• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.490-496
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• 1996

Naphtodianthrone hypericin produced a potent antitumor activity in vitro against several tumor cells. However, it did not show any cytotoxicity on normal cells such as Macaccus rheus monkey kidney cells (MA-104) and primary cultured rat hepatocytes up to $500{\mu}M$ concentration. Hypericin added to A431 human epidermoid carcinoma cell membrane inhibited the autophosphorylation of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and the tyrosine phosphorylation of RR-SRC peptide catalyzed by an EGF-receptor. Similarly, treatment of the A431 cells with hypericin inhibited the tyrosine phosphorylation of EGF-dependent endogenous EGF-receptor by western blotting analysis. Hypericin also inhibited the T cell PTK, $P56^{lck}$, in a dose-dependent fashion with an $IC_{50}=5{\mu}M$. The tyrosine phosphorylation, on RR-SRC peptide and EGF-induced receptor autophosphorylation, either in vitro or in intact cells was inhibited by hypericin at the same concentration as that in A431 cell proliferation. These data suggest that hypericin directly inhibits EGF-receptor and $P56^{lck}$ PTK activity in vitro and can mediate such action in vivo.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.505-513
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• 2021

Objective : The adaptive immune response following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is not well understood. We evaluated and compared the T cell receptor (TCR) immune repertoire of good-grade and poor-grade SAH patients to elucidate the T cell immunology after ictus. Methods : Peripheral blood from six SAH patients was collected at two different times, admission and at the 7-day follow-up. Composition and variation of the TCR β-chain (TCRB) complimentary determining regions (CDR) 3 repertoire was examined using high-throughput sequencing; the analysis was based on sampling time and disease severity (good vs. poor-grade SAH). Results : Clonality at admission and follow-up were 0.059 (0.037-0.038) and 0.027 (0.014-0.082) (median, 25th-75th percentile). Poor-grade SAH (0.025 [0.011-0.038]) was associated with significantly lower clonality than good-grade SAH (0.095 [0.079-0.101]). Poor-grade SAH patients had higher diversity scores than good-grade SAH patients. CDR length was shorter in good-grade SAH vs. poor-grade SAH. Differences in clonotype distribution were more prominent in TCRBV gene segments than TCRBJ segments. TCRBV19-01/TCRBJ02-04 and TCRBV28-01/TCRBJ02-04 were the most increased and the most decreased V-J pairs in the 7-day follow-up compared to admission in good-grade SAH. The most increased and decreased V-J pairs in poor-grade SAH patients were TCRBV28-01/TCRBJ02-06 and TCRBV30-01/TCRBJ02-04, respectively. Conclusion : The TCRB repertoire is dynamic in nature following SAH. TCRB repertoire may facilitate our understanding of adaptive immune response according to SAH severity.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.453-458
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• 2003

The anomaly-detection algorithm based on negative selection of T cells is representative model among self-recognition methods and it has been applied to computer immune systems in recent years. In immune systems, T cells are produced through both positive and negative selection. Positive selection is the process used to determine a MHC receptor that recognizes self-molecules. Negative selection is the process used to determine an antigen receptor that recognizes antigen, or the nonself cell. In this paper, we propose a novel self-recognition algorithm based on the positive selection of T cells. We indicate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by change-detection simulation of some infected data obtained from cell changes and string changes in the self-file. We also compare the self-recognition algorithm based on positive selection with the anomaly-detection algorithm.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2000

The effects of the members of the same nuclear receptor superfamily (all-trans retinoic acid (RA), thyroid hormone(T3) or hydrocortisone) on proliferation and differentiation in the SK-N-SH neuroblastoma (NB) cell lines were studied. NB cells were treated with RA, T3, or hydrocortisone at concentration of 10$^{-6}$ M or 10$^{-8}$ M for 3 days or 7 days. RA induced concentration- and time-dependent morphologic differentiation(neurite outgrowth and microtubule-associated protein expression) and growth inhibition in NB cells. Treatment of 10$^{-7}$ M T3 for 7 days increased viability and differentiation of NB cells. Treatment of 10$^{-6}$ M hydrocortisone for 7 days increased viability of NB cells. Although these three effectors are members of the same receptor superfamily, the regulation of brain development may be carried out in a different manner.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.399-402
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• 2024

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.319-326
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• 2009

Extracellular ATP elicits diverse physiological effects by binding to the G-protein-coupled P2Y receptors on the plasma membrane. In addition to the short-term effects of extracellular nucleotides on cell functions, there is evidence that such purinergic signalling can have long-term effects on cell proliferation, differentiation and death. The 3T3-L1 cell line derived from mouse embryo is a well-established and commonly utilized in vitro model for adipocytes differentiation and function. However, the distributions and roles of P2Y subtypes are still unknown in the preadipocyte. In this study, we identified the distributions and roles of P2Y subtypes in preadipocyte using $Ca^{2+}$ imaging and realtime PCR. ATP increased the $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ in a concentration-dependent manner. ATP increased $Ca^{2+}$ in absence and/or presence of extracellular $Ca^{2+}$. Suramin, non-selective P2Y blocker, largely blocked the ATP-induced $Ca^{2+}$ response. U73122, a PLC inhibitor, completely inhibited $Ca^{2+}$ mobilization in 3T3-L1 cells. The mRNA expression by realtime PCR of P2Y subtypes was $P2Y_2:P2Y_5:P2Y_6=1.0:12.5:0.3$. In conclusion, we showed that $P2Y_5$ receptor is a dominant purinergic receptor in preadipocytes, and multiple P2Y receptors could involve in differentiation and migration via regulating of intracellular calcium concentration.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.335-341
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• 2021

Zinc is an essential micronutrient with crucial roles in multiple facets of biological processes. Dysregulated zinc homeostasis impairs overall immune function and resultantly increases susceptibility to infection. Clinically, zinc supplementation is practiced for treatment of several infectious diseases, such as diarrhea and malaria. Recent focus on zinc as a beneficial element for immune system support has resulted in investigation of the immunomodulatory roles of zinc in a variety of immune cells. Besides its classical role as a cofactor that regulates the structural function of thousands of proteins, accumulating evidence suggests that zinc also acts, in a manner similar to calcium, as an ionic regulator of immune responses via participation as an intracellular messenger in signaling pathways. In this review, we focus on the role of zinc as a signaling molecule in major pathways such as those downstream of Toll-like receptors-, T cell receptor-, and cytokine-mediated signal transduction that regulate the activity and function of monocytes/macrophages and T cells, principal players in the innate and adaptive immune systems.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5973-5981
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• 2013

At present, the most common cause of cancer-related death in women is breast cancer. In a large proportion of breast cancers, there is the overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). This receptor is a 185 KDa growth factor glycoprotein, also known as the first tumor-associated antigen for different types of breast cancers. Moreover, HER2 is an appropriate cell-surface specific antigen for passive immunotherapy, which relies on the repeated application of monoclonal antibodies that are transferred to the patient. However, vaccination is preferable because it would stimulate a patient's own immune system to actively respond to a disease. In the current study, several bioinformatics tools were used for designing synthetic peptide vaccines. PEPOP was used to predict peptides from HER2 ECD subdomain III in the form of discontinuous-continuous B-cell epitopes. Then, T-cell epitope prediction web servers MHCPred, SYFPEITHI, HLA peptide motif search, Propred, and SVMHC were used to identify class-I and II MHC peptides. In this way, PEPOP selected 12 discontinuous peptides from the 3D structure of the HER2 ECD subdomain III. Furthermore, T-cell epitope prediction analyses identified four peptides containing the segments 77 (384-391) and 99 (495-503) for both B and T-cell epitopes. This work is the only study to our knowledge focusing on design of in silico potential novel cancer peptide vaccines of the HER2 ECD subdomain III that contain epitopes for both B and T-cells. These findings based on bioinformatics analyses may be used in vaccine design and cancer therapy; saving time and minimizing the number of tests needed to select the best possible epitopes.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.9.1-9.15
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• 2023

Cancer immunotherapies continue to face numerous obstacles in the successful treatment of solid malignancies. While immunotherapy has emerged as an extremely effective treatment option for hematologic malignancies, it is largely ineffective against solid tumors due in part to metabolic challenges present in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Tumor-infiltrating CD8⁺ T cells face fierce competition with cancer cells for limited nutrients. The strong metabolic suppression in the TME often leads to impaired T-cell recruitment to the tumor site and hyporesponsive effector functions via T-cell exhaustion. Growing evidence suggests that mitochondria play a key role in CD8⁺ T-cell activation, migration, effector functions, and persistence in tumors. Therefore, targeting the mitochondrial metabolism of adoptively transferred T cells has the potential to greatly improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies in treating solid malignancies.

• Korean Journal of Transplantation
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.157-169
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• 2017

Regulatory T cells (Treg) naturally rein in immune attacks, and they can inhibit rejection of transplanted organs and even reverse the progression of autoimmune diseases in mice. The initial safety trials of Treg against graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) provided evidence that the adoptive transfer of Treg is safe and capable of limiting disease progression. Supported by such evidence, numerous clinical trials have been actively investigating the efficacy of Treg targeting autoimmune diseases, type I diabetes, and organ transplant rejection, including kidney and liver. The limited quantity of Treg cells harvested from peripheral blood and subsequent in vitro culture have posed a great challenge to large-scale clinical application of Treg; nevertheless, the concept of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor)-Treg has emerged as a potential resolution to the problem. Recently, two CAR-T therapies, tisagenlecleucel and axicabtagene ciloleucel, were approved by the US FDA for the treatment of refractory or recurrent acute lymhoblastic leukemia. This approval could serve as a guideline for the production protocols for other genetically engineered T cells for clinical use as well. The phase I and II clinical trials of these agents has demonstrated that genetically engineered and antigen-targeting T cells are safe and efficacious in humans. In conclusion, both the promising results of Treg cell therapy from the clinical studies and the recent FDA approval of CAR-T therapies are paving the way for CAR-Treg therapy in clinical use.