Nanoparticles (NPs) have been widely studied and applied in medical and pharmaceutical fields. When NPs enter the environment, they are covered with protein molecules to form the so-called "protein corona". Because NPs and proteins are comparable in size, the shape of NPs has a significant impact on NP-protein interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoluble B-cell maturation antigen (sBCMA) is overexpressed on multiple myeloma (MM) cells. We investigated whether sBCMA levels correlated with other myeloma tumor volume indicators and its utility in monitoring oligo-secretory/non-secretory (O-S/Non-S) MM. In 115 patients with newly diagnosed MM, sBCMA was compared with M-protein levels, bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs), circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and total diffusion volume (tDV; estimated by whole-body diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging) at diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRelapsed and/or refractory (R/R) primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) has a poor prognosis. A 57-year-old man diagnosed with PCNSL achieved a complete response by high-dose methotrexate-based chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT). The disease was not cured, so he was treated with the anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel after the third relapse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathogenic variants in ATP1A3, the gene encoding the α3 subunit of the Na+/K+-ATPase, cause alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC) and related disorders. Impairments in Na+/K+-ATPase activity are associated with the clinical phenotype. However, it remains unclear whether additional mechanisms are involved in the exaggerated symptoms under stressed conditions in patients with AHC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGaucher disease (GD) is a lysosomal storage disorder caused by a deficiency in the GBA1-encoded enzyme, β-glucocerebrosidase. Enzyme replacement therapy is ineffective for neuronopathic Gaucher disease (nGD). High-dose ambroxol has been administered as an alternative treatment for a group of patients with nGD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypomyelination of early myelinating structures (HEMS) has recently been defined as a new genetic disorder accompanied by clinical and MR imaging characteristics. However, no studies have focused on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) findings of HEMS. We would like to propose a "sheep sign," which is formed by DWI hyperintensity in the medial medullary lamina along with alternating high-low-high (HLH) intensity stripes in the posterior limb of the internal capsule.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroglia play versatile roles in progression of and protection against neuroinflammatory diseases. Little is known, however, about the mechanisms underlying the diverse reactivity of microglia to inflammatory conditions. We investigated how human induced microglia-like (iMG) cells respond to innate immune ligands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDouble minute chromosomes (dmin) are small, acentric, and extrachromosomal fragments that frequently mediate oncogene amplification and induce rapid disease progression with poor prognosis, although they are infrequent in myeloid neoplasms. An 81-year-old woman with anemia and thrombocytopenia was admitted to our hospital. Bone marrow examination showed 54.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVitamin deficiencies are an emerging concern in the management of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Particular attention is required for recognizing the variable signs caused by unbalanced food intakes. We herein report two patients with multiple vitamin deficiencies who needed critical care showing different prognoses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemiconductor nanocrystals (SNCs) are an essential optical tool in life sciences. Application of SNCs to living systems requires that their surfaces be covered with biocompatible molecules. The surface capping of SNCs by glutathione (GSH) is an effective means to prepare biocompatible SNCs and involves replacement of the initial surface ligands with GSH.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvans syndrome presents as concurrent autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most frequent autoimmune disorder associated with Evans syndrome. We herein report a case of new-onset Evans syndrome associated with SLE after BNT162b2 mRNA coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in a 53-year-old woman.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis technical note discloses our implementation of a six degree-of-freedom (DOF) high-precision robotic phantom on a commercially available industrial robot manipulator. These manipulators are designed to optimize their set point tracking accuracy as it is the most important performance metric for industrial manipulators. Their in-house controllers are tuned to suppress its error less than a few tens of micrometers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLiquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) plays an important role in a variety of biological processes and is also associated with protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases. Quantification of LLPS is necessary to elucidate the mechanism of LLPS and the subsequent aggregation process. In this study, we showed that ataxin-3, which is associated with Machado-Joseph disease, exhibits LLPS in an intracellular crowding environment mimicked by biopolymers, and proposed that a single droplet formed in LLPS can be quantified using Raman microscopy in a label-free manner.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA cubic quadruple perovskite oxide CeMnCrO has been synthesized under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions of 8 GPa and 1273 K. The X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals that the Ce ions are in a trivalent state, as represented by the ionic model of CeMnCrO. The magnetic study demonstrates three independent antiferromagnetic transitions attributed to Ce (∼10 K), Mn (46 K), and Cr (133 K) ions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Exp Med Biol
April 2021
Semiconductor nanocrystals (SNCs) are a nano-sized inorganic material. Due to the quantum confinement effect, these crystals exhibit unique optical and electrical properties. This chapter focuses on biological applications of SNCs, ranging from in vitro single-molecule tracking to in vivo fluorescence imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This study aimed to develop a six degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) robotic moving phantom for evaluating the dosimetric impact of intrafraction rotation during respiratory-gated radiotherapy with real-time tumor monitoring in the lung.
Materials And Methods: Fifteen patients who had undergone respiratory-gated stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) with the SyncTraX system for lung tumors were enrolled in this study. A water-equivalent phantom (WEP) was set at the tip of the robotic arm.
Environmental factors have been suspected to have effects on the development of Kawasaki disease. However, the associations have been conflicting. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of air pollution, weather conditions, and epidemic infections on the risks for Kawasaki disease in Japan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, we assess a developed novel dynamic moving phantom system that can reproduce patient three-dimensional (3D) tumor motion and patient anatomy, and perform patient-specific quality assurance (QA) of respiratory-gated radiotherapy using SyncTraX. Three patients with lung cancer were enrolled in a study. 3D printing technology was adopted to obtain individualized lung phantoms using CT images.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There will probably be an exponential increase in the number of seniors suffering from dementia, as aging is the greatest risk factor for this disease. Therefore, neuropsychological tests to assessing dementia are likely to play an increasingly important role for medical services in Japan. This study developed and evaluated the usefulness of a training program on neuropsychological tests aimed at promoting the understanding of testers with regard to the cognitive functions and communication required in the neuropsychological testing process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe cell nucleus is a three-dimensional, dynamic organelle organized into subnuclear compartments such as chromatin and nucleoli. The structure and function of these compartments are maintained by diffusion and interactions between related factors as well as by dynamic and structural changes. Recent studies using fluorescent microscopic techniques suggest that protein factors can access and are freely mobile in heterochromatin and in mitotic chromosomes, despite their densely packed structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present note addresses the development of a lung tumor position predictor to be used in dynamic tumor tracking radiotherapy, abbreviated as DTT-RT. As there exists 50-500 ms positioning lag in the control of the multi-leaf collimator (MLC) of commercial medical linear accelerators, prediction of future lung tumor position with sufficiently long prediction horizon is inevitable for the successful implementation of DTT-RT. The present article proposes a lung tumor position predictor, which is classified as a nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous input (NARX).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe cell nucleus is three-dimensionally and dynamically organized by nuclear components with high molecular density, such as chromatin and nuclear bodies. The structure and functions of these components are represented by the diffusion and interaction of related factors. Recent studies suggest that the nucleolus can be assessed using various protein probes, as the probes are highly mobile in this organelle, although it is known that they have a densely packed structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF