Treatment with gefitinib after erlotinib-induced liver injury: a case report

INTRODUCTION: Gefitinib and erlotinib have minor differences in their chemical structures, and thus it remains unclear whether the hepatotoxicity induced by one compound is affected by the other. The case of a patient who developed erlotinib-induced liver injury and was then treated with gefitinib without hepatic toxicity or disease progression is presented. CASE PRESENTATION: A 31-year-old Japanese woman, who never smoked and who was diagnosed as having lung adenocarcinoma with carcinomatous meningitis, was treated with erlotinib. She developed erlotinib-induced liver injury after four weeks of treatment. The treatment was stopped right away, but the symptoms of meningitis re-appeared immediately. Gefitinib treatment was started and continued without recurrence of drug-induced liver injury. CONCLUSION: Gefitinib appears to be a potential treatment option after erlotinib-induced liver injury

Coupling of codoped In and N impurities in ZnS:Ag: Experiment and theory

A vapor-phase-grown epitaxial ZnS:Ag layer simultaneously codoped with In and N on GaAs substrate exhibited a 436-nm light emission and p-type conduction with a low resistivity. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy revealed that the In 3d5/2 electron binding energy of the codoped ZnS:In,N layer was smaller by 0.5 eV than that of the ZnS:In independently doped layer, although the 2p3/2 electron binding energies of Zn and S of the codoped layer agreed well with those of the independently doped layer, respectively. The reduction of binding energy was ascribed to an increase in the electronic relaxation energy for core-hole states in photoemission and reflects a large charge transfer between the In and N atoms at the first neighbor sites through covalent sp3 bonding orbitals. An increase of the spectral intensity at around 4 eV relative to the valence band maximum observed for the codoped layer corresponds to a new state at –3.67 eV from the valence band maximum due to a strong coupling between the In 5s and N 2p orbitals at the first neighbor sites, derived from a first-principle band structure calculation for ZnS:(In,2N)

Oral pathobiont induces systemic inflammation and metabolic changes associated with alteration of gut microbiota.

Periodontitis has been implicated as a risk factor for metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, atherosclerotic vascular diseases, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Although bacteremias from dental plaque and/or elevated circulating inflammatory cytokines emanating from the inflamed gingiva are suspected mechanisms linking periodontitis and these diseases, direct evidence is lacking. We hypothesize that disturbances of the gut microbiota by swallowed bacteria induce a metabolic endotoxemia leading metabolic disorders. To investigate this hypothesis, changes in the gut microbiota, insulin and glucose intolerance, and levels of tissue inflammation were analysed in mice after oral administration of Porphyromonas gingivalis, a representative periodontopathogens. Pyrosequencing revealed that the population belonging to Bacteroidales was significantly elevated in P. gingivalis-administered mice which coincided with increases in insulin resistance and systemic inflammation. In P. gingivalis-administered mice blood endotoxin levels tended to be higher, whereas gene expression of tight junction proteins in the ileum was significantly decreased. These results provide a new paradigm for the interrelationship between periodontitis and systemic diseases

Memory-related gene expression profile of the male rat hippocampus induced by teeth extraction and occlusal support recovery

Objectives: The present study aimed to identify the effect of memory-related genes on male rats tested for spatial memory with either molar teeth extraction or its restoration by occlusal support using experimental dentures. Design: Memory-related genes were detected from hippocampi of male Wistar rats (exposed to teeth extraction with or without dentures, or no extraction (control)) (7-week old) after behavioural testing (via the radial maze task) using a DNA microarray. The time course of the expression of these genes was evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (on 49-week-old rats). Results: In preliminary experiments, to determine which memory genes are affected by spatial memory training, DNA microarray analysis revealed that thyrotropin-releasing hormone (Trh) and tenascin XA (Tnxa) were up-regulated and neuronatin (Nnat) and S100a9 were down-regulated after the maze training. The expression of Tnxa, Nnat and S100a9 of 49-week-old rats (during the time course) via quantitative real-time PCR was consistent with the results of microarrays of the preliminary experiment. Expression of Trh that was evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR did not agree with the results for this gene from the microarray for all groups. Therefore, expression of Trh may have increased in only young, trained rats. The expression of S100a9 prior to the maze task was down-regulated in only the extraction group. Conclusion: These results demonstrated that Trh, Tnxa and Nnat genes were affected according to the degree of memory in male rats. This study also indicated that S100a9 is a memory-related gene, which is affected by the presence of occlusal support

RARGE: a large-scale database of RIKEN Arabidopsis resources ranging from transcriptome to phenome

The RIKEN Arabidopsis Genome Encyclopedia (RARGE) database houses information on biological resources ranging from transcriptome to phenome, including RIKEN Arabidopsis full-length (RAFL) complementary DNAs (cDNAs), their promoter regions, Dissociation (Ds) transposon-tagged lines and expression data from microarray experiments. RARGE provides tools for searching by resource code, sequence homology or keyword, and rapid access to detailed information on the resources. We have isolated 245 946 RAFL cDNA clones and collected 11 933 transposon-tagged lines, which are available from the RIKEN Bioresource Center and are stored in RARGE. The RARGE web interface can be accessed at http://rarge.gsc.riken.jp/. Additionally, we report 90 000 new RAFL cDNA clones here