• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.70-76
• /
• 2009

Thirty six essential oils from herb drugs entered in Korean official formulary, which are frequently used in oriental region, were tested for antibiotic resistance inhibition. When the oils were combined with ampicillin (Am) or amoxicillin (Amx) they showed significant inhibitory effects on the growth of multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus SA2 in considerably low concentration. The most effective combinations were oils from Acanthopanacis Cortex ($0.49{\mu}g/mL$) with Am and Cnidii Rhizoma and Lonicerae Flos (2.77 and $2.79{\mu}g/mL$, respectively) with Amx as shown in minimum resistance inhibitory concentrations.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.62-66
• /
• 1998

The resistance inhibitory activities of 54 odorant mixtures (essential oil) from 41 Korean aromatic herbs were tested against multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus SA2, which has resistances to 10 usual antibiotics including chloramphenicol. As results, combinations of 28 kinds of samples from 21 herbs and chloramphenicol have resistance inhibitory activities in dose dependent manner.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.44 no.3
• /
• pp.336-343
• /
• 2006

We compared the antimicrobial resistance and clonal relationships among the community-acquired (CA) and hospital-acquired (HA) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains that were isolated from blood cultures in a university hospital over a 4-year period. A total of 131 MRSA isolates, including 28 CA-MRSA and 103 HA-MRSA strains, were identified; antimicrobial susceptibility testing indicated that the CA-MRSA isolates were more susceptible to erythromycin (21 % vs 6% ; P=0.02), clindamycin (46% vs 12%; P<0.01), ciprofloxacin (43% vs 11%; P<0.01), and gentamicin (43% vs 6%; P<0.01) than were the HA-MRSA isolates. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing and antimicrobial resistance profiles separated the 20 CA-MRSA isolates into 14 and 10 different patterns, respectively, and the 53 HA-MRSA isolates were separated into 24 and 7 different patterns, respectively. Twenty-one (40%) of the 53 HA-MRSA isolates belonged to two predominant PFGE types, and most of them showed multi-drug resistant patterns. Four (20%) of the 20 CA-MRSA and 10 (19%) of the 53 HA-MRSA isolates fell into two common PFGE patterns, and each of them showed the same multi-drug resistant pattern. This study suggests that, although the CA-MRSA blood isolates showed diverse PFGE and antimicrobial resistance patterns, some of these isolates may have originated from the HA-MRSA strains.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.107-114
• /
• 2009

Tuberculosis is a disease with high morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. Despite significant improvements in diagnostic methods, scientific researches and clinical trials for new regimens of treatment or prevention in adult tuberculosis, childhood tuberculosis has been relatively neglected. Children are at high risk of severe disease, and reactivation of latent infection in adulthood perpetuates the epidemic. Therefore, a policy of tuberculosis control in childhood should be emphasized to improve control in the total population. To understand the new view of childhood tuberculosis, this article describes changes in the disease's national epidemiology, new diagnostic tools and treatment strategies, and multi-drug resistance.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
• /
• v.48 no.3
• /
• pp.217-224
• /
• 2016

Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is prevalent in hospital environments and is an important opportunistic pathogen of nosocomial infection. It is known that this pathogen cause herd infection in hospitals, and the mortality rate is remarkably higher for patients infected with this pathogen and already have other underlying diseases. Herein, we investigated the antibiotic resistance rate and the type of resistance genes in 85 isolates of multi-drug resistant A. baumannii from the samples commissioned to laboratory medicine in two university hospitals-in hospital A and hospital B-located in Cheonan and Chungcheong provinces, respectively, in Korea. As a result, $bla_{OXA-23-like}$ and $bla_{OXA-51-like}$ were detected in 82 stains (96.5%). These 82 strains of $bla_{OXA-23-like}$ producing A. baumannii were confirmed with the ISAba1 gene found at the top of the $bla_{OXA-23-like}$ genes by PCR, inducing the resistance against carbapenemase. The armA, AME gene that induces the resistance against aminoglycoside was detected in 34 strains out of 38 strains from Hospital A (89.5%), and in 40 strains out of 47 strains from Hospital B (85.1%), while AMEs were found in 33 strains out of 38 strains from Hospital A (70.2%) and in 44 strains out of 47 strains in Hospital B (93.6%). Therefore, it was found that most multi-drug resistant A. baumannii from the Cheonan area expressed both acethyltransferase and adenyltransferase. This study investigated the multi-drug resistant A. baumannii isolated from Cheonan and Chungcheong provinces in Korea, and it is thought that the results of the study can be utilized as the basic information to cure multi-drug resistant A. baumannii infections and to prevent the spread of drug resistance.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.264-269
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the disinfecting efficacy of peracetic acid (PAA), sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and phenol, which are representative disinfectants in medical environments using four types of multi-drug resistance (MDR) clinical isolates with healthcare-associated infections (HAI). 26 antibiotic susceptibility tests were conducted for the four types of MDR clinical isolates in the same way as for clinical specimens. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the disinfectants were determined by using in vitro liquid medium dilution method and inoculation of the plate medium. Both the MIC and MBC of phenol against MRSA and VRE were 3.1%, while those against KPC and MRPA were 6.2%. The MIC and MBC of peracetic acid (PAA) against MRSA, VRE, KPC, and MRPA were 0.18%. The MIC and MBC of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) against MRSA were 0.39% and 0.78%, respectively. Both values of MIC and MBC were 0.78% for VRE. In addition, KPC and MRPA showed 0.39% for MIC and 0.78% for MBC. For all MDR strains used in this study, sodium hypochlorite and peracetic acid showed significant sterilizing efficiency, while no clear correlation was identified between antibiotic resistance clinical isolated and ability of disinfection.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.587-593
• /
• 2021

Infertility is a key issue affecting mood and behavior in men. Microorganisms are one of the primary etiological agents that may be associated with infertility. The objective of the present study was to identify bacterial causative agents from the semen of infertile subjects and determine the effect of bacterial infection on sperm quality, as well as determine the susceptibility of these bacteria to drugs. Forty semen samples from 30 infertile patients and 10 fertile individuals were collected. The pH, volume, motility, and concentration of semen were analyzed. The samples were processed and identified by biochemical testing using API identification kits. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern was determined using the disc diffusion method. Abnormal sperm quality was observed. The mean age of the individual and their sperm morphology, concentration, progressive motility, pH level, and pus cell content were 31.9 years, 2.7%, 10.4 million/ml, 27.3%, 8.3, and 5.7, respectively. Among the tested samples, oligoasthenozoospermia was found to show the highest occurrence, at 27/30 samples, followed by teratozoospermia, at 25/30 samples, and asthenozoospermia, at 22/30 samples. Of the tested infertile patients' sperm, 19, 6, and 5 isolates were identified as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Staphylococcus epidermidis, respectively. The results also revealed multi-drug resistance in the bacteria. Compared to that shown by the other tested antibiotics, amikacin showed higher activity against all isolated bacteria. However, the bacteria exhibited maximum resistance against gentamicin, cefotaxime, levofloxacin, and ampicillin. In conclusion, leukocytospermia and bacterial infections are possibly responsible for sperm abnormalities. Multi-drug resistant bacteria were detected. Gentamicin, cefotaxime, levofloxacin and ampicillin were shown the highest resistance, while amikacin was the most effective antimicrobial agent against the isolated bacteria.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.56 no.5
• /
• pp.302-307
• /
• 2023

Lyn, a tyrosine kinase that is activated by double-stranded DNA-damaging agents, is involved in various signaling pathways, such as proliferation, apoptosis, and DNA repair. Ribosomal protein S3 (RpS3) is involved in protein biosynthesis as a component of the ribosome complex and possesses endonuclease activity to repair damaged DNA. Herein, we demonstrated that rpS3 and Lyn interact with each other, and the phosphorylation of rpS3 by Lyn, causing ribosome heterogeneity, upregulates the translation of p-glycoprotein, which is a gene product of multidrug resistance gene 1. In addition, we found that two different regions of the rpS3 protein are associated with the SH1 and SH3 domains of Lyn. An in vitro immunocomplex kinase assay indicated that the rpS3 protein acts as a substrate for Lyn, which phosphorylates the Y167 residue of rpS3. Furthermore, by adding various kinase inhibitors, we confirmed that the phosphorylation status of rpS3 was regulated by both Lyn and doxorubicin, and the phosphorylation of rpS3 by Lyn increased drug resistance in cells by upregulating p-glycoprotein translation.

• Journal of Gynecologic Oncology
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.89.1-89.8
• /
• 2018

Objective: Highly effective chemotherapy for patients with low-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) is associated with almost a 100% cure rate. However, 20%-30% of patients treated with chemotherapy need to change their regimens due to severe adverse events (SAEs) or drug resistance. We examined the treatment outcomes of second-line chemotherapy for patients with low-risk GTN. Methods: Between 1980 and 2015, 281 patients with low-risk GTN were treated. Of these 281 patients, 178 patients were primarily treated with 5-day intramuscular methotrexate (MTX; n=114) or 5-day drip infusion etoposide (ETP; n=64). We examined the remission rates, the drug change rates, and the outcomes of second-line chemotherapy. Results: The primary remission rates and drug resistant rates of 5-day ETP were significantly higher (p<0.001) and significantly lower (p=0.002) than those of 5-day MTX, respectively. Forty-seven patients (26.4%) required a change in their chemotherapy regimen due to the SAEs (n=16) and drug resistance (n=31), respectively. Of these 47 patients failed the first-line regimen, 39 patients (39/47, 82.9%) were re-treated with single-agent chemotherapy, and 35 patients (35/39, 89.7%) achieved remission. Four patients failed second-line, single-agent chemotherapy and eight patients (17.0%) who failed first-line regimens were treated with combined or multi-agent chemotherapy and achieved remission. Conclusions: Patients with low-risk GTN were usually treated with single-agent chemotherapy, while 20%-30% patients had to change their chemotherapy regimen due to SAEs or drug resistance. The second-line regimens of single-agent chemotherapy were effective; however, there were several patients who needed multiple agents and combined chemotherapy to achieve remission.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.396-400
• /
• 2015

Enterobacteriaceae is one of the major families responsible for public health threats. Due to the emergence of pathogens with antibiotic resistance, great concern has been raised regarding the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in natural environments. Therefore, the diversity of Gram negative Enterobacteriaceae was investigated in water samples collected from five streams in Korea using the cultivation method. Profiling of multi-drug resistance was conducted with isolates via disk diffusion assay. The results indicated that the Gram negative Enterobacteriaceae consisted of the following genus; Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Escherichia, Klebsiella, Kluyvera, Pantoea, Plesiomonas, Raoultella, Shigella and Enterobacter. These latter strains represented 49% of identified isolates. In addition, 78.3% of the identified genus exhibited resistance against more than seven out of thirteen tested antibiotics, suggesting a high prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria in natural environments.