• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.71-81
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• 2000

High molecular weight water-insoluble chitosan alone has been previously shown to exhibit in vitro stimulatory effect on macrophages nitric oxide (NO) production. However, high molecular weight water-soluble chitosan (WSC) had no effect on NO production by itself. When WSC was used in combination with recombinant $interferon-{\gamma}\;(Rifn-{\gamma})$, there was a marked cooperative induction of NO synthesis in a dose-dependent manner. The optimal effect of WSC on NO synthesis was shown at 24 h after treatment with $rIFN-{\gamma}$. The increased production of NO from $rIFN-{\gamma}$ plus WSC-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages was decreased by the treatment with $N^G$ $monomethyl-_L-arginine$. The increase in NO synthesis was reflected, as an increased amounts of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) protein. Synergy between $rIFN-{\gamma}$ and WSC was mainly dependent on WSC-induced nuclear $factor-_KB$ activation. The present results indicate that WSC may provide various activities such as anti-microbial, anti-tumoral, and anti-viral. In addition, since NO has emerged as an important intracellular and intercellular regulatory molecule having functions as diverse as vasodilation, neural communication, cell growth regulation and host defense, it is tempting to hypothesize that this WSC is involved in the local control of the various fundamental processes such as cardiagra, cardiac infarction, impotence etc.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.139-143
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• 2004

The antioxidant responsive element (ARE) is a cis-acting regulatory element of genes encoding phase II detoxification enzymes and antioxidant proteins, such as NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1, glutathione S-transferases, and glutamate-cysteine ligase. Interestingly, it has been reported that Nrf2 (NF-E2-related factor 2) regulates a wide array of ARE-driven genes in various cell types. Nrf2 is a basic leucine zipper transcription factor, which was originally identified as a binding protein of locus control region of ss-globin gene. The DNA binding sequence of Nrf2 and ARE sequence are very similar, and many studies demonstrated that Nrf2 binds to the ARE sites leading to up-regulation of downstream genes. The function of Nrf2 and its downstream target genes suggests that the Nrf2-ARE pathway is important in the cellular antioxidant defense system. In support of this, many studies showed a critical role of Nrf2 in cellular protection and anti-carcinogenicity, implying that the Nrf2-ARE pathway may serve as a therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases and cancers, in which oxidative stress is closely implicated.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.19-29
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• 2014

Korean societal concern for the train accidents is fast and widely increasing with an ever-increasing demand and use for KTX. Most of these train accidents are inclined to be caused by human error. Experts used to attribute the causes of human error to the defects in various aspects such as technology, organizational system, practices, corporate culture, and/or human resource itself. Among the diverse causes of human error, an important one, even though it was rarely focused, may be the issue of impact of rule or procedure change on human error. Giving attention to the implicit importance of this issue, this study intends to highlight the theme of frequent procedure change in railway driving manual as a critical factor of human error. To attain this purpose mentioned above, dual methodologies were adopted. One is to qualitatively analyze the real cases of procedure change in relevant manuals followed by the incident case(passing the station scheduled to stop) happened lately. Another is to quantitatively perform statistical analysis based on questionnaires received from 224 train drivers. Results show that frequent changes in internal affairs procedure is or may be an important factor causing stress and human error from train drivers.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.208-213
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• 2002

The human polyomavirus JC virus is the etiologic agent of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). As the JC virus early promoter directs cell-specific expression of the viral replication factor large T antigen, transcriptional regulation constitutes a major mechanism of glial tropism in PML. It has been demonstrated that SV4O or JC virus large T antigen interacts with p53 protein and regulates many viral and cellular genes. In this study we founts that p53 represses the JC virus early promoter in both glial and nonglial cells To identify the cis-regulatory elements responsible for p53-mediated repression, deletional and site-directed mutational analyses were performed . Deletion of the enhancer region diminished p53-mediated transcriptional repression. However, point mutations of several transcription factor binding sites in the basal promoter region did not produce any significant changes. In support of this observation, when the enhancer was fused to a heterologous promoter, p53 red reduced the promoter activity about three fold. These results indicate that the enhancer region is important for tole repression of JC virus transcription by p53. Furthermore, coexpression of JC virus T antigen with a p53 protein abolished p53-mediated repression of the JC virus early promoter in non-glial cells, but not in glial cells. This finding suggests that T antigen interacts with p53 and regulates JC virus transcription in a cell-specific manner.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.1184-1192
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• 2019

The influenza A virus is a highly infectious respiratory pathogen that sickens many people with respiratory disease annually. To prevent outbreaks of this viral infection, an understanding of the characteristics of virus-host interaction and development of an anti-viral agent is urgently needed. The influenza A virus can infect mammalian species including humans, pigs, horses and seals. Furthermore, this virus can switch hosts and form a novel lineage. This so-called zoonotic infection provides an opportunity for virus adaptation to the new host and leads to pandemics. Most influenza A viruses express proteins that antagonize the antiviral defense of the host cell. The non-structural protein 1 (NS1) of the influenza A virus is the most important viral regulatory factor controlling cellular processes to modulate host cell gene expression and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-mediated antiviral response. This review focuses on the influenza A virus NS1 protein and outlines current issues including the life cycle of the influenza A virus, structural characterization of the influenza A virus NS1, interaction between NS1 and host immune response factor, and design of inhibitors resistant to the influenza A virus.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.248-254
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• 2019

In the present study, we investigated whether quercitrin, quercetin and afzelin derived from Houttuynia cordata affect the production and gene expression of MUC5AC mucin from airway epithelial cells. Confluent NCI-H292 cells were pretreated with quercitrin, quercetin or afzelin for 30 min and then stimulated with epidermal growth factor (EGF) or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) for 24 h. The MUC5AC mucin gene expression and production were measured by RT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. The results were as follows: (1) Quercitrin, quercetin and afzelin inhibited EGF- and PMA-induced MUC5AC mucin production from NCI-H292 cells; (2) The three natural products also decreased EGF- and PMA-induced MUC5AC mucin gene expression in NCI-H292 cells. These results suggest that quercitrin, quercetin and afzelin showed the regulatory effect on the steps of gene expression and production of mucin, by directly acting on airway epithelial cells.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.216-222
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• 2021

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease and a chronic gastrointestinal disorder. Rubi Fructus (RF), the fruit of Rubus coreanus Miquel, is known to exert several pharmacological effects including anti-oxidative, anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the improving effect and mechanism of RF on intestinal inflammation is not been fully understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the regulatory effect of RF on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice. We evaluated the effects of RF on DSS-induced clinical signs by analyzing weight loss and colon length. The inhibitory effects of RF on inflammatory mediators such as prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂), cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, as well as the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), were determined in colitis tissue. Our data indicated that mice treated with DSS showed clinical symptoms of colitis, including weight loss, colon length decrease and diarrhea. However, we observed that RF treatment significantly improved these clinical symptoms of weight loss, colon length decrease and diarrhea induced by DSS. RF inhibited the enhanced levels of COX-2 and PGE₂ caused by DSS. We also showed that the anti-inflammatory mechanism of RF by suppressing the activation of NF-kB in DSS-treated colon tissues. Collectively, the findings of this study indicate the prospect of developing new drugs from RF for UC treatment.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2020

The larva of Protaetia brevitarsis Lewis (P. brevitarsis), edible insect, is traditionally consumed as alternative source of nutrients and has various health benefits. However, the exact pharmaceutical effects of P. brevitarsis on inflammatory response are still not well understood. Thus, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of P. brevitarsis in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. We investigated the effects of P. brevitarsis on the expression levels of inflammatory-related genes, including inflammatory cytokines, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. To understand the anti-inflammatory mechanism of P. brevitarsis, we explored the regulatory effect of P. brevitarsis on nuclear factor (NF)-κB and caspase-1 activation. The findings of this study demonstrated that P. brevitarsis inhibits the LPS-induced inflammatory cytokine and PGE2 levels, as well as COX-2 and iNOS expression. Moreover, we confirmed that the anti-inflammatory effect of P. brevitarsis occurs via suppression of the activation of NF-κB and caspase-1. Conclusively, these findings provide experimental evidence that P. brevitarsis may be useful candidate for the treatment of inflammatory-related diseases.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.176-182
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• 2016

CCR3 is a chemokine receptor that mediates the accumulation of allergic inflammatory cells, including eosinophils and Th2 cells, at inflamed sites. The regulatory sequence of the CCR3 gene, contains two Runt-related transcription factor (RUNX) 1 sites and two PU.1 sites, in addition to a functional GATA site for transactivation of the CCR3 gene. In the present study, we examined the effects of the cis-acting elements of RUNX1 and PU.1 on transcription of the gene in EoL-1 eosinophilic cells and Jurkat T cells, both of which expressed functional surface CCR3 and these two transcription factors. Introduction of RUNX1 siRNA or PU.1 siRNA resulted in a modest decrease in CCR3 reporter activity in both cell types, compared with transfection of GATA-1 siRNA. Cotransfection of the two siRNAs led to inhibition in an additive manner. EMSA analysis showed that RUNX1, in particular, bound to its binding motifs. Mutagenesis analysis revealed that all point mutants lacking RUNX1- and PU.1-binding sites exhibited reduced reporter activities. These results suggest that RUNX1 and PU.1 participate in transcriptional regulation of the CCR3 gene.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.39-54
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of the water extract of Omisodokeum (OMSDE) on peritoneal macrophages, Methods: To verify the anti-inflammatory mechanism of OMSDE, the activation of nuclear $factor-{\kappa}B$ $(NF-{\kappa}B)$ and the phosphorylation of MAPK were examined. Results: The extract of OMSDE suppressed the production of LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor $(TNF)-{\alpha}$, interleukin $(IL)-1{\beta}$, IL-6 and IL-12 in the macrophages. OMSDE inhibited the degradation of inhibitory ${\kappa}B-{\alpha}$ $(I{\kappa}B-{\alpha})$ and it suppressed the activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK 1/2) but didn't inhibit c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38, indicating that OMSDE may inhibit the pro-inflammatory cytokine production process by inhibiting the activation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ and ERK 1/2. Furthermore, OMSDE inhibited the production of interferon $(IFN)-{\beta}$ but didn't inhibit of $IFN-{\alpha}$ in the LPS-stimulated macrophages through the down-regulation of interferon regulatory factor (IRF)-1 and IRF-7. The Oral administration of OMSDE inhibited LPS-induced endotoxin shock and the production of $TNF-{\alpha}$ in serum but didn't inhibit of $IL-1{\beta}$ and IL-6. Conclusion: These results suggest that OMSDE may be effective in the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases.