• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.42.1-42.23
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• 2023

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis, one of the most deadly infections in humans. The emergence of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant Mtb strains presents a global challenge. Mtb has shown resistance to many frontline antibiotics, including rifampicin, kanamycin, isoniazid, and capreomycin. The only licensed vaccine, Bacille Calmette-Guerin, does not efficiently protect against adult pulmonary tuberculosis. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to develop new vaccines to prevent infections caused by these strains. We used a subtractive proteomics approach on 23 virulent Mtb strains and identified a conserved membrane protein (MmpL4, NP_214964.1) as both a potential drug target and vaccine candidate. MmpL4 is a non-homologous essential protein in the host and is involved in the pathogen-specific pathway. Furthermore, MmpL4 shows no homology with anti-targets and has limited homology to human gut microflora, potentially reducing the likelihood of adverse effects and cross-reactivity if therapeutics specific to this protein are developed. Subsequently, we constructed a highly soluble, safe, antigenic, and stable multi-subunit vaccine from the MmpL4 protein using immunoinformatics. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed the stability of the vaccine-bound Tolllike receptor-4 complex on a nanosecond scale, and immune simulations indicated strong primary and secondary immune responses in the host. Therefore, our study identifies a new target that could expedite the design of effective therapeutics, and the designed vaccine should be validated. Future directions include an extensive molecular interaction analysis, in silico cloning, wet-lab experiments, and evaluation and comparison of the designed candidate as both a DNA vaccine and protein vaccine.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2018

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have recently been recognized as global environmental pollutants. This study was performed to develop an analytical method for determination of levels of PFCs in food by LC-MS/MS. One hundred and nine food products were divided into two groups based on their fat and protein contents (high and low), following which samples containing high fat and protein contents were pooled and subjected to pretreatment consisting of enzymatic degradation and hexane extraction. The limit of detection of 17 PFCs in the samples were in the range of 0.013-0.145 ng/g. The degrees of precision of detection for group 1 (samples with low fat and protein contents) and group 2 (samples with high fat and protein contents) were 0.8-21.1 and 1.7-28.2%, respectively, with an accuracy of 78.8-109.8% for group 1 and 80-114.5% for group 2. This study indicated that pretreatment of high fat and protein foods with enzymatic degradation and hexane extraction would improve the detection of PFCs in food.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.21-33
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• 2000

As the clinical practice of using more than one drug at a time increase, the clinician is faced with ever-increasing number of potential drug interactions. Although many interactions have little clinical significances, some may interfere with treatment or even be life-threatening. This review provides a better understanding of drug-drug interactions often encountered in pharmacotherapy of depression. Drug interactions can be grouped into two principal subdivisions : pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic. These subgroups serve to focus attention on possible sites of interaction as a drug moves from the site of administration and absorption to its site of action. Pharmacokinetic processes are those that include transport to and from the receptor site and consist of absorption, distribution on body tissue, plasma protein binding, metabolism, and excretion. Pharmacodynamic interactions occur at biologically active sites. In this review, emphasis is placed on antidepressant medications, how they are metabolized by the P450 system, and how they alter the metabolism of other drugs. When prescribing antidepressant medications, the clinician must consider the drug-drug interactions that are potentially problematic.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 1985

Previous studies show that the free (unbound) fraction of disopyramide in human serum is drug concentration dependent~ at corresponding serum disopyramide concentrations that are achieved clinically. $^1^{\sim}^3^)\;Moreover$, disopyramide free fraction values vary several fold at any given drug concentration in human serum and tend to decrease as serum cocentrations of alpha-I-acid glycoprotein(AAG) incrase.$^4^)$ A recent $study^5^)$ demonstrates that the free fraction of disopyramide inhuman serum increases almost 2-fold following the addition of $14.4{\mu}M/L$ mono-N-dealkyldisopyramide. These studies and others. $^6^),\;^7^)$ prompted the present investigation to characterize the protein binding of disopyramide in human serum and solutions of AAG in the presence of mono-N-dealkyldisopyramide (a major metabolite of, disopyramide) and to determine the utility of using commercially available alpha-I-acid glycoprotein for drug protein binding displacement studies. Because many basic and acidic compounds are known to bind to alpha-I-acid $glycoprotein^8^)$ the present study. was performed to determine whteher commercially available AAG would provide a convenient protein source for such binding studies.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.302-307
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• 2023

Lyn, a tyrosine kinase that is activated by double-stranded DNA-damaging agents, is involved in various signaling pathways, such as proliferation, apoptosis, and DNA repair. Ribosomal protein S3 (RpS3) is involved in protein biosynthesis as a component of the ribosome complex and possesses endonuclease activity to repair damaged DNA. Herein, we demonstrated that rpS3 and Lyn interact with each other, and the phosphorylation of rpS3 by Lyn, causing ribosome heterogeneity, upregulates the translation of p-glycoprotein, which is a gene product of multidrug resistance gene 1. In addition, we found that two different regions of the rpS3 protein are associated with the SH1 and SH3 domains of Lyn. An in vitro immunocomplex kinase assay indicated that the rpS3 protein acts as a substrate for Lyn, which phosphorylates the Y167 residue of rpS3. Furthermore, by adding various kinase inhibitors, we confirmed that the phosphorylation status of rpS3 was regulated by both Lyn and doxorubicin, and the phosphorylation of rpS3 by Lyn increased drug resistance in cells by upregulating p-glycoprotein translation.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.438-445
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• 2009

We investigated global gene expression from both mouse liver and mouse hepatic cell lines treated with acetaminophen (APAP) in order to compare in vivo and in vitro profiles and to assess the feasibility of the two systems. During our analyses of gene expression profiles, we picked up several down-regulated genes, such as the cytochrome P450 family 51 (Cyp51), sulfotransferase family cytosolic 1C member 2 (Sult1c2), 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-Coenzyme A synthase 1 (Hmgcs1), and several genes that were up-regulated by APAP, such as growth arrest and DNA-damage-inducible 45 alpha (Gadd45a), transformation related protein 53 inducible nuclear protein 1 (Trp53inp1) and zinc finger protein 688 (Zfp688). For validation of gene function, synthesized short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) for these genes were transfected in a mouse hepatic cell line, BNL CL.2, for investigation of cell viability and mRNA expression level. We found that siRNA transfection of these genes induced down-regulation of respective mRNA expression and decreased cell viability. siRNA transfection for Cyp51 and others induced morphological alterations, such as membrane thickening and nuclear condensation. Taken together, siRNA transfection of these six genes decreased cell viability and induced alteration in cellular morphology, along with effective inhibition of respective mRNA, suggesting that these genes could be associated with APAP-induced toxicity. Furthermore, these genes may be used in the investigation of hepatotoxicity, for better understanding of its mechanism.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.388-392
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• 2004

Structural studies of membrane proteins, importantly involving interpretation of genomics information, many signaling pathway and major drug target for drug discovery, are having difficulty in characterizing the function using conventional solution nmr spectroscopy and x-ray crystallography because phospholipid bilayers hindered fast tumbling and crystallization. Here, we studied the structure of the pf1 coat protein in oriented phospholipid bilayers by home-built solid-state NMR probe. Bacteriophage pf1 was purified from Paeudomonas Aeruginosa and coat protein of bacteriophage pf1 was isolated from DNA and other proteins.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.73-78
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• 2010

Hydrogels are thought to be a promising delivery carrier for protein drugs because of their favorable aqueous environment compared with nano/micro-particles of hydrophobic polymer such as PLGA. In this study, nano-sized hydrogels (nanogels) were fabricated using inverse-miniemulsion polymerization method. The mean size of nanogels in range of 90-160nm and affected by the preparation parameters such as sonication time and concentration of monomer. While longer sonication time and lower concentration of acrylamide monomer showed a tendency to produce smaller nanogels and to have lower lysozyme activity, variation of bis-methylene acrylamide concentration made no difference. Although both longer soncaton time and lower acrylamide concentration increased in vitro release rate, acrylamide concentration was more effectively affected to the control of protein release rate, which indicated that the release rate of protein from nanogels affected by not only their size but also internal structure. In conclusion, nanogels prepared by inverse-miniemulsion can be a useful carrier for application of protein drug, because of simple process, minimum contact of organic solvent and high protein activity.

• BMB Reports
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.329-334
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• 2017

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) play crucial roles in signal transduction and their functional alteration has been detected in many diseases. PTP inhibitors have been developed as therapeutic drugs for diseases that are related to the activity of PTPs. In this study, PTP inhibitor XIX, an inhibitor of CD45 and PTEN, was investigated whether it inhibits other PTPs. Protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 2 (PTPN2) was selectively inhibited by the inhibitor in a competitive manner. Drug affinity responsive target stability (DARTS) analysis showed that the inhibitor induces conformational changes in PTPN2. Phosphorylation levels of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) at Tyr-705, a crucial site for STAT3 activation and target site of PTPN2, decreased upon exposure to the inhibitor. Our results suggest that PTP inhibitor XIX might be considered as an effective regulator of PTPN2 for treating diseases related to PTPN2.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.40 no.spc
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• pp.33-43
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• 2010

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic, non-immunogenic and non-inflammatory linear polysaccharide, which has been used for various medical applications including arthritis treatment, wound healing, ocular surgery, and tissue augmentation. Because of its mucoadhesive property and safety, HA has received much attention as a tool for drug delivery system development. It has been used as a drug delivery carrier in both nonparenteral and parenteral routes. The nonparenteral application includes the ocular and nasal delivery systems. On the other hand, its use in parenteral systems has been considered important as in the case of sustained release formulation of protein drugs through subcutaneous injection. Particles and hydrogels by various methods using HA and HA derivatives as well as by conjugation with other polymer have been the focus of many studies. Furthermore, the affinity of HA to the CD44 receptor which is overexpressed in various tumor cells makes HA an important means of cancer targeted drug delivery. Current trends and development of HA as a tool for drug delivery will be outlined in this review.