• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 2009

Adenoviral vector(AdV) has been the most widely used viral vector for delivering an exogenous therapeutic gene to human. As of this date, more clinical trials utilize recombinant AdV to treat cancer and monogenic inherited disease as well as vaccine applications. However, the number of clinical trials had dropped markedly following the tragic death of a patient ongoing an AdV therapy for the treatment of an ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency(OTCD). This review is an attempt to provide the information on toxicity generated by AdVmediated gene transfer. It would serve as a sobering reality to researchers and clinicians exploring the use of AdV, as to the complications involved in human application.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2009

There are relatively few novel antimicrobial agents despite the dramatic increase in antimicrobial resistance and multiple drug resistance of clinical isolates worldwide. Vancomycin is still the most widely used antibiotic for treating resistant Gram-positive coccal infections in children, especially for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. For children with Gram-positive coccal infections where vancomycin is not effective or older therapeutic agents cannot be tolerated, linezolid, quinupristin-dalfopristin or daptomycin may be useful in the appropriate clinical setting. For Gram-negative bacterial infections, new carbapenems await clinical application. Tebipenem pivoxil is a novel oral carbapenem undergoing clinical trials for acute otitis media in pediatric patients. Antiviral drug development is now progressing at the pace of antibiotic development 30 years ago. Newer antiviral agents used for the treatment of herpes viruses and hepatitis C virus infections in children are included in this review.

• Journal of Breast Cancer
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.343-353
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• 2018

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. In developed as well as developing countries, breast cancer is the most common cancer found among women. Currently, treatment of breast cancer consists mainly of surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and radiotherapy. In recent years, because of increased understanding of the therapeutic potential of immunotherapy in cancer prevention, cancer vaccines have gained importance. Here, we review various immunotherapeutic breast cancer vaccines including peptide-based vaccines, whole tumor cell vaccines, gene-based vaccines, and dendritic cell vaccines. We also discuss novel nanotechnology-based approaches to improving breast cancer vaccine efficiency.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.392-400
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• 2021

It has been more than a year since severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) first emerged. Many studies have provided insights into the various aspects of the immune response in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Especially for antibody treatment and vaccine development, humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 has been studied extensively, though there is still much that is unknown and controversial. Here, we introduce key discoveries on the humoral immune responses in COVID-19, including the immune dynamics of antibody responses and correlations with disease severity, neutralizing antibodies and their cross-reactivity, how long the antibody and memory B-cell responses last, aberrant autoreactive antibodies generated in COVID-19 patients, and the efficacy of currently available therapeutic antibodies and vaccines against circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, and highlight gaps in the current knowledge.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.183-187
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• 2022

The current Covid-19 pandemic has changed the entire world and bought so many unprecedented challenges to the scientific community. More than 5 million people died due to the SARS-COV-2 outbreak. For many thousands of years, ginseng, the traditional herb has been used for various infectious diseases by traditional healers. Ginseng showed promising antiviral effects by modulating both natural and acquired immunity. Ginseng might be used as a potential therapeutic agent to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection along with the vaccine. In this current review, we offer an alternative approach for SARS-COV-2 prevention during this unprecedented pandemic.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.341-347
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• 2004

Several gene delivery therapies are being developed for treatment of serum protein deficiency. EPO is one of the most promising therapeutic agent for this treatment which is currently being investigated in depth. This study has the ultimate purpose of improving the gene delivery system for an increase of red blood cell production. A plasmid DNA was constructed smaller than other plasmids for an increase in penetration into animal cells, and two genes were cloned into each vector as a co-delivery system to express erythropoietin, and interluekin-3 or thrombopoietin, which can act on erythroid cell, thus activating hematopoiesis synergically. This co-delivery system has an advantage of decreasing the labour required for industrial production of DNA vaccine. A new plasmid vector, pVAC, in size 2.9 kb, was constructed with the essential parts from PUC 19 and pSectagB, which is much smaller than other plasmid vector and is the size of 2.9 kb. Co-delivery system was constituted by cloning human erythropoietin with each of human interluekin-3 gene or human thrombopoietin gene into both pVAC and pSectagB. As a result, the transfection efficiency of pVAC was higer than that of pSectagB in vitro, and hematocrit level of the mice injected with pVAC is higher than that of other mice. And co-delivery system, made of several plasmid DNAs, was expressed in vitro.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.408-419
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• 2016

Background: In recent years, adjuvants have received increasing attention owing to the development of purified subunit and synthetic vaccines which are poor immunogens and require additional adjuvants to evoke an immune response. Therefore, immunologic adjuvants have been developed and tested. Plant polysaccharides have been recognized as effective biological response modifiers with low toxicity. Methods and Results: In this study, the polysaccharide from the aboveground part of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge containing immunomodulating arabino-3,6-galactan was evaluated for its hemolytic activity and adjuvant potential in the specific cellular and humoral immune responses to ovalbumin. The polysaccharide from the aboveground part of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge was co-immunized with the purified Vi capsular polysaccharide of Salmonella typhi vaccine in mice. The polysaccharide from the aboveground part of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge did not induce any hemolytic activity or side effects at doses up to $500{\mu}g/m{\ell}$. The concanavalin A-, lipopolysaccharide-, and ovalbumin-induced splenocyte proliferation and serum ovalbumin-specific IgG, IgG1 and IgG2b antibody titers in immunized mice were significantly enhanced by AMA. Pharmacological data revealed that the polysaccharide from the aboveground part of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge increased antigen-specific antibody levels in immunized mice. The polysaccharide from the aboveground part of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge-adjuvanted purified Vi capsular polysaccharide of Salmonella typhi vaccine improved the proliferation of splenocytes and macrophages as well as stimulated cytokine production. Conclusions: These results suggest that the polysaccharide from the aboveground part of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge-adjuvanted vaccines enhanced humoral and cellular immunity and that the polysaccharide from the aboveground part of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge is a safe and efficacious adjuvant candidate suitable for use in prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.171-173
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• 2003

Suspension culture in serum-free medium is important for the efficient large-scale culture of anchorage-dependent cells that are utilized to produce therapeutic recombinant protein(e.g., insulin, antibody, vaccine) and virus vector for therapeutic gene transfer. We developed a novel method for the suspension culture of anchorage-dependent animal cells in serum-free medium using biodegradable polymer nanospheres in this study. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) polymer nanospheres (433nm in average diameter) were used to the culture of human embryonic kidney 293 cells in serum-free medium in stirred suspension bioreactors. The use of PLGA nanospheres promoted the aggregate formation and cell growth (3.8-fold versus 1.8-fold growth), compared to culture without nanospheres. Adaptation of the anchorage-dependent cells to suspension culture or serum-free medium is time-consuming and costly. In contrast, the culture method developed in our study does not require the adaptation process. This method may be useful for the large-scale suspension culture of various types of anchorage-dependent animal cells in serum-free medium.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.311-316
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• 2022

Tertomotide is a peptide fragment of hTert and developed as a vaccine targeting cancer. It has been reportedly known to ameliorate inflammatory symptoms in clinical tests and in animal studies. However, the therapeutic potential of tertomotide is not supposed to be comparable to conventional anti-inflammatory agents due to low druglikeness In order to treat inflammations present in varous lesion, the structure of tertomotide is required to be modified. In this context, 12 octapeptides were designed based on tertomotide and screened for the anti-inflammatory activity in activated monocyte by measuring TNF-α secretion. As a result, some octapeptides has been exerted anti-inflammatory activity, comparable to or better than tertomotide and estradiol, known anti-inflammatory agents. This result is supposed to be helpful for developing therapeutic purpose exploiting other tertomotide-derived peptides and would be an example for designing novel drug based on active biomolecules with undesirable structure by convergence study of biology and computer-aided medicinal chemistry.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2008

Purpose : Better understanding of the epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae affects preventive and therapeutic strategies for children with otitis media. This study was undertaken to examine the prevalence of pneumococcal serotypes causing otitis media in children. Methods : Pneumococcal isolates obtained from the ear discharge of children with otitis media between January 2001 and December 2006 were characterized by serotyping and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Results : There were 54 pneumococcal isolates from 54 children with otitis media. The median age of patients was 13 months, and the proportion of children <5 years old was 81%. The predominant serotypes, in order of decreasing frequency, were 19A (44%), 19F(28%), 6B (7%), 6A (4%), 9V (4%), and 1 (4%); 23 isolates (43%) belonged to types included in the heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7). The proportion of serotype 19A and 19F accounted for 72% of overall pneumococcal isolates, which accounted for 84% of pneumococcal isolates from otorrhea of children <5 years old (vs 20% in children ${\geq}5$ years old, P<0.001). All serotypes isolated from 3 vaccinees of PCV7 were 19A. There was no significant diminution in otitis media caused by pneumococcal vaccine serotypes after the introduction of PCV7. The frequency of nonsusceptibility to penicillin, erythromycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was higher in serotype 19A than in other non-vaccine serotypes, respectively. The frequency of multiple drug resistance was 96% in serotype 19A, compared with 29% in other non-vaccine serotypes (P=0.001). Conclusion : 19A was the most common pneumococcal serotype causing otitis media and represented a large proportion of strains with multiple drug resistance in children younger than 5 years of age.