• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.1-15
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• 2009

Neuropathic pain is often refractory to intervention because of the complex etiology and an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms behind this type of pain. Glial cells, specifically microglia and astrocytes, are powerful modulators of pain and new targets of drug development for neuropathic pain. Glial activation could be the driving force behind chronic pain, maintaining the noxious signal transmission even after the original injury has healed. Glia express chemokine, purinergic, toll-like, glutaminergic and other receptors that enable them to respond to neural signals, and they can modulate neuronal synaptic function and neuronal excitability. Nerve injury upregulates multiple receptors in spinal microglia and astrocytes. Microglia influence neuronal communication by producing inflammatory products at the synapse, as do astrocytes because they completely encapsulate synapses and are in close contact with neuronal somas through gap junctions. Glia are the main source of inflammatory mediators in the central nervous system. New therapeutic strategies for neuropathic pain are emerging such as targeting the glial cells, novel pharmacologic approaches and gene therapy. Drugs targeting microglia and astrocytes, cytokine production, and neural structures including dorsal root ganglion are now under study, as is gene therapy. Isoform-specific inhibition will minimize the side effects produced by blocking all glia with a general inhibitor. Enhancing the anti-inflammatory cytokines could prove more beneficial than administering proinflammatory cytokine antagonists that block glial activation systemically. Research on therapeutic gene transfer to the central nervous system is underway, although obstacles prevent immediate clinical application.

• 대한유전성대사질환학회지
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.9-17
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• 2005

Homocystinuria is a metabolic disorder caused by a deficiency of cystathionine ${\beta}$-synthase (CBS). Patients with homocystinuria show clinical symptoms such as mental retardation, lens dislocation, vascular disease with life-threatening thromboembolisms and skeletal deformities. Generally, the major treatments for CBS deficiency include pharmacologic doses of pyridoxine or dietary restriction of methionine. However, there is no effective treatment for this disease up till today and gene therapy can be an attractive novel approach to treatment of the disease. We investigated whether a recombinant adeno-associated virus could be used as a CBS gene transfer vector to reduce the excessive homocysteine level in the homocystinuria mouse model. Recombinant adeno-associated virus vector encoding the human CBS gene (rAAV-hCBS), driven by EF1-a promoter, was infused into CBS-deficient mice ($CBS^{-/-}$) via intramuscular (IM) and intraperitoneal (IP) injection. IP injection was more efficient than IM injection for prolongation of lives and reduction of plasma homocysteine levels. After 2 weeks of gene transfer by IP injection, serum homocysteine level was significantly decreased in treated mice compared with the age-matched controls and the life span was extended about 1.5 times. Also, increased expression of CBS gene was observed by immunohistochemical staining in livers of treated $CBS^{-/-}$ mice and microvesicular lipid droplets was decreased in cytoplasm of liver. These results demonstrate the possibility and efficacy of gene therapy by AAV gene transfer in homocystinuria mice.

• 수면정신생리
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.69-74
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• 2010

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is associated with significant cardiovascular morbidity and increased mortality. However, it was controversial whether obstructive sleep apnea syndrome could cause pulmonary hypertension. The controversy was resolved by several studies that have shown pulmonary hypertension in 20% to 40% of patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome without underlying other cardiopulmonary diseases and reductions in pulmonary arterial pressure in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome after treatment with nocturnal continuous positive airway pressure. Recent studies provide strong evidence for endothelial dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and pulmonary hypertension. Endothelin-1 is a 21 amino acid peptide with diverse biologic activity such as highly potent vasoconstrictor and mitogen regulator that may play a key role in obstructive sleep ap-nea syndrome and pulmonary hypertension. Continuous positive airway pressure therapy is moderately effective in reducing pulmonary arterial pressure. Further researches are needed to assess the therapeutic efficacy of pharmacologic therapy with agents that inhibit the action of endothelin-1 in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome patients with pulmonary hypertension.

• 한국응용약물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국응용약물학회 1997년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.87-91
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• 1997

The range of disorders of old age that are thought potentially amenable to drug therapy is increasing. However, factors such as the growing costs of drug development and prescription, the novel pharmacological profile and enhanced potency of many new compounds, and the concerns that the elderly may have enhanced susceptibility to toxicity all make drug usage in the elderly patient an increasingly specialized topic. This is compounded by the high incidence of multiple disorders in frail elderly patients, and consequently the possibility of the long term use of several drugs, thus, adding the risk of drug interactions. Thus, clinical pharmacology in the elderly requires understanding of pharmacologic characteristic determinants of the physiological changes (Table 1) associated with aging in terms of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• 제11권sup2호
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• pp.19-28
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• 2008

Chronic abdominal pain, defined as long-lasting intermittent or constant abdominal pain, is a common pediatric problem encountered by primary care physicians and medical subspecialists. Chronic abdominal pain in children is usually functional, i.e., without objective evidence of an underlying organic disorder. Functional abdominal pain is categorized as functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome, functional abdominal pain, abdominal migraine, and aerophagia according to the Rome II criteria for pediatric functional gastrointestinal disorders. There is insufficient evidence to state that the nature of abdominal pain or the presence of associated symptoms can discriminate between functional and organic disorders. The presence of alarming symptoms or signs, such as weight loss, gastrointestinal bleeding, persistent fever, and chronic severe diarrhea, is associated with a higher prevalence of organic disease. Most children with chronic abdominal pain are unlikely to require diagnostic testing; such children often need pharmacologic and behavioral therapy.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제53권11호
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• pp.936-941
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• 2010

The systematic approach to pharmacologic treatment is typically to begin with the safest, simplest, and most conservative measures. It has been realized that the more rapidly inflammation is under control, the less likely it is that there will be permanent sequelae. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the mainstay of initial treatment for inflammation. In addition, the slow-acting antirheumatic drugs (SAARDs) and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) have efficacy of anti-inflammatory action in children with chronic arthritis. New therapeutic modalities for inflammation, such as etanercept and infliximab, promise even further improvements in the risk/benefit ratio of treatment. It is not typically possible at the onset of the disease to predict which children will recover and which will go on to have unremitting disease with lingering disability or enter adulthood with serious functional impairment. Therefore, the initial therapeutic approach must be vigorous in all children.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.1-13
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• 2011

Hypertension is a major risk factor of atherosclerosis which results in cardiovascular disease, and remains a major health problem worldwide. While children are more likely to have secondary hypertension, recent studies support the theory that the prevalence of essential hypertension in children and adolescents is increasing with the global epidemic of childhood obesity, and close attention is needed. Evaluation of hypertension in the pediatric age group should be guided by the age at presentation, and renal diseases must be considered in every child with hypertension, because of the prevalence of renovascular and renal parenchymal disorders as the etiology in any age group. The majority of children with chronic kidney disease are hypertensive, and many have associated end organ damage. Thus, once hypertension has been confirmed, end organ care as well as pharmacologic therapy must be continued. In renovascular hypertension, as cure could be gained with surgical/endovascular intervention, accurate diagnosis is important and it is recommended that every suspected child should undergo angiography.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.99-102
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• 1992

Severe intractable pain with paresthesia and severe dyspnea produced by lung cancer involving both brachial plexuses, refractory to ordinary pharmacologic approaches, was managed by epidural morphine and bupivacaine administration with the continuous Baxter infusion system. Chest pain, which is somatic pain in character, was well managed with the epidural morphine and bupivacaine administrations. However paresthesia and tingling sensation of the hand and forearm were poorly controlled by epidural morphine, and were finally managed by bolus epidural injections of bupivacaine. Supportive therapy included epidural steroid injection and TENS, but the effect was not satisfactory. Severe dyspnea seemed to aggrevate cancer related pain.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권18호
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• pp.8127-8133
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• 2016

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of back massage on the anxiety state, cortisol level, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, and sleep quality in family caregivers of patients with cancer. Materials and Methods: Forty-four family caregivers were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group (22 interventions, 22 controls) after they were matched on age and gender. The intervention consisted of back massage for 15 minutes per day for a week. Main research outcomes were measured at baseline (day I) and follow-up (day 7). Unpaired t-test, paired t test and chi-square test were used to analyse data. Results: The majority of the caregivers were women, married, secondary school educated and housewife. State anxiety (p<0.001), cortisol level (p<0.05), systolic/diastolic blood pressure (p<0.001, p<0.01 respectively), and pulse rate (p<0.01) were significantly decreased, and sleep quality (p<0.001) increased after back massage intervention. Conclusions: The study results show that family caregivers for patients with cancer can benefit from back massage to improve state anxiety, cortisol level, blood pressure and heart rate, and sleep quality. Oncology nurses can take advantage of back massage, which is non-pharmacologic and easily implemented method, as an independent nursing action to support caregivers for patients with cancer.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제70권5호
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• pp.384-389
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• 2011

The prevention of and the controlling of symptoms, reductions in the frequency of exacerbations, and disease severity are central to the pharmacologic therapy of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD patients are inclined to be older, have more comorbidities, and use polypharmacy as a result. Long-acting inhaled muscarinic antagonists (LAMAs) is a preferred treatment modality. However, the cardiovascular (CV) safety of anti-cholinergics, including LAMA, has been an issue. In contrast, the results of the UPLIFT trial and a pooled analysis of data from 30 trials of tiotropium illustrates the association of tiotropium with reductions in the risk of all cause mortality, CV mortality and CV events. And, the UPLIFT trial provides clues regarding the additive advantages of tiotropium in COPD patients who already are using long-acting inhaled ${\beta}_2$ agonists and inhaled corticosteroids. Following the contribution of tiotropium as a first LAMA, new LAMAs such as aclidinium and glycopyrrolate (NVA-237) seem to be emerging.