• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.690-699
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• 2022

Background: Few studies reported the therapeutic effect of Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) in lung inflammatory diseases. However, the anti-inflammatory role and underlying molecular in cadmium-induced lung injury have been poorly understood, directly linked to chronic lung diseases (CLDs): chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancer etc. Therefore, in this study we aim to investigate the therapeutic activities of water extract of KRG (KRG-WE) in mouse cadmium-induced lung injury model. Method: The anti-inflammatory roles and underlying mechanisms of KRG-WE were evaluated in vitro under cadmium-stimulated lung epithelial cells (A549) and HEK293T cell line and in vivo in cadmium-induced lung injury mouse model using semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), luciferase assay, immunoblotting, and FACS. Results: KRG-WE strongly ameliorated the symptoms of CdSO4-induced lung injury in mice according to total cell number in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and severity scores as well as cytokine levels. KRG-WE significantly suppressed the upregulation of inflammatory signaling comprising mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) and their upstream enzymes. In in vitro study, KRG-WE suppressed expression of interleukin (IL)-6, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, and IL-8 while promoting recovery in CdSO₄-treated A549 cells. Similarly, KRG-WE reduced phosphorylation of MAPK and c-Jun/c-Fos in cadmium-exposed A549 cells. Conclusion: KRG-WE was found to attenuate symptoms of cadmium-induced lung injury and reduce the expression of inflammatory genes by suppression of MAPK/AP-1-mediated pathway.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.292-307
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• 2022

The study presents kinetics of degradation and mineralization of an anti-epileptic drug Lamotrigine (LAM) in the aqueous matrix by electrochemical advanced oxidation process (EAOP) on Ti/DSA (Ta₂O₅-Ir₂O₅) and Stainless Steel (SS) anodes using sodium sulphate as supporting electrolyte. On both the anodes, kinetic behaviour was pseudo-first-order for degradation as well as mineralization of LAM. On Ti/DSA anode, maximum LAM degradation of 75.42% was observed at an associated specific charge of 3.1 (Ah/litre) at a current density of 1.38 mA/cm² and 100 ppm Na₂SO₄ concentration. Maximum mineralization attained was 44.83% at an associated specific charge of 3.1 (Ah/litre) at a current density of 1.38 mA/cm² and 50 ppm concentration of Na₂SO₄ with energy consumption of 2942.71 kWh/kgTOC. Under identical conditions on SS anode, a maximum of 98.92% LAM degradation was marked after a specific charge (Q) of 3.1 (Ah/litre) at a current density of 1.38 mA/cm² and 100 ppm concentration of Na₂SO₄. Maximum LAM mineralization on SS anode was 98.53%, marked at a specific charge of 3.1 (Ah/litre) at a current density of 1.38 mA/cm² and 75 ppm concentration of Na₂SO₄, with energy consumption of 1312.17 kWh/kgTOC. Higher Mineralization Current Efficiency (MCE) values were attained for EAOP on SS anode for both degradation and mineralization due to occurrence of combined electro-oxidation and electro-coagulation process in comparison to EAOP on Ti/DSA anode due to occurrence of lone electro-oxidation process.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.1847-1855
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• 2015

Supercritical carbon dioxide ($SC-CO_2$) treatment has been becoming an important method for substituting the use of organic solvents for samples extraction prior to analysis due to its low toxicity, ease of handling, low cost of disposal etc. Freeze-dried bovine liver was treated with $SC-CO_2$ under different pressures (200, 300, and 450 bar) in order to investigate effects on physicochemical properties and reduction of microbial load. The yield of lipid extraction from bovine liver by $SC-CO_2$ treatment increased with increasing pressure, with values of 84, 86, and 90% in response to 200, 300, and 450 bar, respectively. Results of high performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that vitamin A and coenzyme $Q_{10}$ ($CoQ_{10}$), which is soluble in lipid, were almost removed from bovine liver by $SC-CO_2$ treatment. Saturated fatty acids ratio of bovine liver decreased with increasing pressure, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids increased with increasing pressure. Total content of amino acids in bovine liver treated by $SC-CO_2$ was less than that of the control sample without treatment. The number of aerobic bacteria in bovine liver, which was stored at $5^{\circ}C$ for 5 days and freeze-dried, decreased from 6.2 to 4.2 log CFU/g by $SC-CO_2$ treatment at 100 bar for 3 h. Interestingly, coliform bacteria were not found in the bovine liver sample by $SC-CO_2$ at 100 bar for 3 h under all storage conditions. This indicates that $SC-CO_2$ treatment can effectively reduce coliform bacteria in the food matrix even at low moisture. In conclusion, freeze-dried bovine liver by proper $SC-CO_2$ treatment may be used as a potential high protein source, with increasing microbial safety and stability of lipid oxidation.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.175-181
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• 2011

Background: CM1 (centrocyte/-blast marker 1) was defined by a mAb against concavabalin-A (ConA) activated PBMC. It is expressed in germinal center of human tonsil and on the surface of activated PBMC as well as cancer cells. Recently, increased productions of pro-inflammatory mediators were detected from activated PBMC by CM1 ligation. Methods: However, there is a limitation to explain the exact role of CM1 on inflammation and its related mechanisms, since the identity of CM1 is still not clarified. In our previous study, we have already confirmed that soluble form of CM1 was produced by Raji. Therefore, we performed Q-TOF analysis after immunoprecipitation of concentrated Raji culture supernatant using anti-CM1 mAbs. Results: As a result, we found that CM1 is identical to enolase-1(ENO1), a glycolytic enzyme, and we confirmed that results by silencing ENO1 using siRNA. It was also confirmed through competition assay between anti-CM1 and anti-ENO1 mAbs. Finally, we investigated the possible role of CM1 in inflammatory response and cancer. The ligation of CM1 on Raji cells with anti-CM1 mAbs induces the extensive production of prostaglandin $E_2(PGE_2)$. In addition, the increased activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2/9 was shown in NCI-N87, stomach cancer cell line by CM1 stimulation. Conclusion: CM1 is identical to ENO1 and it might be an important role in the regulation of inflammatory responses.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.733-737
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• 2018

Cucurbitacin-I, a natural triterpenoid derived from Cucurbitaceae family plants, exhibits a number of potentially useful pharmacological and biological activities. Indeed, the previous study demonstrated that cucurbitacin-I reduced the proliferation of colon cancer cells by enhancing apoptosis and causing cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase. CD44, a type I transmembrane protein with the function of adhering to cells, mediates between the extracellular matrix and other cells through hyaluronic acid. Recent studies have demonstrated that an overexpression of the CD44 membrane receptor results in tumor initiation and growth, specific behaviors of cancer stem cells, the development of drug resistance, and metastasis. The aim was to examine the effect of cucurbitacin-I on CD44 expression human ovarian cancer cells because the effect of cucurbitacin-I on CD44 expression has not been reported. The expressions of CD44 mRNA and protein were detected using a quantitative real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and a Western blot analysis, respectively. Treatment with cucurbitacin-I inhibited the expression of CD44 mRNA and protein. A subsequent analysis revealed that cucurbitacin-I blocked the phosphorylation of activator protein-1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor kappa-B ($NF-{\kappa}B$), which are key regulators of CD44 expression. Taken together, the data demonstrate that cucurbitacin-I regulates the AP-1 and $NF-{\kappa}B$ signaling pathways, leading to decreased CD44 expression.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.44-52
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• 2005

The study, using sequence analysis and phylogenetic relationship of the fusion protein gene, divided the Korean epizootic isolates of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) into several lineages to determine the molecular epidemiology of the virus. A 695 base pair fragment was amplified by polymerase chain reaction between matrix protein gene and fusion protein gene of 30 Korean NDV isolates, which were isolated from field outbreaks of Newcastle disease between 1949 and 2002. All isolates showed the amino acid sequence 112 R-R-Q/R-K-R116 at the C-terminus of the F2 protein and phenylalanine (F) at the N-terminus of the F1 protein, residue 117. These amino acid sequences were identical to a known virulent motif. The region of the F gene between nucleotides 47 and 435 was compared by phylogenetic analysis. Based on nucleotide sequence, the Korean NDV isolates belonged to genotype III, V, VI and VII corresponding to isolates in 1949, 1982 to 1984, 1988 to 1997, and 1995 to 2002, respectively. These data showed that genotypes of five Korean Newcastle disease epizootics had replaced each other serially (III, V, VI and VII) in chronological order. Further, the five Korean Newcastle disease epizootics were closely related with the Necastle disease panzootics or Newcastle disease epizootics in other countries. Present study showed that the Korean genotype V isolated before 1984 was related with European Newcastle disease epizootics in the 1970s, whereas the Korean genotype VI and VII isolated after 1988 were more closely related with Far East Newcastle disease epizootics, especially Newcastle disease3 epizootics in Japan, Taiwan and China. Since 1988, the genotype VI and VII of Far East origin were dominant in South Korea. That might be due to the increased trade of agricultural products including poultry among Far East Asian countries.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.4369-4376
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• 2015

Background: To investigate in-vitro antagonistic effect of low-dose liquiritigenin on gemcitabine-induced capillary leak syndrome (CLS) in pancreatic adenocarcinoma via inhibiting reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated signalling pathways. Materials and Methods: Human pancreatic adenocarcinoma Panc-1 cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were pre-treated using low-dose liquiritigenin for 24 h, then added into gemcitabine and incubated for 48 h. Cell viability, apoptosis rate and ROS levels of Panc-1 cells and HUVECs were respectively detected through methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazoliumbromide (MTT) and flow cytometry. For HUVECs, transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) and transcellular and paracellular leak were measured using transwell assays, then poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) and metal matrix proteinase-9 (MMP9) activity were assayed via kits, mRNA expressions of p53 and Rac-1 were determined through quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR); The expressions of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and PARP-1 were measured via western blotting. Results: Low-dose liquiritigenin exerted no effect on gemcitabine-induced changes of cell viability, apoptosis rate and ROS levels in Panc-1 cells, but for HUVECs, liquiritigenin ($3{\mu}M$) could remarkably elevate gemcitabine-induced decrease of cell viability, transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), pro-MMP9 level and expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 (p<0.01). Meanwhile, it could also significantly decrease gemcitabine-induced increase of transcellular and paracellular leak, ROS level, PARP-1 activity, Act-MMP9 level, mRNA expressions of p53 and Rac-1, expression of PARP-1 and apoptosis rate (p<0.01). Conclusions: Low-dose liquiritigenin exerts an antagonistic effect on gemcitabine-induced leak across HUVECs via inhibiting ROS-mediated signalling pathways, but without affecting gemcitabine-induced Panc-1 cell apoptosis. Therefore, low-dose liquiritigenin might be beneficial to prevent the occurrence of gemcitabine-induced CLS in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2006

We investigated the effects of immobilization chemistry on the yield of immobilization and the bioactivity of the immobilized enzymes. Trypsin as a model protein and macroporous polymer beads(Toyopearl AF 650M, Tosho Co., Japan) was used as a model matrix. Four methods were used to immobilize trypsin; covalent conjugation by reductive amination(at pH 10.0 and pH 4.0) and affinity interaction via streptavidin-biotin, and double-affinity interaction via biotin-streptavidin-biotin system. The covalent conjugation immobilized $3{\sim}4$ mg/ml-gel, ca. 3-fold higher than the affinity method. However, the specific activity of the covalently(pH 10.0) and affinity-immobilized trypsin(via streptavidin-biotin) are ca. 37% and 50%, respectively, of that of the soluble enzyme(on the low-molecular-weight BAPNA substrate). When the molecular size of a substrate increased, the affinity-immobilized trypsin showed higher clavage activity on insulin and BSA. This result seemed to indicate the streptavidin-biotin system allowed more steric flexibility of the immobilized trypsin in its interaction with a substrate molecule. To confirm this, we studied the molecular flexibility of immobilized trypsin using quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation. Self-assembled monolayers were formed on the Q-sensor surface by aminoalkanethiols, and gultaraldehyde was attached to the SAMs. Trypsin was immobilized in two ways: reductive amination(at pH 10.0) and the streptavidin-biotin system. The dissipation shift of the affinity-immobilized trypsin was $0.8{\times}10^{-6}$, whereas that of the covalently attached enzyme was almost zero. This result confirmed that the streptavidin-biotin system allowed higher molecular flexibility. These results suggested that the bioactivity of the immobilized enzyme be strongly dependent on its molecular flexibility.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.1557-1564
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• 2014

In this paper, we propose a signal detection technique based on the parallel orthogonal matching pursuit (POMP) is proposed for generalized shift space keying (GSSK) systems, which is a modified version of the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) that is widely used as a greedy algorithm for sparse signal recovery. The signal recovery problem in the GSSK systems is similar to that in the compressed sensing (CS). In the proposed POMP technique, multiple indexes which have the maximum correlation between the received signal and the channel matrix are selected at the first iteration, while a single index is selected in the OMP algorithm. Finally, the index yielding the minimum residual between the received signal and the M recovered signals is selected as an estimate of the original transmitted signal. POMP with Quantization (POMP-Q) is also proposed, which combines the POMP technique with the signal quantization at each iteration. The proposed POMP technique induces the computational complexity M times, compared with the OMP, but the performance of the signal recovery significantly outperform the conventional OMP algorithm.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.384-391
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• 2005

A polymer optical microring resonator, which is laterally coupled to a straight bus waveguide, has been proposed and demonstrated using a nanoimprint technique. The propagation loss of the ring waveguide and the optical power coupling between the ring and bus waveguides was calculated by using a beam propagation method, then the dependence of the device performance on them was investigated using a transfer matrix method. We have especially introduced an imprint stamp incorporating a smoothing buffer layer made of a silicon nitride thin film. This layer played an efficient role in improving the sidewall roughness of the waveguide pattern engraved on the stamp and thus reducing the scattering loss. As a result the overall Q factor of the resonator was greatly increased. Also it reduced the gap between the ring and bus waveguides effectively to enhance the coupling between them, without relying on the direct writing method based on an e-beam writer. As for the achieved device performance at the wavelength of 1550 nm, the quality factor, the extinction ratio, and the free spectral range were ~103800, ~11 dB, and 1.16 m, respectively.