• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.804-812
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• 2020

The giant mealworm beetle, Zophobas atratus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) has been used as a protein source for small pets and mammals. Recently, it was temporarily registered in the list of the Food Code. We previously performed an in silico analysis of the Zophobas atratus transcriptome to identify putative antimicrobial peptides and identified several antimicrobial peptide candidates. Among them, we assessed the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities of zophobacin 1 that was selected bio-informatically based on its physicochemical properties against microorganisms and mouse macrophage Raw264.7 cells. Zophobacin 1 showed antimicrobial activities against microorganisms without inducing hemolysis and decreased the nitric oxide production of the lipopolysaccharide-induced Raw264.7 cells. Moreover, ELISA and Western blot analysis revealed that zophobacin 1 reduced expression levels of pro-inflammatory enzymes such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). We also investigated expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6 and interleukin-1β) production through quantitative real time-PCR and ELISA. Zophobacin 1 markedly reduced the expression level of cytokines through the regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling. We confirmed that zophobacin 1 bound to bacterial cell membranes via a specific interaction with lipopolysaccharides. These data suggest that zophobacin 1 could be promising molecules for development as antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory therapeutic agents.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2017

Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 deficiency (CPS1D) is an autosomal recessive disorder of the urea cycle that causes hyperammonemia. Two forms of CPS1D are recognized: a lethal neonatal type and a less severe, delayed-onset type. Neonatal CPS1D cases often present their symptoms within the first days of life. Delayed-onset cases are predominantly adolescents or adults, and infantile delayed-onset cases are rare. Severe hyperammonemia in the neonatal period leads to serious brain damage, coma, and death if not treated promptly. Therefore, early diagnosis and acute treatment are crucial. Despite the improvement of treatments, including continuous hemodialysis, ammonia-lowering agents, and a low-protein diet, the overall outcome of severe forms of hyperammonemia often remains disappointing. As the liver is the only organ in which ammonia is converted into urea, liver transplantation has been considered as an elegant and radical alternative therapy to classical dietary and medical therapies. However, liver transplantation has many disadvantages, such as a considerable risk for technical complications and perioperative metabolic derangement, especially in neonates. Additionally, there is a lack of suitable donor organs in most countries. According to recent studies, liver cell transplantation is a therapeutic option and serves as a bridge to liver transplantation. Here, we report a Korean CPS1D patient with novel mutations in CPS1 who was treated by liver cell transplantation after being diagnosed in the neonatal period and showed a good neurodevelopmental outcome at the last follow-up at six months of age.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.207-215
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• 2003

Purpose: Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), which is part of the mitogen-activated protin kinase cascade, opposes initiation of the apoptotic cell death which is programmed by diverse cytotoxic stimuli. In this regard, the inhibition of ERK may be useful in improving the therapeutic efficacy of established anticancer agents. Materials and Methods: Murine hepatocarcinoma, HCa-I is known to be highly radioresistant with a TCD50 (radiation dose yield in $50\%$ cure) of more than 80 Gy. Various anticancer drugs have been found to enhance the radioresponse of this particular tumor but none were successful. The objective of this study was to explore whether the selective inhibition of MEK could potentiate the antitumor efficacy of radiation in vivo, particularly in the case on radioresistant tumor. C3H/HeJ mice hearing $7.5\~8\;mm$ HCa-I, were treated with PD98059(intratumoral injection of $0.16\;\mug/50\;\mul$). Results: Downregulation on ERK by PD98059 was most prominent 1h after the treatment. In the tumor growth delay assay, the drug was found to Increase the effect of the tumor radioresponse with an enhancement factor (EF) of 1.6 and 1.87. Combined treatment of 25 Gy radiation with PD98059 significantly increased radiation induced apoptosis. The peak apoptotic index (number on apoptotic nuclei in 1000 nuclei X100) was $1.2\%$ in the case of radiation treatment alone, $0.9\%$ in the case of drug treatment alone and $4.9\%,\;5.3\%$ in the combination treatment group. An analysis of apoptosis regulating molecules with Western blotting showed upregulation of p53, p$p21^{WAF1/CIP1}\;and\;Bcl-X_s$ in the combination treatment group as compared to their levels in either the radiation alone or drug alone treatment groups. The level of other molecules such as $Bcl-X_L4, Bax and Bcl-2 were changed to a lesser extent. Conclusion: The selective inhibition of MEK in combination with radiation therapy may have potential benefit in cancer treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.480-486
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• 2004

Despite many therapeutic advances in the understanding of the processes in carcinogenesis, overall mortality statistics are unlikely to change until there is reorientation of the concepts for the use of natural products as new anticarcinogenic agents. In this study, we investigated the anticarcinogenic activity, antioxidant and DPPH scavenging activity of Sargassum fulvellum (SF). SF was extracted with methanol, which was further fractionated into five different types: hexane (SFMH), ethylether (SFMEE), ethyl acetate (SFMEA), butanol (SFMB) and aqueous (SFMA) partition layers. We determined the cytotoxic effect of these layers on human cancer cells by MTT assay. Among various partition layers of SF, at starting concentration of 100 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL, SFMEE showed very high cytotoxicity which were 92, 90 and 84% and kept high throughout 5 concentration levels sparsed by 100 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL against all three human cancer cell lines: HepG2, HT-29 and HeLa. SFMEA showed a low cytotoxicity at the beginning concentration level, but as the concentration became denser, growth inhibition effect of cancer cell lines started to increase and at 500 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL, it hit the highest, which were 91, 96 and 98% against the same three cell lines as above. We observed QR induced effect in all fraction layers of SF. SFMEE showed similar tendensy of QR induced effect as did against cytotoxicity. The QR induced effect of SFMEE on HepG2 cells at 25 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL concentration indicated 3 times higher than the control value of 1.0 and SFMH tended to be concentration-dependent on HepG2 cells. At 100 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL, the QR induced effects resulted a ratio, which was 2.5 times higher than the control value. In search for antioxidation effects of SF extract and partition layer, the reducing activity on the 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging potential was sequentially screened. The SFM has similar antioxidant activity as to BHT and vitamin C groups.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.30-35
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• 2008

In order to investigate whether or not CCD-986sk cell line can be affected by Korean Ecklonia stolonifera Okamura, we examined the MTT assay when we treated Korean Ecklonia stolonifera Okamura extract in CCD-986sk human fibroblast cell line. The sample were tested for cell proliferation activity by means of a modification of the MTT assay. Ecklonia stolonifera Okamura extract showed significantly strong cell proliferation activity at the range of from 6.25 mg $mL^{-1}$ to 1.56 mg $mL^{-1}$ compared with control group. And in order to search for inhibition agents of skin melanin formation, we tested for inhibition effect of melanin pigmentation of Korean Ecklonia stolonifera Okamura using Clone M-3 mouse melanocyte cell lines. when we treated the extracts of Ecklonia stolonifera Okamura to the mouse melanocyte cell lines, the sample showed a significantly little formation of melanin pigments compared with control group at the only range of 200 mg $mL^{-1}$. These results suggest that extract of Korean Ecklonia stolonifera Okamura may represents an excellent candidate for inhibition of melanin pigmentation and for protection of human skin aging at in vitro level.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.181-186
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• 2009

Purpose : Inflammation plays a potential role in the pathogenesis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Strategies for preventing BPD include respiratory management, antioxidants, nutritional treatment, and others such as anti-inflammatory agents. We aimed to assess the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of montelukast (MK), a cysteinyl leukotriene 1 receptor antagonist, as an add-on therapy in BPD. Methods : In addition to currently available standard measures such as oxygen supplementation, bronchodilators, nutritional support, and/or diuretics, montelukast was administered to 15 preterm infants with BPD. MK was given orally (1 mg/kg/d) for a mean period of 12 weeks. We compared safety and efficacy parameters with historical controls. Results : All 15 patients survived, and no differences were found in the incidence of adverse reactions between the 2 groups. The ventilation index was significantly improved after 2 weeks in MK group compared with historical controls. There were no significant differences in other respiratory parameters (MAP, oxygen dependency, and ventilator dependency) between the groups, but the MK group showed trends of greater improvement. Conclusion : Administration of MK 1 mg/kg/d was well tolerated in preterm BPD patients as an add-on therapy. We demonstrated that after 2 weeks of MK administration of 1 mg/kg/d, MK had beneficial therapeutic effects on BPD patients as an add-on to the standard therapy. Further multicenter randomized controlled clinical trials are needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of MK as a useful supplement to standard therapy for BPD patients.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2003

Neurodegenerative disorders are associated with apoptosis as a causing factor or an inducer. On the other hand, it has been reported that epigallocatechin gallate (EUG), one of antioxidants and flavonoids, and z-VAD-fmk, a nonselective caspase inhibitor, suppress oxidative-radical-stress-induced apoptosis. However, it is not yet known what is the effects of EGCG and z-VAD-fmk on the apoptotic pathway is through phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), Akt and glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) as well as mitochondria, caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). We investigated the effects of EGCG by using $H_2O_2$ treated N18D3 cells, mouse DRG hybrid neurons. Methods: Following 30 min $100\;{\mu}m\;H_2O_2$ exposure, the viability of N18D3 cells (not pretreated vs. EGCG or z-VAD-fmk pretreated) was evaluated by using MTT assay. The effect of EGCG on immunoreactivity (IR) of cytochrome c, caspase-3, PARP, PI3K/Akt and GSK-3 was examined by using Western blot, and was compared with that of z-Y4D-fmk. Results: EGCG or z-VAD-fmk pretreated N18D3 cells showed increased viability. Dose-dependent inhibition of caspase-3 activation accompanied by PARP cleavage were demonstrated by pretreatment of both agents. However, inhibition of cytochrome c release was only detected in EGCG pretreated N18D3 cells. On the pathway through PI3K/Akt and GSK-3, however, the result of Western blot in EGCG pretreated N18D3 cells showed decreased IR of Akt and GSK-3 and increased IR of p85a PI3K, phosphorylated Akt and GSK-3, and contrasted with that in z-VAD-fmk pretreated N18D3 cells showing no changes on each molecule. Conclusion: These data show that EGCG affects apoptotic pathway through upstream signal including PI3K/Akt and GSK-3 pathway as well as downstream signal including cytochrome c and caspase-3 pathway. Therefore, these results suggest that EGCG mediated activation of PI3K/Akt and inhibition GSK-B could be new potential therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative diseases associated with oxidative injury.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.150-155
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• 2003

Background: We investigated the effect of donor marrow T cell depletion, administration of FK506, cyclosporin A (CSA), and 3-deazaadenosine (DZA) on graft versus host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic murine hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Methods: We used 4 to 6 week old Balb/c ($H-2^d$, recipient), and C3H/He ($H-2^k$, donor) mice. Total body irradiated recipients received $1{\times}10^7$ bone marrow cells (BM) and $0.5{\times}10^7$ splenocytes of donor under FK506 (36 mg/kg/day), CSA (5 mg/kg/day, 20 mg/kg/day), and DZA (45 mg/kg/day), which were injected intraperitoneally from day 1 to day 14 daily and then three times a week for another 2 weeks. To prevent the GVHD, irradiated Balb/c mice were transplanted with $1{\times}10^7$ rotor-off (R/O) cells of donor BM. The severity of GVHD was assessed daily by clinical scoring method. Results: All experimental groups were well grafted after HSCT. Mice in experimental group showed higher GVHD score and more rapid progression of GVHD than the mice with R/O cells (R/O group) (p<0.01). There were relatively low GVHD scores and slow progressions in FK506 and low dose CSAgroups than high dose CSA group (p<0.01). The survival was better in FK506 group than low dose CSA group. All mice treated with CSA died within 12 days after HSCT. The GVHD score in DZA group was low and slow in comparison with control group (p<0.05), but severity and progression were similar with low dose CSA group (p=0.11). All mice without immunosuppressive treatment died within 8 days, but all survived in R/O group (p<0.01). Survival in low dose CSA group was longer than in control group (p<0.05), but in high dose CSA group, survival was similar to control group. The survival benefit in DZA group was similar with low dose CSA group. FK506 group has the best survival benefit than other groups (p<0.01), comparable with R/O group (p=0.18), although probability of survival was 60%. Conclusion: We developed lethal GVHD model after allogeneic murine HSCT. In this model, immunosuppressive agents showed survival benefits in prevention of GVHD. DZA showed similar survival benefits to low dose CSA. We propose that DZA can be used as a new immunosuppressive agent to prevent GVHD after allogeneic HSCT.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.226-233
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• 2004

Background : Interferon-gamma (IFN-${\gamma}$) is a critical cytokine in the defense against a Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Even though IFN-${\gamma}$ has occasionally been used in the treatment of refractory multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) with some promising results, there is still some controversy regarding the therapeutic efficacy of IFN-${\gamma}$. This study was performed to examine the effect of subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ in the treatment of MDR-TB patients. Methods : Six patients with refractory MDR-TB were enrolled in this study. Two million IU of IFN-${\gamma}$ was administered subcutaneously three times a week with the concomitant administration of antituberculous drugs for at least for 28 weeks. During the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy, the sputum smear and culture, radiological and clinical evaluations were performed every 4 weeks throughout the study period. Results : The mean age of the 6 patients was 37 years (ranges, 15-61 years). The drug susceptibility test to standard antituberculous drugs revealed resistance to an average of 6.8 (${\pm}1.2$) agents including isoniazid and rifampicin. An average of 10.8 (${\pm}1.3$) antituberculous drugs were prescribed before IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy. The culture became negative in 2 patients (33%) after initiating IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy; one at 8 weeks, and the other at 24 weeks. Finally, after stopping the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy after 28 weeks, the culture became positive again in the two patients who were culture-negative. The other 4 patients who failed in the culture conversion are still on antituberculous treatment except for one who died of tuberculosis. Conclusion : Even though 28 weeks of subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy in combination with antituberculous drugs was successful in inducing the culture-negative conversion in some patients with refractory MDR-TB, the culture became positive again after stopping the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy. This suggests that subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy may have suppressive effect on tuberculosis only during the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy period in some patients. Further studies will be needed to determine the optimum dose, the administration route, the duration of therapy, and the predicting factors of the response to adjuvant IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.295-303
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• 2003

Backgroung : The incidence of penicillin-resistant streptococcus pneumoniae(PRSP) accounts for almost 70% of all pneumococcal pneumonia cases in Korea. It is still unclear as to whether the efficacy of penicillin or equally active beta-lactam agents is compromised in PRSP pneumonia. This study investigated the prevalence of PRSP in community-acquired pneumonia and its clinical course. Methods : A total of 42 patients with community-acquired pneumococcal pneumonia were evaluated from July 1999 to May 2001. The cultured strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae were divided into susceptible, intermediately resistant, and resistant strains by an E-test, and the effect of the clinical course was investigated. Results : From a total of 42 patients, 22 (52.4%) patients had an intermediate resistance (MIC $0.1-1{\mu}g/m{\ell}$) and six (14.3%) showed a high resistance ($MIC{\geq}2.0{\mu}g/m{\ell}$) with current penicillin susceptibility categories. However, according to the classification of the DRSPTWG (Drug Resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae Therapeutic Working Group), there were 11 cases (26.2%) of intermediate resistance and no case of high resistance. Under empirical antimicrobial treatment, there was no difference in the clinical outcome between the penicillin susceptible and resistant group. Conclusion : The clinical outcome of PRSP pneumonia with empirical therapy was acceptable. These results suggest that the current MIC breakpoint for penicillin resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae has been set at a very low level and penicillin resistance according to the NCCLS classification does not significantly influence the outcome of the empirical treatment for pneumococcal pneumonia.