• Toxicological Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.191-197
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• 2018

In 2015, a candidate for the second national reference standard (NRS) of Gloydius snake venom was produced to replace the first NRS of Gloydius snake venom. In the present study, the potencies of the candidate were determined by a collaborative study, and the qualification of the candidate was estimated. The potencies of the candidate were determined by measuring the murine lethal titers and lapine hemorrhagic titers of venom against the regional working reference standard (RWRS) for antivenom using the methods described in the previous report for the first NRS of Gloydius snake venom. Three Korean facilities contributed data from a total of 30 independent assays. Subsequently, two foreign national control research laboratories contributed to this collaborative study. The results were calculated using the Reed-Muench method for lethality and determined using a mixed-effects model for hemorrhage. The general common potencies of the lethal and hemorrhagic titers were obtained from the results of the 30 tests performed at three Korean facilities. The results are expressed in micrograms for 1 test dose (TD) with a 95% confidence interval as follows: a lethal titer of $90.13{\mu}g/TD$ (95% confidence interval = $87.39{\sim}92.86{\mu}g$) and a hemorrhagic titer of $10.80{\mu}g/TD$ (95% confidence interval = $10.46{\sim}11.14{\mu}g$). In addition, the candidate preparation showed good quality evaluation according to the results of the quality estimation of the candidate and is judged to be suitable to serve as the Korean NRS for snake venom. In conclusion, the second NRS of Gloydius snake venom was established in this study and will be used for national quality control, including a national lot release test of Korean antivenom products.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.145-153
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• 1986

For the inactivation of venoms, the chemical methods are generally applied. In the chemical method many works have been carried out with the chemical reagents and immunological antiserums. However, all inhibitory effect of these chemicals acting on snake venomes may well be due not to the specific, but to the nonspecific inhibitory action. Therefore, it is necessary to separate venom into its compositional active proteins and develop specific inhibitor which acts on the each protein. Until now, there have not been any reports about the substance which acts on snake venom as a specific inhibitor. Recently in 1979, we had actually isolated a specific venom inhibitor(ISV) which has a strong inhibitory activity against the proteinase of snake venom of Colubridae. In our experiments described here, a strain of Aspergillus sp., isolated from soil, was able to produce a biological active substance. The partial crystallized substance had a strong inhibitory activity against hemorrhagic action of snake venom of Colubridae. For the inhibitory action of the sample on the lethality of venom, the substance prevented completely the lethal action of the hemorrhagic factor when they were treated with enough amount of the substance. The edema factor of whole venom of Agristrodon bromohoffi brevicaudus was completely inhibited, but those of HR-I and HR-II of Trimeresurus flavoviridis venom were inhibited about 50%, when they were treated with the substance of half amount of venom. On the other hand, from the result of subcutaneous hemorrhage in a rabbit, it was concluded that two kinds of antihemorrhagic substance might be produced by the strain used in this work.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.125-144
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• 2016

Objectives : About 13% of the medicines used by traditional korean medicines(TKM), are called animal medicines and are derived from non-herbal sources such as animals and insects. However, the clinical use of these preparations from animal medicines is often based on tradition and belief, rather than on evidence of toxicity and efficacy. As a result, animal medicines containing toxin have caused serious problems from injecting patients with venom. Here, various venoms frequently used as TKM were reviewed in terms of their instinct toxity and tried to estimate their safety classification. Methods : The estimation of safety classification was based on human equivalent dose(HED)-based MOS (margin of safety) and clinical dose applied for patients. Results and Conclusions : Except that of snake venom due to no clinical dose, they were evaluated as class 3 for bee venom, class 4 for cantharidin, toxin from blister beetle, and class 1 for venom from scolopendrid. In conclusion, animal medicines showed a wide range of safety classification from class 1 to class 4. This wide range is estimated to result from extremely limited applications of each venom for patients because of their strong toxicity. However, it should be cautious for application in clinics since animal medicines can produce anaphylactic reactions particularly after veinous administration even with a tiny amount of venom.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.273-276
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• 2020

Hand eczema is a recurrent and resistant disease that seriously affects the quality of life of patients; currently, there are no ideal treatments for hand eczema. Here, we describe two patients who presented with hand eczema to illustrate the potential efficacy of mesotherapy with snake venom pharmacopuncture (SVP). A 23-year-old woman (Case 1) and a 47-year-old woman (Case 2) presented to the clinic with symptoms of pruritic rash, blisters, and itchiness on both the hands and the left hand, respectively. Both patients were diagnosed with hand eczema based on the physical examination of blisters and redness only on the hands. The patients underwent 1 month (Case 1) and 1 week (Case 2) of mesotherapy with SVP. After treatment, the lesions completely improved and did not recur at 1 year of follow-up. These outcomes suggest that mesotherapy with SVP may be effective for the resolution of hand eczema; however, further research is needed to confirm these findings.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.203-210
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• 2015

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a key regulator of energy metabolism. Previous studies have shown that activation of AMPK results in suppression of cardiac myocyte hypertrophy via inhibition of the p70S6 kinase (p70S6K) and eukaryotic elongation factor-2 (eEF2) signaling pathways. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major polyphenol found in green tea, possesses multiple protective effects on the cardiovascular system including cardiac hypertrophy. However, the molecular mechanisms has not been well investigated. In this study, we found that EGCG could significantly reduce natriuretic peptides type A (Nppa), brain natriuretic polypeptide (BNP) mRNA expression and decrease cell surface area in H9C2 cardiomyocytes stimulated with phenylephrine (PE). Moreover, we showed that AMPK is activated in H9C2 cardiomyocytes by EGCG, and AMPK-dependent pathway participates in the inhibitory effects of EGCG on cardiac hypertrophy. Taken together, our findings provide the first evidence that the effect of EGCG against cardiac hypertrophy may be attributed to its activation on AMPK-dependent signaling pathway, suggesting the therapeutic potential of EGCG on the prevention of cardiac remodeling in patients with pressure overload hypertrophy.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2020

Objectives: The effectiveness of acupuncture on cancer pain is relatively well established, while there have been few clinical studies on pharmacopuncture on that. This research was aimed to investigate a trend of pharmacopuncture treatment for cancer pain and to propose information for further research. Methods: Clinical studies on pharmacopuncture for cancer pain were collected from 5 Korean medical databases. And the studies were analyzed by classifications of cancer, chief complaints, interventions, treating skills, additional treatments, treatment session, outcome measures, results and adverse effects. Results: The literatures were 8 case reports and 1 randomized controlled trial. Interventions were pharmacopunctures of soyeom, mountain ginseng, Harpagophyti Radix, snake venom, Trionycis Carapax, bee venom, Aconitum Ciliare Decaisne. Treatment skills, procedures, and indications of each pharmacopuncture were different. An adverse effects of bruising, bleeding, mild chilling, sore throat and pain were mentioned on snake venom and bee venom treatment. Conclusions: An appropriate interventions and treatment skills should be selected according to the type of cancer pain. And treatment procedures to ensure safety must be developed.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.159-164
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• 1995

Fibrinolytic and fibrinogenolytic activities of the venoms from the Korean snakes, Agkistrodon caliginosus, nosus, Agkistrodon saxatilis and Agkistrodon blomhoffi brevicaudus were compared by fibrin-plate method and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, respectively. The venom from A. blomhoffi brevicaudus showed the highest degree of fibrin(ogen)olytic activity, and a protease with the fibrin(open)olytic activity was purified by p-amino-benzamidine affinity chromatography and DEAE ion-exchange chromatography. The purified enzyme had a molecular weight of 50,800 and a capability to degrade the B$\beta$-chain of fibrinogen preferentially to the $A\alpha$-chain, but not the ${\gamma}$-chain. Fibrinolytic activity of the purified enzyme was approximately 3.8 plasmin unit/mg protein.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.129-134
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• 1987

Aspergillus sp. (MK-24) producing a biological active substance that inhibited the venom proteinase activity was isolated from soil. The substance also inhibited the activity of trypsin and coagulation of blood, but did not inhibit papain, $\alpha$-chymotrypsin and pepsin. The substance was partially purified from culture filtrate by precipitaion with acetone, and by chromatography of DEAE-Sepadex A-50 column and Amberlite IRC-50 ion exchange. The inhibitory substance was stable in the wide pH range from 2.0 to 12.0 at 37$^{\circ}C$, but not stable at $65^{\circ}C$ in the alkaline pH. Only 12% of the activity was decreased by the heat treatment at 10$0^{\circ}C$ for two hours. The inhibition on venom proteinase (Agkistrodon bromohoffi brevicaudus) was a mixed type. The inhibitory activity depended on the preincubation time and completely depressed by cupric, zinc and cobalt ions. The inhibition on the venom proteinase was appeared strongly on casein but not on ovalbumin or hemoglobin as a substrate.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.59 no.9
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• pp.20.1-20.9
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• 2017

Background: Ribonuclease (RNase) is one of the few toxic proteins that are present constantly in snake venoms of all types. However, to date this RNase is still poorly studied in comparison not only with other toxic proteins of snake venom, but also with the enzymes of RNase group. The objective of this paper was to investigate some properties of RNase from venom of Vietnam cobra Naja atra. Methods: Kinetic methods and gel filtration chromatography were used to investigate RNase from venom of Vietnam cobra. Results: RNase from venom of Vietnam cobra Naja atra has some characteristic properties. This RNase is a thermostable enzyme and has high conformational stability. This is the only acidic enzyme of the RNase A superfamily exhibiting a high catalytic activity in the pH range of 1-4, with $pH_{opt}=2.58{\pm}0.35$. Its activity is considerably reduced with increasing ionic strength of reaction mixture. Venom proteins are separated by gel filtration into four peaks with ribonucleolytic activity, which is abnormally distributed among the isoforms: only a small part of the RNase activity is present in fractions of proteins with molecular weights of 12-15 kDa and more than 30 kDa, but most of the enzyme activity is detected in fractions of polypeptides, having molecular weights of less than 9 kDa, that is unexpected. Conclusions: RNase from the venom of Vietnam cobra is a unique member of RNase A superfamily according to its acidic optimum pH ($pH_{opt}=2.58{\pm}0.35$) and extremely low molecular weights of its major isoforms (approximately 8.95 kDa for RNase III and 5.93 kDa for RNase IV).

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.12 no.2 s.20
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• pp.33-41
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• 1976

Agkistrodon halys (Crotalidae) is the only species of poisonous snakes in Korea, and is divided into three subspecies; Agkistrodon bromhoffii brevicaudus, Agkistrodon calaginosus and Agkistrodon saxatilis. With the three venoms, the pharmacological actions on the cardiovascular system and intestine as well as some toxicological characteristics were studied. In addition, the precipitin test in an agar gel medium was employed for immunological comparison of the venoms and the sera of envenomed patients. The results obtained were as follows: Lyophilized venoms contained solids of $211{\sim}273mg/ml$, and LD50 to mice were 1.73 and 0.86 mg/kg in venoms of Agkistrodon bromhoffii brevicaudus obtained on July and October respectively, and 0.40 and 0.32 mg/kg in Agkistrodon calaginosus and the venoms of Agkistrodon saxatilis obtained on October was 2.29 mg/kg. Isoelectric focusing of lyophilized snake venoms showed 19 to 22 protein fractions and 2 to 3 isoamylase fractions. Acute irreversible hypotension was caused by the intravenous injection of large doses of venoms in rabbits and cats, but at the small doses, acute hypotension followed by slow recovery. Little changes of cardiac movements by the venom injection despite of marked hypotension were showed except bradycardia and arrhythmia prior the death. Also no changes on the isolated rabbit atria by the snake venoms were noted. The hypotensive effect of the snake venoms was prevented by the bilateral vagotomy or atropine pretreatment (1 mg/kg), but they did not affect when already the hypotension has undergone. In the isolated rabbit duodenum, small doses of venom increased the phasic movement, while large doses decreased after spastic contraction. With the injection of venoms in dog, strong contraction of gall-bladder was caused and it was not blocked by the pretreatment with phenoxybenzamine (10 mg/kg) or atropine (1.4 mg/kg). In the venoms of Agkistrodon bromhoffii brevicaudus and Agkistrodon calaginosus, at least 5 antigenic components were detected, and four of them were shared in common with each other. Polyvalent antivenin (Wyeth Lab. USA) had three common precipitating antibodies with the venom of Agkistrodon bromhoffii brevicaudus and Akistrodon calaginosus. In the serum of envenomed patients, no precipitating antibodies were seen to the venoms and little changes in serum protein, GOT and GPT were observed. In conclusion, the snake venoms obtained in Korea were highly toxic and caused chiefly the vascular collapse leading to death. This vascular collapse was resulted largely by cholinergic effects, and not cardiotoxin of venoms. In human, it is likely that precipitating antibodies to venom were not produced by an envenomed incidence to poisonous snakes.