs long and included four well known open reading frames (i.e. surface antigens, core antigens, X protein and DNA polymerase). The sequence of the surface antigen showed that the HBV genome under investigation, designated HBV 315, was characteristic of subtype adr. A phylogenetic analysis using the total genome sequence revealed that HBV315 was grouped into genomic group C together with isolates from Japan, China, Thailand, Polynesia, and New Caledonia. The mean percent similarity between HBV315 and other HBV isolates in genomic group C was 97.25%, and that with other genomic groups ranged from 86.16% to 91.25%. The predicted amino acid sequences of HBV315 were compared with two closely related subtype adr isolates, M38636 and D12980. The results showed that the X gene product was identical in the three strains, while there were significant amino acid sequence differences between HBV315 and M38636 in the Pre-S1 and Pre-S2 regions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.141-144
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• 2006

An antibody layer was fabricated to detect Escherichia coli O157:H7. The micropattern of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid (16-MHDA) as alkylthiolate was formed on the gold surface by using the PDMS stamp with microcontact printing $({\mu}CP)$ techniques. In order to form antibody patterns on the template, protein G was chemically bound to the 16-MHDA patterns, and antibody was adsorbed on a self-assembled protein G layer. The formation of the 16-MHDA micropattern, self-assembled protein G layer and antibody pattern on Au substrate was confirmed by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy. Finally, the micropatterning method was applied to fabricate the antibody probe for detection of E. coli O157:H7, and monitoring of antigen by using this probe was successfully achieved.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.494-498
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• 1989

Hybridoma cell lines, which secrete monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against the surface antigens of Cryptosporidium parvum Sporozoites, were produced by fusing spleen cells of C. parvum Sporozoite-immunized mice with P3-X63-Ag8 myeloma cells. Two cloned antibody-secreting cell lines, Kor1 and Ea2, were established and produced IgG1 and IgG2a antibodies, respectively. Percoll-purified sporozoites were solubilized and separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Western blot assay demonstrates that an antigen of 20-kDa was bound by monoclonals. By indirect immunofluorescence microscopy, mAb exhibited uniform binding to the sporozoite surface.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.62-66
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• 2001

This study was performed to investigate antigenic expression patterns in the course of HSV-1 infection. In SDS-PAGE analysis, HSV-1 antigens were detected, and among them, antigens in the size of 39, 47, 63, 86, 101, 105, 135, 159, and 181 kDa appear to be expressed in the most dominant forms. BALB/c mice were infected with HSV-1 for 29 days and antigenic expression from HSV-1 was investigated by Western blot analysis using anti-HSV-1 sera collected every two days from BALB/c mice infected with HSV-1. Most of HSV-1 antigens appeared sporadically as the infection progressed. However, antigens in the sizes of 63kDa and 135kDa were expressed from day 1 and 3, respectively, and existed continuously during the course of infection for 29 days, suggesting that they are the most dominant antigens inducing immune response durign HSV-1 infection, and they could be the target antigens for the development of vaccines. The isotype levels of IgA, IgGl, and IgM increased till the 17 th day infection and then started to decrease. During this course. IgGl was the most dominant isotype. In an indirect immunofluorescent assay, antibodies exhibited surface binding to the Vero cell infected with HSV-1, demonstrating that HSV-1 antigens are expressed on the surface of Vero cells.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.365-376
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• 2006

To identify immune response of leukocytes in peripheral blood of cattle vaccinated with an attenuated live Akabane virus vaccine, leukocytes were reacted with monoclonal antibodies which are specific to bovine lymphocyte surface antigens and assayed by the flow cytometry. Serum neutralizing (SN) test was used to measure antibody titers after vaccination, SN antibody was appeared to 7 days post-vaccination (PV) and 2-8 antibody titers were observed in 14 days PV. Proportion of $CD8^-$ MHC $class II^+$ expressing cells were rapidly increased at 3 days PV. $CD8^+$ MHC $class II^-$ cells were increased at 7 days PV. $CD4^+CD8^-,\;WC^+CD4^-,\;CD4^+CD8^+,\;WC1^-CD4^+, \;WC1^-CD8^+$, and $CD4^-CD8^+$ cells were highly increased at 3, 3, 7, 7, 14, 14 days PV, respectively.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 2007

Background: A red seaweed, Callophyllis japonica has been traditionally eaten in the oriental area. In a recent study, it has been demonstrated that the ethanol extract of C. japonica have antioxidant activity. However, there are few studies about the effects of C. japonica on the function of immune cells. We investigated the immunomodulatory effects of C. japonica on the function of dendritic cells, the potent antigen-presenting cells. Methods: Bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DCs) were used and the viability was measured by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and trypan blue exclusion test. Cytokine and nitric oxide (NO) levels were determined by using ELISA and Griess reagent, respectively. The expression levels of DC surface markers were measured by flow cytometric analysis. Results: C. japonica ethanol extract did not significantly affect the DCs viability and the IL-12 production from DCs, irrespective of the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In addition, it did not significantly change the expression of DC surface markers. However, C. japonica ethanol extract significantly inhibited the LPS-induced NO production and also increased the proliferation of allogeneic lymphocytes activated by DCs. Conclusion: Our data suggests that C. japonica ethanol extract enhances the proliferation of allogeneic lymphocytes activated by DCs which is associated with inhibition of NO production from DCs induced by LPS.