• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.348-355
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• 2021

Hantaan virus(HTNV) causes hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome(HFRS) with a case fatality rate ranging from <1 to 15 % in human. Hantavax^Ⓡ is a vaccine against the Hantavirus, which has been conditionally approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety(MFDS). However, only 50 % of volunteers had neutralizing antibodies 1 year following the boost. Effective antiviral treatments against HTNV infection are limited. Hantaviruses generally cause asymptomatic infection in adult mice. On the other hand, infection of suckling and newborn mice with hantaviruses causes lethal neurological diesease or persistant infection, which is different from the disease in humans. The development of vaccines and antiviral strategies for HTNV has been partly hampered by the lack of an efficient lethal mouse model to evaluate the efficacy of the candidate vaccines or antivirals. In this report, we established a lethal mouse model for HTNV, which may facilitate in vivo studies on the evaluation of candidate drugs against HTNV. The median lethal dose value of HTNV was calculated by probit analysis of deaths occurring within two weeks. Five groups of ten ICR mice were injected intracranially with serial 2-fold dilutions (from 50 to 3.125 PFU/head) of HTNV. Mice injected with HTNV began to die at 8 days post-infection. The lethal dose required to kill 50 % of the mice (LD₅₀) was calculated to be 2.365 PFU/head.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.48.1-48.13
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• 2022

With the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, which are randomly mutated, the dominant strains in regions are changing globally. The development of preclinical animal models is imperative to validate vaccines and therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 variants. The objective of this study was to develop a non-human primate (NHP) model for SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant infection. Cynomolgus macaques infected with Delta variants showed infectious viruses and viral RNA in the upper (nasal and throat) and lower respiratory (lung) tracts during the acute phase of infection. After 3 days of infection, lesions consistent with diffuse alveolar damage were observed in the lungs. For cellular immune responses, all macaques displayed transient lymphopenia and neutrophilia in the early stages of infection. SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant spike protein-specific IgM, IgG, and IgA levels were significantly increased in the plasma of these animals 14 days after infection. This new NHP Delta variant infection model can be used for comparative analysis of the difference in severity between SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and may be useful in the efficacy evaluation of vaccines and universal therapeutic drugs for mutations.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5973-5981
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• 2013

At present, the most common cause of cancer-related death in women is breast cancer. In a large proportion of breast cancers, there is the overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). This receptor is a 185 KDa growth factor glycoprotein, also known as the first tumor-associated antigen for different types of breast cancers. Moreover, HER2 is an appropriate cell-surface specific antigen for passive immunotherapy, which relies on the repeated application of monoclonal antibodies that are transferred to the patient. However, vaccination is preferable because it would stimulate a patient's own immune system to actively respond to a disease. In the current study, several bioinformatics tools were used for designing synthetic peptide vaccines. PEPOP was used to predict peptides from HER2 ECD subdomain III in the form of discontinuous-continuous B-cell epitopes. Then, T-cell epitope prediction web servers MHCPred, SYFPEITHI, HLA peptide motif search, Propred, and SVMHC were used to identify class-I and II MHC peptides. In this way, PEPOP selected 12 discontinuous peptides from the 3D structure of the HER2 ECD subdomain III. Furthermore, T-cell epitope prediction analyses identified four peptides containing the segments 77 (384-391) and 99 (495-503) for both B and T-cell epitopes. This work is the only study to our knowledge focusing on design of in silico potential novel cancer peptide vaccines of the HER2 ECD subdomain III that contain epitopes for both B and T-cells. These findings based on bioinformatics analyses may be used in vaccine design and cancer therapy; saving time and minimizing the number of tests needed to select the best possible epitopes.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.109-116
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• 2007

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is responsible for cervical cancer, a common cancer in women. Since HPV infection and cancer development are controlled by the host immune system, immunotherapy against HPV can be helpful in preventing or treating HPV-associated cervical cancer. Two oncoproteins of HPV16, E6 and E7, are promising targets for immunotherapy against cervical cancer, because they are constitutively expressed in cervical cancer. Methods: Since cellular vaccines using B cells as well as dendritic cells offer an efficient approach to cancer immunotherapy, we opted to use B cells. We evaluated the immunogenicity and anti-tumor effects of a B cell vaccine transduced with HPV16 E6/E7-expressing adenovirus. Results: Vaccination with HPV16 E6/E7-transduced B cells induced E6/E7-specific $CD8^+$ T cell-dependent immune responses and generated anti-tumor effects against E6/E7-expressing TC-1 tumor. The anti-tumor effect induced by this B cell vaccine was similar to that elicited by DC vaccine, showing that B cells can be used as an alternative to dendritic cells for cellular vaccines. Conclusion: Thisstudy has shown the feasibility of using B cells as immunogenic APCs and the potential for developing prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines against HPV-associated cervical cancer using a B cell vaccine transduced with adenovirus expressing HPV16 E6/E7.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing mothers' intention to vaccinate their elementary-school sons against human papillomavirus (HPV). Methods: The participants were 151 mothers of fourth- to sixth-grade boys at three elementary schools in Daejeon, Korea. The data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 25.0. Descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, the Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis were used. Results: The mothers' score for intention to vaccinate their sons against HPV was 5.04 out of 7. Self-efficacy (β=.60, p<.001) and subjective norms towards HPV vaccination (β=.30, p<.001) were significant factors influencing mothers' intention to vaccinate their elementary-school sons against HPV. These factors accounted for 81.0% of HPV vaccination intention among mothers (F=160.84, p<.001). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that to increase the HPV vaccination rate for elementary-school boys, it is necessary to develop intervention strategies to improve mothers' self-efficacy and subjective norms towards HPV vaccination and to verify the effects of those strategies. This research provides a foundation for designing interventions to increase the HPV vaccination rate of elementary-school boys.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.286-295
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• 2020

Respiratory infections are very common and highly contagious. Respiratory infectious diseases affect not only the person infected but also the family members and the society. As medical sciences advance, several diseases have been conquered; however, the impact of novel infectious diseases on the society is enormous. As the clinical presentation of respiratory infections is similar regardless of the pathogen, the causative agent is not distinguishable by symptoms alone. Moreover, it is difficult to develop a cure because of the various viral mutations. Various respiratory infectious diseases ranging from influenza, which threaten the health of mankind globally, to the coronavirus disease 2019, which resulted in a pandemic, exist. Contrary to human expectations that development in health care and improvement in hygiene will conquer infectious diseases, humankind's health and social systems are threatened by novel infectious diseases. Owing to the development of transport and trading activity, the rate of spread of new infectious diseases is increasing. As respiratory infections can threaten the members of the global community at any time, investigations on preventing the transmission of these diseases as well as development of effective antivirals and vaccines are of utmost importance and require a worldwide effort.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2193-2197
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• 2015

Cervical cancer, mostly progressing from cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Chinese women. This is largely due to high prevalence of high-risk human papillomaviruses (hr-HPVs) in the population. The prevalence of hr-HPV DNA in women and in cervical lesions women ranged from 9.9% to 17.% and from 50.5% to 70.9% in different regions of China, respectively. The most common genotypes somewhat differ between regions throughout the country and from those in many other countries. This may be a challenge to cervical cancer screening and prevention in China. Combined detection of particular HPV genotypes should be recommended in all geographical regions in China and greater attention must be paid to specific hr-HPV types during cervical cancer screening and follow-up of cervical lesions. Besides, vaccination for prevention of cervical cancer by particular HPV genotypes, has not been introduced to China so far. Updated knowledge on prevalent HPV genotypes should be provided to public health organizations to help with the development of more effective HPV vaccines, which can protect Chinese women against HPV types prevalent in local China and thus have a substantial impact on the cervical cancer burden.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.21
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• pp.9433-9437
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• 2014

This study provides the first systematic literature review of cervical cancer incidence and mortality as well as human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype prevalence among women with cervical cancer in the Pacific Island countries and territories. The cervical cancer burden in the Pacific Region is substantial, with age standardized incidence rates ranging from 8.2 to 50.7 and age standardized mortality rate from 2.7 to 23.9 per 100,000 women per year. The HPV genotype distribution suggests that 70-80% of these cancers could be preventable by the currently available bi- or quadrivalent HPV vaccines. There are only few comprehensive studies examining the epidemiology of cervical cancer in this region and no published data have hitherto described the current cervical cancer prevention initiatives in this region.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.239-248
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships among knowledge, cancer information seeking behavior, and Willingness for education about Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among school teachers. Methods: The subjects were 135 teachers who had were working in the middle or high school in Korea. Data were collected by a self-report questionnaire, 2011. Data were analyzed by using the SPSS WIN 18.0 program. Results: There was a positive relationship between information seeking behavior and Willingness for education about HPV vaccination. There were differences in Willingness for education according to necessity of HPV vaccination for premarital women above 16-year old and marital women below 45-year old, and necessity of education for students. The Willingness for education were predicted by information seeking behavior, groups who HPV vaccination is necessary to premarital women above 16-year old, and HPV vaccination education for student is necessary. These variables explained 25.0% of the variance of the Willingness for education about HPV vaccination. Conclusion: The Willingness for education about HPV vaccination among middle or high school teachers could be improved by the emphasis of the preception that HPV vaccination is necessary to middle or high school students and is related to the prevention of cervical cancer.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.415-425
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to identify and compare factors associated with intention to receive Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine between male and female undergraduate students. Methods: In the fall of 2010, 479 students responded to self-administered questionnaires about their intention to receive HPV vaccine, HPV knowledges, HPV related involvements and optimistic bias, subject's characteristics including opinion about HPV vaccine. Mann-Whitney U test, uni-variate and multi-variate logistic regression were used for data analysis with SPSS/WIN. Results: Intention to receive vaccine were 22.0% of men and 25.0% of women. There were significantly different in HPV knowledge (Z=-2.74, p=.006), optimistic bias (Z=-4.60, p<.001), vaccine is necessary for women (Z=-4,30, p<.001), vaccine is necessary for men (Z=-4.37, p<.001), vaccine is necessary if only symptom exist (Z=-4.52, p<.001), but there were not different in intention to receive vaccine, involvement between men and women. Concern about vaccine safety (OR=3.19, 95% CI 1.63~6.23) was determinant of intention to receive HPV vaccine for men. Conclusion: This study showed gender differences in HPV knowledge, HPV related optimistic bias and opinion about HPV vaccine, which would be assessed and well managed in tailored HPV education for enhancing HPV vaccine acceptance.