• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.398-407
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• 2009

In modern diet relying heavily on processed food, it is difficult to live without food additives, added to food regardless of whether consumers want or not. This poses the following questions: Are food additives really safe? Are they toxic? Are they cancerous? Are they still good to eat? Are there any concerns on excessive intake and interactions? Is toxicity testing adequate? Is ADI evaluation being set up properly? In this article, I discuss a desirable management strategy for food additives, by addressing these questions and concerns and analyzing and reviewing current status of food additive management.

• International Journal of Heart Failure
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.107-116
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• 2024

Frailty is highly prevalent among patients with heart failure (HF) and independently predicts adverse outcomes. However, optimal frailty definitions, assessments, and management in HF remain unclear. Frailty is common in HF, affecting up to 80% of patients depending on population characteristics. Even pre-frailty doubles mortality risk versus robust patients. Frailty worsens HF prognosis through systemic inflammation, neurohormonal changes, sarcopenia, and micronutrient deficiency. Simple screening tools like gait speed and grip strength predict outcomes but lack HF-specificity. Comprehensive geriatric assessment is ideal but not always feasible. Exercise, nutrition, poly-pharmacy management, and multidisciplinary care models can help stablize frailty components and improve patient-centred outcomes. Frailty frequently coexists with and exacerbates HF. Routine frailty screening should guide supportive interventions to optimize physical, cognitive, and psychosocial health. Further research on HF-specific frailty assessment tools and interventions is warranted to reduce this dual burden.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.81-89
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• 2011

Medication adherence is an important public health issue. This study is conducted to explore non-adherence of elderly with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus and to better understand its' influencing factors. To explore non-adherence, 605 elderly patients in community were surveyed with Modified Morisky Scale (MMS), from Aug 18 to Sept 19, 2008. MMS is designed to predict medication-taking behavior and outcomes, and also to explain persistence of the patient's long-term continuation of therapy, which is a significant factor in the long-term management of chronic diseases. Also, MMS is designed to classify patients into a high/low continuum for knowledge and motivation. Patients self reported medication adherence were average 4.66 with MMS (range 0-6), only 78% of patients hold high motivation of medication adherence although 95.5% of patients hold high knowledge of medication adherence. This study explores which factors influence to high motivation of medication adherence and it proved that patients' participation in work, education level, participation in private health insurance, number of medication and medication frequency per day, pharmacists' explanation, experience of non adherence due to cost are important factors to explain high motivation of medication adherence of elderly with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.263-272
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• 2011

Tablet dosage forms have been preferred over other formulations for the oral drug administration due to their low manufacturing costs and ease of administrations, especially controlled-release applications. Controlled-release tablets are oral dosage forms from which the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is released over an intended or extended period of time upon ingestion. This may allow a decrease in the dosing frequency and a reduction in peak plasma concentrations and hence improves patient compliance while reducing the risk of undesirable side effects. Conventional singlelayered matrix tablets have been extensively utilized to deliver APIs into the body. However, these conventional single-layered matrix tablets present suboptimal delivery properties, such as non-linear drug delivery profiles which may cause higher side effects. Recently, a multi-layered technology has been developed to overcome or eliminate the limitations of the singlelayered tablet with more flexibility. This technology can give a good opportunity in formulating new products and help pharmaceutical companies enhancing their life cycle management. In this review, a brief overview on the multi-layered tablets is given focusing on the various tablet designs, manufacturing issues and drug release profiles.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.80-85
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• 2012

Previously, we have reported that arachidonic acid (AA) appears to be involved in the induction of apoptosis in HepG2 human hepatoblastoma cells. In this study we investigated the possible role of the NADPH oxidase, a membranebound enzyme generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), in the mechanism of AA-induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells. Apoptotic cell death induced by AA was significantly suppressed by various inhibitors of the NADPH oxidase, diphenylene iodonium (DPI), apocynin (Apo) and neopterine (NP). In addition, these inhibitors of the NADPH oxidase completely blunted the AA-induced ROS elevation. Next, we investigated the implication of metabolic pathway of AA in these AA actions. Both apoptosis and ROS production induced by AA were not significantly altered by treatment with indomethacin (Indo) or nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), selective inhibitors of cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX), respectively, suggesting that AA metabolites produced by COX or LOX may not have an essential role in the AA-induced apoptosis and ROS generation. Collectively, these results suggest that the NADPH oxidase may be a key player in the mechanism of AA-induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells. These results further suggest that NADPH oxidase may be a good target for the management of human hepatomas.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2011

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) is one of the promising anti-cancer agent because of its ability to selectively induce apoptosis in tumor cell lines but not in normal cells. However, TRAIL resistance has been reported in some cancer cells including hepatocarcinoma cells. Therefore, studies of agents that sensitize TRAIL-resistant cancer cells could be a effective therapeutic approach in cancer management. In our study, we examined the effect of combination of TRAIL with apigenin in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. As a result, the combined use of TRAIL and apigenin significantly enhanced the cytotoxicity in PLC-PRF5 cells. Flow cytometry analysis after annexin V-FITC/PI dual staining showed that this increase of cell cytotoxicity was related to enhanced apoptosis in combined treatment of TRAIL with apigenin. Furthermore, synergistic induction of apoptosis was also confirmed by observation of morphological changes and annexin V-FITC/PI fluorescence. Our findings suggests that apigenin has the potential to improve the efficiency of TRAIL-based therapies in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Further study is needed to reveal the molecular mechanisms of this combined therapy.

• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.174-181
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• 2018

A number of genes have been therapeutically targeted to relieve cancer, but cancer relapse is still a growing issue. The concept that the surrounding tumor environment is critical for the progression of cancer may foster an answer to the issue of cancer malignancy. Runt domain transcription factors (RUNX1, 2, and 3) are evolutionarily conserved and have been intensively studied for their roles in normal development and pathological conditions. During tumor growth, a hypoxic microenvironment and infiltration of the tumor by immune cells are common phenomena. In this review, we briefly introduce the consequences of hypoxia and immune cell infiltration into the tumor microenvironment with a focus on RUNX3 as a critical regulator. Furthermore, based on our current knowledge of the functional role of RUNX3 in hypoxia and immune cell maintenance, a probable therapeutic intervention is suggested for the effective management of tumor growth and malignancy.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.432-441
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• 2013

It's been almost 20 years since the adoption of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in Korea since 1994. There have been big progresses in the GMP regulations and its implementations. 'New GMP' in 2008 has adopted validation, pre-approval GMP evaluation, annual quality review, etc.. Upon the submission of PIC/S (Pharmaceutical Inspection Cooperation Scheme) application by Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in April, 2012, Korea is facing new opportunity to level up Korea GMP regulations. As such, this study suggested GMP revision points by comparing and analyzing the differences between PIC/S GMP and Korea GMP. Those areas which GMP is not required such as radiopharmaceuticals and medical gases should adopt GMP. And independent GMP regulation is needed for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and investigational medicinal products. Also, those regulations shall be implemented in the higher level of legal status. Finally, rather than pursuing GMP harmonization only for PIC/S membership, GMP improvement in the long term shall be taken into consideration by reflecting current quality issues such as ICH Q8 (Pharmaceutical development), Q9 (Quality Risk Management) and Q10 (Pharmaceutical Quality System).

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.36-47
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• 2019

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 ($HIF-1{\alpha}$) is a transcription factor activated in response to low oxygen level, and is highly expressed in many solid tumors. Moreover, $HIF-1{\alpha}$ is a representative biomarker of hypoxia and also helps to maintain cell homeostasis under hypoxic condition. Most solid tumors show hypoxia, which induces poor prognosis and resistance to conventional cancer therapies. Thus, early diagnosis of hypoxia with positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer would be highly beneficial for management of malignant solid tumors with effective cancer therapy. YC-1 is a most promising candidate among several $HIF-1{\alpha}$ inhibitors. As an effort to develop a hypoxia imaging tool as a PET radiotracer, we designed and synthesized [$^{18}F$]DFYC based on potent derivative of YC-1 and performed preliminary in vitro cell uptake study. [$^{18}F$]DFYC showed a significant accumulation in SKBR-3 cells among other cancer cells, proving as a good lead to develop a hypoxic solid tumor such as breast cancer.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 2023

The rapid development of mRNA vaccines has contributed to the management of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, suggesting that this technology may be used to manage future outbreaks of infectious diseases. Because the antigens targeted by mRNA vaccines can be easily altered by simply changing the sequence present in the coding region of mRNA structures, it is more appropriate to develop vaccines, especially during rapidly developing outbreaks of infectious diseases. In addition to allowing rapid development, mRNA vaccines have great potential in inducing successful antigen-specific immunity by expressing target antigens in cells and simultaneously triggering immune responses. Indeed, the two COVID-19 mRNA vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have shown significant efficacy in preventing infections. The ability of mRNAs to produce target proteins that are defective in specific diseases has enabled the development of options to treat intractable diseases. Clinical applications of mRNA vaccines/therapeutics require strategies to safely deliver the RNA molecules into targeted cells. The present review summarizes current knowledge about mRNA vaccines/ therapeutics, their clinical applications, and their delivery strategies.