• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.4917-4920
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• 2016

For advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases, a platinum-based regimen is the first-line chemotherapy treatment. The excision repair cross-complementing group 1 (ERCC1) plays an important role in DNA repair and has been related to resistance to platinum chemotherapy. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the ERCC1 (C118T) polymorphism on treatment response in 26 Thai advanced NSCLC patients receiving first line platinum-based chemotherapy during January to July 2015 at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital (KCMH). DNA was extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes and the single nucleotide polymorphism of ERCC1 was genotyped using a real-time PCR method with the TaqMan assay. The distribution of C/C, C/T and T/T genotypes was 57.7 %, 34.6 % and 7.7 %, respectively. The response rate to platinum-based chemotherapy in the wild type (C/C) of ERCC1 (C118T) was better than with the variant types (C/T and T/T) but the difference was not statistically significant (29.7% vs 9.1%, P=0.274). The results showed that a genetic polymorphism in ERCC1 might influence patient response to platinum-based chemotherapy. Further multicenter studies are now required to confirm the results of our study.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.952-959
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• 2023

Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have garnered considerable interest for their potential to aid non-native English-speaking researchers. These models can function as personal, round-the-clock English tutors, akin to how Prometheus in Greek mythology bestowed fire upon humans for their advancement. LLMs can be particularly helpful for non-native researchers in writing the Introduction and Discussion sections of manuscripts, where they often encounter challenges. However, using LLMs to generate text for research manuscripts entails concerns such as hallucination, plagiarism, and privacy issues; to mitigate these risks, authors should verify the accuracy of generated content, employ text similarity detectors, and avoid inputting sensitive information into their prompts. Consequently, it may be more prudent to utilize LLMs for editing and refining text rather than generating large portions of text. Journal policies concerning the use of LLMs vary, but transparency in disclosing artificial intelligence tool usage is emphasized. This paper aims to summarize how LLMs can lower the barrier to academic writing in English, enabling researchers to concentrate on domain-specific research, provided they are used responsibly and cautiously.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.199-205
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• 2015

T-bet is a critical transcription factor that regulates differentiation of Th1 cells from $CD4^+$ precursor cells. Since T-bet directly binds to the promoter of the IFN-${\gamma}$ gene and activates its transcription, T-bet deficiency impairs IFN-${\gamma}$ production in Th1 cells. Interestingly, T-bet-deficient Th cells also display substantially augmented the production of IL-2, a T cell growth factor. Exogenous expression of T-bet in T-bet deficient Th cells rescued the IFN-${\gamma}$ production and suppressed IL-2 expression. IFN-${\gamma}$ and IL-2 reciprocally regulate Th cell proliferation following TCR stimulation. Therefore, we examined the effect of T-bet on Th cell proliferation and found that T-bet deficiency significantly enhanced Th cell proliferation under non-skewing, Th1-skewing, and Th2-skewing conditions. By using IFN-${\gamma}$-null mice to eliminate the anti-proliferative effect of IFN-${\gamma}$, T-bet deficiency still enhanced Th cell proliferation under both Th1- and Th2-skewing conditions. Since the anti-proliferative activity of T-bet may be influenced by IL-2 suppression in Th cells, we examined whether T-bet modulates IL-2-independent cell proliferation in a non-T cell population. We demonstrated that T-bet expression induced by ecdysone treatment in human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells increased IFN-${\gamma}$ promoter activity in a dose dependent manner, and sustained T-bet expression considerably decreased cell proliferation in HEK cells. Although the molecular mechanisms underlying anti-proliferative activity of T-bet remain to be elucidated, T-bet may directly suppress cell proliferation in an IFN-${\gamma}$- or an IL-2-independent manner.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.471-479
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• 2020

In this paper, we analyze features of radical innovative businesses using their patents. Although patents have been used to evaluate outcomes of businesses from the 1980s, it is challenging to use patents for radical innovations. We examined the possibility of taking advantage of patents for an indicator that represents a radical innovation in pharmaceutical industry. To this end, we collected FDA approval data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and patent data of 18 pharmaceutical companies. For analysis, we utilized the network centrality analysis and Wilcoxon signed ranked test, which is a non-parametric statistical hypothesis test used to compare two related samples. We observed that a radical innovative company typically cooperates with other research groups, such as universities and companies, and acts as a hub for connectivity in pharmaceuticals. Also, we found that there are differences in centrality between radical firms and non-radical firms. Thus, we expect that the results of this study will help in developing strategies for research and development of pharmaceutical companies and identifying factors affecting radical innovation in the future.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.378-383
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• 2007

Phenathrene derivatives, such as batatasins, are well-known constituents in Dioscorea Rhizoma. Although phenanthrenes have been reported as representative compounds in this plant, standard markers for quality control have been focused on the polar constituents (saponins and purine derivatives). Herein, simple, rapid and reliable HPLC method was developed to determine 3,5-dimethoxyphenanthrene-2,7-diol (DMP) and batatasin-I (BA-I) as non-polar standard maker compounds of Dioscorea Rhizoma. DMP and BA-I were analyzed under optimized HPLC conditions [column: Columbus $5{\mu}$ C18 100A ($30{\times}4.6mm$ i.d., $5{\mu}m$; mobile phase: $H_2O$ with 0.025% $CH_3COOH$ (v/v) for solvent A and $CH_3CN$ with 0.025% $CH_3COOH$ (v/v) for solvent B, gradient elution; flow rate: 2 mL/min; detection: 260 nm), and each experiment was finished within 13 min. Good linearity was achieved in the range from 0.5 to $10.0{\mu}g/mL$ for each compound, and intra- and inter-day precision were in the acceptable levels. The recovery test were performed with three different Dioscorea Rhizoma samples (D. opposita, D. batatas and D. japonica), and showed its accuracy values in the range of 97.2 - 102.8% for three different concentrations of DMP and BA-I. The content levels of DMP and BA-I were ranged under 0.0020%. These results demonstrated that amounts of DMP and BA-I are easily determined with conventional HPLC-UV-DAD method although the content levels were lower than those of saponins and allantoin in Dioscorea Rhizoma. This HPLC method could be used for quality control of various Dioscorea preparations.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5691-5696
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• 2014

Background: Many clinical trials have been conducted to evaluate sorafenib for the treatment of advanced NSCLC, but the results for efficacy have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of sorafenib in patients with advanced NSCLC in more detail by meta-analysis. Methods: This meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed after searching PubMed, EMBASE, ASCO Abstracts, ESMO Abstracts, and the proceedings of major conferences for relevant clinical trials. Two reviewers independently assessed the quality of the trials. Outcomes analysis were disease control rate (DCR), progression- free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and major toxicity. Subgroup analysis was conducted according to sorafenib monotherapy, in combination with chemotherapy or EGFR-TKI to investigate the preferred therapy strategy. Results: Results reported from 6 RCTs involving 2, 748 patients were included in the analysis. Compared to sorafenib-free group, SBT was not associated with higher DCR (RR 1.31 (0.96- 1.79), p=0.09), PFS (HR 0.82 (0.66-1.02), p=0.07) and OS (HR 1.01 (0.92-1.12), p=0.77). In terms of subgroup results, sorafenib monotherapy was associated with significant superior DCR and longer PFS, but failed to show advantage with regard to OS. Grade 3 or greater sorafenib-related adverse events included fatigue, hypertension, diarrhea, oral mucositis, rash and HFSR. Conclusions: SBT was revealed to yield no improvement in DCR, PFS and OS. However, sorafenib as monotherapy showed some activity in NSCLC. Further evaluation may be considered in subsets of patients who may benefit from this treatment. Sorafenib combined inhibition therapy should be limited unless the choice of platinum-doublet regimen, administration sequence or identification of predictive biomarkers are considered to receive better anti-tumor activity and prevention of resistance mechanisms.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.28.1-28.14
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• 2021

Lung-resident memory T cells (T_RM) play an essential role in protecting against pulmonary virus infection. Parenteral administration of DNA vaccine is generally not sufficient to induce lung CD8 T_RM cells. This study investigates whether intramuscularly administered DNA vaccine expressing the nucleoprotein (NP) induces lung T_RM cells and protects against the influenza B virus. The results show that DNA vaccination poorly generates lung T_RM cells and massive secondary effector CD8 T cells entering the lungs after challenge infection do not offer sufficient protection. Nonetheless, intranasal administration of non-replicating adenovirus vector expressing no Ag following priming DNA vaccination deploys NP-specific CD8 T_RM cells in the lungs, which subsequently offers complete protection. This novel 'prime and deploy' strategy could be a promising regimen for a universal influenza vaccine targeting the conserved NP Ag.

• Translational and Clinical Pharmacology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.118-127
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• 2018

The safety and efficacy of fimasartan have been evaluated through post-marketing surveillance in real world clinical practice. The multi-center, prospective, open-label and non-interventional study. A total of 3,945 patients (3,729 patients for safety assessment and 3,473 patients for efficacy assessment) were screened in patients with essential hypertension in 89 study centers from 9 September 2010 through 8 September 2016. Among the total patients, 2,893 patients (77.6%) were administered fimasartan for 24 weeks or longer and were classified as 'patients with long-term follow-up', and the additional safety and efficacy analysis were performed. The improvement was defined as systolic blood pressure (SBP) controlled to ${\leq}140mmHg$ or decreased SBP differences ${\geq}20mmHg$ after treatment or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) controlled to ${\leq}90mmHg$ or decreased DBP differences ${\geq}10mmHg$ after treatment. Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were reported in 3.8% patients; dizziness, and hypotension were the most frequently reported ADRs in total patients. The results of patients with long-term follow-up were comparable with total patients. The overall improvement rate in all efficacy assessment at the last visit was 87.1% (3,025/3,473 patients). The overall improvement rate of the patients with long-term follow-up was 88.9%. Fimasartan was well tolerated, with no new safety concerns identified and an effective treatment in the real world clinical practice for Korean patients with hypertension.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2014

To evaluate the inhibitory effect of xanthine oxidase (XO) and aldehyde oxidase (AO), and antihyperuricemic effect by Aspergillus oryzae fermented Smilax china L. leaf extracts and fractions, we observed extracted yield by each solvent, the content of total polyphenol and total flavonoid (TF), the activities of XO and AO, and serum uric acid level. Extracted yield (g/kg) by 80% ethanol (EtOH) was 13.56, those of n-hexane, dichloromethane (DICM), ethylacetate (EtOAc) and n-butanol fraction (BuOH) were 1.35-3.33. Furthermore, total polyphenol content (mg/g-extract) of EtOAc fraction, BuOH fraction, DICM fraction and EtOH fraction is 478.07-501.26, 259.49-289.02, 165.03-232.27, 134.02-196.54, respectively. Those of fermented EtOAc and DICM fraction was 4.85 and 40.74% higher than that of non-fermented fraction, respectively, while the other fermented fractions were lower than those of non-fermented fractions. And total flavonoid content (mg/g-extract) of EtOAc fraction was higher than those of other fractions. Additionally, TF of fermented EtOAc and BuOH fraction is 10.56 and 60.17% higher, than that of fermented fraction, respectively, although those of the other fermented fractions was lower than that of non-fermented fractions. On the other hand, XO inhibitory activities of all fermented fractions was significantly higher than that of all non-fermented fraction, while those of fermented EtOAc (75.02%) and BuOH fraction (65.59%) was markedly higher than that of non-fermented fraction (39.42 and 5.34%), respectively. In addition, AO inhibitory activities of DICM and EtOAc fraction was 81.82 and 77.93% higher, respectively, than those of the other fractions, and those of fermented fractions as with XO were significantly higher than that of non-fermented fractions. Meanwhile, serum uric acid level (SU) of hyperuricemic control mice (HC, 6.98 mg/dL) was 1.83 folds higher than that of normal control (NC, 3.82 mg/dL). Furthermore, SU in the group treated with EtOAc fraction decreased in a dose dependent manner compared with the allopurinol control group, although those of fermented fractions were significantly lower than those of non-fermented fractions. This study suggests that fermented Smilax china L. leaf extracts may regulate the XO and AO inhibitory activities and antihyperuricemic effect due to aglycone components from glycoside form flavonoids by fermentation of A. oryzae.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.154-163
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• 2008

The methanol extract of stem barks of Careya arborea Roxb. (MECA) (Family- Myrtaceae) was evaluated for antitumor activity and antioxidant status against Ehrlich's Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) bearing Swiss albino mice. After 24 h of tumor inoculation the MECA was administered at the doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight/mice/day for 14 days. After the last dose and 18 h fasting mice were sacrificed. The effect of MECA on the growth of transplantable murine tumor, life span of EAC bearing hosts, hematological profiles, serum and liver biochemical parameters were estimated. The MECA showed significant (P < 0.01) decrease in ascites volume, packed cell volume and viable cell count and prolonged the life span of EAC tumor bearing mice. Hematological profiles reverted to more or less normal levels in extract treated mice. The MECA also produced protective effect by decreasing the activity of serum enzymes, bilirubin and increase the protein and uric acid levels. MECA significantly (P < 0.05) decreased the levels of lipid peroxidation, while significantly (P < 0.05) increased the levels of glutathione content, vitamin C, vitamin E, superoxide dismutase and catalase CAT. The results indicate that MECA exhibited significant antitumor and antioxidant activity in EAC bearing mice.