Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Additional Risk Minimization Measures for Ixazomib Citrate for Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma in Japan: A Web-Based Survey Among Pharmacists.

Background: Ixazomib citrate (IXA) in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone (IRD therapy) has been approved for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. In Japan, as these three drugs have different dosing schedules, dosing instructions for patients have been prepared and distributed to patients via healthcare professionals to promote an understanding of the appropriate dosing regimen, as an additional risk minimization measure (aRMM).

Objectives: This survey aimed to investigate whether the aRMM material is being utilized for the adequate use of IXA.

Analgesic Effect of the Kampo Formula Yokukansan via the Suppression of Substance P in an Experimental Rat Model of Hunner-Type Interstitial Cystitis.

Introduction: Yokukansan (YKS), a Kampo formula used in traditional Japanese medicine, has an analgesic effect, and is used for various pain disorders. This study investigated its analgesic effects on Hunner-type interstitial cystitis (HIC) and its mechanism of action in animal models.   Methods: Rats with toll-like receptor-7 agonist (loxoribine)-induced HIC were used.

Biomolecular Fluorescence Complementation Profiling and Artificial Intelligence Structure Prediction of the Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus ORF18 and ORF30 Interaction.

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the etiologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), and multicentric Castleman's disease. During KSHV lytic infection, lytic-related genes, categorized as immediate-early, early, and late genes, are expressed in a temporal manner. The transcription of late genes requires the virus-specific pre-initiation complex (vPIC), which consists of viral transcription factors.

The Japanese Herbal Medicine Yokukansan Exerted Antioxidant and Analgesic Effects in an Experimental Rat Model of Hunner-Type Interstitial Cystitis.

: The Japanese herbal medicine Yokukansan (YKS) has analgesic properties and is used for various pain disorders. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of YKS in Hunner-type interstitial cystitis (HIC) using an experimental rat model of HIC and to explore its antioxidant activity and role as the underlying mechanism of action. : The antioxidant capacity of YKS was evaluated by determining its hydroxyl radical (·OH) scavenging capacity using electron spin resonance (ESR).

A case of complete response following the administration of pembrolizumab and metastasectomy for lung and bone metastases of bladder cancer.

Introduction: Patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma have poor prognosis and limited treatment options.

Case Presentation: The patient was a 60-year-old male with bladder cancer and multiple lung metastases. He underwent three courses of gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy, despite left femoral bone metastases.

MEK-inhibitor-mediated rescue of skeletal myopathy caused by activating Hras mutation in a Costello syndrome mouse model.

Costello syndrome (CS) is a congenital disorder caused by heterozygous activating germline HRAS mutations in the canonical Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (Ras/MAPK) pathway. CS is one of the RASopathies, a large group of syndromes caused by mutations within various components of the Ras/MAPK pathway. An important part of the phenotype that greatly impacts quality of life is hypotonia.

Hard bilateral syphilitic testes with vasculitis: a case report and literature review.

Background: We report the case of a patient with syphilitic testicular gumma and vasculitis with adrenal failure due to chronic steroid use.

Case Presentation: A 63-year-old male presented with hard right eye swelling and very firm bilateral testes on palpation, which he had for 2 years. Testicular tumor markers were negative; syphilis test was positive.

Numerical Studies on Electrostatic Interaction Forces and the Free Energy between Parallel Colloidal Rods of Finite Size in Skewed Configurations.

Formulas for interaction forces () and the free energy () between two parallel charged prismatic rods of various scaled values of , ψ, and in skewed configurations are obtained, where is the lengthwise positional difference between the front-end faces of the respective rods, and d is the minimal distance between the opposing faces of the rods, ψ is the electric surface potential, is the length of the rods. To obtain the free-energy function (), (i) 3D spatial distributions of the electric potential ψ around two rods were determined by numerically solving the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation with a finite element method, (ii) with the ψ distributions so determined, the lengthwise interaction electrostatic Maxwell stress tangential to the midplane between the rods was calculated to obtain the (discrete) dependence of the stress, and (iii) by introducing two different fitting functions, the discrete dependence was transformed into a continuous force function, (), which was then lengthwise integrated to derive (). It was found that the curves of () linearly decreased with increasing between 1 and + 1 due to a localization of the stress.

Lung adenocarcinoma diagnosed incidentally after renal biopsy for suspected right renal cancer.

We present a case of lung adenocarcinoma metastasizing to the right clear cell renal cell carcinoma diagnosed by computed tomography (CT)-guided renal biopsy and immunohistochemistry. A 72-year-old male patient had right lower abdominal pain for 3 days, followed by right loin pain for 10 days. On CT scan, renal cell cancer was suspected with multiple metastases.

Ras/MAPK dysregulation in development causes a skeletal myopathy in an activating Braf mouse model for cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome.

Background: Cardio-facio-cutaneous (CFC) syndrome is a human multiple congenital anomaly syndrome that is caused by activating heterozygous mutations in either BRAF, MEK1, or MEK2, three protein kinases of the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. CFC belongs to a group of syndromes known as RASopathies. Skeletal muscle hypotonia is a ubiquitous phenotype of RASopathies, especially in CFC syndrome.

Familial cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome: Vertical transmission of the BRAF p.G464R pathogenic variant and review of the literature.

Cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome (CFC) is one of the RASopathies and is caused by germline mutations that activate the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. CFC is due to heterozygous germline mutations in protein kinases BRAF, MEK1, or MEK2 and rarely in KRAS, a small GTPase. CFC is a multiple congenital anomaly disorder in which individuals may have craniofacial dysmorphia, heart issues, skin and hair anomalies, and delayed development.

Prostate cancer detection rate and Gleason score in relation to prostate volume as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging cognitive biopsy and standard biopsy.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the relationship of the prostate cancer and Gleason scores (GSs) or ISUP Grade system with prostate volume (PV) as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) cognitive biopsy and standard biopsy.

Material And Methods: Data were collected from 659 patients who underwent MRI cognitive biopsy and standard biopsy from January 2014 to January 2018. The biopsies were performed because of increased prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels (>4 ng/mL) and/or abnormal digital rectal examination findings.

A Novel, Circulating Tumor Cell Enrichment Method Reduces ARv7 False Positivity in Patients with Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.

Background: The AR-V7 splice variant is a cause of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). However, testing for the presence of AR-V7 by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) shows AR-V7 positivity in healthy individuals. We hypothesized that the positivity reflects contamination by hematopoietic cells.

Numerical Studies on Electrical Interaction Forces and Free Energy between Colloidal Plates of Finite Size.

By solving the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) equation with a finite element method (FEM), three-dimensional (3D) spatial distributions of the electric potential (ψ, scaled) in electrolyte solutions having two charged parallel finite plates (including cubes and prismatic rods) are determined for various separations (, scaled by the Debye length, κ), surface potentials (ψ), and plate dimensions (length × width × thickness, each scaled by κ). The total interaction force between two plates, , is the sum of the electrostatic double-layer (EDL) repulsion (the osmotic pressure, ) and the Maxwell electrostatic stress (). The EDL repulsion is estimated using the distribution of ψ not only between the facing surfaces of two parallel plates but also around the other extremities of the plates.

Systematic review and two new cases of primary upper urinary tract neuroendocrine carcinomas.

Background: Upper urinary tract neuroendocrine carcinoma (UUT-NEC) is extremely rare and has a poor prognosis. Although a few cases of successful treatment have been reported, no treatment has shown established efficacy.

Patients And Methods: We analyzed 70 UUT-NEC patients, including 68 with small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (SCNEC) and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) reported between 1985 and 2017 and 2 treated at our hospital.

Oral administration of cernitin pollen extract (Cernilton ) for 30 days might be useful to avoid unnecessary biopsy in prostate biopsy candidates: A preliminary study.

Objectives: To assess the effect of cernitin pollen extract on serum prostate-specific antigen level prostate biopsy candidates, and to develop an ideal protocol to avoid an unnecessary biopsy procedure.

Methods: A total of 61 patients were administrated cernitin pollen extract tablets (two tablets t.i.

Retropubic tissue fixation system tensioned mini-sling carried out under local anesthesia cures stress urinary incontinence and intrinsic sphincter deficiency: 1-year data.

Objectives: To assess the outcomes of the tissue fixation system midurethral sling for the treatment of intrinsic sphincter deficiency.

Methods: We retrospectively studied a total of 96 intrinsic sphincter deficiency patients treated with the tissue fixation system midurethral sling at Yokohama Motomachi Women's Clinic from 2006 to 2015. We evaluated intraoperative and 1-year postoperative results.

Outpatient mid-urethral tissue fixation system sling for urodynamic stress urinary incontinence: 3-year surgical and quality of life results.

Introduction: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness and quality of life (QOL) of outpatient mid-urethral tissue fixation system sling (TFS) procedures for urodynamic stress urinary incontinence (SUI) at 3-year follow-up.

Methods: We analyzed 50 mid-urethral TFS sling operations between 2007 and 2012 at Yokohama Motomachi Women's Clinic LUNA. The primary outcome was success defined as a negative 24-h pad test, negative cough and Valsalva stress test, and no re-treatment for SUI.

Rapid Discovery of Functional Small Molecule Ligands against Proteomic Targets through Library-Against-Library Screening.

Identifying "druggable" targets and their corresponding therapeutic agents are two fundamental challenges in drug discovery research. The one-bead-one-compound (OBOC) combinatorial library method has been developed to discover peptides or small molecules that bind to a specific target protein or elicit a specific cellular response. The phage display cDNA expression proteome library method has been employed to identify target proteins that interact with specific compounds.

Orientation-Dependent London-van der Waals Interaction Energy between Macroscopic Bodies.

The aim of this work is to derive formulas for numerical calculations of the orientation-dependent London-van der Waals (vdW) interaction energy (V(A)) between two rectangular bodies with arbitrary dimensions, arranged at arbitrary relative angles (θ) and separations in twisted and coplanar rotational modes. The formulation is made using a simple volume-element-integration method in the framework of the microscopic approach, in which V(A) is the sum of the local vdW energy (Vp) between body 1 and each thin plate constituting body 2. Examples of the calculation results are the following: (1) The θ values that give maximal and minimal values of V(A) depend on their shapes and relative positions.

The Wnt effector transcription factor 7-like 2 positively regulates oligodendrocyte differentiation in a manner independent of Wnt/β-catenin signaling.

Genetic or pharmacological activation of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling inhibits oligodendrocyte differentiation. Transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7l2), also known as TCF4, is a Wnt effector induced transiently in the oligodendroglial lineage. A well accepted dogma is that TCF7l2 inhibits oligodendrocyte differentiation through activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling.

Botulinum toxin A injection for the treatment of neurogenic detrusor overactivity secondary to spinal cord injury: multi-institutional experience in Japan.

Objectives: To examine the efficacy and safety of onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox) injection into the bladder wall for the treatment of neurogenic detrusor overactivity secondary to spinal cord injury in Japanese patients.

Methods: We enrolled Japanese spinal cord injury patients with cystometrically confirmed neurogenic detrusor overactivity who experienced urinary incontinence at least once a week either because they were refractory to anticholinergics or had to discontinue treatment because of adverse events. Patients received 200 units of onabotulinumtoxinA injected into the bladder wall after a 2-week washout of anticholinergics, and urodynamic variables were assessed before and 1 month after injection.