• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제29권3호
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• pp.249-262
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• 2021

The most effective way to control newly emerging infectious disease, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, is to strengthen preventative or therapeutic public health strategies before the infection spreads worldwide. However, global health systems remain at the early stages in anticipating effective therapeutics or vaccines to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. While maintaining social distance is the most crucial metric to avoid spreading the virus, symptomatic therapy given to patients on the clinical manifestations helps save lives. The molecular properties of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been quickly elucidated, paving the way to therapeutics, vaccine development, and other medical interventions. Despite this progress, the detailed biomolecular mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection remains elusive. Given virus invasion of cells is a determining factor for virulence, understanding the viral entry process can be a mainstay in controlling newly emerged viruses. Since viral entry is mediated by selective cellular proteases or proteins associated with receptors, identification and functional analysis of these proteins could provide a way to disrupt virus propagation. This review comprehensively discusses cellular machinery necessary for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Understanding multifactorial traits of the virus entry will provide a substantial guide to facilitate antiviral drug development.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• 제35권5호
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• pp.343-348
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• 2005

Recently, siRNA has been emerging as new therapeutic agents for various diseases such as cancers and infectious diseases. However, the evaluation for delivery systems for siRNA has not been fully done. In this study, we designed and delivered siRNA of oncogenic E6 and E7 proteins to several cell lines and tested the delivery efficiencies of various cationic nonviral delivery vectors. Of cationic delivery systems tested in this study, lipid-based Lipofectamine revealed higher delivery efficiency of siRNA to cervical cancer cell line, SiHa, compared to other delivery systems. Notably, the polyethylenimine, which showed the comparable delivery efficiencies in plasmid DNA, did not show significant delivery of siRNA in cervical cancer cells. These results indicate that the mechanisms involved in siRNA delivery might be different from those in plasmid DNA delivery, and that cationic lipid-based delivery vehicles deliver siRNA with higher efficiency to intracellular target sites.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제55권3호
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• pp.319-325
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• 2017

We described 4 human infection cases of zoonotic fish-tapeworm, Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense, identified with morphological and molecular characters and briefly reviewed Chinese cases in consideration of it as an emerging parasitic disease in China. The scolex and mature and gravid proglottids of some cases were seen, a rosette-shaped uterus was observed in the middle of the mature and gravid proglottids, and the diphyllobothriid eggs were yellowish-brown in color and displayed a small knob or abopercular protuberance on the opposite end of a lid-like opening. The average size of the eggs was recorded as $62-67{\times}42-45{\mu}m$. The parasitic materials gathered from 4 human cases were morphologically identified as belonging to the genera Diphyllobothrium and Adenocephalus. The phylogenetic analysis based on the nucleotide sequences of cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene of the etiologic agents confirmed that the 4 cases were D. nihonkaiense infection. The finding of 4 additional D. nihonkaiense cases suggests that D. nihonkaiense might be a major causative species of human diphyllobothriasis in China. A combined morphological and molecular analysis is the main method to confirm D. nihonkaiense infection.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.531-543
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• 2018

Historically, Plasmodium vivax malaria has been one of the most highly endemic parasitic diseases in the Korean Peninsula. Until the 1970s, vivax malaria was rarely directly lethal and was controlled through the Korean Government Program administered by the National Malaria Eradication Service in association with the World Health Organization's Global Malaria Eradication Program. Vivax malaria has re-emerged in 1993 near the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea and has since become an endemic infectious disease that now poses a serious public health threat through local transmission in the Republic of Korea. This review presents major lessons learned from past and current malaria research, including epidemiological and biological characteristics of the re-emergent disease, and considers some interesting patterns of diversity. Among other features, this review highlights temporal changes in the genetic makeup of the parasitic population, patient demographic features, and spatial distribution of cases, which all provide insight into the factors contributing to local transmission. The data indicate that vivax malaria in Korea is not expanding exponentially. However, continued surveillance is needed to prevent future resurgence.

• BMB Reports
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• 제49권6호
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• pp.311-318
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• 2016

Innate immune responses are primary, relatively limited, and specific responses to numerous pathogens and toxic molecules. Protein expression involved in these innate responses must be tightly regulated at both transcriptional level and post-transcriptional level to avoid the development of excessive inflammation that can be potentially harmful to the host. MicroRNAs are small noncoding RNAs (∼22 nucleotides [nts]) that participate in the regulation of numerous physiological responses by targeting specific messenger RNAs to suppress their translation. Recent work has shown that several negative regulators of transcription including microRNAs play important roles in inhibiting the exacerbation of inflammatory responses and in the maintenance of immunological homeostasis. This emerging research area will provide new insights on how microRNAs regulate innate immune signaling. It might show that dysregulation of microRNA synthesis is associated with the pathogenesis of inflammatory and infectious diseases. In this review, we focused on miR-146 and miR-125 and described the roles these miRNAs in modulating innate immune signaling. These microRNAs can control inflammatory responses and the outcomes of pathogenic infections.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.5-14
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• 2009

The availability of effective vaccines has had the most profound positive effect on improving the quality of public health by preventing infectious diseases. Despite many successful vaccines, there are still old and new emerging pathogens against which there is no vaccine available. A better understanding of how vaccines work for providing protection will help to improve current vaccines as well as to develop effective vaccines against pathogens for which we do not have a proper means to control. Recent studies have focused on innate immunity as the first line of host defense and its role in inducing adaptive immunity; such studies have been an intense area of research, which will reveal the immunological mechanisms how vaccines work for protection. Toll-like receptors (TLRs), a family of receptors for pathogen-associated molecular patterns on cells of the innate immune system, play a critical role in detecting and responding to microbial infections. Importantly, the innate immune system modulates the quantity and quality of long-term T and B cell memory and protective immune responses to pathogens. Limited studies suggest that vaccines which mimic natural infection and/or the structure of pathogens seem to be effective in inducing long-term protective immunity. A better understanding of the similarities and differences of the molecular and cellular events in host responses to vaccination and pathogen infection would enable the rationale for design of novel preventive measures against many challenging pathogens.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• 제42권1호
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• pp.14-19
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• 2004

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium DT104 (Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 or DT104) has been emerging as a common pathogen for human in Korea since 1997. In order to compare the genomic relationship and to search for the dominant strains in Korea, we conducted pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and IS200 fingerprinting of 25 epidemiological unrelated isolates from human and animals from Korea and cattle from America. Two Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 isolates from human in Korea and all 8 isolates from American cattle had indistinguishable patterns from the PFGE and IS200 fingerprinting but multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium isolates, including DT104, from Korean animals had diverse genetic patterns. The data suggest that a dominant DT104 strain might have circulated between Korean and American cattle and that it had a high level of clonality.

• BMB Reports
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• 제47권10호
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• pp.531-539
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• 2014

All living cells release extracellular vesicles having pleiotropic functions in intercellular communication. Mammalian extracellular vesicles, also known as exosomes and microvesicles, are spherical bilayered proteolipids composed of various bioactive molecules, including RNAs, DNAs, proteins, and lipids. Extracellular vesicles directly and indirectly control a diverse range of biological processes by transferring membrane proteins, signaling molecules, mRNAs, and miRNAs, and activating receptors of recipient cells. The active interaction of extracellular vesicles with other cells regulates various physiological and pathological conditions, including cancer, infectious diseases, and neurodegenerative disorders. Recent developments in high-throughput proteomics, transcriptomics, and lipidomics tools have provided ample data on the common and specific components of various types of extracellular vesicles. These studies may contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanism involved in vesicular cargo sorting and the biogenesis of extracellular vesicles, and, further, to the identification of disease-specific biomarkers. This review focuses on the components, functions, and therapeutic and diagnostic potential of extracellular vesicles under various pathophysiological conditions.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.395-403
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the mediating and moderating effects of mindset and psychological collectivism, respectively, on the relationship between grit and nursing intention for children with emerging infectious diseases, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), among pediatric nurses. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study with 230 pediatric nurses. Results: Grit directly impacted mindset (β=.27, p<.001) and nursing intention (β=.20, p=.001). The direct effect of mindset on nursing intension (β=.28, p<.001) and the indirect effect of grit on nursing intension via mindset (β=.08, p<.001) were significant. Accordingly, mindset mediated the effect of grit on nursing intention. The effects of grit and psychological collectivism (β=.19, p=.003), respectively, on nursing intention were significant. However, the interaction between grit and psychological collectivism was not significant. Thus, psychological collectivism did not moderate the effect of grit on nursing intention. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate the importance of pediatric nurses' grit and mindset on their intended care for patients in critical situations. Cultivating a gritty culture and developing interventions to enhance nurses' personality traits associated with their performance will be crucial, and such measures are especially salient for pediatric nurses to face the new adjustments required in the era of COVID-19.

• 한국항공운항학회지
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.38-46
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• 2021

The Organization's ability to respond to social disasters has begun to be treated as important through social shock situations that have never been experienced, such as COVID-19. Among them, the ability to respond to unexpected risks and resilience is emerging. Since social disasters such as infectious diseases are periodically repeated, compounded, and enlarged, they develop into a global crisis situation, so this crisis response capability is treated as national competitiveness. Therefore, this study aims to improve the organization's response capability in terms of risk response and resilience under rapid social disasters such as COVID-19. The aviation safety field was taken as an example. From the Safety-II perspective, safety management focuses on the ability to resilience in response to system vulnerabilities in various situations. In this study, I intend to apply RAG(Resilience Assessment Grid) of Respond, Monitor, Learn and Anticipate, the four major potential of resilience engineering. Based on Hollnagel's research, potential elements were classified into four, and items were organized through an expert panel using Delphi techniques. The final configured RAG items are 15 Respond, 15 Monitor, 15 Learn and 11 Anticipate. The RAG was evaluated by 42 experts in the field of aviation safety.