• BMB Reports
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.181-189
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• 2019

Cancer remains a life-threatening disease and accounts for the major mortality rates worldwide. The practice of using biomarkers for early detection, staging, and customized therapy may increase cancer patients' survival. Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are a family of proteases that remove ubiquitin tags from proteins of interest undergoing proteasomal degradation. DUBs play several functional roles other than deubiquitination. One of the important roles of DUBs is regulation of tumor progression. Several reports have suggested that the DUB family members were highly-elevated in various cancer cells and tissues in different stages of cancer. These findings suggest that the DUBs could be used as drug targets in cancer therapeutics. In this review, we recapitulate the role of the DUB family members, including ubiquitin-specific protease, otubain protease, and important candidates from other family members. Our aim was to better understand the connection between DUB expression profiles and cancers to allow researchers to design inhibitors or gene therapies to improve diagnosis and prognosis of cancers.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.599-602
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• 2005

Truncated form of UBP1, an ubiquitin-specific protease of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The hexahistidine residue $(His_6)$ was fused to the N-terminus of truncated UBP1 and the corresponding recombinant protein was purified with high yield by immobilized metal affinity chromatography. The truncated form of UBP1 protein was functional to cleave ubiquitinated human growth hormone as substrate. Effects of pH and temperature were investigated in order to optimize deubiquitinating reactions for the truncated UBP1. Optimum temperature and pH for the cleavage reaction were $40^{\circ}C$ and pH 8.0, respectively.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.451-456
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• 2023

Deubiquitinases (DUBs) are an essential component of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). They trim ubiquitin from substrate proteins, thereby preventing them from degradation, and modulate different cellular processes. Ubiquitin-specific protease 14 (USP14) is a DUB that has mainly been studied for its role in tumorigenesis in several cancers. In the present study, we found that the protein levels of USP14 were remarkably higher in gastric cancer tissues than in the adjacent normal tissues. We also demonstrated that the inhibition of USP14 activity using IU1 (an USP14 inhibitor) or the inhibition of USP14 expression using USP14-specific siRNA markedly reduced the viability of gastric cancer cells and suppressed their migratory and invasive abilities. The reduction in gastric cancer cell proliferation due to the inhibition of USP14 activity was a result of the increase in the degree of apoptosis, as evidenced by the increased expression levels of cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved PARP. Furthermore, an experiment using the USP14 inhibitor IU1 revealed that the inhibition of USP14 activity suppressed 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) resistance in GC cells. Collectively, these findings indicate that USP14 plays critical roles in gastric cancer progression and suggest its potential to serve as a novel therapeutic target for gastric cancer treatment.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1005-1011
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• 2010

$\gamma$-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. GABA transporters (GATs) control extracellular GABA levels by reuptake of released GABA from the synaptic cleft. However, how GATs are regulated has not yet been elucidated. Here, we used the yeast two-hybrid system to identify the specific binding protein(s) that interacts with the carboxyl (C)-terminal region of GAT1, the major isoform in the brain and find a specific interaction with the ubiquitin-specific protease 14 (Usp14), a deubiquitinating enzyme. Usp14 protein bound to the tail region of GAT1 and GAT2 but not to other GAT members in the yeast two-hybrid assay. The C-terminal region of Usp14 is essential for interaction with GAT1. In addition, these proteins showed specific interactions in the glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay. An antibody to GAT1 specifically co-immunoprecipitated Usp14 from mouse brain extracts. These results suggest that Usp14 may regulate the number of GAT1 at the cell surface.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.554-556
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• 2003

This research was focused on expression, purification and characterization of ubiquitin-specific protease 1 (UBP1) expressed in recombinant Escherichia coli. Various systems were constructed by fusing polycationic fusion tails or fusion partners to the C- or N-terminus of the product protein. In particular, UBP1 containing 6 histidine residues at the N-terminal end showed best results in terms of expression level and purification efficiency. The N-terminal $6{\times}His-tagged$ UBP1 was overproduced in recombinant E. coli using high cell density cultivation technology and purified using immobilized metal affinity chromatography. The molecular weight of UBP1 was found to be 83,500 daltons. The optimum temperature and pH for the enzyme reaction when ubiquitin-human growth hormone (hGH) was used as a substrate were $40^{\circ}C$ and pH 8.0, respectively.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2010

Methylprednisolone (MPD) is a synthetic glucocorticoid drug used in treatment of many neurological diseases and neurotraumas, including spinal cord injuries. Little is known of the mechanism of MPD in neuronal cells, particularly the genetic expression aspect. DD-PCR was used in identification of genes expressed during MPD treatment of PC12 cells. We have isolated 3 predicted up- or down-regulated genes, which are differentially expressed in neurons by MPD. One of these genes, USP16 (ubiquitin specific protease 16), is the deubiquitinating enzyme that is up-regulated by MPD in neurons. In order to observe the effect of MPD on USP16 gene expression, PC12 cells were treated under several experimental conditions, including endoplasmic reticulum stress drugs. We have isolated the total RNAs in PC12 cells and detected USP16 and ER related genes by RT-PCR. Because its expression pattern is similar to expression of ER chaperons, USP16 gene expression is strongly associated with unfolded protein response. A meaningful negative effect on each tissue treated by methylprednisolone is not shown in vivo. USP16 gene expression is suppressed by LY294002 (phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor), which suggests that USP16 gene expression is regulated by the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.463-472
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• 2009

Although the possible cellular roles of several ubiquitin-specific proteases (UBPs) were identified in Arabidopsis, almost nothing is known about UBP homologs in rice, a monocot model plant. In this report, we searched the rice genome database (http://signal.salk.edu/cgi-bin/RiceGE) and identified 21 putative UBP family members (OsUBPs) in the rice genome. These OsUBP genes each contain a ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase (UCH) domain with highly conserved Cys and His boxes and were subdivided into 9 groups based on their sequence identities and domain structures. RT-PCR analysis indicated that rice OsUBP genes are expressed at varying degrees in different rice tissues. We isolated a full-length cDNA clone for OsUBP6, which possesses not only a UCH domain, but also an N-terminal ubiquitin motif. Bacterially expressed OsUBP6 was capable of dismantling K48-linked tetra-ubiquitin chains in vitro. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR indicated that OsUBP6 is constitutively expressed in different tissues of rice plants. An in vivo targeting experiment showed that OsUBP6 is predominantly localized to the nucleus in onion epidermal cells. We also examined how knock-out of OsUBP6 affects developmental growth of rice plants. Although homozygous T3 osubp6 T-DNA insertion mutant seedlings displayed slower growth relative to wild type seedlings, mature mutant plants appeared to be normal. These results raise the possibility that loss of OsUBP6 is functionally compensated for by an as-yet unknown OsUBP homolog during later stages of development in rice plants.

• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.435-443
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• 2008

Post-translational modifiers can alter the function of proteins in many different ways. The conjugation of ubiquitin (Ub) and ubiqutin-like modifiers (Ubls) to proteins has been shown to be especially crucial in regulating a variety of cellular processes including the cell cycle, growth control, quality control, localization and many more. It is a highly dynamic process and involves a number of enzymes called E1, E2 and E3. Ub and Ubls are removed from the target proteins by deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) or Ubl-specific proteases (ULPs), thereby deconjugation can act as an additional level of control over the ubiquitin-conjugation system. In addition, DUBs and ULPs are responsible for activating Ub and Ubls from their inactive corresponding precursor forms. Here we review recent progress in molecular details of these deconjugating enzymes of Ubls.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.122-126
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• 2019

Objective : Dynamic proteolysis, through the ubiquitin-proteasome system, is an important molecular mechanism for the constant regulation of synaptic plasticity and stress responses in humans. In this study, we examined whether genetic variants in the ubiquitin-specific peptidase (USP) genes were associated with psychological traits of resilience and susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders for each gender. Methods : A total of 344 Korean healthy youths (190 males, 154 females) were included in the study. A genotyping of rs2241646 of USP2 and rs346006 of USP46 was performed. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale were administered for measuring trait resilience and social anxiety, respectively. The genetic associations of the USP variants were tested using multiple analyses of covariance with psychological traits as dependent variables after controlling for age in each gender. Results : For USP2 rs2241646, women with the TT genotype showed significantly higher resilience and lower social anxiety, as compared to those carrying the C allele. There were no associations between USP46 rs346005 and the psychological traits in both genders. Conclusions : The present study showed a possible genetic association between the USP2 rs2241646 and stress resilience and trait anxiety in women. The findings suggest that ubiquitin-proteasome system may be related to the resilience and susceptibility to stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders, possibly through the regulation of dynamic proteolysis responses to stress.

• Proceedings of the Zoological Society Korea Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.202.2-202
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• 2001

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