• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.165-169
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• 2011

Excess free iron generates oxidative stress that may contribute to the pathogenesis of various causes of neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we assessed the modification of ferritin induced by $H_2O_2$. When ferritin was incubated with $H_2O_2$, the degradation of ferritin L-chain increased with the $H_2O_2$ concentration whereas ferritin H-chain was remained. Free radical scavengers, azide, thiourea, and N-acetyl-$_L$-cysteine suppressed the $H_2O_2$-mediated ferritin modification. The iron specific chelator, deferoxamine, effectively prevented $H_2O_2$-mediated ferritin degradation in modified ferritin. The release of iron ions from ferritin was increased in $H_2O_2$ concentration-dependent manner. The present results suggest that free radicals may play a role in the modification and iron releasing of ferritin by $H_2O_2$. It is assumed that oxidative damage of ferritin by $H_2O_2$ may induce the increase of iron content in cells and subsequently lead to the deleterious condition.

• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.219-224
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• 2010

Lipid peroxidation is known to be an important factor in the pathologies of many diseases associated with oxidative stress. We assessed the lipid peroxidation induced by the reaction of ferritin with $H_2O_2$. When linoleic acid micelles or phosphatidyl choline liposomes were incubated with ferritin and $H_2O_2$, lipid peroxidation increased in the presence of ferritin and $H_2O_2$ in a concentration-dependent manner. The hydroxyl radical scavengers, azide and thiourea, prevented lipid peroxidation induced by the ferritin/$H_2O_2$ system. The iron specific chelator desferoxamine also prevented ferritin/$H_2O_2$ systemmediated lipid peroxidation. These results demonstrate the possible role of iron in ferritin/$H_2O_2$ system-mediated lipid peroxidation. Carnosine is involved in many cellular defense processes, including free radical detoxification. In this study, carnosine, homocarnosine, and anserine were shown to significantly prevent ferritin/$H_2O_2$ system-mediated lipid peroxidation and also inhibited the free radical-generation activity of ferritin. These results indicated that carnosine and related compounds may prevent ferritin/$H_2O_2$ system-mediated lipid peroxidation via free radical scavenging.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2015

It is essential use of long term half life radioisotopes for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging study of biopharmaceuticals because most of biopharmaceuticals have long biological half-life. Some representative isotopes are $^{124}I$, $^{64}Cu$, $^{89}Zr$ and so on. These PET radioisotopes and their radiopharmaceuticals have recently received growing interest because of long half life and good imaging properties. Furthermore, $^{64}Cu$ and $^{89}Zr$ can be used in a number of radiopharmaceuticals due to its ease of conjugation to peptides and antibodies using the proper chelator. In recent years, since $^{124}I$ was first developed in 2005, we have been studied to develop an efficient method and procedure for producing these radioisotopes, and we have made considerable progress in production of long term half life radioisotopes. This review introduces the general production system, purification procedure, and several advances on targeting method for $^{124}I$ and $^{64}Cu$ in KIRAMS.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.93-103
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• 2009

Evidences from various countries suggest that toxic heavy metals in herbal medicine may constitute a serious health problem. In order to evaluate whether the toxic heavy metals caused by herbal medicine intake, blood samples collected from 222 patients taking herbal medicine were analyzed. In average levels of analyzed metals, $0.4{\sim}33.9%$ of total samples for 8 metals such as Cd, Co, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn except Cr and Fe exceeded the upper limit for WHO reference value. In analysis of regression coefficients indicating the levels of metals increased or decreased after taking herbal medicine for one month, however, there were different aspects by intake types for herbal medicine. For example, the metals increased by taking decoction in blood samples were as follows; Cd and Pb whether Mn, Ni and Pb as increased metals were identified in the group taking pill and decoction(combined intake group). The odds ratio showing values higher than 1 indicating that people who take herbal medicine would have possibility higher for metal accumulation in blood than that from people who do not take herbal medicine. The metals showing the odds ratio higher than 1 were Hg and Ni in decoction group, and Cd and Hg in combined intake group. However, eight of the total, 10 metals showed the odds ratios lower than 1 by taking herbal medicine. Thus, this may explain the possible role of herbal medicine as a chelator for heavy metals in body.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.123-127
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• 1999

Iron is an essential nutrient but potentially toxic element in human. To identify the effects of iron on the gene expression of mammalian cell, we have isolated several genes that are regulated by iron using the RNA differential display method. RNAs were isolated from HeLa cells treated with iron supplement or iron chelator. A total of 24 genes were isolated and of these, four genes were identified by DNA sequencing and northern blot.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2003

A promoter that is inducible by paraquat and menadione, the superoxide generators, independently of soxRS has been found in front of the sufABCDSE operon in Escherichia coli. Based on the observation that SufA is a holomog of IscA that functions in the assembly of iron sulfur cluster and the sufA promoter (sufAp) contains a putative Fur-binding consensus, we investigated whether this gene is regulated by Fur, a ferric uptake regulator, When examined in several sufAp-lacZ chromosomal fusion strains, sufAp was induced by EDTA, an iron chelator and a well-known Fur-inducer, The basal level of sufA expression increased dramatically in fur mutant, suggesting repression of sufAp by Fur. The derepression in fur mutant and EDTA-induction of sufA expression required nucleotides up to -61, where a putative Fur box is located. Purified Fur protein bound to the DNA fragment containing the putative Fur box between -35 and -10 promoter elements. The regulation by Fur and menadione induction of sufAp acted independently. The rpoS mutation increased sufA induction by menadione, suggesting that the stationary sigma factor RpoS acts negatively on sufA induction.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.411-417
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• 1998

The role of phospholipase ($A_2\;PLA_2$) in tumor cell growth was investigated using SK-N-MC human neuroblastoma cells. 4-Bromophenacyl bromide (BPB) and mepacrine (Mep), known $PLA_2$ inhibitors, suppressed growth of the tumor cells in a dose-dependent manner without a significant cytotoxicity. Melittin (Mel), a $PLA_2$ activator, enhanced the cell growth in a concentration-dependent fashion. The growth-enhancing effects of Mel were significantly reversed by the co-treatment with $PLA_2$ inhibitors. In addition, Mel induced intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release from internal stores like as did serum, a known intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ agonist in the tumor cells. Intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release induced by these agonists was significantly blocked by $PLA_2$ inhibitors at growth-inhibitory concentrations. Arachidonic acid (AA), a product of the $PLA_2-catalyzed$ reaction, induced cell growth enhancement and intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release. These effects of AA were significantly blocked by BAPTA/AM, an intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ chelator. Taken together, these results suggest that the modulation of $PLA_2$ activity may be one of the regulatory mechanisms of cell growth in human neuroblastoma cells. Intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ may act as a key mediator in the $PLA_2-induced$ growth regulation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.182-189
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• 1994

The highest antitumor activity was observed in water soluble AS fraction of the Ganoderma lucidum IY 009. AS fraction did not show any cytotoxicity on sarcoma 180 cell but stimulated antibody production, opsonization of macrophage in ICR mouse and superoxide ion production from isolated macrophage. AS fraction activated complement C3 in human serum, and their antitumor activity was inhibited by EDTA, a chelator of cation related complementary activation. AS fraction exerted om prolong of life span and ingibition of tumor growth in the leukemia P388 or L1210 transplanted inbreed mouse,k BDF1 but krestin did not. AS fraction did not show any serious and lethal effects through oral administration on ICR mouse, and LD$_{50}$ of those was above 2,230 mg/kg.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.220-227
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• 2006

Oxidative alteration of mitochondrial cytochrome c has been linked to disease and is one of the causes of proapoptotic events. We have investigated the modification of cytochrome c by $H_2O_2$. When cytochrome c was incubated with $H_2O_2$, oligomerization of the protein increased and the formation of carbonyl derivatives and dityrosine was stimulated. Radical scavengers prevented these effects suggesting that free radicals are implicated in the $H_2O_2$-mediated oligomerization. Oligomerization was significantly inhibited by the iron chelator, deferoxamine. During incubation of deoxyribose with cytochrome c and $H_2O_2$, damage to the deoxyribose occurred in parallel with the release of iron from cytochrome c. When cytochrome c that had been exposed to $H_2O_2$ was analyzed by amino acid analysis, the tyrosine, histidine and methionine residues proved to be particularly sensitive. These results suggest that $H_2O_2$-mediated cytochrome c oligomerization is due to oxidative damage resulting from free radicals generated by a combination of the peroxidase activity of cytochrome c and the Fenton reaction of free iron released from the oxidatively-damaged protein.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.1245-1252
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• 2004

Although ascorbate (vitamin C) has been shown to have anti-cancer actions, its effect on human hepatoma cells has not yet been investigated, and thus, the exact mechanism of this action is not fully understood. In this study, the mechanism by which ascorbate induces apoptosis using HepG2 human hepatoblastoma cells is investigated. Ascorbate induced apoptotic cell death in a dose-dependent manner in the cells, was assessed through flow cytometric analysis. Contrary to expectation, ascorbate did not alter the cellular redox status, and treatment with antioxidants (N-acetyl cysteine and N,N-diphenyl-p-phenylenediamine) had no influence on the ascorbate-induced apoptosis. However, ascorbate induced a rapid and sustained increase in intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentration. EGTA, an extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ chelator did not significantly alter the ascorbate-induced intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ increase and apoptosis, whereas dantrolene, an intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release blocker, completely blocked these actions of ascorbate. In addition, phospholipase C (PLC) inhibitors (U-73122 and manoalide) significantly suppressed the intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release and apoptosis induced by ascorbate. Collectively, these results suggest that ascorbate induced apoptosis without changes in the cellular redox status in HepG2 cells, and that the PLC-coupled intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release mechanism may mediate ascorbate-induced apoptosis.