• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.719-727
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• 2011

Botulism is a neuroparalytic disease caused by Clostridium botulinum, which produces seven (A-G) antigenically diverse neurotoxins (BoNTs). BoNTs are the most poisonous substances known to humans, with a median lethal dose ($LD_{50}$) of approximately 1 ng/kg of body weight. Owing to their extreme potency and lethality, they have the potential to be used as a bioterrorism agent. The mouse bioassay is the gold standard for the detection of botulinum neurotoxins; however, it requires at least 3-4 days for completion. Attempts have been made to develop an ELISA-based detection system, which is potentially an easier and more rapid method of botulinum neurotoxin detection. The present study was designed using a synthetic gene approach. The synthetic gene encoding the catalytic domain of BoNT serotype B from amino acids 1-450 was constructed with PCR overlapping primers (BoNT/B LC), cloned in a pQE30 UA vector, and expressed in an E. coli M15 host system. Recombinant protein production was optimized at 0.5 mM IPTG final concentration, 4 h post induction, resulting in a maximum yield of recombinant proteins. The immunogenic nature of the recombinant BoNT/B LC protein was evaluated by ELISA. Antibodies were raised in BALB/c mice using various adjuvants. A significant rise in antibody titer (p<0.05) was observed in the Alum group, followed by the Titermax Classic group, Freund's adjuvant, and the Titermax Gold group. These developed high-titer antibodies may prove useful for the detection of botulinum neurotoxins in food and clinical samples.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.59-78
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• 1976

In order to investigate the influences of Panax ginseng (white ginseng and red ginseng) on the anesthetic effect and toxic effect of alcohol, experimental studies .had been carried out with albino rabbits, mongolian dogs and mice. The anesthetic effect of alcohol was observed by measuring the induction time, .anesthetic time, recovery time and duration from the beginning of induction to , the recovery of anesthesia (total time), respectively. and toxic effect ($LD_{50}$) of alcohol was measured. In addition to these experiments, al cohol concentration in .blood, blood sugar level, serum transaminase (GOT and GPT) activities and serum alkaline phosphatase activity were measured. Also in order to study the clinical effect of alcohol in healthy students, code .substitution, response time and muscle coordination were tested. The results were obtained as follows. 1. In the rabbits and mongolian Jags, the induction time of anesthesia by the administration of alcohol was delayed by the pretreatment of ginseng but recovery time and total time of anestksia were markedly shortend. 2. The bleed alcohol concentration was decreased by the pretreatment of ginseng , but not affected in mongolian dogs. 3. The blood sugar level, serum transaminase (GOT and GPT) activities and alkaline phoshatase activity in rabbits and dogs induced by the administration of alcohol were affected by the Pretreatment of ginseng. Because those were included within normal ranges, the differnces have no remarkable significance. 4. Liver alcohol dehydrogenase activity of rabbit was increased by the treatment of ginseng, especially it was markedly increased by the treatment of red ginseng 5. The average lethal dose of alcohol to mice was increased by the pretreatment. of ginseng, especially it was markedly increased by the pretreatment of red .ginseng. 6. In the clinical experiments, the blood alcohol concentration induced by alcohol administration was not affected by the pretreatment of ginseng whereas the bleed sugar level was increased. Blood alcohol concentration and bleed sugar level were measured after three hours alcohol administration. 7. The response time of healthy students administered with alcohol was markedly shortened by the pretreatment of ginseng but the experiments on the code substitution and muscle coordination were not affected.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.222-228
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• 2020

Background: 20(S)-ginsenoside-Rg3 (C₄₂H₇₂O₁₃), a natural triterpenoid saponin, is extracted from red ginseng. The increasing use of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 has raised product safety concerns. Methods: In acute toxicity, 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 was singly and orally administrated to Kunming mice and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats at the maximum doses of 1600 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg, respectively. In the 26-week toxicity study, we used repeated oral administration of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 in SD rats over 26 weeks at doses of 0, 20, 60, or 180 mg/kg. Moreover, a 4-week recovery period was scheduled to observe the persistence, delayed occurrence, and reversibility of toxic effects. Results: The result of acute toxicity shows that oral administration of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 to mice and rats did not induce mortality or toxicity up to 1600 and 800 mg/kg, respectively. During a 26-week administration period and a 4-week withdrawal period (recovery period), there were no significant differences in clinical signs, body weight, food consumption, urinalysis parameters, biochemical and hematological values, or histopathological findings. Conclusion: The mean oral lethal dose (LD₅₀) of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3, in acute toxicity, is above 1600 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg in mice and rats, respectively. In a repeated-dose 26-week oral toxicity study, the no-observed-adverse-effect level for female and male SD rats was 180 mg/kg.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.277-286
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• 2023

Korean rockfish, Sebastes schlegelii, is a representative bony fish that belongs to the family Scorpaenidae and the order Scorpaeniformes. It has high ecological and economic value and is widely cultivated in many East Asian countries, including South Korea, Japan and China. One of streptococci, Streptococcus iniae, is Gram-positive cocci with a negative reaction for catalase and oxidase. The Korean rockfish shows clinical signs when infected with S. iniae, such as body darkening, bleeding, enlarged kidneys, blurred eyes, abdominal distension, etc., ultimately leading to death. The Korean rockfish causes significant economic losses every year in South Korea due to streptococcosis. In this study, we identified bacteria from the fish using polymerase chain reaction and conducted analyses of hemolytic activity and biochemical tests using API 20 STREP and API ZYM systems. Results of confirming the hemolytic activity (n=4) observed in alpha-type hemolysis (25%), beta-type hemol- ysis (50%), and gamma-type hemolysis (25%) of isolates. The biochemical test results exhibited sig- nificant variation among S. iniae. Additionally, we performed intraperitoneal injection with S. iniae in the fish and analyzed the phylogenetic tree using housekeeping genes of S. iniae, including cpsD, arcC, glnA, groEL, gyrB, mutS, pheT, prkC, rpoB, and tkt, via multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The lethal dose (LD₅₀) showed strong pathogenicity, such as 3.34 × 10 colony-forming unit (CFU)/ml for 23FBStr0601 strain and 7.16 × 10 CFU/ml for 23FBStr0602 strain. 23FBStr0603 strain showed relatively low pathogenicity at 1.73 × 10⁵ CFU/ml. The strains 23FBStr0601 and 23FBStr0602, which showed strong pathogenicity, clustered into one monophyletic group. The 23FBStr0603 strain showed weak pathogenicity and formed a monophyletic group with KCTC 3657.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.569-576
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• 1997

Fowl typhoid(FT) caused by Salmonella gallinarum is an infectious, egg-transmitted disease and characterized by swollen bronze liver, greenish-yellow diarrhea and high mortality in growing and adult chickens. Since 1992 the outbreak of FT has been increased. Several problems have been occurred such as absence of appropriate vaccines and lack of useful therapeutic methods. In these studies we investigated the pathogenicity of S gallinarum isolated in chickens. To compare the pathogenicity among the species of chickens, all chickens were challenged intramuscularly or orally with $1{\times}10^7$ CFU of S gallinarum. The brown-colored layers were more susceptible and white leghone chickens were more resistant than other species. In the brown layer chickens orally challenged, lethal doses ($LD_{50}$) of the isolates were inoculated at 1 day, 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 8 weeks old chickens with amount of $10^{4.2}$, $10^{4.7}$, $10^{7.0}$ and $10^{7.6}$ CFU, respectively. The chickens which were intramuscularly challenged with the less amount than $10^2$ CFU showed higher mortality than that of the chickens orally inoculated with same dose. Also, we investigated the recovery rates of bacteria from various organs of survival chickens which were challenged orally with $5{\times}l0^7$ CFU of S gallinarum. The bacteria was more frequently and isolated earlier from the liver and spleen than from any other ogans. In the pathogenicity test, the white-leghorn chickens which were known as resistant-strain against Salmonella were artificially immunosuppressed using bursectomy and/or dexamethasone treatment. Mortality of chickens with both bursectomized and treated with dexamethasone was higher(90%) than that of the control group(10%), the bursectomized chickens(10%) and the dexamethasone only treated group(20%). It was suggested that the protective mechanism in chickens against S gallinarum may be required both the functions of B-cells and T-cells.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.320-325
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• 2009

The present study was carried out to investigate the acute oral toxicity and anti-obesity effects of a diglyceride preparation containing conjugated linoleic acid (DG+CLA). To test its acute oral toxicity, the DG+CLA was injected into 30 rats (15 males and 15 females) at dosage of 2,000 mg/kg and 5,000 mg/kg. Mortality rates, clinical signs, and body weight changes were monitored for 14 days following administration. According to the results, the lethal dose ($LD_50$) of DG+CLA was determined as >5,000 mg/kg in both sexes. There were no significant changes in general conditions, clinical signs, body weight, and gross lesions between the vehicle control and DG+CLA groups. For the anti-obesity studies, obese Zucker rats were randomly divided into 4 groups and fed saline, soybean oil, diglyceride, and DG+CLA, respectively, for 8 weeks. The DG+CLA groups presented significant differences in body weight, food efficiency ratio, serum lipid levels, and fat weight. Overall, the results showed that the DG+CLA did not have acute oral toxicity and reduced body weight, serum lipid levels, and fat gain.

• Proceedings of the Ginseng society Conference
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• 1984.09a
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• pp.83-88
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• 1984

It is now well established that the rodenticide Vacor (N-3-pyridyl-mehtyl-N'-p-nitropheny-lurea) causes a hyperglycemia in human and rats. It is also reported that there are some components (DPG-3) in ginseng radix which cause hypoglycemic effect on alloxan diabetic mice. In the present study, attempts were made to demonstrate in Vacor-poisoned rats the hypo-glycemic activity of red ginseng component(RGC), which was extracted by Kimura's DPG-3 extraction procedure and found to be effective for lowering a hyperglycemia in alloxan-diabetic rats. Vacor in a dose of $LD_{50}$ (10mg/kg) produced a glucose intolerance with a paradoxical moderate increase in blood immunoreactive insulin and derangement in glucose metabolism of epididymal adipocytes in rats. Although RGC (20mg/kg, i.p.) did not exert any significant influence on a hyperglycemia induced by large lethal doses (25mg/kg) of Vacor ingestion, it improved the LDso Vacor-induced glucose intolerance and caused a further increase in blood insulin levels in Vacor-poisoned rats. The administration of RGC (20mg/kg, i.p.) normalized Vacor-induced depression of glucose metabolism and lipogenesis in the epididymal adipocytes with an improvement of reduced responses to insulin of adipocytes from Vacor-poisoned rats. These results suggest that some red ginsneng components contained in RGC fraction normalize the depressed peripheral glucose unitlization and insulin response and eventually lead to an improvement of abnormal glucose tolerance developed in rats poisoned with small doses of Vacor.