• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.73-78
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• 2020

Purpose: Congenital myasthenic syndrome (CMS) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by impaired neuromuscular transmission. This study aims to provide the clue for early diagnosis and improved therapeutic strategies in CMS. Materials and Methods: Through the targeted panel sequencing including twenty CMS causative genes, eleven patients were genetically confirmed and enrolled in this study. A retrospective medical record review was carried out for the clinical and laboratory data analysis. Results: The age of patients ranged from 5 to 23 years, with the median age of 16 years. The peak age at onset of symptoms was the neonatal period. Seven out of the eleven patients were symptomatic at birth. The most commonly reported initial finding was generalized hypotonia with poor sucking and crying. Mean time to accurate diagnosis was 9.3±5.0 years. Total fifteen different variants in seven genes associated with CMS (DOK7, AGRN, RAPSN, CHRNE, COLQ, SLC5A7, and GFPT1) were identified. Conclusion: We describe the clinical and genetic characteristics of CMS patients and treatment outcome in a single tertiary center. High clinical suspicion and timely molecular diagnosis is particularly important for the tailored therapy to maximize clinical improvement in CMS.

• BMB Reports
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• 제57권2호
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• pp.71-78
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• 2024

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive skin tumors, and conventional treatment modalities are not effective in treating advanced melanoma. Although immunotherapy is an effective treatment for melanoma, it has disadvantages, such as a poor response rate and serious systemic immune-related toxic side effects. The main solution to this problem is the use of biological materials such as hydrogels to reduce these side effects and amplify the immune killing effect against tumor cells. Hydrogels have great advantages as local slow-release drug carriers, including the ability to deliver antitumor drugs directly to the tumor site, enhance the local drug concentration in tumor tissue, reduce systemic drug distribution and exhibit good degradability. Despite these advantages, there has been limited research on the application of hydrogels in melanoma treatment. Therefore, this article provides a comprehensive review of the potential application of hydrogels in melanoma immunotherapy. Hydrogels can serve as carriers for sustained drug delivery, enabling the targeted and localized delivery of drugs with minimal systemic side effects. This approach has the potential to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy for melanoma. Thus, the use of hydrogels as drug delivery vehicles for melanoma immunotherapy has great potential and warrants further exploration.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.8.1-8.17
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• 2021

The global crisis caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to the most significant economic loss and human deaths after World War II. The pathogen causing this disease is a novel virus called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2). As of December 2020, there have been 80.2 million confirmed patients, and the mortality rate is known as 2.16% globally. A strategy to protect a host from SARS-CoV-2 is by suppressing intracellular viral replication or preventing viral entry. We focused on the spike glycoprotein that is responsible for the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into the host cell. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration/EU Medicines Agency authorized a vaccine and antibody to treat COVID-19 patients by emergency use approval in the absence of long-term clinical trials. Both commercial and academic efforts to develop preventive and therapeutic agents continue all over the world. In this review, we present a perspective on current reports about the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 as a therapeutic target.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.117-122
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• 2014

Background: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women in the developed countries. Despite advances in screening, improved local therapies and adjuvant systemic treatments, median survival of metastatic breast cancer patients (MBC) is in the range of 2-3 years at most. We aimed to investigate whether the prognostic factors and therapeutic responses of our Turkish patients are similar to those in the literature. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of MBC patients who had been treated in our institution between 1999-2009 and analyzed their clinicopathological features and survival outcomes retrospectively Results: A hundred and sixty patients were included. Median age was 47 (23-82), median follow up was 24 (2-186) months. At the time of diagnosis 59% of patients were under the age of 50 and 46% were postmenopausal. The majority (37%) had multiple sites of metastases. Forty percent received endocrine therapy and 40% chemotherapy as first line metastatic treatment. Thirty (20%) patients were treated with molecular targeting agents like trastuzumab, lapatinib and sunitinib, frequently combined with a chemotherapy agent. Five-year overall survival (OS) was 32% and median OS was 38 months for the whole group. Five year progression free survival (PFS) was 10% and median PFS was 10 months. Menopausal status, hormone receptor expression and disease free status had a significant impact on overall survival in the multivariate analysis (p 0.018, p 0.018 and p:0.003, respectively). Conclusions: All our patients were treated with the modern oncologic therapies recommended by the international guidelines. From our data, MBC patients live up to 3-4 years, indicating that further improvement beyond that requires development of new treatment modalities. The survival outcomes of our patients were consistent with the data reported in the literature.

• Ultrasonography
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.59-65
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• 2013

목적: 본 연구는 초음파 조영제를 직접 합성하고 그 크기 및 소멸 시간 등의 특성을 분석하며, 기존의 초음파 조영제와의 영상을 비교하여 앞으로 초음파 조영제를 매개로 한 영상 유도 하 약물 및 유전자 치료제의 전달 시스템 구축의 기본을 갖추고자 한다. 대상 및 방법: 초음파 조영제는 21마이크로 몰의 DPPC(1, 2-Dihexadecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, $C_{40}H_{80}NO_8P$), 9 마이크로 몰의 콜레스테롤, 1.9 마이크로 몰의 DCP(Dihexadecylphosphate, $[CH_3(CH_2)_{15}O]_2P(O)OH$) 및 클로로포름 및 SF6 기체를 이용하여 합성하였다. 약 12-24시간의 동결건조 후에 초음파 조영제는 SF6 기체와 초음파 처리(sonication) 법을 이용하여 합성하였고 그 초음파 조영제의 크기는 압출기를 이용하여 일정한 크기로 조정하였다. 합성된 초음파 조영제는 동적 광산란 측정법(dynamic light scattering measurement)을 이용하여 그 크기를 분석하였다. 한편 합성한 초음파 조영제의 소멸 양상을 평가하기 위하여 광학 현미경을 이용하여 그 숫자를 합성 직후, 12시간, 24시간, 36시간, 48시간, 60시간, 72시간 및 84시간 후에 평가하였다. 초음파 조영제로서의 효과를 평가하기 위하여 모형을 만들어 현재 임상적으로 사용되고 있는 초음파 조영제와 그 에코를 비교 분석하였다. 결과: 초음파 조영제는 동결건조-초음파 처리 방법을 통하여 성공적으로 합성 할 수 있었다. 합성된 초음파 조영제는 154.2 nm의 정점 (peak)에서 가장 많이 분포하였으며 합성 후 24시간부터는 입자의 숫자들이 감소하는 양상을 보였다. 소노뷰와 합성된 초음파 조영제의 에코밝기는 유의한 차이를 보이지 않았으나 소노뷰와 생리식염수 및 합성된 초음파 조영제와 생리식염수의 에코 밝기는 통계적으로 유의한 차이를 보였다 (p < 0.01). 결론: 본 연구를 통하여 초음파 조영제를 직접 합성할 수 있는 방법을 습득할 수 있었고 그 크기 및 특성을 분석할 수 있었다.

• BMB Reports
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• 제51권11호
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• pp.572-577
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• 2018

Recent studies showed that the PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint blockade is a dramatic therapy for melanoma by enhancing antitumor immune activity. Currently, major strategies for the PD-1/PD-L1 blockade have mainly focused on the use of antibodies and compounds. Seeking an alternative approach, others employ endogenous proteins as blocking agents. The extracellular domain of PD-1 (ePD1) includes the binding site with PD-L1. Accordingly, we constructed a PD-1-based recombinantly tailored fusion protein (dFv-ePD1) that consists of bivalent variable fragments (dFv) of an MMP-2/9-targeted antibody and ePD1. The melanoma-binding intensity and antitumor activity were also investigated. We found the intense and selective binding capability of the protein dFv-ePD1 to human melanoma specimens was confirmed by a tissue microarray. In addition, dFv-ePD1 significantly suppressed the migration and invasion of mouse melanoma B16-F1 cells, and displayed cytotoxicity to cancer cells in vitro. Notably, dFv-ePD1 significantly inhibited the growth of mouse melanoma B16-F1 tumor cells in mice and in vivo fluorescence imaging showed that dFv-ePD was gradually accumulated into the B16-F1 tumor. Also the B16-F1 tumor fluorescence intensity at the tumor site was stronger than that of dFv. This study indicates that the recombinant protein dFv-ePD1 has an intensive melanoma-binding capability and exerts potent therapeutic efficacy against melanoma. The novel format of the PD-L1-blocked agent may play an active role in antitumor immunotherapy.

• BMB Reports
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• 제42권1호
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• pp.59-64
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• 2009

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is highly prevalent worldwide. The major challenge for current antiviral treatment is the elevated drug resistance that occurs via rapid viral mutagenesis. In this study, we developed AAV vectors to simultaneously deliver two or three shRNAs targeting different HBV-related genes. These vectors showed markedly better antiviral effects than ones that delivered a single shRNA in vitro. A dual shRNA expression vector (AAV-157i/1694i), which simultaneously expressed two shRNAs targeted the S and X genes of HBV, reduced HBsAg, HBeAg and HBV DNA levels by $87{\pm}4$, $80.3{\pm}2.6$ and $86.2{\pm}7%$ respectively, eight days post-transduction. In a mouse model of prophylactic treatment, HBsAg and HBeAg were reduced to undetectable levels and the serum HBV DNA level was reduced by at least 100 fold. These results indicate that AAV-157i/1694i generates potent anti-HBV effects and that the strategy of constructing multi-shRNA expression vectors may lead to enhanced anti-HBV efficacy and overcome the evading mechanism of the virus and thus the development of drug resistance.