Jong‐Hoon Kim

Despite encouraging results from preliminary studies of anticancer therapies, the lack of tumor specificity remains an important issue in the modern pharmaceutical industry. New findings indicate that biotin or biotin-conjugates could be favorably assimilated by tumor cells that over-express biotin-selective transporters. Furthermore, biotin can form stable complexes with avidin and its bacterial counterpart streptavidin. The strong bridging between avidin and biotin moieties on other molecules

A major challenge in photodynamic cancer therapy (PDT) is avoiding PDT-induced hypoxia, which can lead to cancer recurrence and progression through activation of various angiogenic factors and significantly reduce treatment outcomes. Reported here is an acetazolamide (AZ)-conjugated BODIPY photosensitizer (AZ-BPS) designed to mitigate the effects of PDT-based hypoxia by combining the benefits of anti-angiogenesis therapy with PDT. AZ-BPS showed specific affinity to aggressive cancer cells (MDA-M

Activation of apoptosis, the cell death machinery, in tumor cells by organelle-specific delivery of antitumor theranostic agent is the utmost challenge in cancer therapy. Herein, we developed a highly efficient mitochondria-targeting antitumor theranostic prodrug 7 that contained two molecules of drug 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine and an apoptotic marker ethidium for self-monitoring intrinsic (mitochondrial) apoptosis after its activation in tumor cells. Theranostic 7 was activated by endogenously pr

Mitochondria are organelles that are readily susceptible to temperature elevation. We selectively delivered a coumarin-based fluorescent iron oxide nanoparticle, Mito-CIO, to the mitochondria. Upon 740 nm laser irradiation, the intracellular temperature of HeLa cells was elevated by 2.1 °C within 5 min when using Mito-CIO, and the treatment resulted in better hyperthermia and a more elevated cytotoxicity than HeLa cells treated with coumarin iron oxide (CIO), which was missing the mitochondrial

In early embryonic development, spatial gradients of diffusible signaling molecules play important roles in controlling differentiation of cell types or arrays in diverse tissues. Thus, the concentration of exogenous cytokines or growth factors at any given time is crucial to the formation of an enriched population of a desired cell type from primitive stem cells in vitro. Microfluidic technology has proven very useful in the creation of cell-friendly microenvironments. Such techniques are, howe

UNLABELLED: The development of targeted and effective theranostic (therapeutic and diagnostic) chemotherapeutic agents is highly desirable for precise diagnosis and treatment of cancer. To realize this goal, we developed a cancer-targeting and enzyme-triggered theranostic prodrug 1, containing 7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin (SN-38), a well-known anticancer drug, which inhibits topoisomerase I in the cell nucleus; hydroquinone as an enzyme-triggered moiety; and biotin as a cancer targeting unit.

Detailed understanding of the pathogenesis and development of effective therapies for pulmonary fibrosis (PF) have been hampered by lack of in vitro human models that recapitulate disease pathophysiology. In this study, we generated alveolar organoids (AOs) derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) for use as an PF model and for drug efficacy evaluation. Stepwise direct differentiation of hPSCs into alveolar epithelial cells by mimicking developmental cues in a temporally controlled mann

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Dilutional hyponatremia associated with liver cirrhosis is caused by impaired free water clearance. Several studies have shown that serum sodium levels correlate with survival in cirrhotic patients. Little is known, however, regarding the relationship between the degree of dilutional hyponatremia and development of cirrhotic complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the serum sodium level and the severity of complications in liver cirrhosis. ME