• 한국임상수의학회지
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• 제37권6호
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• pp.311-316
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• 2020

Biomarkers used in dogs with heartworm disease include N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI), which are associated with damage to the myocardium. Pulmonary hypertension is one of the clinical signs of canine heartworm disease. The purpose of this study is to investigate the change in the concentration of each biomarker, severity of pulmonary hypertension and the correlation between biomarkers according to the severity of clinical signs. Five healthy dogs and 10 heartworm-infected dogs were recruited for the study. The heartworm-infected group was classified based on the history, clinical signs, and blood assay, thoracic radiography, and echocardiography after confirming the infection according to the results of the commercial ELISA kit (SNAP test, IDEXX Laboratories, Maine, USA). NT-proBNP was higher in the severely infected group than the control group (p < 0.05); cTnI was also higher in the severely infected group than the control group (p < 0.05). The pressure gradient of pulmonary hypertension was higher in the severe group than the mild group (p < 0.05). The severity of pulmonary hypertension was correlated with NT-proBNP (r = 0.818, p < 0.01), cTnI (r = 0.894, p < 0.01). When the correlation of the two serum values for each group was examined, a correlation was not found in the mild group (r = 0.707, p = 0.182), but a correlation was found in the severe group (r = 0.9, p < 0.05). NT-proBNP and cTnI were significantly increased and correlated with severe clinical signs. Pulmonary hypertension was significant higher in the severe group than in the mild group (p < 0.05). Evaluation of blood biomarker concentration and severity of pulmonary hypertension and referring to each correlation between these indicators may be helpful to assess the severity of the heartworm disease.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• 제45권2호
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• pp.94-99
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• 2018

Objective: Prompt diagnosis and management are essential for saving the adnexal organs from infarction in cases of ovarian torsion (OT). This study aimed to determine the diagnostic significance of signal peptide, complement C1r/C1s, Uegf, and Bmp1 (CUB), and epidermal growth factor-like domain-containing protein-1 (SCUBE-1) levels in cases of OT, an emergent ischemic condition, and the relationship of SCUBE-1 with oxidative stress parameters. Methods: This prospective study was conducted among 15 OT patients and 20 age- and gravidity-matched healthy women. SCUBE-1 serum concentrations were determined by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. In addition, oxidative stress was evaluated by measuring the serum levels of advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP), ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), and glutathione (GSH). Results: The SCUBE-1 titers were significantly higher in the patients with OT than in the controls (p=0.008). In addition, serum FRAP and GSH levels were significantly lower in the OT patients than in the controls (p<0.001 for both). Serum AOPP levels were higher in the OT patients, but this trend was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Furthermore, there were no correlations between SCUBE-1 levels and age, gravidity, parity, cyst size, and AOPP, FRAP, or GSH levels (p>0.05). Conclusion: We believe that SCUBE-1 may be a promising biomarker for the early diagnosis of OT.

• 대한종양외과학회지
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.76-82
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• 2018

Purpose: Lgr5 is a well-known stem cell marker in colorectal cancer (CRC). This retrospective study evaluated the expressions of Lgr5 in CRC specimens, and examined whether these expressions were associated with survival outcomes. Methods: We used immunohistochemistry to retrospectively examine expressions of Lgr5 in paraffin-embedded specimens from 337 patients with CRC between January 2009 and December 2013. All clinicopathologic data were collected by retrospective review based on medical records. The correlation between its expression and clinicopathological data as well as clinical outcomes of patients was analyzed. Results: Low expression and high expression of Lgr5 in 337 patients were 175 (51.9%) and 162 (48.1%), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the association of Lgr5 expression with clinicopathologic factors (age, tumor location, lymphatic invasion, vascular invasion, perineural invasion, TNM stage, and differentiation). In the survival analysis, the high expression group of Lgr5 showed a better prognosis than the low expression group in disease-free survival (P=0.044). However, overall survival was not significantly different between the two groups (P=0.087). In multivariate analysis, we found that high expression of Lgr5 was independent prognostic factor for tumor relapse (hazard ratio, 0.601; 95% confidence interval, 0.388-0.929; P=0.022). Conclusion: In present study, high expression of Lgr5 is an independent predictor of favorable prognosis in patients with CRC. So, further well designed, prospective, large scale studies are needed to examine the value of Lgr5 as a prognostic biomarker for CRC.

• 대한치매학회지
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.59-70
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• 2022

Background and Purpose: Neurofilament light chain (NfL) has been considered as a biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD). We measured plasma NfL levels in older adults with cognitive complaints and evaluated their clinical usefulness in AD. Methods: Plasma levels of NfL, measured by using the single molecule array method, were acquired in a total of 113 subjects consisting of subjective cognitive decline (SCD; n=14), mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n=37), or dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT; n=62). Plasma NfL level was compared among three groups, and its association with cognitive and functional status was also analyzed. Results: After adjusting for age, plasma NfL level was higher in subjects with DAT (65.98±84.96 pg/mL), compared to in subjects with SCD (16.90±2.54 pg/mL) or MCI (25.53±10.42 pg/mL, p=0.004). NfL levels were correlated with scores of the mini-mental state examination (r=-0.242, p=0.021), clinical dementia rating (CDR) (r=0.291, p=0.005), or CDR-sum of boxes (r=0.276, p=0.008). Just for participants who performed amyloid positron emission tomography (PET), the levels were different between subjects with PET (-) (n=17, 25.95±13.25 pg/mL) and PET (+) (n=16, 63.65±81.90 pg/mL, p=0.010). Additionally, plasma NfL levels were different between vascular dementia and vascular MCI, and between Parkinson's disease- dementia and no dementia. Conclusions: This pilot study shows that in subjects with DAT, plasma NfL levels increase. Plasma NfL level correlated with cognitive and functional status. Further longitudinal studies may help to apply the plasma NfL levels to AD, as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and predicting progression.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.1781-1787
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• 2015

Background: miRNAs are relatively recently discovered cancer biomarkers which have important implications for cancer early diagnosis, treatment and estimation of prognosis. Here we focussed on expression of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines so as to analyse its significance for clinicopathologic characteristics and generate enriched KEGG pathways clustered by target genes for exploring its potential roles as a biomarker in gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: The expression of mir-196a-5p in poorly, moderate and well differentiated gastric cancer cell lines compared with GES-1 was detected by RT-qPCR, and the expression of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer tissues comparing with adjacent non cancer tissues of 58 cases were also assessed by RT-qPCR. Subsequently, an analysis of clinical significance of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer and enriched KEGG pathways was executed based on the miRWalk prediction database combined with bioinformatics tools DAVID 6.7 and Mirfocus 3.0. Results: RT-qPCR showed that mir-196a-5p was up-regulated in 6 poorly and moderate differentiated gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901, MKN-45, MKN-28, MGC-803, BGC-823, HGC-27 compared with GES-1, but down-regulated in the highly differentiated gastric cancer cell line AGS. Clinical data indicated mir-196a-5p to beup-regulated in gastric cancer tissues (47/58). Overexpression of mir-196a-5p was associated with more extensive degree of lymph node metastasis and clinical stage (P < 0.05; x2 test). Enriched KEGG pathway analyses of predicted and validated targets in miRWalk combined with DAVID 6.7 and Mirfocus 3.0 showed that the targeted genes regulated by mir-196a-5p were involved in malignancy associated biology. Conclusions: Overexpression of mir-196a-5p is associated with lymph node metastasis and clinical stage, and enriched KEGG pathway analyses showed that targeted genes regulated by mir-196a-5p may contribute to tumorgenesis, suggesting roles as an oncogenic miRNA biomarker in gastric cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권18호
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• pp.7575-7581
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• 2014

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an essential role in the development and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC). Despite advances in the field of cancer molecular biology and biomarker discovery, the development of clinically validated biomarkers for primary NPC has remained elusive. In this study, we investigated the expression and clinical significance of miRNAs as novel primary NPC diagnostic biomarkers. We used an array containing 2, 500 miRNAs to identify 22 significant miRNAs, and these candidate miRNAs were validated using 67 fresh NPC and 25 normal control tissues via quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Expression and correlation analyses were performed with various statistical approaches, in addition to logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses to evaluate diagnostic efficacy. qRT-PCR revealed five differentially expressed miRNAs (miR-93-5p, miR-135b-5p, miR-205-5p and miR-183-5p) in NPC tissue samples relative to control samples (p<0.05), with miR-135b-5p and miR-205-5p being of significant diagnostic value (p<0.01). Moreover, comparison of NPC patient clinicopathologic data revealed a negative correlation between miR-93-5p and miR-183-5p expression levels and lymph node status (p<0.05). These findings display an altered expression of many miRNAs in NPC tissues, thus providing information pertinent to pathophysiological and diagnostic research. Ultimately, miR-135b-5p and miR-205-5p may be implicated as novel NPC candidate biomarkers, while miR-93-5p, miR-650 and miR-183-5p may find application as relevant clinical pathology and diagnostic candidate biomarkers.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.705-710
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• 2016

대장암은 세계적으로 3번째로 흔한 암종이며, 암으로 인한 사망의 주요 원인이 되고 있다. 비록 다양한 진단방법이나 치료 방법이 이용되고는 있으나 병의 진행에 관여하는 분자메커니즘 이해의 부족 때문에 여전히 완전한 치료는 어려운 실정이다. 마이크로알엔에이는 단백질 정보를 코딩하고 있지 않은 작은 알엔에이 단편이다. 이러한 마이크로알엔에이는 특정 유전자의 전사과정 또는 번역과정을 조절하는 강력한 유전자 조절자로서의 기능을 가진다. 암의 발생과정에서 중요한 세포신호 전달 과정의 손상이 빈번하게 발생 하는데, 다양한 마이크로알엔에이의 이상발현이 그 원인이 되고 있다. 마이크로알엔에이-31은 암유전자의 역할을 하며 발암과정에 관여하는 다양한 유전자를 조절한다고 알려져 있다. 따라서, 본 연구에서는 대장암에서 마이크로알엔에이-31 발현의 임상적의의를 규명하고자 하였다. 175례의 대장암 조직과 16례의 정상 대장조직에서 실시간 유전자 증폭장치를 이용하여 마이크로알엔에이-31의 발현을 분석하고, 임상병리적 요인들과의 상관관계를 분석하고 임상적 유용성을 연구해 보았다. 마이크로알엔에이-31은 정상조직에 비해 대장암 조직에서 과발현이 되어 있었다. 175례 대장암 조직을 이용한 분석에서 마이크로알엔에이-31의 발현은 병기의 진행 정도에 따라 발현이 증가 되고 있었으며, 실제 마이크로알엔에이-31의 발현이 높은 대장암 환자군의 생존률이 그렇지 않은 환자군에 비해 통계적으로 유의하게 나쁜 것으로 확인 되었다. Cox 비례위험 모형과 로지스틱 회귀 모형을 이용한 분석에서 마이크로알엔에이-31의 과발현이 직접적으로 대장암 환자의 예후 및 원발전이와 연관성이 있는 것이 확인 되었다. 따라서, 이상의 연구결과를 종합해볼 때 대장암에서 과발현 된 마이크로알엔에이-31은 대장암 환자의 예후예측 및 전이예측 바이오마커로서의 활용 가능성이 높다고 볼 수 있다.

• BMB Reports
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• 제54권1호
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• pp.70-88
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• 2021

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the landscape of cancer treatment and become a standard pillar of the treatment. The two main drivers, immune checkpoint inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor T cells, contributed to this unprecedented success. However, despite the striking clinical improvements, most patients still suffer from disease progression because of the evolution of primary or acquired resistance. This mini-review summarizes new treatment options including novel targets and interesting combinational approaches to increase our understanding of the mechanisms of the action of and resistance to immunotherapy, to expand our knowledge of advances in biomarker and therapeutics development, and to help to find the most appropriate option or a way of overcoming the resistance for cancer patients.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제30권12호
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• pp.1118-1127
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• 2020

알츠하이머병은 점진적인 신경세포의 손상과 이로 인해 인지기능 장애를 유발하는 질병이다. 이 질환은 현재로서는 치료할 수 있는 질환이 아니고 진행을 멈추게 할 수 있는 방법이 없다. 그러나 초기에 알츠하이머병을 치료하는 것이 가장 효과적이므로 초기 진단은 증상을 관리할 수 있는 가장 좋은 기회를 제공할 수 있다. 알츠하이머병을 진단하기 위한 바이오마커로는 아밀로이드 베타(Aβ), 병적인 타우, 그리고 신경퇴화가 있고, Aβ의 축적, 인산화 타우는 뇌척수액이나 양전자 방출 단층촬영술을 통해 분석할 수 있다. 그러나 뇌척수액의 채취는 매우 침습적이고 양전자 방출 단층촬영술은 전문적인 고가의 장비가 필요하다. 지난 수십년 동안 빠르고 최소한의 침습성을 가진 바이오마커 분석법을 개발하기 위하여 혈액에 기반한 바이오마커 분석 기술이 연구되어 왔다. 그 중 주목할 만 한 발견이 혈장에서 Aβ의 주요 원천으로 혈소판과의 관련성이다. 아밀로이드 베타는 혈액-뇌 장벽을 통과 할 수 있고 정상 상태에서는 뇌와 혈액 간 평형을 이루게 된다. 흥미롭게도, 여러 임상시험 결과 혈장에서 Aβ42/Aβ40 비율이 가벼운 인지장애 질환과 알츠하이머병에서 감소되어 있는 것을 증명하였다. 종합하면, 이러한 최근의 발견들은 침습성을 최소화한 알츠하이머병의 초기 진단 기술을 개발하는 데 이용될 수 있다. 본 총설에서, 저자들은 알츠하이머병의 바이오마커에 대한 최근 연구결과들, 특히 말초에서 Aβ를 생산하는 혈소판의 역할과 혈액 기반 바이오마커로서의 개발 가능성에 대해 고찰하였다.

• 대한임상독성학회지
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.38-41
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• 2019

Procalcitonin (PCT) is commonly employed in medical practice as a diagnostic biomarker of bacterial infection and also as a monitoring biomarker for antimicrobial therapy. There have been a few published reports concerning elevated PCT levels in people with acute liver injury caused by an overdose of acetaminophen. We report here on a case of PCT elevation in an adolescent with acute acetaminophen poisoning without any bacterial infection or liver injury. A 15-year-old girl had deliberately ingested 20 tablets of 650 mg acetaminophen (13 g) and she presented to our emergency department. The PCT level on admission was elevated to 65.64 ng/mL (reference range: 0-0.5 ng/mL). Her PCT level on the second day peaked up to 100 ng/mL and then it gradually decreased. There was no evidence of liver injury or infection on the computed tomography examination and other lab tests. The patient regained her good health and was discharged on the sixth day of hospitalization.