• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.32 no.9
• /
• pp.734-741
• /
• 2022

Currently, around 40 million people worldwide are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection making HIV a critical global health risk. Present therapies for HIV infection consist of drug cocktails that target different steps of the HIV life cycle to prevent infection, replication, and release of the virus. Due to its mutating nature, drug resistance coupled with side-effects of long-term drug use, novel strategies, and pharmaceuticals to treat and manage HIV infection are constant needs and continuously being studied. Plants allocate a major repertoire of chemical diversity and are therefore regarded as an important source of new bioactive agents that can be utilized against HIV. Since the early 1990s, upon recommendations of the World Health Organization, numerous studies reported phytochemicals from different structural classes such as flavonoids, coumarins, tannins and terpenes with strong inhibitory effects against HIV infection. The present review gathered and presented recent research (2021-present) on plant extracts and phytochemicals that exhibit anti-HIV properties with the aim of providing insights into future studies where ethnomedical and underutilized plant sources may yield important natural products against HIV. Considering the relation and importance of HIV treatment with current viral infection risks such as SARS-CoV-2, screening plants for anti-HIV agents is an important step towards the discovery of novel antivirals.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.295-303
• /
• 2023

Immune and metabolic systems are important factors in maintaining homeostasis. Immune response and metabolic regulation are highly associated, so, when the normal metabolism is disturbed, the immune response changed followed the metabolic diseases occur. Likewise, obesity is highly related to immune response. Obesity, which is caused by an imbalance in energy metabolism, is associated with metabolic diseases, such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver diseases, atherosclerosis and hypertension. As known, obesity is characterized in chronic low-grade inflammation. In obesity, the microenvironment of immune cells became inflammatory by the unique activation phenotypes of immune cells such as macrophage, natural killer cell, T cell. Also, the immune cells interact each other in cellular or cytokine mechanisms, which intensify the obesity-induced inflammatory response. This phenomenon suggests the possibility of regulating the activation of immune cells as a pharmacological therapeutic strategy for obesity in addition to the common pharmacological treatment of obesity which is aimed at inhibiting enzymes such as pancreatic lipase and α-amylase or inhibiting differentiation of preadipocytes. In this review, we summarize the activation phenotypes of macrophage, natural killer cell and T cell, and their aspects in obesity. We also summarize the pharmacological substances that alleviates obesity by regulating the activation of immune cells.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.123-132
• /
• 2023

Background: Pseudotyped virus systems that incorporate viral proteins have been widely employed for the rapid determination of the effectiveness and neutralizing activity of drug and vaccine candidates in biosafety level 2 facilities. We report an efficient method for producing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pseudovirus with dual luciferase and fluorescent protein reporters. Moreover, using the established method, we also aimed to investigate whether Korean Red Ginseng (KRG), a valuable Korean herbal medicine, can attenuate infectivity of the pseudotyped virus. Methods: A pseudovirus of SARS-CoV-2 (SARS-2pv) was constructed and efficiently produced using lentivirus vector systems available in the public domain by the introduction of critical mutations in the cytoplasmic tail of the spike protein. KRG extract was dose-dependently treated to Calu-3 cells during SARS2-pv treatment to evaluate the protective activity against SARS-CoV-2. Results: The use of Calu-3 cells or the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in HEK293T cells enabled SARS-2pv infection of host cells. Coexpression of transmembrane protease serine subtype 2 (TMPRSS2), which is the activator of spike protein, with ACE2 dramatically elevated luciferase activity, confirming the importance of the TMPRSS2-mediated pathway during SARS-CoV-2 entry. Our pseudovirus assay also revealed that KRG elicited resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection in lung cells, suggesting its beneficial health effect. Conclusion: The method demonstrated the production of SARS-2pv for the analysis of vaccine or drug candidates. When KRG was assessed by the method, it protected host cells from coronavirus infection. Further studies will be followed for demonstrating this potential benefit.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.275-284
• /
• 2023

Virtual reality simulations are used for education and training in various fields, and are especially widely used in the medical field recently. The education/training simulator consists of tactile/force feedback generation and image/sound output hardware that provides a sense similar to a doctor's treatment of a real patient using real surgical tools, and software that produces realistic images and tactile feedback. Existing simulators are complicated and expensive because they have to use various types of hardware to simulate various surgical instruments used during surgery. In this paper, we propose a dental surgical simulation system using a force feedback device and a morphable haptic controller. Haptic hardware determines whether the surgical tool collides with the surgical site and provides a sense of resistance and vibration. In particular, haptic controllers that can be deformed, such as length changes and bending, can express various senses felt depending on the shape of various surgical tools. When the user manipulates the haptic feedback device, events such as movement of the haptic feedback device or button clicks are delivered to the simulation system, resulting in interaction between dental surgical tools and oral internal models, and thus haptic feedback is delivered to the haptic feedback device. Using these basic techniques, we provide a realistic training experience of impacted wisdom tooth extraction surgery, a representative dental surgery technique, in a virtual environment represented by sophisticated three-dimensional models.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.42 no.3
• /
• pp.263-269
• /
• 1997

To cope with increasing importance of water stress in food crop production, some physiological characteristics, their cultivar-differences and grain yield of winter barley cultivars in response to water stress during reproductive stages were studied employing three covered-barley cultivars, Milyang 12, Durubori, and Olbori, one naked-barley cultivar, Baegdong, and one two-row malting-barley cultivar, Hyangmaeg. The barley grown in pot-soil was conditioned for 10 days under water stress, varying the time of water stress : 20 days before heading, 10 days before heading and the time of heading. The decrease in growth due to water stress varied greatly with the cultivars and time of water stress. The greatest injury occurred when water stress was imposed for 10 days from 10 days before heading : the culm length of water-stressed plants have shown reduced by 85∼98％ of the non-stressed; the number of spikes per plant by 52∼83%; the number of grains per spike by 71∼86%; 1,000-grain weight by 80∼84%; yield per pot by 60∼94%. The number of spikes per plant as one of yield components was most sensitively affected. As a whole, the drought resistance of cultivars was high in the order of Olbori> Milyang 12 and Durubori> Hyangmaeg>Baegdong. On rewatering the plants after termination of the water stress treatment the recovery rate of free proline content and relative turgidity of flag leaf were higher in 3 covered-barley cultivars, and lower in cultivars Baegdong and Hyangmaeg.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.47 no.3
• /
• pp.376-384
• /
• 2023

Background: Hepatic lipid disorder impaired mitochondrial homeostasis and intracellular redox balance, triggering development of non-alcohol fatty liver disease (NAFLD), while effective therapeutic approach remains inadequate. Ginsenosides Rc has been reported to maintain glucose balance in adipose tissue, while its role in regulating lipid metabolism remain vacant. Thus, we investigated the function and mechanism of ginsenosides Rc in defending high fat diet (HFD)-induced NAFLD. Methods: Mice primary hepatocytes (MPHs) challenged with oleic acid & palmitic acid were used to test the effects of ginsenosides Rc on intracellular lipid metabolism. RNAseq and molecular docking study were performed to explore potential targets of ginsenosides Rc in defending lipid deposition. Wild type and liver specific sirtuin 6 (SIRT6, 50721) deficient mice on HFD for 12 weeks were subjected to different dose of ginsenosides Rc to determine the function and detailed mechanism in vivo. Results: We identified ginsenosides Rc as a novel SIRT6 activator via increasing its expression and deacetylase activity. Ginsenosides Rc defends OA&PA-induced lipid deposition in MPHs and protects mice against HFD-induced metabolic disorder in dosage dependent manner. Ginsenosides Rc (20mg/kg) injection improved glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, oxidative stress and inflammation response in HFD mice. Ginsenosides Rc treatment accelerates peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPAR-α, 19013)-mediated fatty acid oxidation in vivo and in vitro. Hepatic specific SIRT6 deletion abolished ginsenoside Rc-derived protective effects against HFD-induced NAFLD. Conclusion: Ginsenosides Rc protects mice against HFD-induced hepatosteatosis by improving PPAR-α-mediated fatty acid oxidation and antioxidant capacity in a SIRT6 dependent manner, and providing a promising strategy for NAFLD.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.1
• /
• pp.28-34
• /
• 2022

Glioblastoma is the most common primary malignant brain tumor and has an extremely poor prognosis. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) contribute to tumor initiation, recurrence, and resistance to therapy, and are thus a key therapeutic target. The peel of Citrus unshiu Markovich has been used in traditional medicine in East Asia to treat various diseases. In this study, we investigated the anticancer activity and molecular mechanism of the chloroform extract of this natural product (CECU) in U87MG GSCs. The results show that CECU inhibited the proliferation, tumorsphere formation, and migration of U87MG GSCs by causing cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase and apoptosis. In addition, CECU downregulated key cancer stemness regulators, including CD133, Oct4, Nanog, integrin α6, ALDH1A1, and STAT3 signaling in U87MG GSCs. Furthermore, CECU significantly suppressed in vivo tumor growth of U87MG GSCs in a chorioallantoic membrane model. Therefore, CECU can be utilized as a natural medicine for the prevention and treatment of glioblastoma.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.135-144
• /
• 2023

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are the two most frequently encountered pathogens responsible for chronic wound infections, often coexisting in such cases. These infections exhibit heightened virulence compared to single infections, leading to unfavorable patient outcomes. The interaction among microorganisms within polymicrobial infections has been shown to exacerbate disease progression. Polymicrobial infections, prevalent in various contexts such as the respiratory tract, wounds, and diabetic foot, typically involve diverse microorganisms, with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus being the most commonly identified pathogens. This study aimed to compare the growth patterns of bacteria under a concentration gradient of toxic chemicals, focusing on a Gram-negative strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a Gram-positive strain of Staphylococcus aureus. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), which signifies the concentration at which bacterial growth is inhibited, was determined by performing broth microdilution and assessing the bacteria's growth curves. The growth curves of both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus were confirmed, and the exponential growth phases were applied to calculate the doubling times of bacteria. The MIC value for each toxic chemical was determined through broth microdilution. These results allowed for the identification of disparities in growth rates between Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as differences in resistance to individual toxic substances. We expect that this approach has a strong potential for further development towards the innovative treatment of bacteria-associated infections.

• 한국체육학회지인문사회과학편
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.465-472
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to analyze the amount of physical activity and body composition and to investigate physical activity according to cancer type, sex, and age among colorectal and gastric cancer survivors. A total of 354 participants who were colorectal (n=185) and gastric (n=169) cancer survivors had completed all treatment less than 4 years ago at Y university hospital between June 2014 and April 2015. The Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) was used to measure time and intensity of physical activity according to the different types of activity. The colorectal cancer survivors were significantly higher in body mass index, waist circumference, percent body fat, blood pressure, and the prevalence of diabetes compared to gastric cancer survivors. In addition, the results showed that only 26.5% of colorectal cancer survivors met American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines (at least of 150 min of moderate intensity of higher physical activity per week) for physical activity, compared with 41.4% of gastric cancer survivors. Additionally, only 13.6% of colorectal and gastric cancer survivors met strength exercise guidelines. The male cancer survivors were significantly higher in moderate physical activity, participation in resistance exercise, and sedentary behaviors compared to female cancer survivors. In additions, less than 65 years cancer survivors were higher in strenuous intensity exercise and moderate physical activity compared to more than 65 years cancer survivors. The alternative for promoting physical activity participation rates of colorectal and gastric cancer survivors should be presented.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.47-54
• /
• 2023

With the widespread use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in clinical practice, the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) gram-negative bacteria has become a global problem. The MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is especially difficult to treat and increases mortality in critically ill patients. Ceftolozane-tazobactam (Zerbaxa^TM) is a fifth-generation cephalosporin and beta-lactamase inhibitor that has proved to be effective for treating complicated urinary tract infections and complicated intra-abdominal infections caused by MDR P. aeruginosa. Herein, we report the first case of pediatric hematologic cancer in Korea that was successfully treated for MDR P. aeruginosa bacteremia with Ceftolozane-tazobactam.