Kyung Hee University · Neuroscience
Professor Insop Shim's research lab focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying psychiatric and cognitive disorders, with a particular emphasis on neuroinflammation, neuroplasticity, and neurodegeneration. The lab investigates the role of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β and IL-4, in modulating depressive-like behaviors and neurotransmitter systems, as well as the impact of systemic and central immune activation on brain function. Additionally, the lab explores pharmacological interventions—such as ginseng saponins and donepezil—to mitigate cognitive impairment induced by chemotherapy or high-fat diets, using behavioral and neuroimaging techniques. Their work bridges immunology, neuroscience, and psychopharmacology to identify novel therapeutic targets for brain disorders.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Accumulating evidence suggests that neuroinflammation plays an important role in etiology of psychiatric disorders. Neuronflammation involves a combination of psychological, neuroendocrine, and nervous systems resulting in changes of neurotransmitter metabolism, dysregulation of the hypothalamuspituitary-adrenal axis, pathologic microglial cell activation, impaired neuroplasticity, and structural and functional brain changes affecting cognition and emotional behavior. Inflammatory cytokines have
A previous study demonstrated that ginseng crude saponins prevent obesity induced by a high-fat diet in rats. Ginseng crude saponins are known to contain a variety of bioactive saponins. The present study investigated and compared the antiobesity activity of protopanaxadiol (PD) and protopanaxatriol (PT) type saponins, major active compounds isolated from crude saponins. Male 4-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with normal diet (N) or high-fat diet (HF). After 5 weeks, the HF diet group was
It has been known that activation of the central innate immune system or exposure to stress can disrupt balance of anti-/proinflammatory cytokines. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the modulation of depressive-like behaviors, the hormonal and neurotransmitter systems in rats. We investigated whether centrally administered IL-1β is associated with activation of CNS inflammatory pathways and behavioral changes and whether treatment
A considerable number of patients with breast cancer complain of cognitive impairment after chemotherapy. In this study, we showed that donepezil enhanced memory function and increased brain glucose metabolism in a rat model of cognitive impairment after chemotherapy using behavioral analysis and positron emission tomography (PET). We found that chemotherapy affected spatial learning ability, reference memory, and working memory and that donepezil improved these cognitive impairments. According
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