Biomedical subjects

E Kondo

Publications and source records attributed to E Kondo.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

PubMed1992

Hinge region of human IgG2 protein: conformational studies with monoclonal antibodies.

We previously produced three anti-human IgG2 mAbs with high specificity and found that they recognize distinct epitopes in the hinge region and neighboring residues in human IgG2: HG2-6A was reactive with the hinge region (Glu216-Pro230); HG2-56F with the Pro234 residue and HG2-30F with the Val235 residue. In this study, we evaluated the reactivities of those three mAbs with human IgG2 protein under various conditions. The results obtained using HG2-6A mAb indicated that the hinge region was concealed in the native form, but exposed after heat treatment at 63 degrees C, or chemical treatment with 3 M KSCN, 3 M guanidine, 30% CH3CN, 8 M urea or acid at pH 2.0 as well as by adsorption onto polystyrene beads. The IgG2 hinge region was also exposed after binding to specific antigens. The Pro234 residue recognized by HG2-56F mAb was exposed under all conditions studied. The neighboring Val235 residue recognized by HG2-30F, however, was completely concealed in the native and antigen-bound states. Only treatment with 3 M guanidine and acid at pH 2.0, or physical adsorption induced conformational changes to partially expose the Val235 residue.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

PubMed1992

Detection of oncogene rearrangements in human non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

Southern blot hybridization was used to detect the rearrangement and amplification of five proto-oncogenes (bcl-2, bcl-1, c-myc, c-myb and c-Ha-ras) and one tumor suppressor gene (RB-1) in 55 Japanese patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; 16 with T-cell lymphomas and 39 with B-cell lymphomas (7 follicular and 32 diffuse lymphomas). Genetic abnormalities of the proto-oncogenes were detected in 7 of the 55 (13%). Genetic abnormalities of bcl-2 plus other genes were detected in 5 of 7 cases of follicular lymphoma (71%), rearrangements of bcl-2 and c-myc, rearrangement of bcl-2 and amplification of c-myb. Genetic abnormalities were observed in only three cases of diffuse lymphoma. In each of 3 cases of B-cell lymphoma, one of the genes, blc-2 mbr, bcl-2 mcr and c-myc, was rearranged respectively. The incidence of genetic abnormalities in diffuse lymphomas (6.3%) was lower than that in follicular lymphomas. None of diffuse lymphomas had double oncogene abnormality. No abnormalities were found in RB-1, bcl-1, and Ha-ras. These findings suggest that follicular lymphomas are associated with some abnormalities of oncogenes not restricted to bcl-2 that facilitate growth which may be associated with their clinical features.

Blotting, Southern↗

PubMed1992

Fatty acid-sensitive acid phosphatase activity of tubercle bacilli.

In a whole cell assay system with p-nitrophenyl phosphate as substrate, strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. bovis were identical in the pH-activity pattern of acid phosphatase. It was a one-peak curve with a pH optimum at 6.2 and sharp symmetrical slopes. The enzymatic activity did not reflect the virulence. When the cells were subjected to mechanical fractionation, the major part of the enzymatic activity was found in a particulate fraction and a minor portion in supernatant and cell walls, suggesting the location of the enzyme in the membrane. Exposure of the cells to free long-chain fatty acids, especially unsaturated ones, reduced the enzymatic activity in a dose-response manner with concomitant decrease in the viability. However, no causal relationship between these two effects was suggested from the collateral experiments.

Acid Phosphatase↗

PubMed1992

Endotoxin of Pseudomonas pseudomallei detected by the body weight-decreasing reaction in mice and comparison of it with those of P. cepacia and P. aeruginosa.

The heat-treated whole cells, culture supernatants, and extracted endotoxin preparations of Pseudomonas pseudomallei were examined for endotoxin by the mouse body weight-decreasing (BWD) test. The experiments were conducted also with those of P. cepacia and P aeruginosa. Endotoxin was detected in all the samples of P. pseudomallei. Endotoxin of P. cepacia was detected in whole cells, but not in culture supernatant. The BWD activity of P. aeruginosa was 30 times as high as that of P. pseudomallei. This result was confirmed by the experiments with endotoxin preparations. In the limulus amebocyte lysate gelation (LAL) test, however, the endotoxin preparations of the two species showed the same level of activity.

Animals↗

PubMed1992

Use of endotoxin antigens in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the diagnosis of P. pseudomallei infections (melioidosis).

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with endotoxin preparations of P. pseudomallei as antigen was developed for detection of IgG antibodies specific to melioidosis. Forty-seven sera of bacteriologically confirmed melioidosis patients, 55 non-melioidosis sera and 50 sera of healthy blood donors from non-endemic areas were subjected to this assay in comparison with indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA). The data were treated by receiver operating characteristics analysis. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in this ELISA were 95.7%, 94.2%, and 94.7%, respectively, with cut-off value of OD = 0.312 at 490 nm. Meanwhile, those in IHA were 81.0%, 91.4%, and 88.1%, respectively, with a cut-off value of > or = 1:160. From these results, the ELISA was judged to be more reliable than IHA as the seroassay for diagnosis of melioidosis.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗

PubMed1992

Species-differences in the pH-activity pattern of acid phosphatase in the family Enterobacteriaceae.

Nonspecific phosphatase activities were surveyed comparing major species of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The strains were subjected to a whole cell assay system with paranitrophenyl phosphate as substrate over a wide pH range and with a standardized number of bacterial cells. The overall results suggest that the general shape of the pH activity curve and the location of peaks (pH optimum) can be employed as a supplementary criterion to characterize species of Enterobacteriaceae.

Acid Phosphatase↗

PubMed1991

Identification of epitopes recognized by a panel of six anti-human IgG2 monoclonal antibodies.

Human IgG2 contains several subclass specific amino acid residues or deletions in the CH1 and CH2 domains and also in the hinge region. These substituted residues are the structural correlates for IgG2 specific epitopes. Since human IgG2 has different biological properties from other subclasses, some IgG2 epitopes may be located in regions correlating with sites determining the biological functions. Previously, we produced three anti-IgG2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with highly specific and interesting reactivities using improved immunization protocols. However, it has been almost impossible to identify epitopes conventionally, because human IgG2 is so resistant to proteolysis that various proteolytic fragments could not be isolated. In this study, we identified the epitopes recognized by anti-IgG2 mAbs by SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, amino acid sequence analysis and peptide/mAb binding ELISA, thus overcoming the need for fragment isolation. A panel of six anti-human IgG2 mAbs, including the current WHO/IUIS specificity standards (HP6002, HP6008, HP6014) and our own (HG2-6A, HG2-30F, HG2-56F), reacted with distinct epitopes. The residues essential to expression of the epitopes recognized by the mAbs were: Pro234, Val235 and Val309 for HG2-56F, HG2-30F and HP6008, respectively. HP6014 reacted with the epitope expressed by Thr214 and its neighboring residues. HG2-6A was reactive with the hinge region, and HP6002 was assumed to be directed against discontinuous epitopes requiring intact Fc for expression. Through these studies, the pepsin and papain cleavage sites of human IgG2 were also clarified.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1991

Heat-stable and heat-labile components of nonspecific acid phosphatase detected in Pseudomonas pseudomallei.

In a whole cell assay system with p-nitrophenyl phosphate as substrate, strains of Pseudomonas pseudomallei showed a two-peak pattern in pH activity curve of acid phosphatase, suggesting the presence of two enzyme components different in pH optimum (4.2 and 5.2). The component of 5.2 pH optimum was detected in the outer membrane fraction and the activity was resistant to heating at 70 C for 30 min. The other component of 4.2 pH optimum was heat-labile. No substantial difference was observed in the enzymatic activity between R and S type colonies.

Acid Phosphatase↗

PubMed1991

Growth and survival of Pseudomonas pseudomallei in acidic environments.

A study was made on the growth and survival of Pseudomonas pseudomallei in culture environments differing in nutrients, initial pH, and aeration, in comparison with Pseudomonas cepacia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The observations led us to a view that P. pseudomallei has the highest adaptability to acidic environments among the three species. Unlike the other species, it grew in heart infusion broth of initial pH 4.5 under aeration and survived keeping a high level (10(9) per ml) of viable counts for as long as 30 days. This sort of adaptation was found to be more evident in the media of poor nutrition and under limited aeration.

Acids↗

PubMed1991

[An autopsy case of adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with peculiar histopathological features modified by a positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) therapy].

A case is reported of adult respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS) combined with barotrauma due to positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) therapy. The patient was a 32-year-old woman with fulminant hepatitis, type B, who died of ARDS 22 days after the onset of the illness. The autopsy revealed extraordinary heavy lungs (left: 923g, right: 985g) with edema in the peripheral part and marked emphysematous changes in the central part near the hili. Histologically, scattered foci of intra-alveolar organization and interstitial fibrosis with hemorrhage were observed, which might have been the result of the proceeding pneumonia. The emphysematous lesion seen in this case was peculiar and not like any type of of ordinary pulmonary emphysema. Judging from the strange, sharply demarcated emphysematous lesion with marked destruction of alveolar structure, and the good preservation of the alveolar structure in the edematous lesion, the emphysematous lesion might be barotrauma which was induced by PEEP therapy on top of pneumonia.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

In vitro susceptibilities of Pseudomonas pseudomallei to 27 antimicrobial agents.

Clinical isolates of Pseudomonas pseudomallei isolated in Thailand from 1981 to 1989 were tested for their in vitro susceptibilities to 27 antimicrobial agents, including older and newer quinolones, broad-spectrum cephems, carbapenems, monobactams, penicillins, tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, rifamycin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, and fosfomycin. Tosufloxacin, meropenem, CS-533, and minocycline were active against P. pseudomallei at levels comparable to or even greater than those of antimicrobial agents tested in previous studies, such as ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, imipenem, carumonam, and piperacillin. Drug-resistant P. pseudomallei was found in only 1% of the isolates. The drug-resistant P. pseudomallei isolates displayed a unique pattern of susceptibility to the above-listed drugs.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

PubMed1989

Export of an N-terminal fragment of Escherichia coli flagellin by a flagellum-specific pathway.

Flagellin and several other external components of the bacterial flagellum are thought to be exported, not by the general N-terminal signal peptide-dependent pathway, but by a flagellum-specific pathway involving a central channel in the flagellum itself. We have constructed a variety of mutant alleles of the Escherichia coli flagellin gene. Mutant flagellins with large internal deletions or truncations of their C-terminal region could still be exported, even though they could not assemble into filament. The most extreme example was a fragment containing only the N-terminal 183 residues of the 497-residue wild-type flagellin. This result suggests that the N-terminal region of flagellin contains a signal that enables the protein to be recognized and exported by the flagellum-specific pathway.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1989

Purification of rabbit platelet secretory phospholipase A2 and its characteristics.

It was reported previously that rat platelets release phospholipase A2 upon in vitro stimulation by thrombin, ADP, or A23187 (Horigome, K., Hayakawa, M., Inoue, K., & Nojima, S. (1987) J. Biochem. 101, 53-61). Secretion of phospholipase A2 was also observed with rabbit platelets. Rabbit platelets seem to release phospholipase A2 upon stimulation in vivo, because the rabbit plasma taken immediately after intravenous injection of PAF contained an appreciable level of phospholipase A2 activity and fewer platelets. Rabbit platelet phospholipase A2 released in vitro was purified by column chromatography using Sepharose CL-4B conjugated with anti-rat platelet derived phospholipase A2 monoclonal antibody, followed by reversed-phase HPLC. The purified enzyme was subjected to structural analysis by HPLC peptide mapping and primary sequence determination of the separated peptides. Based on the homology with rat platelet secretory phospholipase A2 (Hayakawa, M., Kudo, I., Tomita, M., Nojima, S., & Inoue, K. (1988) J. Biochem. 104, 767-772), a partial primary structure (62 amino acid residues) of the rabbit enzyme was tentatively determined; the two sequences were highly homologous (72%). The rabbit sequence was also nearly identical to that of rabbit ascitic fluid phospholipase A2, which was determined by Forst et al. (Forst, S., Weiss, J., Elsbach, P., Maraganore, J.M., Reardon, I., & Heinrikson, R.L. (1986) Biochemistry 25, 8381-8385). Phospholipase A2 from the membrane fraction of rabbit platelets was also purified; it had the same characteristics and th same amino-terminal sequence as the purified secretory enzyme. Secretory and membrane-bound phospholipase A2 of rabbit platelets may in fact be identical.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1989

Isolation and characterization of new antibiotics resorcinomycins A and B.

New antibiotics, resorcinomycins A and B, were isolated from the culture broth of a streptomycete strain identified as Streptoverticillium roseoverticillatum. The antibiotics are water-soluble amphoteric substances, positive to SAKAGUCHI'S reagent. The molecular formulas C14H20N4O5 and C13H18N4O5 for A and B were indicated by elemental analysis and secondary ion MS. The structures of these antibiotics were determined by 1H and 13C NMR spectrometry and some chemical evidences to be N-[(S)-alpha-guanidino-3,5-dihydroxy-4-isopropylphenylacetyl]glyci ne and N-[(S)-alpha-guanidino-3,5-dihydroxy-4-ethylphenylacetyl]-glycine, respectively.

Actinomycetales↗

PubMed1989

High activity of acid phosphatase of Pseudomonas pseudomallei as a possible attribute relating to its pathogenicity.

Phosphatase activities were compared quantitatively among selected species of pseudomonads. P. pseudomallei showed the highest activity of a bell-shaped pH pattern with a peak at around pH 5.0. P. cepacia had a similar pattern of milder intensity. In contrast, P. aeruginosa revealed an alkaline phosphatase activity with a pH optimum higher than 8.0, but the level of activity was much lower than those of the above two species. The enzymatic reactions of other species were slight or negligible at their optimum pH in the same test system. These data were discussed in reference to their growth behavior in different pH environments and also in connection with such recent information that the high activity of microbial acid phosphatase may be a favorable attribute to their intracellular parasitism.

Acid Phosphatase↗

PubMed1988

Dual effects of clonidine on amylase secretory responses of rat parotid tissue induced by beta- and alpha 1-agonists.

The effects of clonidine on the amylase secretory responses of rat parotid tissue were examined in vitro. Clonidine increased amylase secretion induced by the beta-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol and decreased that induced by the alpha 1-adrenergic agonist methoxamine or phenylephrine with propranolol. Clonidine itself had no significant effect on the secretion. Yohimbine prevented the effects of clonidine on the secretions induced by both adrenergic agonists. Clonidine did not have any significant effect on cyclic AMP accumulation in the tissues induced by the beta-adrenergic agonist. The parotid tissue after reserpine treatment exhibited supersensitivity to beta- and alpha 1-adrenergic agonists. In reserpine treated tissues, the stimulatory effect of clonidine on beta-agonist-induced secretion disappeared, but the inhibitory effect on alpha 1-agonist-induced secretion remained unchanged. Similar results were obtained after sympathectomy of the gland. These data suggest that the inhibitory effect of clonidine on alpha 1-agonist-induced secretion is related to a postsynaptic site, whereas its effect on beta-agonist-induced secretion is still unknown.

Acetylcholine↗

PubMed1988

Isolation of a new phenazine antibiotic, DOB-41, from Pseudomonas species.

A new phenazine antibiotic, DOB-41, was isolated from the culture broth of a Pseudomonas strain. The antibiotic obtained as yellow crystals showed UV maxima at 255 nm and 370 nm. A molecular formula, C19H18N2O6, was indicated by elemental analysis and mass spectrometry. The structure was elucidated by X-ray diffraction analysis. The antibiotic exhibited inhibitory activity against Gram-positive bacteria, and antitumor effect against leukemia P388 in mice.

Animals↗

PubMed1988

Isolation and characterization of katanosins A and B.

Two peptide antibiotics katanosins A and B were isolated from the culture broth of a strain related to the genus Cytophaga. These antibiotics are basic peptides soluble in aqueous alcohols. The molecular formulae C57H95N15O17 for A and C58H97N15O17 for B were indicated. The constituent amino acids of katanosin A are suggested to be Thr (1), Ser (1), Val (1), Leu (3), Arg (1) and three unusual amino acids. In katanosin B, the Val residue is replaced by Ile. Katanosins A and B are active against Gram-positive bacteria in vitro and in vivo.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗