• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.283-288
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• 2013

The pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF${\alpha}$) and interleukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$ are crucial mediators involved in chronic inflammatory diseases. Inflammatory signal pathways regulate inflammatory cytokine expression-mediated by p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38MAPK). Therefore, considerable attention has been given to p38MAPK as a target molecule for the development of a novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics. BIRB 796, one of p38MAPK inhibitor, is a candidate of therapeutic drug for chronic inflammatory diseases. In this study, we investigated the effect of BIRB 796 on inflammatory cytokine productions by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in different immune cell types. BIRB 796 reduced LPS-mediated IL-8 production in THP-1 cells but not in Raw 264.7 cells. Further analysis of signal molecules by western blot revealed that BIRB 796 sufficiently suppressed LPS-mediated phosphorylation of p38MAPK in both cell types whereas it failed to block inhibitor of kappa B (I-${\kappa}B$) degradation in Raw 264.7 cells. Taken together, these results suggest that the anti-inflammatory function of BIRB 796 depends on cell types.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.298-306
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• 2022

Pathological tissue fixation using formalin has been widely used for histological samples in many hospitals and institutions. In general, formalin fixatives were either manufactured in laboratories or purchased commercially because of the risks and environmental concerns of handling organic compounds. In this study, the efficacy of three kinds of commercially purchased and one laboratory-made formalin fixative was compared in the PCR-based molecular diagnosis using the extracted DNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. The quality of extracted DNA from FFPE tonsil tissues with four kinds of formalin solutions was evaluated, and PCR for beta-globin gene and microsatellite instabilities (MSI) tests for pentaplex panel markers were performed using the extracted DNA. There was no difference in PCR and MSI tests as molecular diagnoses regardless of the types of formalin used in this study. However, the total amount and average length of double-stranded DNA extracted from FFPE tonsil tissue showed significant differences according to the type of formalin fixative. Optimized formalin fixatives and methods for DNA extraction might be sophisticated to extract good quality DNA from the small size of specific tissue samples. Further studies are needed to select the most effective formalin fixative for histology and molecular pathology using human FFPE tissues.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.297-304
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• 2011

Influenza A virus of the Orthomyxoviridae family is a contagious respiratory pathogen that continues to evolve and burden in the human public health. It is able to spread efficiently from human to human and have the potential to cause pandemics with significant morbidity and mortality. It has been estimated that every year about 500 million people are infected with this virus, causing about approximately 0.25 to 0.5 million people deaths worldwide. Influenza A viruses are classified into different subtypes by antigenicity based on their hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) proteins. The sudden emergence of influenza A virus subtypes and access for epidemiological analysis of this subtypes demanded a rapid development of specific diagnostic tools. Also, rapid identification of the subtypes can help to determine the antiviral treatment, because the different subtypes have a different antiviral drug resistance patterns. In this study, our aim is to detect influenza A virus subtypes by using real-time nucleic acid sequence based amplification (NASBA) which has high sensitivity and specificity through molecular beacon. Real-time NASBA is a method that able to shorten the time compare to other molecular diagnostic tools and is performed by isothermal condition. We selected major pandemic influenza A virus subtypes, H3N2 and H5N1. Three influenza A virus gene fragments such as HA, NA and matrix protein (M) gene were targeted. M gene is distinguished influenza A virus from other influenza virus. We designed specific primers and molecular beacons for HA, NA and M gene, respectively. In brief, the results showed that the specificity of the real-time NASBA was higher than reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In addition, time to positivity (TTP) of this method was shorter than real-time PCR. This study suggests that the rapid detection of neo-appearance pandemic influenza A virus using real-time NASBA has the potential to determine the subtypes.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.79-82
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• 2012

Acinetobacter infections are of great concern in clinical settings because of multi-drug resistance (MDR) and high mortality of the infected patients. The MDR Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as a significant infectious agent in hospitals worldwide. The purpose of this study was to determine for molecular characterization of MDR A. baumannii clinical isolates obtained from the Wonju Christian Hospital in Gangwon province of Korea. A total of seventy nonduplicate A. baumannii isolates were collected from the Wonju Christian Hospital in Korea from March to April in 2011. All of the MDR A. baumannii isolates were encoded by $bla_{OXA-23-like}$ gene and all isolates with the $bla_{OXA-23-like}$ gene had the upstream element ISAba1 to promote increased gene expression and subsequent resistance to carbapenem. 16S rRNA methylase gene (armA) was detected in 44 clinical isolates which were resistant to amikacin, and phosphotransferase genes encoding aac(3)-Ia and aac(6')-Ib were the most prevalent. A combination of 16S rRNA methylase and aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme genes (armA, aac(3)-Ia, aac(6')-Ib, and aph(3')-Ia) were found in 31 isolates. The sequencing results for the quinolone resistance-determining region (QRDR) of gyrA and parC revealed the presence of Ser (TCA) 83 Leu (TTA) and Ser (TCG) 80 Leu (TTG) substitutions in the respective enzymes for all MDR. Molecular typing for MDR A. baumannii could be helpful in confirming the identification of a common source or cross-contamination. This is an important step in enabling epidemiological tracing of these strains.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2010

Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and regulate the activation of innate immunity. All TLR signaling pathways culminate in the activation of NF-${\kappa}B$, leading to the induction of inflammatory gene products such as cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Parthenolide, a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from the herb feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium), has been used as folk remedies to treat many chronic diseases for many years. In the present report, we present biochemical evidence that parthenolide inhibits the NF-${\kappa}B$ activation induced by TLR agonists and the overexpression of downstream signaling components of TLRs, MyD88, $IKK{\beta}$, and p65. Parthenolide also inhibits TLR agonists-induced COX-2 and iNOS expression. These results suggest that parthenolide can modulate the immune responses regulated by TLR signaling pathways.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.295-300
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• 2009

Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) still remains to be the most dreadful infectious disease affecting almost every country. In the present study, we developed a simple and rapid but accurate and sensitive assay method for detecting MTB using microplate hybridization assay. For this, a selective region of the rpoB gene was used to design PCR primers, and MTB and Mycobacterium genus-specific probe molecules. The specificity of the assay was confirmed using fifteen different mycobacterial reference strains and twelve different non-mycobacterial reference strains, and the sensitivity was determined to be 100 fg using genomic DNA of MTB reference strain, H37Rv. Subsequently, a total of 62 sputum samples with diverse smear scores and culture positive results were used to evaluate the kit performance. In brief, the specificity and the sensitivity of the assay were 100% and 98.4%, respectively.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.79-82
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• 2013

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease with a wide range of dopaminergic neuron cell death in the substantia nigra. Oxidative stress and neural degeneration are suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In this study, we investigated whether a novel herbmedicine, Hepad protects against 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridnium [MPP(+)]-induced dopaminergic neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells. We found that pretreatment with Hepad significantly increases the proliferation of SH-SY5Y cells (P<0.05) and reversed the loss of cell viability induced by $MPP^+$. Hepad may be a promising neuroprotective agent for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.233-240
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• 2006

We investigated enzyme activity and histochemical changes in hind limb of mouse treated with 6-aminonicotinamide (6-AN). The activity of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and creatine phosphokinase in 6-AN treated group were significantly higher than those of the control and pair-fed groups. Also, the activity of lactic dehydrogenase in 6-AN treated group was the highest among the three groups, whereas that of the pair-fed group were higher than that of the control group. In the 6-AN treated group, oxidative histochemical stains, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide reductase (NADH), succinyl dehydrogenase (SDH) showed increased scattered fibers in 6-AN treated subsarcolemma. Cytochrome c oxidase (COX) stain showed decreased up to 85% in 6-AN treated fibers. These results demonstrate that 6-AN antagonizes cell metabolism and induces the morphological deformity like the other mitochondrial muscle diseases. Therefore, we suppose that these data would be useful indexes for disclosing the mechanism of mitochondrial muscle disease.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.129-138
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated the effect of water extract from rice bran (RB) on ADP ($20{\mu}M$)-stimulated platelet aggregation. RB dose-dependently inhibited ADP-induced platelet aggregation, and its $IC_{50}$ value was $224.0{\mu}g/mL$, which was increased by adenylate cyclase inhibitor SQ22536 and cAMP-dependent protein kinase (A-kinase) inhibitor Rp-8-Br-cAMPS. RB elevated the phosphorylation of VASP ($Ser^{157}$) which was also inhibited by SQ22536 and Rp-8-Br-cAMPS. It is thought that RB-elevated cAMP contributed to the phosphorylation of VASP ($Ser^{157}$) to inhibit ADP-induced platelet aggregation. Therefore, we demonstrate that RB has an antiplatelet effect via cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of VASP ($Ser^{157}$), and RB may have preventive or therapeutic potential for platelet aggregation-mediated diseases, such as thrombosis, myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis, and ischemic cerebrovascular disease.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.180-184
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• 2014

Mitochondria play a crucial role in many essential biological events by way of the electron transport chains and intermembrane proteins that they contain. Abnormalities in the mitochondria are strongly correlated with the development of diseases such as atherosclerosis, cancer, and diabetes. However, the study of mitochondria has been referred to as 'labor-intensive' because of the difficulty in isolating the organelles from their various sources, which can include cultured cells and tissues. Multiple companies provide mitochondria isolation kits, and it is possible for investigators to use different kits and apply different protocols depending on the source of the mitochondria. Therefore, we focused on producing an isolation buffer that could be applied to both cultured cells and tissues, and optimized an isolation protocol that could be used with both. Specifically, we adjusted the buffer condition that can be applied to human cervical cancer cells, fibroblasts, and tissues such as mouse liver and spleen. We also optimized the protocol to improve the efficacy and efficiency of the steps involved in the isolation of mitochondria. These methodological improvements may contribute to advanced research by allowing investigators to overcome the difficulties involved in isolation of mitochondria from biological samples.