Publications by authors named "Daisuke Nonaka"

Background: For safe drinking water, household water treatments (HWT) is important to reduce the risk of diarrhea in low-and-middle countries including Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). However, the measurement of HWT relies chiefly on self-report in most nationwide surveys. Thus, the validity of self-reported measurement is of concern.

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The demand for the essential commodity chemical 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO) is on the rise, as its microbial production has emerged as a promising method for a sustainable chemical supply. However, the reliance of 1,2-PDO production in Escherichia coli on anaerobic conditions, as enhancing cell growth to augment precursor availability remains a substantial challenge. This study presents glucose-based aerobic production of 1,2-PDO, with xylose utilization facilitating cell growth.

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Metaplastic thymoma is a rare thymic neoplasm that has generally been considered to follow a benign to indolent clinical course; however, 3 metaplastic thymomas with high-grade malignant transformation to sarcomatoid carcinoma have been reported. In recent years, both conventional metaplastic thymomas and this subset showing malignant transformation have been associated with recurrent fusions. We report a metaplastic thymoma showing transformation to squamous cell carcinoma, that to our knowledge is the fourth reported in the literature with transition to overtly malignant features and the first showing pure carcinomatous transformation, and in which fusion was demonstrated via next generation sequencing.

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Article Synopsis
  • PD-L1 expression is a key biomarker for predicting the effectiveness of immunotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and is linked to glucose metabolism.
  • This study analyzed data from 210 patients with resectable NSCLC to see how metabolic parameters from [F]FDG-PET/CT scans relate to PD-L1 expression levels in tumors and lymph nodes.
  • Results showed that while certain metabolic scores were higher in patients with PD-L1 expression ≥ 1%, the accuracy of these scores for predicting PD-L1 positivity was only moderate, indicating limited reliability in clinical settings.
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Background: Hypertension is responsible for many premature deaths worldwide. However, many individuals with hypertension remain undiagnosed. Tonga is one of the countries that has had a steep increase in hypertension, thus undiagnosed hypertension could also be increasing.

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Background: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an incurable, late presenting primary cancer, conferring a survival of 8-14 months. Different intrapleural treatments have been tested as part of a multimodality approach to treat a select group of patients with limited disease, increasing survival. Recently, povidone-iodine has been shown to induce apoptosis in microscopic tumour cells , with no reported complications.

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The pathogenesis of 80% of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) cases is associated with Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). Forkhead helix transcription factor P3 (FOXP3) and the T cell immunoreceptor with immunoglobulin and immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibition motif domains (TIGIT)-CD155 pathway, which are targets for immunotherapy, were assessed as prognostic factors of MCC. We analyzed mRNA expression data of 111 patients with MCC and performed immunohistochemical analysis to detect the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), CD8, FOXP3, TIGIT, and CD155 in 65 cases of MCC.

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Context: Somatic EPAS1 variants account for 5% to 8% of all pheochromocytoma and paragangliomas (PPGL) but are detected in over 90% of PPGL in patients with congenital cyanotic heart disease, where hypoxemia may select for EPAS1 gain-of-function variants. Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited hemoglobinopathy associated with chronic hypoxia and there are isolated reports of PPGL in patients with SCD, but a genetic link between the conditions has yet to be established.

Objective: To determine the phenotype and EPAS1 variant status of patients with PPGL and SCD.

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Background: Latent tuberculosis (TB) infection has been known as a seedbed for TB disease later in life. The interruption from latent TB infection to TB disease can be done through TB preventive treatment (TPT). In Cambodia, only 40.

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Background: Diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in children remain challenging, particularly in resource-limited settings. Healthcare providers and caregivers are critical in improving childhood TB screening and treatment. This study aimed to determine the barriers to childhood TB detection and management from the perspectives of healthcare providers and caregivers in Cambodia.

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Caffeic acid (3,4-dihydroxycinnamic acid) is a precursor for high-valued compounds with anticancer, antiviral activities, and anti-inflammatory making it an important substance in the food additive, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. Here, we developed an engineered Escherichia coli strain capable of directly producing high levels of caffeic acid from glucose. Tyrosine ammonia-lyase from Rhodotorula glutinis (RgTAL) and p-coumaric acid 3-hydroxylase from Saccharothrix espanaensis (SeC3H) were expressed.

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Aims: Micronodular thymoma with lymphoid stroma is a rare subtype of thymoma with characteristic clinical and pathological features. Some of the features, such as indolent nature, principally spindle morphology and no significant association to myasthenia gravis, are shared with type A and AB thymoma, which is closely linked to mutation. However, not much is known regarding the molecular genetics of this thymoma subtype.

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Background: To improve the health of the rural population in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), the government has emphasized a primary health care approach in the Health Sector Reform Strategy by 2025. The objective of the present study was to describe the health-related situations of remote rural villages of the Lao PDR to inform strategies for promoting primary health care in such villages.

Methods: Ten remote rural villages were purposively selected from the catchment areas of two health centers in the Xepon district, Savannakhet province.

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The delayed presentation and diagnosis of COVID-19 can contribute to spread of the disease to others but can also cause severe conditions. This study examined factors associated with delayed diagnosis among patients with COVID-19 in Okinawa, Japan. We used the data from 7125 reported cases of people living in Okinawa prefecture with symptom onset between September 2020 and March 2021.

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Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 29% of global tuberculosis (TB) and almost 47% of childhood TB cases were not reported to national TB programs in 2019. In Cambodia, most childhood TB cases were reported from health facilities supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in 2019. This study aimed to compare the healthcare providers' knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) on childhood TB case detection in operational districts (ODs) with high and low childhood TB case detection in Cambodia.

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Escherichia coli, the most studied prokaryote, is an excellent host for producing valuable chemicals from renewable resources as it is easy to manipulate genetically. Since the periplasmic environment can be easily controlled externally, elucidating how the localization of specific proteins or small molecules in the periplasm affects metabolism may lead to bioproduction development using E. coli.

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Background: Masaoka-Koga staging system remains the most frequently applied clinical staging system for thymic malignancy. However, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)/International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group (ITMIG) proposed a tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging system in 2014. This study aims to evaluate its impact on stage distribution, clinical implementation, and prognosis for thymomas.

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Aim: Recent study has revealed frequent GTF2I mutation in thymomas, with the frequency being highest in types A and AB, followed by B1, B2, B3 and thymic carcinoma. This has led to the conclusion that GTF2I mutation correlates with more indolent histology subtype and better prognosis. In our study, the GTF2I mutation was tested in thymic epithelial tumours to investigate the relation between the mutation status and histology subtype.

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