We examined 73 children with respiratory infections for Chlamydophila (Chlamydia) pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae using real-time PCR assay and serological tests. C. pneumoniae and M. pneumoniae ...infections were found in 11 (15.1%) and 6 (8.2%) cases, respectively. The sensitivities and specificities of real-time PCR versus definite diagnosis of acute infection were 63.6% and 100% for C. pneumoniae, and 100% and 100% for M. pneumoniae, respectively. C. pneumoniae PCR-negative results appeared to be due to poor growth of the organism. The sensitivity and specificity of ImmunoCard tests were 33.3% and 82.1%, respectively, indicating that the efficacy of rapid diagnosis was disputable. The present results suggest that real-time PCR is suitable for rapid diagnosis as a first screening test to determine first-line antibacterial agents to be used against these infectious diseases.
Primary chest wall abscess occurring after blunt chest trauma is rare. We present the case of a 50-year-old woman who presented with a swelling in her left breast. The patient had experienced blunt ...chest trauma 2 months back. Needle aspiration revealed pus formation in the patient’s chest. Computed tomography revealed a mass in the lower region of the left mammary gland, with thickening of the parietal pleura and skin and fracture of the fifth rib under the abscess. Following antibiotic administration and irrigation of the affected region, surgical debridement was performed. During surgery, we found that the pectoralis major muscle at the level of the fifth rib was markedly damaged, although the necrotic tissue did not contact the mammary gland. We diagnosed the lesion as a chest wall abscess that occurred in response to blunt chest trauma. Her postoperative course was uneventful. There has been no recurrence for six months after surgery.
The active component on the proliferation of osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells was purified and identified from bovine milk. The growth-promoting activity was measured by 3Hthymidine incorporation on the ...cell. The purified protein showed a molecular size of 17 kDa on SDS-PAGE. Its amino-terminal amino acid sequence was very similar to the internal sequence of bovine high molecular weight (HMW) kininogen, which comprises fragment 1·2. The promotion of proliferation was specific for osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells, not for fibroblast BALB/3T3 cells. In blood coagulation, HMW kininogen is considered to be cleaved by a specific enzyme kallikrein. HMW kininogen then releases two peptides, a biologically active peptide bradykinin and fragment 1·2, but the fate of fragment 1·2 is unknown. This milk-derived protein that comprises to fragment 1·2 showed a growth-promoting activity of osteoblasts. We propose the possibility that milk plays an important role in bone formation by supplying the active agent for osteoblasts as well as supplying calcium.
The active component in bovine milk on the proliferation of osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells was purified and identified. Growth-promoting activity was measured by 3Hthymidine incorporation on the cell. ...The molecular weight of the purified protein was 10 kDa. The amino-terminal sequence of this 10-kDa protein was identical to bovine high mobility group protein (HMG) 1. This 10-kDa protein is suggested to be a basic protein and to have an HMG box, a consensus sequence motif among the HMG family. From these results, we named this protein HMG-like protein. HMG is a ubiquitous nonhistone component of chromatin and considered to be implicated in DNA replication. We found this protein in milk, and it showed a growth-promoting activity. We propose the possibility that HMG-like protein existed in milk and plays an important role for neonate in bone formation by activating osteoblasts.
Abstract
Background: In the International Consensus Conference Guidelines for Advanced Breast Cancer, most experts agreed that the maintenance endocrine therapy after induction chemotherapy was ...reasonable. The combination therapy of bevacizumab (B) and paclitaxel (P) has proved to prolong progression free survival (PFS) and improve response rate in E2100 and MERiDiAN study for advanced and metastatic breast cancer (AMBC). Because of its long PFS, developing optimal therapeutic strategy of B+P to improve survival, including management of toxicity is crucial. However, it has not been assessed what therapy is optimal as maintenance therapy or how effective B+P re-challenge after failure of maintenance therapy is. Methods: In this multi-center randomized phase II study (KBCSG-TR1214), we compared endocrine therapy alone (E) and endocrine therapy with capecitabine (E+C) as a maintenance therapy after the induction chemotherapy with B+P. .Hormone receptor (HR)-positive and HER2-nagative patients who have experienced none or one prior chemotherapy for AMBC were enrolled. Patients without progression in 4-6 cycles of B+P were randomized to arm E (with E) or arm E+C (with E+C). In both arms, endocrine agents were decided by physician’s choice and in arm E+C, capecitabine (1657mg/m2 on day1 to 21 q4w) was added to E. After progression of either maintenance therapies, B+P started again as a re-challenge therapy. Primary end point was progression free survival (PFS) of maintenance therapy. Secondary end points include time to failure of strategy from randomization (TFS), efficacy of re-challenge therapy, overall survival (OS) and safety of induction therapy. Results:116 patients were enrolled until April 2016. 90 patients had been successful to shift to randomization. Median age was 59.8 years-old (34-81). 28 (60.9%) of 46 patients in arm E and 27 (61.4%) of 44 patients in arm E+C were administrated by aromatase inhibitor (AI) or AI+LH-RH analog. Median PFS of maintenance therapy was significantly longer in arm E+C (11.3month, 95%CI; 8.0-11.8) than in arm E (4.3months, 95%CI; 3.6-6.0) (HR:0.53, p=0.0054). Clinical benefit rate was 50.0% in arm E and 72.7% in arm E+C (p=0.0320). Median PFS, objective response rate and clinical benefit rate of P+B as re-challenge therapy following either E or E+C were 7.8months (95%CI; 6.7-9.5), 20.4% and 63.0%, respectively. There was a strong trend of improvement in OS at 24 months from randomization in arm E+C (73.0%) compared with in arm E (53.1%) (p=0.0524). We have not observed any new adverse toxicity profile regarding to E or E+C. Conclusions: Adding capecitabine to maintenance endocrine therapy was demonstrated to improve PFS and OS. To our knowledge, this is the first clinical trial to show the efficacy of endocrine therapy combined with metronomic chemotherapy as maintenance therapy after induction chemotherapy in HR-positive and HER2-negative AMBC patients. The concept of induction-maintenance could be a new therapeutic strategy for ABMC. (UMIN000008662).
Citation Format: Tetsuhiro Yoshinami, Takahiro Nakayama, Masahiko Ikeda, Makiko Mizutani, Miki Yamaguchi, Yoshifumi Komoike, Tsutomu Takashima, Katsuhide Yoshidome, Junji Tsurutani, Mitsuhiko Iwamoto, Fumie Fujisawa, Hiroyuki Yasojima, Jun Yamamura, Hirotaka Morishima, Fuminori Aki, Tomomi Yamada, Satoshi Morita, Norikazu Masuda. Addition of capecitabine to maintenance endocrine therapy after induction therapy with bevacizumab plus paclitaxel in hormone receptor positive and HER2 negative metastatic breast cancer (KBCSG-TR1214) abstract. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-12-01.
ABSTRACT
We studied the effects of milk basic protein (MBP) on bone metabolism in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Five‐week‐old female Sprague‐Dawley rats were ovariectomized and fed a low‐calcium diet ...(0.009% Ca) for 5 weeks. The OVX rats were divided into three experimental groups: Control group (20% casein), MBP‐L group (19.9% casein, 0.1% MBP), and MBP‐H (19% casein, 1% MBP) of six animals. The rats were fed each experimental diet for 3 weeks. The bone breaking strength and energy of femur in the MBP‐H group were significantly higher than those in the control group. The bone breaking energy of femur in the MBP‐L group was also significantly higher than those in the control group. There were no differences in the amount of femoral calcium and phosphorus among the three groups, however, the amounts of femoral proline, hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine (typical amino acids of collagen) in the MBP groups were significantly higher than those in the control group. These data indicate that MBP in the whey protein increases the amount of the bone collagen and enhances the bone strength.
Chicken vitellogenin, a serum lipoprotein specific for laying hens, has been thought to be proteolytically cleaved into the heavy and light chain lipovitellins and phosvitin, the major yolk granule ...proteins, during or after transportation into oocyte. In this study, another proteolytic product of vitellogenin has newly been isolated from the ‘β-livetin’ fraction of yolk plasma. It is a yolk glycoprotein of 40 kDa (YGP40) with asparagine-linked carbohydrate chain(s) recognized by Concavanalin A and castor bean lectin (RCA-I), and it is identified as a C-terminal cysteine-rich fragment of the major vitellogenin (vitellogenin II), the cysteine-rich domain homologous to D2 region of von Willebrand factor. Another yolk plasma glycoprotein of 42 kDa is suggested to be one of the proteolytic products of the minor vitellogenin (vitellogenin I). Both 40 kDa and 42 kDa glycoproteins were shown to be present in growing oocytes but absent in laying hen's serum. Limited proteolysis of vitellogenin II with cathepsin D produced a 40 kDa protein with reactivity to anti-YGP40 antibody. Gel filtration analysis of vitellogenin II digested with cathepsin D showed that YGP40 dissociated from lipovitellin-phosvitin complex after the proteolytic cleavage. These results suggest that after incorporation from serum via a specific receptor vitellogenin II is cleaved in the oocyte into four fragments, heavy and light chain lipovitellins, phosvitin and YGP40, and that YGP40 is released into the yolk plasma before or during compartmentation of lipovitellin-phosvitin complex into the yolk granule.
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