Moon Kyung Choe

Dr. Moon Kyung Choe


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

6Years (2021-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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4 April 2021 in Pharmaceuticals
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
MCMoon Kyung Choe
Moon Kyung Choe
HKHyung-Ji Kim
Hyung-Ji Kim
Nan Hee KimNan Hee Kim
Nan Hee Kim
BBBert Binas
Bert Binas
HKHyo Joon Kim
Hyo Joon Kim
Obesity is associated with autoimmunity, a phenomenon considered as harmful. Here we show that obese mice and humans produce IgG-type autoantibodies that specifically recognize apolipoprotein B-100 (ApoB100), its native epitope p210, and the synthetic p210 mimotope pB1. By contrast, antibodies against epitopes p45 and p240, which have been associated with atherosclerosis, were not detected in either the humans or mice. In a longitudinal analysis of high fat diet-fed mice, autoantibody production rose with increasing body weight, then decreased and plateaued at morbid obesity. Likewise, in a cross-sectional analysis of sera from 148 human volunteers spanning a wide BMI range and free of comorbidities, the immunoreactivity increased and then decreased with increasing BMI. Thus, the obesity-related ApoB100-specific natural autoantibodies characteristically showed the same epitope recognition, IgG-type, and biphasic serum levels in humans and mice. We previously reported that a pB1-based vaccine induces similar antibodies and can prevent obesity in mice. Therefore, our present results suggest that autoantibodies directed against native ApoB100 may mitigate obesity, and that the vaccination approach may be effective in humans.