Spermatic Cord Lymphoma: A Case Report and Literature Review

Spermatic cord lymphoma is a rare lethal disease. It has a poor prognosis even in stage I or II disease when treated locally, therefore, multidisciplinary treatment for early stage is recommended. On the other hand, the treatment of choice for stage III or IV spermatic cord lymphoma remains to be determined. It is said that spermatic cord lymphoma is clinicopathologically similar to primary testicular lymphoma, therefore the treatment of spermatic cord lymphoma has often been determined by reference to the recommended treatment for primary testicular lymphoma. Here we report a new case of spermatic cord lymphoma, which was found in stage IV disease. We also review thirty-three cases which have been reported as spermatic cord lymphoma to date, and discuss treatment options

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

A concise in vitro model for evaluating interactions between macrophage and skeletal muscle cells during muscle regeneration

Skeletal muscle has a highly regenerative capacity, but the detailed process is not fully understood. Several in vitro skeletal muscle regeneration models have been developed to elucidate this, all of which rely on specialized culture conditions that limit the accessibility and their application to many general experiments. Here, we established a concise in vitro skeletal muscle regeneration model using mouse primary cells. This model allows evaluation of skeletal muscle regeneration in two-dimensional culture system similar to a typical cell culture, showing a macrophage-dependent regenerative capacity, which is an important process in skeletal muscle regeneration. Based on the concept that this model could assess the contribution of macrophages of various phenotypes to skeletal muscle regeneration, we evaluated the effect of endotoxin pre-stimulation for inducing various changes in gene expression on macrophages and found that the contribution to skeletal muscle regeneration was significantly reduced. The gene expression patterns differed from those of naive macrophages, especially immediately after skeletal muscle injury, suggesting that the difference in responsiveness contributed to the difference in regenerative efficiency. Our findings provide a concise in vitro model that enables the evaluation of the contribution of individual cell types, such as macrophages and muscle stem cells, on skeletal muscle regeneration

Quadratic Jahn-Teller effect of fullerene anions

© 2018 American Physical Society. The quadratic Jahn-Teller effect of C60n- (n=1-5) is investigated from the first principles. Employing the density functional theory calculations with hybrid functional, the quadratic vibronic coupling constants of C60- were derived. The warping of the adiabatic potential energy surface of C60- by the quadratic vibronic coupling is estimated to be about 2 meV, which is much smaller than the Jahn-Teller stabilization energy (≈50meV). Because of the selection rule and the vibronic reduction, the quadratic coupling slightly modifies the vibronic states of C60 anions. Particularly, in the case of C603-, parity and symmetry selection rule significantly reduces the effect of quadratic coupling on vibronic states. The present results confirm that the low-energy vibronic dynamics of C60n- is of pseudorotational type.status: publishe

Pluripotent Cell Models of Fanconi Anemia Identify the Early Pathological Defect in Human Hemoangiogenic Progenitors

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a disorder of genomic instability characterized by progressive bone marrow failure (BMF), developmental abnormalities, and an increased susceptibility to cancer. Although various consequences in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells have been attributed to FA-BMF, the quest to identify the initial pathological event is still ongoing. To address this issue, we established induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from fibroblasts of six patients with FA and FANCA mutations. An improved reprogramming method yielded iPSC-like colonies from all patients, and iPSC clones were propagated from two patients. Quantitative evaluation of the differentiation ability demonstrated that the differentiation propensity toward the hematopoietic and endothelial lineages is already defective in early hemoangiogenic progenitors. The expression levels of critical transcription factors were significantly downregulated in these progenitors. These data indicate that the hematopoietic consequences in FA patients originate from the early hematopoietic stage and highlight the potential usefulness of iPSC technology for elucidating the pathogenesis of FA-BMF