The dynastid beetle Allomyrina dichotoma has been used as a herbal medicine. Recently, we performed de novo RNAsequencing of Allomyrina dichotoma and identified several antimicrobial peptide candidates based on in silico analysis.Among them, cationic antimicrobial peptide, Allomyrinasin, was selected and we assessed the anti-inflammatory activitiesof Allomyrinasin against mouse macrophage Raw264.7 cells. The results showed that Allomyrinasin decreased the nitricoxide production of the lipopolysaccharide-induced Raw264.7 cells. In addition, quantitative RT-PCR, ELISA and Westernblot analysis revealed that Allomyrinasin reduced cytokine expression levels in the Raw264.7 cells. Taken together, thesedata indicated that Allomyrinasin had anti-inflammatory activity in the lipopolysaccharide-induced Raw264.7 cells.

NRPS (non-ribosomal pepetide synthetase) plays an important role in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, which includes economically important compounds such as antibiotics, antitumor agents, immune-suppressants, siderophores, toxins, etc. In most cases, however, their functions and biosynthesizing pathways have been still remained riddles because of their cryptic expression and recalcitrant genetics. In our previous genome analyses of Cordyceps bassiana C101, we predicted the sequences of secondary metabolite biosynthesizing gene clusters, which contain non-ribosomal pepetide synthetases whose functions are already known such as beauvericin, bassianolide, bassiatin, tenellin, beauverolides, and oosporein. The authors focused on nrps6 that has not been functionally studied. The single-gene deletion and overexpression mutants were established via Agrobacterium-mediated transformations. PCR, quantitative real-time PCR, and southern blot analyses were carried out to confirm the correct single-gene integrated homologous recombination. In further study, comparative metabolic profiling between wild-type and mutant strains will be followed by their detailed chemical structure analysis through NMR spectroscopy.

Recently, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) has been widely used in the areas of diagnosis, monitoring treatment efficiency, and prognosis for various heart diseases, especially heart failure (HF). In this paper, we try to estimate the prognostic significance of NT-proBNP as a risk evaluation marker in Non-ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI) patients. We selected NSTEMI patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) primarily using a drug-eluting stent within 24 h after the onset of chest pain. We compared incidences of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) including death, myocardial infarction (MI), stent thrombosis (ST), and target vessel revascularization (TVR) in two patient groups according to a high or low serum concentration of NT-proBNP, which was measured in the emergency room (ER). We intend to minimize selection bias selecting comparing groups, considering covariate of observed variables together using propensity score matching (PSM) and propensity score weighting (PSW) based on propensity score (PS) to control the difference in baseline characteristics between high- and low NT-proBNP groups. We found that as the log NT-proBNP value increases by 1 through a hazard function of COX’s analysis, the risk of MACE increases by 1.312 times. This result indicated that the NT-proBNP level on ER admission can be used as a significant prognostic indicator to estimate 1 year of MACE in NSTEMI patients who were treated with PCI within 24 h after the onset of chest pain.

This study was conducted to investigate the quality characteristics, anti-oxidation activity and di-peptide (anserine, carnosine) contents of marinated pork loin from Korean native black pig (KNBP) and crossbred of Landrace×Yorkshire×Durock (LYD) by addition of fruits (pineapple and gold kiwi). Sliced pork loin (13~15 mm) was marinated in three different treatments: 1) no fruits addition, 2) with seasoning and pineapple for 5 h, 3) with seasoning and kiwi for 5 h. Addition of fruits significantly decreased pH, hardness and chewiness of marinated KNBP and LYD pork loin. Anti-oxidation activity in pork were significantly increased by addition of fruits. Especially, addition of gold kiwi in the pork loin marinated for 5 h showed the highest anti-oxidation activity and carnosine contents. Also, it showed the highest score in the sensory characteristics (juiciness and tenderness). These results suggested that the pork loin marinated with gold kiwi for 5 h could be one of the solutions to enhance quality characteristics of marinated KNBP and LYD.

In this study, we report a general method for preparation of a one-dimensional (1D) arrangement of Au nanoparticles on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) using biologically programmed peptides as structure-guiding 1D templates. The peptides were designed by the combination of glutamic acid (E), glycine (G), and phenylalanine (F) amino acids; peptides efficiently debundled and exfoliated the SWNTs for stability of the dispersion and guided the growth of the array of Au nanoparticles in a controllable manner. Moreover, we demonstrated the superior ability of 1D nanohybrids as flexible, transparent, and conducting materials. The highly stable dispersion of 1D nanohybrids in aqueous solution enabled the fabrication of flexible, transparent, and conductive nanohybrid films using vacuum filtration, resulting in good optical and electrical properties.

Soybean peptide (SP) exhibited low intestinal absorption at oral administration due to its fragile structure under gastric digestion. Therefore, we have attempted to encapsulate peptide by cross-linkage interaction between positive charged chitosan (CS) or chitosan oligosaccharide (CSO) and negative charged peptide. The CS (or CSO) with SP nanoparticles were prepared by using ultrasonification technique. The objective of this study was to find the optimal processing method by changing concentration, pH, and homogenizing conditions. We measured physicochemical properties such as particle size, zeta-potential, encapsulation efficiency (EE%), release rate (RR) and antioxidant ability of samples. The results showed that the optimal processing method was using 0.5% (w/v) CSO (diluted by pH 3 Acetic acid buffer) mixed with 0.5% (w/v) SP (diluted by pH 6 buffer) by 9:1 ratio. Afterwards, using high-speed mixer at 12,000 rpm for 3 min, and then passed 2 times through an ultrasonicator (50% power, 3 min). In this way for processing, the particle sizes of CSO/SP nanoparticles were approximately 300 nm, zeta-potential were approximately 45 mV. In addition, the EE% and RR of CS/SP nanoparticles was higher than the CSO/SP nanoparticles. The increase in antioxidant ability of SP was attributed to the affected by CS/CSO microcapsules. In conclusion, this research can befoundation for the manufacturing process of CS/SP nanoparticles, and it was expected that the future application of this nanoparticle in food matrix.

Some bioactive peptides have been identified by activity-guided fractionation. However, it is difficult to prepare or synthesize enough amounts of active peptides for food ingredients and for animal or human trials. The objective of the present study was to prepare peptide fractions of sufficient amounts with high antioxidant activity which could be applied to the food and animal model. Oyster hydrolysate was fractionated the basis of the amphoteric nature of sample peptides by preparative isoelectric focusing (autofocusing). To monitor the fractionation of peptides by autofocusing, amino acid analysis of the autofocusing fractions was performed. Each autofocusing fraction was evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydroxyl (OH) radical scavenging activities, oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), and Fe 2+ chelatingassays. More than 40% of the peptides were distributed between Fr. 4 and 7 (pH<5.0). Approximately 16% of the peptides were recovered in basic fractions (pH>10.0; Fr. 9-10). 11 % of peptides were recovered in the neutral fraction (6.0<pH<7.0; Fr. 8). The peptides in the acidic and basic fractions are characterized by a higher content of acidic and basic amino acids, respectively. Acidic fraction showed higher ORAC values than crude oyster hydrolysate. Also, the acidic fraction showed high DPPH and OH radical scavenging activity. On the other hand, basic fraction showed higher chelating ability than crude oyster hydrolysate. In the present study, oyster peptide fractions of large-scale with high antioxidant activity were successfully fractionated by autofocusing for food additives and animal trials.