Publications by authors named "Kasai K"

Dendritic spine formation/maintenance is highly dependent on actin cytoskeletal dynamics, which is regulated by small GTPases Rac1 and Cdc42 through their downstream p21-activated kinase/LIM-kinase-I/cofilin pathway. ARHGEF7, also known as ß-PIX, is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Rac1 and Cdc42, thereby activating Rac1/Cdc42 and the downstream pathway, leading to the upregulation of spine formation/maintenance. We found that STIL, one of the primary microcephaly gene products, is associated with ARHGEF7 in dendritic spines and that knockdown of resulted in a significant reduction in dendritic spines in neurons both in vitro and in vivo.

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The latest World Health Organization (WHO) classification of central nervous system tumors (WHO2021/5th) has incorporated molecular information into the diagnosis of each brain tumor type including diffuse glioma. Therefore, an artificial intelligence (AI) framework for learning histological patterns and predicting important genetic events would be useful for future studies and applications. Using the concept of multiple-instance learning, we developed an AI framework named GLioma Image-level and Slide-level gene Predictor (GLISP) to predict nine genetic abnormalities in hematoxylin and eosin sections: , , mutations, promoter mutations, homozygous deletion (CHD), amplification (amp), 7 gain/10 loss (7+/10-), 1p/19q co-deletion, and promoter methylation.

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Lumbar epidural anesthesia is widely used for labor epidural analgesia (LEA), but it often results in insufficient analgesia in the sacral region. We report a case where we performed LEA using lumbar epidural anesthesia, and an asymptomatic sacral perineural cyst was considered the potential cause of inadequate analgesia in the sacral region. A 33-year-old primigravida was admitted with premature rupture of membranes.

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Background: Schools are central places for adolescent social lives, which is a major factor greatly affecting adolescent mental health; school climate (i.e. quality of the school social environments) can be a proximal social determinant for adolescent mental health.

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: To provide more effective pregraduate patient safety education, understanding medical students' perceptions of patient safety before pregraduate patient safety education is necessary. Therefore, we conducted this study to examine patient safety awareness among medical students at the time of admission and compare it with that among controls. : In the 2019 academic year, 132 medical school freshmen enrolled at Teikyo University and 166 age-matched, non-medical students enrolled at an affiliated institution within the Teikyo University organization were surveyed using an anonymous and self-administered questionnaire.

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An anomalous pattern of structural covariance has been reported in schizophrenia, which has been suggested to represent connectome changes during brain maturation and neuroprogressive processes. It remains unclear whether similar differences exist in a clinical high-risk state for psychosis, and if they are associated with a prodromal phenotype and/or later psychosis onset. This multicenter magnetic resonance imaging study cross-sectionally examined structural covariance in a large at-risk mental state (ARMS) sample with different outcomes.

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Exploring complex topological structures in condensed matter has shown promising applications in nanotechnology. Although polar topologies such as chiral vortices and skyrmions have been observed in ferroelectric heterostructures, their existence in simple systems has posed challenges due to the absence of intrinsic noncollinear interaction (like Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in ferromagnetics). Here, we demonstrate that a nanoindentation mechanically switches local polarizations to stable polar topologies, including skyrmions, within a room-temperature PbTiO thin film via the flexoelectric effect as a noncollinear (Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-like) driving force using phase-field simulations.

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Mismatch negativity (MMN) has gained attention as a biomarker for psychosis and a translational intermediate phenotype in animal models of psychosis, including rodents and non-human primates. MMN has been linked to global functioning (Global Assessment of Functioning [GAF] score) and prognosis (psychosis onset or remission), suggesting that MMN reflects activities beyond auditory processing alone. This review examines the 45-year history of MMN from the perspective of psychiatric researchers and discusses current advances in computational and translational research on MMN, summarizing the current understanding of the MMN generation mechanism.

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The E2 protein of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is a known protective antigen and a major target for DNA vaccines. DNA vaccines have various advantages; however, their immunogenicity needs to be enhanced by using adjuvants or drug delivery systems. In this study, we used mouse lysosome-associated membrane protein 1 (mLAMP1) as a molecular adjuvant and developed a DNA vaccine encoding an mLAMP1-BVDV E2 chimeric protein (pVax-mLAMP1-E2).

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates the link between rare copy number variations (CNVs) in synaptic genes and bipolar disorder (BD) in a Japanese population, using genome hybridization techniques on nearly 2,000 BD patients and 2,760 controls.
  • - Results indicate a strong association between the RNF216 gene and BD, with significant findings also related to postsynaptic membrane components, suggesting these genetic factors contribute to BD risk.
  • - The findings enhance understanding of BD's genetic underpinnings, highlighting the importance of CNVs in gene regions that may influence the disorder's development.
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  • Aberrant salience processing is a potential mechanism that might explain psychiatric symptoms in schizophrenia, as seen in abnormal gaze patterns when individuals view images.
  • A study involving 1012 participants compared gaze behaviors, revealing that individuals with schizophrenia had gaze trajectories influenced more by visual salience than healthy individuals, particularly in orientation salience.
  • The research also indicated that abnormal salience processing varies across different psychiatric disorders, with schizophrenia showing the strongest effects, followed by bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder, linking salience abnormalities to the severity of psychotic symptoms.
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  • Emerging polar skyrmion crystals (SkX) show potential for tech applications due to their special electric dipole structures and unique behavior as quasiparticles.
  • The study reveals that SkX dislocations have an unusually elongated core structure, contradicting established theories of dislocation elasticity.
  • Phase-field simulations indicate that the behavior of skyrmions changes from rigid to soft based on electric field and temperature, highlighting new mechanics and functionalities within SkX.
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  • Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex lifelong condition, and this study aimed to create a classifier using resting-state fMRI from a large group of 730 Japanese adults to identify its neural and biological features.
  • The developed classifier showed effectiveness in differentiating individuals with ASD from neurotypical controls across various countries, including the US and Belgium, and it also applied to children and adolescents.
  • Importantly, the study found that the classifier identified crucial functional connections related to social interaction difficulties and neurotransmitter activity, and it linked ASD with similar neurobiological factors seen in ADHD and schizophrenia, enhancing understanding of related mental health disorders.
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Serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR), a variable number of tandem repeats in the promoter region of serotonin transporter gene, is classified into short (S) and long (L) alleles. Initial case-control association studies claiming the risks of the S allele in depression and anxiety were not completely supported by recent studies. However, most studies, especially those on East Asian populations, have overlooked the complexity of 5-HTTLPR, which involves multiple different alleles with distinct functional properties.

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Sections stained in periodic acid-Schiff (PAS), periodic acid-methenamine silver (PAM), hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), and Masson's trichrome (MT) stain with minimal morphological discordance are helpful for pathological diagnosis in renal biopsy. Here, we propose an artificial intelligence-based re-stainer called PPHM-GAN (PAS, PAM, H&E, and MT-generative adversarial networks) with multi-stain to multi-stain transformation capability. We trained three GAN models on 512 × 512-pixel patches from 26 training cases.

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Diagnosing the cause of death can be challenging, particularly for patients with no prior history of visits to the treating hospital. We encountered a case involving a 76-year-old male who was discovered in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest at his home and subsequently declared deceased in our hospital due to severe pneumonia. He had exhibited symptoms of fever over 37°C and severe coughing for several days.

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Objective: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) has demonstrated efficacy for both insomnia and depression. With a tenfold increase in expected participant numbers, we aimed to update the systematic review and meta-analysis of CBT-I for major depressive disorders (MDD).

Methods: Multiple databases were searched up to March 27th 2024 to include all randomized controlled trials examining CBT-I among adults with MDD.

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Article Synopsis
  • Neuroimaging databases for neuro-psychiatric disorders provide valuable data for researchers to explore diseases, develop machine learning models, and redefine understanding of these conditions.* ! -
  • A review identified 42 global MRI datasets totaling 23,293 samples from patients with various disorders, including mood, developmental, schizophrenia, Parkinson's, and dementia.* ! -
  • Improved governance and addressing technical issues of these databases are essential for sharing data across borders, aiding in understanding, diagnosing, and creating early interventions for neuro-psychiatric disorders.* !
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  • Duplication of chromosome 15q11-13 is linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and was studied in a mouse model known as 15q dup mice.
  • The study involved behavioral tests for anxiety and social interactions, alongside MRI scans, to explore the connection between brain structure and behavior in these mice.
  • Findings showed that 15q dup mice exhibited higher anxiety levels and varied social behaviors, with a correlation found between lower sociability and reduced gray matter in a specific brain region, highlighting the complexities of ASD's behavioral diversity.
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SATB2 has been reported to be highly specific for lower gastrointestinal tract tumors. On the basis of its ileum-colon conversion effects, which involve the activation of colonic genes in cooperation with CDX2 and HNF4A, we hypothesized that SATB2 and CDX2 might define the characteristics of colorectal cancers (CRCs). In the present study, the clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical characteristics of 269 CRCs were analyzed according to SATB2 and CDX2 expression.

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Discrepancies in self-rated and observer-rated depression severity may underlie the basis for biological heterogeneity in depressive disorders and be an important predictor of outcomes and indicators to optimize intervention strategies. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this discrepancy have been understudied. This study aimed to examine the brain networks that represent the neural basis of the discrepancy between self-rated and observer-rated depression severity using resting-state functional MRI.

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Although many cross-sectional studies showed that psychotic experiences (PEs) and dissociation were closely related, the longitudinal association between them remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to examine the longitudinal association of these two symptoms throughout adolescence, under the hypothesis that these two symptoms are bidirectionally associated. Data were obtained from a population-based cohort, the Tokyo Teen Cohort study (TTC; N = 3171).

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