• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.2146-2152
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• 2015

Apios americana Medik (hereinafter Apios) has been reported to treat diseases, including cancer, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. The therapeutic effect of Apios is likely to be associated with its anti-inflammatory activity. This study was conducted to evaluate the protective effects of Apios in animal models of acute lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza A virus (H1N1). Mice were exposed to LPS or H1N1 for 2-4 days to induce acute lung injury. The treatment groups were administered Apios extracts via oral injection for 8 weeks before LPS treatment or H1N1 infection. To investigate the effects of Apios, we assessed the mice for in vivo effects of Apios on immune cell infiltration and the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and histopathological changes in the lung. After induction of acute lung injury, the numbers of neutrophils and total cells were lower in the Apios-treated groups than in the non-Apios-treated LPS and H1N1 groups. The Apios groups tended to have lower levels of tumor necrosis factor-a and interleukin-6 in BAL fluid. In addition, the histopathological changes in the lungs were markedly reduced in the Apios-treated groups. These data suggest that Apios treatment reduces LPS- and H1N1-induced lung inflammation. These protective effects of Apios suggest that it may have therapeutic potential in acute lung injury.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.18.1-18.12
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• 2024

Acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) is a rare but deadly complication with an unclear pathogenesis. We aimed to elucidate the immune characteristics of H1N1 influenza virus-associated ANE (IANE) and provide a potential therapeutic approach for IANE. Seven pediatric cases from a concentrated outbreak of H1N1 influenza were included in this study. The patients' CD4⁺ T cells from peripheral blood decreased sharply in number but highly expressed Eomesodermin (Eomes), CD69 and PD-1, companied with extremely high levels of IL-6, IL-8 in the cerebrospinal fluid and plasma. Patient 2, who showed high fever and seizures and was admitted to the hospital very early in the disease course, received intravenous tocilizumab and subsequently showed a reduction in temperature and a stable conscious state 24 h later. In conclusion, a proinflammatory cytokine storm associated with activated CD4⁺ T cells may cause severe brain pathology in IANE. Tocilizumab may be helpful in treating IANE.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.226-226
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• 2014

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.87-89
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2010

Purpose: To identify the need to reform in the crisis response of Health Teacher, School Nurse, in elementary school during epidemic outbreak of influenza H1N1. Methods: 139 elementary health teachers, school nurse, in seoul elementary school responded in the questionnaire, and we analysed by using frequency and percent, t-test, and paired t-test. Results: The Job status became 121% more 'during influenza H1N1 (flu) outbreak' than Job status of 'before outbreak'. The proportion of the flu-related duty among their daily workload was up to 77.5%. The administration-related workload of the flu-related duty was 30.8%. and students' health assessment including temperature measurement 18.7%. Furthermore, an impediment of usual daily work due to an increaed flu-related workload was 95.7%, and no alternative plan such as disposition of assistant labor force was 86.1%. Especially, an impediment of health education was 61.0%, so the major concern was the loss of health education. We compared average scores (a five-point Likert scale) of health teachers' work motivation, exhaustion, work relationship and Job management of 'during' with 'before' flu-outbreak. The difference range of 'during' minus 'before' work motivation score was from -0.4 points to -0.9; work exhaustion range from 1.8 to 1.9; the difficulty of relationship between students, school personnel, parents of students, and health teachers from 1.4 points to 1.3 points; and the consideration of changing Job, taking time off from the Job and retirement from 1.4 to 1.6 points. Conclusion: The health teachers had a heavy workload due to flu-outbreak. They also experienced the impediment of usual work implementation. However, there was a shortage of alternative plan such as disposition of an assistant labor force. Under their Job status like this, the health teachers' motivation score was decreased and work exhaustion was increased. Furthermore, they had a lot of relation difficulty with students and school personnel. Therefore, we suggested that in contrast to the usual Job status, there is a need to have a prepared response during school crisis like flu-outbreak such as improved response system in seoul metropolitan education office, simplification or dispersion of administrative work, and temporary call-center for simple inquiries or advices.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.109-118
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• 2004

Avian influenza(AI) is an epizootic disease of variable severity caused by type A influenza viruses of the orthomyxovirus group. Chickens were the most frequently affected avian species with AI viruses. There were many outbreaks of fowl plague, now known as highly pathogenic AI(HP AI), throughout the world since Perroncito described the fowl plague in 1978 in Italy. In recent years HPAI viruses of different serotypes such as H5, H7 and H9 has been isolated from humans on several occasions either related with outbreak of HPAI in birds or not. In 1997, one of the most noteworthy events in AI history was the human mortality with H5N1 HPAI virus infection in Hong Kong. Six persons of total 18 persons with clinical signs of influenza were died. Recently the human cases with mortality related with HP AI outbreaks in poultry industry has been increased such as outbreaks of HP AI throughout Asia countries including Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand and others in 2003. Although these outbreaks revealed the capable of spreading from birds to human, the capability for transmission between people was not clear. Therefore, this report will review the possibility of HP AI infection in human associated with HPAI outbreak in poultry industry.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.113-123
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• 2005

Avian influenza (AI) virus (AIV) is distributed worldwide and it has been isolated from various species of wild and domestic birds. AI transfers with high speed and shows diverse pathogenicity syndroms. In Korea, several low Pathogenic AIV, H9N2, have been isolated from the commercial farms with severe decrease of egg production and mortality resulted in severe economic loss since 1996. Therefore, it has been requested to develop AI vaccines to prevent clinical signs and economic losses from the field infection of AIV. To develop a killed vaccine that efficiently prevents low pathogenic AIV (H9N2), evaluation on the pathogenicity and selection of an inactivator for H9N2 is taking place and is being tested safety and immunogenicity of vaccine produced. Based on the pathogenicity test and viral reisolation test, the ADL0401 isolate is the characteristic low pathogenic AIVs and has fairly similar biologic functions compared with MS96 which is the official low pathogenic AIV (H9N2) and one of the predominant AIV isolated from poultry farms in Korea. In antigenicity tests, the ADL0401 and MS96 virus have no significant antigenic difference. In inactivation tests, the ADL0401 isolates can be easily inactivated with $0.1\%$ Formalin at $37^{\circ}C$ within 1 hour with a little decrease of HA titer. The vaccine developed in the present report has no harmful effect on bird and forms good immune capability. Therefore, the isolates, ADL0401 can be used for a killed vaccine which can reduce the clinical signs and viral shedding in the birds infected with H9N2 low pathogenic AIVs.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.284-288
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• 2001

Respiratory viruses are one of the most infectious agent in human. Six different respiratory tract viruses were detected from Busan while working on the preventive surveillance in 1997-2000. The isolation rate from suspected specimens were 8.4%. Influenza virus A, B type, parainfluenza virus, adenovirus, mumps virus, and measles virus were examined from throat swabs, serum, and secretions of patients. Influenza A/Sydney/05/97(H3N2)-like, A/Johanesburg/33/94(H3N2)-like, A/Beijing/262/95(H1N1)-like and Influenza B/Beijing/262/95-like, B/Harbin/07/94-like, B/Guangdong/08/93-like were found. Adenovirus serotype 1, 2, 3 and 5 were detected, antibody of mumps both IgM and IgG were shown and outbreaks of measles were confirmed. Different antigenic types of influenza virus were detected every year, one outbreak of parainfluenza in 1999, mumps outbreak in 1999 and 2000, and incidence of measles in 2000 were noticeable. Monthly outbreaks were November through following March with influenza virus, January through June with adenovirus, February through May and December with mumps, April through August and November, December with measles, respectively. The size of isolated viruses were 130 nm with influenza virus B type, non-enveloped, icosahedron with 70 nm with adenovirus, 170 nm with mumps virus and 180 nm with parainfluenza virus in diameter, respectively.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.73.1-73.16
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• 2023

Background: Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) is considered a global threat to both human health and the poultry industry. MicroRNAs (miRNA) can modulate the immune system by affecting gene expression patterns in HPAIV-infected chickens. Objectives: To gain further insights into the role of miRNAs in immune responses against H5N1 infection, as well as the development of strategies for breeding disease-resistant chickens, we characterized miRNA expression patterns in tracheal tissues from H5N1-infected Ri chickens. Methods: miRNAs expression was analyzed from two H5N1-infected Ri chicken lines using small RNA sequencing. The target genes of differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs were predicted using miRDB. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis were then conducted. Furthermore, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, we validated the expression levels of DE miRNAs (miR-22-3p, miR-146b-3p, miR27b-3p, miR-128-3p, miR-2188-5p, miR-451, miR-205a, miR-203a, miR-21-3p, and miR-200a3p) from all comparisons and their immune-related target genes. Results: A total of 53 miRNAs were significantly expressed in the infection samples of the resistant compared to the susceptible line. Network analyses between the DE miRNAs and target genes revealed that DE miRNAs may regulate the expression of target genes involved in the transforming growth factor-beta, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and Toll-like receptor signaling pathways, all of which are related to influenza A virus progression. Conclusions: Collectively, our results provided novel insights into the miRNA expression patterns of tracheal tissues from H5N1-infected Ri chickens. More importantly, our findings offer insights into the relationship between miRNA and immune-related target genes and the role of miRNA in HPAIV infections in chickens.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.182-192
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• 2011

Purpose : Atopic findings may be associated with severity of pneumonia in 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) infection, which could suggest a possible association between atopic findings and the severity of viral infections. Thus, we studied association between atopic findings and severity of disease in children with H1N1 influenza infection. Methods : A retrospective study was performed in 74 children admitted in a single tertiary institute and confirmed as H1N1 patients by reverse transcriptase (RT) - polymerase chain reaction (PCR). They were divided into 2 groups according to the severity of pneumonia. We evaluated whether the atopic finding is risk factor between the two groups. Results : Children with severe pneumonia had higher percentages of serum eosinophilia (88% vs 40%, P <0.001), asthma (65% vs 35%, P =0.011), allergic rhinitis (71% vs 40%, P =0.009), and IgE level (P =0.007). We found positive correlations between aeroallergen sensitizations and severity of pneumonia (82% vs 53%, P =0.007). Conclusion : Among patients with H1N1 pneumonia, asthma and atopic findings are risk factors for severity of pneumonia.