Clinical Features and Course of Ocular Toxocariasis in Adults

Ahn, Seong Joon,Woo, Se Joon,Jin, Yan,Chang, Yoon-Seok,Kim, Tae Wan,Ahn, Jeeyun,Heo, Jang Won,Yu, Hyeong Gon,Chung, Hum,Park, Kyu Hyung,Hong, Sung Tae Public Library of Science 2014 PLoS neglected tropical diseases Vol.8 No.6

<▼1><P><B>Purpose</B></P><P>To investigate the clinical features, clinical course of granuloma, serologic findings, treatment outcome, and probable infection sources in adult patients with ocular toxocariasis (OT).</P><P><B>Methods</B></P><P>In this retrospective cohort study, we examined 101 adult patients diagnosed clinically and serologically with OT. Serial fundus photographs and spectral domain optical coherence tomography images of all the patients were reviewed. A clinic-based case-control study on pet ownership, occupation, and raw meat ingestion history was performed to investigate the possible infection sources.</P><P><B>Results</B></P><P>Among the patients diagnosed clinically and serologically with OT, 69.6% showed elevated immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels. Granuloma in OT involved all retinal layers and several vitreoretinal comorbidities were noted depending on the location of granuloma: posterior pole granuloma was associated with epiretinal membrane and retinal nerve fiber layer defects, whereas peripheral granuloma was associated with vitreous opacity. Intraocular migration of granuloma was observed in 15 of 93 patients (16.1%). Treatment with albendazole (400 mg twice a day for 2 weeks) and corticosteroids (oral prednisolone; 0.5–1 mg/kg/day) resulted in comparable outcomes to patients on corticosteroid monotherapy; however, the 6-month recurrence rate in patients treated with combined therapy (17.4%) was significantly lower than that in patients treated with corticosteroid monotherapy (54.5%, P = 0.045). Ingestion of raw cow liver (80.8%) or meat (71.2%) was significantly more common in OT patients than healthy controls.</P><P><B>Conclusions</B></P><P>Our study discusses the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention strategies for OT. Evaluation of total IgE, in addition to anti-toxocara antibody, can assist in the serologic diagnosis of OT. Combined albendazole and corticosteroid therapy may reduce intraocular inflammation and recurrence. Migrating feature of granuloma is clinically important and may further suggest the diagnosis of OT. Clinicians need to carefully examine comorbid conditions for OT. OT may be associated with ingestion of uncooked meat, especially raw cow liver, in adult patients.</P></▼1><▼2><P><B>Author Summary</B></P><P>Toxocariasis is one of America's most common neglected infections of poverty and a helminthiasis of global importance. Little is known about the epidemiologic, demographic, and clinical features of ocular toxocariasis (OT) in adult patients, and the treatment regimen for OT has not been standardized. We conducted a retrospective cohort study examining the clinical features, serologic markers, clinical course of granuloma, probable infection sources, and treatment outcome in 101 adult patients diagnosed clinically and serologically with OT. All the patients had unilateral involvement. Ninety-three (92.1%) and 78 (77.2%) of 101 adult patients had retinal granuloma and intraocular inflammation, respectively. In addition to retinal granuloma, retinal nerve fiber layer defect, epiretinal membrane, vitreous opacity, retinal detachment, macular edema, and macular hole were observed in the eyes with OT. Granuloma in OT can involve all retinal layers, and its intraocular migration was observed in 15 patients (16.1%). Among the 101 patients, 69.6% and 11.6% showed elevated immunoglobulin E levels and eosinophilia, respectively. We believe that OT may be associated with ingestion of uncooked meat, especially cow liver, in adult patients. Furthermore, we suggest that combined albendazole and corticosteroid therapy may reduce intraocular inflammation and recurrence.</P></▼2>

Bit-Precision Method for Low Complex Lossless Image Coding

Won, J. W.,Ahn, H. S.,Kim, W. J.,Jang, E. S. SPRINGER-VERLAG 2005 Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol.3644 No.-

Comparison of extraction phases for a two-phase culture of a recombinant E. coli producing retinoids

Jang, Hui-Jeong,Ha, Bo-Kyung,Kim, Jin-Woong,Jung, Kyung-Hwa,Ahn, Jiyoon,Yoon, Sang-Hwal,Kim, Seon-Won Springer-Verlag 2014 Biotechnology letters Vol.36 No.3

Study on Cd/Pb resistance and accumulation by AtHMA3 overexpressing plants

Won Park,Jung-A Sung,Ha-Young Jang,Ha-Na Park,Yang-Gyu Ku,Sung-Ju Ahn 한국작물학회 2008 한국작물학회 학술발표대회 논문집 Vol.2008 No.10

AtHMA3 is one of P1B-ATPase of Arabidopsis thaliana which transports and/or stores Cd and Pb in the plant cell. To test whether AtHMA3 can be used to develop enhanced resistance plant to Cd and Pb for phytoremediation, we overexpressed AtHMA3 in Columbia-0 using a pBI121vector containing the 35S promoter. To evaluate their Cd and Pb resistance, seeds of three different T3 homozygous(HMA3-1~3) and wild type plants(col-0) were germinated and grown on agar plates containing 50μM Cd, 500μM Pb and 50μM Cd+ 500μM Pb for 3 weeks. 35S::AtHMA3 grew better than wild type plants about 1.1-to 1.8-fold in Cd or Pb containg mediums. Fresh weights of all three lines of transgenic plants were 1.2-to 1.5-fold higher than those of wild type plants in Cd or Pb-containing medium. In addition to, we measured Cd and Pb content in both wild type and transgenic plants grown in solution with 50μM Cd, 500μM Pb and 50μM Cd+ 500μM Pb for 6 d. AtHMA3-overexpressing plants had consistently higher Cd and Pb contents than wild type plants. Chlorophyll contents were not significant difference between overlines and wild-types. These results show that HMA3 contributes to Cd and Pb resistance, and it might be useful for the phytoremediation.

The Impact of the Hepatitis B Virus Polymerase rtA181T Mutation on Replication and Drug Resistance Is Potentially Affected by Overlapping Changes in Surface Gene

Ahn, Sung Hyun,Park, Yong Kwang,Park, Eun-Sook,Kim, Jeong Han,Kim, Doo Hyun,Lim, Keo-Heun,Jang, Moon Sun,Choe, Won Hyeok,Ko, Soon Young,Sung, In-Kyung,Kwon, So Young,Kim, Kyun-Hwan American Society for Microbiology 2014 Journal of virology Vol.88 No.12

<P>The emergence of drug-resistant hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major problem for antiviral treatment in chronic hepatitis B infection. In this study, we analyzed the evolution of drug-resistant mutations and characterized the effects of the rtA181T and rtI233V mutations on viral replication and drug resistance. We performed a clonal analysis of the HBV polymerase gene from serum samples during viral breakthrough treated with antiviral agents. A series of mutant clones containing rtA181T and/or rtI233V mutations were constructed and determined the effect of these mutations on the replication ability and drug resistance. An <I>in vitro</I> study revealed that the effect of the rtA181T mutation on viral replication and drug resistance is dependent on the mutations in the overlapping surface gene. Compared to the rtA181T surface missense mutation (rtA181T/sW172S), the introduction of rtA181T surface nonsense mutation (rtA181T/sW172*) resulted in decreased viral replication and increased drug resistance. Complementation assay revealed that the truncated PreS1 is responsible for reduced replication of rtA181T/sW172* mutant. Moreover, the rtA181T/sW172* mutant exhibited a defect in viral particle secretion. The rtI233V mutation that emerged during adefovir therapy reduced viral replication and conferred resistance to adefovir. Our data suggest that the impact of the rtA181T mutation on replication and drug resistance differs based on the mutation status of the corresponding surface gene. The rtI233V mutation also affects replication ability and drug resistance. This observation suggests the need for genotypic analysis of overlapping surface genes to manage antiviral drug resistance if clinical isolates harbor the rtA181T mutation.</P><P><B>IMPORTANCE</B> The emergence of drug-resistant HBV that are no longer susceptible to nucleos(t)ide analogues is a major problem for antiviral treatment in chronic hepatitis B infection. Among drug-resistant mutations, the single rtA181T mutation is known to confer cross-resistance to antiviral drugs. This mutation causes intermediate or reduced susceptibility to tenofovir. Moreover, the clinical occurrence of the rtA181T mutation during antiviral therapy is also high. Our study revealed that the effect of the rtA181T mutation on viral replication and drug resistance is dependent on the mutations in the overlapping surface gene. This observation suggests the need for genotypic analysis of overlapping surface genes to manage antiviral drug resistance if clinical isolates harbor the rtA181T mutation. We believe that our study will not only extend the understanding of the drug resistance mechanism, but it will also ultimately provide new treatment options for patients with multidrug resistant HBV.</P>

Construction and Characterization of a cDNA Library from the Camelina sativa as an Alternative Oil-seed Crop

Won Park,Ha-Young Jang,Ji-Eun Lee,Sung-Ju Ahn 한국작물학회 2010 한국작물학회 학술발표대회 논문집 Vol.2010 No.04

Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz, known as popular names "gold-of-pleasure" or "false flax" is an alternative oilseed crop that can be grown under different climatic and soil condition. Up to date, however, the genomic information of camelina has not been studied in detail. Therefore, a cDNA library was constructed and characterized from young leaves. The constructed cDNA library incorporated of 1334 cDNA clones and the size of the insertion fragments average was 736 base pair. We generated a total of 1269 high-quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) sequences. The result of cluster analysis of EST sequences showed that the number of unigene was 851. According to subsequent analysis, the 476 unigenes were highly homologous to known function genes and the other 375 unigenes were unknown. Remaining 63 unigenes had no homology with any other peptide in NCBI database, indicating that these seemed to be novel genes expressed in leaves of camelina. The database-matched ESTs were further classified into 17 categories according to their functional annotation. The most abundant of categories were protein with binding function (27%), metabolism (11%), subcellular localization (11%), cellular transport, transport facilities and transport routes (7%), energy (6%), regulation of metabolism and protein function (6%). Our result in this study provides an overview of mRNA expression profile and a basal genetic information of camelina as an oilseed crop.

Photo-patternable polyimide gate insulator with fluorine groups for improving performance of 2,7-didecyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiopene (C₁₀-BTBT) thin-film transistors

Won, J.M.,Suk, H.J.,Wee, D.,Kim, Y.H.,Ka, J.W.,Kim, J.,Ahn, T.,Yi, M.H.,Jang, K.S. Elsevier Science 2013 Organic electronics Vol.14 No.7

Surface properties of gate insulators strongly affect the device performance of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). To improve the performance of OTFTs, we have developed photo-sensitive polyimide gate insulator with fluorine groups. The polyimide gate insulator film could be easily patterned by selective UV exposure without any photoinitiator. The polyimide gate insulator film, fabricated at 130<SUP>o</SUP>C, has a dielectric constant of 2.8 at 10kHz, and leakage current density of <1.6x10<SUP>-10</SUP>A/cm<SUP>2</SUP> while biased from 0 to 90V. To investigate the potential of the polyimide with fluorine groups as a gate insulator, we fabricated C<SUB>10</SUB>-BTBT TFTs. The field-effect mobility and the on/off current ratio of the TFTs were measured to be 0.76+/-0.09cm<SUP>2</SUP>/Vs and >10<SUP>6</SUP>, respectively.

Chlorogenic Acid and Coffee Prevent Hypoxia-Induced Retinal Degeneration

Jang, Holim,Ahn, Hong Ryul,Jo, Hyoung,Kim, Kyung-A,Lee, Eun Ha,Lee, Ki Won,Jung, Sang Hoon,Lee, Chang Y. American Chemical Society 2014 Journal of agricultural and food chemistry Vol.62 No.1

<P>This study explored whether chlorogenic acid (CGA) and coffee have protective effects against retinal degeneration. Under hypoxic conditions, the viability of transformed retinal ganglion (RGC-5) cells was significantly reduced by treatment with the nitric oxide (NO) donor <I>S</I>-nitroso-<I>N</I>-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP). However, pretreatment with CGA attenuated cell death in a concentration-dependent manner. In addition, CGA prevented the up-regulation of apoptotic proteins such as Bad and cleaved caspase-3. Similar beneficial effects of both CGA and coffee extracts were observed in mice that had undergone an optic nerve crush (ONC) procedure. CGA and coffee extract reduced cell death by preventing the down-regulation of Thy-1. Our <I>in vitro</I> and <I>in vivo</I> studies demonstrated that coffee and its major component, CGA, significantly reduce apoptosis of retinal cells induced by hypoxia and NO, and that coffee consumption may help in preventing retinal degeneration.</P><P><B>Graphic Abstract</B> <IMG SRC='http://pubs.acs.org/appl/literatum/publisher/achs/journals/content/jafcau/2014/jafcau.2014.62.issue-1/jf404285v/production/images/medium/jf-2013-04285v_0008.gif'></P>

Strain-Induced Tailoring of Oxygen-Ion Transport in Highly Doped CeO₂ Electrolyte: Effects of Biaxial Extrinsic and Local Lattice Strain

Ahn, Junsung,Choi, Sungjun,Yoon, Kyung Joong,Son, Ji-Won,Kim, Byung-Kook,Lee, Jong-Ho,Jang, Ho Won,Kim, Hyoungchul American Chemical Society 2017 ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES Vol.9 No.49

<P>We explored oxygen-ion transport in highly doped CeO2 through density-functional theory calculations. By applying biaxial strain to 18.75 mol % Ceo(2):Gd, we predicted the average migration-barrier energy with six different pathways, with results in good agreement with those of experiments. Additionally, we found that the migration-barrier energy could be lowered by increasing the tetrahedron volume,, including the space occupied by the oxygen vacancy. Our results indicate that the tetrahedron volume can be expanded by larger codoliants, as well as biaxial tensile strain: Thus, the combination of thin-film structure and codoping could offer a new approach to accelerate oxygen-ion transport.</P>

Consumption of Water-Soluble Egg Yolk Extract on Growth Rate, Changes in Blood Cholesterol Levels, and Immune Modulation in BALB/c Mice

Won Young Lee,Ran Lee,Hee Chan Kim,Kyung Hoon Lee,Kyung Sook Noh,Hyoun Wook Kim,Ji Hyuk Kim,Dong Uk Ahn,In Surk Jang,Aera Jang,Hoon Taek Lee,Hyuk Song 한국축산식품학회 2013 한국축산식품학회지 Vol.33 No.5

Egg consumption has been limited to avoid cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and hyperlipidemia, because the yolk contains high levels of cholesterol. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the water-soluble component of egg-yolk on the growth efficiency, immune modulation, and changes in serum lipid levels in BALB/c mice. A total 5 wk old 120 BALB/c male mice were divided into 4 groups and were fed 0, 2, 10, and 20 mg/d water-soluble egg yolk extract (WSEYE) for 5 wk. Water-soluble egg yolk extract (WSEYE) uptake resulted in a significant reduction in daily weight gain and feed efficiency rate (FER). The mouse groups treated with 2 and 20 mg/d WSEYE showed a significant increase in populations of monocytes at the third wk and B-lymphocyte activity at the fifth wk. In addition, WSEYE uptake did not influence serum immunoglobulin E levels. In serum lipid-profile studies, treatment of WSEYE did not alter total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein levels; however, blood triglyceride levels were significantly diminished in mice treated with 2 mg/d at the third wk (p