• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2009

We studied the seroprevalence of four respiratory pathogens in Korean swine farms located in Chungnam, Chungbuk, Gyeongnam and Gyeongbuk provinces during the period of spring of 2007 to winter of 2008. Serological tests were performed using commercial ELISA kits. A total of 530 serum samples were tested for the antibodies against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M. hyo) and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP). Seroprevalence for four respiratory pathogens were estimated by ELISA-positive rates of the submitted samples. The overall seropositive rates of PRRSV, APP, M. hyo and PCV2 were 32.6%, 10.6%, 38.4% and 88.5%, respectively. By production stage, the seropositive rate for PRRSV was highest in nursery pig populations (46.2%). In contrast, the highest seropositive rates of APP and M. hyo were observed in sow and growing pigs. However, the seroprevalence of PCV2 was ranged from 85.7% to 89.6%, showing no significant difference among the production stages. In the seroprevalence by season, PRRSV, APP and M. hyo infections revealed typical seasonal patterns that the peaks of the seropositive rates were observed between early winter and late spring. In case of PCV2, no particular seasonal patterns were noticed. The pig herds in Gyeongbuk province where PMWS was endemic during the period of survey showed the highest seropositive rates for PRRSV (44.6%), M. hyo (47.5%), and PCV2 (92.7%). Seropositive rates for APP of four provinces were approximately 10%. These results might be valuable for control and prevention of the respiratory diseases and helpful to define strategies related to vaccine applications.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.231-237
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• 2016

The present study was conducted to investigate the lesion of red internal organs in slaughtered pigs and provided assistant data for pig farms. During March to December 2015, a total of 1,160 lung samples out of 58 herds were collected randomly from pigs slaughtered in Jeonbuk province. In addition, 290 hilar lymph nodes from pig with pneumonic lung lesion (5 samples per herd) were screened for selected viral and bacterial pathogens. Gross lesions of lungs such as swine enzootic pneumonia (SEP), pleuritis, pleuropneumonia, pericarditis and liver white spots were examined. The overall prevalence of SEP was 64.3% (746/1,160). In the analysis of seasonal prevalence, there was an increase of occurrence during the spring months (287/400, 71.8%) and decrease during the fall months (93/200, 46.5%) among the whole herds. The mean number of SEP score per pig was $1.20{\pm}1.28$. The prevalence of pleuropneumonia, pleuritis, pericarditis, and milk spot was 25.5% (296/1,160), 44.1% (512/1,160), 3.8% (44/1,160) and 17.6% (204/1,160), respectively. The most frequent region with lung lesion was diaphragmatic lobes (left 17.1%, right 17.3%). In the detection of viral pathogens by PCR, porcine circovirus type2 (PCV2) was positive in 86.9% (252/290), while porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) was not detected, In the case of bacterial pathogens, 50 microorganisms were isolated by PCR and/or microbiological test. The most frequently isolated bacteria was Streptococcus suis (20, 34.4%), followed by Pasteurella multocida (17, 29.3%), Streptococcus spp. (11, 3.4%), Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (2, 8.9%).

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.129-137
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• 2011

Swine diseases could be caused by unrecognized or minor pathogens. In this study, two unknown cytopathogenic agents were isolated from swine, through cell culture. In order to identify these two cytopathogenic agent (designated CP129 and #2045-7), a particle associated nucleic acids PCR (PANPCR) from previous paper was used with simple modification. The cloning procedure was more specified in this study by adding cell control system. According to the modified PAN-PCR, two and four agentsspecific DNA sequences were obtained from CP129 and #2045-7, respectively, and they were identified as Mycoplasma (M.) hyorhinis and Mammalian orthoreovirus by nucleotide BLAST. Since M. hyorhinis (CP129) was filterable and non-visible by microscope, this unusual virus-like nature of M. hyorhinis (CP129) was discussed. Especially, the reovirus (#2045-7) was a serotype 3 and a triple reassortant among three serotypes of reoviruses. It was grouped with recently reported reoviruses from disease cases (swine, human and feline), based on the genetic analysis of L1 and S1 partial sequences. In conclusion, two unknown cytopathogenic agents were successfully identified using modified PAN-PCR with cell control system and they were characterized in this study.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.143-146
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• 2015

Since 2012, outbreaks of the Middle East respiratory coronavirus (MERS-CoV) have been reported, including the Republic of Korea. To date, most of the people infected with the virus are adults. Herein we describe the clinical characteristics of cases of MERS-CoV infection among children. As of October 29, 2015, MERS-CoV has caused 34 pediatric infections, which accounts for 2.1% of all cases. The median age was 13 years (range 9 months to 17 years) and where gender has been reported (n=33), 57.6% cases were male. About half of the patients were asymptomatic and the majority of the symptomatic patients had respiratory symptoms. In general, the clinical outcome in children was favorable. Among the four patients who died of progressive pneumonia, three had documented comorbidities. MERS-CoV infection in children has a lower incidence and mortality compared to adults.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.245-252
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• 2003

Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease(PTLD) has emerged as a potential life-threatening complication of immunosuppressive therapy after organ transplantation. The occurrence of PTLD is usually associated with an Epstein-Barr virus(EBV) infection in patients who are treated by aggressive immunosuppressive therapy. PTLD is represented by diverse manifestations ranging from reactive lymphoid hyperplasia to high grade malignant lymphoma. This is a case report of a late PTLD in a child. The patient is a 14-year-old girl, who presented as malignant lymphoma 44 months after successful renal transplantation. There was no evidence of EBV infection. On bone marrow study, many neoplastic lymphoid cells were defected. Aggressive chemotherapy for PTLD had resulted in clinical remission. However the patient expired from uncontrolled sepsis and septic shock after 77 days.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.104-111
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• 2006

Gene therapy with nonviral vectors using the suicide gene/prodrug activating system of herpes simplex virus type-1 thymidine kinase (HSV1-TK)/ganciclovir (GCV) is inefficient in killing malignant tumor cells due to two major factors: (a) an unsatisfactory bystander effect; (b) short-lived expression of the protein. To study the capacity of the protein transduction domain (PTD) of HIV-1 TAT protein to enhance HSV1-TK/GCV cancer gene therapy, we constructed three fusion proteins TAT-TK, TK-TAT and TK. TAT-TK retained as much enzyme activity as TK, whereas that of TK-TAT was much lower. TAT-TK can enter HepG2 cells and much of it is translocated to the nucleus. The transduced HepG2 cells are killed by exogenously added GCV and have bystander effects on untransduced HepG2 cells. Most importantly, the introduced recombinant protein is stable and remains functional for several days at least, probably because nuclear localization protects it from the cytoplasmic degradation machinery and provides access to the nuclear transcription machinery. Our results indicate that TAT fusion proteins traffic intercellularly and have enhanced stability and prodrug cell killing activity. We conclude that TAT has potential for enhancing enzyme prodrug treatment of liver cancers.

• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• v.33 no.46
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• pp.304.1-304.7
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• 2018

Background: The Republic of Korea has a very low prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, but the number of new HIV diagnoses has steadily risen, strongly indicating a large number of undetected HIV infections. Thus, it is important for Korean public health authorities to adopt and encourage cost-effective HIV detection tools, such as rapid HIV screening tests. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and rapid tests in a public health center (PHC) setting. Methods: We developed a decision analytic model to assess the per-examinee cost and the cost-effectiveness of identifying HIV patients in a PHC setting using two HIV testing strategies: conventional HIV screening by ELISA versus rapid HIV testing. Analysis was performed in two scenarios: HIV testing in an average-risk population and in a high-risk population. Results: Compared to the ELISA, the rapid test was cost-saving and cost-effective. The per-examinee cost was USD 1.61 with rapid testing versus USD 3.38 with ELISA in an average-risk population, and USD 4.77 with rapid testing versus USD 7.62 with ELISA in a high-risk population. The cost of identifying a previously undiagnosed HIV case was USD 26,974 with rapid testing versus USD 42,237 with ELISA in an average-risk population, and USD 153 with rapid testing versus USD 183 with ELISA in a high-risk population. Conclusion: Rapid testing would be more cost-effective than using conventional ELISA testing for identifying previously undiagnosed HIV-infected cases in Korea, a country with extremely low HIV prevalence.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.783-793
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• 2019

When endoplasmic reticulum (ER) functions are perturbed, the ER induces several signaling pathways called unfolded protein response to reestablish ER homeostasis through three ER transmembrane proteins: inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1), PKR-like ER kinase (PERK), and activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6). Although it is important to measure the activity of ATF6 that can indicate the status of the ER, no specific cell-based reporter assay is currently available. Here, we report a new cell-based method for monitoring ER stress based on the cleavage of $ATF6{\alpha}$ by sequential actions of proteases at the Golgi apparatus during ER stress. A new expressing vector was constructed by using fusion gene of GAL4 DNA binding domain (GAL4DBD) and activation domain derived from herpes simplex virus VP16 protein (VP16AD) followed by a human $ATF6{\alpha}$ N-terminal deletion variant. During ER stress, the GAL4DBD-VP16AD(GV)-$hATF6{\alpha}$ deletion variant was cleaved to liberate active transcription activator encompassing GV-$hATF6{\alpha}$ fragment which could translocate into the nucleus. The translocated GV-$hATF6{\alpha}$ fragment strongly induced the expression of firefly luciferase in HeLa Luciferase Reporter cell line containing a stably integrated 5X GAL4 site-luciferase gene. The established double stable reporter cell line HLR-GV-$hATF6{\alpha}$(333) represents an innovative tool to investigate regulated intramembrane proteolysis of $ATF6{\alpha}$. It can substitute active pATF6(N) binding motif-based reporter cell lines.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.610-620
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• 2021

There has been increasing interest in the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) that is caused by high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) and has posed a significant challenge to Otolaryngologists. A rapid, sensitive, and reliable method is required for the detection of HR-HPV in clinical specimens to prevent and treat HPV-induced diseases. In this study, a multiple cross-linking spiral amplification (MCLSA) assay was developed for the visual detection of HPV-16. In the MCLSA assay, samples were incubated under optimized conditions at 62℃ for 45 min, and after mixing with the SYBR Green I (SGI) dye, the positive amplicons showed bright green fluorescence while the negative amplicons exhibited no obvious change. The specificity test revealed that the developed MCLSA technique had high specificity and could effectively distinguish all five HPV-16 strains from other pathogenic microorganisms. In terms of analytical sensitivity, the limit of detection (LoD) of MCLSA assay was approximately 5.4 × 101 copies/tube, which was 10-fold more sensitive than loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and RT-PCR. The detection results of laryngeal cancer specimens collected from 46 patients with suspected HPV infection in the Liaoning region demonstrated that the positive detection rates of MCLSA and hybridized capture 2 kit were 32.61% (15/46). The true positive rate of the MCLSA assay was higher than that of RT-PCR (100% vs. 93.33%) and LAMP (100% vs. 86.67%). Therefore, the MCLSA assay developed in the present study could be a potentially useful tool for the point-of-care (PoC) diagnosis of HR-HPV, especially in resource-limited countries.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.201-207
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• 2018

A genome contains all genetic information of an organism. Within a specific species, unique traits appear for each individual, which can be identified by analyzing nucleotide sequences. Many Genome-Wide Associations Studies have been carried out to find genetic associations and cause of diseases from slightly different base among the individuals. It is important to identify occurrence of slight variations for polymorphisms of individuals. In this paper, we introduce an analysis and visualization tool for specific variation pattern identification of polymorphisms in nucleotide sequences and show the validity of the tool by applying it to analyzing nucleotide sequences of subcultured pOka strain of varicella-zoster virus. The tool is expected to help efficiently explore allele frequency variations and genetic factors within a species.