Useful Measurement of Glucose Variability by Flash Glucose Monitoring (FGM) with the Efficacy of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) Inhibitor

Diabetes has been a crucial medical and social problem worldwide. For adequate nutritional therapy, there have been discussions concerning Calorie Restriction (CR) and Low Carbohydrate Diet (LCD). We have investigated glucose variability of diabetic patients applying CR, LCD, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and applied FreeStyle Libre which is flash glucose monitoring (FGM). The patient is a 40-year-old female with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), who showed BMI 20.7, postprandial blood glucose 257 mg/dL. HbA1c 12.1%, Glycoalbumin 31.6% (11.6-16.4), serum C-peptide 2.0 ng/ml and unremarkable data of liver function, renal, lipids. She was provided the intervention of three stages, which are i) CR with 60% carbohydrate in Day 1-2, ii) LCD meal with 12% carbohydrate in Day 3-5; iii) LCD + Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor (Ipragliflozin L-Proline 50mg) in Day 6-12. The glucose profile was measured by FreeStyle Libre Pro (Abbott) for 14 days. The daily profile of blood glucose was abruptly decreased on Day 6. Time percentage of satisfactory blood glucose 70-180 mg/dL (/24h) was 0%, 0%, 2%, 14%, 0%, 54%, 100% in Day 1-7, respectively. These results suppose the acute clinical efficacy of SGLT2 inhibitor, and this report would become a reference for future diabetic practice and research

Evaluating Insulin/Glucose Ratio Using Breakfast of Calorie Restriction Meal for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been a medical and social problem worldwide. For nutritional therapy, Low Carbohydrate Diet (LCD) and Calorie restriction (CR) have discussed for long, where authors continued clinical research. Subjects and Methods: Subjects were 68 patients with T2DM with 62.1 years on average. Methods included i) standard CR was provided a day with 1400 kcal and 60% of carbohydrate, ii) measurement of daily profile of blood glucose, iii) insulinogenic index (IGI) (0-30 mins) exam for breakfast including 70g of carbohydrate, iv) calculation of IGI by delta and Area Under the Curves(AUC). Results: Basal data revealed that HbA1c 7.9%, fasting glucose 163 mg/dL, average glucose in a day 210 mg/dL, M value 117 in the median. Increment of glucose/IRI was 48.0 mg/dL/8.6 μU/mL, respectively. Delta or AUC ratio of IGI was 0.14[0.08-0.26] and 3.3[2.5-5.2], respectively. There were significant correlations between M value and Delta or AUC ratio, with a higher coefficient in the latter. Discussion and Conclusion: IGI study in Meal Tolerance Test (MTT) would be useful for pancreas function evaluation. AUC ratio method has superiority than Delta ratio with higher correlation coefficient. Current results could be the fundamental data for the related range of research, and further development will be expected

Synthesis of Solution-Phase Phosphoramidite and Phosphite Ligand Libraries and Their In Situ Screening in the Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Addition of Arylboronic Acids

Herein, we report the automated parallel synthesis of solution-phase libraries of phosphoramidite ligands for the development of enantioselective catalysts. The ligand libraries are screened in situ in the asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed addition of arylboronic acids to aldehydes and imines. It is shown that the described methodology results in the straightforward discovery of leads for highly efficient enantioselective catalysts.

Index of C-peptide / glucose ratio for Carbo70 can be useful in clinical practice for diabetes

Background: Authors and colleagues have undertaken clinical research on Carbohydrate (CR) and Low Carbohydrate Diet (LCD) for years. We have proposed new evaluation method of insulinogenic index-carbohydrate 70g (IGI-carbo70). In similar way, C-peptide index for Carbohydrate-70 (CPI-Carbo70) is proposed in this report. Subjects and methods: The subjects were 37 patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and admitted for further evaluation and treatment. CR diet was provided on day 1 and 2, including 60% carbohydrates, 25% lipids and 15% protein with 1400 kcal/day. On day 2, breakfast with 70g of carbohydrate was provided, and glucose and C-peptide values were measured at 0 and 30 minutes. Results: Average HbA1c was 8.1 %, and Morbus (M) value was 70.5 in median. Glucose and C-peptide on 0--30min significantly increased as 163--195 mg/dL, 1.1--1.5μU/mL, respectively. CPI-Carbo70 was 1.94 in average and 1.54 in median. There were significant correlations between increments of glucose and C-peptide, and between HbA1c and CPI-Carbo70. Discussion and conclusion: CPI-Carbo70 was investigated and proposed. It may be useful for evaluating the function of the pancreas. This research would give the fundamental data for this field, and further research development will be expected in the future

Variants of C-C Motif Chemokine 22 (CCL22) Are Associated with Susceptibility to Atopic Dermatitis: Case-Control Studies

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin disease caused by multiple genetic and environmental factors. AD is characterized by the local infiltration of T helper type 2 (Th2) cells. Recent clinical studies have shown important roles of the Th2 chemokines, CCL22 and CCL17 in the pathogenesis of AD. To investigate whether polymorphisms of the CCL22 gene affect the susceptibility to AD, we conducted association studies and functional studies of the related variants. We first resequenced the CCL22 gene and found a total of 39 SNPs. We selected seven tag SNPs in the CCL22 gene, and conducted association studies using two independent Japanese populations (1st population, 916 cases and 1,032 controls; 2nd population 1,034 cases and 1,004 controls). After the association results were combined by inverse variance method, we observed a significant association at rs4359426 (meta-analysis, combined P = 9.6×10−6; OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.65–0.85). Functional analysis revealed that the risk allele of rs4359426 contributed to higher expression levels of CCL22 mRNA. We further examined the allelic differences in the binding of nuclear proteins by electrophoretic mobility shift assay. The signal intensity of the DNA-protein complex derived from the G allele of rs223821, which was in absolute LD with rs4359426, was higher than that from the A allele. Although further functional analyses are needed, it is likely that related variants play a role in susceptibility to AD in a gain-of-function manner. Our findings provide a new insight into the etiology and pathogenesis of AD

ERK2 phosphorylation of serine 77 regulates Bmf pro-apoptotic activity

B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) homology 3 (BH3)-only proteins represent a class of pro-apoptotic factors that neutralize pro-survival Bcl-2 proteins, and, in some cases, directly activate Bax. The mechanisms of control and the role of BH3-only proteins, such as Bcl-2 like protein 11 extra large and Bad are well studied. By contrast, relatively little is known about the regulation and role of Bcl-2 modifying factor (Bmf). The B-RAF oncogene is mutated in ∼8% of human tumors. We have previously shown that Bmf is upregulated at the transcript level and is required for apoptosis induced by targeting B-RAF signaling in tumor cells harboring mutant B-RAF. In this study, we show that Bmf is regulated at the post-translational level by mutant B-RAF-MEK-ERK2 signaling. Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK2) directly phosphorylates Bmf on serine 74 and serine 77 residues with serine 77 being the predominant site. In addition, serine 77 phosphorylation reduces Bmf pro-apoptotic activity likely through a mechanism independent of altering Bmf localization to the mitochondria and/or interactions with dynein light chain 2 and the pro-survival proteins, B-cell lymphoma extra large, Bcl-2 and Mcl-1. These data identify a novel mode of regulation in Bmf that modulates its pro-apoptotic activity in mutant B-RAF tumor cells

ORAI1 Genetic Polymorphisms Associated with the Susceptibility of Atopic Dermatitis in Japanese and Taiwanese Populations

Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. Multiple genetic and environmental factors are thought to be responsible for susceptibility to AD. In this study, we collected 2,478 DNA samples including 209 AD patients and 729 control subjects from Taiwanese population and 513 AD patients and 1027 control subject from Japanese population for sequencing and genotyping ORAI1. A total of 14 genetic variants including 3 novel single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ORAI1 gene were identified. Our results indicated that a non-synonymous SNP (rs3741596, Ser218Gly) associated with the susceptibility of AD in the Japanese population but not in the Taiwanese population. However, there is another SNP of ORAI1 (rs3741595) associated with the risk of AD in the Taiwanese population but not in the Japanese population. Taken together, our results indicated that genetic polymorphisms of ORAI1 are very likely to be involved in the susceptibility of AD

Consensus Paper: Cerebellum and Social Cognition.

The traditional view on the cerebellum is that it controls motor behavior. Although recent work has revealed that the cerebellum supports also nonmotor functions such as cognition and affect, only during the last 5 years it has become evident that the cerebellum also plays an important social role. This role is evident in social cognition based on interpreting goal-directed actions through the movements of individuals (social "mirroring") which is very close to its original role in motor learning, as well as in social understanding of other individuals' mental state, such as their intentions, beliefs, past behaviors, future aspirations, and personality traits (social "mentalizing"). Most of this mentalizing role is supported by the posterior cerebellum (e.g., Crus I and II). The most dominant hypothesis is that the cerebellum assists in learning and understanding social action sequences, and so facilitates social cognition by supporting optimal predictions about imminent or future social interaction and cooperation. This consensus paper brings together experts from different fields to discuss recent efforts in understanding the role of the cerebellum in social cognition, and the understanding of social behaviors and mental states by others, its effect on clinical impairments such as cerebellar ataxia and autism spectrum disorder, and how the cerebellum can become a potential target for noninvasive brain stimulation as a therapeutic intervention. We report on the most recent empirical findings and techniques for understanding and manipulating cerebellar circuits in humans. Cerebellar circuitry appears now as a key structure to elucidate social interactions