School of Biotechnology, Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun's research team
Accelerate production of insulin and regeneration of damaged organs without side effects
[May 16, 2012]
The Yeungnam University School of Biotechnology yet again displays major research achievements.
Not long ago, Professor Choi, Chang-bon reported his research findings that Hanwoo beef with good marbling has lower risk of causing adult diseases compared with imported beef. This time around, Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun's research team developed medicine that effectively suppresses diabetes and its complications using a new protein.
Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun's (photo) research team announced on the 16th that a medicine that can accelerate insulin production of the pancreas and accelerate regeneration of damaged organs without causing adverse reactions is developed by compounding new High Density Lipoprotein.
This research, which was conducted as part of the 'Core Researcher Support Project (Key research) and General Researcher Support Project' of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (minister Lee, Joo-ho) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (president Lee, Seung-jong), was published on the 24th of last month on the online issue of <Rejuvenation Research> published by the European Society of Preventive, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine, which in an internationally acclaimed academic journal in its respective field.
Professor Cho's team stated that the newly developed medicine is highly resistant against saccharification, which transforms protein due to high blood sugar, and therefore can maximize treatment effects such as promoting insulin production. They also added that after recombining new High Density Lipoprotein (HDL), they found that the formation of advanced glycation end-products, which are the main cause of diabetes complications, were suppressed. The research team cut part of the tail of a zebra fish, which is a vertebrate, and injected various HDL and found that it had five times better effect in regenerating effects compared to others.
Thus, it is expected that an epochal turning point was made for suppressing the occurrence or progression of diabetes complications, which is one of the main goals in treating diabetes. Diabetic complications occur when diabetes is prolonged and generally after a few years, it damages almost every organ in the body making one highly vulnerable to various infections. It causes diabetic wounds, diabetic nephrosis, diabetic cataract, and diabetic neuralgia. It is a very dangerous ailment that accelerates overall aging of the body, resulting in severe drop in quality of life and that can even cause death.
The medicine developed by Professor Cho's team was found to be especially effective in treating diabetic foot ulcer caused by complications from diabetes. Diabetic foot ulcer is a very severe ailment in which about one person amputates their foot every thirty seconds around the world.
The research team added that another achievement of this research is that they confirmed that it is effective in preventing and treating other diseases related to aging, besides diabetes and diabetic complications.
Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun (44, School of Biotechnology) stated, "This research developed the medicine that can effectively suppress not only Korea's two major diseases of diabetes and diabetic complications, but also diseases related to aging without causing side effects." He added, "It can be used not only as medicine, but also in everyday life such as health foods and components for skin-aging preventing cosmetics."
Meanwhile, Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun, who led this research, has been very active in research such as publishing over 60 SCI level theses, applying for and registering over 20 domestic and international patents, and transferring one technology overseas (300,000 USD of the initial payment, 3% sales royalty) in the past five years.
Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun and students of the School of Biotechnology
