• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2016

Objectives : The present study was conducted to evaluate protective effects of Combined Extract of young persimmon fruit and citrus peel (PCM) in Reflux Esophagitis(RE) rats.Methods : Twenty-four Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided four groups and each group had six rats ; Normal group, RE control group, RE group treated PCM 50 ,100 mg/kg body weight group. Reflux esophagitis was induced that tied the pylorus and fundus in SD rats stomach. PCM was administered at 50, 100 mg/kg body weight 2 hrs prior to induction of RE. After 6 hrs, the effects of PCM treated rats were compared with those of normal and control rats. We have performed an analysis such as pH of stomach secretion, oxidative stress biomarkers in serum, and western blot.Results : The increased esophageal mucosa damage by RE was markedly improved by PCM treatment in a dose-dependent manner. Also, the administration of PCM decreased the elevated serum reactive oxygen species (ROS) and peroxynitrite (ONOO^-) in serum. The protein expressions of anti oxidant such as SOD, catalase, GPx exhibited down-regulation by PCM treatment in tissues. And, PCM effectively reduce inflammatory cytokines such as inflammation-related proteins cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) in RE rats. In addition, NFκB and p-IκBɑ were decreased in PCM-adiministrated RE rats. But there was no difference on stomach secretion pH between reflux esophagitis rats and PCM administration rat group.Conclusions : In conclusion, administration of PCM (50, 100 mg/kg body weight) made esophagus have less inflammation and injury by decreased NFκB path way. These findings suggest that PCM could have Improving effects on reflux esophagitis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.4623-4628
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• 2015

Breast cancer still remains as the most frequent cancer with second mortality rate in women worldwide. There are no validated biomarkers for detection of the disease in early stages with effective power in diagnosis and therapeutic approaches. Cancer/testis antigens are recently promising tumor antigens and suitable candidates for targeted therapies and generating cancer vaccines. We conducted the present study to analyze transcript changes of two cancer/testis antigens, OIP5 and TAF7L, in breast tumors and cell lines in comparison with normal breast tissues by quantitative real time RT-PCR for the first time. Significant over-expression of OIP5 was observed in breast tumors and three out of six cell lines including MDA-MB-468, T47D and SKBR3. Not significant expression of TAF7L was evident in breast tumors but significant increase was noted in three out of six cell lines including MDA-MB-231, BT474 and T47D. OIP5 has ssignificant role in chromatin organization and cell cycle control during cell cycle exit and normal chromosome segregation during mitosis and TAF7L is a component of the transcription factor IID, which is involved in transcription initiation of most protein coding genes. TAF7Lis located at X chromosome and belongs to the CT-X gene family of cancer/testis antigens which contains about 50% of CT antigens, including those which have been used in cancer immunotherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.2725-2729
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• 2015

Background: Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) and prostate cancer are the most frequent cancers in the male genitourinary tract. Measurement of biological biomarkers may facilitate clinical monitoring and aid early diagnosis of TCC. The aim of the present investigation was to detect the mRNA levels of S100A12 and RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation end products) in patients suffering from bladder TCC. Materials and Methods: To explore the involvement of S100A12 and RAGE genes, total RNA was harvested from cancer tissues and samples obtained from normal non-tumorized urothelium of the same patients. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) was subsequently employed to determine the mRNA levels of S100A12 and RAGE. Results: The results showed that mRNA expression of S100A12 and RAGE was significantly up-regulated in the cancer tissue. Conclusions: According to the results presented in the current study, mRNA expression of S100A12 and RAGE might be as a useful biomarker for TCC. Therefore, this ligand-receptor axis possibly plays important roles in the development of TCC and may serve either as an early diagnostic marker or as a key factor in monitoring of response to treatment. More research is required concerning inhibition of the S100A12-RAGE axis in different cancer models.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.2113-2118
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• 2013

Aim and Background: Cervical cancer remains the third most common cancer in women globally after breast and colorectal cancer. Well-characterized biomarkers are necessary for early diagnosis and to predict metastatic progression and effective therapy. MiRNAs can regulate gene expression, cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis by targeting mRNAs for translational repression or degradation in tumor cells. The present study was conducted to assess expression of miR93, miR200a, RECK, MMP2, MMP9 in invasive cervical carcinoma, and analyze their clinical significance. Method: A total of 116 patients with invasive cervical carcinoma and 100 patients undergoing hysterectomy for benign lesions were retrospectively examined. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to determine expression of miR93 and miR200a while RECK, MMP2, MMP9 and MVD were assessed by immunohistochemical staining. Results: Cervical carcinoma patients demonstrated up-regulation of miR-93, miR-200a, MMP2 and MMP9, with down-regulation of RECK as compared to benign lesion tissues. RECK was significantly inversely related to invasion and lymphatic metastasis. The 5-year survival rate for patients with strong RECK expression was significantly higher than that with weakly expressing tumors. Conclusion: MiR-93 and miR-200a are associated with metastasis and invasion of cervical carcinoma. Thus together with RECK they are potential prognostic markers for cervical carcinoma. RECK cooperating with MMP2, MMP9 expression is a significant prognostic factor correlated with long-term survival for patients with invasive cervical carcinoma.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.3929-3937
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• 2016

Gastric cancer (GC) is a major health problem worldwide and is one of the ten most commonly diagnosed cancers in Jordan. GC is usually diagnosed at late aggressive stages in which treatment options are limited. Recently, heat shock proteins (HSPs) were found to be overexpressed in a wide range of malignancies have been considered as promising candidate biomarkers for GC. The aim of this study was to investigate pathogenic roles of a panel of cytosolic HSPs including HSP90, HSP70, HSP60 and HSP27 in GC. Immunohistochemistry was used to assess the level of expression of these proteins in archived tumor samples (N=87) representing various pathological characteristics of GC. HSP90, HSP60 and HSP27 were expressed abundantly in gastric tumors. On the other hand, HSP70 was reduced significantly and also found to be associated with Helicobacter pylori infection in tissues collected from GC patients. Furthermore, HSP27 was found to be associated with the level of differentiation. Our findings indicate a role of HSP70 as a potential prognostic biomarker, patients harboring positive HSP70 expression displaying worse disease free survival than those with negative HSP70 expression. Differential expression of HSPs may play crucial roles in the initiation and progression of GC, and could be exploited as future therapeutic targets.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2003

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) has been used to detect deleted regions of a specific chromosome in cancer cells. LOH on chromosome 16q has been reported to occur frequently in progressed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver tissues from 37 Korean HCC patients were analyzed for LOH by using 25 polymorphic microsatellite markers distributed along 16q. Out of the 37 HCC patients studied, 21 patients (56.8%) showed LOH in various regions of 16q with at least one polymorphic marker. Puring the analysis of these 21 LOH cases, 6 patients showed interstitial LOHs in which the boundary of the LOH region was defined. With two rounds of LOH analysis, five commonly occurring interstitial LOH regions were identified; 16q21-22.1, 16q22.2 - 22.3, 16q22.3, 16q23.2 and 16q23.3 - 24.1. Among the five LOH regions the 16q23.3 - 24.1 region has been reported to be related with chromosome instability. A complete physical map, which covers the 3.2 Mb region of 16q23.3 - 24.1 (D16S402 and D16S486), was constructed to identify novel candidate tumor suppressor genes. We provide the minimally tiling path map consisting of 28 BAC clones. There was one gap between NT_10422.11 and NT_019609.9 of the human genome sequence contig (NCBI sequence build 33, April 29, 2003). This gap can be filled by sequencing the R-1425M20 clone which bridges these sequence contigs.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.6-22
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• 1978

High energy electron beams took effect for tumor radio-therapy, however, had a lot of problems in clinical application because of various conversion factors and complication of physical reactions. Therefor, we had experimentally studied the important properties of high energy electron beams from the linear accelerator, LMR-13, installed in Yonsei Cancer Center. The results of experimental studies on the problems in the 8, 10, 12 Mev electron beam therapy were reported as following. 1. On the measurements of the outputs and absorbed doses, the ionization type dosimeters that had calibrated by $^{90}Sr$ standard source were suitable as under 3% errors for high energy electrons to measure, but measuring doses in small field sizes and the regions of rapid fall off dose with ionization chambers were difficult. 2. The electron energy were measured precisely with energy spectrometer consisted of magnet analyzer and tele-control detector and the practical electron energy was calculated under 5% errors by maximum range of high energy electron beam in the water. 3. The correcting factors of perturbated dose distributions owing to radiation field, energy and material of the treatment cone were checked and described systematically and variation of dose distributions due to inhomogeneous tissues and sloping skin surfaces were completely compensated. 4. The electron beams, using the scatterers; ie., gold, tin, copper, lead, aluminium foils, were adequately diffused and minimizing the bremsstrahlung X-ray induced by the electron energy, irradiation field size and material of scatterers, respectively. 5. Inproving of the dose distribution from the methods of pendulum, slit, grid and focusing irradiations, the therapeutic capacity with limited electron energy could be extended.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.272-276
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• 2017

HOX genes are transcription factors that play important roles in body patterning and cell fate specification during normal development. In previous study, we found aberrant overexpression of HOXB5 in breast cancer tissues and cell lines, and demonstrated that HOXB5 is important in regulation of cell proliferation, tamoxifen resistance, and invasiveness through the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Although the relationship between HOXB5 and phenotypic changes in MCF7 breast cancer cells has been studied, the molecular function of HOXB5 as a transcription factor remains unclear. IL-6 has been reported to be involved in not only inflammation but also cancer progression, which is characterized by the increase of growth speed and invasiveness of tumor cells. In this study, we selected Interleukin-6 (IL-6) as HOXB5 putative downstream target gene and discovered that HOXB5 transcriptionally up-regulated the expression of IL-6 in HOXB5 overexpressing MCF7 cells. The upstream region (~1.2 kb) of IL-6 promoter turned out to contain several putative HOX consensus binding sites. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay confirmed that HOXB5 directly binds to the promoter region of IL-6 and positively regulated the expression of IL-6. These data all together, indicate that HOXB5 promotes IL-6 transcription by actively binding to the putative binding sites located in the upstream region of IL-6, which enable to increase its promoter activity in MCF7 breast cancer cells.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.3843-3847
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• 2015

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer related death of women. Persistent HPV infection, especially with high-risk types such as HPV16 and HPV18, has been identified to be the primary cause of cervical cancer. E6 and E7 are the major oncoproteins of high-risk HPVs, which are expressed exclusively in HPV infected tissues, and thereby represent ideal therapeutic targets for immunotherapy of cervical cancer. Materials and Methods: In this work, we used recombinant adenovirus expressing coden-optimized HPV16 E6 and E7 fusion protein (Ad-ofE6E7) to prime dendritic cells (DC-ofE6E7), to investigate the ability of primed DC vaccine in eliciting antitumor immunity in vitro and vivo. Results: Our results indicated that DC-ofE6E7 vaccine co-culturing with splenocytes could strongly induce a tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response and kill the TC-1 cells effectively in vitro. Moreover, DC-ofE6E7 vaccine induced protective immunity against the challenge of TC-1 cancer cells in vivo. Conclusions: The results suggested that the HPV16 ofE6E7 primed DC vaccine has potential application for cervical cancer immunotherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7441-7447
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• 2015

Objective: This study evaluated the safety and objective response of combining $^{131}I$-labeled-metuximab (Licartin) with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in the treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and Methods: In a multicenter open-label clinical trial, 341 enrolled patients with stage III/IV HCC according to TNM criteria were nonrandomly assigned to a trial group (n=167) and a control group (n=174), undergoing TACE following hepatic intra-arterial injection of licartin or TACE alone from July 2007 to July 2009. Radiopharmaceutical distribution was evaluated. The primary endpoint was overall survival; secondary endpoints included time-to-progression (TTP), toxicity and adverse events (AEs). Results: The radiobiological distribution demonstrated better localization of licartin in liver tumors than other tissues (P<0.01). The organ absorbed doses to liver and red marrow were $3.19{\pm}1.01Gy$ and $0.55{\pm}0.22Gy$, respectively. The 1-year survival rate was significantly higher [79.47% vs. 65.59%, hazard ratio (HR), 0.598, P=0.041] and TTP significantly improved ($6.82{\pm}1.28$ vs. $4.7{\pm}1.14months$, P=0.037) compared with the control group. Patients at stage III achieved more benefit of one year survival than stage IV in the trial group (86.9% vs. 53.8%, P<0.001). There were significant different toxicities in leukocytopenia, thrombocytopenia and increased total bilirubin level [P<0.001, P=0.013, P<0.01, relative risk (RR) 1.63, 1.33, 1.43], but no differences in severe AEs of upper GI hemorrhage and severe liver dysfunction between the groups (5.39% vs. 2.3%, P=0.136). Conclusions: Owing to excellent tumor-targeting, promised efficacy and favourable toxicity profile, the novel combination therapy of licartin and TACE could be applied in patients with unresectable HCC.