• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2016

Objectives: Malaria has been a major global health problem in recent times with increasing mortality. Current treatment methods include parasiticidal drugs and vaccinations. However, resistance among malarial parasites to the existing drugs has emerged as a significant area of concern in anti-malarial drug design. Researchers are now desperately looking for new targets to develop anti-malarials drug which is more target specific. Malarial parasites harbor a plastid-like organelle known as the 'apicoplast', which is thought to provide an exciting new outlook for the development of drugs to be used against the parasite. This review elaborates on the current state of development of novel compounds targeted againstemerging malaria parasites. Methods: The apicoplast, originates by an endosymbiotic process, contains a range of metabolic pathways and housekeeping processes that differ from the host body and thereby presents ideal strategies for anti-malarial drug therapy. Drugs are designed by targeting the unique mechanism of the apicoplasts genetic machinery. Several anabolic and catabolic processes, like fatty acid, isopenetyl diphosphate and heme synthess in this organelle, have also been targeted by drugs. Results: Apicoplasts offer exciting opportunities for the development of malarial treatment specific drugs have been found to act by disrupting this organelle's function, which wouldimpede the survival of the parasite. Conclusion: Recent advanced drugs, their modes of action, and their advantages in the treatment of malaria by using apicoplasts as a target are discussed in this review which thought to be very useful in desigining anti-malarial drugs. Targetting the genetic machinery of apicoplast shows a great advantange regarding anti-malarial drug design. Critical knowledge of these new drugs would give a healthier understanding for deciphering the mechanism of action of anti-malarial drugs when targeting apicoplasts to overcome drug resistance.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5599-5608
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• 2013

With the high morbidity and mortality caused by cancer, finding new and more effective anti-cancer drugs is very urgent. In current research, biotransformation plays a vital role in the research and development of cancer drugs and has obtained some achievements. In this review, we have summarized four applications as follows: to exploit novel anti-cancer drugs, to improve existing anti-cancer drugs, to broaden limited anti-cancer drug resources and to investigate correlative mechanisms. Three different groups of important anti-cancer compounds were assessed to clarify the current practical applications of biotransformation in the development of anti-cancer drugs.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1843-1853
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• 2020

COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has spread globally and caused serious social and economic problems. The WHO has declared this outbreak a pandemic. Currently, there are no approved vaccines or antiviral drugs that prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Drugs already approved for clinical use would be ideal candidates for rapid development as COVID-19 treatments. In this work, we screened 1,473 FDA-approved drugs to identify inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 infection using cell-based assays. The antiviral activity of each compound was measured based on the immunofluorescent staining of infected cells using anti-dsRNA antibody. Twenty-nine drugs among those tested showed antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. We report this new list of inhibitors to quickly provide basic information for consideration in developing potential therapies.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.54-55
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• 2006

Polymeric micelles, supramolecular assemblies of block copolymers, are useful nanocarriers for the systemic delivery of drugs and genes. Recently, novel polymeric micelles with various functions such as the targetability and stimuli-sensitivity have been emerged as promising carriers that enhance the efficacy of drugs and genes with minimal side effects. This presentation focuses our recent approach to the preparation of functional block copolymers that are useful for constructing smart micellar delivery systems in advanced therapeutics, including chemo-gene therapy. Particular emphasis is placed on the characteristic behaviors of intracellular environment-sensitive micelles that selectively exert drug activity and gene expression in live cells.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.137-143
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• 2006

The market for anti-inflammatory drugs is large and is expanding rapidly as populations age. Key to the development of new drugs are novel chemotypes. Marine organisms harbour a diverse range of unique compounds with applications in a multitude of disease indications. This review looks at anti-inflammatory compounds isolated from New Zealand marine organisms.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.97-97
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• 2007

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.892-897
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• 2003

Anticancer drugs have serious side effects arising from their poor malignant cells selectivity, Since insulin receptors highly express on the cytomembrane of some kind of tumor cells, using insulin as the vector was expected to reduce serious side effects of the drugs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the tumor targeting effect of the newly synthesized mitoxantrone-insulin conjugate (MIT-INS) with the drug loading of 11.68%. In vitro stability trials showed MIT-INS were stable in buffers with different pH (2-8) at $37^{\circ}C$ within 120 h (less than 3% of free MIT released), and were also stable in mouse plasma within 48 h (less than 1 % of free MIT released). In vivo study on tumor-bearing mice showed that, compared with MIT [75.92 $\mu g \cdot$ h/g of the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) and 86.85 h of mean residence time (MRT)], the conjugates had better tumor-targeting efficiency with enhanced tumor AUC of 126.53 1l9 h/g and MTR of 151.95 h. The conjugate had much lower toxicity to most other tissues with targeting indexes ($TI^c$) no larger than 0.3 besides good tumor targeting efficiency with $TI^c$ of 1.67. The results suggest the feasibility to promote the curative effect in ca.ncer chemotherapy by using insulin as the vector of anti-cancer drugs.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 1993

The in vitro predictive tests in cancer chemotherapy of cancer cell lines to anticancer drugs were determined using novel dye exclusion assay [NDEA], [3H] thymidine incorporation, and clonogenic assay [CA>. Antitumor effect of Bleomycin, Cis-platin, Vinblastine, Methotrexate to HEp-2, B16 cell lines using rapid assays was compared with [CA> in this study. In dye exclusion assay of B l6 cell line, cancer cells were sensitive to Bleomycin at all concentrations, to Vinblastine at the level of peak plasma concentration [PPC], ${\times}1/10$ [PPC](P<0.05). And Bleomycin revealed relatively good cytotoxicity than that of CDDP and vinblastine at ${\times}10$[PPC], (P<0.05). HEp-2 cells were resistive to methotrexate at the level of ${\times}100$[PPC] (P<0.05) In [3H] thymidine incorporation assay, B 16 cells were sensitive to Bleomycin, CDDP, Vinblastine at the level of [PPC], ${\times}10$ [PPC](P<0.01). Dose-dependent drugs of bleomycin, CDDP were more sensitive than Vinblastine at high concentration (P<0.05). In clonogenic assay, HEp-2 cell line was sensitive to three drugs of all concentrations except ${\times}10$ [PPC] of CDDP. B 16 cell line was sensitive to all drugs(P<0,01). In comparison of chemosensitivity tests among three assays, the results were correlated(${\gamma}=0.99$, P<0.05).

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.104-111
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• 2016

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito borne pathogen, belongs to Flaviviridae family having a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome, currently known for causing large epidemics in Brazil. Its infection can cause microcephaly, a serious birth defect during pregnancy. The recent outbreak of ZIKV in February 2016 in Brazil realized it as a major health risk, demands an enhanced surveillance and a need to develop novel drugs against ZIKV. Amodiaquine, prochlorperazine, quinacrine, and berberine are few promising drugs approved by Food and Drug Administration against dengue virus which also belong to Flaviviridae family. In this study, we performed molecular docking analysis of these drugs against nonstructural 3 (NS3) protein of ZIKV. The protease activity of NS3 is necessary for viral replication and its prohibition could be considered as a strategy for treatment of ZIKV infection. Amongst these four drugs, berberine has shown highest binding affinity of -5.8 kcal/mol and it is binding around the active site region of the receptor. Based on the properties of berberine, more similar compounds were retrieved from ZINC database and a structure-based virtual screening was carried out by AutoDock Vina in PyRx 0.8. Best 10 novel drug-like compounds were identified and amongst them ZINC53047591 (2-(benzylsulfanyl)-3-cyclohexyl-3H-spiro[benzo[h]quinazoline-5,1'-cyclopentan]-4(6H)-one) was found to interact with NS3 protein with binding energy of -7.1 kcal/mol and formed H-bonds with Ser135 and Asn152 amino acid residues. Observations made in this study may extend an assuring platform for developing anti-viral competitive inhibitors against ZIKV infection.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.49-63
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• 1992

Two different types of chemical manipulations of dobutamine were investigated in order to develop novel, improved cardiotonic drugs. Three new analogues of carbostyril, in which the m-hydroxy group of dobutamine was isosterically modified with an amide type carbostyril system, were synthesized from, ${\rho}-methoxyphenethylamine$ via multi-steps. Two analogues of (2'-aminoethyl)-1-hydroxy-2-pyridone system which has isosteric structural similarity with dopamine without having the COMT vulnerable m-hydroxy group were synthesized via 12 synthetic steps. Their biological stabilities in various media and inotropic activities were evaluated.