An optimal promoter regulating cytokine transgene expression is crucial for safe and effective oncolytic virus immunotherapy.

In general, ensuring safety is the top priority of a new modality. Although oncolytic virus armed with an immune stimulatory transgene (OVI) showed some promise, the strategic concept of simultaneously achieving maximum effectiveness and minimizing side effects has not been fully explored. We generated a variety of survivin-responsive "conditionally replicating adenoviruses that can target and treat cancer cells with multiple factors (m-CRAs)" (Surv.

Analysis of senescence in gingival tissues and gingival fibroblast cultures.

Objective: To determine senescence-associated changes in the gingival tissues of aged mice and gingival fibroblast cultures.

Materials And Methods: The production of senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) and mRNA expression of p16, p21, interleukin (IL)-1β, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) were evaluated in gingival tissues, gingival fibroblasts of 10- and 20-month-old C57BL/6NCrl mice, and multiple-passaged and hydrogen peroxide-stimulated human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs). Changes in molecular expression in HGF cultures due to senescent cell elimination by the senolytic drug ABT-263 (Navitoclax) were analyzed.

Adenovirus Biology, Recombinant Adenovirus, and Adenovirus Usage in Gene Therapy.

Gene therapy is currently in the public spotlight. Several gene therapy products, including oncolytic virus (OV), which predominantly replicates in and kills cancer cells, and COVID-19 vaccines have recently been commercialized. Recombinant adenoviruses, including replication-defective adenoviral vector and conditionally replicating adenovirus (CRA; oncolytic adenovirus), have been extensively studied and used in clinical trials for cancer and vaccines.

[Development of an event scale for perceiving well-being in high school students].

Objective　This study aimed to develop an event scale for perceiving well-being in high school students (hereinafter called "the scale"). The scale includes ten items for one factor and measures the frequency with which students perceive experience-based well-being.Method　This study comprised two surveys.

Successful treatment of drug-resistant status epilepticus in an adult patient with Mowat-Wilson syndrome: A case report.

Mowat-Wilson syndrome (MWS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual disability, distinctive facial features, epilepsy, and multiple anomalies caused by heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in the zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox-2 gene (). Treatment choice is very important as patients with MWS because patients sometimes develop drug-resistant epilepsy. Here, we report the case of a 45-year-old male patient with MWS who developed drug-resistant status epilepticus after a 26-years seizure-free period while taking multiple anti-seizure medications.

[Mitral Valve Infective Endocarditis Complicated with Meningitis in a Patient with Atopic Dermatitis;Report of a Case].

Meningitis has not been described to the same extent as other neurological complications of infective endocarditis(IE). The appropriate selection and dosing of antibiotics for patients with IE and meningitis do not exist. Herein, we described an instructive surgical case of mitral valve endocarditis and meningitis caused in a patient with atopic dermatitis, that was successfully treated using a multi-disciplinary approach.

Clinical Features of Painful Ophthalmoplegia with a High-Intensity Ring Appearance around the Optic Nerve on MRI: A Case Series.

Objective: Painful ophthalmoplegia includes nonspecific magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) manifestations and various clinical features including orbital pain and cranial nerve palsies. Treatment for painful ophthalmoplegia remains controversial. The aim of this report was to describe detailed clinical features, MRI findings, treatments, and prognosis of patients with painful ophthalmoplegia.

Correlation Between Skeletal Muscle Mass Deficit and Poor Functional Outcome in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Background And Aims: To date, the correlation between sarcopenia, which exists before a stroke, and acute stroke outcome remains partially understood. This study aims to evaluate the skeletal muscle mass deficit using the bioelectrical impedance analysis in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Methods: We enrolled 164 geriatric patients with acute ischemic stroke (108 males and 56 females) who underwent the bioelectrical impedance analysis.

Simultaneous Development of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy and Cryptococcal Meningitis during Methotrexate and Infliximab Treatment.

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system caused by reactivation of the JC virus under an immunosuppressed state. This condition carries a high risk of cryptococcal meningitis. We herein report a 65-year-old woman who simultaneously developed PML and cryptococcal meningitis and presented with bilateral sixth nerve palsy.

Aceruloplasminemia with Abnormal Compound Heterozygous Mutations Developed Neurological Dysfunction during Phlebotomy Therapy.

Aceruloplasminemia is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder caused by ceruloplasmin gene mutations. The loss of ferroxidase activity of ceruloplasmin due to gene mutations causes a disturbance in cellular iron transport. We herein describe a patient with aceruloplasminemia, who presented with diabetes mellitus that was treated by insulin injections, liver hemosiderosis treated by phlebotomy therapy, and neurological impairment.

[DIC: an update on diagnosis and treatment].

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) was considered to be a fatal disease. However, it has recently been suggested that very early DIC protects the host against microthrombosis and infection localization. Therefore, early treatment of DIC may be contraindicated in patients with sepsis.

Leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein is a marker for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Objective: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunting can improve symptoms of elderly patients' idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH). However, adjunctive means for confirming the diagnosis remain unavailable. We have previously reported the specific increase of leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein (LRG) in iNPH CSF, and the present study investigates its potential clinical applications.

Hyperventilation and finger exercise increase venous-arterial Pco2 and pH differences.

Introduction: Since the invention of the pulse oximeter, physicians often or even routinely perform venous blood gas analysis (VBGA). However, it has not been generally agreed that the application of VBGA is practically meaningful in routine clinical situations such as in an ED.

Methods: We measured venous-arterial Pco(2) difference ((v-a)Pco(2)) and arterial-venous pH difference ((a-v)pH), and analyzed the physiological factors that affect these differences in healthy volunteers and hyperventilation patients.

Overproduction of IgE induces macrophage-derived chemokine (CCL22) secretion from basophils.

Macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC) CCL22 is a potent chemoattractant for Th2 cells and has been implicated in Th2-predominant allergic inflammation. In the present study, we demonstrated that basophils produce MDC in response to monomeric IgE. In trinitrophenyl (TNP)-IgE transgenic mice, serum levels of MDC were persistently higher than in wild-type mice.

Heat-capacity changes in host-guest complexation by Coulomb interactions in aqueous solution.

Heat-capacity changes (deltaC(p)0) were determined for the complexation of 1-alkanecarboxylates with protonated hexakis(6-amino-6-deoxy)-alpha-cyclodextrin (per-NH3(+)-alpha-CD) and heptakis(6-amino-6-deoxy)-beta-cyclodextrin (per-NH3(+)-beta-CD). DeltaC(p)0 decreased with an increase in the binding constant (K) and plateaued at K = 4000 M(-1). The complexes of 1-pentanoate, 1-hexanoate, and 1-heptanoate with per-NH3(+)-alpha-CD are classified as the host-guest system in which the size of the guest fits the CD cavity well.

Effect of heterologous expression of molecular chaperone DnaK from Tetragenococcus halophilus on salinity adaptation of Escherichia coli.

Molecular chaperone DnaK of halophilic Tetragenococcus halophilus JCM5888 was characterized under salinity conditions both in vitro and in vivo. The dnaK gene was cloned into an expression vector and transformed into Escherichia coli. The DnaK protein obtained from the recombinant E.

Molecular characterization and regulatory analysis of dnaK operon of halophilic lactic acid bacterium Tetragenococcus halophila.

We have cloned and characterized the dnaK operon of Tetragenococcus halophila JCM5888. Nucleotide sequence analysis of cloned fragments showed that the dnaK operon consists of four open reading frames with the organization hrcA-grpE-dnaK-dnaJ. Two regulatory CIRCE (Controlling Inverted Repeat of Chaperone Expression) elements were identified in the region up-stream of hrcA.

Regulation of QT indices mediated by autonomic nervous function in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Both the QT interval and QT dispersion in diabetic patients have been reported to increase with the progression of cardiac autonomic neuropathy and to have a prognostic value. We assessed the cardiac autonomic influences on QT indices using the measurements of baroreflex sensitivity, heart rate variability, and cardiac (123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphic findings in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Forty-two consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes (mean+/-SD: 54+/-10 years, 22 women and 20 men) were studied.

Uremic toxins overload accelerates renal damage in a rat model of chronic renal failure.

Uremic toxins have been suggested to promote progression of chronic renal failure by damaging tubular cells. Previous in vitro studies have indicated that some uremic toxins induce oxidative stress and activate NF-kappaB to upregulate plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in tubular cells. These mechanisms may promote tubulointerstitial fibrosis.

Gender differences in ventricular repolarization: terminal T wave interval was shorter in women than in men.

The incidence of sudden death is lower in women than in men, although women have a longer QT interval and are more prone to develop torsades de points than men. It has been recently proposed that the time interval between the apex and end of the T wave (Ta-e) represents the transmural dispersion of ventricular repolarization. Gender and age differences in Ta-e interval have not been fully assessed previously.

2-(1,3-Dithiolan-2-ylidene)-5-(1,3-dithian-2-ylidene)-1,3,4,6- tetrathiapentalene(DHDA-TTP), a hybrid of BDH-TTP and BDA-TTP, and its metallic cation-radical salts.

The synthesis and electrochemical properties of the DHDA-TTP donor, a hybrid of 2,5-bis(1,3-dithiolan-2-ylidene)-1,3,4,6-tetrathiapentalene (BDH-TTP) and 2,5-bis(1,3-dithian-2-ylidene)-1,3,4,6-tetrathiapentalene (BDA-TTP), has been investigated, and its ability to form metallic cation-radical salts is elucidated.