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Successfully Sequenced the Genome of the Virus with Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) in BSL-3
A breakthrough for the Identification of the Basic Mechanism of the Virus, Drug-Repurposing, Diagnostics Technology, Development of Treatment and Vaccine
A team led by Prof. Park Man-Seong and Kim Jin Il from the Institute for Viral Diseases (Director of the institute Song Ki-Jun) of the Department of Microbiology of Korea University College of Medicine successfully isolated the viruses from COVID-19 clinical specimens and obtained their viral whole-genome sequences.
COVID-19 has spread to the world in just 3 months since it was first reported as “pneumonia of unknown cause” in Wuhan, China in the late last year. As of April 3, 2020, more than 45,000 deaths were reported with a 5.08% case-fatality rate of approximately 900 thousand confirmed cases.
A novel coronavirus similar to SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV; hence, a novel coronavirus was named as SARS-CoV-2) was identified as a source of infection and it is believed that it originated from bats, like SARS-CoV. Since the 2015 MERS outbreak in Korea, the importance of establishing a risk assessment system for zoonotic viruses has been steadily rising.
The team lead by Prof. Park Man-Seong and Kim Jin Il, accordingly, has analyzed MERS coronavirus and other various respiratory viruses’ biological characteristics, such as viral transmissibility, pathogenicity, and immunogenicity, and researched viral evolution for years. Based on the previous work, the team successfully isolated SARS-CoV-2 strains from patients’ respiratory specimens, completed a whole-genome sequencing of the viruses using an optimized high-performance Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) method, and shared the sequences on Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data under the names “BetaCoV/South Korea/KUMC01/2020, BetaCoV/South Korea/KUMC02/2020.”
The results of the research can provide necessary information for the identification of the basic mechanism of SARS-CoV-2, drug-repurposing, diagnostics technology, and development of treatment and vaccine. Analysis of genome-based evolution can also play a major role in providing a scientific basis for analyzing the domestic trend of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
The research provides the impetus to future research cooperation at home and abroad on high pathogenicity pathogen as it was conducted in Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) lab, Center for Biosafety's specialized research facility in Korea University College of Medicine.
The research team led by professor Hyeong Sik Ahn and Dr. Hyun Jung Kim of Preventive Medicine, College of
Medicine, Korea University recently published the risks of incident head and neck cancers in a nationwide, population-based, longitudinal retrospective cohort study in Korea in The Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (JACI),
which has an impact factor of 14.110, and ranks 1st of 27 in the Allergy category and 6th of 158 in the Immunology category in the 2018 Journal Citation Reports®, published by Clarivate.
Nasal polyps are non-cancerous growths on the lining of the nasal passages or sinuses and often result from chronic inflammation associated with asthma, recurring infection, allergies or certain immune disorders. They affect up to 4% of the general adult population and can pose substantial detrimental impact on the quality of life. However, it is unknown whether nasal polyps are associated with the risk of developing head and neck cancer. Few studies in previous
literature have suggested a potential association, but they only included small number of patients.
The research team conducted this study by using the large national health databases - National Health Insurance
claims database and National Health screening program database to obtain comprehensive information on disease diagnosis and health behaviors including smoking pack-years from 453,892 patients with nasal polyps and 4,583,938
matched comparators. The subjects were followed up for 6.2 years (range: 2-13 years).
The team found significantly higher risks of nasal cavity and paranasal sinus and nasopharyngeal cancers among
patients with nasal polyps compared to the matched comparators. The cancer risks were evident in patients older than 50 years but not in younger patients. The risk was about seven-fold higher for nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cancer
and modestly increased for nasopharyngeal cancer. Their associations were independent of confounders including smoking history.
Contribution to health promotion and establishment of a higher education system for environmental health in Uzbekistan
Professor Jae Wook Choi in the Department of Preventive Medicine of Korea University College of Medicine received recognition for his contribution to Education ODA 2019 receiving an award from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education of Korea.
The ODA award is given to individuals who have contributed to elevating the stature of a university by proactively engaging in various international cooperation projects to promote it as a globalized university along with the academic development of the institution.
From 2016 to 2020, Professor Choi was a principal investigator for the Tashkent Medical Academy of Uzbekistan’s project on environmental health education for capacity development (April 2016 to May 2020, Ministry of Education and National Research Foundation of Korea). He received the award for his contribution to health promotion through the establishment of a higher education system for environmental health in Uzbekistan and community public health education.
Environmental pollution of the Aral Sea is an important issue in Uzbekistan as the international community pays more attention to it. Due to the absence of environmental health experts and the study of environmental health, however, it was difficult to make an improvement.
Through an “Capacity Enhancement of Environmental Health Science Education in Tashkent Medical Academy Project”, Professor Choi created the first department of Environmental and Human Health in Uzbekistan for introductory education of undergraduate level and specialized education of graduate level in 2017.
Professor Choi also helped to nurture environmental health experts and developed a sustainable teaching environment for environmental health studies in the country by supporting capacity building projects for promoting pedagogy and research methods.
In addition, Korea University and Uzbekistan Tashkent Medical Academy opened a collaborative research center to strengthen Uzbekistan's capacity for environmental health research, and actively conducted programs and joint research for nurturing young researchers to form friendly relations between Korea and Uzbekistan.
Evaluation of the Aging and Arrhythmia of Heart with Cardiac MRI
The age is a mere number, which may have limitations in the understanding various changes of bodies with aging. In histology, the aging of heart may develop myocardial fibrosis as well as loss of myocytes commonly. Previous studies reported that the myocardial fibrosis in left atrium was associated with both development and progression of AF.
Many researchers and clinicians have studied the myocardial fibrosis in left atrium associated with AF. We also
believe that evaluation of myocardial fibrosis may help decide the effective management for AF.
With a recent development of technique, cardiac MRI enables detail visualization of myocardial fibrosis even in
patients with AF. The comprehensive evaluation by cardiac MRI includes the number, size, and location of myocardial fibrosis in left atrium. Thus, we used cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate the relationship between AF and myocardial fibrosis of left atrium. According to the team’s study led by Professor Hwang Sung Ho of Korea
University Anam Hospital, we analyzed cardiac MRI of 195 patients who visited to Korea University Anam Hospital between 2017 to 2018 for the treatment of AF. From the study results, we found that the myocardial fibrosis of left
atrium near left inferior pulmonary vein was independently associated with the progression of AF regardless of
patients’ age. In summary, our study results suggest that 1) cardiac MRI may be a promising method in evaluation of
the myocardial fibrosis associated with progression of AF, and 2) the quantitative data from cardiac MRI have a
potential to help design effective health management systems by artificial intelligence.
pubmed link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31310173
Radiology. 2019 Sep;292(3):575-582. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2019182629. Epub 2019 Jul 16.