Metastasis to hypopharynx from epidermotropic metastatic malignant melanoma.

Previous reports proposed the concept and criteria of epidermotropic metastatic malignant melanoma (EMMM): (a) dermal involvement equal to or broader than the epidermal involvement, (b) atypical melanocytes within the dermis, (c) thinning of the epidermis, (d) widening of the papillary dermis with an epithelial collarette, and (e) vascular invasion of atypical melanocytes. However, it remains unclear whether EMMM also involves the mucosal epithelium. In this case, the patient was diagnosed with EMMM based on the histopathological findings of the patient's multiple skin lesions and clinical course.

The Management of Direct Oral Anticoagulants for Colorectal Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection: A Multicenter Observational Study.

Background: There is a lack of reports on the use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) during colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD).

Aims: We aimed to assess whether the use of DOACs is associated with a higher incidence of delayed bleeding (DB) after ESD.

Methods: A total of 4175 colorectal neoplasms in 3515 patients were dissected at our hospitals during study period.

Exploring Acetogenesis in Firmicutes: From Phylogenetic Analysis to Solid Medium Cultivation with Solid-Phase Electrochemical Isolation Equipments.

This study introduces a groundbreaking approach for the exploration and utilization of electrotrophic acetogens, essential for advancing microbial electrosynthesis systems (MES). Our initial focus was the development of Solid-Phase Electrochemical Isolation Equipment (SPECIEs), a novel cultivation method for isolating electrotrophic acetogens directly from environmental samples on a solid medium. SPECIEs uses electrotrophy as a selection pressure, successfully overcoming the traditional cultivation method limitations and enabling the cultivation of diverse microbial communities with enhanced specificity towards acetogens.

Temperature dependence of narrow-band UVB photoluminescence of silica-(Gd,Pr)POtransparent glass-ceramic phosphors.

The effect of temperature on photoluminescence (PL) due to theP→S(= 5/2, 7/2) transitions of Gdions was examined between 200 and 500 K for a sol-gel-derived silica-(Gd,Pr)POtransparent glass-ceramic phosphor with negligible concentration quenching under excitation into the 5d-4f transition of Prions at 220 nm. The intensity of the narrow-band ultraviolet B (UVB) PL at ∼313 nm associated with theP→Stransition slightly increased between 200 and 300 K, but was decreased to ∼86% and ∼62% of that at 300 K when temperature was raised to 400 and 500 K, respectively. The observed magnitude of the thermal quenching of the UVB PL intensity was agreed well with that recorded in a prototype narrow-band UVB lamp consisting of another silica-(Gd,Pr)POtransparent glass-ceramic window and a KrCl excimer lamp as a light source at 222 nm.

Synergistic effect of Ag decorated in-liquid plasma treated titanium dioxide catalyst for efficient electrocatalytic CO reduction application.

Recently, the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO) into a useful resource and its byproducts by electrocatalytic reduction has been studied. It is well known that CO can be selectively reduced by gold, lead, etc. supported on conductive carbon.

Future prospects for cancer immunotherapy using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived dendritic cells or macrophages.

Cancer immunotherapy is now the first-line treatment for many unresectable cancers. However, it remains far from a complete cure for all patients. Therefore, it is necessary to develop innovative methods for cancer immunotherapy, and immune cell therapy could be an option.

A Japanese case of melanoma of unknown origin with a rare BRAF mutation was successfully treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors.

Combination therapy with BRAF and MEK inhibitors (BRAF/MEKi) has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for BRAF mutated melanoma. Over 90% of the activating mutations are BRAF or BRAF changes. There are no reports of BRAF in Japanese patients with melanoma.

Increase in rear-end collision risk by acute stress-induced fatigue in on-road truck driving.

Increasing road crashes related to occupational drivers' deteriorating health has become a social problem. To prevent road crashes, warnings and predictions of increased crash risk based on drivers' conditions are important. However, in on-road driving, the relationship between drivers' physiological condition and crash risk remains unclear due to difficulties in the simultaneous measurement of both.

A mechanism of cooling hot tumors: Lactate attenuates inflammation in dendritic cells.

Turning non-inflamed (cold) tumors into inflamed (hot) tumors is important for maximizing the effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) against malignancies. We showed that lactate, a product of the Warburg effect, inhibited the efficacy of ICIs and suppressed IL-12 p40 expression in dendritic cells (DCs) through reducing NF-κB p65, p50, and c-Rel DNA-binding activity to the IL-12 p40 promoter. Additionally, lactate promoted the expression of early growth response protein 1 (EGR1), whose expression was increased in human invasive melanoma compared with non-invasive melanoma.

cAMP Signaling Pathway Prevents Dasatinib-Induced Vascular Hyperpermeability.

Dasatinib is a first-line pharmacotherapeutic treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). It is more effective than traditional treatments but causes adverse effects such as pleural effusion that limits its effective treatment cycle. Since pleural effusion is caused by vascular hyperpermeability and causes discontinuation of treatment with dasatinib, it is important to explore the mechanism of pleural effusion caused by dasatinib and how to prevent it.

Liquid biopsy-based analysis by ddPCR and CAPP-Seq in melanoma patients.

Background: The development of BRAF/MEK inhibitors in patients with metastatic melanoma harboring BRAF mutations has garnered attention for liquid biopsy to detect BRAF mutations in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) or next-generation sequencing methods.

Objective: To investigate gene mutations in tumor DNA and cfDNA collected from 43 melanoma patients and evaluate their potential as biomarkers.

Methods: ddPCR and CAncer Personalized Profiling by deep Sequencing (CAPP-Seq) techniques were performed to detect gene mutations in plasma cfDNA obtained from patients with metastatic melanoma.

Immunotherapy with 4-1BBL-Expressing iPS Cell-Derived Myeloid Lines Amplifies Antigen-Specific T Cell Infiltration in Advanced Melanoma.

We have established an immune cell therapy with immortalized induced pluripotent stem-cell-derived myeloid lines (iPS-ML). The benefits of using iPS-ML are the infinite proliferative capacity and ease of genetic modification. In this study, we introduced 4-1BBL gene to iPS-ML (iPS-ML-41BBL).

Nucleosome assembly protein 1-like 4, a new therapeutic target for proliferation and invasion of melanoma cells.

Background: Melanoma is one of the deadliest skin cancers. The treatment of advanced melanoma has been dramatically improved by immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapies. However, many patients still do not respond to these therapies.

Visualizing Worklog Based on Human Working Activity Recognition Using Unsupervised Activity Pattern Encoding.

Wearable motion sensor-based complex activity recognition during working hours has recently been studied to evaluate and thereby improve worker productivity. In the application of this technique to practical fields, one of the biggest challenges is performing time-consuming modeling tasks such as data labeling and hand-crafted feature extraction. One way to enable faster modeling is to decrease the time required for the manual tasks by making use of unlabeled motion datasets and the characteristics of complex activities.

Methyl-CpG binding domain protein 3: a new diagnostic marker and potential therapeutic target of melanoma.

Methyl-CpG binding domain protein 3 (MBD3) belongs to the methyl-CpG binding protein family. MBD3 facilitates the initiation of neural stem cell reprogramming. Melanoma originates in melanocytes derived from neural crest stem cells; therefore, we investigated the role of MBD3 in melanoma.

Matrin-3 plays an important role in cell cycle and apoptosis for survival in malignant melanoma.

Background: A previous study revealed that matrin-3 is an essential component in maintaining fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2)-mediated undifferentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs) using a proteomics approach. Malignant melanoma (MM) arises from melanocytes that originate from neural crest stem cells during development. Additionally, it has been reported that the expression of FGF2 is positively correlated with the progression of MM.