• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.26-34
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• 2006

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of group therapeutic exercise programs on the cognitive function, Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and balance-performing ability in older adults. Fifteen community-dwelling subjects (mean age 73.7 yrs, standard deviation 2.4) participated in this study. An 8-week group therapeutic exercise program, including strengthening and balance training, breathing and gait exercise, and recreation, consisted of activities related to daily living. The Mini-Mental State Examination-Korean (MMSE-K), Modified Barthel Index (MBI), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Functional Reaching Test (FRT), and Timed Up & Go (TUG) test were measured during pre-exercise and post-exercise points. The results of this study were as follows: 1. After eight weeks, the MMSE-K and MBI total score was more significantly increased for post-exercise tests than pre-exercise tests (respectively, p<.05, p<.01). 2. Of the MBI contents, personal hygiene, dressing, ambulation, and chair/bed transfers scores were significant increased for post-exercise tests. 3. Post exercise BBS, FRT, and TUG scores were higher than the pre-exercise scores. The difference was statistically significant (respectively, p<.05, p<.05, p<.01). These findings suggest that group therapeutic exercise can be used to improve the cognitive function, ADL, and balance-performing ability in elderly persons.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.817-822
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• 1995

Even though back pain therapy has greatly improved as spinal bio-mechanics is introduced, many patients still have difficulties due to low back pain. At the initial therapeutic stage, the aim of rehabilitation therapy for low back pain is pain control, but, at the later therapeutic stage, the prime aims are to reduce the late complication and to prevent the recurrence of low back pain. Accurate diagnosis should be a first step before any therapy is planned. Thus, accurate physical, neurologic, E.M.G. and radiologic tests are required to give prescription for therapeutic exercise to the patients. In addition to this, the roles of theraphists and therapeutic exercise should be re-evaluated after the therapeutic exercise is performed. Fist of all, the most important things are to educate the patients to understand the low back pain and to let the patients join the therapeutical planning. 1. Bed rest and muscle relaxing exercise for releasing the muscle tention are required for the treatment of acute low back pain. An active exercise is recommended rather than a passive exercise. If the therapeutic exercise depravate the low back pain, the exercise should be immediately terminated and the therapeutical exercise should be replanned. 2. For the treatment of the chronic back pain, stretching exercise and para-spinal muscle strengthening exercise should be performed steadily and actively to prevent the recurrence of low back pain and the low back injury due to minor damage. The patients should be educated to do proper exercise and to maintain good posture in everyday life. 3. As the low back pain is released and the body function is recovered, control of whole body function is necessary. Swiming, bicycling and walking for $30\sim40$ minutes a day and $3\sim4$ days a week are recommended. Other exercise could be recommended depending on the patients condition.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2006

The NFAT family of transcription factors plays pivotal roles in the development and function of the immune system. Their activation process is tightly regulated by calcium-dependent phosphatase calcineurin and has been a target of the immunosuppressive drugs cyclosporin A and FK-506. Although the clinical use of these drugs has dramatically increased the success of organ transplantation, their therapeutic use is limited by severe side effects. Recent studies for the calcineurin/NFAT signaling pathway have identified a number of cellular proteins that inhibit calcineurin function. Specific peptide sequences that interfere with the interaction between calcineurin and NFAT have also been characterized. Moreover, diverse approaches to identify small organic molecules that modulate NFAT function have been performed. This review focuses on the recent advances in our understanding of the inhibitory modulation of NFAT function, which may open up the additional avenues for immunosuppressive therapy.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.1197-1205
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• 2014

Typical clinical dose development studies consist of the comparison of several doses of a drug with a placebo. The primary interest is to find therapeutic window that satisfying both efficacy and safety. In this paper, we propose nonparametric method for identifying effective and safe doses in linear placement using score function. The Monte Carlo simulation is adapted to estimate the power and the family-wise error rate(FWE) of proposed procedure are compared with previous methods.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.69-82
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• 2012

Objectives : To establish objective and scientific evidence of Korean medicine (KM), the papers on Oryeong-san (Wuling-san) frequently used in medical institutions of Korean Medicine were analyzed. Methods : The papers were classified by the registration of domestic or international journals, the year of publication, experimental fields and the kinds of studies on biological activities. The therapeutic mechanism was investigated in accordance with therapeutic effect of Oryeong-san (Wuling-san). Results : Out of 57 articles selected, 16 were published in domestic journals, 17 were in Chinese journals and 24 were in Japanese journals. Most papers reported as biological activities were on improvement of renal function. Oryeong-san (Wuling-san) increased urine factor such as urine excretion and electrolyte balance while decreasing proteinuria, serum factors including creatinine, cholesterol and triglyceride. In addition, injured renal tissue was recovered normally and gene expression controlling urine excretion was down-regulated. Conclusions : Improvement of renal function could be interpreted as objective and scientific evidence for Oryeong-san (Wuling-san).

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.199-209
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• 2020

Purpose: This study examined the prevalence of depressive symptoms and psycho-behavioral factors affecting depressive symptoms in patients with osteoarthritis. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled a convenience sample of 157 patients with osteoarthritis in a university hospital between March and December 2018. Depressive symptoms, osteoarthritis function, therapeutic self-efficacy, and health-related quality of life (QoL) were measured using structured questionnaires. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate factors affecting depressive symptoms. Results: The mean age of participants was 73.3 years with 76.4% of them being women. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 38.5%. Patients with depressive symptoms were more likely to be currently smoking and had an occupation and worse flexibility function associated with osteoarthritis. Whereas they were less likely to engage in regular physical activity and had a low level of therapeutic self-efficacy and perceived health-related QoL. Conclusion: Therapeutic self-efficacy to regular physical activity, including flexibility function may be primary factors influencing depressive symptoms in patients with osteoarthritis. With the management of osteoarthritis, psycho-behavioral factors should be considered in developing interventions to prevent depressive symptoms in patients with osteoarthritis.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.175-180
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• 2015

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effects of mirror-neuron-system-based action observation physical training on improvements in upper extremity functions and daily living activities in chronic stroke patients. Methods: Ten chronic stroke patients were randomly selected. As a therapeutic intervention, along with conventional occupational therapy, the patients engaged in action observation physical training through repeated imitation practices after they viewed a video. The therapeutic intervention was implemented for 20 minutes, three times each week for eight weeks. A Manual Function Test (MFT) was conducted to compare upper extremity functions before and after the therapeutic intervention, and the Modified Barthel Index (MBI) was used to compare the ability to perform daily living activities. Results: Significant improvements in upper extremity motor functions and the ability to perform daily living activities were shown after the intervention. The subjects' left upper extremity motor functions and ability to perform daily living activities showed significant improvement after the intervention. Conclusion: The study's results indicate that action observation physical training based on the mirror neuron system improves chronic stroke patients' upper extremity motor functions and their ability to perform daily living activities. Therefore, action observation training has positive effects on the functional recovery of chronic stroke patients.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.336-343
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• 2023

Lung cancer is one of the cancers with high mortality and incidence rates worldwide. Although, various anticancer research efforts are underway to completely treat cancer, the challenge against it remains in the inability to eliminate cancer stem cells (CSCs), leading to difficulties in curing the cancer and resulting in recurrence. As a result, there is a growing interest in the discovery of new biomarkers and therapeutic molecules that can simultaneously target both cancer cells and CSCs. From this point of view, we focused on fibronectin leucine rich transmembrane protein 3 (FLRT3), one of the genes known to be present in human lung cells and the discovery from our previous cancer proteomic analysis study. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of FLRT3 as a specific therapeutic biomarker for lung cancer and Lung Cancer-derived-Stem Cells (LCSC). Also, to estimate the biological function of FLRT3 in cancer and LCSC, short hairpin RNA (shRNA) was generated and showed the ability of the decreased-cell migration and cell proliferation of lung cancer through ERK signaling pathway when FLRT3 was knock-downed. In conclusion, our study is the first to report that FLRT3 has the potential as therapeutic biomarker for the treatment of lung cancer and LCSC.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2023

RNAs are versatile molecules that are primarily involved in gene regulation and can thus be widely used to advance the fields of therapeutics and diagnostics. In particular, circular RNAs which are highly stable, have emerged as strong candidates for use on next-generation therapeutic platforms. Endogenous circular RNAs control gene regulatory networks by interacting with other biomolecules or through translation into polypeptides. Circular RNAs exhibit cell-type specific expression patterns, which can be altered in tissues and body fluids depending on pathophysiological conditions. Circular RNAs that are aberrantly expressed in diseases can function as biomarkers or therapeutic targets. Moreover, exogenous circular RNAs synthesized in vitro can be introduced into cells as therapeutic molecules to modulate gene expression networks in vivo. Depending on the purpose, synthetic circular RNA sequences can either be identical to endogenous circular RNA sequences or artificially designed. In this review, we introduce the life cycle and known functions of intracellular circular RNAs. The current stage of endogenous circular RNAs as biomarkers and therapeutic targets is also described. Finally, approaches and considerations that are important for applying the available knowledge on endogenous circular RNAs to design exogenous circular RNAs for therapeutic purposes are presented.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.9-21
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• 2006

Purpose: This study was intended to examine the effects of electroacupuncture and therapeutic exercise on muscle atrophy and exercise function in an ischemic stroke model induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion. Methods: This study selected 120 Sprangue-Dawley rats, 8-week of age, divided them into six groups, and assigned 5 rats to each group. Experiments were conducted for 1, 3 days, 1, and 8 weeks, respectively. Group I was a group of electroacupuncture and therapeutic exercise after inducing ischemic stroke; Group II was a group of therapeutic exercise after inducing ischemic stroke; Group III was a group of electroacupuncture after inducing ischemic stroke; Group IV was a sham group of electroacupuncture after inducing ischemic stroke; Group V was a control group and Group VI was a sham group without ischemic stroke. In each group, changes in weight of muscle and relative muscle of TA muscle, neurologic motor behavior test, histologic observations were observed and analyzed. Results: For the changes in muscle weight of unaffected and affected sides of TA muscle, muscle atrophy was seen in an affected side 3 days after ischemic stroke was induced. There was statistically significant difference in Group I 1 week and 8 weeks after ischemic stroke was induced, compared to Group V (p<0.05). For the changes in relative muscle weight of unaffected and affected sides of tibial anterior muscle, there was significant decrease in each group 3 days after ischemic stroke was induced, compared to Group IV, while there was statistically significant increase in Group I 1 week after ischemic stroke was induced, compared to Group V (p<0.05). For neuologic exercise behavior test, Group I generally had the highest score, compared to other groups. Conclusion: electroacupuncture and therapeutic exercise may improve muscle atrophy and change in histologic observations expression of ischemic stroke rats and contribute to the improvement of exercise function.