• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.83 no.3
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• pp.538-558
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• 2022

The perivascular space (PVS) of the brain, also known as Virchow-Robin space, consists of cerebrospinal fluid and connective tissues bordered by astrocyte endfeet. The PVS, in a word, is the route over the arterioles, capillaries, and venules where the substances can move. Although the PVS was identified and described first in the literature approximately over 150 years ago, its importance has been highlighted recently after the function of the waste clearing system of the interstitial fluid and wastes was revealed. The PVS is known to be a microscopic structure detected using T2-weighted brain MRI as dot-like hyperintensity lesions when enlarged. Although until recently regarded as normal with no clinical consequence and ignored in many circumstances, several studies have argued the association of an enlarged PVS with neurodegenerative or other diseases. Many questions and unknown facts about this structure still exist; we can only assume that the normal PVS functions are crucial in keeping the brain healthy. In this review, we covered the history, anatomy, pathophysiology, and MRI findings of the PVS; finally, we briefly touched upon the recent trials to better visualize the PVS by providing a glimpse of the brain fluid dynamics and clinical importance of the PVS.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.57-62
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• 2008

Electrochemical properties of Ti-30Ta-$(3{\sim}15)$Nb alloys coated by HA/Ti compound layer have been studied by various electrochemical method. Ti-30Ta binary alloys contained 3, 7, 10, and 15 wt% Nb contents were manufactured by the vacuum furnace system. The specimens were homogenized for 24 hrs at $1000^{\circ}C$. The samples were cut and polished for corrosion test and coating. It was coated with HA/Ti compound layer by magnetron sputter. The HA/Ti non-coated and coated morphology of Ti alloy were analyzed by x-ray diffractometer(XRD) and filed emission scanning electron microscope(FE-SEM). The corrosion behaviors were investigated using potentiodynamic method in 0.9% NaCl solution at $36.5{\pm}1^{\circ}C$. The homoginazed Ti-30Ta-$(3{\sim}15wt%$)Nb alloys showed the ${\alpha}+{\beta}$ phase, and ${\beta}$ phase peak was predominantly appeared with increasing Nb content. The microstructure of Ti alloy was transformed from needle-like structure to equiaxed structure as Nb content increased. HA/Ti composite surface showed uniform coating layer with 750 nm thickness. The corrosion resistance of HA/Ti composite coated Ti-alloys were higher than those of the non-coated samples in 0.9% NaCl solution at $36.5{\pm}1^{\circ}C$. Especially, corrosion resistance of Ti-Ta-Nb system increased as Nb content increased.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.164-171
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• 2021

Purpose: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Brain atrophy in this disease spectrum begins in the medial temporal lobe structure, which can be recognized by magnetic resonance imaging. To overcome the unsatisfactory inter-observer reliability of visual evaluation, quantitative brain volumetry has been developed and widely investigated for the diagnosis of MCI and AD. The aim of this study was to assess the prediction accuracy of quantitative brain volumetry using a fully automated segmentation software package, NeuroQuant^®, for the diagnosis of MCI. Materials and Methods: A total of 418 subjects from the Korean Brain Aging Study for Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer's Disease cohort were included in our study. Each participant was allocated to either a cognitively normal old group (n = 285) or an MCI group (n = 133). Brain volumetric data were obtained from T1-weighted images using the NeuroQuant software package. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were performed to investigate relevant brain regions and their prediction accuracies. Results: Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that normative percentiles of the hippocampus (P < 0.001), amygdala (P = 0.003), frontal lobe (P = 0.049), medial parietal lobe (P = 0.023), and third ventricle (P = 0.012) were independent predictive factors for MCI. In ROC analysis, normative percentiles of the hippocampus and amygdala showed fair accuracies in the diagnosis of MCI (area under the curve: 0.739 and 0.727, respectively). Conclusion: Normative percentiles of the hippocampus and amygdala provided by the fully automated segmentation software could be used for screening MCI with a reasonable post-processing time. This information might help us interpret structural MRI in patients with cognitive impairment.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.11
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• pp.783-789
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• 2016

Afflicted neurons in various neurodegenerative diseases generally display diverse and complex pathological features before catastrophic occurrence of massive neuronal loss at the late stages of the diseases. This complex nature of neuronal pathophysiology inevitably implicates systemwide changes in basic cellular activities such as transcriptional controls and signal cascades, and so on, as a cause. Recently, as one of these systemwide cellular changes associated with neurodegenerative diseases, epigenetic changes caused by protein toxicity have begun to be highlighted. Notably, recent advances in related techniques including next-generation sequencing (NGS) and mass spectrometry enable us to monitor changes in the post-translational modifications (PTMs) of histone proteins and to link these changes in histone PTMs to the specific transcriptional changes. Indeed, epigenetic alterations and consequent changes in neuronal transcriptome are now begun to be extensively studied in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this review, we will discuss details of our current understandings on epigenetic changes associated with two representative neurodegenerative diseases [AD and polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases] and further discuss possible future development of pharmaceutical treatment of the diseases through modulating these epigenetic changes.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.689-695
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• 2009

Chemically synthesized small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can specifically knock-down expression of target genes via RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. To date, the length of synthetic siRNA duplex has been strictly maintained less than 30 bp, because an early study suggested that double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) longer than 30 bp could not trigger specific gene silencing due to the induction of non-specific antiviral interferon responses. Contrary to the current belief, here we show that synthetic dsRNA as long as 38 bp can result in specific target gene silencing without non-specific antiviral responses. Using this longer duplex structure, we have generated dsRNAs, which can simultaneously knock-down expression of two target genes (termed as dual-target siRNAs or dsiRNAs). Our results thus demonstrate the structural flexibility of gene silencing siRNAs, and provide a starting point to construct multifunctional RNA structures. The dsiRNAs could be utilized to develop a novel therapeutic gene silencing strategy against diseases with multiple gene alternations such as viral infection and cancer.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.153-159
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• 2010

The 34 potently pig pheromonal odorants (1-32, 5755 & 7113) through structure-based virtual screening and ligand-based virtual screening method were selected and their ADMET and pharmacokinetics characters were evaluated and discussed quantitatively. The pheromonal odorants were projected on the following pre-calculated models, Caco-2 cell permeability, blood-brain barrier permeation, hERG inhibition and volume-distribution. From the results of in silico study, it is found that an optimal compound (31) either penetrating or have a little ($P_{caco2}$=-8.143) for Caco-2 cell permeability, moderate penetrating ability ($P_{BBB}$=0.082) for blood-brain barrier permeation, the low QT prolongation ($P_{hERG}$=1.137) for the hERG $K^+$ channel inhibition, and low distribution into tissues ($P_{VD}$=-5.468) for volume-distribution. Therefore, it is predicted that the compound (31) a topical application may be preferable from these based foundings.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.254-264
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• 2008

Objectives : The neural substrate of fear is thought to be highly conserved among species including human. The purpose of this review was to address the neural substrates of fear based on recent findings obtained from animal and human studies. Methods : Recent studies on brain regions related to fear, particularly fear conditioning in rodents and humans, were extensively reviewed. Results : This paper suggests high consistency in anatomical structure and physiological mechanisms for fear perception, response, learning and modulation in animals and humans. Conclusions : Fear is manifested and modulated by well conserved neural circuits among species interconnected with the amygdala, such as the hippocampus and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Further research is required to incorporate findings from animal studies into a better understanding of neural circuitry of fear in human in a translational approach.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2012

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a subfamily of zinc-dependent proteases that are re-sponsible for degradation and remodeling of extracellular matrix proteins. The activity of MMPs is tightly regulated at several levels including cleavage of prodomain, allosteric activation, com-partmentalization and complex formation with tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMPs). In the central nervous system (CNS), MMPs play a wide variety of roles ranging from brain devel-opment, synaptic plasticity and repair after injury to the pathogenesis of various brain disorders. Following general discussion on the domain structure and the regulation of activity of MMPs, we emphasize their implication in various brain disorder conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, ischemia/reperfusion and Parkinson's disease. We further highlight accumu-lating evidence that MMPs might be the culprit in Parkinson's disease (PD). Among them, MMP-3 appears to be involved in a range of pathogenesis processes in PD including neuroinflamma-tion, apoptosis and degradation of ${\alpha}$-synuclein and DJ-1. MMP inhibitors could represent poten-tial novel therapeutic strategies for treatments of neurodegenerative diseases.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.421-428
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• 1997

Magnetic field sensors made from superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) are the most sensitive low-frequency sensors available, enabling measurements of extremely weak magnetic fields from the brain. Neuromagnetic measurements allow superior spatial resolution, compared with the present electric measurements, and superior temporal resolution, compared with the fMRl and PET, providing useful informations for the functional diagnoses of the brain. We developed a 4-channel SQUID system for neuromagnetic applications. The main features of the system are its simple readout electronics and compact pickup coil structure. A magnetically shielded room has been constructed for the reduction of environmental magnetic noises. The developed SQUID system has noise level lower than the magnetic noise from the brain. Magnetic field signals of the spontaneous r-rhythm activity and auditory evoked magnetic fields have been measured.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.4
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• pp.305-315
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• 2023

The idea of the combination of the fractional-order operators with the brain emotional learning-based intelligent controller (BELBIC) is developed for implementation in seismic-excited structures equipped with active mass damper (AMD). For this purpose, a new design framework of the mentioned combination namely fractional-order BEBIC (FOBELBIC) is proposed based on a modified-teaching-learning-based optimization (MTLBO) algorithm. The seismic performance of the proposed controller is then evaluated for a 15-story building equipped with AMD subjected to two far-field and two near-field earthquakes. An optimal BELBIC based on the MTLBO algorithm is also introduced for comparison purposes. In comparison with the structure equipped with a passive tuned mass damper (TMD), an average reduction of 44.7% and 42.8% are obtained in terms of the maximum absolute and RMS top floor displacement for FOBELBIC, while these reductions are obtained as 30.4% and 30.1% for the optimal BELBIC, respectively. Similarly, the optimal FOBELBIC results in an average reduction of 42.6% and 39.4% in terms of the maximum absolute and RMS top floor acceleration, while these reductions are given as 37.9% and 30.5%, for the optimal BELBIC, respectively. Consequently, the superiority of the FOBELBIC over the BELBIC is concluded in the reduction of maximum and RMS seismic responses.