• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.715-723
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• 2015

Insects represent the largest class within the animal kingdom in terms of species number. Humans had been utilized insect in the broad area, including food, agriculture, industry, pharmaceuticals and so on. At present, insects are emerging as a leading group for identifying and extracting novel bioactive substances due to enormous number and a high nutritional value. Insects rely on a suite of systemic response to resist infection such as immune cells, hemocytes, activation of enzymes cascades, and antimicrobial peptide/protein. Among the substances, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are main components of potent antimircrobial innate defense system into the insect hemolymph. AMPs raise influential candidate as avenue to resolve the development of antibiotic-resistant microbial organism. Insect AMPs are classified into four main classes: cecropins, insect defensins, glycine/proline-rich peptides. Insect AMPs have been purified, over 150. In this review, AMPs derived from several insects were summarized including honey bee, dung beetle, butterfly and longicorn beetle. These peptides almost exhibited potent antimicrobial activities against human microbial pathogens without causing remarkable hemolysis to erythrocytes excluding melittin, and their mode of action(s) are based on disruption of the plasma membrane or fungal apoptosis. Therefore, study of insect AMPs is expected to be useful for designing novel therapeutic antimicrobial applications.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.656-662
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• 2015

Natural products and natural product structures play a general and highly significant role in drug discovery and development process because it has various merits and potentials for new drug source that have extensive clinical experience, development time contraction, excellent stability and safety. In several neurological disorders, neuronal death and excessive activation of microglia (neuro-inflammation) are observed. A number of drug discovery-related neuronal cell death and neuro-inflammation was studied from natural products, respectively. However, until now, it has not been possible to study dual-protection molecules recorded in the Natural Product library. In the present study, using the natural product-derived library of the Institute for Korea Traditional Medical Industry, we investigated dual-protective molecules against glutamate (a classical excitatory neurotransmitter)-induced oxidative stress mediated neuronal cell death and LPS-induced excessive activated microglial cells (immune cells of the brain). Chrysophanol, extracted from Rheum palmatum, had dual-protective effects against both glutamate-induced neuronal cell death and LPS-induced NO production, triggering proinflammatory cytokines and microglia activation and resulting in neuroinflammation. Flow-cytometry analysis revealed that chrysophanol had a scavenger effect, scavenging glutamate- and LPS-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by neuronal and microglial cells, respectively. Based on the present study, chrysophanol may have an important protective role against neuronal cell death and neuroinflammation in the brain. The results may be helpful for studying drug development candidates for treating central nervous system disorders.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.596-603
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• 2011

This study was conducted to investigate traditional medicinal plants (TMP) 1 and 2, two different multi-herbal mixtures consisting of 24 herbs. Regarding the contents of flavonoid compounds, the ethanol extract (EE) of TMP2 yielded the highest content of flavonoid compounds (40.981 mg/g), followed by EE of TMP1 (28.23 mg/g), hot water extract of TMP2 (WE, 10.046 mg/g), and WE of TMP1 (6.59 mg/g). Antioxidant activities of EE and WE of TMP1 and TMP2 were measured based on DPPH radical scavenging activity. At 1 mg/ml, the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity was shown in EE of TMP2 (96%), followed by EE of TMP1 (94%). Nitric oxide (NO) production by RAW264.7 macrophage cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was reduced to 82, 77, 86, and 47% by addition of $500\;{\mu}g/ml$ of EE and WE of TMP1 and TMP2, respectively. These results were not due to the cytotoxicity of the extracts. NO synthesis was increased by 2.3, 3.6, 3.0, and 1.8 fold by addition of $500\;{\mu}g/ml$ of EE and WE of TMP1 and TMP2, respectively. These results show that medicinal plants play a significant role in antioxidative activity and activation of the immune system in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases, and different mixtures of the medicinal plants showed different effects.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.347-354
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• 2013

Innate immunity is the ability to differentiate infectious agents from self. The innate immune system is comprised of a complicated network of recognition and effector molecules that act together to protect the host in the early stage of an infectious challenge. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL or mannose-binding protein, MBP) belongs to the family of $Ca^{2+}$-dependent lectins (C-type lectin with a collagen-like domain), which are considered an important component of innate immunity. While it is associated with increased risk and severity of infections and autoimmunity, the most frequent immuno-deficiency syndrome was reported to be low MBL level in blood. Deficiency of human MBL is caused by mutations in the coding region of the MBL gene. Rat homologue gene of human MBL gene was used to study functions of wild type and mutant MBL proteins. Although extensive studies have yielded the structural information of MBL, the functions of MBL, especially mutant MBL, still require investigation. We previously reported the cloning of rat wild-type MBL gene and the production of a truncated form of MBL protein and its antibody. Here, we present the cloning of mutant MBL cDNA in collagen-like domain (R40C, G42D, and G45E) using site-directed mutagenesis and differential behaviors of wild type and mutant MBL in cells. The major difference between wild type and mutant MBL was that while wild type MBL was secreted, mutant MBL was inhibited for secretion, retained in endoplasmic reticulum, and still functioned as a lectin.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1027-1032
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• 2016

Antigen is substance causing disease derived from pathogen. Living organism has the immune system in terms of defense mechanism against antigen. Antigen is processed through several pathways such as phagocytosis, antibody action, complement activation, and cytotoxins by NK or cytotoxic T lymphocyte via MHC molecule. Lymph node (LN) is comprised of the complicated 3 dimensional network and several stromal cells. Fibroblastic reticular cells (FRC) are distributed in T zone for interaction with T cells. FRC produces the extra cellular matrix (ECM) into LN for ECM reorganization against pathogen infections and secretes homing chemokines. However, it has not so much been known about the involvement of the antigen process of FRC. The present report is for the function of FRC on antigen process. For this, FRC was positioned with several infected situations such as co-culture with macrophage, T cell, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and TNFα stimulation. When co-culture between FRC with macrophage and T cells was performed, morphological change of FRC was observed and empty space between FRCs was made by morphological change. The matrix metallo-proteinase (MMP) activity was up-regulated by Y27632 and T cells onto FRC. Furthermore, inflammatory cytokine, TNFα regulated the expression of adhesion molecules and MHC I antigen transporter in FRC by gene chip assay. NO production was elevated by FRC monolayer co-cultured with macrophage stimulated by LPS. GFP antigen was up-taken by macrophage co-cultured with FRC. Collectively, it suggests that FRC assists of the facilitation of antigen process and LN stroma is implicated into antigen process pathway.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.373-390
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• 1998

35 theses conducted in Korea on the topic of senescence or anti-oxidant were classified on the basis of research methods, animals used for the experiments, and research items. Evaluating these research works with respect to the Free Radical Theory, the following conclusions were reached. 1. Of the 17 theses written in the Oriental medicine aspect, three theses used a single herb, nine theses used a complex prescription, four theses concentrated on the usage of the medicinal acupuncture, and one research paper focused on using scientific components. Common objection of these papers were on the verification of the efficacy of herbs. 2. Of the 18 these written in the Western medicine aspect, five theses used a single drug, seven theses conducted a research on the changes due to senescence, and 6 papers were on variety of topics. The main focus of these works were on the mechanism and pathology related to the senescence rather than on the suppression of senescence. 3. Among the theses written in the Oriental medicine perspective, a total of 48 herbs were utilized. 26 of these herbs has a tonification function on the Kidney. Six out of nine complex prescription mentioned above has a function of tonifying the Kidney. 4. With respect to the research subjects used on the experiments, 8 theses have used Senescence-Accelerated mice, 13 theses have used Sprague-Dawley mice, and remaining 7 papers have used human or other animals. 5. These are the categorization of the research items used: the weight (11) and weight changes of the visceral organs (9), the measurement of the content of peroxide-disease (9), the measurement of enzyme vitality (21), the blood and urine test (10), the experiment concerning immune system (3), the influence on the hepatic capability of metabolizing foreign substance (3), the effect on hepatic cell protection (3), the measurement of both the suppression of Free Radical and ability to create Free Radical (2), the measurement of effect of suppresing MDA(malondialdehyde) (4), the effect of eliminating DPPH Radical (2), and experiements about the functions (2). 6. The rate of vitalization of well known anti-oxidants such as Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Protein-bound SH, Nonprotein-bound SH, Glutathione(GSH), Catalase, and etc. were tested in 17 theses. Considering the conclusions mentioned above, the theses related to the senescence published in Korea elected different animals used for experiments, research items and the methods of research, the end result seems to be a lack of objectivity. Thus, I would argue that research methods to overcome such a deficiency need to be developed systematically.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.11
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• pp.1621-1628
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• 2015

The immune system plays an important role in maintaining and protecting human health. In the present study, comparison of immuno-modulatory activities between polysaccharides (SFP) and ethanol (SFE) extracts separated from Sargassum fulvellum in macrophages and murine splenocytes were investigated. Immuno-modulatory activities of macrophages were estimated based on cell proliferation, nitric oxide (NO), inducible NO synthase (iNOS), and cytokine production in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells, and lipopolysaccharide was used as a positive control. SFP and SFE treatment did not affect cytotoxicity in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells, and SFP treatment significantly increased NO and cytokine production ($TNF-{\alpha}$, IL-6, and $IL-1{\beta}$), whereas SFE did not contribute to the increase in NO and cytokine production. In the case of splenocytes, SFP treatment increased splenocyte proliferation and also highly increased production of Th-1 type cytokines (IL-2 and $IFN-{\gamma}$) than those of SFE. Through this study, we confirmed that immuno-modulatory activities of Sargassum fulvellum may be due to polysaccharide extracts and this can be a potential nutraceutical.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.572-577
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• 2017

Background: Panax ginseng Meyer is cultivated because of its medicinal effects on the immune system, blood pressure, and cancer. Major ginsenosides in fresh ginseng are converted to minor ginsenosides by structural changes such as hydrolysis and dehydration. The transformed ginsenosides are generally more bioavailable and bioactive than the primary ginsenosides. Therefore, in this study, hydrothermal processing was applied to ginseng preparation to increase the yields of the transformed ginsenosides, such as 20(S)-Rg3, Rk1, and Rg5, and enhance antioxidant activities in an effective way. Methods: Ginseng extract was hydrothermally processed using batch reactors at $100-160^{\circ}C$ with differing reaction times. Quantitative analysis of the ginsenoside yields was performed using HPLC, and the antioxidant activity was qualitatively analyzed by evaluating 2,2'-azino-bis radical cation scavenging, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging, and phenolic antioxidants. Red ginseng and sun ginseng were prepared by conventional steaming as the control group. Results: Unlike steaming, the hydrothermal process was performed under homogeneous conditions. Chemical reaction, heat transfer, and mass transfer are generally more efficient in homogeneous reactions. Therefore, maximum yields for the hydrothermal process were 2.5-25 times higher than those for steaming, and the antioxidant activities showed 1.6-4-fold increases for the hydrothermal process. Moreover, the reaction time was decreased from 3 h to 15-35 min using hydrothermal processing. Conclusion: Therefore, hydrothermal processing offers significant improvements over the conventional steaming process. In particular, at temperatures over $140^{\circ}C$, high yields of the transformed ginsenosides and increased antioxidant activities were obtained in tens of minutes.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.33-42
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• 2001

Objective : To evaluate the effect of treatment for Rheumatoid arthritis by using Bee-venom Acupuncture that is well known for anti-inflammatory effect and function of activating immune system. Methods : Evaluated the result of Bee-venom Acupuncture treatment twice in a week for patients who diagnosised as rheumatoid arthritis by 7 criteria of US Rheumatism Academy. Results : 1. If you see the distribution chart, sexual rate of male and female was 1:2.75 and age distribution shows as age ascend it shows high. 2. If you see the duration distribution, it shows chronic tendency in order of more than 6 months (59.5%), 2 to 5 months, and 1 month. 3. If you see the invaded region distribution, it shows chronic tendency in order of finger(17 cases), wrist joint(16 cases), knee joint(16 cases), ankle joint(10 cases), elbow joint(8 cases), shoulder joint(7 cases), feet(7 cases), hip joint(5 cases), low back(3 cases) and neck(2 cases). 4. If you see the result of duration distribution treatment, the improvement index is rising in order of within a month, 2 to 5 months, and over 6 months. So it shows that it has good result of treatment within a month. 5. If you see the invaded region, it shows high improvement index in order of low back, hop joint, shoulder joint, wrist joint, feet, knee joint, finger, elbow joint, ankle joint and neck. 6. If you see the result of morning stiffness time before treatment, it shows good effect of treatment in order of 2-3hrs, 30min.-an hr, an hr to 2hrs, and 0-30min. 7. If you see the patients satisfaction after Bee-venom Acupuncture treatment, Excellent is 6 cases, Good is 7 cases, and Moderate 2 cases. Conclusions : It will have greater treatment effect if herbal medicine, moxibustion, and acupuncture are used together as patients whole body condition and symptoms with Bee-venom Acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis that is chronic inflammatory disease.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2005

GroE that is a heat shock protein composed of GroEL and GroES is known as an immunodominant target of both the humoral and cellular immune responses in bovine brucellosis. This study was carried out to characterize groE gene encoding heat shock proteins of B. abortus isolated in Korea and to evaluate the immunogenicity of the GroE protein expressed in E. coli system. In PCR the specific signals with the size of 2,077 bp were detected in five strains isolated from the mammary lymphnodes of the dairy cattle that were serologically positive and the reference strains. In comparison of the sequences of nucleotides and amino acids among the strains, GroES showed 100% identity in both sequences. GroEL was evaluated 99.0~99.9% in nucleotides and 98.0~100% homology in amino acids. The groE gene including groES and groEL was inserted into pET29a vector and constructed pET29a-GroE recombinant plasmids. The inserted groE was confirmed by digestion with Nco1 and EcoR1 endonucleases and nucleotide sequencing. E. coli BL (DE3) was transformed with pET29a-GroE, named as E. coli BL (DE3)/pET29a-GroE. In SDS-PAGE, it was evident that the recombinant plasmid effectively expressed the polypeptides for GroES (10 kDa) and GroEL (60 kDa) in 0.5, 1 and 2 hours after IPTG induction. The immuno-reactivity of the expressed proteins were proved in mouse inoculation and Western blot analysis.