• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2014

Purpose: Since most terminally ill cancer patients die of multiple organ failure, plasma endotoxin concentration levels may be used to predict the life expectancy. This study was performed to evaluate the clinical significance of endotoxin level in plasma as a prognostic factor for survival in patients with terminal cancer. Methods: This study was conducted with 56 terminally ill cancer patients, above 20 years old, from April 2009 through October 2009. Demographic characteristics, Karnofsky performance status, and survival time were evaluated. We analyzed blood levels of white blood cell hemoglobin, hematocrit, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, c-reactive protein, total bilirubin and endotoxin in each patient. Results: We considered following variable for univariate analysis: plasma endotoxin level, sex, age, WBC, hemoglobin, hematocrit, AST, ALT, total bilirubin, CRP and severity of pain. Univariate analysis did not show a significant association between plasma endotoxin level and survival time. However, in a multivariate analysis with factors that were found to be significantly associated with survival sex, WBC count and total bilirubin level in univariate analysis, high levels of plasma endotoxin and short survival time were significantly related. Conclusion: Plasma endotoxin level could be used as a prognostic factor to predict the life expectancy of terminally ill cancer patients.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.241-247
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• 2014

Purpose: Serum vitamin C is one of the indicators for antioxidant levels in the body and it is lower in cancer patients compared with the healthy population. However, there have been few studies on the levels of serum vitamin C in terminally ill cancer patients and related factors. Methods: We followed 65 terminal cancer patients who were hospitalized in two palliative care units. We collected data of age, sex, cancer type, functional status, clinical symptoms, history of cancer therapy, and various laboratory findings including serum vitamin C level. Patients were categorized into two groups according to the quartile of serum vitamin C level (Q1-3 vs. Q4), which were compared each other. Stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors related to serum vitamin C levels. Results: The mean serum vitamin C level was $0.44{\mu}g/mL$, and all patients fell into the category of vitamin C deficiency. Univariate analysis showed that The serum vitamin C level was lower in non-lung cancer patients (P=0.041) and febrile patients (P=0.034). Multivariate analysis adjusted for potential confounders such as lung cancer, fever, dysphagia, dyspnea, C reactive protein, and history of chemotherapy demonstrated that odds for low serum vitamin C level was 3.7 for patients receiving chemotherapy (P=0.046) and 7.22 for febrile patients (P=0.02). Conclusion: Vitamin C deficiency was very severe in terminally ill cancer patients, and it was associated with history of chemotherapy and fever.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 1993

Plasmid DNAs were detected from the mitochondrial fraction of four strains of whiterot fungus, Pleurotus ostreatus. The size of the plasmids were 10.2 and 7.2 kb in strain NFFA 2, 10.2 kb in NFFA 4001, 11.2 kb in NFFA 4501, and 10.2 and 11.2 kb in KFCC 11635. The two strains,NFFA 2ml and NFFA 2m2, which are mutant derivatives of NFFA 2, did not contain any plasmids. The cleavage by proteinase K indicated that these plasmids have DNA ends associated with proteins. In digestion with proteinase K all the plasm ids remained resistant to lambda exonuclease which hydrolyzes DNA from 5' ends and were sensitive to exonuclease III which hydrolyzes DNA from 3' ends. This suggests that the plasmids are linear double-stranded DNA and the terminal proteins are covalently linked to 5' ends of plasm ids. In order to find relationship between these plasmids, hybridization of plasm ids by each separate plasmid DNA was done. The result indicated that the plasmids can be classified into at least 3 groups. Plasmids of group I were present in all the P ostreatus. More mitochondrial plasmids were detected in P cornucopiae. P ,florida, P pulmonarius, P sajor-caju, and P spodoleucus. The size of plasmids ranged between 7.2 kb and 14 kb. All the species except P cornucopiae contained plasmids of approximately 10 kb which hybridized with the 10.2 kb plasmid (group I) of P ostreatus NFFA 2.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2006

In 'solid-phase' PEGylation, the conjugation reaction occurs as the proteins are attached to a solid matrix, and thus it can have distinct advantages over the conventional, solution-phase process. We report a case study: rhIFN-${\alpha}$-2a was first adsorbed to cation exchange resin and then N-terminally PEGylated by aldehyde mPEG of 5, 10, and 20 kD through reductive alkylation. After the PEGylation, salt gradient elution efficiently recovered the mono-PEGylate in a purified form from the unwanted species such as unmodified IFN, unreacted PEG, and others. The mono-PEGylation and its purification were integrated in a single chromatographic step. Depending on the molecular weight of the mPEG aldehyde used, the mono-PEGylation yield ranged 50-64%. We could overcome the major problems of random, or uncontrollable, multi-PEGylation and the post-PEGylation purification difficulties associated with the solution-phase process. N-terminal sequencing and MALDI-TOF MS confirmed that a PEG molecule was conjugated only to the N-terminus. Compared with the unmodified IFN, the mono-PEGylate showed the reduced anti-viral activity as measured by the cell proliferation assay. The bioactivity was reduced more as the higher molecular weight PEG was conjugated. Immunoreactivity, evaluated indirectly by antibody binding activity using a surface plasmon resonance biosensor, also decreased. Nevertheless, trypsin resistance as well as thermal stability was considerably improved.