• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.129-137
• /
• 2016

This study aimed to isolate and characterize sulfated polysaccharides (SPs) from Iridaea cordata and evaluate their anticancer activity. SPs of the Antarctic red seaweed were obtained by $CaCl_2$ (SP1) and ethanol precipitations (SP2) following diluted acid extraction at room temperature. Yields of SP1 and SP2 were approximately 14% and 23%, respectively, of the dry weight of red seaweed. The average molecular mass of the SP1 and SP2 was estimated about $1.84{\times}10^3$ and $1.42{\times}10^3kDa$, respectively, by size-fractionation High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). From the High-Performance Anion-Exchange Chromatography-Pulsed Amperometric Detection (HPAEC-PAD) analysis, the main monosaccharide was galactose with glucose and fucose as minor components. The sulfate content of SP2 (40.4%) was slightly higher than that of SP1 (33.8%). The FT-IR spectra also showed characteristic band of carrageenan-like sulfated polysaccharides. Taken together the SPs are thought to be carrageenan-like sulfated galactan. The polysaccharides (SPs) from I. cordata exhibited weak antitumor activity against PC-3 (prostate cancer), HeLa (cervical cancer), and HT-29 (human colon adenocarcinoma). To our knowledge, this is the first data on biological activity of the Antarctic red seaweed I. cordata.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.30 no.7
• /
• pp.1463-1469
• /
• 2009

Eleven novel oxiranyl and thiiranyl phenolic compounds were synthesized as potential antitumor agents using epichlorohydrin and epithiohydrin in the presence of $K_2CO_3$. Cytotoxicities were found in range of I$C_{50}$ values of 2.5-14.8 $\mu$M, which was partially attributed to topoisomerase II inhibition. Bis-thiiranyl anthraquinone analog, 19 showed more cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-231 (breast cancer cell) and PC3 (prostate cancer cell) after 24 and/or 48 h and more potent topoisomerase II inhibitory activity than etoposide.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.18-26
• /
• 2009

Purpose: Recently, the role of serum tumor marker has been studied for an important issue on diagnosing and treating tumors in the head and neck region because tests using tumor markers need relatively simple procedures and are acceptable to patients, compared with other test methods. Tumor marker tests were performed on patients with squamous cell carcinoma, which were known to have the highest prevalence among tumors in the head and neck region. Association between each tumor marker, and diagnosis and prognosis of tumors was assessed. Materials and methods: Tumor marker tests were carried out on 31 patients who visited Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department in Dankook University Dental Hospital between January 2003 and August 2008 and who were diagnosed as primary oral squamous cell carcinoma through out histopathologic diagnosis. Blood sample from these patients was performed to measure tumor markers using nuclear medicine diagnostic equipment. Measured entries were as follows: PSA(prostate-specific antibody), SCCAg( Squamous Cell Carcinoma Related Antigen), CA 19-9(Cancer Antigen 19-9), Ferritin, $\alpha$- FP(Alpha-Fetoprotein), Cyfra 21-1, CA125 (Cancer Antigen 125) and p53. Results: Analyses on each tumor marker indicated that squamous cell carcinoma in the head and neck region had statistically significant correlation with p53, SCC-Ag(TA-4), Cyfra 21-1 and Ferritin. p53 demonstrated the highest sensitivity. Especially, 4 cases among 18 cases which Ferritin was measured exhibited metastasis. In all those 4 cases, Ferritin values were higher than the standards (15 - 332ng/ml). Therefore, Ferritin is considered to have a close relation with metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma. Conclusion: This study shows that tumor marker tests are more useful in evaluating progression and prognosis of tumors rather than in diagnosing them. Particularly, serum Ferritin is considered to be beneficial in assessing metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma in the head and neck region and in developing treatment plans based on the assessment.

• Journal of health informatics and statistics
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.329-335
• /
• 2018

Objectives: In recent years, there has been an increased need for a way to extract desired information from multiple medical literatures at once. This study was conducted to confirm the usefulness of unstructured data analysis using previously published medical literatures to search for new indications. Methods: The new indications were searched through text mining, network analysis, and topic modeling analysis using 5,057 articles of atorvastatin, a treatment for hyperlipidemia, from 1990 to 2017. Results: The extracted keywords was 273. In the frequency of text mining and network analysis, the existing indications of atorvastatin were extracted in top level. The novel indications by Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) were atrial fibrillation, heart failure, breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, combined hyperlipidemia, arrhythmias, multiple sclerosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, contrast-induced acute kidney injury and prostate cancer. Conclusions: Unstructured data analysis for discovering new indications from massive medical literature is expected to be used in drug repositioning industries.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.39-47
• /
• 2021

Background: The National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology-National Institute of Radiological Sciences (QST-NIRS) has continuously investigated the undesired radiation exposure in ion beam radiotherapy mainly in carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT). This review introduces our investigations on the secondary neutron dose in CIRT with the broad and scanning beam methods. Materials and Methods: The neutron ambient dose equivalents in CIRT are evaluated based on rem meter (WENDI-II) measurements. The out-of-field organ doses assuming prostate cancer and pediatric brain tumor treatments are also evaluated through the Monte Carlo simulation. This evaluation of the out-of-field dose includes contributions from secondary neutrons and secondary charged particles. Results and Discussion: The measurements of the neutron ambient dose equivalents at a 90#x00B0; angle to the beam axis in CIRT with the broad beam method show that the neutron dose per treatment dose in CIRT is lower than that in proton radiotherapy (PRT). For the scanning beam with the energy scanning technique, the neutron dose per treatment dose in CIRT is lower than that in PRT. Moreover, the out-of-field organ doses in CIRT decreased with distance to the target and are less than the lower bound in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) shown in AAPM TG-158 (American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group). Conclusion: The evaluation of the out-of-field doses is important from the viewpoint of secondary cancer risk after radiotherapy. Secondary neutrons are the major source in CIRT, especially in the distant area from the target volume. However, the dose level in CIRT is similar or lower than that in PRT and IMRT, even if the contributions from all radiation species are included in the evaluation.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.35-41
• /
• 2014

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been emerging out of the efforts to research human diseases and ethnic disparities. A semantic network is needed for in-depth understanding of the impacts of SNPs, because phenotypes are modulated by complex networks, including biochemical and physiological pathways. We identified ethnicity-specific SNPs by eliminating overlapped SNPs from HapMap samples, and the ethnicity-specific SNPs were mapped to the UCSC RefGene lists. Ethnicity-specific genes were identified as follows: 22 genes in the USA (CEU) individuals, 25 genes in the Japanese (JPT) individuals, and 332 genes in the African (YRI) individuals. To analyze the biologically functional implications for ethnicity-specific SNPs, we focused on constructing a semantic network model. Entities for the network represented by "Gene," "Pathway," "Disease," "Chemical," "Drug," "ClinicalTrials," "SNP," and relationships between entity-entity were obtained through curation. Our semantic modeling for ethnicity-specific SNPs showed interesting results in the three categories, including three diseases ("AIDS-associated nephropathy," "Hypertension," and "Pelvic infection"), one drug ("Methylphenidate"), and five pathways ("Hemostasis," "Systemic lupus erythematosus," "Prostate cancer," "Hepatitis C virus," and "Rheumatoid arthritis"). We found ethnicity-specific genes using the semantic modeling, and the majority of our findings was consistent with the previous studies - that an understanding of genetic variability explained ethnicity-specific disparities.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.139-145
• /
• 2016

Previously characterized as a backward motor, myosin VI (MYO6), which belongs to myosin family, moves toward the minus end of the actin track, a direction opposite to all other known myosin members. Recent researches have illuminated the role of MYO6 in human cancers, particularly in prostate cancer. However, the role of MYO6 in glioma has not yet been determined. In this study, to explore the role of MYO6 in human glioma, lentivirus-delivered short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting MYO6 was designed to stably down-regulate its endogenous expression in glioblastoma cells U251. Knockdown of MYO6 significantly inhibited viability and proliferation of U251 cells in vitro. Moreover, the cell cycle of U251 cells was arrested at G0/G1 phase with the absence of MYO6, which could contribute to the suppression of cell proliferation. In conclusion, we firstly identified the crucial involvement of MYO6 in human glioma. The inhibition of MYO6 by shRNA might be a potential therapeutic method in human glioma.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.1180-1186
• /
• 1999

A wide ranges of chemicals released into the environment have potential to interfere with physiological and development process by disrupting endocrine pathways. Endocrine system embraces a multitude of mechanisms of action, including effect on growth, behavior, reproduction and immune function. These environmental endocrine disruptors are present in environment and pose potential health consequences to human and wildlife. The best known form in endocrine distruptors involves substances which mimic or block the action of natural hormone in the body. Endocrine disruptor have been variously defined as exogenous agents that interfere with the synthesis, secretion, transport, metabolism, binding action or elimination of the natural hormones in the body which are responsible for the maintenance of homeostasis, reproduction developmental and/or behavior. Many compounds polluted into the environment by human activity are capable of disrupting the endocrine system of animals, including fish, wildlife, and humans. Among these chemicals are pesticides, industrial chemicals, and other anthropogenic products. It has been alleged that several adverse effects on human health are linked with exposure to chemicals which are claimed to be endocrine disrupters, that is, increased incidence of testicular, prostate and female breast cancer, time dependent reductions in sperm quality and quantity, increased incidence of cryptorchidism (undescended testicles) and hypospadias(malformation of the penis), altered physical and mental de velopment in children. This observation is currently the only example of chemically mediated endocrine disruption which has resulted in a clear effect at the population level.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.1-5
• /
• 2006

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a group of positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid that have been used to reduce the incidence, growth and metastasis of breast, colon, prostate and gastric cancer in animals. CLA could reduce tumor growth by altering angiogenesis; a process requiring associated angiogenic factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In this study, we determined whether CLA could modulate the expression of VEGF in murine mammary tumor cells and adipocytes. The c9, t11-CLA isomer reduced VEGF transcripts and protein when mammary tumor cells were stimulated with PMA. That isomer also reduced VEGF expression in un stimulated mouse 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Since VEGF can be regulated by cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), we determined whether CLA could alter COX-2 enzyme expression and $PGE_2$ production. The c9, t11-CLA isomer reduced not only COX-2 enzyme expression but also $PGE_2$ production. Thus, c9, t11-CLA could modulate neovascularization by alteration of VEGF expression from mammary tumor cells and adipocytes by reducing COX-2 metabolites.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.130-136
• /
• 1994

Urinary cytology is increasingly accepted as a diagnostic tool in the detection and follow-up of patients with bladder cancer. However, its value is reduced by several limitations, especially by the lack of cytologic criteria specifically reflecting the morphology of low-grade urothelial neoplasm. We reviewed histologically proven 50 cases of urine cytology with emphasis on cytologic findings of benign atypia and differential findings of urothelial neoplasm according to the grade. The diagnoses included 17 benign lesions(including 5 cases of urine calculi) and 33 malignant lesions (including 28 transitional cell carcinomas, 3 squamous cell carcinomas, 1 adenocarcinoma and 1 prostate adenocarcinoma), Diagnostic accuracy was 92%. Important cytodiagnostic criteria for benign atypia and low grade malignancy were cellularity, number of cell clusters, and morphology and arrangement of urothelial cells. The cytologic findings of urothelial neoplasms according to histologic grade were relatively well correlated with the histologic findings. However, the cytologic criteria were not sufficient to readily distinguish grade I from grade II. In view of this, we think that cytologic nomenclature "low-grade" and "high-grade" is a more reliable criterion. Recognition of subtle cellular morphologic features specific for urothelial lesions(including benign or malignancy) and proper fixation, processing and staining of specimen can expand the role of urinary cytology In detection and follow-up of patients.