• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.467-477
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• 2021

Staphylococcus aureus is a well-known pathogen that can cause diseases in humans. It can cause both mild superficial skin infections and serious deep tissue infections, including pneumonia, osteomyelitis, and infective endocarditis. To establish host infection, S. aureus manages a complex regulatory network to control virulence factor production in both temporal and host locations. Among these virulence factors, staphyloxanthin, a carotenoid pigment, has been shown to play a leading role in S. aureus pathogenesis. In addition, staphyloxanthin provides integrity to the bacterial cell membrane and limits host oxidative defense mechanisms. The overwhelming rise of Staphylococcus resistance to routinely used antibiotics has necessitated the development of novel anti-virulence agents to overcome this resistance. This review presents an overview of the chief virulence determinants in S. aureus. More attention will be paid to staphyloxanthin, which could be a possible target for anti-virulence agents.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2004

Many bacteria monitor their population density and control the expression of specialized gene sets in response to bacterial cell density based on a mechanism referred to as quorum sensing. In all cases, quorum sensing involves the production and detection of extracellular signaling molecules, auto inducers, as which Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria use most prevalently acylated homoserine lactones and processed oligo-peptides, respectively. Through quorum-sensing communication circuits, bacteria regulate a diverse array of physiological functions, including virulence, symbiosis, competence, conjugation, antibiotic production, motility, sporulation, and biofilm formation. Many pathogens have evolved quorum-sensing mechanisms to mount population-density-dependent attacks to over-whelm the defense responses of plants, animals, and humans. Since these AHL-mediated signaling mechanisms are widespread and highly conserved in many pathogenic bacteria, the disruption of quorum-sensing system might be an attractive target for novel anti-infective therapy. To control AHL-mediated pathogenicity, several promising strategies to disrupt bacterial quorum sensing have been reported, and several chemicals and enzymes have been also investigated for years. These studies indicate that anti-quorum sensing strategies could be developed as possible alternatives of antibiotics.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.37.1-37.15
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• 2020

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is an etiologic pathogen of human tuberculosis (TB), a serious infectious disease with high morbidity and mortality. In addition, the threat of drug resistance in anti-TB therapy is of global concern. Despite this, it remains urgent to research for understanding the molecular nature of dynamic interactions between host and pathogens during TB infection. While Mtb evasion from phagolysosomal acidification is a well-known virulence mechanism, the molecular events to promote intracellular parasitism remains elusive. To combat intracellular Mtb infection, several defensive processes, including autophagy and apoptosis, are activated. In addition, Mtb-ingested phagocytes trigger inflammation, and undergo necrotic cell death, potentially harmful responses in case of uncontrolled pathological condition. In this review, we focus on Mtb evasion from phagosomal acidification, and Mtb interaction with host autophagy, apoptosis, and necrosis. Elucidation of the molecular dialogue will shed light on Mtb pathogenesis, host defense, and development of new paradigms of therapeutics.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.6
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• pp.573-583
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• 2021

Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular protozoan parasite that infects one-third of the world's population, has been reported to hijack host cell apoptotic machinery and promote either an anti- or proapoptotic program depending on the parasite virulence and load and the host cell type. However, little is known about the regulation of human FHs 74 small intestinal epithelial cell viability in response to T. gondii infection. Here we show that T. gondii RH strain tachyzoite infection or ESP treatment of FHs 74 Int cells induced apoptosis, mitochondrial dysfunction and ER stress in host cells. Pretreatment with 4-PBA inhibited the expression or activation of key molecules involved in ER stress. In addition, both T. gondii and ESP challenge-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death were dramatically suppressed in 4-PBA pretreated cells. Our study indicates that T. gondii infection induced ER stress in FHs 74 Int cells, which induced mitochondrial dysfunction followed by apoptosis. This may constitute a potential molecular mechanism responsible for the foodborne parasitic disease caused by T. gondii.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.2 s.30
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• pp.149-176
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• 1995

The results were as follow: 1. In classification of the virulence of medicines, it is the virulent animal that have a deadly poison and the rest is the animal of weak nor non-toxic. 2. In classification of the channel distribution, the most is the medicine that belongs to liver channel, the next are the stomach, lung, kidney and spleen channel. 3. In classification of four characters, the most parts are cool, common and warm medicine and there is a few that is hot and cooling. 4. In classification of five tastes, the most numerous tastes are sweet and salty and the next are acrid, bitter and sour tastes. 5. In classification of the medical action, there are few medicine of invigorating vital energy, tonic therapy and astringent and a great part of the medicine are regulating vital energy and blood, removing blood stasis and mass, clearing away heat-evil and eliminating sputum, calming the river to inhibit the wind-evil and pain control. 6. In classification of the application of cancer, the most numerous disease is the liver cancer and the next are stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, lung cancer, leukemia, uterine cancer,mastitis, brain tumor.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.339-348
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• 2012

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Although all-trans retionic acid (ATRA) is the agents for ALP therapy, there are various side effects. For overcome this problem, we need the development of new therapeutic agents for APL. A number of bacteria produce various virulence factors with cytotoxic effects on human cancer cells. To understand the anti-cancer effect of Listeria monocytogenes on APL, we examined alteration of the cell viability, apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of the human promyelocytic leukemia cell line, HL-60 cells. The cell supernatant (LmSup) and the extract of L. monocytogenes (LmE) inhibited the cell viability and induced apoptosis of HL-60 cells. These cytotoxic effect of LmSup and LmE mediated by modulation of cell cycle and ROS production. These results indicate that released or included bacterial molecules from L. monocytogenes have a cytotoxicity in HL-60 cells. Therefore, LmSup and LmE may be used as the potential target for the treatment of cancer induced by HL-60 cells.