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Green mandarins are widely consumed unripe as mandarin oranges (Citrus unshiu Marcov.), which exhibit anti-inflammatory and anti-wrinkle effects by inhibiting the production of inflammatory cytokines and matrix metalloproteinase. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study was performed to verify the skin improvement efficacy and safety of green mandarin extract (PTE). For the standardization of PTE, narirutin was set as a marker compound, and PTE with a constant narirutin content was prepared for the study. After randomizing subjects with periorbital wrinkles, they were orally administered PTE (300 mg/day) or a placebo for 12 weeks. Periorbital wrinkles were measured using PRIMOSCR SF. Skin elasticity, moisture content, transepidermal water loss, and gloss were also measured. In the study results, the depth, volume, and skin roughness of the periorbital wrinkles were significantly improved compared to the control group (p = 0.011, 0.009, and 0.004, respectively). The survey confirmed that the skin condition improved after PTE consumption for 12 weeks. No adverse reactions associated with PTE were observed during the study period. Thus, the results demonstrate that PTE effectively improves UV-induced skin wrinkles. Therefore, it is considered that PTE has sufficient value as a functional food ingredient that can prevent skin aging.

In this study, HER2 RNA aptamers were conjugated to mertansine (DM1) and the anti-cancer effectiveness of the conjugate was evaluated in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer models. The conjugate of HER2 aptamer and anticancer drug DM1 (aptamer-drug conjugate, ApDC) was prepared and analyzed using HPLC and mass spectrometry. The cell-binding affinity and cytotoxicity of the conjugate were determined using confocal microscopy and WST-1 assay. The in vivo anti-tumoral efficacy of ApDC was also evaluated in mice carrying BT-474 breast tumors overexpressing HER2. The synthesized HER2-specific RNA aptamers were able to specifically and efficiently bind to HER-positive BT-474 breast cancer cells, but not to HER2-negative MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Also, the HER2-specific ApDC showed strong toxicity to the target cells, BT-474, but not to MDA-MB-231 cells. According to the in vivo analyses drawn from the mouse xenografts of BT-747 tumor, the ApDC was able to more effectively inhibit the tumor growth. Compared to the control group, the mice treated with the ApDC showed a significant reduction of tumor growth. Besides, any significant body weight losses or hepatic toxicities were monitored in the ApDC-treated mice. This research suggests the HER2 aptamer-DM1 conjugate as a target-specific anti-cancer modality and provides experimental evidence supporting its enhanced effectiveness for HER2-overexpressing target tumors. This type of aptamer-conjugated anticancer drug would be utilized as a platform structure for the development of versatile targeted high-performance anticancer drugs by adopting the easy deformability and high affinity of aptamers.

OBJECTIVE We aimed to develop an International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10th edition injury code-based disability-adjusted life year (DALY) to measure the burden of specific injuries. METHODS Three independent panels used novel methods to score disability weights (DWs) of 130 indicator codes sampled from 1,284 ICD injury codes. The DWs were interpolated into the remaining injury codes (n=1,154) to estimate DWs for all ICD injury codes. The reliability of the estimated DWs was evaluated using the test-retest method. We calculated ICD-DALYs for individual injury episodes using the DWs from the Korean National Hospital Discharge Injury Survey (HDIS, n=23,160 of 2004) database and compared them with DALY based on a global burden of disease study (GBD-DALY) regarding validation, correlation, and agreement for 32 injury categories. RESULTS Using 130 ICD 10th edition injury indicator codes, three panels determined the DWs using the highest reliability (person trade-off 1, Spearman r=0.724, 0.788, and 0.875 for the three panel groups). The test-retest results for the reliability were excellent (Spearman r=0.932) (P

// Jung Wook Huh 1 , Sung Chun Kim 2 , Insuk Sohn 3 , Sin-Ho Jung 3, 4 , Hee Cheol Kim 1 1 Department of Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea 2 Biois Corp, Seoul, Korea 3 Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea 4 Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA Correspondence to: Hee Cheol Kim, e-mail: hckim@skku.edu Keywords: aptamer, colon cancer, prognosis Received: November 02, 2015 Accepted: February 11, 2016 Published: February 19, 2016 ABSTRACT Background: In this study, we established and validated a model for predicting prognosis of stage IIA colon cancer patients based on expression profiles of aptamers in serum. Methods: Bloods samples were collected from 227 consecutive patients with pathologic T3N0M0 (stage IIA) colon cancer. We incubated 1,149 serum molecule-binding aptamer pools of clinical significance with serum from patients to obtain aptamers bound to serum molecules, which were then amplified and marked. Oligonucleotide arrays were constructed with the base sequences of the 1,149 aptamers, and the marked products identified above were reacted with one another to produce profiles of the aptamers bound to serum molecules. These profiles were organized into low- and high-risk groups of colon cancer patients based on clinical information for the serum samples. Cox proportional hazards model and leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) were used to evaluate predictive performance. Results: During a median follow-up period of 5 years, 29 of the 227 patients (11.9%) experienced recurrence. There were 212 patients (93.4%) in the low-risk group and 15 patients (6.6%) in the high-risk group in our aptamer prognosis model. Postoperative recurrence significantly correlated with age and aptamer risk stratification (p = 0.046 and p = 0.001, respectively). In multivariate analysis, aptamer risk stratification (p < 0.001) was an independent predictor of recurrence. Disease-free survival curves calculated according to aptamer risk level predicted through a LOOCV procedure and age showed significant differences (p < 0.001 from permutations). Conclusion: Aptamer risk stratification can be a valuable prognostic factor in stage II colon cancer patients.

Article history: Received on: 02/02/2015 Revised on: 12/02/2015 Accepted on: 21/03/2015 Available online: 27/04/2015 For the purpose of developing anti-wrinkle cosmetic ingredients, the extracts from branches of a woody plant Sambucus sieboldiana var. pendula were examined on collagen synthesis activities using fibroblast HDFn cells. As a result, the S. sieboldiana ethanol extract (SSE) proved to activate the production of type I procollagen in a dose-dependent manner without showing cell toxicity. Phytochemical study was conducted to isolate the active constituents in the extracts by solvent fractionation followed by chromatographic purifications. From this procedure, two known compounds, kaempferol 3-O-sophoroside (1) and daucosterol (2), were identified by spectroscopic studies. From the isolates, the flavonoid glycoside 1 was verified to induce the synthesis of the type I procollagen dose-dependently. These results suggested that S. sieboldiana extract containing the flavonoid 1 could be useful as an active ingredient in wrinkle-care cosmetics.

Development of bioactive ingredients from natural sources has long been the research project of our laboratory. In this study, the extract from Corylus hallaisanensis Nakai branches was investigated and their anti-inflammatory constituents were identified. The prepared ethanol extract was successively partitioned into n-hexane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and aqueous layers. Upon anti-inflammatory screenings, ethyl acetate fraction exhibited good nitric oxide production inhibitory activity in lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW 264.7 cells. Further phytochemical studies for the ethyl acetate fractions led to isolation of four constituents such as β-sitosterol (1), 3,3’,4’-tri-O-methylellagic acid (2), carpinontriol A (3) and carpinontriol B (4). All of the compounds were isolated for the first time from this plant. The isolates 2, 3 and 4 showed considerable inhibition on the production of nitric oxide in the RAW 264.7 cell without causing cell toxicities. And compounds 3 and 4 reduced the production of interleukin-6, an inflammatory cytokine, in dose-dependent manner in RAW 264.7 cells. Based on these results, C. hallaisanensis extracts could be potentially applicable as anti-inflammatory agents in pharmaceutical or cosmetic industries.

We proposed a 2 level tree based cluster based routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks. it is our crucial goal to establish improved clustering’s structure in order to extend average node life-time and elevate the average packet delivery ratio. Because of insufficient wireless resources and energy, the method to form and manage clusters is useful for increasing network stability. but cluster-head fulfills roles as a host and a router in clustering protocol of Ad hoc networks environment. Therefore energy exhaustion of cluster-head causes communication interruption phenomenon. Effective management of cluster-head is key-point which determines the entire network performance. The scheme focuses on improving the performance the life time of the network and throughput through the management of cluster-heads and its neighbor nodes. In simulation, we demonstrated that it would obtain averagely better 17% performance than LS2RP.Keywords:Ad Hoc Networks, Routing Protocol, 2-Level Tree

클라이언트와 사회복지사의 관계는 사회복지실천의 중심으로 간주되어 왔지만 사회복지실천관계에 대한 현행 담론은 이론적 정향과 실천적 유용성 면에서 한계를 보이고 있다. 이런 상황에서 최근 사회 과학에서도 주목을 받고 있는 노자 도덕경은 유력한 대안 담론으로 검토될 만하다. 크게 본체론, 개체 론, 수양론을 아우르고 있는 도덕경은 원인론, 인과론, 개체주의로 상징되는 서양철학의 전통과 달리 객관주의, 긍정적 비판주의, 인본주의, 평등주의, 상호성과 관계성을 지향하는 유기적 세계관을 지향한 다. 본 연구에서는 이와 같은 노자 철학을 통해 사회복지실천관계론을 모색함으로써 다음과 같은 새로 운 가능성을 도출해 보았다. 첫째, 사회복지실천의 지향점을 ‘자연적 인본주의’로 설정함으로써 실천관 계를 인간본성에 근거한 상보적 존재로 규정한다. 둘째, 스스로 그러하다는 의미에서 자연스러운 존재 로서 인간본성을 규정함으로써 클라이언트의 잠재적 가능성과 이를 저해하는 인위적 억압을 인식한다. 셋째, 노자적 관점을 취하는 사회복지사는 폐쇄적 전문주의를 넘어 성찰과 무위(無爲)의 실천 주체로 설정된다. 이와 같이 노자 도덕경은 서구중심의 관계론이 가진 모더니즘과 포스트모더니즘의 이항 대립적 한계를 넘어 한국적 사회복지실천 관계를 모색하는 과정에서 중요한 이론적, 실천적 자원으로 활 용될 수 있을 것으로 보인다.