• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.212-217
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• 2005

Desorption/ionization on silicon mass spectrometry (DIOS-MS) is a relatively new laser desorption/ionization technique for mass spectrometry without employing an organic matrix. This present study was carried to survey the experimental factors to improve the efficiency of DIOS-MS through electrochemical etching condition in structure and morphological properties of the porous silicon. The porous structure of silicon structure and its properties are crucial for the better performance of DIOS-MS and they can be controlled by the suitable selection of electrochemical conditions. The fabrication of porous silicon and ion signals on DIOS-MS were examined as a function of silicon orientation, etching time, etchant, current flux, irradiation, pore size, and pore depth. We have also examined the effect of pre- and post-etching conditions for their effect on DIOS-MS. Finally, we could optimize the electrochemical conditions for the efficient performance of DIOS-MS in the analysis of small molecule such as amino acid, drug and peptides without any unknown noise or fragmentation.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.149-154
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• 2008

Porphyromonas gingivalis, a major periodontal pathogen, has been implicated in the initiation and progression of periodontal disease. Endothelial dysfunction (Editor note: Aberrant and dysfunction are somewhat redundant. The authors may want to choose one or the other.) contributes to chronic periodontal inflammation. Using cDNA-representational difference analysis, we found that P.gingivalis lipopolysaccharide differentially induces a number of genes in human microvascular endothelial cells. Among these upregulated genes, we focused on intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), which is crucial for leukocyte recruitment during vascular inflammation. P. gingivalis LPS significantly increased the expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) as well as ICAM-1. Promoter assays revealed that the transcription of these cell adhesion molecules was mainly regulated by nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ (NF-${\kappa}B$) in endothelial cells. Furthermore, P. gingivalis LPS significantly increased leukocyte adhesiveness to microvascular endothelial cells and to aortic endothelium. Taken together, our results demonstrate that P. gingivalis LPS activates microvascular endothelial cells through NF-${\kappa}B$-dependent expression of cell adhesion molecules.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.37-44
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• 1982

In order to enhance water solubility, ketoprofen was made as lysine salt, such as acetylsalicylic acid lysine salt, ibuprofen lysine salt and amino acid salt of phenylbutazone. The purpose of this study was to make a comparison between ketoprofen lysine salt in aspects of analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic effect. The experimental results were summerized as followings. 1. Ketoprofen lysinate was composed of one molecule of ketoprofen and one molecule of lysine. The product was water soluble and melting point was $92^{\circ}C{\sim}94^{\circ}C$. 2. Ketoprofen lysinate showed about 2 times stronger analgesic effect than that of ketoprofen while no difference in antipyretic effect was observed. 3. $LD_{50}$ of ketoprofen lysinate was higher than that of ketoprofen, suggesting ketoprofen lysinate as safer drug. 4. Blood concentration of ketoprofen lysinate was $156{\mu}g/ml$ while the concentration of ketoprofen was $116{\mu}g/ml$ in 30 min., suggesting long acting as well as high blood concentration.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.445-450
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• 2011

In order to validate the use of Olibanum as an anti-inflammatory drug in the traditional Korean medicine, I have investigated the effect of water-soluble extract of Olibanum (EO) on the expression of pro-inflammatory vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) stimulated with tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$. The extract inhibited dose-dependently VCAM-1 expression without its cytotoxic effect on HUVECs, as measured by a flow cytometer using fluorescence-enhanced anti-VCAM-1 antibody, and significantly decreased mRNA levels of VCAM-1, as determined using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. These results suggest that Olibanum may have therapeutic potential in the control of endothelial disorders caused by inflammation.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.55-58
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• 2009

A ligand-receptor docking program is an indispensible tool in modern pharmaceutical design. An accurate prediction of small molecular docking pose to a receptor is essential in drug design as well as molecular recognition. An effective docking program requires the ability to locate a correct binding pose in a surprisingly complex conformational space. However, there is an inherent difficulty to predict correct binding pose. The odds are more demanding than finding a needle in a haystack. This mainly comes from the flexibility of both ligand and receptor. Because the searching space to consider is so vast, receptor rigidity has been often applied in docking programs. Even nowadays the receptor may not be considered to be fully flexible although there have been some progress in search algorithm. Improving the efficiency of searching algorithm is still in great demand to explore other applications areas with inherently flexible ligand and/or receptor. In addition to classical search algorithms such as molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo, genetic algorithm and simulated annealing, rather recent algorithms such as tabu search, stochastic tunneling, particle swarm optimizations were also found to be effective. A good search algorithm would require a good balance between exploration and exploitation. It would be a good strategy to combine algorithms already developed. This composite algorithms can be more effective than an individual search algorithms.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.139-144
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• 2003

Over 350 million people worldwide are chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus (HBV). Chronic viral infections of the liver can progress to cirrhosis, which may ultimately lead to hepatic failure or the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. There are two antiviral drugs on the market approved for clinical management of chronic HBV infections; interferon-alpha and the nucleoside analog lamivudine. However, they showed adverse side-effects. In the rational drug design for such therapies we would like to utilize antiviral drugs that inhibit the HBV replication in the liver. Investigation of natural extracts of silkworm exhibiting antiviral potential was held in the functional HBV polymerase activity and the release of virion particle in the HepG2.2.15 cell lines. HBV-producing transgenic mouse fed with silkworm DNJ molecule was shown as an inhibitor of serum HBV particles. We could represent this DNJ molecule as an antiviral potential complementing conventional therapies after preclinical tests against WHBV-infected animal model, woodchuck.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.24
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• pp.10847-10853
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• 2015

Background: Lapatinib, a dual tyrosine kinase inhibitor that interrupts the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and HER2/neu pathways, has been indicated to have significant efficacy in treating HER2-positive breast cancer. However, acquired drug resistance has become a very serious clinical problem that hampers the use of this agent. In this study, we aimed to screen small molecule drugs that might reverse lapatinib-resistance of breast cancer by exploring differentially expressed genes (DEGs) via a bioinformatics method. Materials and Methods: We downloaded the gene expression profile of BT474-J4 (acquired lapatinib-resistant) and BT474 (lapatinib-sensitive) cell lines from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and selected differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using dChip software. Then, gene ontology and pathway enrichment analyses were performed with the DAVID database. Finally, a connectivity map was utilized for predicting potential chemicals that reverse lapatinib-resistance. Results: A total of 1, 657 DEGs were obtained. These DEGs were enriched in 10 pathways, including cell cycling, regulation of actin cytoskeleton and focal adhesion associate examples. In addition, several small molecules were screened as the potential therapeutic agents capable of overcoming lapatinib-resistance. Conclusions: The results of our analysis provided a novel strategy for investigating the mechanism of lapatinib-resistance and identifying potential small molecule drugs for breast cancer treatment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5191-5197
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• 2015

A partial response or resistance to chemotherapeutic agents is considered as a main obstacle in treatment of patients with cancer, including breast cancer. Refining taxane-based treatment procedures using adjuvant or combination treatment is a novel strategy to increase the efficiency of chemotherapy. PPM1D is a molecule activated by reactive oxygen species. whose expression is reported to modulate the recruitment of DNA repair molecules. In this study we examined the impact of arsenic trioxide on efficacy of paclitaxel-induced apoptosis in paclitaxel-resistant MCF-7 cells. We also investigated the expression of PPM1D and TP53 genes in response to this combination treatment. Resistant cells were developed from the parent MCF-7 cell line by applying increasing concentrations of paclitaxel. MTT assays were applied to determine the rate of cell survival. DAPI staining using fluorescent microscopy was employed to study apoptotic bodies. Real-time RT-PCR analysis was also applied to determine PPM1D mRNA levels. Our results revealed that combination of arsenic trioxide and paclitaxel elevates the efficacy of the latter in induction of apoptosis in MCF-7/PAC resistant cells. Applying arsenic trioxide also caused significant decreases in PPM1D mRNA levels (p<0.05). Our findings suggest that arsenic trioxide increases paclitaxel-induced apoptosis by down regulation of PPM1D expression. PPM1D dependent signaling can be considered as a novel target to improve the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents in resistant breast cancer cells.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2291-2295
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• 2016

Small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors targeting HER 2 receptors have emerged as an important therapeutic approach in inhibition of downstream proliferation and survival signals for the treatment of breast cancers. Recent drug discovery efforts have demonstrated that naturally occurring polyphenolic compounds like delphinidin have potential to inhibit proliferation and promote apoptosis of breast cancer cells by targeting HER2 receptors. While delphinidin may thus reduce tumour size, it is associated with serious side effects like dysphonia. Owing to the narrow therapeutic window of delphinidin, the present study aimed to identify high affinity compounds targeting HER2 with safer pharmacological profiles than delphinidin through virtual screening approaches. Delphinidin served as the query parent for identification of structurally similar compounds by Tanimoto-based similarity searching with a threshold of 95% against the PubChem database. The compounds retrieved were further subjected to Lipinski and Verber's filters to obtain drug like agents, then further filtered by diversity based screens with a cut off of 0.6. The compound with Pubchem ID: 91596862 was identified to have higher affinity than its parent. In addition it also proved to be non-toxic with a better ADMET profile and higher kinase activity. The compound identified in the study can be put to further in vitro drug testing to complement the present study.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.255-261
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• 2010

Pluronic as pharmaceutical excipients are listed in the US and British Pharmacopoeia. In particular, Pluronics exist as different compositions and display abundant phases as self-assembling into polymeric micelles with various morphologies depending on the aqueous solvent quality, the composition of structure, and hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB). Pluronics were also known as a P-gp modulator, which was exploited as a reversal molecule of multi-drug resistant (MDR) cancers. We selected a lamella forming Pluronic L92 which has high hydrophobicity and relatively long PEO block among L series of Pluronics. The dispersion of L92 showed great size particles and low stability. To increase the stability and to decrease the particle size, secondary Pluronics (F68, F88, F98, F127, P85, P105, and P123) with relatively long PEO chain were added into 0.1 wt% Pluronic L92 dispersion. The stability of binary systems was increased due to incorporated long PEO chain. Their particle sizes slightly decreased to over 200~400 nm and their solubilization capacity of binary systems didn't change except Pluronic L92/P123 mixtures. The L92/P123 systems showed ca. 100 nm sizes and lowest turbidity among the all systems. The solubilization capacity of 0.1 wt% L92/0.1 wt% P123 was slightly increased compared to 0.1 wt% L92 mono system and other binary systems. These nano-sized binary systems may have potential as alternative drug delivery systems with simple preparation method and overcome the drawbacks of mono systems such as low stability and loading capacity.