• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.132-136
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• 2010

This study examined the biostability and drug delivery efficiency of g-$Fe_2O_3$ magnetic nanoparticles (GMNs) by cytotoxicity tests using various tumor cell lines and normal cell lines. The GMNs, approximately 20 nm in diameter, were prepared using a chemical coprecipitation technique, and coated with two surfactants to obtain a water-based product. The particle size of the GMNs loaded on hangamdan drugs (HGMNs) measured 20-50 nm in diameter. The characteristics of the particles were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-TEM) and Raman spectrometer. The Raman spectrum of the GMNs showed three broad bands at 274, 612 and $771\;cm^1$. A 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay showed that the GMNs were non-toxic against human brain cancer cells (SH-SY5Y, T98), human cervical cancer cells (Hela, Siha), human liver cancer cells (HepG2), breast cancer cells (MCF-7), colon cancer cells (CaCO2), human neural stem cells (F3), adult mencenchymal stem cells (B10), human kidney stem cells (HEK293 cell), human prostate cancer (Du 145, PC3) and normal human fibroblasts (HS 68) tested. However, HGMNs were cytotoxic at 69.99% against the DU145 prostate cancer cell, and at 34.37% in the Hela cell. These results indicate that the GMNs were biostable and the HGMNs served as effective drug delivery vehicles.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.650-657
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• 2021

Metformin is an anti-diabetic drug and has anticancer effects on various cancers. Several studies have suggested that metformin reduces cell proliferation and stimulates cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. However, the definitive molecular mechanism of metformin in the pathophysiological signaling in endometrial tumorigenesis and metastasis is not clearly understood. In this study, we examined the effects of metformin on the cell viability and apoptosis of human cervical HeLa and endometrial HEC-1-A and KLE cancer cells. Metformin suppressed cell growth in a dose-dependent manner and dramatically evoked apoptosis in HeLa cervical cancer cells, while apoptotic cell death and growth inhibition were not observed in endometrial (HEC-1-A, KLE) cell lines. Accordingly, the p27 and p21 promoter activities were enhanced while Bcl-2 and IL-6 activities were significantly reduced by metformin treatment. Metformin diminished the phosphorylation of mTOR, p70S6K and 4E-BP1 by accelerating adenosine monophosphate-activated kinase (AMPK) in HeLa cancer cells, but it did not affect other cell lines. To determine why the anti-proliferative effects are observed only in HeLa cells, we examined the expression level of liver kinase B1 (LKB1) since metformin and LKB1 share the same signalling system, and we found that the LKB1 gene is not expressed only in HeLa cancer cells. Consistently, the overexpression of LKB1 in HeLa cancer cells prevented metformin-triggered apoptosis while LKB1 knockdown significantly increased apoptosis in HEC-1-A and KLE cancer cells. Taken together, these findings indicate an underlying biological/physiological molecular function specifically for metformin-triggered apoptosis dependent on the presence of the LKB1 gene in tumorigenesis.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.493-509
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• 2015

Antibody-drug conjugates utilize the antibody as a delivery vehicle for highly potent cytotoxic molecules with specificity for tumor-associated antigens for cancer therapy. Critical parameters that govern successful antibody-drug conjugate development for clinical use include the selection of the tumor target antigen, the antibody against the target, the cytotoxic molecule, the linker bridging the cytotoxic molecule and the antibody, and the conjugation chemistry used for the attachment of the cytotoxic molecule to the antibody. Advancements in these core antibody-drug conjugate technology are reflected by recent approval of Adectris$^{(R)}$(anti-CD30-drug conjugate) and Kadcyla$^{(R)}$(anti-HER2 drug conjugate). The potential approval of an anti-CD22 conjugate and promising new clinical data for anti-CD19 and anti-CD33 conjugates are additional advancements. Enrichment of antibody-drug conjugates with newly developed potent cytotoxic molecules and linkers are also in the pipeline for various tumor targets. However, the complexity of antibody-drug conjugate components, conjugation methods, and off-target toxicities still pose challenges for the strategic design of antibody-drug conjugates to achieve their fullest therapeutic potential. This review will discuss the emergence of clinical antibody-drug conjugates, current trends in optimization strategies, and recent study results for antibody-drug conjugates that have incorporated the latest optimization strategies. Future challenges and perspectives toward making antibody-drug conjugates more amendable for broader disease indications are also discussed.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.269-277
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• 2016

Background: The findings of currently available studies are not consistent with regard to the association between the risk of cancer and ginseng consumption. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate this association by conducting a meta-analysis of different studies. Methods: To systematically evaluate the effect of ginseng consumption on cancer incidence, six databases were searched, including PubMed, Ovid Technologies, Embase, The Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Chinese VIP Information, from 1990 to 2014. Statistical analyses based on the protocol employed for a systematic review were conducted to calculate the summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: We identified nine studies, including five cohort studies, three case-control studies, and one randomized controlled trial, evaluating the association between ginseng consumption and cancer risk; these studies involved 7,436 cases and 334,544 participants. The data from the meta-analysis indicated a significant 16% lower risk of developing cancer in patients who consumed ginseng (RR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.76-0.92), with evidence of heterogeneity (p = 0.0007, $I^2$ = 70%). Stratified analyses suggested that the significant heterogeneity may result from the incidence data for gastric cancer that were included in this study. Publication bias also showed the same result as the stratified analyses. In addition, subgroup analyses for four specific types of cancer (colorectal cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, and liver cancer) were also performed. The summary RRs for ginseng intake versus no ginseng consumption were 0.77 for lung cancer, 0.83 for gastric cancer, 0.81 for liver cancer, and 0.77 for colorectal cancer. Conclusion: The findings of this meta-analysis indicated that ginseng consumption is associated with a significantly decreased risk of cancer and that the effect is not organ specific.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2001

Currently 18 monoclonal antibodies were approved by FDA for inj ection into humans for therapeutic or diagnostic purpose. And 146 clinical trials are under way to evaluate the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies as anti-cancer agents, which comprise 9 % of clinical trials in cancer therapy field. When considering a lot of disappointment and worries existed in this field during the past 15 years, this boom could be called as resurrection. Antibodies have several merits over small molecule drug. First of all it is easier and faster in development, as proper immunization of the target proteins usually raises good antibody response. The side effects of antibodies are more likely to be checked out in immunohistomchemical staining of whole human tissues. Antibody has better pharmacokinetics, which means a longer half-life. And it is non-toxic as it is purely a "natural drug. Vast array of methods was developed to get the recombinant antibodies to be used as drug. The mice with human immunoglobulin genes were generated. Fully human antibodies can be developed in fast and easy way from these mice through immunization. These mice could make even human monoclonal antibodies against any human antigen like albumin. The concept of combinatorial library was also actively adopted for this purpose. Specific antibodies can be screened out from phage, mRNA, ribosomal library displaying recombinant antibodies like single chain Fvs or Fabs. Then the coding genes of these specific antibodies are obtained from the selected protein-gene units, and used for industrial scale production. Both $na\ddot{i}ve$ and immunized libraries are proved to be effective for this purpose. In post-map arena, antibodies are receiving another spotlight as molecular probes against numerous targets screened out from functional genomics or proteomics. Actually many of these antibodies used for this purpose are already human ones. Through alliance of these two actively growing research areas, antibody would play a central role in target discovery and drug development.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2008

Objectives: To grasp the traditional stream of cancer treatment inherited from the previous doctors. Methods: The author's research has been performed cancer treatment based on JIJU(積聚) taking the original text as a reference. Results & Conclusion: The general three outlines and five detailed rules of cancer treatment have been obtained as follows. The first outline of cancer treatment is that reinforced vital function makes cancer reduce naturally. the second is that Harmless cancer can coexist in human beings and aging with them. and the third is that Elimination and reinforcing therapies should be executed in appropriate era and those therapies should utilize appropriate methods. The first detailed rule of cancer treatment is when using reinforcing therapy, it must applicate mildly and when using elimination therapy, it must applicate calmly. The second detailed rule is that the methods of cancer treatment are different from each cancer stage. The concentration should be made on reinforcing therapy at early stage while reinforcing and elimination therapies must be conducted together at middle stage. At terminal stage reinforcing therapy is the sole method to be taken. The third detailed rule is that the basis property of cancer drug is warm nature and extremely biased property should be avoided and when complication arises (eg. inflamatory disease, cancer fever, etc), cold or cool nature can be applied. The fourth detailed rule is that Cancer drug must have the effect eliminating the blood stasis, phlegm and excessive fluid, all together. The fifth detailed rule is that Physicians have to control patient's stress or stress related symptom and teach patients about right way of taking care of themselves and patients should take hygienic rules with their free will by themselves (eg diet, exercise, stress, etc)

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.1294-1298
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• 2014

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer representing 85% of lung cancer patients. Despite several EGFR-targeted drugs have been developed in the treatment of NSCLC, the clinical efficacy of these EGFR-targeted therapies is being challenged by the occurrence of drug resistance. In this regard, Hsp90 represents great promise as a therapeutic target of cancerous diseases due to its role in modulating and stabilizing numerous oncogenic proteins. Accordingly, inhibition of single Hsp90 protein simultaneously disables multiple signaling networks so as to overcome drug resistance in cancer. In this study, we synthesized a series of 11 butein analogues and evaluated their biological activities against gefitinibresistant NSCLC cells (H1975). Our study indicated that analogue 1h inhibited the proliferation of H1975 cells, down-regulated the expression of Hsp90 client proteins, including EGFR, Met, Her2, Akt and Cdk4, and upregulated the expression of Hsp70. The result suggested that compound 1h disrupted Hsp90 chaperoning function and could serve a potential lead compound to overcome the drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.331-341
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• 2019

Cancer is one of the common causes of death with a high degree of mortality, worldwide. In many types of cancers, if not all, sex-biased disparities have been observed. In these cancers, an individual's sex has been shown to be one of the crucial factors underlying the incidence and mortality of cancer. Accumulating evidence suggests that differentially expressed genes and proteins may contribute to sex-biased differences in male and female cancers. Therefore, identification of these molecular differences is important for early diagnosis of cancer, prediction of cancer prognosis, and determination of response to specific therapies. In the present review, we summarize the differentially expressed genes and proteins in several cancers including bladder, colorectal, liver, lung, and nonsmall cell lung cancers as well as renal clear cell carcinoma, and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The sex-biased molecular differences were identified via proteomics, genomics, and big data analysis. The identified molecules represent potential candidates as sex-specific cancer biomarkers. Our study provides molecular insights into the impact of sex on cancers, suggesting strategies for sex-biased therapy against certain types of cancers.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.355-362
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• 2014

We have developed a fully automated high throughput drug screening (HTDS) system based on the microfluidic cell culture array to perform combinational chemotherapy. This system has 64 individually addressable cell culture chambers where the sequential combinatorial concentrations of two different drugs can be generated by two microfluidic diffusive mixers. Each diffusive mixer has two integrated micropumps connected to the media and the drug reservoirs respectively for generating the desired combination without the need for any extra equipment to perfuse the solution such as syringe pumps. The cell array is periodically exposed to the drug combination with the programmed LabVIEW system during a couple of days without extra handling after seeding the cells into the microfluidic device and also, this device does not require the continuous generation of solutions compared to the previous systems. Therefore, the total amount of drug being consumed per experiment is less than a few hundred micro liters in each reservoir. The utility of this system is demonstrated through investigating the viability of the prostate cancer PC3 cell line with the combinational treatments of curcumin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL). Our results suggest that the system can be used for screening and optimizing drug combination with a small amount of reagent for combinatorial chemotherapy against cancer cells.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.646-655
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• 2007

To achieve targeted drug delivery for chemotherapy, a ligand-mediated nanoparticulate drug carrier was designed, which could identity a specific receptor on the surfaces of tumor cells. Biodegradable poly(ethylene oxide)/poly$({\varepsilon}-caprolactone)$ (PEG/PCL) amphiphilic block copolymers coupled to biotin ligands were synthesized with a variety of PEG/PCL compositions. Block copolymeric nanoparticles harboring the anticancer drug paclitaxel were prepared via micelle formation in aqueous solution. The size of the biotin-conjugated PEG/PCL nanoparticles was determined by light scattering measurements to be 88-118 nm, depending on the molecular weight of the block copolymer, and remained less than 120 nm even after paclitaxel loading. From an in vitro release study, biotin-conjugated PEG/PCL nanoparticles containing paclitaxel evidenced sustained release profiles of the drug with no initial burst effect. The biotin-conjugated PEG/PCL block copolymer itself evidenced no significant adverse effects on cell viability at $0.005-1.0{\mu}g/mL$ of nanoparticle suspension regardless of cell type (normal human fibroblasts and HeLa cells). However, biotin-conjugated PEG/PCL harboring paclitaxel evidenced a much higher cytotoxicity for cancer cells than was observed in the PEG/PCL nanoparticles without the biotin group. These results showed that the biotin-conjugated nanoparticles could improve the selective delivery of paclitaxel into cancer cells via interactions with over-expressed biotin receptors on the surfaces of cancer cells.