Publications by authors named "Asami Fukuda"

The Bioinformation and DNA Data Bank of Japan Center (DDBJ Center, https://www.ddbj.nig.

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Background: The therapeutic effectiveness of dupilumab for severe asthma in real-world settings is yet to be prospectively investigated across multiple institutions, and uncertainties persist regarding predictive factors for its effectiveness. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of dupilumab and identify predictors of its effectiveness in real-world settings using two type-2 biomarkers: FeNO concentration and blood eosinophil count.

Methods: This prospective multicenter study included 103 patients with severe asthma.

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  • * A study analyzed 97 OSAS patients and categorized them into clusters based on their clinical features and leptin levels, observing that some had normal levels while others had high levels despite similar obesity.
  • * After 6 months of CPAP treatment, excessive daytime sleepiness improved across all clusters, and leptin levels decreased significantly in one group; however, the role of leptin as a biomarker for CPAP efficacy remains inconclusive.
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Background: Dysfunctional breathing (DB) is a clinical condition characterized by irregular breathing patterns presenting a sensation of dyspnea and a feeling of chest tightness. DB is a known comorbidity of asthma that is difficult to control, leading to poor quality of life, so early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention are essential to improve the clinical condition of asthma. The Nijmegen Questionnaire (NQ), developed to screen for DB and translated into various languages, is used worldwide.

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Accurate genotype imputation requires large-scale reference panel datasets. When conducting genotype imputation on the Japanese population, researchers can use such datasets under collaborative studies or controlled access conditions in public databases. We developed the NBDC-DDBJ imputation server, which securely provides users with a web user interface to execute genotype imputation on the server.

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  • Scientists are studying how pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease, is linked to cigarette smoke, which can hurt lung cells and cause problems with iron in cells!
  • They found that too much iron in lung cells makes them sick and leads to inflammation, but using a special medicine helped protect the cells!
  • Their research suggests that fixing iron problems in lung cells could be a new way to treat pulmonary fibrosis and improve lung health!
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  • The study aimed to explore the various underlying causes of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) by using cluster analysis on data from 1,057 patients, highlighting differences in leptin and adiponectin levels among the identified OSA phenotypes.
  • The researchers performed k-means clustering based on patients’ OSA severity, body mass index (BMI), and other clinical factors, which resulted in four distinct phenotypes, revealing varying leptin and C-reactive protein levels.
  • The findings indicate the existence of diverse clinical phenotypes within OSA, which may be linked to different underlying health issues, and suggest that these classifications could improve the effectiveness of treatment strategies, beyond what is determined by traditional metrics like the Apnea-Hypopnea Index
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Background: The impaired barrier function of the airway epithelium due to RNA virus infection is closely related to the development and exacerbation of allergic airway inflammation.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the roles of microRNAs on the mechanisms of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-induced epithelial barrier dysfunction.

Methods: 16HBE14o- human bronchial epithelial cells were grown to confluence on Transwell inserts and exposed to poly-I:C.

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Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening disease; however, its treatment has not yet been fully established. The progression of ARDS is considered to be mediated by altered intercellular communication between immune and structural cells in the lung. One of several factors involved in intercellular communication is the extracellular vesicle (EV).

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Background: Understanding HIV persistence in treated patients is an important milestone toward drug-free control. We aimed at analyzing total HIV DNA dynamics and influencing factors in Japanese patients who received more than a decade of suppressive antiretroviral treatment (ART).

Methods: A retrospective study including clinical records and 840 peripheral blood mononuclear cells samples (mean 14 samples/patient) for 59 patients (92% male) was performed.

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Combination anti-retroviral therapy (cART) has drastically improved the clinical outcome of HIV-1 infection. Nonetheless, despite effective cART, HIV-1 persists indefinitely in infected individuals. Clonal expansion of HIV-1-infected cells in peripheral blood has been reported recently.

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The recent development and advancement of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have enabled the characterization of the human genome at extremely high resolution. In the retrovirology field, NGS technologies have been applied to integration-site analysis and deep sequencing of viral genomes in combination with PCR amplification using virus-specific primers. However, virus-specific primers are not available for some epigenetic analyses, like chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) assays.

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Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is one of the leading causes of severe pulmonary hypertension. According to previously reported studies in the pertinent literature, chronic inflammatory conditions may be implicated in the development of CTEPH. We herein describe the case of a 56-year-old woman who was diagnosed with CTEPH in association with chronic infection.

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Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that causes malignant and inflammatory diseases in ∼10% of infected people. A typical host has between 10(4) and 10(5) clones of HTLV-1-infected T lymphocytes, each clone distinguished by the genomic integration site of the single-copy HTLV-1 provirus. The HTLV-1 bZIP (HBZ) factor gene is constitutively expressed from the minus strand of the provirus, whereas plus-strand expression, required for viral propagation to uninfected cells, is suppressed or intermittent in vivo, allowing escape from host immune surveillance.

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Three strains, K08-0182(T), K08-0178 and K08-0195 were isolated from the paste of ground plant roots collected in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. These strains contained meso-diaminopimelic acid and lysine as the diamino acids in cell-wall peptidoglycan, and MK-9(H(6)) and MK-9(H(8)) as the predominant menaquinones. The G+C contents of the DNA were 72-73 mol%.

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