Sung Wook Hong

Dietary antigens are normally rendered nonimmunogenic through a poorly understood "oral tolerance" mechanism that involves immunosuppressive regulatory T (Treg) cells, especially Treg cells induced from conventional T cells in the periphery (pTreg cells). Although orally introducing nominal protein antigens is known to induce such pTreg cells, whether a typical diet induces a population of pTreg cells under normal conditions thus far has been unknown. By using germ-free mice raised and bred on a

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence indicates that Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most important human pathogens, secretes vesicles into the extracellular milieu. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether inhalation of S. aureus-derived extracellular vesicles (EV) is causally related to the pathogenesis of inflammatory pulmonary diseases. METHODS: Staphylococcus aureus EV were prepared by sequential ultrafiltration and ultracentrifugation. The innate immune response was evaluated in vitro after the application

The emergence of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae highlights the need to develop preventive measures to ameliorate Klebsiella infections. Bacteria-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) are spherical nanometer-sized proteolipids enriched with outer membrane proteins. Gram-negative bacteria-derived EVs have gained interest for use as nonliving complex vaccines. In the present study, we evaluated whether K. pneumoniae-derived EVs confer protection against bacteria-induced lethality. K. pneu

Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogenic bacterium that causes various infectious diseases. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) released from S. aureus contain bacterial proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. These EVs can induce immune responses leading to similar symptoms as during staphylococcal infection condition and have the potential as vaccination agent. Here, we show that active immunization (vaccination) with S. aureus-derived EVs induce adaptive immunity of antibody and T cell response

Eosinophils play proinflammatory roles in helminth infections and allergic diseases. Under steady-state conditions, eosinophils are abundantly found in the small intestinal lamina propria, but their physiological function is largely unexplored. In this study, we found that small intestinal eosinophils down-regulate Th17 cells. Th17 cells in the small intestine were markedly increased in the ΔdblGATA-1 mice lacking eosinophils, and an inverse correlation was observed between the number of eosinop

The key to battling the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential aftermath is to develop a variety of vaccines that are efficacious and safe, elicit lasting immunity, and cover a range of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Recombinant viral receptor-binding domains (RBDs) are safe vaccine candidates but often have limited efficacy due to the lack of virus-like immunogen display pattern. Here we have developed a novel virus-like nanoparticle (VLP) vaccine that displays 120 copies of SARS-CoV-2 RBD on its surface. T

Chronic inflammatory airway diseases including asthma are characterized by immune dysfunction to inhaled allergens. Our previous studies demonstrated that T cell priming to inhaled allergens requires LPS, which is ubiquitously present in household dust allergens. In this study, we evaluated the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the development of T cell priming and its polarization to Th1 or Th17 cells when exposed to LPS-contaminated allergens. An asthma mouse model was induc

Summary Plants have recently received a great deal of attention as a means of producing recombinant proteins. Despite this, a limited number of recombinant proteins are currently on the market and, if plants are to be more widely used, a cost‐effective and efficient purification method is urgently needed. Although affinity tags are convenient tools for protein purification, the presence of a tag on the recombinant protein is undesirable for many applications. A cost‐effective method of purificat

Abstract The magnitude of SARS-CoV-2–specific T cell responses correlates inversely with human disease severity, suggesting T cell involvement in primary control. Whereas many COVID-19 vaccines focus on establishing humoral immunity to viral spike protein, vaccine-elicited T cell immunity may bolster durable protection or cross-reactivity with viral variants. To better enable mechanistic and vaccination studies in mice, we identified a dominant CD8 T cell SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein epitope. Infect

cells in GF mice are actively depleted by colonization with commensal microbiota. Thus, our findings provide a possible explanation for why the perturbation of commensal microbiota in early life increases the occurrence of allergic diseases.

The aim of this study was to produce Chungkookjang-a food produced through fermentation with Bacillus licheniformis E1-that contains an increased concentration of a bacterial biological response modifier (B-BRM). Unfortunately, sensory studies have indicated that B. licheniformis E1-fermented Chungkookjang is unacceptable for commercial use. We isolated another bacterial strain from this food product: B. subtilis S2. The optimum time and temperature for Chungkookjang fermentation with B. licheni

Complex communities of microorganisms, termed commensal microbiota, inhabit mucosal surfaces and profoundly influence host physiology as well as occurrence of allergic diseases. Perturbing factors such as the mode of delivery, dietary fibers and antibiotics can influence allergic diseases by altering commensal microbiota in affected tissues as well as in intestine. Here, we review current findings on the relationship between commensal microbiota and allergic diseases, and discuss the underlying

The bacterial communities in the intestinal tracts of earthworm were investigated by culture-dependent and -independent approaches. In total, 72 and 55 pure cultures were isolated from the intestinal tracts of earthworms under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, respectively. Aerobic bacteria were classified as Aeromonas (40%),Bacillus (37%), Photobacterium (10%), Pseudomonas (7%),and Shewanella (6%). Anaerobic bacteria were classified as Aeromonas (52%), Bacillus (27%), Shewanella (12%),Paenibaci