• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.27-38
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• 1993

Pervasive developmental disorder is one of the most severe clinical disorder in child psychiatry and is associated with deviancies in multiple areas of development. Medication does not cure pervasive developmental disorder and its effectiveness is generally nonspecific. But psychopharmacological treatment can be important for some children with pervasive developmental disorder and can make many young autistics more amenable to behavior modification and education. Haloperidol, the most widely studied antipsychotics, was statistically and clinically superior to placebo, and furthermore, was known to facilitate the positive functioning such as, discrimination learning and imitative communication, without side effects. However, administration of haloperidol is associated with drug related dyskinesia, and it warrants the introduction and use of the other novel drugs. Several biochemical studies suggest that subgroups of children with pervasive developmental disorder show hyperserotonemia and increased endogenous opioid level as compared with controls. Psychopharmacological trials were conducted according to these findings(ex : fenfluramine, naltrexone), with mixed results till now. These and another drugs that have been used in children with pervasive developmental disorder and their effectiveness are reviewed.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.723-728
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• 1999

Pulmonary embolism from metallic mercury is rare. It may occur after a deliberate intravenous injection of mercury as a suicide gesture, in the presence of drug abuse or severe psychiatric disturbance, with the hope of increasing athletic and sexual performance, and accidentally during right heart catheterization while sampling blood with mercury containing syringes. We have experienced the first case of pulmonary embolism associated with intravenous mercury injection in Korea. The blood mercury level remain elevated within the toxic range to date. This may be due to the continued absorption of embolized mercury. Multifocal areas of patchy perfusion defects are in both upper lung fields on perfusion scan of lung. Few of the abnormalities of respiratory or renal function reported previously were demonstrated. We report the case of a young male patient presenting with a clinical picture of pulmonary embolism, in whom widespread deposit of metallic mercury were demonstrated throughout both lungs and elsewhere in the body.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2015

Objectives : In Korea, Rhus verniciflua Stokes (RVS) has been used in traditional medicine for various diseases such as back pain, syndromes of the blood system in women, gastrointestinal disease, and cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms of its anti-cancer activity have not been clearly elucidated yet. Methods : This study investigated the possible mechanisms by which RVS extract (RVE) exerts its anti-proliferative action in cultured human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells. Results : Treatment with RVE in MCF-7 cells resulted in inhibition of cell viability through G1 arrest of the cell cycle and induction of apoptosis in a time- and concentration-dependent manner, as determined by MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis. The induction of G1 arrest by RVE treatment was associated with the inhibition of cyclin D1, cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) 2, retinoblastoma protein (pRB), and mouse double minute 2 (MDM2) expression. Moreover, RVE treatment concentration dependently increased the levels of tumor suppressor p53, which was associated with the marked induction of Cdk inhibitors such as p21 (Waf1/Cip1) and p27 (Kip1). However, the inhibition of p53 function by the wild-type p53-specific inhibitor, pifithrin-α, abolished the above-mentioned effects of RVE, showing that p53 was responsible for the cytotoxicity of RVE Conclusions : These data indicate that a molecular pathway involving p53-dependent G1 cell cycle arrest plays a pivotal role in the cellular response to RVE, and demonstrate the potential applications of RVE as an anti-cancer drug for breast cancer treatment.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2006

One of the main attractions of treatment with herbal medicine is its apparent lack of side effects compared with the drug therapies used in allopathic medicine. However, evidence from various countries suggest that Asian herbal medicine carry a significant risk of contamination with toxic heavy metals at levels that may seriously threaten health. The aims of this study were to analyze and compare concentrations of heavy metals in urine and hair from 184 patients taking herbal medicines in the form of decoctions and/or pills in comparison to 101 control subjects taking either Western or no medications. Levels of metal concentrations exceeding WHO reference values were observed in a number of hair and urine samples for all subjects. After adjusting for potential confounders, taking decoctions or pills was associated with higher levels of some metals (such as Cu, Pb in urine), as well a higher odds ratio of exceeding the upper limit of reference ranges for Pb, Hg in hair. In contrast, taking decoctions or pills was associated with lower levels of some metals (such as Cu in urine and Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb in hair), suggesting that some herbal medicines may have a chelating effect on heavy metals in the body. Overall, the results obtained in the study show a mixed picture and suggest that heavy metals contamination in herbs is sometimes present, but may also be counteracted by the potential for some herbal medicines to act as chelating agents. Further study must be followed to obtain more concrete evidence.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2016

Objective: To estimate the association between ABCG2 C421A polymorphism and response to imatinib in chronic myeloid leukemia. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to evaluate the effect of ABCG2 C421A polymorphism on imatinib response. The databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of science, CINAHL with FullText, and Cochrane Library were searched for all published studies from inception to December 2015. The following terms were used with functions of 'AND' and 'OR': 'chronic myeloid leukemia', 'CML', 'drug transporter', 'ABCG2', 'BCRP', 'polymorphisms', 'SNPs', and 'imatinib'. The studies reporting the association between ABCG2 polymorphism and imatinib response were evaluated. Results: A total of 7 studies were included in the present meta-analysis. The pooled analysis showed that ABCG2 c.421CC genotype was significantly associated with poor response to imatinib under the dominant model (CC vs CA+AA; OR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.77; p = 0.0004). The subgroup analysis of Asian studies demonstrated a significantly lower response in c.421CC genotype than in c.421CA or c.421AA genotype (OR: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.37, 0.73; p = 0.0002). In subgroup analyses of 5 studies, the patients with the c.421CC genotype exhibited higher risk for worse response than the patients with c.421CA or c.421AA genotype (heterozygote codominant model: CC vs. AC; OR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.33, 0.73; p = 0.0006; homozygote codominant model: CC vs AA; OR: 0.43; 95% CI: 0.25, 0.75, p = 0.003). Conclusion: The ABCG2 c.421CC genotype was significantly associated with poor response to imatinib compared to the c.421CA and c.421AA genotypes in chronic myeloid leukemia, especially in Asian patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3461-3464
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• 2012

Methotrexate (MTX) is an important drug for the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, related toxicity occurs in many organs which may cause interruption of treatment, morbidity, and mortality. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and gamma glutamyl hydrolase (GGH) are known to alter their enzymatic activity and thus affect the metabolism of MTX and influence the effectiveness. Therefore, we hypothesized that genetic variations of DHFR and GGH genes may influence the risk of toxicity after high dose MTX. The study population comprised of 105 children with ALL who were treated according to the modified St Jude Total XV protocol. The patients received 2.5 or $5g/m^2$ of MTX for 5 doses during the consolidation phase. Genotyping of DHFR 829C>T and GGH-401C>T was performed using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The GGH-401CT and TT genotypes were associated with increased risk of leukopenia and thrombocytopenia after high dose MTX (OR 2.97, 95%CI; 1.24-7.13 and OR 4.02, 95%CI; 1.58-10.26). DHFR 829C>T was not associated with toxicity. In conclusion, the GGH-401CT and TT genotypes were found to increase the risk of severe leukopenia and thrombocytopenia after exposure to high dose MTX for childhood ALL therapy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.74-82
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• 2000

Prostate cancer initially responds and regresses in response to androgen depletion therapy, but most human prostate cancers will eventually recur, and re-grow as an androgen independent tumor. Once these tumors become hormone refractory, they usually are incurable leading to death for the patient. Little is known about the molecular details of how prostate cancer cells regress following androgen ablation and which genes are involved in the androgen independent growth following the development of resistance to therapy. Such knowledge would reveal putative drug targets useful in the rational therapeutic design to prevent therapy resistance and control androgen independent growth. The application of genome scale technologies have permitted new insights into the molecular mechanisms associated with these processes. Specifically, we have applied functional genomics using high density cDNA microarray analysis for parallel gene expression analysis of prostate cancer in an experimental xenograft system during androgen withdrawal therapy, and following therapy resistance, The large amount of expression data generated posed a formidable bioinformatics challenge. A novel template based gene clustering algorithm was developed and applied to the data to discover the genes that respond to androgen ablation. The data show restoration of expression of androgen dependent genes in the recurrent tumors and other signaling genes. Together, the discovered genes appear to be involved in prostate cancer cell growth and therapy resistance in this system. We have also developed and applied tissue microarray (TMA) technology for high throughput molecular analysis of hundreds to thousands of clinical specimens simultaneously. TMA analysis was used for rapid clinical translation of candidate genes discovered by cDNA microarray analysis to determine their clinical utility as diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic targets. Finally, we have developed a bioinformatic approach to combine pharmacogenomic data on the efficacy and specificity of various drugs to target the discovered prostate cancer growth associated candidate genes in an attempt to improve current therapeutics.

• CELLMED
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.6.1-6.6
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• 2016

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) has now become more common in occurrence in women of reproductive age, particularly in urban and semi-urban population in India. So there is a need to investigate this phenomenon taking into consideration various aspects including possible treatment method to ameliorate/eradicate this syndrome, which has far reaching socio-economic impact and consequences, in view of infertility and irregular menstrual cycles frequently associated with this syndrome. Homeopathy is a branch of traditional alternative medicine which is gaining popularity in India and some other developing countries, as also in some of the developed countries in Europe. With this background scenario, we have made an attempt to treat cases of confirmed PCOS and tried to compare the relative efficacy of two potentized homeopathic drugs, namely, Lycopodium clavatum (Lyco) and Calcarea carbonica (Calc), most frequently used by homeopathic practitioners, selecting different potencies of the drugs, depending on condition/guiding symptom(s) of the patients. While the main focus was pointed on total/partial removal of cysts, data pertaining to different PCOS associated symptoms were also compared for the sake of learning if the two drugs had differential effects on these symptoms also. The study parameters in this investigation included: regularity/irregularity of menstrual cycle, presence/absence of acne, hirsutism, male type alopecia, acanthosis nigricans, body/mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio. Overall results provided clear evidences that both these homeopathic drugs had great ameliorating effects on PCOS, although each drug had a little different effect in respect of the individual parameters of this study.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.54-59
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• 2013

In this study, we investigated the effect of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a major component of green tea catechins from green tea leaves, on activities of cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 and thromboxane synthase (TXAS), thromboxane $A_2$ ($TXA_2$) production associated microsomal enzymes. EGCG inhibited COX-1 activity to 96.9%, and TXAS activity to 20% in platelet microsomal fraction having cytochrome c reductase (an endoplasmic reticulum marker enzyme) activity and expressing COX-1 (70 kDa) and TXAS (58 kDa) proteins. The inhibitory ratio of COX-1 to TXAS by EGCG was 4.8. These results mean that EGCG has a stronger selectivity in COX-1 inhibition than TXAS inhibition. In special, a nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drug aspirin, a COX-1 inhibitor, inhibited COX-1 activity by 11.3% at the same concentration ($50{\mu}M$) as EGCG that inhibited COX-1 activity to 96.9% as compared with that of control. This suggests that EGCG has a stronger effect than that of aspirin on inhibition of COX-1 activity. Accordingly, we demonstrate that EGCG might be used as a crucial tool for a strong negative regulator of COX-1/$TXA_2$ signaling pathway to inhibit thrombotic disease-associated platelet aggregation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.84-93
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• 2015

Objectives: The present study was conducted in order to examine the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and osteoporosis prevalence in Korea and to assess whether different associations are found in single-person households. Methods: A cross-sectional population-based study was conducted using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, from 2008 to 2011. The study subjects were people aged ${\geq}50$ years with osteoporosis as defined by bone mineral density. Multivariate logistic models were used to estimate prevalence odds ratios (pORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Gender differences in the likelihood of osteoporosis were analyzed based on household income, education level, and residential area. Results: There were 8221 osteoporosis patients aged ${\geq}50$ years, of whom 927 lived in single-person households. There was a gender-specific association between osteoporosis prevalence and all three SES factors that we analyzed: income, education, and residential area. After adjusting for age, SES, and health behaviors, including body mass index (BMI), low household income was only significantly associated with osteoporosis in men, whereas education level had an inverse relationship with osteoporosis only in women (p=0.01, p<0.001, respectively). However, after controlling for age and BMI, rural residency was only associated with osteoporosis in women living in single-person households (pOR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.43). Conclusions: The Korean adult population showed a gender-specific relationship between SES and osteoporosis prevalence, with a different pattern found in single-person households.