• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6651-6661
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• 2015

Breast cancer is a global health concern and is a major cause of death among women. In Oman, it is the most common cancer in women, with an incidence rate of 15.6 per 100,000 Omani females. Various anticancer remedies have been discovered from natural products in the past and the search is continuing for additional examples. Cytotoxic natural compounds may have a major role in cancer therapy either in potentiating the effect of chemotherapy or reducing its harmful effects. Recently, a few studies have reported advantages of using crude camel milk in treating some forms of cancer. However, no adequate data are available on the lyophilised camel's milk responsibility for triggering apoptosis and oxidative stress associated with human breast cancer. The present study aimed to address the role of the lyophilised camel's milk in inducing proliferation repression of BT-474 and HEp-2 cells compared with the non-cancer HCC1937 BL cell line. Lyophilized camel's milk fundamentally repressed BT-474 cells growth and proliferation through the initiation of either the intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways as indicated by both caspase-3 mRNA and its action level, and induction of death receptors in BT-474 but not the HEp-2 cell line. In addition, lyophilised camel's milk enhanced the expression of oxidative stress markers, heme-oxygenase-1 and reactive oxygen species production in BT-474 cells. Increase in caspase-3 mRNA levels by the lyophilised camel's milk was completely prevented by the actinomycin D, a transcriptional inhibitor. This suggests that lyophilized camel's milk increased newly synthesized RNA. Interestingly,it significantly (p<0.003) repressed the growth of HEp-2 cells and BT-474 cells after treatment for 72 hours while 24 hours treatment repressed BT-474 cells alone. This finding suggests that the lyophilised camel's milk might instigate apoptosis through initiation of an alternative apoptotic pathway.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1241-1245
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• 2015

Background: Thyroid carcinoma is the most common malignancy of the endocrine organs. Although the majority of thyroid cancer patients experience positive outcomes, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is considered one of the most aggressive malignancies. Current therapeutic regimens do not confer a significant survival benefit, and new therapies are urgently needed. Oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV) may represent a promising therapy for cancer. In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of a third-generation HSV vector, $G47{\Delta}$, on various human thyroid carcinoma cell lines in vitro. Two subcutaneous (s.c.) models of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma were also established to evaluate the in vivo anti-tumor efficacy of $G47{\Delta}$. Materials and Methods: The human thyroid carcinoma cell line ARO, FRO, WRO, and KAT-5, were infected with $G47{\Delta}$ at different multiplicities of infection (MOIs) in vitro. The survival rates of infected cells were calculated each day. Two s.c. tumor models were established using ARO and FRO cells in Balb/c nude mice, which were intratumorally (i.t.) treated with either $G47{\Delta}$ or mock. Tumor volumes and mouse survival times were documented. Results: $G47{\Delta}$ was highly cytotoxic to different types of thyroid carcinomas. For ARO, FRO, and KAT-5, greater than 30% and 80% of cells were killed at MOI=0.01 and MOI=0.1, respectively on day 5. WRO cells displayed modest sensitivity to $G47{\Delta}$, with only 21% and 38% of cells killed. In the s.c. tumor model, both of the anaplastic thyroid carcinoma cell lines (ARO and FRO) were highly sensitive to $G47{\Delta}$; $G47{\Delta}$ significantly inhibited tumor growth and prolonged the survival of mice bearing s.c. ARO and FRO tumors. Conclusions: The oHSV $G47{\Delta}$ can effectively kill different types of human thyroid carcinomas in vitro. $G47{\Delta}$ significantly inhibited growth of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma in vivo and prolonged animal survival. Therefore, $G47{\Delta}$ may hold great promise for thyroid cancer patients.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.521-532
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• 2006

Backgrounds and Objectives: A major goat in asthma therapy isto reduce or prevent the inflammatory response associated with bronchial hyperresponsiveness, reversible airway obstruction and airway remodelling. Many studies have shown that eosinophilic infiltration is a prominent feathure in the pathophysiology of asthma. The importance of the Presence of eosinophils in the airways of asthmatics has long been recognized, but the mechanism by which these cells are recruited and retained in the lung are only now being elucidated Production of chemotactic cytokines by bronchial epithelial cells may contribute to the local accumulation of eosinophils in Patients with bronchial asthma. This study was designed to investigate the inhibitory effect of extraction of herbal dicoction, Gamichungsangbohatang(GMCSBHT) on eosinophil chemotactic cytokines. Material and Methods:We used water and 70% ethanol extracts of GMCSBHT and pulmonary epithelial cell lines A549(human type II -like epithelial cells). We estimated cytotoxic effects of GMCSBHT, and estimated the effects of water and 70% ethanol extracts of GMCSBHT on chemokines from prestimulated A549 cells by sandwich ELISA. Results: Chemokines of eotaxin, IL-8 were inhibited by GMCSBHT in dose-dependent manner. And ethanol extract of GMCSBHT has more inhibitory effects on eotaxin, IL-8 than hot water extract. Conculusions: These findings indicate that the supression of the expression of chemokines can be accomplished by GMCSBHT treatment, so GMCSBHT may inhibit the iuflammatory process by eosinophils in asthma.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.177-188
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• 2001

Mastitis is one of the most significant cause of economic loss to the dairy industry. Especially, Staphylococcus aureus is a major contagious mastitis-causing pathogen in dairy cattle. Because of its high transmission rate and resistance to antibiotic therapy, staphylococcal mastitis presents a constant threat to the dairy industry. Staphylococcal enterotoxin C(SEC) produced by S aureus has been known as one of superantigens which are able to stimulate a large proportion of T lymphocytes independently of their antigenic specificity. In this experiment, we have conducted preliminary studies with mice and lactating cows to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of the experimental vaccine consists of SEC mutant antigen on controlling the bovine mastitis associated with S aureus infections. The average value of somatic cell counts in quarter milk, isolation rate of S aureus were consistently decreased in SEC-SER vaccinated groups, whereas antibody titers were highly increased in SEC-SER vaccinated groups. Peripheral blood were also collected from the lactating cows to determine the proportion of leukocyte subpopulation associated with humoral immunity(HI) and cell mediated immunity(CMI). Proportion of leukocyte subpopulation expressing $BoCD2^+$(total T lymphocyte), $BoCD4^+$(T helper cell), $BoCD8^+$(T cytotoxic/suppressor cell) and NonT/NonB lymphocyte which are involved in CMI in SEC-SER vaccinated groups were decreased for the initial stage after first vaccination and then increased from ten weeks after first vaccination maintaining elevated level till 14 weeks after vaccination. In contrast, proportion of monocyte, MHC class II and B lymphocyte which are associated with the production of primary immune response in SEC-SER vaccinated groups were increased for the initial period and then decreased from ten weeks after first vaccination. We present evidence that vaccination of SEC-SER mutant antigen in lactating cows induced a significant proliferation of bovine T lymphocytes. These results suggest that SEC-SER mutant antigen used in this experiment might be one of potential immunogen in developing innovative vaccine against bovine IMI associated with S aureus. Additional challenge trials should be carried out to evaluate substantial protection against S aureus under the commercial farm conditions.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1088-1096
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• 2016

Despite that moderate hyperthermia can exert various antitumor activities such as direct cytotoxic effects on tumor cells, effects on tumor vasculatures and immunological effects, hyperthermia has been usually combined with radiotherapy or chemotherapy due to its limited efficacy in cancer treatment, showing some positive clinical benefits with generally well-tolerated side effects. Since heat shock responses itself can interfere with the anti-tumor effects of hyperthermia, not all of these studies might have demonstrated positive clinical outcomes in cancer patients. Therefore, the negative anti-tumor effect of hyperthermia should be reduced to enhance the effectiveness of hyperthermia. Although the responses to heat stress of tumor tissues containing vessels, immune cells, connective tissues as well as cancer cells, are very complicated, it is needed to study in the near future if some clinically available drugs, which can modulate heat stress responses, can improve the efficacy of hyperthermia in patients with cancer. In this review, the effect of clinical hyperthermia centered on non-invasive external hyperthermia using radiofrequency at moderate temperature will be discussed, since it is the state-of-the-art technology in the current clinical practice of hyperthermia, and a moderate operational temperature is used to increase the therapeutic effectiveness of conventional therapy without additional toxicity to normal tissues.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2003

Recent studies indicated that cancer cells become resistant to ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy drugs by enhanced DNA repair of the lesions. Therefore, it is expected to increase the killing of cancer cells and reduce drug resistance by inhibiting DNA repair pathways that tumor cells rely on to escape chemotherapy. There are a number of key human DNA repair pathways which depend on multimeric polypeptide activities. For example, Ku heterodimer regulatory DNA binding subunits (Ku70/Ku80) on binding to double strand DNA breaks (DSBs) are able to interact with 470-kDa DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), and are essential for DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) activity. It has been known that DNA-PK is an important factor for DNA repair and also is a sensor-transmitting damage signal to downstream targets, leading to cell cycles arrest. Our ultimate goal is to develop a treatment of breast tumors by targeting proteins involved in damage-signaling pathway and/or DNA repair. This would greatly facilitate tumor cell cytotoxic activity and programmed cell death through DNA damaging drug treatment. Therefore, we designed a domain of Ku80 mutants that binds to Ku70 but not DNA end binding activity and used the peptide in co-therapy strategy to see whether the targeted inhibition of DNA-PK activity sensitized breast cancer cells to irradiation or chemotherapy drug. We observed that the synthesized peptide (HNI-38) prevented DNA-PKcs from binding to Ku70/Ku80, thus resulting in inactivation of DNA-PK activity. Consequently, the peptide treated cells exhibited poor to no DNA repair, and became highly sensitive to IR or chemotherapy drugs, and the growth of breast cancer cells was inhibited. Additionally, the results obtained in the present study also support the physiological role of resistance of cancer cells to IR or chemotherapy.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1007-1021
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• 2018

Cancer represents one of the most significant threats to human health on a global scale. Hence, the development of effective cancer prevention strategies, as well as the discovery of novel therapeutic agents against cancer, is urgently required. In light of this challenge, this research aimed to evaluate the effects of several potent bioactive peptides and proteins contained in crocodile white blood cell extract (cWBC) against LU-1, LNCaP, PC-3, MCF-7, and CaCo-2 cancer cell lines. The results demonstrate that 25, 50, 100, and $200{\mu}g/ml$ cWBC exhibits a strong cytotoxic effect against all investigated cell lines ($IC_{50}$ $70.34-101.0{\mu}g/ml$), while showing no signs of cytotoxicity towards noncancerous Vero and HaCaT cells. Specifically, cWBC treatment caused a significant reduction in the cancerous cells' colony forming ability. A remarkable suppression of cancerous cell migration was observed after treatment with cWBC, indicating potent antimetastatic properties. The mechanism involved in the cancer cell cytotoxicity of cWBC may be related to apoptosis induction, as evidenced by typical apoptotic morphology features. Moreover, certain cWBC concentrations induced significant overproduction of ROS and significantly inhibited the $S-G_2/M$ transition in the cancer cell. The molecular mechanisms of cWBC in apoptosis induction were to decrease Bcl-2 and XIAP expression levels and increase the expression levels of caspase-3, caspase-8, and p53. These led to a decrease in the expression level of the cell cycle-associated gene cyclin-B1 and the arrest of cell population growth. Consequently, these findings demonstrate the prospect of the use of cWBC for cancer therapy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.119-124
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• 2007

Sarcoidosis is a multi-system granulomatous disorder of an unknown etiology and affects individuals worldwide. It is characterized pathologically by the presence of non-caseating granulomas in more than one involved organ. However, pleural involvement of sarcoidosis is rare and there are no reported cases in Korea. Traditionally, sarcoidosis has often been treated with systemic corticosteroids or cytotoxic agents. In particular, chylothorax with sarcoidosis is usually treated with corticosteroid for approximately 3~6 months, followed by repeated therapeutic thoracentesis, talc pleurodesis, dietary treatment, or thoracic duct ligation where needed. We encountered a 46 years old female patient presenting with cough, dyspnea and both hilar lymphadenopathy (stage I) on chest radiograph. The patient was diagnosed with a non-caseating granuloma, sarcoidosis by a mediastinoscopic biopsy. For one month, she had suffered from dyspnea due to right side pleural effusion, which was clearly identified as a chylothorax on thoracentesis. Corticosteroid therapy with dietary adjustment was ineffective. She was treated successfully with a subcutaneous injection of octreotide for 3 weeks and oral corticosteroid. We report a case of successful and rapid treatment of chylothorax associated with sarcoidosis using octreotide and oral corticosteroid.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.342-347
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• 2011

T cells play a key role in viral infection. However, in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, HCV-specific T cells are dysfunctional and impaired in the liver, which is the primary site for HCV replication. There are multiple potential mechanisms for HCV-specific T cell dysfunction including induction of immune inhibitory pathways (program death-1; PD-1, cytotoxic t lymphocyte associated antigen-4; CTLA-4) and immune tolerance induced specific for the liver. However, the interaction between hepatocytes and HCV-specific CD8 T cells has not clearly established. In this study, we confirmed huh (human hepatoma) 7.5 cells expressing HLA (human leukocyte antigen) A2 presented antigen to activate HCV-specific CD8 T cells in HLA A2-restricted manner and expression of PD-L (program death ligand) 1 on huh7.5 cells reduced HCV-specific CD8 T cell activation, suggesting an immune modulatory activity. Loss of HCV-specific tetramer responses following antigenic stimulation correlated with increased caspase-3 activity. In addition, PD-L1 on huh7.5 cells rescued HCV-specific CD8 T cells from apoptosis. Our results suggest that the interaction between PD-L1 and PD-1 can recover the function of HCV-specific CD8 T cells in the liver, which could be applied in therapy of HCV chronic infection.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.204-210
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• 2003

Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type II(MPGN II), also called dense deposit disease, was first described by Berger and Galle in 1963. The diagnosis of MPGN II is based on electron-microscopic finding of an intensely electron-dense substance which replaces the lamina densa of the glomerular basement membrane. Although the etiology and pathogenesis of MPGN II are unknown, it frequently progresses to end-stage renal failure. Typically in MPGN II, hypocomplementemia due to activation of the alternative complement pathway is present. In addition, the association of MPGN II with partial lipodystrophy and complement abnormalities is well documented. The relationship between these associated features and the patient's renal functional outcome is not clear. With respect to the therapy for MPGN II, an alternate-day prednisolone regimen was shown to be effective. Various treatment modalities, including immunosuppression with corticosteroids, cytotoxic drugs and cyclosporin A, anticoagulants and antiplatelet therapies are used, either alone or in combination, with varying degrees of success. The purpose of this paper is to present a case of MPGN II from a 7 years old girl with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia(PSVT).