• Title/Summary/Keyword: Immune Functions

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The G115 standardized ginseng extract: an example for safety, efficacy, and quality of an herbal medicine

  • Bilia, Anna R.;Bergonzi, Maria C.
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
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    • v.44 no.2
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    • pp.179-193
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    • 2020
  • Ginseng products on the market show high variability in their composition and overall quality. This becomes a challenge for both consumers and health-care professionals who are in search of high-quality, reliable ginseng products that have a proven safety and efficacy profile. The botanical extract standardization is of crucial importance in this context as it determines the reproducibility of the quality of the product that is essential for the evaluation of effectiveness and safety. This review focuses on the well-characterized and standardized ginseng extract, G115, which represents an excellent example of an herbal drug preparation with constant safety and efficacy within the herbal medicinal products. Over the many decades, extensive preclinical and clinical research has been conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of G115. In vitro and in vivo studies of G115 have shown pharmacological effects on physical performance, cognitive function, metabolism, and the immune system. Furthermore, a significant number of G115 clinical studies, most of them double-blind placebo-controlled, have reinforced the findings of preclinical evidence and proved the efficacy of this extract on blood glucose and lipid regulation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, energy, physical performance, and immune and cognitive functions. Clinical trials and 50 years of presence on the market are proof of a good safety profile of G115.

Behavioral Response and Immune Alterations by Electric Footshock in Mice (생쥐에서 전기자극 스트레스에 의한 행동반응과 면역 기능 변화)

  • Kim, Jung-Bum;Park, Won-Kyun;Song, Dae-Kyu
    • Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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    • v.4 no.1
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    • pp.44-53
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    • 1996
  • The present experiment was designed to investigate the effects of behavioral, response to immune function in response to electric footshock in mice. Mice were subjected to electric footshock for 3 days(two sessions a day, 11 times of shock for about 31 minutes a session). The humoral immune response was measured using mice immunized with rat RBC. The cell-mediated immune responses were evaluated by contact hypersensitivity to 2, 4-dinitrofluorobenzene(DNFB) and by phytohemagglutin(PHA)-stimulated splenocytes proliferation assay. In stressed group, electric footshock suppressed significantly anti-rat RBC antibody production(p<0.05), but enhanced significantly $T_{48}$ relative to $T_{24}$ in contact hypersenstivry (P<.01) and T-cell proliferation response(P<.05) by PHA stimulation elative to control group. T-cell proliferation response by PHA stimulation was significantly correlated to the movement than the sensitivity and coping behavior in the mouse, in response to the electric footshock. These data supper the importance of behavioral response in stress-induced changes of immune functions.

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Effects of Different Intensities of Repeated Hypoxic Stress on Immune Functions in Mice (마우스에서 반복적 저산소 스트레스 정도에 따른 면역동성 효과)

  • 강동원;김건태;김동구
    • Toxicological Research
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.27-34
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    • 1999
  • To study the nature of differentially manifested adaptive response of an organism according to the intensities of the stress, the immune effects of different levels of repeated hypoxia were investigated. Four experimental groups (NH : not -handled, 20% : handled, 15% or 10% : exposed to 15% or 10% $\textrm{O}_2$ 씨오투 with balanced nitrogen, respectively) of mice were exposed to different levels of hypoxia for 60 min/day, 5days/week in a repeated and intermittent manner. After 8 weeks' exposure to hypoxia environment, mice were subjected to immune function measurements, A decreased proportion of CD3+ CD8 phenotype cells in the study of splenocyte subsets was observed in the 10% group. Ovalbumin-stimulated IgG2a production was increased in the 15% group, while no changes were noted in the IgGl and IgM production. No significant changes of the antigen-stimulated splenocyte proliferation and the natural killer cell cytotoxicity were found. These results show that the stress effects on the immune systems can be varied according to the strength of the stress and that a mild level of repeated hypoxic stress can enhance the immune function of mice in this experimental model.

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HCoV-IMDB: Database for the Analysis of Interactions between HCoV and Host Immune Proteins

  • Kim, Mi-Ran;Lee, Ji-Hae;Son, Hyeon Seok;Kim, Hayeon
    • International journal of advanced smart convergence
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2019
  • Coronaviruses are known respiratory pathogens. In the past, most human coronaviruses were thought to cause mild symptoms such as cold. However recently, as seen in the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), infectious diseases with severe pulmonary disease and respiratory symptoms are caused by coronaviruses, making research on coronaviruses become important. Considering previous studies, we constructed 'HCoV-IMDB (Human Corona Virus Immune Database)' to systematically provide genetic information on human coronavirus and host immune information, which can be used to analyze the interaction between human coronavirus and host immune proteins. The 'HCoV-IMDB' constructed in the study can be used to search for genetic information on human coronavirus and host immune protein and to download data. A BLAST search specific to the human coronavirus, one of the database functions, can be used to infer genetic information and evolutionary relationship about the query sequence.

Recent Advances in Cell Therapeutics for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases

  • Youngjae Park;Seung-Ki Kwok
    • IMMUNE NETWORK
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.10.1-10.17
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    • 2022
  • Systemic autoimmune diseases arise from loss of self-tolerance and immune homeostasis between effector and regulator functions. There are many therapeutic modalities for autoimmune diseases ranging from conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and immunosuppressants exerting nonspecific immune suppression to targeted agents including biologic agents and small molecule inhibitors aiming at specific cytokines and intracellular signal pathways. However, such current therapeutic strategies can rarely induce recovery of immune tolerance in autoimmune disease patients. To overcome limitations of conventional treatment modalities, novel approaches using specific cell populations with immune-regulatory properties have been attempted to attenuate autoimmunity. Recently progressed biotechnologies enable sufficient in vitro expansion and proper manipulation of such 'tolerogenic' cell populations to be considered for clinical application. We introduce 3 representative cell types with immunosuppressive features, including mesenchymal stromal cells, Tregs, and myeloid-derived suppressor cells. Their cellular definitions, characteristics, mechanisms of immune regulation, and recent data about preclinical and clinical studies in systemic autoimmune diseases are reviewed here. Challenges and limitations of each cell therapy are also addressed.

Immune Cells in the Female Reproductive Tract

  • Lee, Sung Ki;Kim, Chul Jung;Kim, Dong-Jae;Kang, Jee-Hyun
    • IMMUNE NETWORK
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.16-26
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    • 2015
  • The female reproductive tract has two main functions: protection against microbial challenge and maintenance of pregnancy to term. The upper reproductive tract comprises the fallopian tubes and the uterus, including the endocervix, and the lower tract consists of the ectocervix and the vagina. Immune cells residing in the reproductive tract play contradictory roles: they maintain immunity against vaginal pathogens in the lower tract and establish immune tolerance for sperm and an embryo/fetus in the upper tract. The immune system is significantly influenced by sex steroid hormones, although leukocytes in the reproductive tract lack receptors for estrogen and progesterone. The leukocytes in the reproductive tract are distributed in either an aggregated or a dispersed form in the epithelial layer, lamina propria, and stroma. Even though immune cells are differentially distributed in each organ of the reproductive tract, the predominant immune cells are T cells, macrophages/dendritic cells, natural killer (NK) cells, neutrophils, and mast cells. B cells are rare in the female reproductive tract. NK cells in the endometrium significantly expand in the late secretory phase and further increase their number during early pregnancy. It is evident that NK cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells are extremely important in decidual angiogenesis, trophoblast migration, and immune tolerance during pregnancy. Dysregulation of endometrial/decidual immune cells is strongly related to infertility, miscarriage, and other obstetric complications. Understanding the immune system of the female reproductive tract will significantly contribute to women's health and to success in pregnancy.

CIS CODES OVER 𝔽4

  • Kim, Hyun Jin
    • Korean Journal of Mathematics
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.285-294
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    • 2020
  • We study the complementary information set codes (for short, CIS codes) over 𝔽4. They are strongly connected to correlation-immune functions over 𝔽4. Also the class of CIS codes includes the self-dual codes. We find a construction method of CIS codes over 𝔽4 and a criterion for checking equivalence of CIS codes over 𝔽4. We complete the classification of all inequivalent CIS codes of length up to 8 over 𝔽4.

Regulation of Tumor Immune Surveillance and Tumor Immune Subversion by TGF-$\beta$

  • Park, Hae-Young;Wakefield, Lalage M;Mamura, Mizuko
    • IMMUNE NETWORK
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    • v.9 no.4
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    • pp.122-126
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    • 2009
  • Transforming growth factor-$\beta$ (TGF-$\beta$) is a highly pleiotropic cytokine playing pivotal roles in immune regulation. TGF-$\beta$ facilitates tumor cell survival and metastasis by targeting multiple cellular components. Focusing on its immunosuppressive functions, TGF-$\beta$ antagonists have been employed for cancer treatment to enhance tumor immunity. TGF-$\beta$ antagonists exert anti-tumor effects through #1 activating effector cells such as NK cells and cytotoxic $CD8^+$ Tcells (CTLs), #2 inhibiting regulatory/suppressor cell populations, #3 making tumor cells visible to immune cells, #4 inhibiting the production of tumor growth factors. This review focuses on the effect of TGF-$\beta$ on T cells, which are differentiated into effector T cells or newly identified tumor-supporting T cells.

A Fuzzy Continuous Petri Net Model for Helper T cell Differentiation

  • Park, In-Ho;Na, Do-Kyun;Lee, Kwang-H.;Lee, Do-Heon
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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    • 2005.09a
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    • pp.344-347
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    • 2005
  • Helper T(Th) cells regulate immune response by producing various kinds of cytokines in response to antigen stimulation. The regulatory functions of Th cells are promoted by their differentiation into two distinct subsets, Th1 and Th2 cells. Th1 cells are involved in inducing cellular immune response by activating cytotoxic T cells. Th2 cells trigger B cells to produce antibodies, protective proteins used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign substances. Because cellular and humoral immune responses have quite different roles in protecting the host from foreign substances, Th cell differentiation is a crucial event in the immune response. The destiny of a naive Th cell is mainly controlled by cytokines such as IL-4, IL-12, and IFN-${\gamma}$. To understand the mechanism of Th cell differentiation, many mathematical models have been proposed. One of the most difficult problems in mathematical modeling is to find appropriate kinetic parameters needed to complete a model. However, it is relatively easy to get qualitative or linguistic knowledge of a model dynamics. To incorporate such knowledge into a model, we propose a novel approach, fuzzy continuous Petri nets extending traditional continuous Petri net by adding new types of places and transitions called fuzzy places and fuzzy transitions. This extension makes it possible to perform fuzzy inference with fuzzy places and fuzzy transitions acting as kinetic parameters and fuzzy inference systems between input and output places, respectively.

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Effects of Hyeolbuchukyeo-tang on Stress (혈부축어탕 스트레스에 미치는 영향)

  • Choi You-Kyung;Park Chong-hyeong;Jun Chan-yong;Kim Dong-woo;Hwang Gui-seo
    • The Journal of Korean Medicine
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    • v.26 no.3 s.63
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    • pp.162-175
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    • 2005
  • Backgrounds : Two stress pathways, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system, regulate immune system responses through release of corticosteroids, norepinephrine and epinephrine. respectively. These neuromediators act on immune cells via specific receptors on their surface to modulate the production of key regulatory cytokines. Objectives : To evaluate the preventive effects of oriental medicine Hyeolbuchukyeo-tang (HC) on stress. Methods : Mice were divided into three groups: nounal group, control group under immobilization stress and HC group which received Hyeolbuchukyeo-tang (HC) under immobilization stress. following sacrifice, their splenocytes were isolated and splenocyte surface markers were determined. The brains were removed and mRNA determined. In vivo, we separated RNA Iron cultured macrophages (RAW264.7). Results : In our study, immune functions were decreased in stress due mainly to changes of various neuromediators, cytokines and macrophage activities, and the treatment of HC increased those expressions. Conclusions : In summary, the present study documents the anti-stress effects of HC through stress-immune regulation.

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