• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.126-129
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• 2015

Essure (Bayer) received approval from the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration as a permanent non-hormonal contraceptive implant in November 2002. While the use of Essure in the management of hydrosalpinx prior to in vitro fertilization (IVF) remains off-label, it has been used specifically for this purpose since at least 2007. Although most published reports on Essure placement before IVF have been reassuring, clinical experience remains limited, and no randomized studies have demonstrated the safety or efficacy of Essure in this context. In fact, no published guidelines deal with patient selection or counseling regarding the Essure procedure specifically in the context of IVF. Although Essure is an irreversible birth control option, some patients request the surgical removal of the implants for various reasons. While these patients could eventually undergo hysterectomy, at present no standardized technique exists for simple Essure removal with conservation of the uterus. This article emphasizes new aspects of the Essure procedure, as we describe the first known association between the placement of Essure implants and the subsequent development of fluid within the uterine cavity, which resolved after the surgical removal of both devices.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.41-46
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• 2014

IVM refers to the maturation of immature oocytes in culture after their recovery from small antral follicles at the stage prior to selection and dominance. IVM requires little or no FSH in vivo and has been proposed as an alternative to conventional IVF, since it reduces the primary adverse effects caused by controlled ovarian stimulation, including the ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Moreover, IVM is a promising option for cases for which no standard protocol is suitable, such as FSH resistance, contraindications for ovarian stimulatory drugs, and the need for urgent fertility preservation. Recently, IVM has been used in women with regular cycles and normal ovaries. However, the pregnancy rate following IVM is suboptimal compared with that of conventional IVF, indicating that further studies to optimize the protocol and the culture conditions are warranted.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.1109-1113
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• 2007

Acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS, EC 2. 2. 1. 6) is the enzyme that catalyses the first step in the common pathway of the biosynthesis of the branched chain amino acids, valine, leucine and isoleucine. For the first time, the AHAS gene from Bacillus anthracis was cloned into the expression vector pET28a(+), and was expressed in the E. coli strain BL21(DE3). The purified enzyme was checked on 12% SDS-PAGE to be a single band with molecular weight of 65 kDa. The optimum pH and temperature for B. anthracis AHAS was at pH 7.5 and 37 oC, respectively. Kinetic parameters of B. anthracis were as follows: Km for pyruvate, K0.5 for ThDP and Mg2+ was 4.8, 0.28 and 1.16 mM respectively. AHAS from B. anthracis showed strong resistance to three classes of herbicides, Londax (a sulfonylurea), Cadre (an imidazolinone), and TP (a triazolopyrimidine). These results indicated that these herbicides could be used in the search for new anti-bacterial drugs.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.552-558
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• 2016

Severe complications associated with EV71 infections are a common cause of neonatal death. Lack of effective therapeutic agents for these infections underlines the importance of research for the development of new antiviral compounds. In the present study, the anti-EV71 activity of norwogonin, oroxylin A, and mosloflavone from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi was evaluated using a cytopathic effect (CPE) reduction method, which demonstrated that all three compounds possessed strong anti-EV71 activity and decreased the formation of visible CPEs. Norwogonin, oroxylin A, and mosloflavone also inhibited virus replication during the initial stage of virus infection, and they inhibited viral VP2 protein expression, thereby inhibiting viral capsid protein synthesis. However, ribavirin has a relatively weaker efficacy compared to the other drugs. Therefore, these findings provide important information that will aid in the utilization of norwogonin, oroxylin A, and mosloflavone for EV71 treatment.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.190-195
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• 2000

In the previous reports, we selected 80% MeOH extract of 7 herbs including Scutellariae Radix(SR), Paeoniae Radix Rubra(PRR), Moutan Cortex(MC), Angelicae Gigantis Radix(AGR), Crataegi Fructus(CF), Bambusae Caulis in Taeniam(BCT) and Cinnamomi Ramulus(CR), which exhibited the inhibitory effect on HMG-CoA reductase and DPPH free radical scavenging effect in vitro, and antihyperlipidemic effects on antihyperlipidemic rats induced by Triton WR 1339 in vivo. Among them, SR, MC, AGR and BCT showed significant suppression of elevated serum LDL-cholesterol level, and AGR and CF showed significant liver weight increase on high cholesterol diet induced hyperlipidemic mice. And, SR, PRR, AGR, BCT and CR significantly suppressed the elevated serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels on corn oil induced hyperlipidemic rats. Then, in order to research new antihyperlipidemic agents from the oriental medicinal herbs, we chose SR, AGR, CR and BCT which have the antihyperlipidemic effect in vitro and in vivo, and those herbs were systematically fractionated with organic solvent. EtOAc fraction of SR, hexane fraction of BCT, AGR and chloroform fraction of CR exhibited remarkably inhibitory effect on HMG-CoA reductase activity.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.372-378
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• 1994

Choleretic effect and absorption of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in rats were studied using UDCA alone and it's ${\beta}-cyclodextrin$ $({\beta}-CyD)$ inclusin complex (UDCA-IC). In spite of increase in solubility and dissolution rate, absorption of UDCA-IC was decreased compared with UDCA alone. Choleretic effect of UDCA-IC was also decreased. It looks that UDCA forms stronger inclusion complex with ${\beta}-CyD$ than any other drug or organic biological material. From this study, it was suggested that UDCA might be used as a new potential competing agent when inclusion complexes of drugs with ${\beta}-CyD$ were administered for the improvement of poor bioavailability.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.89-105
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• 1998

In the past decade, significant progress has been achieved in the battle against hepatitis B virus. In addition to the immunomodulating agents such as interferon-.alpha., and thymosin, many novel antiviral agents have been discovered, among which nucleoside analogues are the mainstay. New-generation compounds such as 3TC and famciclovir have shown promise in the treatment of patients chronically infected by this virus, and are on the line for approval. However, viral rebound after cessation of therapy still remains a major problem. Additionally, the reports on the drug resistance to these antiviral agents suggest that combination therapy will be the eventual strategy (Bartholomew et al., 1997; Tipples et al., 1996). Therefore, developments of safe and effective antiviral agents which do not cross-resist with currently available antiviral drugs are still much needed.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.690-696
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• 1996

It has been known that many kinds of cancer are caused by continued proliferation or abnormal differentiation. Thus, recent approaches to anticancer therapy have been focused on developing drugs that induce differentiation of cancer cells to normal cells. A typical differentiation agent, all trans-retinoic acid, is unsuitable for anticancer drug because all trans-retinoic acid produces unfavorable side effects and cytotoxicity in normal cells. Therefore, we have screened some new differentiation-inducing compounds obtained from marine organisms using F9 teratocarcinoma stem cells as a model system. We observed that fatty acid. glycolipid, saponin, sphingosine and sterol compounds of marine organisms had differentiation-inducing activity in F9 cells, were determined by morphological changes and Northern blot analysis. The expression of differentiation marker genes, such as laminin B1, type IV collagen and retinoic acid receptor beta were induced by treatment with those compounds.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.419-425
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• 2016

This study analyzed research methodologies based on network pharmacology to build a new system architecture optimized for Korean Medicine research. Results form studies using network pharmacology were collected and analyzed to evaluate the strength and weakness. Finally, an improved system architecture was proposed. Whether the predicted effects of drugs or herbs from network pharmacological analyses were in agreement with those from conventioanl knowledge of Korean Medicine was evaluated. These results were used to verify the applicability of research methodologies to the modern pharmacology and Korean Medicine respectively. Eighteen papers using TCMSP were collected and analyzed. The results suggest that the research methodology based on network pharmacology is appropriate only for the modern pharmacology but not for Korean Medicine. Information about compound-compound, herb-herb and drug-compound interactions need to be considered. We propose the modified system architecture with those information.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2123-2128
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• 2014

A current hurdle in cancer management is the intrinsic or acquired resistance of cancer cells to chemical agents that restricts the efficacy of therapeutic strategies. Accordingly, there is an increasing desire to discover new natural compounds with selective toxicity to combat malignancies. In present study, the cytotoxic and apoptosis-inducing activities of ferutinin, a terpenoid derivative from Ferula ovina, were investigated on human breast (MCF7) and bladder (TCC) cancer cells as well as normal fibroblasts (HFF3).The toxicity and DNA damage inducing effects of ferutinin were studied by MTT and comet assays, DAPI and PI staining and DNA laddering. The $IC_{50}$ values of ferutinin were identified and compared with routine prescribed drugs, doxorubicin and vincristine, by MTT test. Alkaline comet assay and DAPI staining revealed DNA damage due to ferutinin, which was significantly (p<0.001) higher in MCF7 and TCC than HFF3 cells. Apoptosis induction was evidenced by PI staining and DNA laddering. Our results suggest that ferutinin could be considered as an effective anticancer agent for future in vivo and clinical experiments.