Publications by authors named "Shinya Watanabe"

Whether or not vascular endothelial growth factor pathway inhibitors (VPIs) increase the risk of artery dissection is still unknown. This study aimed to quantitatively evaluate the possibility of artery dissection as a class effect of VPIs using nationwide real-world data. This cohort study was conducted based on the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB), which spans nearly the entire Japanese population of over 100 million individuals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The synthesis, structure, and circularly polarized phosphorescence (CPP) properties of axially chiral cyclometalated binuclear platinum(II) complexes were described. A series of optically pure binuclear platinum(II) complexes were synthesized in five steps from commercially available ()- or ()-1,1'-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) as starting materials. Their three-dimensional molecular structures and square-planar coordination geometries were elucidated from X-ray diffraction and 2D NMR analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objective of this study was to reveal the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for Japanese patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in clinical practice, based on real-world data from a nationwide multicenter observational study in Japan. Clinical data of patients with TRD treated with rTMS (NeuroStar TMS treatment system) under public insurance coverage were retrospectively collected from 21 institutes nationwide between June 2019 and December 2023. Depression severity was assessed by the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Despite the high recurrence rate of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), there are limitations in accurately predicting recurrence after transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) based on clinicopathological factors alone. However, prediction of recurrence using biomolecular characteristics of bladder tumors has not been applied to clinical practice. The objective of this study was to establish a new gene expression scoring system for identifying patients at high risk of recurrence.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Enfortumab Vedotin (EV) is an effective treatment for advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC) patients who have already undergone other therapies, but there’s limited understanding of the factors that impact patient outcomes.
  • A retrospective study was conducted to identify clinical factors affecting progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in these patients, leading to the development of a new risk classification model based on identified prognostic factors.
  • The study found that high levels of C-reactive protein and hypercalcemia were significant predictors of patient outcomes, allowing for the classification of patients into three distinct risk groups, which showed notable differences in survival rates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: This is a case of a 32-year-old woman who developed postpartum depression (PPD). She became anxious and depressive about caring for her child, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) test showed a score of 9 at 2 weeks after delivery, and at 7 months postpartum, she presented with major melancholic depression followed by mild cognitive decline without any neurological symptoms except cluttering speech.

Case Presentation: Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging showed confluent fluid-attenuated inversion recovery hyperintensities in the periventricular and frontal deep white matter, with multiple spotty calcifications in the frontal white matter by cerebral CT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a progressive disorder marked by lipid accumulation, leading to steatohepatitis (MASH). A key feature of the transition to MASH involves oxidative stress resulting from defects in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Here, we show that pathological alterations in the lipid composition of the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) directly instigate electron transfer inefficiency to promote oxidative stress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The draft genome sequence of a newly isolated bacterial strain, JMUB6875, is reported, which was taken from a patient suffering from disseminated nocardiosis.
  • This strain may represent a potentially new species that is closely related to known bacteria in its family.
  • The findings could contribute to a better understanding of the genetics and characteristics of this organism, which may have clinical implications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Phage therapy is gaining attention as a potential solution for treating infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria, leveraging naturally occurring viruses called bacteriophages.
  • The review covers the historical background, recent advancements, and various applications of phages, including their use in medical fields like vaccine development and cancer treatment.
  • Despite its advantages, phage therapy still faces obstacles such as maintaining phage stability, dealing with immune responses, and navigating regulatory challenges for approval.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study presents a new phagemid-based system that produces CRISPR-Cas13a-loaded antibacterial capsids (AB-capsids) specifically targeting multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
  • By optimizing phagemid copy numbers, researchers achieved higher yields and purity of AB-capsids, illustrating a direct relationship between phagemid quantity and capsid production.
  • The developed AB-capsids effectively eliminate targeted S. aureus strains while leaving non-target strains unharmed, showcasing their potential as effective tools against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

When analyzing microscopic time-lapse observations, frame alignment is an essential task to visually understand the morphological and translation dynamics of cells and tissue. While in traditional single-sample microscopy, the region of interest (RoI) is fixed, multi-sample microscopy often uses a single microscope that scans multiple samples over a long period of time by laterally relocating the sample stage. Hence, the relocation of the optics induces a statistical RoI offset and can introduce jitter as well as drift, which results in a misaligned RoI for each sample's time-lapse observation (stage drift).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study assesses the effectiveness of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for treating vestibular schwannomas (VS) in patients aged 75 and older, highlighting concerns about severe facial palsy in this age group after surgery.* -
  • A total of 156 patients aged 65 and older underwent gamma knife SRS, with the outcomes compared between those ≥75 years (35 patients) and those aged 65-74 years (121 patients), revealing high tumor control rates in both groups.* -
  • The findings suggest that SRS is a safe and effective treatment for VS in late elderly patients, with no adverse effects observed, and it offers advantages in preserving facial nerve function compared to surgical removal.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In contrast to other cancer research areas, the development of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for meningiomas has been challenging, lacking standardized criteria for assessing treatment response and progression. Although efforts by RANO have proposed evaluation criteria, a consensus on effective evaluation parameters for meningiomas remains elusive. This paper underscores the importance of establishing efficacy endpoints in clinical trials, compares efficacy assessment in meningioma research with other solid tumor areas, and outlines the challenges ahead in meningioma research.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The lab created a phagemid system to generate CRISPR-Cas13a-antimicrobial capsids specifically targeting MRSA to combat rising antimicrobial resistance.
  • They faced a challenge with unwanted wild-type phage production during packaging, which was addressed by introducing silent mutations to reduce contamination while maintaining efficiency.
  • The optimized system showed effective sequence-specific killing of MRSA strains but highlights the need for further research on its effectiveness against other bacteria and in real body conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on oxacillin-susceptible methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (OS-MRSA), which poses new treatment challenges due to its ability to develop resistance through chromosomal mutations.
  • Researchers analyzed six mutant strains with decreased oxacillin susceptibility, examining how mutations in RNA polymerase (RNAP) genes led to transcription dysfunction and an accumulation of certain metabolites.
  • The findings indicated that these mutations resulted in cell wall thickening, which ultimately decreased the mutants' susceptibility to β-lactam antibiotics, highlighting the need for a better understanding of these mechanisms for effective clinical management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has a large linear DNA genome of about 235 kb, divided into "Long" and "Short" domains.
  • There are four distinct isomers of the HCMV genome, and identifying the junction sequences between these domains is crucial for confirming their presence, but repeat sequences complicate this process through traditional methods.
  • Long-read sequencing with the Oxford Nanopore sequencer proved effective in identifying junctions in four isomers, revealing multiple copies of a specific sequence and showcasing the complexity and diversity of the HCMV genome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Carbohydrates and lipids provide the majority of substrates to fuel mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Metabolic inflexibility, defined as an impaired ability to switch between these fuels, is implicated in a number of metabolic diseases. Here, we explore the mechanism by which physical inactivity promotes metabolic inflexibility in skeletal muscle.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cells sense, respond, and adapt to environmental conditions that cause stress. In a previous study using HeLa cells, we isolated reporter cells responding to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress inducers, thapsigargin and tunicamycin, using a highly sensitive promoter trap vector system. Splinkerette PCR and 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (5' RACE) identified a novel transcript that is upregulated by ER stress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Appropriate exploratory efficacy data from Phase I trials are vital for subsequent phases. Owing to the uniqueness of brain tumors (BTs), use of different strategies to evaluate efficacy is warranted. We studied exploratory efficacy evaluation in Phase I trials involving BTs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aims to identify genetic biomarkers that can help differentiate between ovarian serous carcinoma (OSC) and ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC), two distinct types of epithelial ovarian cancer with different characteristics.
  • Researchers analyzed RNA from 57 surgical specimens of EOC patients using DNA microarray technology to find gene expression differences between the two cancer types.
  • They identified 10 candidate genes that were up-regulated in OCCC compared to OSC, suggesting these genes could serve as effective diagnostic markers and may provide insights into the distinct behaviors of these carcinomas, including OCCC's resistance to chemotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A chiral platinum(II) complex with a helical Schiff-base [4]helicene ligand exhibits intense red circularly polarized phosphorescence (CPP) with a of 0.010 in the dilute solution state. The intense CPP was caused by a change in the electronic transition character based on the induction of the helical structure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is a harmful virus that can lead to serious blood-related diseases in cats, with different subgroups classified based on how they interact with receptors in the host.
  • - This study studied how FeLV can recombine with endogenous retroviruses in domestic cats, finding significant genetic changes and noting the occurrence of both FeLV-D and FeLV-B in affected cats, particularly linked to cases of lymphoma and leukemia.
  • - Researchers discovered that two cats used different receptors for FeLV-B, suggesting the complexity of viral interactions and transmission, and identified a new recombinant virus (XR-FeLV) that could affect pathogenic traits in cats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Boron complexes with Schiff-base [4]helicene ligands were synthesized. These complexes were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and their helical molecular structures were unequivocally established by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The helical boron complexes exhibited efficient photoluminescence under UV irradiation, and the circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) properties were investigated for optically pure samples.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease, leading to liver steatosis, fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Despite the accumulation of clinical data showing the impact of amino acid substitutions at positions 70 (R70Q/H) and/or 91 (L91M) in the HCV core protein in progressive liver diseases, including HCC, the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. We analyzed 72 liver biopsy specimens from patients with chronic HCV genotype 1b (HCV-1b) infection prior to antiviral treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF