• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.1396-1405
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• 2022

Cholera remains a major global public health problem, for which oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) being a valuable strategy. Patients, who have recovered from cholera, develop antibody responses against LPS, cholera toxin (CT), toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) major subunit A (TcpA) and other antigens; thus, these responses are potentially important contributors to immunity against Vibrio cholerae infection. However, assessments of the efficacy of current OCVs, especially inactivated OCVs, have focused primarily on O-antigen-specific antibody responses, suggesting that more sophisticated strategies are required for inactivated OCVs to induce immune responses against TCP, CT, and other antigens. Previously, we have shown that the toxT-139F allele enables V. cholerae strains to produce CT and TCP under simple laboratory culture conditions. Thus, we hypothesized that V. cholerae strains that express TCP via the toxT-139F allele induce TCP-specific antibody responses. As anticipated, V. cholerae strains that expressed TCP through the toxT-139F allele elicited antibody responses against TCP when the inactivated bacteria were delivered via a mouse model. We have further developed TCP-expressing V. cholerae strains that have been used in inactivated OCVs and shown that they effect an antibody response against TcpA in vivo, suggesting that V. cholerae strains with the toxT-139F allele are excellent candidates for cholera vaccines.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 1986

The prevalence of diarrhea caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli was surveyed on 445 calves in 6 farms which were located in the central part of Korea. The incidence of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in calves with diarrhea was investigated by detecting the K99 and F41 antigens from the isolated strains of Escherichia coli The incidence of colibacillosis in calves was 23.3%. Of 238 strains of Escherichia coli isolated from calves with diarrhea, 73 strains(30.6%) were proved possessing the K99 antigen by mannose-resistant hemagglutination(MRHA) using horse red blood cells and 79(33.1%) possessing F41 antigens by MRHA using guinea-pig red blood cells. The minca medium, nutrient broth, tryptic soy broth and brain heart infusion were tested for yield of K99 and F41 pili. The production of pili was greatest in minea medium. The best detachment method of the K99 and F41 pili from the cells was heat treatment for 20 minutes at $60^{\circ}C$ and concentration by precipitation with ammonium sulfate. The purified antigens of K99 and F41 were polypeptides with molecular weights of 18,500 and 29,500, respectively by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.103-108
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• 1986

The oil emulsion and alhydrogel pilli vaccines were prepared from a strain(O9: K35, K99, F41) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli isolated from calves with diarrhea and their immunogenicity was tested in guinea-pigs, pregnant goats and cows. Serum antibody responses to K99 and F41 antigens in guinea-pigs given experimental oil and gel vaccines peaked at 4 and 6 weeks after vaccinations. At that time, the mean hemagglutination inhibition titers to K99 and F41 antigens in guinea-pigs given oil vaccine were 1:25 and 1:1, 218 and those given gel vaccine were 1:54 and 1:724 respectively. Agglutinin titers in pregnant goats given the oil vaccine were significantly higher(mean 1:2,347) compared to those of control group(mean 1:160). Less than 12.5% of goatlings from vaccinated goats developed scours compared to nearly 100% in control group after oral challenge with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coil within 24 hours after birth. The highest agglutinin titers of cow serum and colostrum and of the serum of calves 48 hours after birth from cows given oil vaccine were 1:256, 1:512 and 1:64 respectively. On the other hand, those titers of serum and colostrum and of the serum of nursing calves from nonvaccinated cows were 1:8, 1:16 and 1:20 respectively. The protective efficacy of the oil emulsion vaccine was 72.1% under field conditions. These results strongly indicated that the vaccine could be applied for protection of diarrhea caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in calves.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.88-95
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• 2020

Using a random arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction, messenger RNA expression levels were assessed after exposure to 10% (v/v) toluene for 8 hr in solvent-tolerant Pseudomonas sp. BCNU 106. Among the 100 up-expressed products, 50 complementary DNA fragments were confirmed to express repeatedly; these were cloned and then sequenced. Blast analysis revealed that toluene stimulated an adaptive increase in the gene expression level in association with transcriptions such as LysR family of transcriptional regulators and RNA polymerase factor sigma-32. The expression of catalase and Mn2+/Fe2+ transporter genes functionally associated with inorganic ion transport and metabolism increased, and the increased expression of type IV pilus assembly PilZ and multi-sensor signal transduction histidine kinase genes, functionally categorized into signal transduction and mechanisms, was also demonstrated under toluene stress. The gene expression level of beta-hexosaminidase in association with carbohydrate transport and metabolism increased, and those of DNA polymerase III subunit epsilon, DNA-3-methyladenine glycosylase II, DEAD/DEAH box helicase domain-containing protein, and ABC transporter also increased after exposure to toluene in DNA replication, recombination, and repair, and even in defense mechanism. In particular, the RNAs corresponding to the ABC transporter, Mn2+/Fe2+ transporter, and the β-hexosaminidase gene were confirmed to be markedly induced in the presence of 10% toluene. Thus, defense mechanism, cellular ion homeostasis, and biofilm formation were shown as essential for toluene tolerance in Pseudomonas sp. BCNU 106.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1971-1982
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• 2017

Piliated Lactobacillus rhamnosus (pLR) strains possess higher adherent capacity than non-piliated strains. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize probiotic pLR strains in human fecal samples. To this end, mouse polyclonal antiserum (anti-SpaA) against the recombinant pilus protein (SpaA) of L. rhamnosus strain GG (LGG) was prepared and tested for its reactivity and specificity. With the anti-SpaA, a method combining the de Man, Rogosa, and Sharpe (MRS) agar plating separation and colony immunoblotting (CIB) was developed to isolate pLR from 124 human fecal samples. The genetic and phenotypic characteristics of the resultant pLR isolates were compared by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprinting, and examination of adhesion to Caco-2 cells, hydrophobicity, autoaggregation, and in vitro gastrointestinal tolerance. Anti-SpaA specifically reacted with three pLR strains of 25 test strains, as assessed by western blotting, immunofluorescence flow cytometry, and immunoelectron microscopy (IEM) assays. The optimized MRS agar separation plus anti-SpaA-based CIB procedure could quantitatively detect $2.5{\times}10^3CFU/ml$ of pLR colonies spiked in $10^6CFU/ml$ of background bacteria. Eight pLR strains were identified in 124 human fecal samples, and were confirmed by 16S RNA gene sequencing and IEM identification. RAPD fingerprinting of the pLR strains revealed seven different patterns, of which only two isolates from infants showed the same RAPD profiles with LGG. Strain PLR06 was obtained with high adhesion and autoaggregation activities, hydrophobicity, and gastrointestinal tolerance. Anti-SpaA-based CIB is a rapid and inexpensive method for the preliminary screening of novel adherent L. rhamnosus strains for commercial purposes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.736-744
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• 2023

The introduction of the toxT-139F allele triggers the expression of TCP (toxin co-regulated pilus) and CT (cholera toxin) under simple laboratory culture conditions in most Vibrio cholerae strains. Such V. cholerae strains, especially strains that have been used in OCVs (oral cholera vaccines), can induce antibody responses against TCP in animal models. However, CT produced in these V. cholerae strains is secreted into the culture medium. In this study, V. cholerae strains that can express intracellular CTB under the control of the toxT-139F allele have been constructed for potential application in OCVs. First, we constructed a recombinant plasmid directly linking the ctxAB promoter to ctxB without ctxA and confirmed CTB expression from the plasmid in V. cholerae containing the toxT-139F allele. We constructed another recombinant plasmid to express NtrCTB, from which 14 internal amino acids-from the 7^th to the 20^th amino acid-of the leader peptide of CTB have been omitted, and we found that NtrCTB remained in the cells. Based on those results, we constructed V. cholerae strains in which chromosomal ctxAB is replaced by ntrctxB or ntrctxB-dimer. Both NtrCTB and NtrCTB-dimer remained in the bacterial cells, and 60% of the NtrCTB-dimer in the bacterial cells was maintained in a soluble form. To develop improved OCVs, these strains could be tested to see whether they induce immune responses against CTB in animal models.