• 대한수의학회지
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.294-300
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• 1999

In this study PRRSV was isolated from serum of an infected pig and designated as CNV-1, ORF4 gene was sequenced, and the nucleotide sequence, deduced amino acid sequence and the amino acid sequence of the neutralizing domain was compared with other PRRSV Strains. ORF4 gene of the Korean isolate PRRSV CNV-1 was shown to be 537bp in length, which is the same as US strain ISU55 but 21bp longer than another US strain MN1b, and 15bp shorter than European strain LV. The homologies of the nucleotide sequences between the Korean isolate CNV-1 and the US strains ISU55, MN1b and European strain LV were 91.8%, 88.1%, 67.6%, respectively, and the homologies of the deduced amino acid sequences were 94.4%, 84.4%, 68.5%, respectively. The neutralizing domain of the CNV-1 was shown to be 36 amino acids in length which is the same as ISU55, MN1b, but 4 amino acids shorter than that of the neutralizing domain reported in LV. The homologies of the amino acid sequences of the neutralizing domain between the Korean isolate CNV-1 and the US strains ISU55, MN1b and European strain LV were 92.5%, 85%, 57.5%, respectively. The molecular characteristics of ORF4 gene of the Korean isolate PRRSV CNV-1 shown in this study suggests that the CNV-1 is genetically closer to the US strains. Also the wide variation of the neutralizing domain between the CNV-1 and LV suggests that there is substantial immunogenic variation between the two strains.

• 한국산학기술학회논문지
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.295-301
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• 2017

보툴리눔 신경독소는 콜린성 신경말단(부)을 선택적으로 공격하여 신경마비를 일으키는 신경독소로서, 그람양성을 띠고 내성포자를 형성하는 절대혐기성 세균인 보툴리눔 균(Clostridium botulinum)이 만들어낸다. 이 중 보툴리눔 A형 독소(BoNT/A)는 음식물과 물을 오염시킬 수 있으며 생물 무기나 생물 협박물질로 사용될 수도 있다. 이 때문에 독성을 탐지할 수 있는 예민한 분석방법과 중독을 치료할 수 있는 효능 있는 항독소를 개발해낼 필요성이 제기되어 왔다. 본 연구에서는 BoNT/A를 중화할 수 있는 단일클론 항체(mAb)를 생산하기 위하여 BoNT/A로 면역된 토끼의 항혈청에서 유래한 scFv 라이브러리를 인간 IgG와 융합시켰다. 그렇게 재조합된 scFvIgG 항체 단백질을 안정된 세포주에서 발현시켰고 항체 친화 크로마토그래피를 사용하여 scFvIgG mAb 단백질을 정제하였다. ELISA로 정제된 scFvIgG mAb 단백질의 효율성을 확인하였고, in vivo 실험으로 BoNT/A에 대한 중화능을 시험하였다. 독성 중화능 실험은 마우스를 사용하여 수행하였는데, 그 결과 scFvIgG 항체(10 ug)는 BoNT/A(100,000 $LD_{50}$)의 독성이 주입된 마우스를 완전히 방어하지는 못하지만 마우스의 생존 기간을 현격하게 연장시키는 것이 확인되었다. 이러한 결과들은 이 scFvIgG mAb가 BoNT/A를 중화하는 효능을 가지고 있다는 점을 제시한다.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.320-325
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• 2012

Rotavirus and hepatitis A virus (HAV) spread by the fecal-oral route and infections are important in public health, especially in developing countries. Here, two antigenic epitopes of the HAV polyprotein, domain 2 (D2) and domain 3 (D3), were recombined with rotavirus VP7, generating D2/VP7 and D3/VP7, cloned in a baculovirus expression system, and expressed in Spodoptera frugiperda 9 (Sf9) insect cells. All were highly expressed, with peak expression 2 days post-infection. Western blotting and ELISA revealed that two chimeric proteins were antigenic, but only D2/VP7 was immunogenic and elicited neutralizing antibody responses against rotavirus and HAV by neutralization assay, implicating D2/VP7 as a multivalent subunit-vaccine Candidate for preventing both rotavirus and HAV infections.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제29권5호
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• pp.813-819
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• 2019

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) induces severe respiratory impairment with a reported mortality rate of ~36% in humans. The absence of clinically available MERS-CoV vaccines and treatments to date has resulted in uncontrolled incidence and propagation of the virus. In vaccine design, fusion with the IgG Fc domain is reported to increase the immunogenicity of various vaccine antigens. However, limited reports have documented the potential negative effects of Fc fusion on vaccine antigens. To determine whether Fc fusion affects the immunogenicity of MERS-CoV antigen, we constructed a Fcassociated MERS-CoV spike protein (eS770-Fc, 110 kDa), whereby human IgG4 Fc domain was fused to MERS-CoV spike protein (eS770) via a Gly/Pro linker using baculovirus as the expression system. For comparative analyses, two eS770 proteins lacking the IgG4 Fc domain were generated using the IdeS protease ($eS770-{\Delta}Fc$) or His tag attachment (eS770-His) and the immunogenicity of the above constructs were examined following intramuscular immunization in mice. Contrary to expectations, non-Fc spike proteins ($eS770-{\Delta}Fc$, eS770-His; 90 kDa) showed higher immunogenicity than the Fc fusion protein (eS770-Fc). Moreover, unlike non-Fc spike proteins, eS770-Fc immunization did not elicit neutralizing antibodies against MERS-CoV. The lower immunogenicity of Fc-fused eS770 was related to alterations in the structural conformation of the spike protein. Taken together, our results indicate that IgG Fc fusion reduces the immunogenicity of eS770 by interfering with the proper folding structure.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.39.1-39.18
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• 2021

The high virulent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus that emerged in China at the end of 2019 has generated novel coronavirus disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), causing a pandemic worldwide. Every country has made great efforts to struggle against SARS-CoV-2 infection, including massive vaccination, immunological patients' surveillance, and the utilization of convalescence plasma for COVID-19 therapy. These efforts are associated with the attempts to increase the titers of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing Abs (nAbs) generated either after infection or vaccination that represent the body's immune status. As there is no standard therapy for COVID-19 yet, virus eradication will mainly depend on these nAbs contents in the body. Therefore, serological nAbs neutralization assays become a requirement for researchers and clinicians to measure nAbs titers. Different platforms have been developed to evaluate nAbs titers utilizing various epitopes sources, including neutralization assays based on the live virus, pseudovirus, and neutralization assays utilizing recombinant SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein receptor binding site, receptor-binding domain. As a standard neutralization assay, the plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) requires isolation and propagation of live pathogenic SARS-CoV-2 virus conducted in a BSL-3 containment. Hence, other surrogate neutralization assays relevant to the PRNT play important alternatives that offer better safety besides facilitating high throughput analyses. This review discusses the current neutralization assay platforms used to evaluate nAbs, their techniques, advantages, and limitations.

• 한국세라믹학회지
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.223-228
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• 1982

For the preparation of ferroxidure BaO.5.5 $Fe_2O_3$ with high coercive force, the green and calcined coprecipitates, which were obtained by neutralizing the mixed salt solution $FeCl_2-BaCl_2$ and $FeCl_3-BaCl_2$ with alkali solution $NaOH-Na_2CO_3$, were investigated about the thermal reaction, crystal growth, and the magnetic properties of the sintered specimens. The very single-domain crystallites of Ba-ferrite with high coercive force are formed from the coprecipitate of amorphous $Fe(OH)_3$ and amorphous $BaCO_3$ at lower temperature than that of subnucleus crystalline $\delta$-FeOOH and amorphous $BaCO_3$.

• 대한바이러스학회지
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.251-258
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• 1996

The V3 loop, a hypervariable domain of envelope glycoprotein, has an essential role in viral infectivity and has a major epitope for type-specific neutralizing antibody. In order to investigate genetic diversity of V3 region of gp120 of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) isolated from Korean patients, DNA sequences encoding the C2 to V3 region were amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from uncultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from 15 HIV-1 seropositive patients and nucleotide sequences were determined. All nucleotide sequences from fifteen patients were compared with 8 distinctive subtypes (A-H) and another subtype O. Phylogenetic analysis was carried out with PHYLIP ver 3.5 (Dnapars) program. Of the 15 isolates, 14 HIV-1 subjects were clustered with subtype B, while one was clustered with subtype C. Intra-subtype B distance at the nucleotide and deduced amino acid level were maximum 17.7% and 37.0%, respectively. Intra-patient distance at the nucleotide and deduced amino acid level were maximum 7.3% and 17.8%, respectively. Analysis of the nucleotide sequences revealed that Korean types have relatively well conserved sequences. These findings could be useful for assessing the source of infection and developing an AIDS vaccine.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제32권10호
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• pp.1335-1343
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• 2022

COVID-19 is an emerging disease that poses a severe threat to global public health. As such, there is an urgent demand for vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Here, we describe a virus-like nanoparticle candidate vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 produced by an E. coli expression system. The fusion protein of a truncated ORF2-encoded protein of aa 439~608 (p170) from hepatitis E virus CCJD-517 and the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 were expressed, purified and characterized. The antigenicity and immunogenicity of p170-RBD were evaluated in vitro and in Kunming mice. Our investigation revealed that p170-RBD self-assembled into approximately 24 nm virus-like particles, which could bind to serum from vaccinated people (p < 0.001) and receptors on cells. Immunization with p170-RBD induced the titer of IgG antibody vaccine increased from 14 days post-immunization and was significantly enhanced after a booster immunization at 28 dpi, ultimately reaching a peak level on 42 dpi with a titer of 4.97 log₁₀. Pseudovirus neutralization tests showed that the candidate vaccine induced a strong neutralizing antibody response in mice. In this research, we demonstrated that p170-RBD possesses strong antigenicity and immunogenicity and could be a potential candidate for use in future SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제22권5호
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• pp.41.1-41.16
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• 2022

The human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 has chemotactic and modulatory activities in various immune cells, including dendritic cells. Because of its characteristics, LL-37 can be considered an adjuvant for vaccine development. In this study, we confirmed the possible adjuvant activity of LL-37 in mucosal vaccine development against Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) by means of intranasal immunization in C57BL/6 and human dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (hDPP4)-transgenic (hDPP4-Tg) mice. Intranasal immunization using the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of MERS-CoV spike protein (S-RBD) recombined with LL-37 (S-RBD-LL-37) induced an efficient mucosal IgA and systemic IgG response with virus-neutralizing activity, compared with S-RBD. Ag-specific CTL stimulation was also efficiently induced in the lungs of mice that had been intranasally immunized with S-RBD-LL-37, compared with S-RBD. Importantly, intranasal immunization of hDPP4-Tg mice with S-RBD-LL-37 led to reduced immune cell infiltration into the lungs after infection with MERS-CoV. Finally, intranasal immunization of hDPP4-Tg mice with S-RBD-LL-37 led to enhanced protective efficacy, with increased survival and reduced body weight loss after challenge infection with MERS-CoV. Collectively, these results suggest that S-RBD-LL-37 is an effective intranasal vaccine candidate molecule against MERS-CoV infection.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.555-561
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• 2020

TWIK-related two-pore domain K⁺ channel-2 (TREK-2) has voltage-independent activity and shows additional activation by acidic intracellular pH (pH_i) via neutralizing the E³³² in the cytoplasmic C terminal (Ct). We reported opposite regulations of TREK-2 by phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP₂) via the alkaline K³³⁰ and triple Arg residues (R^355-357); inhibition and activation, respectively. The G³³⁴ between them appeared critical because its mutation (G³³⁴A) endowed hTREK-2 with tonic activity, similar to the mutation of the inhibitory K³³⁰ (K³³⁰A). To further elucidate the role of putative bent conformation at G³³⁴, we compared the dual mutation forms, K³³⁰A/G³³⁴A and G³³⁴A/R^355-7A, showing higher and lower basal activity, respectively. The results suggested that the tonic activity of G³³⁴A owes to a dominant influence from R^355-7. Since there are additional triple Arg residues (R^377-9) distal to R^355-7, we also examined the triple mutant (G³³⁴A/R^355-7A/R^377-9A) that showed tonic inhibition same with G³³⁴A/R^355-7A. Despite the state of tonic inhibition, the activation by acidic pH_i was preserved in both G³³⁴A/R^355-7A and G³³⁴A/R^355-7A/R^377-9A, similar to the R^355-7A. Also, the inhibitory effect of ATP could be commonly demonstrated under the activation by acidic pH_i in R^355-7A, G³³⁴A/R^355-7A, and G³³⁴A/R^355-7A/R^377-9A. These results suggest that the putative bent conformation at G³³⁴ is important to set the tug-of-war between K³³⁰ and R^355-7 in the PIP₂-dependent regulation of TREK-2.