Functional analysis of a S-adenosylmethionine-insensitive methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase identified in methionine-accumulating yeast mutants.

Essential amino acids (EAAs) are important for the maintenance of brain functions. Therefore, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that accumulates EAAs would help elderly people ingest appropriate levels of EAAs, which in turn could slow neurodegeneration, extend the healthy lifespan, and improve quality of life. Here, we isolated 2 mutant strains, ETH-80 and ETH-129, that accumulate the EAA methionine.

[Digital transformation for the prevention of delirium in older adults with dementia: Development of simulation intervention using virtual reality and augmented reality programs and its subjective effects].

Purpose: We aimed to develop a simulation program for physicians and nurses involved in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) treatment and care from the perspective of these professionals and older adults with dementia who developed delirium, and to test the effectiveness of the program.

Methods: effectiveness of the program was analyzed through free-response statements from 67 nurses (84.8%) and 12 doctors (15.

Giant-cell arteritis on photon-counting detector CT: A case report.

A 77-year-old woman presented to our hospital with a 2-week history of fever, headache, and induration along the bilateral superficial temporal arteries (STAs). The color Doppler ultrasonography of the STA showed a hypoechoic mural thickening surrounding a residual color flow. A contrast-enhanced photon-counting detector (PCD) CT demonstrated mural thickening and stenosis of the bilateral STAs.

Safety and efficacy of bronchial thermoplasty in refractory asthma with severe obstructive respiratory dysfunction.

Background: Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a recently developed non-pharmacological therapy for refractory bronchial asthma. Although increasing evidence has suggested that BT is effective for various phenotypes of severe asthma, its safety and efficacy in patients with severe irreversible impaired lung function are unclear.

Objectives: To assess the efficacy and safety of BT in patients with refractory asthma, including patients with a severely impaired forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1).

Preassembly of specific Gβγ subunits at GABA receptors through auxiliary KCTD proteins accelerates channel gating.

GABA receptors (GBRs) are G protein-coupled receptors for GABA, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. GBRs regulate fast synaptic transmission by gating Ca and K channels via the Gβγ subunits of the activated G protein. It has been demonstrated that auxiliary GBR subunits, the KCTD proteins, shorten onset and rise time and increase desensitization of receptor-induced K currents.

Functional analysis of feedback inhibition-insensitive aspartate kinase identified in a threonine-accumulating mutant of .

Humans and mammals need to ingest essential amino acids (EAAs) for protein synthesis. In addition to their importance as nutrients, EAAs are involved in brain homeostasis. However, elderly people are unable to efficiently consume EAAs from their daily diet due to reduced appetite and variations in the contents of EAAs in foods.

Optical Biopsies Using Probe-Based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy for Autoimmune Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis.

Introduction: Increasing numbers of cases of mild asymptomatic pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) are being reported with the recent increase in chest computed tomography (CT). Bronchoscopic diagnosis of mild PAP is challenging because of the patchy distribution of lesions, which makes it difficult to obtain sufficient biopsy samples. Additionally, the pathological findings of mild PAP, particularly those that differ from severe PAP, have not been fully elucidated.

High-dimensional analysis of T-cell profiling variations following belimumab treatment in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: This study sought to elucidate the molecular impacts of belimumab (BEL) treatment on T-cell immune profiling in SLE.

Methods: We used mass cytometry with 25 marker panels for T-cell immune profiling in peripheral blood T cells (CD3+) from 22 patients with BEL-treated SLE and 20 controls with non-BEL-treated SLE. An unsupervised machine-learning clustering, FlowSOM, was used to identify 39 T-cell clusters (TCLs; TCL01-TCL39).

Hydrogen transfer reactions via organic radicals in gamma-irradiated chibaite.

Chibaite, a silica-framework structure with cage-like voids occupied by gaseous molecules, was found in marine sediments. Its formation age could be evaluated using electron spin resonance (ESR) if the radicals formed by natural radiation can be assumed to accumulate over time. To investigate whether hydrogen transfer reactions, where organic radicals withdraw hydrogen atoms from other molecules in adjacent cages, occur in chibaite and affect ESR dating, gamma-irradiated chibaite was measured by ESR.

Generation and application of endogenously floxed alleles for cell-specific knockout in zebrafish.

The zebrafish is amenable to a variety of genetic approaches. However, lack of conditional deletion alleles limits stage- or cell-specific gene knockout. Here, we applied an existing protocol to establish a floxed allele for gata2a but failed to do so due to off-target integration and incomplete knockin.

Nasal Septal Perforation and Widespread Skin Lesions Caused by Mycobacterium chelonae Infection Mimicking Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis.

Mycobacterium chelonae, a rapidly growing mycobacterium found in the natural environment, is known to cause localized lesions in the skin, soft tissue, and bone through traumatic inoculation, but widespread lesions are uncommon. We herein report an immunocompromised 79-year-old man suspected of having polyangiitis granulomatosis due to weight loss, epistaxis, and nasal crusts with impending septal perforation who was subsequently diagnosed with mucocutaneous and bone disease caused by widespread M. chelonae infection.

Characterization of a new Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from banana stems and its mutant with l-leucine accumulation for awamori brewing.

We isolated a new strain of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 35a14, from banana stems in Okinawa. This strain did not belong to any industrial yeast groups in a phylogenetic tree and produced high levels of alcohol. Furthermore, awamori, an Okinawa's traditional distilled alcoholic beverage, brewed with an l-leucine overproducing mutant derived from 35a14 showed a high concentration of isoamyl acetate.

CTLA-4-Ig internalizes CD80 in fibroblast-like synoviocytes from chronic inflammatory arthritis mouse model.

CD80 interact with CD28 and CTLA-4 on antigen-presenting cells, and function in the co-stimulatory signaling that regulates T cell activity. CTLA-4-Ig is used to treat RA by blocking co-stimulatory signaling. Chronic inflammatory arthritis was induced in D1BC mice using low-dose arthritogenic antigens and treated with CTLA-4-Ig.

Lung evolution in vertebrates and the water-to-land transition.

A crucial evolutionary change in vertebrate history was the Palaeozoic (Devonian 419-359 million years ago) water-to-land transition, allowed by key morphological and physiological modifications including the acquisition of lungs. Nonetheless, the origin and early evolution of vertebrate lungs remain highly controversial, particularly whether the ancestral state was paired or unpaired. Due to the rarity of fossil soft tissue preservation, lung evolution can only be traced based on the extant phylogenetic bracket.

Formation of three-dimensional cell aggregates expressing lens-specific proteins in various cultures of human iris-derived tissue cells and iPS cells.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are widely used as a research tool in regenerative medicine and embryology. In studies related to lens regeneration in the eye, iPS cells have been reported to differentiate into lens epithelial cells (LECs); however, to the best of our knowledge, no study to date has described their formation of three-dimensional cell aggregates. Notably, studies in newts have revealed that iris cells in the eye can dedifferentiate into LECs and regenerate a new lens.

Baseline clinical features predicting macrophage activation syndrome in patients with systemic adult-onset Still's disease receiving interleukin-6 inhibitor treatment.

Aim: Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), a severe complication of systemic adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD), has been reported to occur during interleukin-6 (IL-6) inhibitor treatment. However, predictors for MAS development are unknown. Therefore, this study investigated predictive features for MAS development after starting IL-6 inhibitor treatment in systemic AOSD patients.

Functional Analysis of Feedback Inhibition-Insensitive Variants of -Acetyl Glutamate Kinase Found in Sake Yeast Mutants with Ornithine Overproduction.

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, -acetyl glutamate kinase (NAGK), which catalyzes the phosphorylation of -acetyl glutamate to form -acetyl glutamyl-5-phosphate, is one of the rate-limiting enzymes in the ornithine and arginine biosynthetic pathways. NAGK activity is strictly regulated via feedback inhibition by the end product, arginine. We previously reported that the Thr340Ile variant of NAGK was insensitive to arginine feedback inhibition and that the interaction between Lys336 and Thr340 in NAGK may be important for arginine recognition.

Cryptic Oxidative Transamination of Hydroxynaphthoquinone in Natural Product Biosynthesis.

Pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes are a group of versatile enzymes that catalyze various reactions, but only a small number of them react with O. Here, we report an unprecedented PLP-dependent enzyme, NphE, that catalyzes both transamination and two-electron oxidation using O as an oxidant. Our intensive analysis reveals that NphE transfers the l-glutamate-derived amine to 1,3,6,8-tetrahydroxynaphthalene-derived mompain to form 8-amino-flaviolin (8-AF) via a highly conjugated quinonoid intermediate that is reactive with O.

Availability of Home sleep apnea test equipment LS-140 on a comparison with Polysomnography.

Objective: The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in Japan is 9% among males and 3% among females. Up to 2.5 million patients are estimated to suffer from the disease, but limited number of facilities are capable of carrying out polysomnography (PSG), leaving more than 80% of these individuals are undiagnosed.

High-Level Production of Isoleucine and Fusel Alcohol by Expression of the Feedback Inhibition-Insensitive Threonine Deaminase in .

A variety of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae with intracellular accumulation of isoleucine (Ile) would be a promising strain for developing a distinct kind of sake, a traditional Japanese alcoholic beverage, because Ile-derived volatile compounds have a great impact on the flavor and taste of fermented foods. In this study, we isolated an Ile-accumulating mutant (strain K9-I48) derived from a diploid sake yeast of S. cerevisiae by conventional mutagenesis.