Publications by authors named "Kaji D"

Hospital wastewater is a reservoir for the environmental spread of clinically relevant antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and resistance genes. The aim of this study was to quantify total Escherichia coli, extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing E. coli, and carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPOs) and perform whole-genome sequencing-based characterization of these bacterial isolates in hospital wastewater samples collected bimonthly in Japan from January to November 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) editing is a prevalent post-transcriptional RNA modification within the brain. Yet, most research has relied on postmortem samples, assuming it is an accurate representation of RNA biology in the living brain. We challenge this assumption by comparing A-to-I editing between postmortem and living prefrontal cortical tissues.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a region of the brain that in humans is involved in the production of higher-order functions such as cognition, emotion, perception, and behavior. Neurotransmission in the PFC produces higher-order functions by integrating information from other areas of the brain. At the foundation of neurotransmission, and by extension at the foundation of higher-order brain functions, are an untold number of coordinated molecular processes involving the DNA sequence variants in the genome, RNA transcripts in the transcriptome, and proteins in the proteome.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates differences in adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing levels between postmortem and living prefrontal cortex tissues, revealing over 70,000 sites with higher editing in postmortem samples.
  • - Increased editing in postmortem tissues is associated with inflammation, hypoxia, and higher expression levels, particularly in non-neuronal cells, suggesting that such editing may reflect postmortem changes rather than accurate living brain activity.
  • - The research highlights that higher A-to-I editing in living tissues corresponds to evolutionarily conserved and developmentally relevant sites, indicating the complex regulatory roles of RNA editing in brain function and potential implications for neurological disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies other than those against HLA-A, -B, -C, and DRB1 are a risk factor for engraftment delay and failure, especially in cord blood transplantation (CBT). The primary objective of this study was to assess the impact of the presence of anti-HLA antibodies on CBT and to evaluate the utility of lymphocyte crossmatch testing or additional HLA-DP and -DQ typing of CB units in improving transplant outcomes. We retrospectively assessed the engraftment rates and transplant outcomes of 772 patients who underwent their first CBT at our hospital between 2012 and 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

An 80-year-old man with FLT3-TKD mutation-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) relapsed during consolidation therapy with venetoclax/azacitidine and was started on gilteritinib as salvage therapy. On the day after treatment initiation, febrile neutropenia was observed, but the fever resolved promptly after initiation of antimicrobial therapy. On the fifth day after completion of antimicrobial therapy, the patient experienced fever and watery diarrhea over 10 times a day, and a diagnosis of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) was made based on stool examination.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

BK virus (BKV) encephalitis is a rare complication after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). A 43-year-old woman with recurrent follicular lymphoma after autologous HSCT received allogeneic bone marrow transplantation from a human leukocyte antigen-matched related donor. Neutrophil engraftment was achieved on post-transplant day 13.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The number of umbilical cord blood transplantation (U-CBT) procedures has been growing annually, but little research has been done on long-term immune recovery after U-CBT. Infection risk is high in U-CBT recipients, and this can be partially attributed to immature immunocompetent cells in umbilical cord blood. In this study, we analyzed lymphocyte subset (LST) number to determine the long-term recovery timeline.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - A 53-year-old Japanese man developed gastric Burkitt's monomorphic post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (B-PTLD) 28 months after receiving a kidney transplant in Ethiopia, following complaints of gastric discomfort.
  • - Prior to the transplant, his serum tests for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) were negative, but a biopsy of the tumor revealed positive EBV-encoded small RNAs, indicating the onset of B-PTLD.
  • - The patient underwent intensive treatment with R-CHOP and DA-EPOCH-R chemotherapy, which has been effective so far, with no relapse reported, highlighting a rare case of successful B-PTLD management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Acquired point mutations in the ABL1 gene are widely recognized as a cause of Philadelphia chromosome-positive B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph B-ALL) that is resistant to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, whereas there are few reports about other types of the ABL1 mutation. Here, we report 2 cases of Ph B-ALL gaining a partial deletion type mutation of the ABL1 gene (Δ184-274 mutation), which resulted in truncation of the ABL1 molecule and loss of kinase activity. In both cases, the disease was refractory to multiple agents in the recurrent phase after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated how various factors affect blood levels of a liposomal form of amphotericin B (L-AMB) and its relationship to treatment efficacy and toxicity in patients with blood disorders.
  • 30 patients received L-AMB, and researchers measured plasma concentrations at specific times to assess factors like age, weight, and kidney function affecting these levels.
  • Findings indicated that higher blood concentrations of L-AMB were linked to patients with low potassium levels, but overall, blood concentration does not significantly correlate with treatment response or renal toxicity, suggesting minimal impact on pharmacodynamics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • T follicular helper cell lymphomas (TFHLs) show T-like properties and significant immune cell infiltration, but understanding of their tumor-cell diversity and immune profiles is limited.
  • A single-cell transcriptomic analysis revealed five distinct subclusters of tumor cells with varying T marker expressions, indicating clonal evolution driven by genetic changes.
  • Increased exhausted CD8 T cells and unique immune evasion tactics from various immune cell types contribute to a complex immunosuppressive environment, suggesting that this heterogeneity may be linked to treatment resistance in TFHL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of dental bleaching with hydrogen peroxide 35% on the surface below the attachments.

Methods: Twenty-four blocks of bovine incisors were equally divided into 2 groups. The control group comprises the enamel surface free of attachments, whereas the attachment group comprises the enamel surface with attachment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Mantle cell lymphoma is considered an aggressive B-cell lymphoma. The optimal induction regimen remains controversial as no randomized controlled trial has compared the efficacy of different induction therapies.

Method: Herein, we performed a retrospective analysis of the clinical characteristics of 10 patients who received induction treatment consisting of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) and rituximab, bendamustine, and cytarabine (R-BAC) at Toranomon Hospital between November 2016 and February 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The new isotope ^{241}U was synthesized and systematic atomic mass measurements of nineteen neutron-rich Pa-Pu isotopes were performed in the multinucleon transfer reactions of the ^{238}U+^{198}Pt system at the KISS facility. The present experimental results demonstrate the crucial role of the multinucleon transfer reactions for accessing unexplored neutron-rich actinide isotopes toward the N=152 shell gap in this region of nuclides.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Researchers developed a scoring system to quickly differentiate Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (SM) bacteremia from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) bacteremia in patients with hematological malignancies.
  • The scoring system identified key clinical indicators such as lack of PA colonization, antibiotic treatment failure, and central venous catheter use, each assigned specific scores based on their impact.
  • The prediction tool showed strong performance with a receiver operating characteristic curve area of 0.805, helping to ensure faster and more accurate treatment of infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bacterial meningitis is a rare but severe infectious complication after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. However, its clinical features were previously not clear. We reviewed the cases of 7 patients diagnosed with bacterial meningitis with a positive cerebrospinal fluid culture among 1147 patients who underwent cord blood transplantation (CBT) at our institution between September 2007 and September 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The autologous anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product, lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel), is administered at equal target doses of CD8 and CD4 CAR T cells. This analysis assessed safety and efficacy of liso-cel in Japanese patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) aggressive large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) in Cohort 3 of TRANSCEND WORLD (NCT03484702). Liso-cel (100 × 10 total CAR T cells) was administered 2-7 days after lymphodepletion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To identify the risk factors and incidence of subsequent cervical spine surgery in patients undergoing primary cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA). We analyzed the 2005-2015 NYS SPARCS database. Patients were longitudinally followed to determine the incidence of re-operation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a serious epidemiologic problem worldwide. In this study, we aimed to investigate recently isolated MRSA types and determine their characteristics.

Methods: We collected 164 strains isolated from 13 hospitals located in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Limited data are available on breakthrough fungemia, defined as fungemia that develops on administration of antifungal agents, in patients with hematological disorders. We reviewed the medical and microbiological records of adult patients with hematological diseases who had breakthrough fungemia between January 2008 and July 2019 at Toranomon Hospital and Toranomon Hospital Kajigaya in Japan. A total of 121 cases of breakthrough fungemia were identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There are few reports on the clinical course of proven invasive aspergillosis (IA) due to rare/cryptic species in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) recipients. We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of patients who underwent allo-HSCT between January 2012 and December 2018. Of 934 allo-HSCT recipients, 10 were diagnosed with proven IA and 61 were diagnosed with probable IA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF