• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.292-299
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• 1999

SKI 2053 R, cis-Malonato [(4R, 5R)-4,5-bis(aminomethyl)-2-isopropyl-1,3-dioxolane] platinum(II), is a newly developed antitumor platinum complex derived from cisplatin. Preclinical studies suggest that it may have greater antitumor activity and lower toxicity than cisplatin. Effects of test agent on general toxicity of does and embryonic development of Fl fetuses were investigated in rabbits. Sixty eight New Zealand white rabbits were distributed among three treated groups and a control group. SKI 2053R was administered intravenously to pregnant rabbits from days 6 to 18 of gestation at dose levels of 0, 0.67, 2.0, or 6.0 mg/kg/day. The pregnant does were subjected to the caesarean section on day 28 of gestation. No treatment-related changes in clinical signs, body weight, food consumption, and necropsy findings were observed in all groups. Fl fetuses showed no changes related to the treatment of SKI 2053R, except that an increase in the incidence of skeletal variations were observed at 6.0 mg/kg. There were no signs of material toxicity or embryotoxicity at 0.67 and 2.0 mg/kg. The results show that the administration of 6.0 mg/kg SKI 2053R induces skeletal variations in fetuses and that the no observed adverse effect levels(NOAELS) of SKI 2053R are considered to be over 6.0 mg/kg for does and 2.0 mg/kg for Fl fetuses in rabbits.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.331-335
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• 1994

As a part of the safety evaluation of Pseudomonas vaccine(CFC-101), antigenicity tests were carried out in guinea pigs and mice. In active systemic anaphylaxis(ASA) test, guinea pigs showed no sign or only moderate sign(1/5) when sensitized and challenged with up to 200 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg. In homologous passive cutaneous anaphylaxis(PCA) test using guinea pigs, inoculation of CFC-101 alone did not produce CFC-101-specific antibody. When inoculated with 200 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg plus adjuvant, challenge of 200 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg produced PCA titer of 32(5/5) but challenge of 20 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg did not produce CFC-101-specific antibody. In heterologous PCA test using mice, CFC-101-specific antibody was not detected when sensitized with CFC-101 alone. Some animals(3/12) showed positive PCA response when inoculated with 200 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg plus alum. In passive hemagglutination (PHA) test, although no antibody was detected at 20 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg, inoculation of 200 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg alone or with alum produced positive response in all animals. This result has already been predicted because CFC-101 is a vaccine developed for the purpose of immunization. From the above results, it can be concluded that there is no adverse antigenic potential up to 10 times clinical dose of 200 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.189-193
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• 2006

This study was designed to assess the distribution of cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) polymorphism among Korean patients on warfarin therapy. CYP2E1 polymorphism was analyzed at 5' flanking region of CYP2E1 gene using restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Patient characteristics including the measured internal normalized ratio (INR) were also evaluated. Based on the warfarin dose and the bleeding cases, the patients were grouped as the regular dose control, the regular dose bleeding, the low dose control, and the low dose bleeding. Total 96 patients were evaluated for both Pst I and Rsa I loci of the CYP2E1 gene and the results showed that both loci were tightly linked. Thirty-three patients(34.4%) were heterozygotes and 4 patients(4.2%) were homozygote. There was no significant difference in patient characteristics in the dose and bleeding case groups. CYP2E1 polymorphism showed a little difference among the groups but was not statistically significant, however, lower INR value was observed in homozygote genotype groups. It was also revealed that genotype allele frequencies of CYP2E1 in Korean was close to other Asian groups but was significantly different from other Caucasian and African-American populations.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.477-490
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• 2014

Non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma, also named cold plasma, is defined as a partly ionized gas. Therefore, it cannot be equated with plasma from blood; it is not biological in nature. Non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma is a new innovative approach in medicine not only for the treatment of wounds, but with a wide-range of other applications, as e.g. topical treatment of other skin diseases with microbial involvement or treatment of cancer diseases. This review emphasizes plasma effects on wound healing. Non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma can support wound healing by its antiseptic effects, by stimulation of proliferation and migration of wound relating skin cells, by activation or inhibition of integrin receptors on the cell surface or by its pro-angiogenic effect. We summarize the effects of plasma on eukaryotic cells, especially on keratinocytes in terms of viability, proliferation, DNA, adhesion molecules and angiogenesis together with the role of reactive oxygen species and other components of plasma. The outcome of first clinical trials regarding wound healing is pointed out.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.177-185
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• 2017

Auranofin has been developed as antirheumatic drugs, which is currently under clinical development for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Previous report showed that auranofin induced apoptosis by enhancement of annexin A5 expression in PC-3 cells. To understand the role of annexin A5 in auranofin-mediated apoptosis, we performed microarray data analysis to study annexin A5-controlled gene expression in annexin A5 knockdown PC-3 cells. Of differentially expressed genes, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-2 was increased by annexin A5 siRNA confirmed by qRT-PCR and western blot. Treatment with auranofin decreased PAI-2 and increased annexin A5 expression as well as promoting apoptosis. Furthermore, auranofin-induced apoptosis was recovered by annexin A5 siRNA but it was promoted by PAI-2 siRNA. Interestingly, knockdown of annexin A5 rescued PAI-2 expression suppressed by auranofin. Taken together, our study suggests that induction of annexin A5 by auranofin may enhance apoptosis through suppression of PAI-2 expression in PC-3 cells.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.58-73
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• 2020

Sleep is an essential physiological process, especially for proper brain function through the formation of new pathways and processing information and cognition. Therefore, when sleep is insufficient, this can result in pathophysiologic conditions. Sleep deficiency is a risk factor for various conditions, including dementia, diabetes, and obesity. Recent studies have shown that there are differences in the prevalence of sleep disorders between genders. Insomnia, the most common type of sleep disorder, has been reported to have a higher incidence in females than in males. However, sex/gender differences in other sleep disorder subtypes are not thoroughly understood. Currently, increasing evidence suggests that gender issues should be considered important when prescribing medicine. Therefore, an investigation of the gender-dependent differences in sleep disorders is required. In this review, we first describe sex/gender differences not only in the prevalence of sleep disorders by category but in the efficacy of sleep medications. In addition, we summarize sex/gender differences in the impact of sleep disorders on incident dementia. This may help understand gender-dependent pathogenesis of sleep disorders and develop therapeutic strategies in men and women.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.2827-2832
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• 2016

Purpose: To estimate the number of deaths attributable to second hand smoking (SHS) in Morocco in 2012. Materials and Methods: prevalence based study focusing on mortality from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and lung cancer among non-smokers aged 35 and over. Prevalence of SHS among never smokers was gathered from a national cross sectional survey on tobacco and population attributable risk (PAR) was calculated by applying PARs to mortality. The analyses were stratified by sex, age and area of exposure. Results: Rates for exposure to SHS among men aged 35-64 years ranged from 20.0% at home to 57.4% at work. Among non-smoking Moroccans aged 35 and over, 233 (IC: 147 - 246) deaths were attributable to exposure to SHS; 156 (IC: 100 - 221) in women and 77 (IC: 44 -125) in men. A total of 173 (122 - 222) deaths were estimated to have been caused by exposure only at home, 34 (9 - 76) by exposure only at the work place and 26 (15 - 58) by exposure both at home and work places. Exposure to SHS could be responsible for 182 (128 - 237) deaths from IHD and 51 (19 - 109) from lung cancer. Conclusions: These data confirm that SHS needs urgent attention in Morocco.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.13-20
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• 2007

Purpose : The aim of this study is to analyse the research productivity of SCI publications at medical schools in Korea. Methods: We collected the 5,386 SCI publications from 10 medical schools that were published in 2002 and 2003. Most of the materials treated herein are derived from the database of the Institute of Scientific Information from April 13, to May 25, 2005. Values are analyzed by medical school, major and IF index and presented as frequency and percentages. Results : There were 2,350 publications in 2002 and 3,036 publications in 2003. The average publication rate per faculty was .71 in 2002 and it was increased to .90 in 2003. Of the total 5,386 manuscripts, 1.248(23.2%) papers were from work conducted at basic science department and 3,224(76.8%) were from work performed at clinical science department. The major such as pathology, microbiology, pharmacology, internal medicine, diagnostic radiology and dermatology published a lot of SCI papers. A large percentage of papers (41.74%) were in journals with reported l<=IF<3. Conclusions : There was wide variability in the research productivity among the medical schools or majors. This variability reflects the importance of the institutional characteristics of each medical school in predicting the research productivity. Some of these institutional characteristics include the size of the faculty. available research funding, research vision of medical school, visible system of measurement and any associated reward system.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.451-456
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• 2013

Compound K is a major metabolite of ginsenoside Rb1, which has various pharmacological activities in vivo and in vitro. However, previous studies have focused on the pharmacokinetics of a single metabolite or the parent compound and have not described the pharmacokinetics of both compounds in humans. To investigate the pharmacokinetics of ginsenoside Rb1 and compound K, we performed an open-label, single-oral dose pharmacokinetic study using Korean Red Ginseng extract. We enrolled 10 healthy Korean male volunteers in this study. Serial blood samples were collected during 36 h after Korean Red Ginseng extract administration to determine plasma concentrations of ginsenoside Rb1 and compound K. The mean maximum plasma concentration of compound K was $8.35{\pm}3.19$ ng/mL, which was significantly higher than that of ginsenoside Rb1 ($3.94{\pm}1.97$ ng/mL). The half-life of compound K was 7 times shorter than that of ginsenoside Rb1. These results suggest that the pharmacokinetics, especially absorption, of compound K are not influenced by the pharmacokinetics of its parent compound, except the time to reach the maximum plasma concentration The delayed absorption of compound K support the evidence that the intestinal microflora play an important role in the transformation of ginsenoside Rb1 to compound K.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.38.1-38.9
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• 2020

Chronotype is an important moderator of psychiatric illnesses, which seems to be controlled in some part by genetic factors. Clock genes are the most relevant genes for chronotype. In addition to the roles of individual genes, gene-gene interactions of clock genes substantially contribute to chronotype. We investigated genetic associations and gene-gene interactions of the clock genes BHLHB2, CLOCK, CSNK1E, NR1D1, PER1, PER2, PER3, and TIMELESS for chronotype in 1,293 healthy Korean individuals. Regression analysis was conducted to find associations between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and chronotype. For gene-gene interaction analyses, the quantitative multifactor dimensionality reduction (QMDR) method, a nonparametric model-free method for quantitative phenotypes, were performed. No individual SNP or haplotype showed a significant association with chronotype by both regression analysis and single-locus model of QMDR. QMDR analysis identified NR1D1 rs2314339 and TIMELESS rs4630333 as the best SNP pairs among two-locus interaction models associated with chronotype (cross-validation consistency [CVC] = 8/10, p = 0.041). For the three-locus interaction model, the SNP combination of NR1D1 rs2314339, TIMELESS rs4630333, and PER3 rs228669 showed the best results (CVC = 4/10, p < 0.001). However, because the mean differences between genotype combinations were minor, the clinical roles of clock gene interactions are unlikely to be critical.