• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.283-289
• /
• 2019

Brain aging induces neuropsychological changes, such as decreased memory capacity, language ability, and attention; and is also associated with neurodegenerative diseases. However, most of the studies on brain aging are focused on neurons, while senescence in astrocytes has received less attention. Astrocytes constitute the majority of cell types in the brain and perform various functions in the brain such as supporting brain structures, regulating blood-brain barrier permeability, transmitter uptake and regulation, and immunity modulation. Recent studies have shown that SIRT1 and SIRT2 play certain roles in cellular senescence in peripheral systems. Both SIRT1 and SIRT2 inhibitors delay tumor growth in vivo without significant general toxicity. In this study, we investigated the role of tenovin-1, an inhibitor of SIRT1 and SIRT2, on rat primary astrocytes where we observed senescence and other functional changes. Cellular senescence usually is characterized by irreversible cell cycle arrest and induces senescence- associated ${\beta}$-galactosidase (SA-${\beta}$-gal) activity. Tenovin-1-treated astrocytes showed increased SA-${\beta}$-gal-positive cell number, senescence-associated secretory phenotypes, including IL-6 and IL-$1{\beta}$, and cell cycle-related proteins like phospho-histone H3 and CDK2. Along with the molecular changes, tenovin-1 impaired the wound-healing activity of cultured primary astrocytes. These data suggest that tenovin-1 can induce cellular senescence in astrocytes possibly by inhibiting SIRT1 and SIRT2, which may play particular roles in brain aging and neurodegenerative conditions.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.52 no.9
• /
• pp.533-539
• /
• 2019

Recent evidence from genetics, animal model systems and biochemical studies suggests that defects in membrane trafficking play an important part in the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD). Mutations in leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) constitute the most frequent genetic cause of both familial and sporadic PD, and LRRK2 has been suggested as a druggable target for PD. Although the precise physiological function of LRRK2 remains largely unknown, mounting evidence suggests that LRRK2 controls membrane trafficking by interacting with key regulators of the endosomal-lysosomal pathway and synaptic recycling. In this review, we discuss the genetic, biochemical and functional links between LRRK2 and membrane trafficking. Understanding the mechanism by which LRRK2 influences such processes may contribute to the development of disease-modifying therapies for PD.

• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.147-155
• /
• 2020

Objectives : The aim of this study was to analyze changes in the gait pattern of a unilateral knee pain patient after treatment with Korean Medicine therapy. Methods : We conducted gait analysis 4 times over 11 days to analyze changes in gait parameters using gait analysis systems. Results : Velocity, cadence, step length, and stride length were all increased. On the collateral side, both stance phase and double support (%) decreased. These results are similar to those of hemiplegic patients with improvement patterns. Conclusions : Gait analysis could be used as a good evaluation tool for tracking improvements in knee pain.

• Animal cells and systems
• /
• v.8
• /
• pp.14-14
• /
• 2004

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.64-69
• /
• 2021

Primary cilium has a signal transduction function that is essential for brain development, and also determines cell polarity and acts as a mediator for important signaling systems, especially the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) pathway. TBC1D32 is a ciliary protein, implicated in SHH signaling. Biallelic mutations in the TBC1D32 gene causes a kind of ciliopathy, heterogeneous developmental or degenerative disorders that affect multiple organs, including the brain. Here we report a boy who carried compound heterozygous variants in TBC1D32. The patient showed hypotonia, respiratory difficulty, and multiple anomalies at his birth. He was diagnosed with congenital hypopituitarism and treated with T4, hydrocortisone, and growth hormone. Despite the hormonal replacement, the patient needed long-term respiratory support with tracheostomy and nutritional support with a feeding tube. His developmental milestones were severely retarded. Hydrocephalus and strabismus developed and both required surgery, during the outpatient follow-up. Whole-exome sequencing indicated compound heterozygous variants, c.2200C>T (p.Arg734^*) and c.156-1G>T, in TBC1D32 gene. This is the first Korean case of TBC1D32-related ciliopathy and we reported detailed and sequential clinical features. This case demonstrated the utility of whole-exome sequencing and provided valuable clinical data on ultra-rare disease.

• Advances in robotics research
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.101-126
• /
• 2014

In this article we present modular neural control for a leg-wheel hybrid robot consisting of three legs with omnidirectional wheels. This neural control has four main modules having their functional origin in biological neural systems. A minimal recurrent control (MRC) module is for sensory signal processing and state memorization. Its outputs drive two front wheels while the rear wheel is controlled through a velocity regulating network (VRN) module. In parallel, a neural oscillator network module serves as a central pattern generator (CPG) controls leg movements for sidestepping. Stepping directions are achieved by a phase switching network (PSN) module. The combination of these modules generates various locomotion patterns and a reactive obstacle avoidance behavior. The behavior is driven by sensor inputs, to which additional neural preprocessing networks are applied. The complete neural circuitry is developed and tested using a physics simulation environment. This study verifies that the neural modules can serve a general purpose regardless of the robot's specific embodiment. We also believe that our neural modules can be important components for locomotion generation in other complex robotic systems or they can serve as useful modules for other module-based neural control applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
• /
• 1993.06a
• /
• pp.1017-1020
• /
• 1993

This paper describes a neo fuzzy neuron which was produced by a fusion of fuzzy logic and neuroscience. Some learning algorithms are presented. The guarantee for the global minimum on the error-weight space is proved by a reduction to absurdity. Enhanced is that the learning speed of the neo fuzzy neuron exceeds 100,000 times of that of conventional multi-layer neural networks.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.61-84
• /
• 2018

This paper aims to examine the philosophical significance of neuroethics and its unique position within the cognitive paradigm, and to discuss major issues of neuroethics. Recent advances in neuroscience enable more direct access and intervention to human mind, which reduces the distinction between matter and mind and brings up new philosophical questions on human nature. Neuroethics takes interdisciplinary and integrative approach, in order to deal with the ethical issues related to new findings and technology of neuroscience that cannot be covered by the traditional legal and social systems. Some of the ethical issues of neuroscience overlap with the classical bioethics problems but majority of major issues are unique to neuroethics. These issues are mainly related to mind reading through the observation and decoding of brain activities and to cognitive enhancement through directly manipulating brain functions. Considering the current status and trends of Korean neuroscientific research, it is necessary to begin in-depth discussion of neuroethical issues with the collaboration among experts in related fields.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.107-117
• /
• 2011

Biological sensory systems continuously monitor and analyze changes in real-world environments that are relevant to an animal's specific behavioral needs and goals. Understanding the sensory mechanisms and information processing principles that biological systems utilize for efficient sensory data acquisition may provide useful guidance for the design of smart-sensing systems in engineering applications. Weakly electric fish, which use self-generated electrical energy to actively sense their environment, provide an excellent model system for studying biological principles of sensory data acquisition. The electrosensory system enables these fish to hunt and navigate at night without the use of visual cues. To achieve reliable, real-time task performance, the electrosensory system implements a number of smart sensing strategies, including efficient stimulus encoding, multi-scale virtual sensor arrays, task-dependent filtering and online subtraction of sensory expectation.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.145-156
• /
• 2003

Most of the content-based image retrieval systems focuses on similarity-based retrieval of natural picture images by utilizing color. shape, and texture features. For the neuroscience image databases, we found that retrieving similar images based on global average features is meaningless to pathological researchers. To realize the practical content-based retrieval on images in neuroscience databases, it is essential to represent internal contents or semantics of images in detail. In this paper, we present how to represent image contents and their related concepts to support more useful retrieval on such images. We also describe the operational semantics to support these advanced retrievals by using object-oriented message path expressions. Our schemes are flexible and extensible, enabling users to incrementally add more semantics on image contents for more enhanced content searching.