• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• 제31권2호
• /
• pp.79-84
• /
• 2015

A new cecropin-like antimicrobial peptide (Px-CLP) gene was isolated from the immunechallenged larvae of the swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus, by employing annealing control primer (ACP)-based GeneFishing PCR. The full-length cDNA of Px-CLP is 310 nucleotides encoding a 70 amino acid precursor that contains a putative 22-residue signal peptide, a 4-residue propeptide, a presumed 37-residue mature peptide, and an uncommon 7-residue acidic pro-region at the C-terminus. The deduced amino acid sequence of Px-CLP showed significant identities with other Lepidopteran cecropin D type peptides. RT-PCR revealed that the Px-CLP transcript was detected at significant level after injection with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The peptides with or without C-terminal acidic sequence region were synthesized on-solid phage and submitted to antibacterial activity assay. The synthetic 37-mer peptide (Px-CLPa), which removed C-terminal acidic sequence region, was showed exclusively antibacterial activity against E. coli ML35; meanwhile, a 44-mer peptide (Px-CLPb) with C-terminal acidic peptide region was not active. This result suggests that Px-CLP is produced as a larger precursor containing a C-terminal pro-region that is subsequently removed by C-terminal modification.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제30권9호
• /
• pp.1305-1309
• /
• 2020

Insects possess biological defense systems that can effectively combat the invasion of external microorganisms and viruses, thereby supporting their survival in diverse environments. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent a fast-acting weapon against invading pathogens, including various bacterial or fungal strains. A 37-residue antimicrobial peptide, papiliocin, derived from the swallowtail butterfly Papilio xuthus larvae, showed significant antimicrobial activities against several human pathogenic bacterial and fungal strains. Jelleines, isolated as novel antibacterial peptides from the Royal Jelly (RJ) of bees, exhibit broad-spectrum protection against microbial infections. In this study, we developed a novel antimicrobial peptide, PAJE (RWKIFKKPFKISIHL-NH₂), which is a hybrid peptide prepared by combining 1-7 amino acid residues (RWKIFKK-NH₂) of papiliocin and 1-8 amino acid residues (PFKISIHL-NH₂) of Jelleine-1 to alter length, charge distribution, net charge, volume, amphipaticity, and improve bacterial membrane interactions. This novel peptide exhibited increased hydrophobicity and net positive charge for binding effectively to the negatively charged membrane. PAJE demonstrated antimicrobial activity against both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, with very low toxicity to eukaryotic cells and an inexpensive process of synthesis. Collectively, these findings suggest that this novel peptide possesses great potential as an antimicrobial agent.

• 한국고분자학회지:고분자과학과기술
• /
• 제23권3호
• /
• pp.282-288
• /
• 2012

• 대한치주과학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 대한치주과학회 2007년도 제47회 종합학술대회 연제초록
• /
• pp.128-129
• /
• 2007

• 한국자기공명학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국자기공명학회 1999년도 하계총회 및 제15회 자기공명 학술발표회
• /
• pp.20-20
• /
• 1999

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• 제8권1호
• /
• pp.95-99
• /
• 2004

Synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) containing unmethylated CpG dinucleotides in particular base contexts are known to induce immunity in vertebrate cells. In insect, however, it was recent to find out that ODNs induces insect immunity as other immune inducer such as lipopolysaccharide. However, the finding was solely based on one lepidopteran insect, Bombyx mori, and the expression of insect immunity was neither dependent on numbers of CpG repeats nor methylation of CpG repeats within ODNs. Instead, foreignness of DNA has been suggested to be a key factor governing induction of antibacterial peptide. In this study, we expanded our previous understanding to the potentiality of ODNs as an immune inducer for antifungal peptide in Galleria mellonella and B. mori. To do this, a defensin-type antifungal peptide gene, reported from G. mellonella was cloned and partially sequenced from G. mellonella and B. mori successfully and utilized as a probe in the Northern blot analysis. We found out that ODNs also work as an immune inducer for antifungal peptide in the fat body and midgut of G. mellonella and B. mori larvae. Also, induction pattern of antifungal peptide was irrelevant to the numbers of CpG repeats within ODNs as previously reported on the induction pattern of antibacterial peptides.

• BMB Reports
• /
• 제31권1호
• /
• pp.58-63
• /
• 1998

In this study, a mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb) against gp41(584-618), the immunodominant epitope protein, was generated. For this purpose, BALB/c mice were immunized with double branched multiple antigenic peptides derived from the HIV-1 gp41(584-618) sequence, and antibody-secreting hybridoma were produced by fusion of mice splenocytes with SP2/0 myeloma cells. One clone producing an antigen specific mAb, termed KI-41(isotype IgG1) was identified, whose specific reactivity against gp41(584-618) could be confirmed by ELISA and Western blot analysis. Epitope mapping revealed the recognition site of the mAb KI-41 to be located around the sequence RILAVERYLKDQQLLG, which comprises the N-terminal region within the immunized gp41(584-618) peptied. Since this mAb recognizes this specific epitope within the HIV-1 gp41 without any cross-reactivity to other immunodominant regions in the HIV-2 gp35, KI-41 will provide some alternative possibilities in further applications such as the development of indirect or competitive ELISA for specific antibody detection in HIV-1 infection or for other basic researches regarding the role and function of HIV-1 gp41.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제8권1호
• /
• pp.34-41
• /
• 1998

A method was developed for the controlled expression of an antimicrobial peptide magainin in Escherichia coli. A series of concatemeric magainin genes was constructed with a gene amplification vector, and fused to the 3'end of malE gene encoding the affinity ligand, E. coli maltose-binding protein (MBP). The construct directed the synthesis of the fusion protein with the magainin polypeptide fused to the C-terminus of MBP. The fusion protein was expressed in a tightly regulatable expression system which was under the control of an invertible promoter. The MBP-fused magainin monomer was expressed efficiently. However, the expression level of the MBP-fused magainin in E. coli decreased with the increasing size of multimers possibly because of the transcription and translation inhibition by the multimeric peptides. After purification using an amylose affinity column, the fusion protein was digested by factor Xa at a specific cleavage site between the monomers. The recombinant magainin had an antimicrobial activity identical to that of synthetic magainin. This experiment shows that a biologically active, antimicrobial peptide magainin can be produced by fusing to MBP, along with a promoter inversion vector system.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• 제20권3호
• /
• pp.245-255
• /
• 2012

Amyloid-${\beta}$ peptide ($A{\beta}$) is still best known as a molecule to cause Alzheimer's disease (AD) through accumulation and deposition within the frontal cortex and hippocampus in the brain. Thus, strategies on developing AD drugs have been focused on the reduction of $A{\beta}$ in the brain. Since accumulation of $A{\beta}$ depends on the rate of its synthesis and clearance, the metabolic pathway of $A{\beta}$ in the brain and the whole body should be carefully explored for AD research. Although the synthetic pathway of $A{\beta}$ is equally important, we summarize primarily the clearance pathway in this paper because the former has been extensively reviewed in previous studies. The clearance of $A{\beta}$ from the brain is accomplished by several mechanisms which include non-enzymatic and enzymatic pathways. Nonenzymatic pathway includes interstitial fluid drainage, uptake by microglial phagocytosis, and transport across the blood vessel walls into the circulation. Multiple $A{\beta}$-degrading enzymes (ADE) implicated in the clearance process have been identified, which include neprilysin, insulin-degrading enzyme, matrix metalloproteinase-9, glutamate carboxypeptidase II and others. A series of studies on $A{\beta}$ clearance mechanism provide new insight into the pathogenesis of AD at the molecular level and suggest a new target for the development of novel therapeutics.

• BMB Reports
• /
• 제28권2호
• /
• pp.87-93
• /
• 1995

To investigate the biological functions of the EGF-like domain of mouse betacellulin (BTC), mouse BTC(33-80), a 48-residue peptide corresponding to the EGF-like domain, was synthesized by stepwise solidphase methods using a 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) strategy. The homogeneity of synthetic mouse BTC(33-80) was confirmed by analytical reversed phase (RP)-HPLC, amimo acid analysis, and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometer (FAB-MS). Three disulfide bond pairings of synthetic mouse BTC(33-80) were established by amino acid analysis of cysteine-containing fragments derived from thermolytic digestion. These were consistent with the pairings of EGF and transforming growth factor ($TGF-{\alpha}$). The EGF-Iike domain of mouse BTC showed equipotent activity in both EGF-receptor binding on A-431 epidermoid carcinoma cells, and mitogenesis on NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells, as compared with authentic h-EGF. Results suggest that the EGF-Iike domain of BTC plays a significant role in mitogenic activity with an EGF-receptor mediated system.