Dysfunction in Configural Face Processing in Patients With Schizophrenia

Background: Face recognition has important implications for patients with schizophrenia, who exhibit poor interpersonal and social skills. Previous reports have suggested that patients with schizophrenia have deficits in their ability to recognize faces, and because face recognition relies heavily on information about the configuration of faces, we hypothesized that patients with schizophrenia would have specific problems in processing configural information. Methods: We measured the performance of 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 normal subjects in a face-discrimination task, using upright and inverted pairs of face photographs that differed in featural or configural information. Results: The patients with schizophrenia showed disproportionately poorer performance in discriminating configural compared with featural face sets. Conclusion: The result suggests that the face-recognition deficit in schizophrenic patients is due to specific impairments in configural processing of faces

The Bilirubin Level is Negatively Correlated with the Incidence of Hypertension in Normotensive Korean Population

Reactive oxygen species have been known to be an important factor in the pathogenesis of hypertension. Bilirubin, one of the metabolites of heme degraded by heme oxygenase, is a potent anti-oxidant. We verified the effect of serum bilirubin level on the incidence of hypertension in normotensive subjects. We grouped 1,208 normotensive subjects by the criterion of the highest quintile value of serum bilirubin, 1.1 mg/dL. The incidence of hypertension was higher in group 1 with bilirubin less than 1.1 mg/dL than in group 2 with bilirubin 1.1 mg/dL or more (186/908 vs. 43/300, p=0.018). The relative risk for hypertension was 0.71 (95% confidence interval, 0.51-0.99), p=0.048 in group 2 compared to group 1 by Cox's proportional hazard model. Among the groups stratified by gender, smoking, and liver function status, the group 2 showed a lower risk of hypertension in females and in non-smokers. In conclusion, a mild increase within the physiological range of serum bilirubin concentration was negatively correlated with the incidence of hypertension. The effect of bilirubin on the development of hypertension was more evident in females and in non-smokers

Global Lysine Acetylome Analysis of LPS-Stimulated HepG2 Cells Identified Hyperacetylation of PKM2 as a Metabolic Regulator in Sepsis

Sepsis-induced liver dysfunction (SILD) is a common event and is strongly associated with mortality. Establishing a causative link between protein post-translational modification and diseases is challenging. We studied the relationship among lysine acetylation (Kac), sirtuin (SIRTs), and the factors involved in SILD, which was induced in LPS-stimulated HepG2 cells. Protein hy-peracetylation was observed according to SIRTs reduction after LPS treatment for 24 h. We identified 1449 Kac sites based on comparative acetylome analysis and quantified 1086 Kac sites on 410 proteins for acetylation. Interestingly, the upregulated Kac proteins are enriched in glycolysis/glu-coneogenesis pathways in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) category. Among the proteins in the glycolysis pathway, hyperacetylation, a key regulator of lactate level in sepsis, was observed at three pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) sites. Hyperacetylation of PKM2 induced an increase in its activity, consequently increasing the lactate concentration. In conclusion, this study is the first to conduct global profiling of Kac, suggesting that the Kac mechanism of PKM2 in glycolysis is associated with sepsis. Moreover, it helps to further understand the systematic information regarding hyperacetylation during the sepsis process. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.1

The Risk of Cytomegalovirus Infection in Non-myeloablative Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation Compared with Conventional Bone Marrow Transplantation

Non-myeloablative allogeneic peripheral stem cell transplantation (NST) is a novel therapeutic strategy for patients with hematologic malignancies. Whether non-myeloablative transplants are associated with increased risk of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections is unknown. To clarify this issue, we compared the outcome of CMV infection following 24 allogeneic non-myeloablative peripheral blood stem cell transplants and 40 conventional bone marrow transplants (CBT). The NST regimen consisted of busulfan (4mg/kg/day), fludarabine (30mg/m2) and anti-thymocyte globulin (10 mg/kg). Twelve patients (50%) in the NST group and 17 (43%) in the CBT group developed positive antigenemia before day 100 (p=0.60). The time to the first appearance of positive antigenemia was not different between these two groups (p=0.40), and two groups showed similar initial and maximal antigenemia values (p=0.56 and p=0.68, respectively). Only one case of CMV colitis developed in the CBT group whereas CMV disease did not develop in the NST group. Although statistically insignificant, the treatment response against CMV antigenemia using ganciclovir was in favor of NST group. In conclusion, there was no difference in the risk of CMV infection between NST group and CBT group. Further prospective and controlled study is needed to clarify the impact of non-myeloablative procedure on the outcome of CMV infection

Cancer development and mortality differences in patients with glomerulonephritis after renal biopsy: a single center retrospective cohort study

Background The association between glomerulonephritis (GN) and cancer has been well known for decades. However, studies evaluating long-term de novo cancer development in patients with GN are limited. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence of cancer development among patients with renal biopsy-proven GN during post-biopsy follow-up and the differences in outcomes according to cancer occurrence. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult patients who underwent renal biopsy at Seoul National Bundang Hospital between 2003 and 2017. After excluding 778 patients with age < 18 years, cancer diagnosis before or within 6 months after renal biopsy, immunosuppressant therapy before renal biopsy, or pathologic diagnoses other than GN, 822 patients were included in the analysis. Data on baseline clinical characteristics, renal biopsy results, and types and doses of immunosuppressant agents were collected from electronic medical records. The incidence of cancer was censored on the date when the first cancer was diagnosed. We evaluated rates of mortality and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) development during follow-up. Results During a mean follow-up period of 58.9 ± 44.5 months, 45 subjects (5.5%) developed de novo cancer. A comparison of clinical characteristics between subjects who did and did not develop cancer revealed that cancer patients were older and had higher comorbidities and immunosuppressant use. Overall, patients with GN had an elevated standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of 7.16 (95% confidence interval (CI): 5.22–9.61) relative to the age- and sex-matched general population. In particular, the SIR was significantly higher in GNs such as membranous nephropathy (MN), IgA nephropathy, lupus nephritis, and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard model revealed that patients with MN had an increased risk of cancer development, with a hazard ratio of 2.30 [95% CI: 1.06–4.98]. Patients with MN who developed cancer had a significantly higher risk of mortality (hazard ratio: 6.59; 95% CI: 1.22–35.56, P = 0.03) than those without cancer, but there was a non-significant difference in ESRD development. Conclusions: Patients with GN without concurrent cancer, particularly those with MN, have significantly higher risks of cancer development and subsequent mortality and should remain aware of the potential development of malignancy during follow-up

The heme oxygenase-1 genotype is a risk factor to renal impairment of IgA nephropathy at diagnosis, which is a strong predictor of mortality

The induction of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) ameliorates oxidative stress and inflammatory process, which play important roles in IgA nephropathy. We hypothesized length polymorphism in the promoter region of the HO-1 gene, which is related to the level of gene transcription, is associated with disease severity of IgA nephropathy. The subjects comprised 916 patients with IgA nephropathy and gene data. Renal impairment was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate less than 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) at diagnosis. The short (S: 28) (GT) repeats in the HO-1 gene was determined. The frequencies of S/S, S/M, M/M, S/L, L/M, and L/L genotypes were 7.2%, 6.9%, 3.1%, 30.8%, 22.7%, and 29.4%, respectively. The baseline characteristics were not different. In the S/S genotypic group, the renal impairment rate was 18.2%, which was lower than 32.2% in the group with M/M, L/M, or L/L genotype. The odds ratio of renal impairment in S/S genotype, compared to that in M/M, L/M, or L/L genotype, was 0.216 (95% confidence interval, 0.060-0.774, p=0.019). The HO-1 gene promoter length polymorphism was related to the renal impairment of IgA nephropathy at diagnosis, which is an important risk factor for mortality in IgA nephropathy patients