• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.249-262
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• 2021

The most effective way to control newly emerging infectious disease, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, is to strengthen preventative or therapeutic public health strategies before the infection spreads worldwide. However, global health systems remain at the early stages in anticipating effective therapeutics or vaccines to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. While maintaining social distance is the most crucial metric to avoid spreading the virus, symptomatic therapy given to patients on the clinical manifestations helps save lives. The molecular properties of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been quickly elucidated, paving the way to therapeutics, vaccine development, and other medical interventions. Despite this progress, the detailed biomolecular mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection remains elusive. Given virus invasion of cells is a determining factor for virulence, understanding the viral entry process can be a mainstay in controlling newly emerged viruses. Since viral entry is mediated by selective cellular proteases or proteins associated with receptors, identification and functional analysis of these proteins could provide a way to disrupt virus propagation. This review comprehensively discusses cellular machinery necessary for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Understanding multifactorial traits of the virus entry will provide a substantial guide to facilitate antiviral drug development.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.415-426
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• 2008

The interactions between the host and microbial pathogen largely dictate the onset, progression, and outcome of infectious diseases. Pathogens subvert host components to promote their pathogenesis and, among these, cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans are exploited by many pathogens for their initial attachment and subsequent cellular entry. The ability to interact with heparan sulfate proteoglycans is widespread among viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Certain pathogens also use heparan sulfate proteoglycans to evade host defense mechanisms. These findings suggest that heparan sulfate proteoglycans are critical in microbial pathogenesis, and that heparan sulfate proteoglycan-pathogen interactions are potential targets for novel prophylactic and therapeutic approaches.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.17 no.31
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• pp.43-48
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• 1994

In an effort to become more competitive and cost efficient many companies have shifted from traditional job-shop production to production using group technology (GT) and cell manufacturing (CM). Cellular manufacturing is critical to implementing Just-in-Time (JIT) production which pointed out in the previous articles. and adopt the U-shaped cell which allows for entry at one end of the U and exist at the other. This paper looks at the availability of cellular manufacturing, by applying those concepts to the small and medium sized industry.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.286-291
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• 2016

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the prototypical ${\gamma}$-herpesvirus and an obligate human pathogen that infects mainly epithelial cells and B cells, which can result in malignancies. EBV infects these target cells by fusing with the viral and cellular lipid bilayer membranes using multiple viral factors and host receptor(s) thus exhibiting a unique complexity in its entry machinery. To enter epithelial cells, EBV requires minimally the conserved core fusion machinery comprised of the glycoproteins gH/gL acting as the receptor-binding complex and gB as the fusogen. EBV can enter B cells using gp42, which binds tightly to gH/gL and interacts with host HLA class II, activating fusion. Previously, we published the individual crystal structures of EBV entry factors, such as gH/gL and gp42, the EBV/host receptor complex, gp42/HLA-DR1, and the fusion protein EBV gB in a postfusion conformation, which allowed us to identify structural determinants and regions critical for receptor-binding and membrane fusion. Recently, we reported different low resolution models of the EBV B cell entry triggering complex (gHgL/gp42/HLA class II) in "open" and "closed" states based on negative-stain single particle electron microscopy, which provide further mechanistic insights. This review summarizes the current knowledge of these key players in EBV entry and how their structures impact receptor-binding and the triggering of gB-mediated fusion.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.33-40
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• 2022

Store-operated Ca²⁺ entry (SOCE) represents one of the major Ca²⁺ entry routes in non-excitable cells. It is involved in a variety of fundamental biological processes and the maintenance of Ca²⁺ homeostasis. The Ca²⁺ release-activated Ca²⁺ (CRAC) channel consists of stromal interaction molecule and Orai; however, the role and action of Homer proteins as an adaptor protein to SOCE-mediated Ca²⁺ signaling through the activation of CRAC channels in non-excitable cells still remain unknown. In the present study, we investigated the role of Homer2 in the process of Ca²⁺ signaling induced by the interaction between CRACs and Homer2 proteins in non-excitable cells. The response to Ca²⁺ entry by thapsigargin-mediated Ca²⁺ store depletion remarkably decreased in pancreatic acinar cells of Homer2^-/- mice, as compared to wild-type cells. It also showed critical differences in regulated patterns by the specific blockers of SOCE in pancreatic acinar cells of Homer2^-/- mice. The response to Ca²⁺ entry by the depletion in Ca²⁺ store markedly increased in the cellular overexpression of Orai1 and STIM1 as compared to the overexpression of Homer2 in cells; however, this response was remarkably inhibited by the overexpression of Orai1, STIM1, and Homer2. These results suggest that Homer2 has a critical role in the regulatory action of SOCE activity and the interactions between CRAC channels.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.66-77
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• 2000

For a variety of viruses, the primary virus infection has been shown to prevent superinfection with a homologous secondary virus; however, the mechanism of exclusion has not been clearly understood. In this work, we demonstrated that BVDV -infected MDBK cells were protected from superinfection with a homologous superinfecting BVDV, one of the positive-sense RNA pestiviruses, but not with an unrelated rhabdovirus, such as vesicular stomatitis virus. Once superinfection exclusion was established by a primary infection with BVDV, the transfected infectious BVD viral RNA genome was shown to be competent for viral translation, but not viral replication. In addition, our results also demonstrated that upon superinfection, the. viral RNA genome of viral particles was not transferred into the cytoplasm of BVDV -infected cells. Using newly developed system involving rapid generation of the MDBK cells expressing BVD viral proteins, we subsequently found that expression of the viral structural proteins was dispensable for the block occurring at the level of viral RNA replication, but required for the exclusion at the level of viral entry step. Altogether, these findings provide evidence that the superinfection exclusion of BVDV occurs not only at the level of viral replication in which the viral replicase are involved, but also at the level of viral entry with which the viral structural proteins are associated, and that a cellular factor(s) play an essential role in this process.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.65-67
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• 2023

SMILES (simplified molecular-input line-entry system) information of small molecules parsed by one-hot array is passed to a convolutional neural network called black box. Outputs data representing a gene signature is then matched to the genetic signature of a disease to predict the appropriate small molecule. Efficacy of the predicted small molecules is examined by in vivo animal models. GSEA, gene set enrichment analysis.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.189-195
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• 2008

The sequence of hydroxypyruvate isomerase gene was obtained in NCBI. In this study, the hydroxypyruvate isomerase gene of Bombyx.mori was identified and annotated with bioinformatics tools. The result was confirmed by RT-PCR, prokaryotic expression, mass spectrographic analysis and sub-cellular localization. The hydroxypyruvate isomerase cDNA comtains a 783bp ORF, and has 4 exons. The deduced protein has 260 amino acid residues with the predicted molecular weight of 29169.30 Da, isoelectric point of 6.10, and contains conserved PRK09997 and Hfi domains. The hydroxypyruvate isomerases of Nasonia vitripennis and Bombyx mori have a high homology. Through RTPCR analysis, we found that this transcript was present in testis, ovary, blood-lymph, fat body, midgut, silk gland and tuba Malpighii. This protein was located in cytoplasm through immunohistochemistry. We submitted the cloned gene under the accession number EU344910. The enzyme has been classified under accession number EC 5.3.1.22.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.311-315
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• 1996

The retroviral Gag polyprotein directs the assembly of virion particles and plays an important role in some events after entry into a host cell. The Gag polyprotein of a virus mixture is responsible for inducing murine acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (MAIDS) when injected into susceptible strains of mice. In order to identify the host cellular proteins which interact with the MAIDS virus Gag proteins and possibly mediate the function of the Gag proteins, mouse T-cell leukemic cDNA expression library was screened using the yeast GAL4 two hybrid system. Of 11 individual positive clones, the clone Y1 was selected for the study of protein-protein interaction. Its DNA sequence revealed that it was an exact match to the murine SH3 domain-containing protein SH3P8. It is expressed as 2.4 kbp transcripts in testis at higher levels and in various tissues tested at lower levels. Glutathione S-transferase-Y1 fusion protein binds tightly to $Pr60^{def-gag}$ as well as $Pr65^{eco-gag}$.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.361-364
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• 2004

Internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is known to be essential for HCV replication and most conserved among HCV variants. Hence, IRES RNA is a good therapeutic target for RNA-based inhibitors, such as ribozymes. We previously proposed a new anti-HCV modulation strategy based on trans-splicing ribozymes, which can selectively replace HCV transcripts with a new RNA that exerts anti-HCV activity. To explore this procedure, sites which are accessible to ribozymes in HCV IRES were previously determined by employing an RNA mapping method in vitro. In this study, we evaluate the intracellular accessibility of the ribozymes by comparing the trans-splicing activ­ities in cells of several ribozymes targeting different sites of the HCV IRES RNA. We assessed the intra­cellular activities of the ribozymes by monitoring their target-specific induction degree of both reporter gene activity and cytotoxin expression. The ribozyme capable of targeting the most accessible site iden­tified by the mapping studies then harbored the most active trans-splicing activity in cells. These results suggest that the target sites predicted to be accessible are truly the most accessible in the cells, and thus, could be applied to the development of various RNA-based anti-HCV therapies.