• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.845-851
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• 2008

TolC is an outer membrane porin protein and an essential component of drug efflux and type-I secretion systems in Gram-negative bacteria. TolC comprises a periplasmic $\alpha$-helical barrel domain and a membrane-embedded $\beta$-barrel domain. TdeA, a functional and structural homolog of TolC, is required for toxin and drug export in the pathogenic oral bacterium Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans. Here, we report the expression of the periplasmic domain of TdeA as a soluble protein by substitution of the membrane-embedded domain with short linkers, which enabled us to purify the protein in the absence of detergent. We confirmed the structural integrity of the TdeA periplasmic domain by size-exclusion chromatography, circular dichroism spectroscopy, and electron microscopy, which together showed that the periplasmic domain of the TolC protein family fold correctly on its own. We further demonstrated that the periplasmic domain of TdeA interacts with peptidoglycans of the bacterial cell wall, which supports the idea that completely folded TolC family proteins traverse the peptidoglycan layer to interact with inner membrane transporters.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.309.2-309.2
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• 2002

The FimH subunit of type l-fimbriated Escherichia coli has been determined as a major cause of urinary tract infection. To produce a possible vaccine antigen against urinary tract infection, the fimH gene was genetically coupled to the ctxa2b gene, which was then cloned into pMAL -p2E expression vector. The chimaeric construction of pMALfimH/ctxa2b was transformed into Escherichia coli TB1 and its N-terminal amino acid sequence was analyzed. (omitted)

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.253-261
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• 1993

Possible changes in the role of insulin-sensitive cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase(PDE) in mediating the antilipolytic action of insulin were investigated in adipocytes from streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Isolated adipocytes prepared from epididymal adipose tissue were incubated, with or without insulin, at $37^{\circ}C$ for 15 min following pretreatment with various drugs or toxins, and three (plasma membranes, microsomal membranes, and cytosol) fractions prepared by differential centrifugation were then assayed for cAMP phosphodiesterase activity. The PDE activities only in the crude microsomal (P2) fractions were activated by insulin both in diabetic and control rats. The basal PDE activities in P2 fractions of adipocytes from diabetic rats were higher than those from control rats, although the maximal effects observed at 2 nM of insulin, $100\;{\mu}M$ of isoproterenol or the combination of both were not significantly different from each other. The insulin-stimulated PDE activities in P2 fractions of adipocytes from diabetic rats were not changed by PIA, a $A_{1}$ adenosine receptor agonist, whereas they were decreased to the basal PDE activities in those from control rats. In addition, the adipocytes from diabetic rats showed an increased sensitivity to pertussis toxin compared to those from controls. There were no differences between diabetic and control rats in the sensitivity of adipocytes to cholera toxin. These data indicate that the impaired signalling through inhibitory receptors such as adenosine receptors in adipocytes from streptozotocin-induced diabetes relates to the loss or the decreased function of $G_i$ proteins, and leads to the increased activity of the insulin-dependent PDE at the basal states.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.379-387
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• 1996

The objects of the present study were to establish the method of purification, subunit dissociation of verotoxin-2 (VT2) produced by Escherichia coli O157:H7, and to investigate the characteristics of purified verotoxin-2 such as molecular weight and composition of amino acid. The results were summerized as follows; Verotoxin-2 was extracted by addition of polymyxin B sulfate into bacterial cell lysate prepared from Escherichia coli O157:H7(KSC109). As an initial step, the bacterial cell lysate was precipitated with 30% saturated ammonium sulfate. The precipitated crude toxin was then subjected to anion-exchange, chromatofocusing and cation-exchange chromatography. Using this scheme, we obtained highly purified toxin with a specific activity of $1.1{\times}10^9$ $CD_{50}/mg$. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(SDS-PAGE) for purified VT2 showed two protein bands. The upper band, approximately 32 Kd, was supposed as A subunit and the lower band, approximately 7.7 Kd, was supposed as B subunit. When the toxin was separated in the subunit-dissociating solution, two peaks emerged with retention times of 15 and 28 min by HPLC. These peaks represented A subunit and B subunit, respectively. The amino acid composition of purified VT2 were made up in order of glutamic acid, histamine, asparaginic acid, histidine, lysine, alanine and leucine etc. The largest amount among the amino acid composing VT2 was methionine.

• BMB Reports
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.294-298
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• 2003

The pathological effect of the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry $\delta$-endotoxins on susceptible insect larvae had extensive damage on the midgut epithelial cells. In this study, an ex vivo assay was devised for assessing the insecticidal potency of the cloned Cry4B mosquito-larvicidal protein that is expressed in Escherichia coli. Determination of toxicity was carried out by using a cell viability assay on the midguts that were dissected from 5-day old Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae. After incubation with the toxin proteins, the number of viable epithelial cells was determined photometrically by monitoring the quantity of the bioreduced formazan product at 490 nm. The results showed that the 65-kDa trypsin-activated Cry4B toxin exhibited toxic potency ca. 3.5 times higher than the 130-kDa Cry4B protoxin. However, the trypsin-treated products of the non-bioactive Cry4B mutant (R158A) and the lepidopteran-specific Cry1Aa toxin displayed relatively no ex vivo activity on the mosquito-larval midguts. The ex vivo cytotoxicity studies presented here confirms data that was obtained in bioassays.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.627-636
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• 2016

The causative agent of pandemic cholera, Vibrio cholerae, infects the anaerobic environment of the human intestine. Production of cholera toxin (CT), a major virulence factor of V. cholerae, is highly induced during anaerobic respiration with trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) as an alternative electron acceptor. However, the molecular mechanism of TMAO-stimulated CT production is not fully understood. Herein, we reveal that CT production during anaerobic TMAO respiration is affected by glucose fermentation. When the seventh pandemic V. cholerae O1 strain N16961 was grown with TMAO and additional glucose, CT production was markedly reduced. Furthermore, an N16961 Δcrp mutant, devoid of cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP), was defective in CT production during growth by anaerobic TMAO respiration, further suggesting a role of glucose metabolism in regulating TMAO-mediated CT production. TMAO reductase activity was noticeably decreased when grown together with glucose or by mutation of the crp gene. A CRP binding region was identified in the promoter region of the torD gene, which encodes a structural subunit of the TMAO reductase. Gel shift assays further confirmed the binding of purified CRP to the torD promoter sequence. Together, our results suggest that the bacterial ability to respire using TMAO is controlled by CRP, whose activity is dependent on glucose availability. Our results reveal a novel mechanism for the regulation of major virulence factor production by V. cholerae under anaerobic growth conditions.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2017

Objectives : In this study, the roles of Interleukin (IL)-4 and Signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6), which have been reported to play a role in the pathogenesis of inflammation and cancer, were evaluated in snake venom toxin (SVT)-induced apoptosis. Methods : Inflammation was induced in human HaCaT kerationocytes, by lipopolysaccharide (LPS; $1{\mu}g/mL$) or tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$), followed by treatment with SVT (0, 1, or $2{\mu}g/mL$). Cell viability was assessed by MTT assays after 24 h, and the expression of levels of IL-4, STAT6, and the apoptosis-related proteins p53, Bax, and Bcl-2 were evaluated by western blotting. Electro mobility shift assays (EMSAs) were performed to evaluate the DNA binding capacity of STAT6. Results : MTT assays showed that inflammation-induced growth of HaCaT cells following LPS or TNF-${\alpha}$ stimulation was inhibited by SVT. Western blot analysis showed that p53 and Bax, which promote apoptosis, were increased, whereas that of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic protein, was decreased in a concentration-dependent manner in LPS- or TNF-${\alpha}$-induced HaCaT cells following treatment with SVT. Moreover, following treatment of HaCaT cells with LPS, IL-4 concentrations were increased, and treatment with SVT further increased IL-4 expression in a concentration-dependent manner. Western blotting and EMSAs showed that the phosphorylated form of STAT6 was increased in HaCaT cells in the context of LPS- or TNF-${\alpha}$-induced inflammation in a concentration-dependent manner, concomitant with an increase in the DNA binding activity of STAT6. Conclusion : SVT can effectively promote apoptosis in HaCaT cells in the presence of inflammation through a pathway involving IL-4 and STAT6.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.38 no.sup2
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• pp.343-354
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• 2008

Purpose: Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is associated with localized aggressive periodontitis. It produces cytolethal distending toxin (CDT), which induces cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase. The CDT holotoxin is composed of CdtA, CdtB, and CdtC. CdtB has structural homology to human DNase I and is an active component of the CDT complex acting as a DNase. In particular, the pattern homology seen in the CdtB subunit has been associated with specific DNase I residues involved in enzyme catalysis, DNA binding, and metal ion binding. So, to study the functions and regulation of recombinant CdtB, we made up a quantity of functional recombinant CdtB and tested it in relation to the metal ion effect. Materials and Methods: We constructed the pET28a-cdtB plasmid from A. actinomycetemcomitans Y4 by genomic DNA PCR and expressed it in the BL21 (DE3) Escherichia coli system. We obtained the functional recombinant CdtB by the refolding system using the dialysis method and then analyzed the DNase activity and investigated the metal ion effect from plasmid digestion. Results: The recombinant CdtB subunit was expressed as the inclusion bodies. We were able to obtain functional recombinant CdtB subunit using refolding system. We confirmed that our refolded recombinant CdtB had DNase activity and was influenced by the metal ions $Mg^{2+}$ and $Ca^{2+}$. Conclusion: We suggest that the factors influencing recombinant CdtB may contribute to CDT associated diseases, such as periodontitis, endocarditic, meningitis, and osteomyelitis.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.197-203
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• 2001

A fusion protein, consisting of human epidermal growth factor as a recognition domain and human angiogenin as a toxin domain, can be used as a targeted therapeutic against breast cancer cells among others. The fusion protein was expressed as inclusion body in recombinant E. coli, and when the conventional, solution-phase refolding process was used the refolding yield was very low due to severe aggregation, probably due to the opposite surface charge due to vastly different pI values of each domain. Solid-phase refolding process exploiting ionic interactions between the solid matrix and the protein was tried, but the ionic binding yield was very low regardless of the resins and pH conditions used. To provide higher affinity toward the solid matrix, six lysine residues were tagged to the N -terminus of the hEGF domain When the cation exchange resins such as heparin- or CM-Sepharose were used as the matrix, the adsorption capacity increased 2.5-3 times and the subsequent refolding yield increased nearly IS times compared to the conventional process.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.240-245
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• 1991

We have constructed a promoter-probe vector pKU20 using pKT230, a derivative of broad-host-range plsmid RSF1010, as a base. The pKU20 contains structural gene for aminoglycoside phos-photransferase (aph), without promoter, and a multiple cloning site upstream the aph. Using this vector, a 412base pairs (bp) PstI fragment showing strong promoter activity both in Escherichia coli LE392 and Pseudomonas putida KCTC1644 has been cloned from Pseudomonas fluorescens chromosomal DNA on the basis of streptomycin resistance. The nucleotide sequence of the 412 bp fragment has been determined and the putative - 35 and -10 region was observed. Insecticidal protein gene of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki HD-73 inserted on downstream of the promoterlike DNA fragment was efficiently expressed in E. coli and P. putida. The toxin protein was efficiently synthesized in an insoluble form in both strains.