The duration of viral shedding of SARS-CoV-2 is usually less than 10 days. We experienced a COVID-19 case with prolonged viral shedding for 2 months. His cell mediated immunity has been depressed ...(CD4+T cell <100/μl) due to advanced malignant lymphoma and chemotherapy which had been completed 4 months prior to the onset of symptoms of COVID-19. We administered several treatments against COVID-19, however the results of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) from nasopharyngeal specimens remained positive to SARS-CoV-2 for 2 months. Moreover, virus isolation assays performed on Day 59 also remained positive. He was finally discharged on Day 69 with two consecutive negative PCR results for SARS-CoV-2. Immunocompromised status may prolong viral shedding and it is therefore important for the clinician to take into account this when assessing such patients.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study discusses the disparity in numbers between Japanese children and their Brazilian immigrant peers concerning placement in Japanese special education classes. In-depth interviews were ...conducted with 21 stakeholders including Japanese nationals and Brazilian immigrants to see if there were any ways to explain the larger numbers of immigrant children assigned to such classes. Five main factors affecting the stakeholders emerged: Linguistic and Cultural Related Misunderstandings of Information, Limitations Concerning Counseling and Educational Planning, Requests for Improving the Support System for Non-Japanese Students, Importance of a Second Opinion, and Cultural and Linguistic Effects when Evaluating Non-Japanese Students. The study provides policy recommendations aimed at improving the support system for immigrant communities who face a variety of stresses living in an unfamiliar culture.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Multiple prolonged symptoms are observed in patients who recover from an acute COVID-19 infection, which is defined as long COVID. General fatigue is frequently observed in patients with long COVID ...during acute and post-acute phases. This study aimed to identify the specific risk factors for general fatigue in long COVID.
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 aged over 18 years were enrolled in a multicenter cohort study at 26 medical institutions. Clinical data during hospitalization and patient-reported outcomes after discharge were collected from medical records, paper-based questionnaires, and smartphone apps.
Among prolonged symptoms through 1-year follow-ups, general fatigue was the most interfering symptom in daily life. Patients with protracted fatigue at all follow-up periods had lower quality of life scores at the 12-month follow-up. Univariate logistic regression analysis of the presence or absence of general fatigue at the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month follow-ups identified asthma, younger age, and female sex as risk factors for prolonged fatigue. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that asthma was an independent risk factor for persistent fatigue during the 12-month follow-up period. Longitudinal changes in the symptoms of patients with or without asthma demonstrated that general fatigue, not cough and dyspnea, was significantly prolonged in patients with asthma.
In a Japanese population with long COVID, prolonged general fatigue was closely linked to asthma. A preventive approach against COVID-19 is necessary to avoid sustained fatigue and minimize social and economic losses in patients with asthma.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
To determine the usefulness of hsa-miR-346, a potential biomarker enhancing the activity of non-tuberculous mycobacterial diseases, as a biomarker of tuberculosis activity.
We investigated whether ...hsa-miR-346 is secreted by human macrophages infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) in an in vitro study. In addition, a cross-sectional study was conducted first to evaluate whether serum hsa-miR-346 is elevated in patients with tuberculosis compared with that in healthy individuals. Second, we conducted a retrospective study to evaluate whether anti-tuberculosis treatment reduces serum hsa-miR-346 levels.
Log hsa-miR-346 levels were significantly elevated in the supernatant of human macrophages infected with M. tuberculosis in a dose-dependent manner. The mean serum log hsa-miR-346 levels were −15.48 (−15.76 to −15.21) in patients with tuberculosis and −16.12 (−16.29 to −15.95) in healthy volunteers, which significantly differed. In addition, hsa-miR-346 significantly decreased at 2 months from starting an anti-tuberculosis treatment.
We consider hsa-miR-346 as a potential biomarker enhancing the tuberculosis activity.
•Treatment monitoring is essential for the appropriateness of tuberculosis treatment.•Biomarkers that predict tuberculosis treatment outcomes are needed.•We found hsa-miR-346 was secreted from by human macrophages infected with M. tuberculosis.•Serum hsa-miR-346 level declined during the second month of treatment with bacteriological improvement.•We added hsa-miR-346 as a potential biomarker enhancing the tuberculosis activity.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Abstract Introduction Amorphous calcification frequently appears in dental pulp tissues of diabetic patients; however, its pathologic process has not been fully elucidated. We previously found that ...pulp stones and thickened predentin occurred more frequently in diabetic rats. Recent findings demonstrated that accumulation of advanced glycation end-products (AGE) might be involved in vascular calcification complicated with diabetes. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of AGE on calcified nodule formation by rat dental pulp cells in culture. Methods Rat dental pulp cells and gingival fibroblasts were independently cultured with 50 and 100 μg/mL AGE. Alkaline phosphatase activity and calcified nodule formation were measured. Expressions of receptor for AGE, osteopontin (OPN), and osteocalcin (OCN) mRNA were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Protein levels of OPN and OCN secreted in culture medium were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results AGE (50 and 100 μg/mL) markedly increased both alkaline phosphatase activity and calcified nodule formation in dental pulp cells ( P < .01), whereas it did not affect those in gingival fibroblasts. Real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that AGE increased mRNA expressions of receptor for AGE, OPN, and OCN in dental pulp cells ( P < .05). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis revealed that the protein levels of OPN and OCN produced by dental pulp cells were higher in AGE-treated than in untreated cells ( P < .05). Conclusions AGE enhanced the calcification potentials of rat dental pulp cells, suggesting that it may stimulate pathologic calcification of diabetic dental pulp tissues.
O-glycosylation of mammalian proteins is one of the important posttranslational modifications. We applied a support vector machine (SVM) to predict whether Ser or Thr is glycosylated, in order to ...elucidate the O-glycosylation mechanism. O-glycosylated sites were often found clustered along the sequence, whereas other sites were located sporadically. Therefore, we developed two types of SVMs for predicting clustered and isolated sites separately. We found that the amino acid composition was effective for predicting the clustered type, whereas the site-specific algorithm was effective for the isolated type. The highest prediction accuracy for the clustered type was 74%, while that for the isolated type was 79%. The existence frequency of amino acids around the O-glycosylation sites was different in the two types: namely, Pro, Val and Ala had high existence probabilities at each specific position relative to a glycosylation site, especially for the isolated type. Independent component analyses for the amino acid sequences around O-glycosylation sites showed the position-specific existences of the identified amino acids as independent components. The O-glycosylation sites were preferentially located within intrinsically disordered regions of extracellular proteins: particularly, more than 90% of the clustered O-GalNAc glycosylation sites were observed in intrinsically disordered regions. This feature could be the key for understanding the non-conservation property of O-glycosylation, and its role in functional diversity and structural stability.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
BackgroundIron-based phosphate binders are widely used in hemodialysis, to avoid the increased mortality associated with high serum phosphate in dialysis patients. However, comparative studies on the ...effects of phosphate binders are currently limited. In the present study, a comparative analysis of ferric citrate (FC), sucroferric oxyhydroxide (SF), and lanthanum carbonate (LC) was performed to assess their primary phosphate-binding and secondary iron uptake capacities.MethodsPatients on maintenance hemodialysis visit our group clinics regularly. The FC, SF, and LC groups comprised 101, 82, and 126 patients, respectively. Subjects were observed from December 2015 to April 2016 (5 months).Serum phosphate levels and other markers were measured in the three medication groups, and changes in phosphate levels and other clinical markers were compared. A drug treatment was considered to be effective if the serum phosphate levels of the patient decreased from baseline in each of the drugs. We evaluated the phosphate-binding capacity compared with each drug using a mixed effect model, for adjusted repeated measured analysis.ResultsSF showed higher phosphate-binding capacity than FC and LC. FC, SF, and LC showed no significant difference in phosphate-binding capacity in the adjusted mixed effect model. However, patients in the FC group exhibited iron accumulation.ConclusionSucroferric oxyhydroxide possesses better phosphate-binding efficacies than ferric citrate and lanthanum carbonate. In addition, ferric citrate showed a strong iron-cumulative effect.
Periodontitis is a multifactorial disease associated with genetic and environmental factors. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with susceptibility to common diseases such as ...diabetes and periodontitis. Although the oral cavity is exposed to various organisms, the conditions are well controlled by innate and acquired immune systems. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play an important role in the innate immune system; however, the association of AMP-SNPs with periodontitis has not been fully elucidated. This study investigated the relationship between AMP-SNPs and periodontitis in Japanese. One hundred and five Japanese subjects were recruited, which included patients with aggressive, severe, moderate and mild periodontitis, and age-matched healthy controls. Genomic DNA was isolated from peripheral blood and genotypes of SNPs of β-defensin-1 and lactoferrin genes (
DEFB1
: rs1799946, rs1800972 and rs11362; and
LTF
: rs1126478) were investigated using the PCR-Invader assay. Protein level of AMPs in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) was quantified by ELISA. Case–control studies revealed that the −44 CC genotype of
DEFB1
(rs1800972) was associated with periodontitis (OR 2.51), particularly with severe chronic periodontitis (OR 4.15) and with combined severe and moderate chronic periodontitis (OR 4.04). No statistical differences were found in other genotypes. The β-defensin-1 concentrations in GCF were significantly lower in subjects with the −44 CC genotype of
DEFB1
than in those without this genotype. No significant differences between GCF concentrations of AMPs and other genotypes were detected. The −44 CC genotype of the β-defensin-1 gene (
DEFB1
rs1800972) may be associated with susceptibility to chronic periodontitis in Japanese.
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CMK, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Six novel nonsynonymous nucleotide alterations were found in the cytochrome P450 1A2 gene in a Japanese population, which resulted in the following amino acid substitutions: T83M, E168Q, F186L, ...S212C, G299A, and T438I. These individuals were heterozygous for the amino acid substitutions. The potential functional alterations caused by the amino acid substitutions were characterized by a cDNA-mediated expression system using Chinese hamster V79 cells. Among the six CYP1A2 variants, F186L showed the most profound and statistically significant reduction in O-deethylation of phenacetin and 7-ethoxyresorufin. Kinetic analyses performed for the ethoxyresorufin O-deethylation revealed that the Vmax of the F186L variant was approximately 5% of that of the CYP1A2 wild type, despite a 5-fold lower Km value of the variant, the consequence of which was reduced enzymatic activity toward the substrate. Thus, for the first time, phenylalanine at residue 186 is suggested to be a critical amino acid for catalytic activity.
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