• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제58권4호
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• pp.461-466
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• 2020

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that can invade various organs in the host body, including the central nervous system. Chronic intracranial T. gondii is known to be associated with neuroprotection against neurodegenerative diseases through interaction with host brain cells in various ways. The present study investigated the neuroprotective effects of chronic T. gondii infection in mice with cerebral ischemia experimentally produced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) surgery. The neurobehavioral effects of cerebral ischemia were assessed by measurement of Garcia score and Rotarod behavior tests. The volume of brain ischemia was measured by triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. The expression levels of related genes and proteins were determined. After cerebral ischemia, corrected infarction volume was significantly reduced in T. gondii infected mice, and their neurobehavioral function was significantly better than that of the uninfection control group. Chronic T. gondii infection induced the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) in the brain before MCAO. T. gondii infection also increased the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor after the cerebral ischemia. It is suggested that chronic intracerebral infection of T. gondii may be a potential preconditioning strategy to reduce neural deficits associated with cerebral ischemia and induce brain ischemic tolerance through the regulation of HIF-1α expression.

• 한국응용곤충학회지
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• 제34권3호
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• pp.278-286
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• 1995

쌀바구미에 적응된 기생봉 Anisopteromalus calandrae를 대체기주인 팥바구미에서 누대 사육하면서 기생천적의 대체기주에 대한 적응과 그의 과정을 조사하였다. A. calandrae기 대체기주에 적응, 안정된 생활사 특성을 보이기까지 2세대가 경과하였다. 성충수명은 단축되어 1세대에서 8.7일을 보였으나 2세대 이후에는 5.7~7.3일의 범위를 나타내었으며 총 산란수는 1세대에서 29.3$\pm$7.7에서 2세대 이후 43.9~68.2의 범위로 증가하였다. 따라서 내적 자연 증가율, 순증가율은 증가하였으며, 개체군 배가 기간은 짧아졌다. 팥바구미에 대한 탐색효율은 적응 전후에 유의한 차이를 보이지 않았으나 탐색효율의 변이계수가 감소하는 현상을 보여 탐색행동이 안정됨을 암시하였다. A. calandrae는 팥바구미에 적응된 이후에도 쌀바구미에 대한 탐색효율이 감소되지는 않았다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제25권8호
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• pp.1246-1256
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• 2015

Chlamydophila psittaci is an important intracellular pathogen. Persistent infection is an important state of the host-parasite interaction in this chlamydial infection, which plays a significant role in spreading the organism within animal populations and in causing chronic chlamydiosis and serious sequelae. In this study, a C. psittaci persistent infection cell model was induced by penicillin G, and real-time quantitative PCR was used to study the transcriptional levels of 10 C. psittaci genes (dnaA, dnaK, ftsW, ftsY, grpE, rpsD, incC, omcB, CPSIT_0846, and CPSIT_0042) in acute and penicillin-G-induced persistent infection cultures. Compared with the acute cultures, the penicillin-G-treated cultures showed a reduced chlamydial inclusion size and a significantly decreased number of elementary body particles. Additionally, some enlarged aberrant reticulate body particles were present in the penicillin-G-treated cultures but not the acute ones. The expression levels of genes encoding products for cell division (FtsW, FtsY) and outer membrane protein E encoding gene (CPSIT_0042) were downregulated (p < 0.05) from 6 h post-infection onward in the persistent infection cultures. Also from 6 h post-infection, the expression levels of DnaA, DnaK, IncC, RpsD, GrpE, and CPSIT_0846 were upregulated (p < 0.05); however, the expression level of OmcB in the persistent infection was< almost the same as that in the acute infection (p > 0.05). These results provide new insight regarding molecular activities that accompany persistence of C. psittaci, which may play important roles in the pathogenesis of C. psittaci infection.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.51.1-51.20
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• 2022

Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease, is an intracellular protozoan parasite, which is now present in most industrialized countries. About 40% of T. cruzi infected individuals will develop severe, incurable cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, or neurological disorders. The molecular mechanisms by which T. cruzi induces cardiopathogenesis remain to be determined. Previous studies showed that increased IL-6 expression in T. cruzi patients was associated with disease severity. IL-6 signaling was suggested to induce pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic responses, however, the role of this pathway during early infection remains to be elucidated. We reported that T. cruzi can dysregulate the expression of host PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) during early infection. Here, we aim to evaluate the dysregulation of IL-6 signaling and the piRNAs computationally predicted to target IL-6 molecules during early T. cruzi infection of primary human cardiac fibroblasts (PHCF). Using in silico analysis, we predict that piR_004506, piR_001356, and piR_017716 target IL6 and SOCS3 genes, respectively. We validated the piRNAs and target gene expression in T. cruzi challenged PHCF. Secreted IL-6, soluble gp-130, and sIL-6R in condition media were measured using a cytokine array and western blot analysis was used to measure pathway activation. We created a network of piRNAs, target genes, and genes within one degree of biological interaction. Our analysis revealed an inverse relationship between piRNA expression and the target transcripts during early infection, denoting the IL-6 pathway targeting piRNAs can be developed as potential therapeutics to mitigate T. cruzi cardiomyopathies.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 한국균학회 2015년도 추계학술대회 및 정기총회
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• pp.37-37
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• 2015

dsRNA was found in malformed cultures of Lentinula edodes strain FMRI0339, one of the three most popular sawdust cultivated commercial strains of shiitake, and was also found in healthy-looking fruiting bodies and actively growing mycelia. Cloning of the partial genome of the dsRNA revealed the presence of the RdRp sequence of a novel L. edodes mycovirus (LeV), and sequence comparison of the cloned amplicon showed an identical sequence to known RdRp genes of LeV found in strain HKA. The meiotic stability of dsRNA was examined by measuring the ratio of the presence of dsRNA among sexual monokaryotic progeny. More than 40% of the monokaryotic progeny still contained the dsRNA, indicating the persistence of dsRNA during sexual reproduction. Comparing the mycelia growth of monokaryotic progeny suggested that, although variations in the growth rate existed among progeny and virus infection was observed in highly actively growing progeny, there appeared to be a tendency toward a lower frequency of virus incidence in actively growing progeny. This study attempted to cure the edible mushroom L. edodes strain FMRI0339 of the L. edodes mycovirus (LeV) in order to obtain an isogenic virus-free fungal strain as well as a virus-infected strain for comparison. Mycelial fragmentation, followed by being spread on a plate with serial dilutions resulted in a virus-free colony. Viral absence was confirmed with gel electrophoresis after dsRNA-specific virus purification, Northern blot analysis, and PCR using reverse transcriptase (RT-PCR). Once cured, all of fungal cultures remained virus-free over the next two years. Interestingly, the viral titer of LeV varied depending on the culture condition. The titer from the plate culture showed at least a 20-fold higher concentration than that grown in the liquid culture. However, the reduced virus titer in the liquid culture was recovered by transferring the mycelia to a plate containing the same medium. In addition, oxygen-depleted culture conditions resulted in a significant decrease of viral concentration, but not to the extent seen in the submerged liquid culture. Although no $discernable phenotypic changes in colony morphology were observed, virus-cured strains showed significantly higher growth rates and mycelial mass than virus-infected strains. We were also explored effects of LeV on fruiting body formation and mushroom yield. The fruiting body formation yield of virus-free L. edodes was larger than virus-infected L. edodes. These results indicate that LeV infection has a deleterious effect on mycelial growth and fruiting body formation. In addition, we have been investigated host-parasite interaction between L. edodes and its mycovirus interaction to study viral mechanism by establishment of proteomics.