Publications by authors named "Fukuzawa K"

A 17-year-old patient presented with frequent palpitations, where the tachycardia was not sustained and could not be induced, making it impossible to pinpoint the earliest activation site using the activation map. However, by utilizing a dual-chamber electrogram-based pace mapping technique, we successfully identified the origin and achieved effective treatment.

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Background: Several studies found that early pancreatic atrophy detected by computed tomography (CT) within 6 months was associated with a high incidence of diabetes in patients with type-1 autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) receiving steroid therapy; however, no long-term follow-up studies have been performed.

Aim: To investigate pancreatic volume (PV) changes using three dimensional (3D)-CT volumetry and their relationship with IgG4 and diabetes in patients with AIP.

Methods: This retrospective study included 33 patients with type-1 AIP receiving steroid therapy.

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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is strongly associated with strokes, heart failure, and increased mortality. This study aims to identify the monocyte-macrophage heterogeneity and interactions of these cells with non-immune cells, and to identify functional biomarkers in patients with AF. Therefore, we assess the single cell landscape of left atria (LA), using a combination of single cell and nucleus RNA-seq.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The frozen domain (FD) approximation using the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method allows for efficient partial geometry optimization of large biomolecular systems, including protein-ligand complexes.
  • - A new variation called the frozen domain and partial dimer (FDPD) method was developed, which significantly reduces computational time for geometry optimization compared to conventional methods, achieving notable improvements in systems such as the β-adrenergic receptor and estrogen receptor.
  • - The FDPD method enhanced the understanding of structure-activity relationships in drug design, as it improved the correlation between ligand binding energy and biological activity by optimizing structures more effectively.
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  • * The research utilizes the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method on a dataset comprising over 5,000 protein structures from the SCOP2 database, resulting in more than 200 million inter-fragment interaction energies.
  • * Multiple basis sets were applied to improve accuracy in energy calculations, and the total dataset size is approximately 6.7 GB, which can aid in functional analyses and machine learning applications related to protein properties.
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The effects of glass bead size in the conical space of flow-through cells on the dissolution profiles were investigated in a USP apparatus 4. Dissolution tests of disintegrating and non-disintegrating tablets in flow-through dissolution systems were performed using semi-high precision glass beads with diameters ranging from 0.5 mm to 1.

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The ribonuclease T1 family, including RNase Po1 secreted by , exhibits antitumor activity. Here, we resolved the Po1/guanosine-3'-monophosphate complex (3'GMP) structure at 1.75 Å.

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Article Synopsis
  • Participants from 22 research groups utilized various methods, including periodic DFT-D methods, machine learning models, and empirical force fields to assess crystal structures generated from standardized sets.
  • The findings indicate that DFT-D methods generally aligned well with experimental results, while one machine learning approach showed significant promise; however, the need for more efficient research methods was emphasized due to resource consumption.
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A seventh blind test of crystal structure prediction was organized by the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre featuring seven target systems of varying complexity: a silicon and iodine-containing molecule, a copper coordination complex, a near-rigid molecule, a cocrystal, a polymorphic small agrochemical, a highly flexible polymorphic drug candidate, and a polymorphic morpholine salt. In this first of two parts focusing on structure generation methods, many crystal structure prediction (CSP) methods performed well for the small but flexible agrochemical compound, successfully reproducing the experimentally observed crystal structures, while few groups were successful for the systems of higher complexity. A powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) assisted exercise demonstrated the use of CSP in successfully determining a crystal structure from a low-quality PXRD pattern.

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  • Hemothorax from right intercostal artery (ICA) injury behind the left atrium (LA) is a serious complication in pulmonary vein isolation procedures, and this study aimed to explore their anatomical relationship.
  • A total of 100 patients were examined through cardiac computed tomography, focusing on the distance between the LA and right ICAs, finding an average of 3.7 right ICAs with varying closeness, particularly shorter in patients with atrial fibrillation.
  • The study concludes that understanding the proximity of right ICAs to the LA is crucial, especially in individuals with enlarged LA or thinner chest cavities, as they are at higher risk for ICA injury during surgery.
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Aims: Several algorithms can differentiate inferior axis premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) originating from the right side and left side on 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs). However, it is unclear whether distinguishing the origin should rely solely on PVC or incorporate sinus rhythm (SR). We compared the dual-rhythm model (incorporating both SR and PVC) to the PVC model (using PVC alone) and quantified the contribution of each ECG lead in predicting the PVC origin for each cardiac rotation.

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Article Synopsis
  • The fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method efficiently analyzes large biomolecules by breaking them into smaller fragments and calculating their interaction energies, which helps understand molecular recognition.
  • A graphical user interface was developed to facilitate manual fragmentation of small molecules and enhance the workflow for FMO calculations in the Molecular Operating Environment (MOE).
  • The study demonstrated effective fragmentation and interaction analyses for complex cases like cysteine-ligand bonding in SARS-CoV-2 and metal coordination in peptides, indicating potential for advancements in drug discovery.
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Small-molecule compounds that elicit mRNA-selective translation repression have attracted interest due to their potential for expansion of druggable space. However, only a limited number of examples have been reported to date. Here, we show that desmethyl desamino pateamine A (DMDA-PatA) represses translation in an mRNA-selective manner by clamping eIF4A, a DEAD-box RNA-binding protein, onto GNG motifs.

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Sodium fluoride (NaF) is a fluoride application recommended by the World Health Organization for its efficacy and safety in preventing dental caries. Gingival fibroblasts that constitute the majority of connective tissue cells play a major role in wound healing via the expression of growth factors, including fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β). This study examined the effect of NaF mouthwash on FGF-2 and TGF-β expression in human gingival fibroblasts (HGnFs).

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Autophagy induction in cancer is involved in cancer progression and the acquisition of resistance to anticancer agents. Therefore, autophagy is considered a potential therapeutic target in cancer therapy. In this study, we found that long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) have inhibitory effects on Atg4B, which is essential for autophagosome formation, through screening based on the pharmacophore of 21f, a recently developed Atg4B inhibitor.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how thermal atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation impacts the cardiac autonomic nervous system (CANS) by focusing on the effects during the ablation of the right superior pulmonary vein (RSPV) and its influence on the heart rate (HR) post-ablation.
  • Researchers evaluated 97 patients undergoing first-time thermal ablation, analyzing HR changes and anatomical factors through pre- and post-procedural electrocardiograms and cardiac CT measurements.
  • Results showed that 38.1% of patients experienced a significant HR increase after the procedure, with key predictors being the distance between the RSPV and superior vena cava (SVC) and the patient's age,
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The 88Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS2024) was held from Friday, March 8to Sunday, March 10in Kobe, Japan. The main theme of this 3-day meeting was "The Future of Cardiology: Challenges in Overcoming Cardiovascular Disease". As COVID-19 has been finally conquered, with revision of its categorization under the Infectious Disease Control Law and relaxation of infection prevention measures, it was once again possible to have face-to-face presentations and lively discussion.

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Our previous findings indicated that many respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) isolates are unstable at 4 °C compared to 20 °C. Some of the strains completely lose infectivity after 24 h at 4 °C. This study analyzed the inactivation process at 4 °C using a representative strain, RSV/Sendai/851/13.

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Ionic liquids (ILs) exhibit very diverse physicochemical properties, such as non-volatility, stability, and miscibility, which render them excellent candidate excipients for multi-purpose use. Six novel arginine (Arg)-based ILs were obtained using a one-step ultrasound method. Salt formation was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), Raman, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies.

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The formulation of active pharmaceutical ingredients involves discovering stable crystal packing arrangements or polymorphs, each of which has distinct pharmaceutically relevant properties. Traditional experimental screening techniques utilizing various conditions are commonly supplemented with in silico crystal structure prediction (CSP) to inform the crystallization process and mitigate risk. Predictions are often based on advanced classical force fields or quantum mechanical calculations that model the crystal potential energy landscape but do not fully incorporate temperature, pressure, or solution conditions during the search procedure.

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A 76-year-old man underwent distal pancreatectomy with celiac axis resection (DP-CAR) after preoperative chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer with celiac artery invasion. Although postoperative pancreatic leakage and ischemia-induced bile fistula developed, the patient's condition remained stable with good drainage. On postoperative Day 47, a pseudoaneurysm developed at the junction of the gastroduodenal artery and proper hepatic artery.

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In this study, we synthesized a family of novel ionic liquids (ILs) with meglumine (MGM) as cations and tartaric acid (TA), azelaic acid (AA), geranic acid (GA), and capric acid (CPA) as anions, using pharmaceutical additives via simple acid-base neutralization reactions. The successful synthesis was validated by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Thermal analysis using differential scanning calorimetry confirmed the glass transition temperature of MGM-ILs to be within the range of -43.

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