• Toxicological Research
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• v.17
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• pp.211-216
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• 2001

Drugs can have various adverse effects on the immune system including unintended immun-osuppression, induction of both drug-specific immune responses (including drug allergies) and non-specific immunostimulation (including autoimmune reactions), and direct activation of effector mechanisms (such as histamine release). As a practical matter, the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDER) relies on standard non-clinical toxicology studies to detect unintended immunosuppression. Specific assays using guinea pigs and mice are available to identify drugs that can induce immune-mediated dermal hypersensitivity reactions. Respiratory and systemic hypersensitivity and autoimmune reactions are more difficult to model in non-clinical studies. Unintended nonspecific immunstimulation can be detected in animal studies. CDER is currently developing specific guidance for evaluating potential drug immunotoxicity.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.230-237
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• 2018

Objective: To compare adverse event reporting patterns between ethical-the-counter and over-the-counter drugs from community pharmacies and outpatient settings. Methods: We conducted a descriptive study using the adverse event reporting database, wherein data were collected from the regional pharmacovigilance centers of the Korean Pharmaceutical Association between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016. The reported drugs were classified into either ethical-the-counter or over-the-counter drugs, and we compared the distribution of patient age and gender, frequent adverse events and medications, serious adverse events, and causality assessment results, where causality assessments were performed according to the World Health Organization-The Uppsala Monitoring Centre's system. Results: We included 17,570 reports (75,451 drug-adverse event pairs). Ethical-the-counter and over-the-counter drugs accounted for 81.4% and 18.6% of the total adverse event reports, respectively. The use of over-the-counter drugs was higher in females and patients aged <18 years, whereas the use of ethical-the-counter drugs was higher in those aged >65 years. Alimentary tract and metabolism drugs, and respiratory system drugs were the most frequent ethical-the-counter and over-the-counter drugs, respectively. From causality assessment results, "possible" (75.4%) was the most commonly assigned category for ethical-the-counter drugs, while "possible" (44.0%) and "unlikely" (47.7%) were the most common categories for over-the-counter drugs. The distribution of serious adverse events were similar for both ethical-the-counter and over-the-counter drugs. Conclusion: Differences were observed in age, gender, reported medications, and symptoms for both ethical-the-counter and over-the-counter drugs. Further pharmacovigilance activities considering the adverse event characteristics of over-the-counter drugs, which are comparable to ethical-the-counter drugs, should be performed.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2010

Inhalational drug is an attractive modality for local therapy of pulmonary diseases as well as systemic drug delivery. Flower of Lonicera japonica (FLJ) and flower of Tussilag farfara (FTF) are medicinal herbs for respiratory disease in traditional Korean medicine. As a preliminary study for effective inhalable formulation of FLJ and FTF, this study was to provide the toxicity and anti-inflammatory effect on murine macrophages. The dried FLJ and FTF were extracted with distilled water, filtered and freeze-dried. After treatment with FLJ and FTF extract on RAW 264.7 cells, the cell viabilities were measured by MTT assay. FLJ and FTF did not show cytotoxicity on RAW 264.7 cells. LPS stimulated RAW 264.7 cells were treated with 3 and $30\;{\mu}g/ml$ of FLJ or FTF. FLJ and FTF did not inhibit TNF-a and IL-6 secretion in both concentration of treatment. We suggest that FLJ and FTF may be useful drugs for respiratory disease. Future work will focus on the physical characteristics for inhalable formulation.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.135-158
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• 2010

The purpose of this survey was to find out the actual condition and the problems of combined medications of patients who have general diseases, respiratory diseases. The objects of this survey were 1,769 outpatients who visited 8 Oriental hospitals and Seoul national university hospital respiratory clinics. SPSS program was used to analyze the survey data. The mean age of patients was lower in oriental hospital than in western hospital. The monthly family incomes were higher in oriental hospital patients than in western hospital patients. The condition of patients was better in oriental hospital than western hospital and self-assessed health status was more positive in oriental hospital patients than in western hospital patients. The percentage of having experienced of treated in oriental and western hospital at the same time was 21% in western hospital patients and 45% in oriental hospital patients. In patients with respiratory diseases, the percentage of having taken combined medications was 40.2% in oriental hospital and 13.7% in western hospital. In patients with non-respiratory diseases, the percentage of having taken combined medications was 27.4% in oriental hospital and 8.3% in western hospital. And in the patients with two different diseases, the percentage of having taken combined medications was 27.9% in oriental hospital and 6.3% in western hospital. The percentage of having experienced synergistic effects was 33.0% in western hospital and 56.3% in oriental hospital. The percentage of side effects was 12.6% in western hospital and 12.2% in oriental hospital. This survey was meaningful in that it reported the actual condition of combined medications of patients who have general diseases, respiratory diseases. For the deep study on synergistic and side effects of combined medications, it is necessary to collect many cases of synergistic and side effects by doctors in western and oriental hospitals.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.252-266
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• 2020

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious pneumonia that has spread throughout the world. It is caused by a novel, single stranded RNA virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Genetic analysis revealed that, phylogenetically, the SARS-CoV-2 is related to severe acute respiratory syndrome-like viruses seen in bats. Because of this, bats are considered as a possible primary reservoir. The World Health Organization has declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. As of May 27, 2020, more than 5,406,282 confirmed cases, and 343,562 confirmed deaths have been reported worldwide. Currently, there are no approved vaccines or antiviral drugs available against COVID-19. Newly developed vaccines are in the first stage of clinical trials, and it may take a few months to a few years for their commercialization. At present, remdesivir and chloroquine are the promising drugs for treating COVID-19 patients. In this review, we summarize the diversity, genetic variations, primary reservoirs, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment strategies, and future prospects with respect to controlling the spread of COVID-19.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.206-210
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• 2003

Eosinophilic lung diseases are heterogenous disorder which are characterized by the presence of pulmonary symptoms or an abnormal chest radiograph accompanied by inflammatory cellular infiltrates in the airways and lung parenchyma which contain large numbers of eosinophils. The incidence of drug-induced pulmonary disorder is increasing, with at least 40 drug entities having been reported to cause this pulmonary disease. However, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are rarely mentioned in the lists of drugs in published articles describing drug induced eosinophilic pneumonia. The following is a case of eosinophilic pneumonia that we believe was related to ibuprofen therapy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.78 no.1
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• pp.27-30
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• 2015

The drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptom (DRESS) syndrome is a severe adverse drug-induced reaction which includes a severe skin eruption, fever, hematologic abnormalities (eosinophilia or atypical lymphocytes) and internal organ involvement. The most frequently reported drug was anticonvulsants. The diagnosis of DRESS syndrome is challenging because the pattern of cutaneous eruption and the types of organs involved are various. The treatments for DRESS syndrome are culprit drug withdrawal and corticosteroids. Here we report a 71-year-old man with skin eruption with eosinophilia and hepatic and renal involvement that appeared 4 weeks after he had taken anti-tuberculosis drugs (isoniazid, ethambutol, rifampicin, and pyrazinamide), and resolved after stopping anti-tuberculosis drugs and the administration of systemic corticosteroids. DRESS recurred after re-challenging isoniazid, we identified isoniazid was causative drug.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2023

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious respiratory disease caused by a severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 infection may cause clinical manifestations of multiple organ damage, including various neurological syndromes. There are currently two oral antiviral drugs-Paxlovid and molnupiravir-that are recognized to treat COVID-19, but there are still no drugs that can specifically fight the challenges of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor pyrin domain-containing-3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is a multimolecular complex that can sense heterogeneous pathogen-associated molecular patterns associated with neurological disorders. The NLRP3 activation stimulates the production of caspase-1-mediated interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18, and other cytokines in immune cells. Panax (P.) ginseng is a medicinal plant that has traditionally been widely used to boost immunity and treat various pathological conditions in the nervous system due to its safety and anti-inflammatory/oxidant/viral activities. Several recent reports have indicated that P. ginseng and its active ingredients may regulate NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the nervous system. Therefore, this review article discusses the current knowledge regarding the pathogenesis of neurological disorders related to COVID-19 and NLRP3 inflammasome activation and the possibility of using P. ginseng in a strategy targeting this pathway to treat neurological disorders.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.525-533
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• 1997

Background : No ideal combination chemotherapy for lung cancer has been established even though lots of combination anticancer chemotherapies have been tried. For the combination of anticancer drugs, the interaction of anticancer drugs is very important but unpredictable factor. In this experiment, we designed and tested new experiment to measure the interaction of two anticancer drugs using MIT assay in an attempt to predict clinical response of the combination regimen. Methods : With human lung adenocarcinoma cell line (PC-14), the cytotoxic effect of cisplatin, adriamycin, mitomycin C and etoposide were measured by in vitro chemosensitivity test (MIT assay). The combined cytotoxic effects of combination of two drugs were also measured in every combination of the drug concentrations and analyzed the interaction by Anava analysis of two way factorial design. Results : Four individual drugs showed cytotoxic effects on PC-14 by dose dependent fashion. Comparison of two drug combinations revealed that mitomycin C + cisplatin and adriamycin + cisplatin combinations showed stronger synergistic cytotoxic effects. Conclusion : From this experiment, we suggest two combinations of mitomycin C + cisplatin and adriamycin + cisplatin as chemotherapeutic regimens for unresectable non-small cell lung cancer. Furthermore, this experimental design could be applied to other types of cancer requiring combination anticancer chemotherapy.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.219-228
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• 2014

Objectives: This paper was aimed to investigate the adhesion control standards of pain relieving patch (PRP) drugs and to survey it's adverse effects on the skin of patients for safe use of PRP drugs. Methods: In this study, the related documents of PRP drugs of Korea pharmacopoeia (KP), United States pharmacopoeia (USP), Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JP), European pharmacopoeia (EP), and information web sites of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) were surveyed. Also, the past and current labeling of PRP drugs marketed in the pharmacy was investigated and compared. Results: In KP and JP, the lower limit standard for PRP's adhesion control is established, but the upper limit standard is not designated. In USP and EP, neither the lower nor upper limit standard is established. The main reasons of skin adverse effects are considered as inherent adverse reactions of the applied drugs for PRP. Another reason is involved in patient's medication mistakes related to PRP's adhesion control, respiratory depression of skin according to physical skin closure, and microbial growth, etc. Conclusion: For safe use of PRP drugs, we proposed ensured guidelines like additional instructions of pharmacist's prescription and detailed labeling systems for usage of PRP drugs applied on skin.