• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1128-1142
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Inonotus obliquus has been used as antidiabetic herb around the world, especially in the Russian and Scandinavian countries. Diabetes is widely believed to be a key factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is widely considered to be type III diabetes. To investigate whether I. obliquus can also ameliorate AD, it would be interesting to identify new clues for AD treatment. We tested the anti-AD effects of raw Inonotus obliquus polysaccharide (IOP) in a mouse model of AD (3×Tg-AD transgenic mice). MATERIALS/METHODS: SPF-grade 3×Tg-AD mice were randomly divided into three groups (Control, Metformin, and raw IOP groups, n = 5 per group). β-Amyloid deposition in the brain was analyzed using immunohistochemistry for AD characterization. Gene and protein expression of pertinent factors of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) was determined using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting. RESULTS: Raw IOP significantly reduced the accumulation of amyloid aggregates and facilitated UPS activity, resulting in a significant reduction in AD-related symptoms in an AD mouse model. The presence of raw IOP significantly enhanced the expression of ubiquitin, E1, and Parkin (E3) at both the mRNA and protein levels in the mouse hippocampus. The mRNA level of ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1, a key factor involved in UPS activation, also increased by approximately 50%. CONCLUSIONS: Raw IOP could contribute to AD amelioration via the UPS pathway, which could be considered as a new potential strategy for AD treatment, although we could not exclude other mechanisms involved in counteracting AD processing.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2016

Autophagy is a process tightly regulated by various autophagy-related proteins. It is generally classified into non-selective and selective autophagy. Whereas non-selective autophagy is triggered when the cell is under starvation, selective autophagy is involved in eliminating dysfunctional organelles, misfolded and/or ubiquitylated proteins, and intracellular pathogens. These components are recognized by autophagy receptors and delivered to phagophores. Several selective autophagy receptors have been identified and characterized. They usually have some common domains, such as motif, a specific cargo interacting (ubiquitin-dependent or ubiquitin-independent) domain. Recently, structural data of these autophagy receptors has been described, which provides an insight of their function in the selective autophagic process. In this review, we summarize the most up-to-date findings about the structure-function of autophagy receptors that regulates selective autophagy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.533-541
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• 2000

Compared to mammal including human, many bioreactive genes that regulate various biological events has not been cloned and characterized yet in fishes, especially shark, Scyliorhinus torazame. In orther to isolate genes that regulate physiological processes in cartilaginors fishes, we performed reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using the RNA of cartilage tissues of Scyliofhinus torazame. The cloned partial genes were 86%, 80%, 73%, 84%, 75%, 79% identical to $\alpha$- actin, 90-kDa heat-shock protein, methyle-neterahydrofolate dehydrogenase-methenyltertrahydrofolate cyclohudrolase-formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase, ubiquitin, glutamine synthetase and connective tissue growth factor genes of human, respectively. They also have similar nucleotide sequence homologues with those of another species. These partial bioreactive genes elucidated in this study may support to studies of phylogenetic analysis based on evolutionary relationships between shark and other species.

• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.177-183
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• 2008

Ubiquitin is an essential, highly-conserved small regulatory protein in eukaryotic cells. It covalently modifies a wide variety of targeted proteins in the forms of monomer and polymers, altering the conformation and binding properties of the proteins and thus regulating proteasomal delivery, protein activities and localization. Mass spectrometry has emerged as an indispensable tool for in-depth characterization of protein ubiquitination. Ubiquitinated proteins in cell lysates are usually enriched by affinity chromatography and subsequently analyzed by mass spectrometry for identification and quantification. Ubiquitin-conjugated amino acid residues can be determined by unique mass shift caused by the modification. Moreover, the complex structure of polyubiquitin chains on substrates can be dissected by bottom-up and middle-down mass spectrometric approaches, revealing potential novel functions of polyubiquitin linkages. Here I review the advances and caveats of these strategies, emphasizing caution in the validation of ubiquitinated proteins and in the interpretation of raw data.

• BMB Reports
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.490-494
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• 2013

The phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) is a tumor-suppressing lipid phosphatase that is frequently absent in breast tumors. Thus, the stability of PTEN is essential for tumor prevention and therapy. The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway has an important role in regulating the functions of PTEN. Specifically, carboxyl terminus Hsp70-interacting protein (CHIP), the E3 ubiquitin ligase of PTEN, can regulate PTEN levels. In this study, we report that BCL-2-associated athanogene 5 (BAG5), a known inhibitor of CHIP activity, reduces the degradation of PTEN and maintains its levels via an ubiquitylation-dependent pathway. BAG5 is identified as an antagonist of cell tumorigenicity.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.1567-1572
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• 2009

Conformational change of ubiquitin variant with valine to alanine mutation at sequence position 26 was studied by varying solvent pH. Fluorescence emission spectra indicated that this variant ubiquitin has some residual structures in acidic and basic solution as compared to denaturant-induced unfolded state. Far-UV circular dichroic spectra indicated that the base-denatured state had more secondary structure than the acid-denatured state. Near-UV circular dichroic spectra indicated that the aromatic side-chains were in the relatively more rigid environment in the base-denatured state than those in the acid-denatured state. Although it appears that the more tertiary structure present in the base-denatured state, refolding reactions measured by stopped-flow fluorescence device suggest that both the acid- and base-denatured states occur before the major folding transition state. The acid- and base-denatured states are considered to reflect the early event of protein folding process.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.231-232
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• 2005

Bacteria of Shigella spp. are responsible for shigellosis in humans, a disease characterized by destruction of the colonic epithelium that is induced by the inflammatory response elicited by invasive bacteria. They use a type III secretion system injecting effector proteins into host cells to induce their entry into epithelial cells and triggers apoptosis in macrophages. We present evidence that the effector OspG is a protein kinase that binds various ubiquitinylated ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (E2s) and blocks degradation of phospho-$I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ induced upon entry of bacteria into epithelial cells. Transfection experiments confirmed that OspG interferes with the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation patway by preventing phospho-$I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation, suggesting that OspG inactivates a component of the $SCF^{{\beta}-TrCP}$ ubiquitin ligase complex (E3) involved in phospho-$I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ ubiquitination. Upon infection of ileal loops in rabbits, the ospG mutant induced a stronger inflammatory response compared with the wild-type strain, indicating that OspG down-regulates the host innate response induced by invasive bacteria.

• Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.153-161
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• 2018

Imbalance of protein homeostasis (proteostasis) is known to cause cellular malfunction, cell death, and diseases. Elaborate regulation of protein synthesis and degradation is one of the important processes in maintaining normal cellular functions. Protein degradation pathways in eukaryotes are largely divided into proteasome-mediated degradation and lysosome-mediated degradation. Proteasome is a multisubunit complex that selectively degrades 80% to 90% of cellular proteins. Proteasome-mediated degradation can be divided into 26S proteasome (20S proteasome + 19S regulatory particle) and free 20S proteasome degradation. In 1980, it was discovered that during ubiquitination process, wherein ubiquitin binds to a substrate protein in an ATP-dependent manner, ubiquitin acts as a degrading signal to degrade the substrate protein via proteasome. Conversely, 20S proteasome degrades the substrate protein without using ATP or ubiquitin because it recognizes the oxidized and structurally modified hydrophobic patch of the substrate protein. To date, most studies have focused on protein degradation via 26S proteasome. This review describes the 26S/20S proteasomal pathway of protein degradation and discusses the potential of proteasome as therapeutic targets for cancer treatment as well as against diseases caused by abnormalities in the proteolytic system.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.483-490
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• 2020

The ubiquitin system uses ligases and deubiquitinases (DUBs) to regulate ubiquitin position on protein substrates and is involved in many biological processes which determine stability, activity, and interaction of the target substrate. DUBs are classified in six groups according to catalytic domain, namely ubiquitin-specific proteases (USPs); ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolases (UCHs); ovarian tumor proteases (OTUs); Machado Joseph Disease proteases (MJDs); motif interacting with Ub (MIU)-containing novel DUB family (MINDY); and Jab1/MPN/MOV34 metalloenzymes (JAMMs). Otubain 1 (OTUB1) is a DUB in the OTU family which possesses both canonical and non-canonical activity and can regulate multiple cellular signaling pathways. In this review, we describe the function of OTUB1 through regulation of its canonical and non-canonical activities in multiple specifically cancer-associated pathways. The canonical activity of OTUB1 inhibits protein ubiquitination by cleaving Lys48 linkages while its non-canonical activity prevents ubiquitin transfer onto target proteins through binding to E2-conjugating enzymes, resulting in the induction of protein deubiquitination. OTUB1 can therefore canonically and non-canonically promote tumor cell proliferation, invasion, and drug resistance through regulating FOXM1, ERα, KRAS, p53, and mTORC1. Moreover, clinical research has demonstrated that OTUB1 overexpresses with high metastasis in many tumor types including breast, ovarian, esophageal squamous, and glioma. Therefore, OTUB1 has been suggested as a diagnosis marker and potential therapeutic target for oncotherapy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.476-481
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• 2022

Ubiquitin signaling regulates virtually all aspects of eukaryotic biology and dynamic processes in which protein substrates are modified by ubiquitin. To regulate these processes, deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) cleave ubiquitin or ubiquitin-like proteins from these substrates. DUBs have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer, leading to the development of increasing numbers of small-molecule DUB inhibitors. On the other hand, recent studies have focused on the function of DUBs in metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver diseases. DUBs play a positive or negative role in the progression and development of metabolic diseases. Their involvement in cell pathology and regulation of major transcription factors in metabolic syndrome has been examined in vitro and in animal and human biopsies. UCH, USP7, and USP19 were linked to adipocyte differentiation, body weight gain, and insulin resistance in genetic or diet-induced obesity. CYLD, USP4, and USP18 were found to be closely associated with fatty liver diseases. In addition, these liver diseases were accompanied by body weight change in certain cases. Collectively, in this review, we discuss the current understanding of DUBs in metabolic diseases with a particular focus on obesity. We also provide basic knowledge and regulatory mechanisms of DUBs and suggest these enzymes as therapeutic targets for metabolic diseases.