Ammonolysis-free synthesis of La2O2CN2 by cyanamidation of La(OH)3 using urea, and its photoluminescence properties

A facile method was successfully developed to prepare lanthanum oxycyanamide, La2O2CN2. Urea was selected as a cyanamidation agent, instead of gaseous NH3 with graphite containers, to achieve a safe and simple synthetic strategy. Through the optimization of reaction conditions, including content of urea and heat-treatment temperature, single-phase La2O2CN2 could be obtained without any impurities. We also prepared a La2O2CN2:Eu3+ phosphor. The Eu3+-doped La2O2CN2 matrix showed a red emission. Furthermore, in comparison with La2O3:Eu3+, the photoluminescence excitation bands corresponding to the Eu3+–ligand charge transfer region were broadened. These results suggested that La2O2CN2 prepared via the urea route will offer superb application prospects for photoluminescence materials such as white light-emitting diodes.This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP17H05483 and JP17H03392. This work was partly supported by the Center for Functional Nano Oxide at Hiroshima University, Japan.アクセプト後にキーワードの変更あり

Urinary liver-type fatty acid-binding protein levels may be associated with the occurrence of acute kidney injury induced by trauma

IntroductionAcute kidney injury (AKI), with a fatality rate of 8.6%, is one of the most common types of multiorgan failure in the intensive care unit (ICU). Thus, AKI should be diagnosed early, and early interventions should be implemented. Urinary liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP) could aid in the diagnosis of AKI.MethodsIn this prospective, single-center, observational study, we included 100 patients with trauma. Urinary L-FABP levels were measured using a semi-quantitative rapid assay kit 6 and 12 h after injury. Negative, weakly positive, and strongly positive urinary L-FABP levels were examined using two protocols. Using protocol 1, measurements were performed at 6 h after injury negative levels were considered “negative,” and weakly positive and strongly positive levels were considered “positive.” Using protocol 2, strongly positive levels at 6 h after injury were considered “positive,” and negative or weakly positive levels at 6 h after injury were considered “positive” if they were weakly positive or positive at 12 h after injury.ResultsFifteen patients were diagnosed with AKI. Using protocol 1, the odds ratio (OR) was 20.55 (p = 0.001) after adjustment for the injury severity score (ISS), contrast media use, and shock index. When the L-FABP levels at 6 and 12 h were similarly adjusted for those three factors, the OR was 18.24 (p < 0.001). The difference in ORs for protocols 1 and 2 was 1.619 (p = 0.04).DiscussionAssociations between urinary L-FABP and AKI can be examined more precisely by performing measurements at 6 and 12 h after injury than only one time at 6 h

Corrigendum: Retrospective cohort study to determine the effect of preinjury antiplatelet or anticoagulant therapy on mortality in patients with major trauma

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare outcomes among patients who sustained major trauma from injury with and without receiving antiplatelet therapy (APT) or anticoagulant therapy (ACT) to test the hypothesis that APT does not increase the risk of mortality. However, ACT increases the mortality risk in the acute phase of trauma. METHODS: Patients registered in the Japanese Observational body for Coagulation and Thrombolysis in Early Trauma 2 between April 2017 and March 2018 who had sustained a severe injury in any anatomic region of the body, as determined using an injury severity score (ISS) ≥ 16 were included in this retrospective cohort study. We analyzed the mortality within 24 h from the arrival using a multivariable linear regression analysis adjusted for several confounding variables. RESULTS: We identified 1,186 eligible participants who met the inclusion criteria for this study: 105 in the APT (cases), 1,081 in the non-antiplatelet therapy (nAPT) group (controls), 65 in the ACT (cases), and 1,121 in the non-anticoagulant therapy (nACT) group (controls). The mortality within 24 h in the ACT group was significantly higher than in the nACT group (odds ratio 4.5; 95%CI: 1.2–16.79; p = 0.025); however, there was no significant difference between the two groups with or without the antiplatelet drug (odds ratio 0.32; 95%CI: 0.04–2.79; p = 0.3) administration. Other outcomes, like the 28-day mortality, mortality at discharge, and surgery for hemostasis, were not significantly different between regular users and non-users of either antiplatelet or anticoagulant drugs. CONCLUSION: Regular antiplatelet medications did not increase mortality within 24 h, 28 days, or at discharge in patients with major trauma, suggesting that standard treatment, including surgery, is sufficient

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

CEREBROSPINAL FLUID DYNAMICS IN THE FIELD OF NEUROSURGERY

Alteration in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation was studied in 62 patients with neurosurgical diseases by CT cisternography using a water-soluble contrast medium, metrizamide, and also with radionuclide (169Yb- or 111In-DTPA) cisternography. As a rule, the patterns of both methods were in good agreement. The findings were classified into 3 types and 5 subdivisions. CT cisternography is useful for sequential observation of the CSF circulation with detailed morphological definition, and radionuclide cisternography is useful for observing the general flow of CSF. Some patients with hydrocephalus showed hypodensity around the ventricle, where migration of metrizamide was observed on CT images after its ventricular reflux. This suggests an increased transependymal resorption of CSF. The mathematical analysis of attenuation coefficients on CT cisternography provided more objective and quantitative data for study of CSF dynamics

The endothelial glycocalyx—All the same? No, it is not

Abstract The endothelial glycocalyx covers the lumen of blood vessels throughout the body and plays an important role in endothelial homeostasis. Advances in electron microscopy techniques have provided clues to better understand the structure and composition of identical vascular endothelial glycocalyx. The morphology and thickness of the endothelial glycocalyx differ from organ to organ. The content of the endothelial glycocalyx covering the vascular lumen differs even in the brain, heart, and lungs, which have the same continuous capillaries. Various types of inflammation are known to attenuate the endothelial glycocalyx; however, we found that the morphology of the glycocalyx damaged by acute inflammation differed from that damaged by chronic inflammation. Acute inflammation breaks the endothelial glycocalyx unevenly, whereas chronic inflammation leads to the overall shortening of the endothelial glycocalyx. The same drug has different effects on the endothelial glycocalyx, depending on the location of the target blood vessels. This difference in response may reflect not only the size and shape of the endothelial glycocalyx but also the different constituents. In the cardiac tissue, the expression of glypican‐1, a core protein of the endothelial glycocalyx, was enhanced. By contrast, in the pulmonary tissue, the expression of heparan sulfate 6‐O‐sulfotransferase 1 and endothelial cell‐specific molecule‐1 significantly increased in the treatment group compared with that in the no‐treatment group. In this review, we present the latest findings on the evolution of the vascular endothelial glycocalyx and consider the microstructural differences

RADIOISOTOPE SCANNING FOR THE SPINAL CORD TUMOR

Radioisotope scanning with 99mTc-pertechnetate or 67Ga-citrate for the spinal cord tumors was reported. Six patients with spinal cord tumors including 2 ependymomas, 1 neurinoma, 1 metastatic medulloblastoma, 1 metastatic astrocytoma, and 1 metastatic pinealoma as well as 6 patients with non-neoplastic lesions were examined with this method. Two out of 6 cases with tumors showed positive scans and two equivocal scans. This new method is different from myeloscintigraphy and radioisotope angiography as already reported. It directly demonstrates tumor itself like brain scanning and is very useful as nontraumatic method for screening spinal cord lesions, especially in poor risk patient. The usefulness and limitation of this method are discussed