• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.362-370
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• 1999

Propolis, a natural resinous compound collected from honey bees, contains many biochemical constituents(wax, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, etc.) and has been used in traditional medicines as early as 300 B.C. It was been demonstrated that ethanol, acetylsalicylic acid, ischemia reperfusion, non-steroidal antiin-flammatory drugs and stress induce gastric lesions by promoting the generation of reactive oxygen metabolites. Therefore, some drugs that are capable of scavenging or inhibiting the generation of reactive oxygen radicals might be expected to prevent the gastric mucosal injury. The aim of this study was 1) to examine the antiulcer effect of propolis, 2) to investigate the mechanism of action by determining gastric acid secretion, lipid per-oxidation, mucus content and proton pump ($H^+$/$K^+$-ATPase) activity on gastric mucus in varios experimental models, and finally, 3) to isolate and identify the pure compounds that exert antiulcer activity. Step 2-1 and 2-3 sub-sub fraction shoed a significant reduction of severity of gastirc damage at the dose of 25 mg/kg in various experimental models. We isolated 4 sub-sub-sub fractions by flash column chromatography of Step 2-1 sub-sub fraction and one sub-sub-sub fraction by recrystalization of Step 2-3 sub-sub fraction. The protective effects of propolis sub-sub-sub fraction manifested sifnificant effects in HCl-ethanol induced gastric erosion model and aspirin induced gastric ulcer model. These results showed that the gastric mucosal protective effect of propolis might result from the increase of mucus secretion, free radical scavenging effect as well as the reduction of acid secretion in accordance with the reduction of $H^+$/$K^+$-ATPase activitv. Three compounds were isolated and identified from sub-sub fraction of propolis which showed antiulcer effects. Subsequently, these compounds were identified as a flavonoid, namely, 2-acetoxy-5,7,-dihydroxy-flavanone, galangin and chrysin.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the protective effect of black rice extract (BRE) on tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP)-induced oxidative injury in HepG2 cells. MATERIALS/METHODS: Methanolic extract from black rice was evaluated for the protective effect on TBHP-induced oxidative injury in HepG2 cells. Several biomarkers that modulate cell survival and death including reactive oxygen species (ROS), caspase-3 activity, and related cellular kinases were determined. RESULTS: TBHP induced cell death and apoptosis by a rapid increase in ROS generation and caspase-3 activity. Moreover, TBHP-induced oxidative stress resulted in a transient ERK1/2 activation and a sustained increase of JNK1/2 activation. While, BRE pretreatment protects the cells against oxidative stress by reducing cell death, caspase-3 activity, and ROS generation and also by preventing ERKs deactivation and the prolonged JNKs activation. Moreover, pretreatment of BRE increased the activation of ERKs and Akt which are pro-survival signal proteins. However, this effect was blunted in the presence of ERKs and Akt inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that activation of ERKs and Akt pathway might be involved in the cytoprotective effect of BRE against oxidative stress. Our findings provide new insights into the cytoprotective effects and its possible mechanism of black rice against oxidative stress.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.501-509
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• 2016

Shikonin, which derives from Lithospermum erythrorhizon, has been traditionally used against a variety of diseases, including cancer, in Eastern Asia. Here we determined that shikonin inhibits proliferation of gastric cancer cells by inducing apoptosis. Shikonin's biological activity was validated by observing cell viability, caspase 3 activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and apoptotic marker expressions in AGS stomach cancer cells. The concentration range of shikonin was 35-250 nM with the incubation time of 6 h. Protein levels of Nrf2 and p53 were evaluated by western blotting and confirmed by real-time PCR. Our results revealed that shikonin induced the generation of ROS as well as caspase 3-dependent apoptosis. c-Jun-N-terminal kinases (JNK) activity was significantly elevated in shikonin-treated cells, thereby linking JNK to apoptosis. Furthermore, our results revealed that shikonin induced p53 expression but repressed Nrf2 expression. Moreover, our results suggested that there may be a co-regulation between p53 and Nrf2, in which transfection with siNrf2 induced the p53 expression. We demonstrated for the first time that shikonin activated cell apoptosis in AGS cells via caspase 3- and JNK-dependent pathways, as well as through the p53-Nrf2 mediated signal pathway. Our study validates in partly the contribution of shikonin as a new therapeutic approaches/agent for cancer chemotherapy.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.256-262
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• 2012

Reactive oxygen species play critical role in kidney damage. Free radical-scavenging activities of Panax ginseng are known to be increased by heat-processing. The structural change of ginsenoside and the generation of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) are closely related to the increased free radical-scavenging activities. In the present study, we have demonstrated the Maillard reaction model experiment using ginsenoside Re and glycine mixture to identify the renoprotective effect of MRPs from ginseng or ginsenosides. Ginsenoside Re was transformed into less-polar ginsenosides, namely Rg2, Rg6 and F4 by heat-processing. The free radical-scavenging activity of ginsenoside Re-glycine mixture was increased in a temperature-dependant manner by heatprocessing. The improved free radical-scavenging activity by heat-processing was mediated by the generation of antioxidant MRPs which led to the protection of LLC-PK1 renal epithelial cells from oxidative stress. Although the free radical scavenging activities of less-polar ginsenosides were weak, they could protect LLC-PK1 cells from oxidative stress. Therefore, MRPs and less-polar ginsenosides contributed to the combined renoprotective effects against oxidative renal damage.

• Journal of KIISE
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• v.43 no.9
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• pp.1015-1025
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• 2016

Currently, software testing is becoming increasingly important in the industrial field and a large body of research supports the improvement of efficient software testing. Model-based testing is generally used to formalize user requirement data for test design. Complex system that includes loop and concurrency has a high probability of path explosion problem. Specially, as threads are added to concurrency, test scenarios have also increased exponentially. However, it is difficult to solve this problem using existing techniques. In this paper, we propose novel path-search technique that focuses on behavioral features of concurrency path in order to avoid path explosion problem. A system that contains concurrent paths is represented by activity diagram in case study section. Efficiency of our study is shown through comparison with several generated test scenarios of other studies. The result indicate that our approach is efficient for finding faults in loop and concurrency with fewer test scenario.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.263-273
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• 1999

The role of phospholipase $A_2\;(PLA_2)$ in acute lung leak induced by intestinal ischemia was investigated in association with neutrophilic respiratory burst. To induce lung leak, we generated intestinal ischemia for 60 min prior to the 120 min reperfusion by clamping superior mesenteric artery in Sprague-Dawley rats. Acute lung leak was confirmed by the increased lung leak index and protein content in bronchoalveolar fluid. These changes were inhibited by mepacrine, the non-specific $PLA_2$ inhibitor. The lung myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity denoting the pulmonary recruitment of neutrophils was increased by intestinal I/R, but decreased by mepacrine. Simultaneously, the number of leukocytes in bronchoalveolar fluid was increased by intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) and decreased by mepacrine. Gamma glutamyl transferase activity, an index of oxidative stress in the lung, was increased after intestinal I/R but decreased by mepacrine, which implicates that $PLA_2$ increases oxidative stress caused by intestinal I/R. The $PLA_2$ activity was increased after intestinal I/R not only in the intestine but also in the lung. These changes were diminished by mepacrine. In the cytochemical electron microscopy to detect hydrogen peroxide, intestinal I/R increased the generation of the hydrogen peroxide in the lung as well as in the intestine. Expression of interleukin-1 (IL-1) in the lung was investigated through RT-PCR. The expression of IL-1 after intestinal I/R was enhanced, and again, the inhibition of $PLA_2$ suppressed the expression of IL-1 in the lung. Taken together, intestinal I/R seems to induce acute lung leak through the activation of $PLA_2$, the increase of IL-1 expression associated with increased oxidative stress by neutrophilic respiratory burst.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.123-132
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• 2005

Melittin,cationic 26-amino acid, is the principal component of the bee venom (BV) which has been used for treatment of inflammatory disease such as arthritis rheumatism NF-kB is activated by subsequent release of inhibitory IkB via activation of a multisubunit IkB kinase (IKK). We previously found that melittin bind to the sulfhydryl group of p50, a subunit of NF-kB. Since sulfhydryl group is present in kinase domain of IKKa and IKKb, melittin could modify IKK activity by protein-protein interaction. We therefore examined effect of melittin on IKK activities in sodium nitroprusside (SNP)-stimulated synoviocyte obtained from RA patients. Melittin suppressed the SNP-induced release of IkB resulted in inhibition of DNA binding activity of NF-kB and NF-kB-dependent luciferase activity. Consistent with the inhibitory effect on NF-kB activation, IKKa and IKKb activities were also suppressed by melittin. Surface plasmon resonance analysis realized that melitin binds to IKKa $(Kd\;=\;1.34{\times}10-9M)$ and IKKb$(Kd\;=\;1.0{\times}10-9M)$. Inhibition of IKKa and IKKb resulted in reduction of the SNP-induced production of inflammatory mediators NO and PGE2 generation. The inhibitory effect of melittin on the IKKs activities, binding affinity of melittin to IKKs, and NO and PGE2 generation were blocked by addition of reducing agents dithiothreitol and glutathione. In addition, melittin did not show inhibitory effect in the transfected Synoviocytes with plasmid carrying dominant negative mutant IKKa (C178A) and IKKb (C179A). These results demonstrate that melittin directly binds to sulfhydryl group of IKKs resulting in IkBrelease, thereby inhibits activation of NF-kB and expression of genes involving in the inflammatory responses.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.233-239
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• 2017

Background: Nephrotoxicity is the major side effect in cisplatin chemotherapy. Previously, we reported that the ginsenosides Rk3 and Rh4 reduced cisplatin toxicity on porcine renal proximal epithelial tubular cells (LLC-PK1). Here, we aimed to evaluate the protective effect of ginsenosides Rk3 and Rh4 on kidney function and elucidate their antioxidant effect using in vitro and in vivo models of cisplatin-induced acute renal failure. Methods: An enriched mixture of ginsenosides Rk3 and Rh4 (KG-KH; 49.3% and 43.1%, respectively) was purified from sun ginseng (heat processed Panax ginseng). Cytotoxicity was induced by treatment of $20{\mu}M$ cisplatin to LLC-PK1 cells and rat model of acute renal failure was generated by single intraperitoneal injection of 5 mg/kg cisplatin. Protective effects were assessed by determining cell viability, reactive oxygen species generation, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, antioxidant enzyme activity, and histopathological examination. Results: The in vitro assay demonstrated that KG-KH ($50{\mu}g/mL$) significantly increased cell viability (4.6-fold), superoxide dismutase activity (2.8-fold), and glutathione reductase activity (1.5-fold), but reduced reactive oxygen species generation (56%) compared to cisplatin control cells. KG-KH (6 mg/kg, per os) also significantly inhibited renal edema (87% kidney index) and dysfunction (71.4% blood urea nitrogen, 67.4% creatinine) compared to cisplatin control rats. Of note, KG-KH significantly recovered the kidney levels of catalase (1.2-fold) and superoxide dismutase (1.5-fold). Conclusion: Considering the oxidative injury as an early trigger of cisplatin nephrotoxicity, our findings suggest that ginsenosides Rk3 and Rh4 protect the kidney from cisplatin-induced oxidative injury and help to recover renal function by restoring intrinsic antioxidant defenses.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.317-326
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop an AHP model to evaluate the relative importance and priorities of multi-cultural policies under bounded Rationality. The results of the study are as follows. First, in the evaluation elements for each measurement area, the following are the stable social settlement support policy (1rank), social capability development policy of multi-cultural family second generation (2rank), socio-economic activity policy (3rank), collaborative governance policy enforcement(4rank). Second, the priority of the measurement element is as follows. social settlement service target expansion policy was proved to be the top priority project stable social settlement support policy aspect and social capacity development policies of the second generation of multi-cultural families, social support policy was most important evaluated. Active economic activity support policy was as the top priority project socio-economic activity policy, and construct cooperation system of policy practice main agents was proved to be the top priority collaborative governance policy enforcement. These results will contribute to explain the reality of multi-cultural policy.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.277-286
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• 2019

In this paper, we propose an efficient hyperplane generation technique to classify human activity from combination of events and sequence information obtained from multiple-event sensors. By generating hyperplane efficiently, our machine learning algorithm classify with less memory and run time than the LSVM (Linear Support Vector Machine) for embedded system. Because the fact that light weight and high speed algorithm is one of the most critical issue in the IoT, the study can be applied to smart home to predict human activity and provide related services. Our approach is based on reducing numbers of hyperplanes and utilizing robust string comparing algorithm. The proposed method results in reduction of memory consumption compared to the conventional ML (Machine Learning) algorithms; 252 times to LSVM and 34,033 times to LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory), although accuracy is decreased slightly. Thus our method showed outstanding performance on accuracy per hyperplane; 240 times to LSVM and 30,520 times to LSTM. The binarized image is then divided into groups, where each groups are converted to binary number, in order to reduce the number of comparison done in runtime process. The binary numbers are then converted to string. The test data is evaluated by converting to string and measuring similarity between hyperplanes using Levenshtein algorithm, which is a robust dynamic string comparing algorithm. This technique reduces runtime and enables the proposed algorithm to become 27% faster than LSVM, and 90% faster than LSTM.