• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제59권6호
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• pp.565-572
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• 2021

Toxoplasma gondii ME49 infections are typically diagnosed by serological tests. However, serological diagnosis of RH strain-induced toxoplasmosis remains unknown. In order to develop seradiagnosis of above 2 kinds of infections, we generated recombinant virus-like particles (VLPs) displaying the T. gondii rhoptry protein 4 (ROP4) and evaluated their potential in T. gondii ME49 or RH strain infection diagnostics. Mice were orally infected with either the tachyzoites of T. gondii (RH) or cysts of T. gondii (ME49) at various dosages, and sera were collected at regular intervals. ELISA-based serological tests were performed to assess IgG, IgM, and IgA antibody responses against ROP4 VLP antigen and tissue lysate antigen (TLA). Compared to TLA, IgG, IgM, and IgA levels to ROP4 VLP antigen were significantly higher in the sera of T. gondii RH-infected mice 1 and 2 week post-infection (PI). T. gondii-specific IgG antibody was detected at 1, 2, 4, and 8 week PI in the T. gondii ME49-infected mice with infection dose-dependent manner. These results indicated that the ROP4 VLP antigen was highly sensitive antigens detecting T. gondii RH and ME49 antibodies at an early stage.

• 해양환경안전학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.331-335
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• 2012

2012년 1월 13일 이탈리아 국적 초대형 여객선 코스타 콘코디아호가 부분 침몰되었다. 당시 해당 선박은 4,252명의 여객과 승무원이 승선하고 있었으며, 사고 며칠 후 30여명이 사망하였으며 사고 24시간 이후 두명의 한국인을 포함한 이탈리아 선원들이 극적으로 구조되었다. 2012년 6월 18일까지(본 논문 발표일 기준) 총 32명의 사망자와 64명의 부상자 등 총 100여명의 사상자가 발생한 해사안전 문제의 치유할 수 없는 사고가 발생되었고 현재까지 사고에 대한 조사가 여전히 진행 중이다. 본 연구에서는 이번 초대형 이탈리아 여객선 코스타 콘코디아호의 재난 경과 보고서로써 사고의 문제점, 원인, 향후 대책방안 등에 관하여 조사 분석을 실시하였다. 본 연구의 하나의 주된 결과로써 향후 이러한 초대형 여객 운반선의 경우 국제 해사 안전적 관점에서 혁신적이고 지능적인 선박 퇴선 시스템이 구축되어야 할 것으로 분석되었다.

• BMB Reports
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.166-171
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• 2020

A chemical library comprising 2,354 drug-like compounds was screened using a transcription and replication-competent viruslike particle (trVLP) system implementing the whole Ebola virus (EBOV) life cycle. Dose-dependent inhibition of Ebola trVLP replication was induced by 15 hit compounds, which primarily target different types of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Based on the chemical structure, the compounds were divided into three groups, diphenylmethane derivatives, promazine derivatives and chemicals with no conserved skeletons. The third group included sertindole, raloxifene, and ibutamoren showing prominent antiviral effects in cells. They downregulated the expression of viral proteins, including the VP40 matrix protein and the envelope glycoprotein. They also reduced the amount of EBOV-derived tetracistronic minigenome RNA incorporated into progeny trVLPs in the culture supernatant. Particularly, ibutamoren, which is a known agonist of growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR), showed the most promising antiviral activity with a 50% effective concentration of 0.2 μM, a 50% cytotoxic concentration of 42.4 μM, and a selectivity index of 222.8. Here, we suggest a strategy for development of anti-EBOV therapeutics by adopting GHSR agonists as hit compounds.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.356-363
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• 2016

Human papillomavirus (HPV), a non-enveloped, double-stranded DNA tumor virus, is a primary etiological agent of cervical cancer development. As a potential tool for prophylactic vaccination, the development of virus-like particles (VLPs) containing the HPV16 L1 capsid protein is highly desired. In this study, we developed a high-level expression system of the HPV16 L1 in Escherichia coli for the purpose of VLP development. The native gene of HPV16 L1 has many rare codons that cause the early termination of translation and result in the production of truncated forms. First, we optimized the codon of the HPV16 L1 gene to the preferable codons of E. coli, and we succeeded in producing the full-size HPV16 L1 protein without early termination. Next, to find the best host for the production of HPV16 L1, we examined a total of eight E. coli strains, and E. coli BL21(DE3) with the highest yield among the strains was selected. With the selected host-vector system, we did a fed-batch cultivation in a lab-scale bioreactor. Two different feeding solutions (complex and defined feeding solutions) were examined and, when the complex feeding solution was used, a 6-fold higher production yield (4.6 g/l) was obtained compared with that with the defined feeding solution.

• 한국가시화정보학회지
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.136-145
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• 2022

Later flow immunoassay (LFIA) is a protein analytical method based on immunoreaction. On the LFIA based protein analytical method, bioreceptor molecule plays a key role, and so a system that evaluates and manages the binding affinity of bioreceptor is needed to secure detection reliability. In this study, Lateral Flow Immunoassay based rapid Bioreceptor Screening Method (rBSM) is presented that provide a simple and quick evaluating method for the binding affinity to the target protein of the antibody as model bioreceptor. To verify this evaluation method, Virus-like particles (VLP) and anti-VLP antibodies are selected as a model norovirus, which is target protein, and the candidate bioreceptors respectively. Among the 5 different candidate antibodies, appropriate antibody could be sorted out within 30 minutes through rBSM. In addition, selected antibodies were applied to two representative LFIA based techniques, sandwich assay and competitive assay. Among these methods, sandwich assay showed more effective VLP detection method. Through applying selected antibodies and techniques to the commercialized mass production lines, an VLP detecting LFIA kit was developed with a detection limit of 10¹² copies/g of VLPs in real samples. Since this proposed method in this study could be easily transformable into other combinations with bioreceptors, it is expected that this technique would be applied to LFIA kit development system and bioreceptor quality management.