• Title/Summary/Keyword: incurable diseases

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Recent Research Trends in Stem Cells Using CRISPR/Cas-Based Genome Editing Methods

  • Da Eun Yoon;Hyunji Lee;Kyoungmi Kim
    • International Journal of Stem Cells
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    • v.17 no.1
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    • pp.1-14
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    • 2024
  • The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system, a rapidly advancing genome editing technology, allows DNA alterations into the genome of organisms. Gene editing using the CRISPR system enables more precise and diverse editing, such as single nucleotide conversion, precise knock-in of target sequences or genes, chromosomal rearrangement, or gene disruption by simple cutting. Moreover, CRISPR systems comprising transcriptional activators/repressors can be used for epigenetic regulation without DNA damage. Stem cell DNA engineering based on gene editing tools has enormous potential to provide clues regarding the pathogenesis of diseases and to study the mechanisms and treatments of incurable diseases. Here, we review the latest trends in stem cell research using various CRISPR/Cas technologies and discuss their future prospects in treating various diseases.

A Study on the Blood-Letting Therapy in Elementary Questions (("황제내경소문(黃帝內經素問)" 중(中) 사혈(瀉血)에 관한 연구(硏究))

  • Lee, Jun-Geun
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Oriental Medical Informatics
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.19-42
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    • 2008
  • Blood-Letting Therapy is a rational and ecological medical treatment by which we can heal most of the diseases by removing the static blood which precipitates in the blood vessel and blocks the flowing of blood. And the static blood is the generic term for the injurious, bad, dead and precipitated blood which is blocked the capillary vessel. The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine says that "the patient is treated with drugs internally and stone acupuncture externally. "In the old texts, the blood-letting therapy is mentioned as blood-letting, network vessel pricking, bloodletting, pricking, and arousing pulses etc and it is noted down as the method of network vessel pricking in 'On the Application of Needles' of Spiritual Pivot. Nine-pricking therapy, twelve-pricking therapy and five-pricking therapy are recorded in the methods of network vessel pricking and among them, the method of squeezing blood after pricking the affected part is explained as the network vessel pricking. There are four methods of network vessel pricking, pricking, picking, cluster needling and scatter-pricking and they are fluidly applied to the various symptoms of diseases. In 'On Discriminative Treating for Patients of Different Regions' in Elementary Questions, Ki-baek emphasizes "most of the local people, there are black in skin and loose in striate, and their diseases are mostly of carbuncle kind. It is suitable to treat the disease with stone therapy to prick with stone, so the stone therapy is transmitted from the east. "And in 'On the Corresponding Relation Between the Eum and Yang of Man and All Things' in Elementary Questions, when the Emperor asked Ki-Back, he answered "sthenia means the sthenia of evil, and deficiency means the deficiency of healthy energy. When the blood is sthenic, the evil should be discharged by pricking when out letting the blood; deficiency of vital energy is the asthenia of channels and network vessels, so the energy should drain from the channel which is not deficient, to replenish. "And in this case we can use the methods of 'Breaking out the static bloods', 'driving out the static bloods', blood-letting'. With this we can infer that the blood-letting therapy is made use of the important medical treatments from the ancient times. Especially in referring to the principles of treatment in The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine, it mostly alluded to acupuncture therapies and only eleven times to medicinal treatments. This is to verify that the blood-letting therapy formed the foundation of the medical art. In Dong's Therapy of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Bloodletting, Dong Kyeong-Chang gave emphasis on the points that there must be extravasated bloods without exception in the serious illnesses which is old, unnatural, accompanying acute pains and so we can revive our body‘s sprit by circulating 'gi' and static blood piled up in the network vessel, regulating the weakness and strength, and controling the disharmony of the internal organs. The blood-letting therapy has effect on the orifice in emergency, such as fore draining, freeing network vessels, harmonizing gi and blood, relieving pain, dispersing swelling and concretion, sedation, resolving toxin as well as strengthening the heart, relieving itching. So it has distinguished effect on all kinds of medical treatment to the modern people. But by the change of social customs and the confucianism of confucius - it is widely spread on the period of North and South Dynasties, 'Wi' and 'Jin' in china and the period of the Three States in korea - The blood-letting therapy which was regarded as the most important medicinal treatment withered rapidly. And Confucius accentuated the importance of our body and all its members, loyalty and filial piety and banned any damage of our body under no circumstances. As a result of it, the therapy of blood-letting had a rapid decrease and barely kept itself in existence in both countries. What is worse, at the period of Japanese colonial rule of korea and our nation's founding of early stage, it has been withered by the high-handed policy to change Oriental Medicine into modern medical science. So the therapy of blood-letting barely kept itself in existence in some Buddhist temples. Another case, it has handed down as a old-fashioned quick fix in folk remedies. But all kinds of the contamination of heavy metals and the misuses of antibiotics are widely spread nowadays, which increased diseases of adult people and incurable diseases as modern society unavoidably made its way into a highly industrial society. To make us more miserable, the western medical science - the antibiotics and surgical operation medical science - already reveals itself into a limit. The necessity of a new medical science which can give a security to the patients who are suffering from the diseases of adult people and the incurable diseases is especially come into the force nowadays. In view of the results after bibliographically studying on the blood-letting Therapy in Elementary Questions of the Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine, the blood-letting therapy has acted for the important Oriental medicinal science and has been clarified the prominent effects on the diseases of adult people and the incurable diseases. So it is regarded as an appropriate thing that we lay out a determined theory of the blood-letting therapy and of course prevent the unwanted side effects from inappropriate medicinal treatments, and make full use of clinic by elevating the curative value and that we win back our self-respect of medical treatment which is dominated from the western medical science and ultimately contribute to national medical welfare.

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The Factors affecting Burdens and Quality of Life of the Family Caregivers of Patients with Rare and Incurable Diseases Using Home Ventilators (가정용 인공호흡기를 적용한 희귀·난치성질환자를 돌보는 가족간호자의 부담감과 삶의 질 영향요인)

  • Hwang, Moon Sook;Lee, Mi Kyoung;Song, Jeong Rye
    • Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.191-202
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    • 2014
  • Purpose: This study was aimed to survey the actual caregiving conditions of family caregivers who are caring patients with rare and incurable diseases using home ventilators at home, and to clarify any factors affecting their burdens and quality of life. Methods: A questionnaire survey was performed by the 159 subjects, and the questionnaires contained the actual conditions of caregiving activities, and caregiver's burdens and quality of life. The collected data was analyzed by ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, and stepwise linear regressions. Results: The mean of burden scores was 3.55 out of 5, and influencing variables included the relationships with patient (spouse), respite (moderate), health status, and diagnosis (non ALS), with the explanatory power of 30.0%. The mean of the quality of life was 2.58 point, and the influencing variables included burdens, health status, and respite (enough), with the explanatory power of 39.0%. Conclusion: In order to improve the quality of life among family caregivers caring for patients with using a home ventilator, it is required to develop strategies for reducing caregiving burdens as well as to introduce family respite welfare systems to family caregivers.

Malignant Pleural Effusion: Medical Approaches for Diagnosis and Management

  • Nam, Hae-Seong
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.76 no.5
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    • pp.211-217
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    • 2014
  • Malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) are the second leading cause of exudative pleural effusions after parapneumonic effusions. In the vast majority of cases, a MPE signifies incurable disease associated with high morbidity and mortality. Considerable advances have been made for the diagnosis of MPEs, through the development of improved methods in the specialized cytological and imaging studies. The cytological or histological confirmation of malignant cells is currently important in establishing a diagnosis. Furthermore, despite major advancements in cancer treatment for the past two decades, management of MPE remains palliative. This article presents a comprehensive review of the medical approaches for diagnosis and management of MPE.

The Need for the Development of Pig Brain Tumor Disease Model using Genetic Engineering Techniques (유전자 조작기법을 통한 돼지 뇌종양 질환모델 개발의 필요성)

  • Hwang, Seon-Ung;Hyun, Sang-Hwan
    • Journal of Embryo Transfer
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.97-107
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    • 2016
  • Although many diseases could be treated by the development of modern medicine, there are some incurable diseases including brain cancer, Alzheimer disease, etc. To study human brain cancer, various animal models were reported. Among these animal models, mouse models are valuable tools for understanding brain cancer characteristics. In spite of many mouse brain cancer models, it has been difficult to find a new target molecule for the treatment of brain cancer. One of the reasons is absence of large animal model which makes conducting preclinical trials. In this article, we review a recent study of molecular characteristics of human brain cancer, their genetic mutation and comparative analysis of the mouse brain cancer model. Finally, we suggest the need for development of large animal models using somatic cell nuclear transfer in translational research.

Voice Features Extraction of Lung Diseases Based on the Analysis of Speech Rates and Intensity (발화속도 및 강도 분석에 기반한 폐질환의 음성적 특징 추출)

  • Kim, Bong-Hyun;Cho, Dong-Uk
    • The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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    • v.16B no.6
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    • pp.471-478
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    • 2009
  • The lung diseases classifying as one of the six incurable diseases in modern days are caused mostly by smoking and air pollution. Such causes the lung function damages, and results in malfunction of the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen in an alveolus, which the interest is augment with risk diseases of life prolongation. With this in the paper, we proposed a diagnosis method of lung diseases by applying parameters of voice analysis aiming at the getting the voice feature extraction. Firstly, we sampled the voice data from patients and normal persons in the same age and sex, and made two sample groups from them. Also, we conducted an analysis by applying the various parameters of voice analysis through the collected voice data. The relational significance between the patient and normal groups can be evaluated in terms of speech rates and intensity as a part of analized parameters. In conclusion, the patient group has shown slower speech rates and bigger intensity than the normal group. With this, we propose the method of voice feature extraction for lung diseases.

Reality and Meaning of Medicinal Treatments Appeared in Medicinal Fables - Based on Case Study of Ryu Ei-Tae Medicinal Tales (의료설화에 나타난 의학적 처치의 사실성과 의미 - 류의태 의료설화 사례를 중심으로)

  • Ku, Hyun-hee;Ahn, Sang-woo
    • The Journal of Korean Medical History
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.11-22
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    • 2010
  • This study finds an interesting fact that five symptoms (smallpox, postpartum pain, eye disease, swollen symptom and parasite infection) mentioned in Ryu Ei-Tae Medicinal Tales and his prescriptions (steamed rice, loess, soybean sprouts, cinnabar, radish, sesame oil and pork) were dramatized on the basis of traditional Korean medicinal knowledge in the Joseon Dynasty. Based on the study of experience-based medicinal literatures popular in the Joseon period, it is confirmed that the prescriptions are actually effective. Also it is inferred that popular diseases at that time were abscess, difficult baby delivery, postpartum pain and parasite infection, which were regarded as almost incurable diseases to ordinary people. These stories also showed destitution of common people who could not afford to buy medicines at that time. As shown in the Ryu Ei-Tae Medicinal Fable, many people might try various ordinary materials around them such as soil or nose wax. One of the outcomes of this study is that the fact that the tales mentioned common materials easy to get in the surroundings such as steamed rice, sesame oil, soybean sprouts or radish could be interprets as care and consideration of medicinal doctors for ordinary people at that time.

Recent Research Trends of Hataedock (하태독법의 최신 연구 동향)

  • Ju, Hyun Ju;Cheon, Jin Hong;Kim, Ki Bong
    • The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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    • v.34 no.4
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    • pp.31-42
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    • 2020
  • Objectives The purpose of this study is to perform a review on recent researches of Hataedock, a traditional method of removing fetal toxin by dropping herbal extracts in the mouth, to appraise its preventive and therapeutic effects of diseases. Methods Studies of Hataedock were extracted from both Chinese and Korean medical journals published within 10 years, from January 2010 to January 2020. Clinical studies and experimental researches were analyzed and categorized to skin disease, allergic rhinitis, intestinal mucosa inflammation and anal fistula for further evaluation. Results Among 194 studies were searched and screened, 22 met designated criteria. Hataedock showed the effectiveness in treating skin disease, allergic rhinitis, intestinal mucosa inflammation and anal fistula by maintaining skin barrier and regulating immune system. Coptis japonica, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, and Fermented Glycine max were mainly used as herbal extracts in Hataedock. Conclusion This study shows the recent research trends of Hataedock and suggests that Hataedock can be considered as a method of treatment or prevention to some of the incurable chronic diseases.

Acid sphingomyelinase inhibition improves motor behavioral deficits and neuronal loss in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mouse model

  • Byung Jo, Choi;Kang Ho, Park;Min Hee, Park;Eric Jinsheng, Huang;Seung Hyun, Kim;Jae-sung, Bae;Hee Kyung, Jin
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.55 no.12
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    • pp.621-626
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    • 2022
  • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable neurodegenerative disease characterized by the degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord. Main symptoms are manifested as weakness, muscle loss, and muscle atrophy. Some studies have reported that alterations in sphingolipid metabolism may be intimately related to neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS. Acid sphingomyelinase (ASM), a sphingolipid-metabolizing enzyme, is considered an important mediator of neurodegenerative diseases. Herein, we show that ASM activity increases in samples from patients with ALS and in a mouse model. Moreover, genetic inhibition of ASM improves motor function impairment and spinal neuronal loss in an ALS mouse model. Therefore, these results suggest the role of ASM as a potentially effective target and ASM inhibition may be a possible therapeutic approach for ALS.

Applications of CRISPR technologies to the development of gene and cell therapy

  • Chul-Sung Park;Omer Habib;Younsu Lee;Junho K. Hur
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.57 no.1
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    • pp.2-11
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    • 2024
  • Advancements in gene and cell therapy have resulted in novel therapeutics for diseases previously considered incurable or challenging to treat. Among the various contributing technologies, genome editing stands out as one of the most crucial for the progress in gene and cell therapy. The discovery of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and the subsequent evolution of genetic engineering technology have markedly expanded the field of target-specific gene editing. Originally studied in the immune systems of bacteria and archaea, the CRISPR system has demonstrated wide applicability to effective genome editing of various biological systems including human cells. The development of CRISPR-based base editing has enabled directional cytosine-to-thymine and adenine-to-guanine substitutions of select DNA bases at the target locus. Subsequent advances in prime editing further elevated the flexibility of the edit multiple consecutive bases to desired sequences. The recent CRISPR technologies also have been actively utilized for the development of in vivo and ex vivo gene and cell therapies. We anticipate that the medical applications of CRISPR will rapidly progress to provide unprecedented possibilities to develop novel therapeutics towards various diseases.