• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.254-263
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• 2014

This study was carried out to analyze the effects of water and 70% ethanol extract on the antioxidative and antidiabetic activities of Smilax china L., a vine shrub belonging to the lily family. The activities of the extracts were measured based on the total phenolic and flavonoid contents and through on the results of the antioxidant tests, such as the electron-donating ability, ABTs radical scavenging activities, SOD-like activity, xanthine oxidase inhibition effect, antioxidant protection factor (PF), TBARs content and ACE inhibition activity, and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase, and ${\alpha}$-amylase inhibition activity. The resulting total phenolic and flavonoid contents of the 70% ethanol extract from S. china L. were greater than those of the water extract from S. china L. With regard to the results of the antioxidant tests, such as the electron-donating ability, ABTs radical scavenging activity, SOD-like activity, xanthine oxidase inhibition effect, antioxidant protection factor (PF), and TBARs content, those from the 70% ethanol extract from S. china L. were greater than those from the water extract from S. china L. Also, with regard to the ACE inhibition effect and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase and ${\alpha}$-amylase inhibition, those from the 70% ethanol extract from S. china L. were greater than those from the water extract from S. china L. All these findings show that the 70% ethanol extract from S. china L. has greater antioxidative and antidiabetic effects and can be used as a preventive agent for oxidation and diabetes.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.75 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2013

Background: In cancer cells, autophagy is generally induced as a pro-survival mechanism in response to treatment-associated genotoxic and metabolic stress. Thus, concurrent autophagy inhibition can be expected to have a synergistic effect with chemotherapy on cancer cell death. Monensin, a polyether antibiotic, is known as an autophagy inhibitor, which interferes with the fusion of autophagosome and lysosome. There have been a few reports of its effect in combination with anticancer drugs. We performed this study to investigate whether erlotinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor, or rapamycin, an mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor, is effective in combination therapy with monensin in non-small cell lung cancer cells. Methods: NCI-H1299 cells were treated with rapamycin or erlotinib, with or without monensin pretreatment, and then subjected to growth inhibition assay, apoptosis analysis by flow cytometry, and cell cycle analysis on the basis of the DNA contents histogram. Finally, a Western blot analysis was done to examine the changes of proteins related to apoptosis and cell cycle control. Results: Monensin synergistically increases growth inhibition and apoptosis induced by rapamycin or erlotinib. The number of cells in the sub-$G_1$ phase increases noticeably after the combination treatment. Increase of proapoptotic proteins, including bax, cleaved caspase 3, and cleaved poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, and decrease of anti-apoptotic proteins, bcl-2 and bcl-xL, are augmented by the combination treatment with monensin. The promoters of cell cycle progression, notch3 and skp2, decrease and p21, a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, accumulates within the cell during this process. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that concurrent autophagy inhibition could have a role in lung cancer treatment.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.122-129
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• 1982

In order to extend our understanding on the multiple inhibition enzyme kinetics, a general equation of an enzyme reaction in the presence of two different reversible inhibitors was derived by what we call "match-box mechanism" under the combined assumption of steady-state and quasi-equilibrium for inhibitor binding. Graphical methods were proposed to analyze the multiple inhibition of an enzyme by any given sets of different inhibitors, i.e., competitive, noncompetitive, and uncompetitive inhibitors. This method not only gives an interaction factor $({\alpha})$ between two inhibitors, but also discerns ${\alpha}_1$ and ${\alpha}_2$ with and without substrate binding, respectively. The factors involved in the dissociation constants of inhibitors can also be evaluated by the present plot. It is also shown that the present kinetic approach can be extended to other forms of activators or hydrogen ions with some modification.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.161-166
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• 1997

Tissue thromboplastin (tissue factor), a membrane bound glycoprotein is an important initiating factor in blood coagulation cascade, which leads to the formation of thrombin by activating both factor X and IX. Activation of blood coagulation by TF is essential for blood injury, and stimulates the blood coagulation in myocardial infarction, cancer and blood coagulatory diseases. High density lipoprotein, apolipoprotein A-II were known to be biological TF inhibitors. Recently, studies on search for TF inhibitors from natural products have been active in Korea. Among the edible mushrooms screened for inhibitory activities on the TF, Lentinus edodes showed the most strong activity, followd by Agaricus bisporus and Ganoderma lucidium. And the fractionation of the above mushrooms with the chloroform ($CHCl_3$) and ethylacetate (EtOAc) was done and evaluated for the inhibitory activities on TF. In Ganoderma lucidium, $CHCl_3$ fraction and $H_2O$ layer were not active, but EtOAc fraction exhibited a strong inhibitory activity on TF and the $IC_{50}$ value was $1.07{\times}10^{-4}\;g$. In the case of Agaricus bisporus, there were no inhibitory activities on the TF in all of the fractions. $CHCl_3$ fraction and $H_2O$ layer of Lentinus edodes did not show inhibition on the TF but EtOAc fraction showed strong inhibition on the TF, and the $IC_{50}$ value was $7.70{\times}10^{-4}\;g$.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.108-112
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• 1999

Recombinant murine stem cell factor (rmSCF) or recombinant murine nerve growth factor (rmNGF) induced the morphological change of large numbers of rat peritoneal mast cells (RPMC). We investigated the role of phosphatidylinositol $3^{l}-kinase$ (PI3-kinase) in receptors-mediated morphological change in RPMC. Exposure of RPMC to PI3-kinase inhibitor, wortmannin, before the addition of rmSCF and rmNGF antagonized those factors-induced morphological change. These results suggest that the PI3-kinase is involved in the signal transduction pathway responsible for morphological change following stimulation of rmSCF and rmNGF and that wortmannin blocks these responses.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 2024

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) is a transcription factor activated under hypoxic conditions, and it plays a crucial role in cellular stress regulation. While HIF-1α activity is essential in normal tissues, its presence in the tumor microenvironment represents a significant risk factor as it can induce angiogenesis and confer resistance to anti-cancer drugs, thereby contributing to poor prognoses. Typically, HIF-1α undergoes rapid degradation in normoxic conditions via oxygen-dependent degradation mechanisms. However, certain cancer cells can express HIF-1α even under normoxia. In this study, we observed an inclination toward increased normoxic HIF-1α expression in cancer cell lines exhibiting increased HDAC6 expression, which prompted the hypothesis that HDAC6 may modulate HIF-1α stability in normoxic conditions. To prove this hypothesis, several cancer cells with relatively higher HIF-1α levels under normoxic conditions were treated with ACY-241, a selective HDAC6 inhibitor, and small interfering RNAs for HDAC6 knockdown. Our data revealed a significant reduction in HIF-1α expression upon HDAC6 inhibition. Moreover, the downregulation of HIF-1α under normoxic conditions decreased zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1 expression and increased E-cadherin levels in lung cancer H1975 cells, consequently suppressing cell invasion and migration. ACY-241 treatment also demonstrated an inhibitory effect on cell invasion and migration by reducing HIF-1α level. This study confirms that HDAC6 knockdown and ACY-241 treatment effectively decrease HIF-1α expression under normoxia, thereby suppressing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. These findings highlight the potential of selective HDAC6 inhibition as an innovative therapeutic strategy for lung cancer.

• BMB Reports
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• v.50 no.12
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• pp.599-600
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• 2017

Many studies have focused on the tumor suppressive role of $TGF-{\beta}$ signaling during the early stages of tumorigenesis by activating the target genes involved in cytostasis and apoptosis. We investigated the effects of $TGF-{\beta}$ inhibition on early tumorigenesis in the liver, by employing diverse inhibitory methods. Strikingly, $TGF-{\beta}$ inhibition consistently suppressed hepatic tumorigenesis that was induced either by activated RAS plus p53 downregulation or by the co-activation of RAS and TAZ signaling; this demonstrates the requirements for canonical $TGF-{\beta}$ signaling in tumorigenesis. Moreover, we found that Snail is the target gene of the $TGF-{\beta}$ signaling pathway that promotes hepatic carcinogenesis. The knockdown of Snail suppressed the early tumorigenesis in the liver, as did the $TGF-{\beta}$ inhibition, while the ectopic expression of Snail restored tumorigenesis that was suppressed by the $TGF-{\beta}$ inhibition. Our findings establish the oncogenic $TGF-{\beta}$-Smad-Snail signaling axis during the early tumorigenesis in the liver.

• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.464-470
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• 1995

Quinolone antibiotics are DNA gyrase inhibitors, but their bactericidal action seems to involve more than the inhibition of DNA gyrase activity. Hence, the potentially crucial factors among possible mechanisms of quinolone action; cleavable complex formation, inhibition of DNA synthesis, and induction of SOS response were investigated. These parameters were measured in an Escherichia coli strain exposed to quinolones in the logarithmic growth phase, and correlated with the bactericidal activity of quinolones. Cleavable complex formation proved to be the factor most related to bactericidal action. Inhibition of DNA synthesis was substantially correlated with bactericidal activity, but induction of SOS response was least correlated with bactericidal activity. Therefore, it was concluded that quinolones exert bactericidal action primarily through cleavable complex formation, and subsequent unknown cellular processes together with inhibition of DNA synthesis contribute to the bactericidal activity of quinolones.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.888-894
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• 2006

Objectives : For the purpose of developing new anti-HIV agents from natural sources, the extracts of Ricinus communis were tested for their inhibitory effects on essential enzymes reverse transcriptase (RT), protease and alpha-glucosidase. Inhibition activity of major compounds of Ricinus communis were predicted from quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR) in silico. Methods and Results : In the anti-HIV-1 RT using enzyme-linked oligonucleotide sorbent assay (ELOSA) method, water and methanol extracts (100ug/ml) of Ricinus communis showed strong activity of 94.2% and 82.7%, respectively. In the HIV-1 protease and alpha-glucosidase inhibition assay, neither water nor methanol extracts of Ricinus communis inhibited the activity of the enzyme to cleave any substrates as oligopeptides and oligosaccharides. Conclusions : We found that for these samples it is possible that the inhibition of the RT in vitro is due to the secondary metabolites of Ricinus communis such as ricinine and quercetin. It would beof great interest to identify the compounds which are responsible for this inhibition, since all therapeutically useful agents up to date are RT inhibitors.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2006

Certain flavonoids possess anti-inflammatory activity. Besides their antioxidative property, the cellular action mechanisms of flavonoids include an inhibition of arachidonate metabolizing enzymes such as cyclooxygenases and lipoxygenases, and a down-regulation of proinflammatory gene expression such as cyclooxygenase-2, inducible nitric oxide synthase and tumor necrosis factor-$\alpha$. In this review, the recent findings of anti-inflammatory flavonoid research since 2004 were summarized. And the cellular mechanisms on signal transduction pathways were also discussed.