• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.305-310
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• 2003

Hydrophobic core variant of ubiquitin appeared to have partially folded structure at pH around 2. The intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence emission maximum of this ubiquitin variant at pH 2 showed slight blue shift compare to that of unfolded state, suggesting that some residual tertiary structures remain in this solvent condition. At the same solvent condition, this ubiquitin variant binds with hydrophobic dye, 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid(AMS), which is known to bind to exposed hydrophobic surface. Furthermore, far-UV circular dichroic spectrum of this ubiquitin variant in the diminished pH was remarkably different from the far-UV CD spectrum of the native state or unfolded state. Based on the molar ellipticity at 220 nm, this ubiquitin variant at pH 2 appeared to have significant amount of secondary structures. All these observations suggest that this ubiquitin variant in the diminished solvent pH has loosely folded hydrophobic core with some secondary structures, which are key features of molten globule conformation. Since molten globule has long been considered as a protein folding intermediate, it is considered that this hydrophobic core variant ubiquitin will serve as a valuable model to study protein folding process.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.51-65
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• 2001

Two-stage emulsion polymerizations of hydrophobic monomers on hydrophilic seed polymer particles were carried out to make core-shell composite particles. It was found that the loci of polymerization in the second stage were the surface layer of the hydrophilic seed latex particles, and that it has resulted in the formation of either eccentric core-shell particles with the core exposed to the aqueous phase or aggregated nonspherical composite particles with the shell attached on the seed surface as many small separated particles. The driving force of these phenomena is related to the gain in free energy of the system in going from the hydrophobic polymer-water interface to hydrophilic polymer-water interface. Thermodynamic analysis of the present polymerization system, which was based on spreading coefficients, supported the likely occurrence of such nonspherical particles due to the combined effects of interfacial free energies and phase separation between the two polymer phases. A hypothetical pathway was proposed to prepare hydrophilic core-hydrophobic shell composite latex particles, which is based on the concept of opposing driving and resistance forces for the phase migration. It was found that the viscosity of the monomer-swollen polymer phase played important role in the formation of particle morphology.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.741-748
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• 2008

We have studied the folding mechanism of $\beta$ -hairpins in the proteins 1GB1, 3AIT and 1A2P by conducting unfolding simulations at moderately high temperatures. The analysis of trajectories obtained from molecular dynamics simulations in explicit aqueous solution suggests that the positions of the hydrophobic core residues lead to subtle differences in the details of folding dynamics. However, the folding of three different hairpins can be explained by a unified mechanism that is a blend of the hydrogen-bond-centric and the hydrophobiccentric models. The initial stage of $\beta$-hairpin folding involves various partially folded intermediate structures which are stabilized by both the van der Waals interactions of hydrophobic core residues and the electrostatic interactions of non-native hydrogen bonds. The native structure is obtained by forming native contacts in the final tune-up process. Depending on the relative positions of the hydrophobic residues, the actual mechanism of hairpi n folding may or may not exhibit well-defined intermediates.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.676-683
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• 2004

The conformational properties of hydrophobic core variant ubiquitin (Val26 to Ala mutation) in an acidic solution were studied. The intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence emission spectrum, far-UV and near-UV circular dichroic spectra, the fluorescence emission spectrum of 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid in the presence of V26A ubiquitin, and urea-induced unfolding measurements indicate this variant ubiquitin to be in the partially folded molten globule conformation in solution at pH 2. The folding kinetics from molten globule to the native state was nearly identical to those from the unfolded state to the native state. This observation suggests that the equilibrium molten globule state of hydrophobic core variant ubiquitin is an on-pathway folding intermediate.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.404-409
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• 2017

Natural polymer chitosan has been widely applied to medical fields due to its biochemical activities such as anticancer, antibacterial and lowering cholesterol in addition to biocompatibility and biodegradability. Currently, researches are being actively conducted to develop various drug-encapsulated chitosan nanoparticles for curing different diseases by applying chitosan to a drug delivery system. The free amine ($-NH_2$) group present in chitosan can bind to various hydrophobic groups by physical and chemical modification and the chitosan with hydrophobic groups can form shell-core nanoparticles by self-assembly when dispersed in water. In addition, an insoluble drug can increase the solubility against water when it was encapsulated in the core of chitosan nanoparticles. Also, the therapy effect can be maximized by minimizing side effects of drugs such as proteins, anticancer drugs and vaccines when they were encapsulated in the core of chitosan nanoparticles. Moreover, it is possible to control the particle size and release rate according to the hydrophobic group introduced to chitosan, so that it can be applied to a wide range of medical fields. The purpose of this review is to discuss the preparation and property of chitosan nanoparticles modified with various hydrophobic groups, and the application to drug delivery systems according to their property.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.467-475
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• 2001

A triblock copolymer based on $poly(\varepsilon-caprolactone)$ (PCL) as the hydrophobic part and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as the hydrophilic portion was synthesized by a ring-opening mechanism of ${\varepsilon}-caprolactone$ with PEG containing a hydroxyl group at bot h ends as an initiator. The synthesized block copolymers of PCL/PEG/PCL (CEC) were confirmed and characterized using various analysis equipment such as 1H NMR, DSC, FT-IR, and WAXD. Core-shell type nanoparticles of CEC triblock copolymers were prepared using a dialysis technique to estimate their potential as a colloidal drug carrier using a hydrophobic drug. From the results of particle size analysis and transmission electron microscopy, the particle size of CEC core-shell type nanoparticles was determined to be about 20-60 nm with a spherical shape. Since CEC block copolymer nanoparticles have a core-shell type micellar structure and small particle size similar to polymeric micelles, CEC block copolymer can self-associate at certain concentrations and the critical association concentration (CAC) was able to be determined by fluorescence probe techniques. The CAC values of the CEC block copolymers were dependent on the PCL block length. In addition, drug loading contents were dependent on the PCL block length: the larger the PCL block length, the higher the drug loading content. Drug release from CEC core-shell type nanoparticles showed an initial burst release for the first 12 hrs followed by pseudo-zero order release kinetics for 2 or 3 days. CEC-2 block copolymer core-shell type nanoparticles were degraded very slowly, suggesting that the drug release kinetics were governed by a diffusion mechanism rather than a degradation mechanism irrelevant to the CEC block copolymer composition.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.2-8
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• 2003

The self-assembly of polymers can lead to supramolecular systems and is related to the their functions of material and life sciences. In this article, self-assembly of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films, polymer micelles, and polymeric nanoparticles, and their biomedical applications are described. LB surfaces with a well-ordered and layered structure adhered more cells including platelet, hepatocyte, and fibroblast than the cast surfaces with microphase-separated domains. Extensive morphologic changes were observed in LB surface-adhered cells compared to the cast films. Amphiphilic block copolymers, consisting of poly(${\gamma}$-benzyl L-glutamate) (PBLG) as the hydrophobic part and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) [or poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm)] as the hydrophilic one, can self-assemble in water to form nanoparticles presumed to be composed of the hydrophilic shell and hydrophobic core. The release characteristics of hydrophobic drugs from these polymeric nanoparticles were dependent on the drug loading contents and chain length of the hydrophobic part of the copolymers. Achiral hydrophobic merocyanine dyes (MDs) were self-assembled in copolymeric nanoparticles, which provided a chiral microenvironment as red-shifted aggregates, and the circular dichroism (CD) of MD was induced in the self-assembled copolymeric nanoparticles.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.558-564
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• 2013

A simple and effective method is introduced to synthesize a series of polystyrene-b-poly(oligo(ethylene oxide) monomethyl ether methacrylate)-b-polystyrene (PSt-b-POEOMA-b-PSt) triblock copolymers. The structures of PSt-b-POEOMA-b-PSt copolymers were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance ($^1H$ NMR) spectroscopy. The molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of the copolymer were measured by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Furthermore, the self-assembling and drug-loaded behaviours of three different ratios of PSt-b-POEOMA-b-PSt were studied. These copolymers could readily self-assemble into micelles in aqueous solution. The vitamin E-loaded copolymer micelles were produced by the dialysis method. The micelle size and core-shell structure of the block copolymer micelles and the drug-loaded micelles were confirmed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The thermal properties of the copolymer micelles before and after drug-loaded were investigated by different scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results show that the micelle size is slightly increased with increasing the content of hydrophobic segments and the micelles are still core-shell spherical structures after drug-loaded. Moreover, the glass transition temperature (Tg) of polystyrene is reduced after the drug loaded. The drug loading content (DLC) of the copolymer micelles is 70%-80% by ultraviolet (UV) photolithography analysis. These properties indicate the micelles self-assembled from PSt-b-POEOMA-b-PSt copolymers would have potential as carriers for the encapsulation of hydrophobic drugs.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.411-416
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• 1996

In order to study the role of the protein shell in both iron uptake and iron core formation of ferritin, we constructed a deletion mutant of the ferritin gene and expressed the mutant gene in Escherichia coli, This mutant was obtained by introducing an amber mutation at position Pro-157 and a deletion of the 19 amino acid residues at the carboxy-terminus of the recombinant tadpole H-chain ferritin. The deleted amino acids correspond to E-helix forming the hydrophobic channel in the protein. E. coli harboring the plasmid pTHP157, which contains the deleted gene, was grown at $23^{\circ}C$ in the presence of 0.1 mM IPTG, and the induced protein appeared to be partly soluble. Nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the expressed mutant H-chains coassemble into holoprotein, suggesting that E-helix is not necessary for assembly of the subunits as reported for human H-chain ferritin. Its ability in iron core formation was proven in an Fe staining gel, the result disagreeing with the observation that the hydrophobic channel is necessary for iron core formation in human H-chain ferritin.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.48-54
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• 2023

In this study, an injection mold with ultra-small surface properties was manufactured using nanosecond laser processing. A superhydrophobic characteristic analysis was performed on the PET specimen manufactured through this. To this end, a hydrophobic pattern was defined using the Cassie-Baxter model. The defined features were selected with a spot diameter of 25um and pitch spacing of 30um and 35um. As a result of the basic experiment, it was confirmed that the fine pattern shape had an aspect ratio of 1:1 when the pitch interval was 35um and 20 iterations. Through the determined processing conditions, a hydrophobic pattern was implemented on the core surface of KP4. A specimen with a hydrophobic pattern was produced through injection molding. The height of the molded hydrophobic pattern is 20 ㎛ less than the depth of the core and the contact angle measurement results are 92.1°. This is a contact angle smaller than the superhydrophobic criterion. Molding analysis was performed to analyze the cause of this, and it was analyzed that the molding was not molded due to the lack of pressure in the injection machine.