Natural Product-Derived Drugs for the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Natural products have been used as drugs for millennia, and the therapeutic potential of natural products has been studied for more than a century. Since the mid-1880s, approximately 60% of drugs have originated from natural products. Recently, the importance of using natural products has increased, as has interest in discovering efficient new drugs. Natural drugs are desirable for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. This review discusses the discovery and development of drugs derived from natural products for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases

Case of chronic indolent pheochromocytoma that caused medically controlled hypertension but treatment-resistant diabetes mellitus

No abstract available

Cancer Statistics in Korea: Incidence, Mortality, Survival, and Prevalence in 2008

PURPOSE: This paper overviews the nationwide cancer statistics including incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence, and their trends in Korea based on the year 2008 cancer incidence data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Incidence data from 1993 to 2008 were obtained from the Korea National Cancer Incidence Database, and the vital status was followed through December 31, 2009. Mortality data from 1983 to 2008 were obtained from the Korea National Statistics Office. Crude rates and age-standardized rates for incidence, mortality, prevalence and relative survival were calculated. RESULTS: There were 178,816 cancer cases and 68,912 cancer deaths observed during year 2008 and 724,663 10-year cancer prevalent cases as of January 1, 2009 in Korea. The incidence rate for all cancer combined showed an annual increase of 3.1% from 1999 to 2008. CONCLUSION: With significantly increasing cancer incidence, Korea faces a large cancer burden and efficient cancer control programs are essential.ope

A leadership competency model of science and technology parks: the case of Chungbuk Techno Park in Korea

Given their significant regional economic benefits, science and technology parks (STPs) have attracted continuous academic attention. To understand the predictors of performance of STPs, this study focuses on the critical impacts of leaders and develops a leadership competency model specialized for public STP leaders. The competency model identifies the qualities and conditions of an effective leader of public STPs, emphasizing management skills, bottom-up approach, and boundary spanning skills. To provide empirical support, this study adopts the case study approach and performs a behavior event interview with one of the most successful leaders of public STPs in Korea

Prediction of Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Korea, 2011

PURPOSE: To estimate the current cancer burden in Korea, cancer incidence and mortality were projected for the year 2011. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cancer incidence data from 1999-2008 were obtained from the Korea National Cancer Incidence Database, and the cancer mortality data from 1993-2009 were obtained from the Korea National Statistics Office. Cancer incident cases and rates in 2011 were projected from fitting a linear regression model on observed age-specific cancer incidence rates against observed years, then multiplying the projected age-specific rates by the age-specific population. For cancer mortality, a similar procedure was applied for projection except that a Joinpoint regression model was used to determine at which year the linear trend significantly changed. RESULTS: A total of 216,809 new cancer cases and 71,036 cancer deaths are projected to occur in Korea in 2011. For all sites combined, the crude incidence rates are projected to be 437.9 and 420.5 and the age-standardized incidence rates are projected to be 336.5 and 279.7 per 100,000 for men and women, respectively. CONCLUSION: Cancer has become an important public health concern in Korea, and as Korea becomes an aged society, the cancer burden will continue to increase.ope

Alpha-tocopherol exerts protective function against the mucotoxicity of particulate matter in amphibian and human goblet cells

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) in ambient air is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disorders and mortality. The cytotoxicity of PM is mainly due to the abnormal increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which damage cellular components such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. The correlation between PM exposure and human disorders, including mortality, is based on long-term exposure. In this study we have investigated acute responses of mucus-secreting goblet cells upon exposure to PM derived from a heavy diesel engine. To this end, we employed the mucociliary epithelium of amphibian embryos and human Calu-3 cells to examine PM mucotoxicity. Our data suggest that acute exposure to PM significantly impairs mucus secretion and results in the accumulation of mucus vesicles in the cytoplasm of goblet cells. RNA-seq analysis revealed that acute responses to PM exposure significantly altered gene expression patterns; however, known regulators of mucus production and the secretory pathway were not significantly altered. Interestingly, pretreatment with alpha-tocopherol nearly recovered the hyposecretion of mucus from both amphibian and human goblet cells. We believe this study demonstrates the mucotoxicity of PM and the protective function of alpha-tocopherol on mucotoxicity caused by acute PM exposure from heavy diesel engines