胃切除術後患者の食の変化と生活満足感への影響

　本研究は，胃切除術後患者の食の変化の影響について主観的な生活満足感の視点から明らかにすることを目的とした．大学病院と一般総合病院の2 施設で胃がんの手術を受け術後１ケ月以内の患者25名を対象に，退院後初回の外来受診日に自記式の質問紙による調査を行った．調査には，古谷野らが作成した生活満足度尺度Kを使用した．分析では，対象者を生活満足度尺度のスケール中央値で2群に分け5.0点以上を高群，5.0 点未満を低群とし群間比較を行った．統計解析ソフトPASW　Ver.18 for Win. を用いて，χ2 検定，Mann‐Whitney U検定を行った．その結果，対象者の性別は男性21名（84.0%），女性4名（16.0%），平均年齢は62.2 ± 10.3歳（SD）で対象者全員に同居者があり，16名が職業をもっていた．術式は，13名が胃全摘出術であった．生活満足度尺度は9項目で構成され｢人生全体についての満足感｣4項目，｢心理的安定｣3項目，｢老いについての評価｣2項目の3因子構造である．対象の｢人生全体についての満足感｣は平均1.9 ± 0.9点，｢心理的安定｣は平均1.8± 0.9点，｢老いについての評価｣は平均0.8 ± 0.7点で，生活満足度総得点は平均4.4 ± 1.6点であった．生活満足度得点の高群は14名で生活満足度総得点平均5.8 ± 0.8点，低群は11 名で3.0 ± 1.0点であった．高群･低群の2群間比較では，因子｢人生全体についての満足感｣，｢心理的安定｣は高群の方が低群に比べ有意に得点が高く，「老いについての評価」では有意差は認められなかった．生活満足度総得点では，高群の方が低群に比べ有意に高かった．以上のことから，胃切除術後患者の生活満足度は，健康に生活している人々と比較しても得点に大きな違いはなく，術後1ヶ月の人々では食の変化のおよぼす主観的な生活満足度への影響は少ないことが明らかになった．　The aim of the present study was to clarify subjective life satisfaction in patients aftergastrectomy with respect to the effects of changes in patients’ diets. The subjects were 25 patients　who had undergone operation for stomach cancer within the preceding month at 2　hospitals, a university hospital and a general hospital. A survey was conducted by self-administered questionnaire on patients’ first outpatient visit since leaving the hospital following the operation. The Life Satisfaction Index K developed by Koyano et al. was used in the investigation. The subjects were divided into 2 groups using the median value for life satisfaction as the cutoff point. The groups were a high group with a score of ≥ 5 and a low group with a score of <5. The groups were then compared using the χ 2 test and Mann-Whitney U test with statistical analysis software PASW Ver. 18 for Windows. The subjects were 21 men （84.0%） and 4 woman （16.0%）, with a mean age of 62.2 ± 10.3 years（SD）. All subjects lived with family members. There were none who lived alone. Sixteen were employed and 9 were not. The surgical procedure was distal gastrectomy in 12 patients and total gastric resection in 13 patients. There were 3 factors for life satisfaction,“ satisfaction with entire life,”“ psychological stability,” and “assessment on aging,” for which the mean scores were 1.9 ± 0.9, 1.8 ± 0.9, and 0.8 ± 0.7, respectively. The mean total score for life satisfaction was 4.4 ± 1.6. The 14 patients of the high life satisfaction score group had a mean total score for life satisfaction of 5.8±0.8. The mean total score for the 11 patients of the low group was 3.0 ± 1.0. A comparison of the 2 groups revealed that the life satisfaction score was significantly higher in the high group than in the low group. There was not a large difference in a comparison between the life satisfaction of patients following gastrectomy and that of healthy people. This demonstrates that changes in diet do not have a large effect on subjective life satisfaction of patients 1 month after gastrectomy

Current status of tertiary debulking surgery and prognosis after secondary debulking surgery for recurrent Müllerian epithelial cancer in Japan: a retrospective analysis of 164 patients (KCOG-G1402)

BackgroundThis study aimed to evaluate the current status of secondary debulking surgery (SDS) and tertiary debulking surgery (TDS; performed for recurrence after SDS) and to assess the overall survival after recurrence of Müllerian epithelial cancer in Japan. We also evaluated the data of patients who underwent a fourth debulking surgery (i.e., quaternary debulking surgery (QDS)).MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study of 164 patients with recurrent Müllerian epithelial cancers (i.e., ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal cancers). The SDS was performed between January 2000 and September 2014 in 20 Japanese hospitals. Clinicopathological data were collected and analyzed.ResultsOf the 164 patients, 66 patients did not have a recurrence or died after SDS. Ninety-eight patients had a recurrence after SDS. Forty-three of the 98 patients underwent TDS; 55 of the 98 patients did not undergo TDS and were classified into the non-TDS group. The overall survival (OS) after SDS was significantly better in the TDS group than in the non-TDS group. The median OS after SDS was 123 and 42 months in the TDS group and non-TDS group, respectively. Of the 43 patients who received TDS, 11 patients were further treated with QDS. The median OS after SDS was 123 months for patients who underwent QDS.ConclusionsThis multicenter study on the prognosis of post-SDS is apparently the first report on QDS in Japan. Patients undergoing TDS have a good prognosis, compared to patients in the non-TDS group. Novel drugs are being evaluated; however, debulking surgery remains a necessary treatment for recurrence

The 3rd DBCLS BioHackathon: improving life science data integration with Semantic Web technologies.

BACKGROUND: BioHackathon 2010 was the third in a series of meetings hosted by the Database Center for Life Sciences (DBCLS) in Tokyo, Japan. The overall goal of the BioHackathon series is to improve the quality and accessibility of life science research data on the Web by bringing together representatives from public databases, analytical tool providers, and cyber-infrastructure researchers to jointly tackle important challenges in the area of in silico biological research. RESULTS: The theme of BioHackathon 2010 was the 'Semantic Web', and all attendees gathered with the shared goal of producing Semantic Web data from their respective resources, and/or consuming or interacting those data using their tools and interfaces. We discussed on topics including guidelines for designing semantic data and interoperability of resources. We consequently developed tools and clients for analysis and visualization. CONCLUSION: We provide a meeting report from BioHackathon 2010, in which we describe the discussions, decisions, and breakthroughs made as we moved towards compliance with Semantic Web technologies - from source provider, through middleware, to the end-consumer.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

BioHackathon series in 2011 and 2012: penetration of ontology and linked data in life science domains

The application of semantic technologies to the integration of biological data and the interoperability of bioinformatics analysis and visualization tools has been the common theme of a series of annual BioHackathons hosted in Japan for the past five years. Here we provide a review of the activities and outcomes from the BioHackathons held in 2011 in Kyoto and 2012 in Toyama. In order to efficiently implement semantic technologies in the life sciences, participants formed various sub-groups and worked on the following topics: Resource Description Framework (RDF) models for specific domains, text mining of the literature, ontology development, essential metadata for biological databases, platforms to enable efficient Semantic Web technology development and interoperability, and the development of applications for Semantic Web data. In this review, we briefly introduce the themes covered by these sub-groups. The observations made, conclusions drawn, and software development projects that emerged from these activities are discussed

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

The Constrained Maximal Expression Level Owing to Haploidy Shapes Gene Content on the Mammalian X Chromosome.

X chromosomes are unusual in many regards, not least of which is their nonrandom gene content. The causes of this bias are commonly discussed in the context of sexual antagonism and the avoidance of activity in the male germline. Here, we examine the notion that, at least in some taxa, functionally biased gene content may more profoundly be shaped by limits imposed on gene expression owing to haploid expression of the X chromosome. Notably, if the X, as in primates, is transcribed at rates comparable to the ancestral rate (per promoter) prior to the X chromosome formation, then the X is not a tolerable environment for genes with very high maximal net levels of expression, owing to transcriptional traffic jams. We test this hypothesis using The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and data from the Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome (FANTOM5) project. As predicted, the maximal expression of human X-linked genes is much lower than that of genes on autosomes: on average, maximal expression is three times lower on the X chromosome than on autosomes. Similarly, autosome-to-X retroposition events are associated with lower maximal expression of retrogenes on the X than seen for X-to-autosome retrogenes on autosomes. Also as expected, X-linked genes have a lesser degree of increase in gene expression than autosomal ones (compared to the human/Chimpanzee common ancestor) if highly expressed, but not if lowly expressed. The traffic jam model also explains the known lower breadth of expression for genes on the X (and the Z of birds), as genes with broad expression are, on average, those with high maximal expression. As then further predicted, highly expressed tissue-specific genes are also rare on the X and broadly expressed genes on the X tend to be lowly expressed, both indicating that the trend is shaped by the maximal expression level not the breadth of expression per se. Importantly, a limit to the maximal expression level explains biased tissue of expression profiles of X-linked genes. Tissues whose tissue-specific genes are very highly expressed (e.g., secretory tissues, tissues abundant in structural proteins) are also tissues in which gene expression is relatively rare on the X chromosome. These trends cannot be fully accounted for in terms of alternative models of biased expression. In conclusion, the notion that it is hard for genes on the Therian X to be highly expressed, owing to transcriptional traffic jams, provides a simple yet robustly supported rationale of many peculiar features of X's gene content, gene expression, and evolution