Publications by authors named "Wonsik Lee"

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive type of cancer in the brain and has an inferior prognosis because of the lack of suitable medicine, largely due to its tremendous invasion. GBM has selfish metabolic pathways to promote migration, invasion, and proliferation compared to normal cells. Among various metabolic pathways, NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is essential in generating ATP and is used as a resource for cancer cells.

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The emergence of resistance against the last-resort antibiotic vancomycin in staphylococcal infections is a serious concern for human health. Although various drug-resistant pathogens of diverse genetic backgrounds show higher virulence potential, the underlying mechanism behind this is not yet clear due to variability in their genetic dispositions. In this study, we investigated the correlation between resistance and virulence in adaptively evolved isogenic strains.

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  • A natural compound called celastrol can help make antibiotic-resistant bacteria, like MRSA, more vulnerable to β-lactam antibiotics by modifying their cell walls.
  • Celastrol works by reducing the crosslinking of bacterial cell walls through its influence on c-di-AMP levels, allowing antibiotics like penicillins and cephalosporins to be more effective.
  • Testing in animal models shows that combining celastrol with lower doses of methicillin can restore its effectiveness against MRSA, suggesting a new way to combat antibiotic resistance by targeting metabolic pathways.
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Aims: This study aimed to develop an editable structural scaffold for improving drug development, including pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antibiotics by using synthetic compounds derived from a (hetero)aryl-quinoline hybrid scaffold.

Methods And Results: In this study, 18 CF3-substituted (hetero)aryl-quinoline hybrid molecules were examined for their potential antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus by determining minimal inhibitory concentrations. These 18 synthetic compounds represent modifications to key regions of the quinoline N-oxide scaffold, enabling us to conduct a structure-activity relationship analysis for antibacterial potency.

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  • * The primary outcome, objective response rate (ORR), was 54.5% with a complete remission (CR) rate of 31.8%, indicating successful performance against the disease in a group of 66 enrolled patients.
  • * Adverse events were mostly manageable, with neutropenia being the most common; certain genetic markers such as MYD88 mutations showed promise for predicting treatment response, pointing to potential personalized therapy
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Synthetic biology approaches offer potential for large-scale and sustainable production of natural products with bioactive potency, including ginsenosides, providing a means to produce novel compounds with enhanced therapeutic properties. Ginseng, known for its non-toxic and potent qualities in traditional medicine, has been used for various medical needs. Ginseng has shown promise for its antioxidant and neuroprotective properties, and it has been used as a potential agent to boost immunity against various infections when used together with other drugs and vaccines.

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Purpose: The role of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) in multiple myeloma (MM) treatment remains controversial. We conducted a retrospective, multicenter, nationwide study in Korea to evaluate the outcomes of alloSCT in Asian patients with MM.

Materials And Methods: Overall, 109 patients with MM who underwent alloSCT between 2003 and 2020 were included in this study.

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Background: Bone marrow (BM) involvement is an indicator of a poor prognosis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL); however, few studies have evaluated the role of immunoglobulin gene rearrangement (IgR) in detecting BM involvement.

Methods: We evaluated the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with DLBCL based on histological BM involvement or positive BM IgR using polymerase chain reaction or next-generation sequencing. We also investigated the role of consolidative upfront autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in patients with DLBCL and BM involvement.

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Unlabelled: Antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria remain a globally leading cause of bacterial infection-associated mortality, and it is imperative to identify novel therapeutic strategies. Recently, the advantage of using antibacterials selective against Gram-negative bacteria has been demonstrated with polymyxins that specifically target the lipopolysaccharides of Gram-negative bacteria. However, the severe cytotoxicity of polymyxins limits their clinical use.

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  • This study investigates the genetic changes in Mycobacterium abscessus during antibiotic treatment in patients with pulmonary disease, seeking to understand its clinical implications.
  • Two patients with different disease progression were analyzed, showcasing that their infections persisted with a single bacterial strain throughout the treatment period.
  • The results indicated stable minimal inhibitory concentrations for antibiotics and minimal genetic mutations over 12 months, suggesting that the genetic makeup of M. abscessus remained relatively unchanged despite treatment.
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  • Brentuximab vedotin (BV) is an antibody-drug conjugate approved in Korea for treating relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL), and cutaneous T-cell lymphomas, but there's limited real-world data on its effectiveness.
  • In a study involving 85 patients, BV showed high efficacy rates with an objective response rate (ORR) of 85.4% for HL, 88% for ALCL, and 92% for mycosis fungoides (MF), with median progression-free survival times of approximately 23.6 months for HL, 29.0 months for ALCL, and 16.7 months for MF. *
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  • - The increasing prevalence of Mycobacterium avium complex-pulmonary disease (MAC-PD) prompts a need for more effective treatments, as current options like macrolides show limited success.
  • - Recent studies suggest that oxazolidinone drugs, such as linezolid (LZD) and delpazolid (DZD), could be effective against MAC, but their actual impact remains uncertain due to insufficient data.
  • - In experiments with murine models, both LZD and DZD showed some ability to inhibit intracellular MAC growth, but ultimately proved ineffective in reducing bacterial burden or inflammation in treated animals compared to standard macrolide treatments, indicating the need for more research on their clinical use.
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Introduction: Pegylated granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) has been widely used for preventing febrile neutropenia in various types of cancer treatment. In the present study, we prospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of pegfilgrastim as a primary prophylaxis of febrile neutropenia and infection among patients with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) treated with pomalidomide-based regimens.

Methods: Thirty-three patients with RRMM who received pomalidomide and dexamethasone (Pd) with or without cyclophosphamide (PCd) were enrolled in this study.

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Nanoscopic investigation of bacterial cells is essential to reveal their physiological status, impacting all cellular functions. Currently, this requires labeled probes or targeted staining procedures. Herein, we report a new bacterial feature, intracellular dynamics-resolved Rayleigh scattering (IDRS), that visualizes spatiotemporal cytoplasmic transitions in unlabeled bacteria and characterizes their real-time physiological status in 10 s.

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Background/aims: We performed a prospective study to determine the efficacy and safety of rituximab including chemotherapy in CD20-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed ALL, aged ≥ 15 years, were eligible for the study if their leukemic blast cells in bone marrow expressed CD20 ≥ 20% at the time of diagnosis. Patients received multiagent chemotherapy with rituximab.

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  • - The text outlines procedures for creating in vitro assays to monitor the activity of papain-like protease in coronaviruses, as well as a cell-based immunofluorescence assay for infection.
  • - These assays can be adapted for high-throughput screening, allowing researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of new protease inhibitors against coronaviruses and other viruses.
  • - Additionally, the cell-based immunofluorescence assay enables visual analysis of how well new antiviral compounds work, with comprehensive details available in the reference to Jeong et al. (2022).
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Background: A chemotherapy of rituximab, fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (R-FC) has been accepted as a promising frontline chemotherapy in selected patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Although R-FC regimen is a relatively dose-dense regimen and neutropenia incidence is more than 50%, primary prophylactic pegfilgrastim was not fully recommended in the clinical field. Therefore, the study evaluated the prophylactic effectiveness of pegfilgrastim to reduce the incidence of febrile neutropenia associated with R-FC of patients with CLL.

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Antibiotic resistance is one of the world's most urgent public health problems, and novel antibiotics to kill drug-resistant bacteria are needed. Natural product-derived small molecules have been the major source of new antibiotics. Here we describe a family of antibacterial metabolites isolated from a probiotic bacterium, .

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Introduction: This prospective study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of preemptive antiviral therapy with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) for HBsAg-positive patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma receiving rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) chemotherapy.

Methods: We enrolled 73 patients from 20 institutions. The primary end point was the absolute risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatitis during preemptive TDF therapy and for 24 weeks after withdrawal from TDF.

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  • Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major human pathogen with various factors that contribute to its antibiotic resistance and virulence.
  • This study identified the SarA protein as a crucial global regulator for MRSA by analyzing its binding to specific promoters that affect MRSA survival and antibiotic resistance.
  • Results indicated that SarA influences antibiotic resistance and various virulence factors, suggesting it could be a promising target for new treatments against MRSA infections.
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The site-selective incorporation of a trifluoromethyl group into biologically active molecules and pharmaceuticals has emerged as a central topic in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. Herein, we demonstrate the rhodium(III)-catalyzed conjugate addition of β-trifluoromethylated enones with quinoline -oxides, which result in the generation of β-trifluoromethyl-β'-quinolinated ketones. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions with complete functional group tolerance.

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complex (MAC) is the main causative agent of infectious diseases in humans among nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) that are ubiquitous organisms found in environmental media such as soil as well as in domestic and natural waters. MAC is a primary causative agent of NTM-lung disease that threaten immunocompromised or structural lung disease patients. The incidence and the prevalence of infection have been reduced, while MAC infections and mortality rates have increased, making it a cause of global health concern.

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Microbial infections remain a global health concern, calling for the urgent need to implement effective prevention measures. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been extensively studied as potential antimicrobial coating agents. However, an efficient and economical method for AMP production is lacking.

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To identify potent antiviral compounds, we introduced a high-throughput screen platform that can rapidly classify hit compounds according to their target. In our platform, we performed a compound screen using a lentivirus-based pseudovirus presenting a spike protein of coronavirus, and we evaluated the hit compounds using an amplified luminescence proximity homogeneous assay (alpha) test with purified host receptor protein and the receptor binding domain of the viral spike. With our screen platform, we were able to identify both spike-specific compounds (class I) and broad-spectrum antiviral compounds (class II).

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