Effective Antiviral Activity of the Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Sunitinib Malate against Zika Virus

Lin Chen-Sheng,Huang Su-Hua,Yan Bo-Yu,Lai Hsueh-Chou,Lin Cheng-Wen 대한감염학회 2021 Infection and Chemotherapy Vol.53 No.4

Introduction: Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, causes the outbreaks of Latin America in 2015 - 2016, with the incidence of neurological complications. Sunitinib malate, an orally bioavailable malate salt of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is suggested as a broadspectrum antiviral agent against emerging viruses like severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and SARS-CoV-2. Materials and Methods: This study investigated the antiviral efficacy and antiviral mechanisms of sunitinib malate against ZIKV infection using cytopathic effect reduction, virus yield, and time-of-addition assays. Results: Sunitinib malate concentration-dependently reduced ZIKV-induced cytopathic effect, the expression of viral proteins, and ZIKV yield in supernatant with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 0.015 μM, and the selectivity index of greater than 100 against ZIKV infection, respectively. Sunitinib malate had multiple antiviral actions during entry and post-entry stages of ZIKV replication. Sunitinib malate treatment at entry stage significantly reduced the levels of ZIKV RNA replication with the reduction of (+) RNA to (-) RNA ratio and the production of new intracellular infectious particles in infected cells. The treatment at post-entry stage caused a concentration-dependent increase in the levels of ZIKV (+) RNA and (-) RNA in infected cells, along with enlarging the ratio of (+) RNA to (-) RNA, but caused a pointed increase in the titer of intracellular infectious particles by 0.01 and 0.1 μM, and a substantial decrease in the titer of intracellular infectious particles by 1 μM. Conclusion: The study discovered the antiviral actions of sunitinib malate against ZIKV infection, demonstrating a repurposed, host-targeted approach to identify potential antiviral drugs for treating emerging and global viral diseases.

Advanced Imaging of Nanometer-Scale Recorded Bits on Super-Resolution Near-Field Optical Disk

Pei Lin Yang,Din Ping Tsai,Cheng Wei Lin,Chih Ching Hsu,Pei Hsin Chang,Tsung Sheng Kao,Wei Chih Lin 한국물리학회 2005 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.47 No.1

An advanced imaging technique is demonstrated for fast, non-destructive and high resolution characterizations for nanometer-scale recorded bits on a super-resolution near-field optical disk (super-RENS). For the first time, an array of individual 100 nm recorded marks is imaged and studied by using the conductive-atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) method. Discussions also include comparisons of 300 nm, 200 nm and 100 nm recorded marks on both a super-RENS disk and a commercial DVD disk, and the image results are evidence of the high carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) value on the super-RENS disk, even though the mark size has been shrunk to less than the diffraction limit.

NAD(P)H: Quinone Oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) C609T Gene Polymorphism Association with Digestive Tract Cancer: A Meta-analysis

Zhu, Cheng-Lin,Huang, Qiang,Liu, Chen-Hai,Lin, Xian-Sheng,Xie, Fang,Shao, Feng Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.4

NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) C609T gene polymorphisms have been reported to influence the risk for digestive tract cancer (DTC) in many studies; however, the results remain controversial and ambiguous. We therefore carried out a meta-analysis of published case-control studies to derive a more precise estimation of any associations. Electronic searches were conducted on links between this variant and DTC in several databases through April 2012. Crude odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to estimate the strength of associations in fixed or random effect models. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also assessed. A total of 21 case-control studies were identified, including 6,198 cases and 7,583 controls. Overall, there was a statistically significant association between the NQO1 C609T polymorphism and DTC risk (TT vs. CC: OR=1.224, 95%CI=1.055-1.421; TT/CT vs. CC: OR=1.195, 95%CI=1.073-1.330; TT vs. CT/CC: OR=1.183, 95%CI=1.029-1.359; T vs. C: OR=1.180, 95%CI=1.080-1.290). When stratified for tumor location, the results based on all studies showed the variant allele 609T might have a significantly increased risk of upper digest tract cancer (UGIC), but not colorectal cancer. In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, we observed a significantly risk for DTC in Caucasians. For esophageal and gastric cancer, a significantly risk was found in both populations, and for colorectal, a weak risk was observed in Caucasians, but not Asians. This meta-analysis suggested that the NQO1 C609T polymorphism may increase the risk of DTC, especially in the upper gastric tract.

Professionals’ experiences and attitudes toward use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in hospice palliative inpatient care units: A multicenter survey in Taiwan

Yu-Jia Lin,Hsiao-Ting Chang,Ming-Hwai Lin,Ru-Yih Chen,Ping-Jen Chen,Wen-Yuan Lin,Jyh-Gang Hsieh,Ying-Wei Wang,Chung-Chieh Hu,Yi-Sheng Liou,Tai-Yuan Chiu,Chun-Yi Tu,Yi-Jen Wang,Bo-Ren Cheng,Tzeng-Ji Ch 한국한의학연구원 2021 Integrative Medicine Research Vol.10 No.2

Background: Medical staff may have difficulties in using conventional medicine to manage symptoms among terminally ill patients, including adverse effects of the treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is regarded as a complementary or alternative medicine, and has been increasingly used in the field of palliative medicine in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of and attitudes toward using TCM among palliative care professionals, and to provide preliminary information about its use in palliative care. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted in eight inpatient hospice wards in Taiwan between December 2014 and February 2016. The questionnaire was self-administered, and was analyzed with descriptive statistics including Pearson’s Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test. Results: A total of 251 palliative care professionals responded to the questionnaire, of whom 89.7% and 88.9% believed that the use of TCM could improve the physical symptoms and quality of life in terminally ill patients, respectively. Overall, 59.8%, of respondents suggested that TCM had rare side effects, and 58.2% were worried that TCM could affect the liver and kidney function of patients. In total, 89.7% and 88.0% of professionals agreed there were no suitable clinical practice guidelines and educational programs, respectively, for TCM use in palliative care. Conclusions: Most of the respondents agreed there was insufficient knowledge, skills-training, and continuing education on the use of TCM in terminally ill patients in Taiwan. These results show that to address patient safety considerations, guidelines about use of TCM in palliative care should be established.

Construction of the Operating Limits Diagram for a Ship-Based Helicopter Using the Design of Experiments with Computational Intelligence Techniques

Lin Hsin-Hung,Wu Sheng-Ju,Liu Tsung-Lung,Pan Kuan-Cheng 한국항공우주학회 2021 International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sc Vol.22 No.1

Compared with land-based helicopters, ship-based helicopters are required to land in a more challenging working environment as the airwakes generated by the wind field flowing through the superstructure of the ship changes the wind field structure. This complicates the wind field structure and affects the safety of flight control. The flight safety of the helicopter pilot can be significantly improved with prior understanding of the relevant information in the ship-based helicopter operating limits (SHOL) diagram. In previous studies, the SHOL diagram of ship-based helicopters has been obtained using numerical simulations in conjunction with a flight simulator. However, the flight simulator equipment is expensive and difficult to maintain. This study references the aforementioned studies by initially employing a numerical simulation method to obtain the flow field information of the interaction between the airwakes of the ship’s superstructure and the downwash flow of the helicopter. Then, the flight simulator is replaced by computational intelligence methods involving artificial intelligence. This significantly reduces the research cost for envelope construction. This study integrates design of experiments (DOE) and computational intelligence techniques (soft computing) to establish a recommended range for the SHOL diagram of ship-based helicopters. This study utilizes the DOE and computational intelligence techniques to construct the SHOL diagram of ship-based helicopters, provide suggestions, and serve as a reference for helicopter pilots and engineering designers to improve the safety during flight.

An IoT based Temperature Control System for Honey Bee Colony Winter Loss Prevention

( Sheng-hao Chen ),( Hung-jen Lin ),( Yu-cheng Yang ),( En-cheng Yang ),( Joe-air Jiang ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Honey bees are the most important plant pollinators in nature. Currently, about one-third of human food comes from flowering plants. About 80% of the plants need honey bees for pollination. However, extreme weather increases the possibility of honey bees being exposed to the threat of winter losses, as global climate change intensifies. To protect honey bee colonies, in this study, a heating system is proposed to maintain the temperature of a beehive during the winter. The heating system contains a beecounter, a monitoring system built for beehives, to automatically record the data of temperature and relative humidity both inside and outside the beehives and monitor honey bees’ behavior of coming in and going out of the beehives. When the beecounter detects that the temperature inside the beehive is below a certain threshold, the heating system will be activated to increase the temperature of the beehive. And, all environmental parameters and data are transmitted through a Wi-Fi module and sent to a cloud. With the IoT technology, the temperature inside the beehive will be precisely controlled to increase the survival rate of colonies during the winter. Finally, image processing techniques are used to calculate the honey bee eclosion rates to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system, and the results show that the proposed system can successfully maintain the temperature of the beehive and increase the numbers of the bees entering and leaving the beehive.

Abstract Robotic arm application with kinect2 limb identification with NEXCOM Minibot as an example

Sheng-Kai Chen,You-Ting Su,Cheng Yi Lin,Lai-Chung Lee 한국정보기술학회 2019 Proceedings of The International Workshop on Futur Vol.2018 No.1

Generation of Selenoprotein with Glutathione Peroxidase Activity by Chemical Modification of the Single-chain Variable Fragment Expressed in a Single-protein Production System and Its Antioxidant Ability

Cheng Wang,Gang-Lin Yan,Shao-Wu Lü,Chun-Hong Sui,Yang Zhao,Ya-Wei Xu,Gang Zhao,Jun-jie Xu,Ping-Sheng Gong,Gui-Min Luo,Ying Mu 한국생물공학회 2013 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.18 No.1

Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) is one of the important members of the antioxidant enzyme family. It can catalyze the reduction of hydroperoxides with glutathione to protect cells against oxidative damage. Single-chain variable fragment (scFv) can be converted into seleniumcontaining single-chain variable fragment (Se-scFv) by chemical modification of the hydroxyl groups in scFv, thus Se-scFv possesses GPX activity and becomes a prodrug. To improve the expression of scFv and simplify its purification steps, Single-protein production (SPP) system was used to express scFv and chemical modification was used to synthesize Se-scFv. Therefore, we must construct a new scFv-WCD1-lessACA gene, which can express its mRNA not containing any ACA sequences and express its amino acid sequence of target protein (scFv) being same to scFv-WCD1. In this way, the scFv-WCD1-lessACA can be only expressed in SPP system and no other background proteins in the cells could be expressed. The expression results showed that high level of scFv-WCD1-lessACA synthesis was at least sustained for 96 h in the virtual absence of background protein synthesis. Then, selenocysteine (Sec) was incorporated into the scFv-WCD1-lessACA by chemical modification and resulted in Se-scFv-WCD1-lessACA. The enzymatic characteristics of Se-scFv-WCD1-lessACA were determined. GPX activity was 2,563 U/μmol,its binding constant for GSH was 0.687 ×105/mol. Moreover,Se-scFv-WCD1-lessACA was confirmed to have a strong antioxidant ability to protect mitochondria against oxidative damage induced by Vc/Fe2+ (mitochondrial damage model),suggesting that Se-scFv-WCD1-lessACA has potential application for protection of mitochondrial damage induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Classification of particles in particle-laden stream through a stainless steel fibrous filter

Cheng-Hsiung Huang,Chung-Liang Chang,Tser-Sheng Lin 한국화학공학회 2007 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.24 No.3

investigation experimentally explores the penetration curve of particles shot onto a stainles steelt-ing, on the particle penetration was examined at various flow rates, nozzle diameters and dimensionless particle diam-eters, Sqrt(Stk). The penetration of the flat surface by particles was also determined for comparison. Experimental re-sults demonstrate that oleic acid particles larger than Sqrt(Stk)50 are collected on the stainless steel fibrous filter witha low penetration, while smaller particles stay in the particle-laden stream with high penetration. The penetration ofpotassium chloride particles exceeds that of oleic acid particles, because potassium chloride particles bounce off thestainless steel fibrous filter and the flat surface. Particles bounce of the metal filter less easily than the flat surface.Coating the stainless steel fibrous filter with oil effectively reduces problems of particle bounce. The potasium chlorideparticles sucked the coated oil forming a small mountain on the surface. When the loaded particle mass on the coatedstainless steel fibrous filter ranges between 0.4 and 2.3 mg, Sqrt(Stk)50 is a constant 0.35.

On the Modeling of an Electromagnetic Conveyance System

Cheng-Tsung Liu,Sheng-Yang Lin,Yang-Yi Yang 한국자기학회 2007 한국자기학회 학술연구발표회 논문개요집 Vol.- No.-