• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.227-238
• /
• 2009

In the recent years, some organic toxic chemicals were used for obtaining high-yield productivity in agriculture. The undegraded pesticides may remain in the agricultural foods through atmosphere, water, and soil and cause public health problems to environmental resources and human beings even at very low concentrations. Small amounts of pesticides can affect a central nervous system, resulting in immunogenic diseases, infertility problems, respiratory diseases and born marrow diseases, which can lead even to death. Monitoring of the environmental pesticide is one of the important issues for the human well-being. Several kinds of biosensors have been successfully applied to the detection of agrichemical toxicity. Also, few platforms for biocide detection have been definitely developed for the degradation and reaction of pesticides. Biochip and electrochemistry experiments involve immobilizing a receptor molecule on a solid substrate surface, and monitoring its interaction with an analyze in a sample solution. Furthermore, nanotechnology can be applied to make high-throughput analyses that are smaller, faster and sensitive than conventional assays. Some nanomaterials or nanofabricated surfaces can be coupled to biomolecules and used in antibody-based assays and enzymatic methods for pesticide residues. The operation procedure has become more convenient as it does not require labeling procedure. In this paper, we review the recent advances in agrichemical defection research and also describe the label-free biosensor for pesticides using various useful detection methods.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.52 no.2
• /
• pp.137-146
• /
• 2008

Even though driving under the influence of drug (DUID) is a worldwide problem, we, Korea has no regulation system yet except for alcohol, and there are little cases reported related to DUID. In order to investigate the type of abused drugs for drivers in Korea, we tried to analyze controlled and non-controlled drugs in alcohol-positive blood samples. 275 whole bloods, which were positive for alcohol on the roadside test, were collected from the police for two months ($Nov.{\sim}Dec.$ 2006). The analytical strategy was constituted of three steps: First, alcohol in blood samples were confirmed and quantified by gas chromatography. Second, controlled drugs were screened by $Evidence_{investigator}\;^{TM}$ (Randox, U.K.) as preliminary test. It was based on immunoassay by biochip array analyzer. Nine groups of drug abuse were screened: amphetamines, methamphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, opiates, barbiturates, methadone, benzodiazepines I (oxazepam) & II (lorazepam). Finally, confirmation of these drugs was performed by GC-MS. Blood samples were extracted by solid-phase extraction by $RapidTrace^{TM}$ (Zymark, U.S.A.). After trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatization, eluates were analyzed to GC-MS. Total 49 drugs were investigated in this study including controlled drugs, antidepressants, 1st generation antihistamines, dextromethorphan, nalbuphine, ketamine, etc. For rapid detection, we developed the automated identification system. It was made up a new software, "DrugMan", modified Chemstation data analysis menu and newly developed macro modules. A series of peak selection, identification and reporting of the results were performed automatically by this system. Concentrations of alcohol in 275 blood samples were ranged from 0.011 to 0.249% (average, 0.119%). Among 149 blood samples, just six samples (4.0%) were showed positive results to the immunoassay: one methamphetamine and five benzodiazepines group I. By GC-MS confirmation, only benzodiazepines were detected and methamphetamine was not detected from immunoassay positive blood sample. Besides these drugs, 5 chlorpheniramines, dextromethorphan, diazepam, doxylamine, ibuprofen, lidocaine and topiramate were also detected in whole bloods by GC-MS. Conclusively, the frequency of drug abuse for Korean drivers was relatively low. There was none case which illegal drug was detected. However these results were limited to alcohol positive blood samples, so it is necessary to analyze more samples including alcohol negative blood.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.115-127
• /
• 2009

Samsoeum (SSE) is used in traditional oriental medicine for various medicinal purposes. However, the exact mechanism that accounts for the anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory effects of the SSE is still not fully understood. The aim of the present study is to elucidate whether and how SSE modulates the allergic reactions in vivo, and inflammatory reaction in vitro. In this study, we showed that SSE significantly decreased compound 48/80-induced systemic anaphylaxis, ear-swelling response, histamine release from preparation of rat peritoneal mast cells and anti-dinitropheny IgE-induced passive cutaneous reaction. Also, SSE inhibited the expression of inflammatory cytokine and cyclooxygenase-2 in PMA plus A23187-stimulated human mast cells (HMC-1). In addition, we showed that anti-inflammatory mechanism of SSE is through suppression of nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ activation and $I{\kappa}B-{\alpha}$ phosphorylation/degradation in HMC-1. These results provided new insight into the pharmacological actions of SSE as a potential molecule for therapy of inflammatory allergic diseases.