Infection- and Vaccine-Induced SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence, Japan, 2023.

We assessed SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Japan during July-August 2023, with a focus on 2 key age groups, 0-15 and >80 years. We estimated overall seroprevalence of 45.3% for nucleocapsid antibodies and 95.

Identifying the population susceptible to rubella in Japan, 2020: Fine-scale risk mapping.

Background: Rubella remains a public health challenge in Japan, impeding the attainment of herd immunity. Despite vaccination efforts since 1976, persistent outbreaks reveal a susceptibility gap in male adults born before 1995. Seroepidemiological surveys are pivotal in evaluating population immunity and identifying at-risk groups.

Testosterone bounce predicts favorable prognoses for prostate cancer patients treated with degarelix.

Background: To clarify the clinical roles of changes in testosterone (T) levels with a cut-off level of 20 ng/dL as predictive factors for prostate cancer patients treated with degarelix acetate.

Methods: A total of 120 prostate cancer patients who received hormone therapies with gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist degarelix acetate were retrospectively analyzed. The predictive values of nadir T levels, max T levels, T bounce, and other clinical factors were evaluated for overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and progression-free survival (PFS).

A child with TSC2/PKD1 contiguous gene deletion syndrome successfully treated with tolvaptan for rapidly enlarging renal cysts.

Tolvaptan, a vasopressin receptor antagonist, has been shown to be effective in the treatment of renal cysts in ADPKD. However, tolvaptan is not indicated for pediatric patients, and reports of its use are rare, making its efficacy and adverse reactions unclear. Herein, we present the case of an 11-year-old girl who had vitiligo from birth.

Holiday effect on childbirth: A population-based analysis of 21,869,652 birth records, 1979-2018.

Maternity and neonatal services always have to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and require well preparedness to guarantee safe deliveries for both mothers and babies. However, the evidence of holiday effect from large-scale data is still insufficient from the obstetrics perspective. We analyzed data of over 21 million births in Japan from January 1, 1979, to December 31, 2018.

Chest Compression-Associated Internal Thoracic Artery Injury During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Incidence, Injury Patterns and Efficacy of Transcatheter Arterial Embolization.

Purpose: To investigate the incidence and patterns of chest compression-associated internal thoracic artery injury (CAI) during cardiopulmonary resuscitation and identify the embolization techniques used to treat hemorrhage.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in the patients who underwent transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) for life-threatening hemorrhage caused by CAI at two tertiary care centers between May 2013 and December 2019. Data on background characteristics, imaging findings, embolization and outcomes were collected from the medical records.

Protective effect of previous infection and vaccination against reinfection with BA.5 Omicron subvariant: a nationwide population-based study in Japan.

Background: The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was reported to evade immunity derived from vaccination and previous infection. A better understanding of hybrid immunity informs effective infection control strategies. Since the reinfection risk was not well-assessed in East Asia, this study aims to evaluate the risk of infection with Omicron subvariant BA.

Survey on chest CT findings in COVID-19 patients in Okinawa, Japan: differences between the delta and omicron variants.

To investigate the frequency of pneumonia and chest computed tomography (CT) findings in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during the fifth Delta variant-predominant and sixth Omicron variant-predominant waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Okinawa, Japan. A survey on chest CT examinations for patients with COVID-19 was conducted byhospitals with board-certified radiologists who provided treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia in Okinawa Prefecture. Data from 11 facilities were investigated.

Encapsulation of an Antioxidant in Redox-Sensitive Self-Assembled Albumin Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Hepatitis.

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver caused by the inadequate elimination of reactive oxygen species (ROS) derived from Kupffer cells. Edaravone is clinically used as an antioxidant but shows poor liver distribution. Herein, we report on the design of a Kupffer cell-oriented nanoantioxidant based on a disulfide cross-linked albumin nanoparticle containing encapsulated edaravone (EeNA) as a therapeutic for the treatment of hepatitis.

Infection-Induced SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Blood Donors, Japan, 2022.

A nationwide survey of SARS-CoV-2 antinucleocapsid seroprevalence among blood donors in Japan revealed that, as of November 2022, infection-induced seroprevalence of the population was 28.6% (95% CI 27.6%-29.

Impact of airline network on the global importation risk of mpox, 2022.

From 1 January 2022 to 4 September 2022, a total of 53 996 mpox cases were confirmed globally. Cases are predominantly concentrated in Europe and the Americas, while other regions are also continuously observing imported cases. This study aimed to estimate the potential global risk of mpox importation and consider hypothetical scenarios of travel restrictions by varying passenger volumes (PVs) via airline travel network.

Impact of the Coming-of-Age Day and ceremony on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Japan: A natural-experimental study based on national surveillance data.

Background: Quantifying the impact on COVID-19 transmission from a single event has been difficult due to the virus transmission dynamics, such as lag from exposure to reported infection, non-linearity arising from the person-to-person transmission, and the modifying effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions over time. To address these issues, we aimed to estimate the COVID-19 transmission risk of social events focusing on the Japanese Coming-of-Age Day and Coming-of-Age ceremony in which "new adults" practice risky behavior on that particular day.

Methods: Using national surveillance data in Japan in 2021 and 2022, we conducted difference-in-differences regression against COVID-19 incidences by setting "new adults" cases as the treatment group and the cases 1 year younger or older than these "new adults" as the control group.

Age-Dependent Effects of COVID-19 Vaccine and of Healthcare Burden on COVID-19 Deaths, Tokyo, Japan.

COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against death in Japan remains unknown. Furthermore, although evidence indicates that healthcare capacity influences case-fatality risk (CFR), it remains unknown whether this relationship is mediated by age. With a modeling study, we analyzed daily COVID-19 cases and deaths during January-August 2021 by using Tokyo surveillance data to jointly estimate COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against death and age-specific CFR.

Phenomenological and mechanistic models for predicting early transmission data of COVID-19.

Forecasting future epidemics helps inform policy decisions regarding interventions. During the early coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic period in January-February 2020, limited information was available, and it was too challenging to build detailed mechanistic models reflecting population behavior. This study compared the performance of phenomenological and mechanistic models for forecasting epidemics.

Reduction-Responsive and Multidrug Deliverable Albumin Nanoparticles: An Antitumor Drug to Abraxane against Human Pancreatic Tumor-Bearing Mice.

Many macromolecular antitumor drugs were developed based on the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, for example, albumin-bound paclitaxel nanoparticles (nab-PTX and Abraxane) and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil). However, these EPR effect-based therapeutic systems are less effective in malignant tumors with low vascular permeability, such as pancreatic tumors. Because the EPR effect depends on nanoparticles' size, we first determined nanoparticles' size associated with a high tumor-targeting rate in a human pancreatic tumor xenograft model with low vascular permeability.

The Therapeutic Effect of Human Serum Albumin Dimer-Doxorubicin Complex against Human Pancreatic Tumors.

Human serum albumin (HSA) is a versatile drug carrier with active tumor targeting capacity for an antitumor drug delivery system. Nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-technology, such as nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane), has attracted significant interest in drug delivery research. Recently, we demonstrated that HSA dimer (HSA-d) possesses a higher tumor distribution than HSA monomer (HSA-m).

Containment, Contact Tracing and Asymptomatic Transmission of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): A Modelling Study.

When a novel infectious disease emerges, enhanced contact tracing and isolation are implemented to prevent a major epidemic, and indeed, they have been successful for the control of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which have been greatly reduced without causing a global pandemic. Considering that asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections are substantial for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the feasibility of preventing the major epidemic has been questioned. Using a two-type branching process model, the present study assesses the feasibility of containing COVID-19 by computing the probability of a major epidemic.