Extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Plesiomonas shigelloides isolated from the stool of a Japanese traveler returning from Rwanda: A case report.

A 21-year-old previously healthy Japanese woman visited an outpatient clinic because of abdominal pain, watery diarrhea, vomiting, and mild fever that had started on the previous day. She traveled to rural and urban areas of Rwanda and returned to Japan 3 days before. Stool culture yielded the Plesiomonas shigelloides strain TMCH301018, against which minimum inhibitory concentrations of cefotaxime and cefotaxime-clavulanate were 128 and ≤0.

sp. nov., a moderately thermophilic methanotroph of the family isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal field.

A novel aerobic methanotrophic bacterium, designated as strain IN45, was isolated from colonisation systems deployed at the Iheya North deep-sea hydrothermal field in the mid-Okinawa Trough. IN45 was a moderately thermophilic obligate methanotroph that grew only on methane or methanol at temperatures between 25 and 56 °C (optimum 45-50 °C). It was an oval-shaped, Gram-reaction-negative, motile bacterium with a single polar flagellum and an intracytoplasmic membrane system.

Multispecies Populations of Methanotrophic and Cultivation of a Likely Dominant Species from the Iheya North Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Field.

The clade is represented by uncultivated methanotrophic bacterial endosymbionts of deep-sea bathymodiolin mussels, but only a single free-living species has been cultivated to date. This study reveals the existence of free-living variants in the Iheya North deep-sea hydrothermal field in the mid-Okinawa Trough. A clade-targeted amplicon analysis of the particulate methane monooxygenase gene () detected 647 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) of the clade in microbial communities newly formed in colonization systems.

Dual energy metabolism of the Campylobacterota endosymbiont in the chemosynthetic snail Alviniconcha marisindica.

Some deep-sea chemosynthetic invertebrates and their symbiotic bacteria can use molecular hydrogen (H) as their energy source. However, how much the chemosynthetic holobiont (endosymbiont-host association) physiologically depends on H oxidation has not yet been determined. Here, we demonstrate that the Campylobacterota endosymbionts of the gastropod Alviniconcha marisindica in the Kairei and Edmond fields (kAlv and eAlv populations, respectively) of the Indian Ocean, utilize H in response to their physical and environmental H conditions, although the 16S rRNA gene sequence of both the endosymbionts shared 99.

Comparison of the Renoprotective Effect of Febuxostat for the Treatment of Hyperuricemia between Patients with and without Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Retrospective Observational Study.

Objective The effects of febuxostat therapy on hyperuricemia in patients with and without type 2 diabetes were compared in this retrospective observational study after pair-matching using the propensity scores. Methods In total, 160 patients with hyperuricemia were studied as the treated set, and the 155 subjects in whom the administration of febuxostat was not discontinued during the observation period were investigated in the full analysis. The study subjects were divided into two groups based on the style of initiation of febuxostat: initial and switching therapy from allopurinol administration.

SGLT2 inhibitors in the pipeline for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in Japan.

Introduction: Sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have been available for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Japan since April 2014. The prescription rate in Japan is low in comparison to Western countries. We summarize the results obtained from the phase 3 clinical trials and clinical studies involving Japanese T2DM patients.

Internal Tandem Duplication in FLT3 Attenuates Proliferation and Regulates Resistance to the FLT3 Inhibitor AC220 by Modulating p21Cdkn1a and Pbx1 in Hematopoietic Cells.

Internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations in the Fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) gene (FLT3-ITD) are associated with poor prognosis in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Due to the development of drug resistance, few FLT3-ITD inhibitors are effective against FLT3-ITD+ AML. In this study, we show that FLT3-ITD activates a novel pathway involving p21Cdkn1a (p21) and pre-B cell leukemia transcription factor 1 (Pbx1) that attenuates FLT3-ITD cell proliferation and is involved in the development of drug resistance.

Effect of dietary fibers on losartan uptake and transport in Caco-2 cells.

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of dietary fibers on the transport of losartan, an angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker, in small intestinal cells. Using Caco-2 cells in vitro, losartan uptake and transport were evaluated in the presence of various fibers (cellulose, chitosan, sodium alginate and glucomannan). Dietary fibers caused a decrease in the uptake of losartan, with chitosan causing a significant reduction.

Internal tandem duplication of FLT3 deregulates proliferation and differentiation and confers resistance to the FLT3 inhibitor AC220 by Up-regulating RUNX1 expression in hematopoietic cells.

Internal tandem duplication in the FLT3 gene (FLT3/ITD), which is found in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), causes resistance to FLT3 inhibitors. We found that RUNX1, a transcription factor that regulates normal hematopoiesis, is up-regulated in patients with FLT3/ITD(+) AML. While RUNX1 can function as a tumor suppressor, recent data have shown that RUNX1 is required for AML cell survival.

Flow Mediated Dilatation Is Reduced with the Progressive Stages of Glomerular Filtration Rate and Albuminuria in Type 2 Diabetic Patients without Coronary Heart Disease.

We aimed to clarify the usefulness of measuring the flow mediated dilatation (FMD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus without and with coronary heart disease (CHD). The FMD was measured in 480 patients with type 2 diabetes and in 240 nondiabetic subjects. The FMD was significantly lower in the subjects with CHD (n = 145, 5.

Anagliptin in the treatment of type 2 diabetes: safety, efficacy, and patient acceptability.

Anagliptin is a novel dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor that has been available in Japan since 2012. Because anagliptin is not generally used in countries other than Japan, there are only a small number of reports investigating the effects of anagliptin. In the present article, we review the safety and efficacy of anagliptin according to data obtained from preclinical trials and postmarketing studies.

Ex Vivo Expanded Allogeneic Mesenchymal Stem Cells With Bone Marrow Transplantation Improved Osteogenesis in Infants With Severe Hypophosphatasia.

Patients with severe hypophosphatasia (HPP) develop osteogenic impairment with extremely low alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, resulting in a fatal course during infancy. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiate into various mesenchymal lineages, including bone and cartilage. The efficacy of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for congenital skeletal and storage disorders is limited, and therefore we focused on MSCs for the treatment of HPP.

Internal tandem duplication mutations in FLT3 gene augment chemotaxis to Cxcl12 protein by blocking the down-regulation of the Rho-associated kinase via the Cxcl12/Cxcr4 signaling axis.

Internal tandem duplication mutations in the Flt3 gene (ITD-FLT3) enhance cell migration toward the chemokine Cxcl12, which is highly expressed in the therapy-protective bone marrow niche, providing a potential mechanism underlying the poor prognosis of ITD-FLT3(+) acute myeloid leukemia. We aimed to investigate the mechanisms linking ITD-FLT3 to increased cell migration toward Cxcl12. Classification of the expression of Cxcl12-regulated genes in ITD-FLT3(+) cells demonstrated that the enhanced migration of ITD-FLT3(+) cells toward Cxcl12 was associated with the differential expression of genes downstream of Cxcl12/Cxcr4, which are functionally distinct from those expressed in ITD-FLT3(-) cells but are independent of the Cxcr4 expression levels.

Psychrobium conchae gen. nov., sp. nov., a psychrophilic marine bacterium isolated from the Iheya North hydrothermal field.

A novel psychrophilic, marine, bacterial strain designated BJ-1(T) was isolated from the Iheya North hydrothermal field in the Okinawa Trough off Japan. Cells were Gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, aerobic chemo-organotrophs and motile by means of a single polar flagellum. Growth occurred at temperatures below 16 °C, with the optimum between 9 and 12 °C.

Effects of switching from prandial premixed insulin therapy to basal plus two times bolus insulin therapy on glycemic control and quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Background: The effects of switching from prandial premixed insulin therapy (PPT) injected three times a day to basal plus two times bolus insulin therapy (B2B) on glycemic control and quality of life were investigated in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Methods: The clinical course was prospectively observed during the first 16 weeks after switching to B2B (insulin glargine plus insulin glulisine before breakfast and dinner) in 27 subjects previously treated with PPT using 50/50 premixed insulin. The Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQ) was administered at the start and end of the study.

Methylomarinovum caldicuralii gen. nov., sp. nov., a moderately thermophilic methanotroph isolated from a shallow submarine hydrothermal system, and proposal of the family Methylothermaceae fam. nov.

A novel methane-oxidizing bacterium, strain IT-9(T), was isolated from a shallow submarine hydrothermal system occurring in a coral reef in Japan. Strain IT-9(T) was a Gram-negative, aerobic, motile, coccoid or oval-shaped bacterium with the distinctive intracytoplasmic membrane arrangement of a type I methanotroph. Strain IT-9(T) was a moderately thermophilic, obligate methanotroph that grew on methane and methanol at 30-55 °C (optimum 45-50 °C).

The Prevalence of the Risk Factors for Atherosclerosis among Type 2 Diabetic Patients Is Greater in the Progressive Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease.

Background/aims: The prevalence of the risk factors for atherosclerosis, other than diabetes mellitus, among type 2 diabetic patients with different stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) determined by glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was investigated.

Methods: The prevalence of ten risk factors (age ≥65 years, history of smoking, male gender, obesity, albuminuria, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia, hyperuricemia and anemia) was determined in 2,107 Japanese type 2 diabetic patients with different stages of CKD (six stages according to GFR).

Results: The risk factors for age ≥65 years and male gender were found in 49 and 62% of the study subjects, respectively.