Successful perioperative management of living-donor liver transplantation for a patient with severe methylmalonic acidemia: a case report

Abstract Background Methylmalonic acidemia (MMAemia) is a rare hereditary disease affecting organic acid metabolism. It causes recurrent metabolic acidosis and secondary mitochondrial dysfunction, resulting in a poor prognosis. Liver transplantation (LT) has been performed to facilitate the metabolism of organic acids and improve the prognosis of MMAemia. However, there have been few reports on perioperative management of LT. Case presentation A 22-month-old female with severe MMAemia was scheduled to receive LT to relieve recurrent metabolic acidosis despite dietary and pharmacological treatment. General anesthesia was maintained without propofol or nitrous oxide, which can worsen MMAemia-induced metabolic acidosis during anesthesia for LT. Strict metabolic and respiratory management enabled the operation to be successfully performed without metabolic acidosis. Conclusion Perioperative management of LT for MMAemia is challenging for anesthesiologists because of the possibility of serious metabolic acidosis. We succeeded in preventing metabolic decompensation by avoiding the use of propofol and nitrous oxide

Fermi surface of the organic superconductor (MDT-ST)(I3)0.417 reconstructed by incommensurate potential

The effect of incommensurate potential on Fermi surface (FS), which loses any translational symmetry in the energy bands, is investigated in the organic superconductor (MDT-ST) (I3) 0.417, where MDT-ST is 5H -2-(1,3-dithiol-2- ylidene)-1,3-diselena-4,6-dithiapentalene. The observed three fundamental Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations are explained by the reconstruction with the three times of the incommensurate anion periodicity. This unambiguously verifies the selection rule of the reconstructing vectors in incommensurate crystals. The angular magnetoresistance oscillations show that the FS has a p -type staggered corrugation with two nodes in the interlayer transfer integral

Charge transfer degree and superconductivity of the incommensurate organic superconductor (MDT-TSF)(I3)0.422

The influence of a small change of carrier number on the superconducting transition temperature Tc in the incommensurate organic superconductors is investigated for (MDT-TSF) (I3) 0.422 (MDT-TSF: methylenedithio- tetraselenafulvalene, Tc =4.9 K) in comparison with (MDT-TSF) (AuI2) 0.436 (Tc =4.5 K). Careful estimation of the degree of charge transfer by means of the Raman spectra as well as the Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillations indicates that the charge-transfer degree 0.422 for the I3 salt is obviously smaller than 0.436 in the AuI2 salt. According to the band calculation, the former salt has smaller density of states. However, the former salt exhibits higher Tc than the latter compounds, and this disagrees with the naive prediction of the BCS theory. The former salt shows considerably large effective cyclotron mass extracted from the SdH oscillations. These observations demonstrate that the strength of the many-body effect is the major factor that determines Tc in these organic superconductors

Secreted PD-L1 variants mediate resistance to PD-L1 blockade therapy in non–small cell lung cancer

International audienceImmune checkpoint blockade against programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1 often induces durable tumor responses in various cancers, including non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, therapeutic resistance is increasingly observed, and the mechanisms underlying anti–PD-L1 (aPD-L1) antibody treatment have not been clarified yet. Here, we identified two unique secreted PD-L1 splicing variants, which lacked the transmembrane domain, from aPD-L1–resistant NSCLC patients. These secreted PD-L1 variants worked as “decoys” of aPD-L1 antibody in the HLA-matched coculture system of iPSC-derived CD8 T cells and cancer cells. Importantly, mixing only 1% MC38 cells with secreted PD-L1 variants and 99% of cells that expressed wild-type PD-L1 induced resistance to PD-L1 blockade in the MC38 syngeneic xenograft model. Moreover, anti–PD-1 (aPD-1) antibody treatment overcame the resistance mediated by the secreted PD-L1 variants. Collectively, our results elucidated a novel resistant mechanism of PD-L1 blockade antibody mediated by secreted PD-L1 variants

A cross-sectional, multicenter survey of the prevalence and risk factors for Long COVID

Abstract Long-term sequelae of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) constitute Long COVID. Although Long COVID has been reported globally, its risk factors and effects on quality of life (QOL) remain unclear. We conducted a cross-sectional study using questionnaires and electronic medical records of COVID-19 patients who were diagnosed or hospitalized at five facilities in Japan. Responses were obtained from 285 out of 1,150 patients. More than half of the participants reported Long COVID symptoms of varying severity 1 year after COVID-19. Common sequelae included fatigue, dyspnea, alopecia, concentration problems, memory problems, sleeplessness, and joint pain, which often significantly reduced their QOL. COVID-19 severity was strongly associated with sputum production, chest pain, dyspnea, sore throat, and diarrhea, but not with fatigue, dysgeusia, anosmia, alopecia, and sleeplessness. Fatigue, dysgeusia, anosmia, alopecia, and sleeplessness affected the QOL among participants with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 during the acute phase. Moreover, these sequelae persisted for prolonged periods