• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.57 no.3
• /
• pp.209-215
• /
• 2024

Ishige foliacea belongs to class Phaeophyceae and family Ishigeaceae. This study investigated the physiological activities of the Korean marine algae I. foliacea. Its solvent extracts were prepared with 70% ethanol, 80% methanol, and distilled water. The ethanol and methanol extracts had higher α-glucosidase (half-maximal inhibitory concentration, IC₅₀: 0.67-0.73 mg/mL), xanthine oxidase (IC₅₀: 0.25-0.28 mg/mL), and angiotensin-converting enzyme (IC₅₀: 25.29-38.28 ㎍/mL) inhibitory activities than those of the water extract. The ethanol and methanol extracts possessed high acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity (IC₅₀: 0.78c0.97 mg/mL). Conversely, the water extract exhibited the highest β-secretase inhibitory activity (IC₅₀: 0.48 mg/mL). These results indicate that I. foliacea may be useful as a functional substance in food and pharmaceuticals with anti-diabetic, anti-gout, anti-hypertension, and anti-dementia properties.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.1348-1355
• /
• 2024

The eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF5B is a bacterial IF2 ortholog that plays an important role in ribosome joining and stabilization of the initiator tRNA on the AUG start codon during the initiation of translation. We identified the fluorophenyl oxazole derivative 2,2-dibromo-1-(2-(4-fluorophenyl)benzo[d]oxazol-5-yl)ethanone quinolinol as an inhibitor of fungal protein synthesis using an in vitro translation assay in a fungal system. Mutants resistant to this compound were isolated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and were demonstrated to contain amino acid substitutions in eIF5B that conferred the resistance. These results suggest that eIF5B is a target of potential antifungal compound and that mutation of eIF5B can confer resistance. Subsequent identification of 16 other mutants revealed that primary mutations clustered mainly on domain 2 of eIF5B and secondarily mainly on domain 4. Domain 2 has been implicated in the interaction with the small ribosomal subunit during initiation of translation. The tested translation inhibitor could act by weakening the functional contact between eIF5B and the ribosome complex. This data provides the basis for the development of a new family of antifungals.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.175-182
• /
• 2013

Purpose: Spirituality is an important domain and is related with physical and psychological symptoms in terminal cancer patient. The aim of this study is to examine how patients' spirituality is associated with their physical and psychological symptoms as it has been explored by few studies. Methods: In this cross sectional study, 50 patients in the palliative ward of a tertiary hospital were interviewed. Spiritual well-being, depression, anxiety and pain is measured by Functional Assessment of Chronic-Illness Therapy-Spirituality (FACIT-Sp), hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and the Korean version of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI-K). The correlations between patients' spiritual well-being and anxiety, depression and pain were analysed. The association between spiritual well-being and age, gender, palliative performance scale (PPS), religion, mean pain intensity, anxiety, depression were assessed by univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Results: Spiritual well-being was negatively correlated with the mean pain intensity (r=-0.283, P<0.05), anxiety (r=-0.613, P<0.05) and depression (r=-0.526, P<0.05). In multivariate regression analysis, spiritual well-being showed negative association with anxiety (OR=-1.03, 95% CI=-1.657~-0.403, P=0.002) and positive association with the existence of religion (OR=9.193, 95% CI=4.158~14.229, P<0.001). Conclusion: In this study, patients' anxiety and existence of religion were significantly associated with spiritual well-being after adjusting age, gender, PPS, mean pain intensity, depression. Prospective studies are warranted.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.241-247
• /
• 2014

Purpose: Serum vitamin C is one of the indicators for antioxidant levels in the body and it is lower in cancer patients compared with the healthy population. However, there have been few studies on the levels of serum vitamin C in terminally ill cancer patients and related factors. Methods: We followed 65 terminal cancer patients who were hospitalized in two palliative care units. We collected data of age, sex, cancer type, functional status, clinical symptoms, history of cancer therapy, and various laboratory findings including serum vitamin C level. Patients were categorized into two groups according to the quartile of serum vitamin C level (Q1-3 vs. Q4), which were compared each other. Stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors related to serum vitamin C levels. Results: The mean serum vitamin C level was $0.44{\mu}g/mL$, and all patients fell into the category of vitamin C deficiency. Univariate analysis showed that The serum vitamin C level was lower in non-lung cancer patients (P=0.041) and febrile patients (P=0.034). Multivariate analysis adjusted for potential confounders such as lung cancer, fever, dysphagia, dyspnea, C reactive protein, and history of chemotherapy demonstrated that odds for low serum vitamin C level was 3.7 for patients receiving chemotherapy (P=0.046) and 7.22 for febrile patients (P=0.02). Conclusion: Vitamin C deficiency was very severe in terminally ill cancer patients, and it was associated with history of chemotherapy and fever.

• The Korean Nurse
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.52-67
• /
• 1996

As home care in developing and becoming part of the health care delivery system in Korea, it is necessary to examine the use of nursing diagnoses and related nursing interventions with a view to increasing the standardization of nursing recording. This study was done to examine the nursing diagnosis and related nursing interventions used in home care. Data were collected using a chart review of the nursing notes written for the home care given to 38 patients who had pulmonary diseases or traumatic brain or spinal cord injuries and who had received home care as part of a demonstration home care project in a college of Nursing in Seoul. Early on in the project discussions as to format and use to nursing diagnosis was done and a tool was developed based on Gordon's eleven functional catergories with the addition of categories to cover family and environment. This tool was used in the data collection. Data included nursing diagnosis, etiologies and interventions. Real numbers and percentages were used in the analysis. The results show that the most frequently used diagnoses were in the category of physical function (75.6%), followed by the category of emotional and social function (21.8%). The least frequently used category was the one for family and environment (2.6%). The order of the frequency of recorded nursing interventions was the same, 82.3% for physical function, 16.2% of emotional and social function and 1.5% for family and environment. Under the category of physical functioning the most frequently used nursing diagnoses were related to mobility (62.2%), nutrition (23.6%) and elimination (11.9%). The frequencies of nursing interventions for these three diagnostic categories were 69.8%, 16.0% and 10.8% respectively. For emotional and social functioning, the most frequently used diagnoses were for cognition-perception (37.1%), self-perception (30.6%) and perception of health (23.7%). The ordering of the frequency of nursing interventions varied slightly. The most frequently used interventions were for the category of self-perception (31.7%) followed by cognition-perception (24.1%) and perception of health (22.9%). Looking at individual diagnoses, it was found that within the categroy of physical functioning, the most frequently used diagnosis was "impaired physical mobility" (29.5%) and this diagnosis involved 43.9% of the interventions. This was followed by "ineffective breathing pattern" (19.4%) with 17.7% of interventions, and "alteration in nutrition, less than body requirements" (11.2%) with 8.1% of the interventions. For the emotional social category, noncompliance was the most frequently used nursing diagnosis (18.2%) with 19.2% of the interventions. This was followed by "anxiety" (13.4%) with 13.6% of the interventions and by "knowledge deficit" (13.4%) but with only 5.5% of the interventions. The other diagnoses and interventions did not follow this pattern of frequency. Although there were a large number of diagnostic and intervention events, the number of actual diagnoses and interventions used were relatively small ranging from six interventions for "knowledge deficit" to 40 interventions for "imparied physical mobility". From this it can be concluded that the results of this study could be used as basic data for the development of standardized charts with respect to nursing diagnosis and interventions for clients with pulmonary disease and clients with traumatic brain or spinal cord injuries. Interventions that were direct care activities (1178) were much more frequent that education (430), and assessment and observation (148). There were also few diagnoses or interventions related to the family and the environment. This suggests two areas that need to be developed in home care and that need to be considered in the development of standardized records for use in home care.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.1-26
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the quality of life (QoL) of elderly women and the effect of social support on their QoL. The data were used 'urvey on the Elderly in 2011', which was held from 'Ministry of Health & Welfare' and 'Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs'. Among the total 15,146 respondents, 3,880 of elderly women whose age was over 65, and who did not live together with their married children were included in the analysis. Multiple regression analysis and path analysis were used to analyze the research model. The findings were as follows. First, from the fact that the elderly women showed the highest mean in 'contact frequency with friends' among social support, it seemed that the elderly women contacted their friends more than their children in their old age. Among the support types from their children, elderly women received emotional support, physical support, instrumental support in order and irregular cash as a way of economic support. Second, from the regression results, the most critical factor that affected the QoL of elderly women was 'subjective physical condition level' and 'subjective standard of living' comes next. Third, the most important factor was 'subjective standard of living' from path analysis results, and 'subjective physical condition level' and 'total amount of annual income' in order. Also, social supports such as 'phone call contact frequency with children', 'emotional support from children', phone call contact frequency with relatives', 'phone call contact frequency with friends' positively affected the QoL of elderly women. Therefore, raising social supports from children, relatives, and friends positively contributes to improve the QoL of elderly women directly and indirectly. The results show that social supporters, which is a part of the structural aspects of social support, and types of social support, which lies in functional aspects, directly affect QoL of the elderly women and turn out to be factors that improve the QoL as mediating variables. It is concluded that the social supports can be the most important resources that make up declining personal and social resources in old age and maintain the QoL of elderly women.

• ALGAE
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.233-239
• /
• 2015

Microalgae research is gaining momentum because of their potential biotechnological applications, including the generation of biofuels. Genome sequencing analysis of two model microalgal species, polar free-living Coccomyxa sp. C-169 and symbiotic Chlorella sp. NC64A, revealed insights into the factors responsible for their lifestyle and unravelled biotechnologically valuable proteins. However, genome sequence analysis under-explored cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s), heme-thiolate proteins ubiquitously present in species belonging to different biological kingdoms. In this study we performed genome data-mining, annotation and comparative analysis of P450s in these two model algal species. Sixty-nine P450s were found in two algal species. Coccomyxa sp. showed 40 P450s and Chlorella sp. showed 29 P450s in their genome. Sixty-eight P450s (>100 amino acid in length) were grouped into 32 P450 families and 46 P450 subfamilies. Among the P450 families, 27 P450 families were novel and not found in other biological kingdoms. The new P450 families are CYP745-CYP747, CYP845-CYP863, and CYP904-CYP908. Five P450 families, CYP51, CYP97, CYP710, CYP745, and CYP746, were commonly found between two algal species and 16 and 11 P450 families were unique to Coccomyxa sp. and Chlorella sp. Synteny analysis and gene-structure analysis revealed P450 duplications in both species. Functional analysis based on homolog P450s suggested that CYP51 and CYP710 family members are involved in membrane ergosterol biosynthesis. CYP55 and CYP97 family members are involved in nitric oxide reduction and biosynthesis of carotenoids. This is the first report on comparative analysis of P450s in the microalgal species Coccomyxa sp. C-169 and Chlorella sp. NC64A.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.187-193
• /
• 2011

RDA has been conducting soil survey for farmland all over the korean countries (1964-1999), including small islands and areas of the civilian passage restriction line (2000-present). We conducted a soil survey in Dokdo and Ulreungdo islands and found a new soil series "Dokdo" in Dokdo island. Soil properties of Dokdo were similar to those of Ulreungdo. Representative profiles of Dokdo soil was located at the south 20m of Daehan peak on Seodo (longitude $131^{\circ}$51'53", latitude $37^{\circ}$14'35"), Dokdo. The soil series "Dokdo" was interpreted as the soils were derived from trachyandesite, trachyte, rhyolite, and tuff. The soil properties of Dokdo series were classified as different ones from Korean soil series previously. The soil depth of Dokdo series was very shallow (0-20cm) and soil layer was consisted of very dark brown (10YR 2/2) rocky sandy loam and dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) gravelly silt loam in AC layer. The soils of Dokdo displayed characteristics of a mesic temperature regime, similar as Ulreungdo soils, which were classified as coarse loamy, mesic family of Lithic Udorthents. The total area of Dokdo soil was 18.7 ha, containing Dongdo (7.3 ha), Seodo (8.9 ha), and the others (2.6 ha). The area of Dokdo series in Dokdo was 10.47 ha (Dongdo 4.13 ha, Seodo 6.34 ha) and 808.56 ha in Ulreungdo, where the total soil area was 7,256 ha.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.581-590
• /
• 2000

Alterations in the cellular genome affecting the expression or function of genes controlling cell growth and differentiation are considered to be the main cause of cancer. Over 30 oncogenes can be activated by insertional mutagenesis, single point mutations, chromosomal translocations and gene amplification. The ras oncogenes have been detected in $15{\sim}20%$ of human tumors that include some of the most common forms of human neoplasia and are known to acquire their transforming properties by single point mutations in two domains of their coding sequences, most commonly in codons 12 and 61. The ras gene family consists of three functional genes, N-ras, K-ras and H-ras which encode highly similar proteins of 188 or 189 amino acid residues generically known as P21. ras proteins have been shown to bind GTP and GTP, and possess intrinsic GTPase activity. Experimental study was performed to observe the mutational change of the ras gene family and apply the results to the clinical activity. 36 Golden Syrian Hamster each weighing $60{\sim}80g$ were used and painted with 0.5% DMBA by 3 times weekly on the right buccal cheek(experimental side) for 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 weeks. Left buccal cheek (control side) was treated with mineral oil as the same manner of the right side. The hamsters were sacrificed on the 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 & 16 weeks. Normal and tumor tissues from paraffin block were completely dissected by microdissection and DNA from both tissue were isolated by proteinase K/phenol/chloroform extraction. Segments of the K-ras and H-ras gene were amplified by PCR using the oligonucleotide primers corresponding to the homologous region (codon 12 and 61) of the hamster gene, and then confirmational change of ras genes was observed by SSCP and autosequencing analysis. The results were as follows : 1. Malignant lesion could be found in the experimental side from the experimental six weeks. 2. One hamster among six showed point mutation of the H-ras codon 12($G{\rightarrow}A$ transition) at the experimental 10 and 14 weeks. 3. One of six at 6 weeks, two of six at 8 weeks and one of six at 12 weeks revealed the confirmational change of the H-ras codon 61($A{\rightarrow}T$ transversion). 4. The incidence of point mutation of H-ras codon 12 and 61 were 5.5%(2 of 36) and 11%(4 of 36) respectively. 5. Point mutation of the K-ras could not be seen during the whole experimental period. Form the above results, these findings strongly support the concept that H-ras oncogenes may have the influence of the DMBA induced carcinoma of hamster buccal pouch.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.208-215
• /
• 2017

A cyclomaltodextrinase (SPCD) gene was cloned from Streptococcus pyogenes ATCC 700294. Its open reading frame consists of 567 amino acids (66.8 kDa), which shows less than 37% of amino acid sequence identity with the other CDase-family enzymes. The homo-dimeric SPCD with C-terminal six-histidines was expressed and purified from Escherichia coli. It showed the highest activity at pH 7.5 and $45^{\circ}C$, respectively. SPCD has the broad substrate specificities against ${\beta}$-cyclodextrin, starch, and maltotriose to produce mainly maltose, whereas it hydrolyzes pullulan to panose. It can also catalyze the hydrolysis of acarbose to glucose and acarviosine-glucose. Interestingly, it showed much higher activity on ${\beta}$-cyclodextrin and acarbose than that on starch, pullulan, or maltotriose, which makes SPCD distinguished from common CDase-family enzymes. Although SPCD has significantly high acarbose-hydrolyzing activity, it showed negligible transglycosylation activity.