비밀번호 확인 :
KU Professor’s Research Published in Nature Communications
관리자
897
2018.04.11
<p>A research team lead by Professor Yong-seok Heo of the Department of Chemistry has identified BAFF (B cell-activating factor) neutralizing mechanism of belimumab. <br /><br /><img alt="" src="ArticleFile.do?id=11728720" width="202" height="259" /><br /><br /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">BAFF, recognized as a good target for autoimmune system, is a tumor necrosis family member and is critical to the development, maintenance and survival of B-cells and belimumab is only treatment approved for SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus). SLE is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks healthy cells and tissues by mistake and predominately affects the youth, including women in their childbearing years. It is estimated that the number of patients with SLE has surged by 50% in the last seven years. SLE treatments focused on suppressing symptoms so severe SLE patients were treated with high dose of corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs causing a lot of side effects. In 2011, the FDA approved belimumab (Benlysta), a fully human monoclonal IgG1λ neutralizing soluble BAFF, as the first targeted therapy for SLE in the past 50 years since the introduction of corticosteroids and immunosuppressive therapy. The team has demonstrated that the therapeutic activity of belimumab involves not only antagonizing the BAFF-receptor interaction, but also disrupting the formation of the more active BAFF 60-mer to favor the induction of the less active BAFF trimer through interaction with the flap region of BAFF with their crystal structure of the BAFF belimumab Fab complex showing the precise epitope and the BADD-neutralizing mechanism of belimumab.</p> <p><br /><img style="margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto;" alt="" src="ArticleFile.do?id=11728723" width="502" height="418" /></p> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <p>“The findings our study will help diversify drugs for autoimmune disorders by providing vital information needed to develop low molecular BAFF inhibitors,” said Professor Heo.</p> <p>This research, titled “BAFF-neutralizing interaction of belimumab related to its therapeutic efficacy for treating systemic lupus erythematosus”, published in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published covering the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, Earth sciences, and biology, was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea.<br /><br /><img style="margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto;" alt="" src="ArticleFile.do?id=11728722" width="497" height="341" /><br />*This study’s co-authors are Woo-ri Shin holding a Master of Science in Chemistry from KU and Hyun-tae Lee, Hee-jin Lim and Sang-hyung Lee, graduate students of the Department of Chemistry.</p> </div> <p><span> </span></p>
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KU Prof. Kyun-hwan Kim, disco...
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