• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.523-528
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• 2005

Diblock copolymers with different poly($\varepsilon$-caprolactone) (PCL) block lengths were synthesized by ringopening polymerization of $\varepsilon$-caprolactone in the presence of monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG-OH, MW 2000) as initiator. The self-aggregation behaviors of the diblock copolymer nanoparticle, prepared by the diafiltration method, were investigated by using $^1H$ NMR, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and fluorescence spectroscopy. The PEG-PCL block copolymers formed the nano-sized self-aggregate in an aqueous environment by intrsa- and/or intermolecular association between hydrophobic PCL chains. The critical aggregation concentrations (cac) of the block copolymer self-aggregate became lower with increasing hydrophobic PCL block length. On the other hand, reverse trends of mean hydrodynamic diameters were measured by DLS owing to the increasing bulkiness of the hydrophobic chains and hydrophobic interaction between the PCL microdomains. The hydrodynamic diameters of the block copolymer nanoparticles, measured by DLS, were in the range of 65-270 nm. Furthermore, the size of the nanoparticles was scarcely affected by the concentration of the block copolymers in the range of 0.125-5 mg/mL owing to the negligible interparticular aggregation between the self-aggregated nanoparticles. Considered with the fairly low cac and nanoparticle stability, the PEG-PCL nanoparticles can be considered a potential candidate for biomedical applications such as drug carrier or imaging agent.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2203-2208
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• 2007

Three possible binding modes of cationic meso-tetrakis(N-methylpyridinium-4-yl)porphyrin (TMPyP) to d[(GCATATATGC)2] duplex were investigated by the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Among the three binding modes namely, “along the groove”, “across the groove” and “face on the groove”, the “across the groove” model exhibited the largest negative binding free energy and the DNA backbone remained as the B form. In this model, the molecular plain of the TMPyP tilts 45o with respect to the DNA helix axis and is largely exposed to the solvent. TMPyP was stabilized mainly by the interaction between the positively charged neighboring pyridinium moieties of TMPyP and negatively charged phosphate groups of DNA. The result obtained in this work by MD and the report (Jin, B. et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 2417.) that the spectral properties of poly[d(A-T)2] bound TMPyP in the presence and absence of the minor groove binding drug 4',6- diamidino-2-phenylindole are similar, we propose that TMPyP bind across the minor groove of the AT rich- DNA.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.71-79
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• 2014

Objectives : The aim of this study is to evaluate the safety of acupuncture therapy when applied to patients who are undergoing anticoagulants / antiplatelet medication therapy combined with herbal medicine using a retrospective, case-control study. Methods : 428 charts of patients were reviewed in this study. Odds ratio between case of bleeding-related adverse event and control was calculated as main analysis. Exposures were anticoagulants / antiplatelet medication, Hwalhyeolgeoeo herbal medicine and combination of both drugs. Additionally, odds ratios were calculated according to the severity of bleeding-related adverse events. Results : The results were as following: 1. Analysis of all bleeding-related adverse events showed there was no increased risk of combined therapy compared with other exposures and control group. 2. Analysis of only clinically significant adverse events showed there was no increased risk of combined therapy compared with other exposure and control group. 3. Hwalhyeolgeoeo herbal medicine group showed a tendency of increased risk of bleeding-related adverse events in all analysis but was not statistically significant. Conclusions : The results suggest that Hwalhyeolgeoeo herbal medicine-anticoagulant / antiplatelet medication combined therapy may not increase risk of bleeding-related adverse events in acupuncture therapy. By executing various modules of analysis, it was possible to acquire useful data for possible future studies. Further research is needed to confirm such results.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2006

ElM (Eighteen Incompatible Medicaments) is an important component in Oriental pharmacology and is directly related to clinical prescriptions. Medical practitioners argued that the definite cause and meaning of ElM was ambiguous and therefore debated the issue of clinical application of the ElM. This study conducted an in-depth literary research on the origin, meaning and contents of ElM with the purpose to contribute in its efforts to be used clinically. Even after thousands of years have past since establishment of Oriental medicine. ElM is still tabooed and was an obstacle that hindered ideologies. Modern herbal medicine texts claim that the use of ElM can reduce treatment effects and promote poisoning and side effects. However, since long ago, there has been medical practitioners who reject this as false. Recently, poisoning caused by ElM has been claimed to be from the toxicity of the drug itself, rather than the result of interaction between the drugs. and therefore they suggest that ElM is not a forbidden domain. In addition. ElM showed a difference in number depending on the era. However, this can be understood not as a definite number. but instead as a warning to be careful during combination of drugs for use as clinical medicine. Historically. there were very few cases in which ElM was used for clinical tests and thus, the clinical value is not yet clear. However. some medical practitioners clinically applied it and found clear results for it. while others applied ElM directly to their bodies. which showed signs for the usefulness and potential of ElM for us. A more concrete and in-depth study must be made on ELM.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.69-99
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• 2011

Objective : Scutellaria baicalensis is one of the most popular and multi-purpose herb in traditional medicine. It is also useful for its practicability to cultivate in Korea. The purpose of this study is to contribute to researches and applications of scutellaria baicalensis by analyzing and reviewing international researches on the compositions and the effects of scutellaria baicalensis. Methods : This study analyzed 146 articles from PubMed by searching with the keyword "Scutellaria baicalensis", "Huang quin", "Baical Skullcap", "Huang qin", "baical skullcap root", "ogon", "Hwanggeum" and "Hwangkeum", published within the last 10 years(from 2000 to 2009). We reviewed the 146 articles on Scutellaria baicalensis and its active constituents in terms of 'Active constituents', 'Experimental studies', 'Clinical studies', 'Drug interaction', 'Side Effects/Toxicity' and 'Pharmacokinetics'. Results : The active constituents of Scutellaria baicalensis are flavonoids such as baicalein, baicalin, wogonin and oroxylin-A. It is reported that scutellaria baicalensis and its active compounds have antiinflammatory activity, antitumor activity, antioxidant activity, antiviral and antibiotic activity, neuroprotective effects, hepatoprotective effects and cardiovascular effect. Conclusions : This study is aimed to summarize the results obtained within the last 10 years and to contribute to following researches and applications of Scutellaria baicalensis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6237-6241
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• 2015

Usage of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) has gained popularity over the past few years. However, very little is known about TCAM use among Malaysian cancer patients. This study aimed to identify the determinants of TCAM usage among cancer patients with determination of relationships between demographic factors, patient satisfaction with conventional treatment, knowledge on TCAM and healthcare professional influence. Patient's perceptions towards TCAM were also determined. A simple random convenient sampling method was used to recruit 354 patients from Hospital Kuala Lumpur between February to April 2013. All were directly interviewed with a structured questionnaire. In this study, 172 respondents were TCAM users. There was no significant differences between demographic background of respondents in the usage of TCAM. Minimal correlation was found between patient satisfaction with the conventional treatment and usage of TCAM (r=0.091). A poor correlation was found between healthcare professional's influence and TCAM usage (r=-0.213) but the results suggested that increase in influence would decrease TCAM usage. Patient TCAM knowledge correlated negatively with the TCAM usage (r=-0.555) indicated that cancer patients are less likely to use TCAM when they have more TCAM knowledge. Healthcare professionals should be fully equipped with the necessary TCAM knowledge while maintaining patient satisfaction with the conventional treatment. They should also intervene on patient TCAM usage where a potential drug interaction or a harmful adverse event can occur.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2018

Objectives: The combined use of herbal and Western medicine is increasing. However, herbal medicine is highly likely to interact with Western medicine making it important to understand the effects of co-administration. This study investigates the ratio of patients who take Western medicine with herbal medicine, the types of medicines commonly prescribed together, and the results of hospital examinations. Methods: We investigated patients who were hospitalized at Kyung Hee University Korean Medical Hospital for at least one day from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2017. There were some inclusion criteria. First, we chose patients aged 19 and over. Second, we chose patients who were diagnosed with osteoarthritis (OA) with diagnosis codes M13, M15, M17 according to KCD-7. Third, patients had liver function tests, renal function tests, and general hematology tests performed at least two times during hospitalization. Results: Among a total of 131 OA patients, 32 (24.4%) patients were treated with herbal-Western medicine combination therapy. The most commonly prescribed herbal medicine was Daegalwhal-tang, and the most commonly prescribed Western medicine was celecoxib. In the laboratory findings, all liver function tests, renal function tests, and general hematology tests showed no difference compared to admission day. There were also no differences between herbal medicine single treatment and herbal-Western medicine combination treatment. Conclusions: From these results, we suggest that herbal medicine single treatment and herbal-Western medicine combination treatment for OA patients does not cause adverse effects.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.223-233
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• 2018

Topical anesthetics are commonly used in oral & maxillofacial surgery to control pain in the oral cavity mucosa before local anesthetic injection. These anesthetic agents come in many forms, developed for different usages, to minimize adverse reactions, and for optimal anesthetic efficiency. Earlier studies have revealed that these agents may also limit the growth of microorganisms in the area of anesthetic application. Many topical anesthetic agents show different levels of antimicrobial activity against various bacterial strains and Candida. The dosage of local anesthetic agent used in some clinical preparations is too low to show a significant effect on microbial activity. Efficiency of antimicrobial activity depends on the local anesthetic agent's properties of diffusion within the bloodstream and binding efficiency with cytoplasmic membrane, which is followed by disruption of the bacterial cell membrane. The antimicrobial properties of these agents may extend their usage in patients to both control pain and infection. To develop the topical local anesthetic optimal usage and antimicrobial effect, a collaborating antiseptic agent may be used to benefit the local anesthetic. However, more research is required regarding minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of topical local anesthetic agents with drug interaction between anesthetics and antiseptic agents.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2017

Understanding complex relationships among heterogeneous biological data is one of the fundamental goals in biology. In most cases, diverse biological data are stored in relational databases, such as MySQL and Oracle, which store data in multiple tables and then infer relationships by multiple-join statements. Recently, a new type of database, called the graph-based database, was developed to natively represent various kinds of complex relationships, and it is widely used among computer science communities and IT industries. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of using a graph-based database for complex biological relationships by comparing the performance between MySQL and Neo4j, one of the most widely used graph databases. We collected various biological data (protein-protein interaction, drug-target, gene-disease, etc.) from several existing sources, removed duplicate and redundant data, and finally constructed a graph database containing 114,550 nodes and 82,674,321 relationships. When we tested the query execution performance of MySQL versus Neo4j, we found that Neo4j outperformed MySQL in all cases. While Neo4j exhibited a very fast response for various queries, MySQL exhibited latent or unfinished responses for complex queries with multiple-join statements. These results show that using graph-based databases, such as Neo4j, is an efficient way to store complex biological relationships. Moreover, querying a graph database in diverse ways has the potential to reveal novel relationships among heterogeneous biological data.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.91-115
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• 2020

Objective : This study's purpose was to review the clinical studies of Galgeun-tang. Method : We searched papers about Galgeun-tang using KISS, RISS, OASIS, PUBMED and J-stage. The key words we used were "Galgeuntang", "Kakkonto", "Ge gen tang", and "Pueraria Decoction". Papers not matched with inclusion criteria were excluded. Results : Until today, there have been 223 studies on Galgeun-tang. Of these, 25 studies were classified as clinical research papers. There were 4 cases of fever, 5 cases of inflammation on respiratory system, 3 cases of head, neck and shoulder disorder, 2 cases of diarrhea, 6 cases of pharmacokinetics and interaction, 5 cases of side effect. Conclusion : It can be seen that Galgeun-tang has established the basis for application to the purpose of treating fever (common cold, influenza), inflammation on respiratory system (nasal obstruction, maxillary sinus retention cyst, mucoid pseudomonas aeruginosa chronic lower respiratory tract infection), head, neck and shoulder disorder (temporomandibular disorders, shoulder stiffness, tetanus), and diarrhea. On the other hand, considering 4 cases of side effect on drug eruption, caution should be exercised when observing the progress of the patient taking Galgeun-tang.