Modern people have begun to have the nationwide interest in the rice wine called Makgeolri which is one of the traditional Korean alcoholic liquors. This study was performed to investigate the effects of Sansung Makgeolri extract (SM) on antioxidation together with the determination of pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) in the progress of fermentation in the lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-treated rats. We examined the levels of SOD (superoxide dismutase),CAT (catalase), GPx (glutathione peroxidase) in liver homogenates and the histopathological observations in liver tissue. LPS-treated group markedly decreased the levels of SOD, CAT and GPx. But SM + LPS-treated group significantly increased the levels of them. Furthermore, the antioxidative effects of SM were supported by the histopathological observations in liver tissue which showed severe inflammation and necrosis in LPS-treated group,compared to the attenuated inflammation and necrosis in SM + LPS-treated group. This results suggested that SM could be a candidate of antioxidative material in spite of alcoholic liquors.

Microbial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is an endotoxin conveying the surface receptor complex of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)-myeloid differentiation 2 (MD-2) in innate immune cells through ancillary proteins such as LPS-binding protein and CD14. However, TLR4 alone is not sufficient for recognition of LPS. MD-2 is essential for sensing the lipid A domain of LPS and for triggering LPS-induced TLR4 activity across the plasma membrane. Therefore, lipid A domain and its binding to MD-2 are potential drug targets for intervention in endotoxemia as well as other disorders associated with LPS etiology. Here, we reviewed MD-2 as a drug target focused on drug candidates-targeting TLRs, transport of microbial LPS into TLR4/MD-2, crystal structure of TLR4/MD-2 alone, crystal structure of TLR4/MD-2 with bound LPS, lipid A derivatives as MD-2 antagonist, non-lipid antagonists of LPS binding to MD-2, and human disorders-implicated with TLR4/ MD-2. This review could be helpful to understanding the biology of TLR4/MD-2, and suggests the importance of MD-2 as a therapeutic target against inflammatory diseases due to infection.