Ocular dominance affects magnitude of dipole moment: An MEG study

横浜栄共済病院脳卒中診療科・脳神経外科To investigate whether the ocular dominance affects laterality in the activity of the primary visual cortex, we examined the relationship between the ocular dominance and latency or dipole moment measured by checkerboard-pattern and magnetoencephalography in 11 right-handed healthy male participants. Participants with left-eye dominance showed a dipole moment of 21.5±6.1 nAm with left-eye stimulation and 16.1±3.6 nAm with right, whereas those with right-eye dominance showed a dipole moment of 18.0±5.2 and 21.5±2.7 nAm with left-eye and right-eye stimulation of the infero-medial quadrant visual field, respectively. Thus, the dipole moment was higher when the dominant eye was stimulated, which implies that ocular dominance is regulated by the ipsilateral occipital lobe. © 2010 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Characterization of Antimicrobial Resistance in <i>Serratia</i> spp. and <i>Citrobacter</i> spp. Isolates from Companion Animals in Japan: Nosocomial Dissemination of Extended-Spectrum Cephalosporin-Resistant <i>Citrobacter freundii</i>

In many countries including Japan, the status of emerging antimicrobial resistance among Serratia spp. and Citrobacter spp. in companion animals remains unknown because these genera are rarely isolated from animals. In this study, 30 Serratia spp. and 23 Citrobacter spp. isolates from companion animals underwent susceptibility testing for 10 antimicrobials. Phenotypic and genetic approaches were used to identify the mechanisms of extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESC). Subsequently, ESC-resistant Citrobacter spp. strains underwent multilocus sequence typing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). A significantly higher rate (34.8%) of ESC resistance was observed in Citrobacter spp. isolates than in Serratia spp. isolates (0%). ESC resistance was detected in five C. freundii strains, two C. portucalensis strains, and one C. koseri strain. All of the ESC-resistant Citrobacter spp. strains harbored CMY-type and/or DHA-type AmpC &#946;-lactamases. Three C. freundii strains harbored the CTX-M-3-type extended-spectrum &#946;-lactamases. Notably, the three blaCTX-3-producing and two blaCMY-117-bearing C. freundii strains (obtained from different patients in one hospital) had the same sequence type (ST156 and ST18, respectively) and similar PFGE profiles. We believe that ESC-resistant Citrobacter spp. are important nosocomial pathogens in veterinary medicine. Therefore, infection control in animal hospitals is essential to prevent dissemination of these resistant pathogens

Degradation of the Tumor Suppressor PDCD4 Is Impaired by the Suppression of p62/SQSTM1 and Autophagy

PDCD4 (programmed cell death 4) is a tumor suppressor that plays a crucial role in multiple cellular functions, such as the control of protein synthesis and transcriptional control of some genes, the inhibition of cancer invasion and metastasis. The expression of this protein is controlled by synthesis, such as via transcription and translation, and degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system. The mitogens, known as tumor promotors, EGF (epidermal growth factor) and TPA (12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate) stimulate the degradation of PDCD4 protein. However, the whole picture of PDCD4 degradation mechanisms is still unclear, we therefore investigated the relationship between PDCD4 and autophagy. The proteasome inhibitor MG132 and the autophagy inhibitor bafilomycin A1 were found to upregulate the PDCD4 levels. PDCD4 protein levels increased synergistically in the presence of both inhibitors. Knockdown of p62/SQSTM1 (sequestosome-1), a polyubiquitin binding partner, also upregulated the PDCD4 levels. P62 and LC3 (microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3)-II were co-immunoprecipitated by an anti-PDCD4 antibody. Colocalization particles of PDCD4, p62 and the autophagosome marker LC3 were observed and the colocalization areas increased in the presence of autophagy and/or proteasome inhibitor(s) in Huh7 cells. In ATG (autophagy related) 5-deficient Huh7 cells in which autophagy was impaired, the PDCD4 levels were increased at the basal levels and upregulated in the presence of autophagy inhibitors. Based on the above findings, we concluded that after phosphorylation in the degron and ubiquitination, PDCD4 is degraded by both the proteasome and autophagy systems

Effect of Patient-Participation Continuous Nutritional Counseling in Gastric Cancer Patients who Underwent Gastrectomy

Background: Body weight loss (BWL) and skeletal muscle loss (SML) are inevitable after gastrectomy for gastric cancer (GC), and can decrease patients’ quality of life (QOL) and survival. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the effect of perioperative and post-discharge patient participation in continuous nutritional counseling (CNC) on post-gastrectomy BWL and SML. Methods: Ninety-three patients with GC who underwent curative gastrectomy between March 2018 and July 2019 were analyzed. Patients received either pre-discharge nutritional counseling alone (control group, n=49) or patient-participation CNC (CNC group, n=44) after gastrectomy. Difference between percentage BWL (%BWL), percentage SML (%SML), and nutrition-related blood parameters between the preoperative values and those at 12 months after surgery were compared between the groups. Results: Compared with the control group, %BWL was significantly lower in the CNC group at 1 month (–6.2±2.5% vs. –7.9±3.3%, p=0.005), 6 months (–7.8±6.6% vs. –12.3±6.4%, p=0.001) and 12 months (–7.9±7.6% vs. –13.2±8.2%, p=0.002); and %SML was significantly lower in the CNC group at 12 months (–5.3±10.3% vs. –12.8±12%, p=0.002). Regarding nutrition-related blood parameters, change in total cholesterol was significantly lower in the CNC group than the control group at 12 months after surgery (p=0.02). Multivariate analysis identified no CNC as an independent risk factor for severe BWL (p = 0.001) and SML (p = 0.006) at 12 months after surgery. Conclusions: Following gastrectomy, patient-participation CNC prevented postoperative BWL and SML after surgery. These results support the induction of such a CNC program in these patients

A survey of proteases in edible mushrooms with synthetic peptides as substrates

The protease activities in six edible mushrooms were surveyed using synthetic fluorogenic substrates that have different specificities for each protease group. The activity was determined by measuring the fluorogenic intensity of the 7-amino-4-methylcoumarin (AMC) liberated by an enzyme. Various types of activities were found in all mushrooms, and their activities depended largely on the mushroom species, but also on the pH and localization. Flammulina velutipes and Pleurotus eryngii had the widest and highest proteolytic activities among the six mushrooms examined. The proteasome-like protease activities were generally much higher than those of other proteases. High caspase activities, which occur during apoptosis in cells, were detected in two mushrooms, F. velutipes and Hypsizigus marmoreus. The pH optima of the proteolytic activities were largely divided into two groups, acidic pH 5–6 for caspases and neutral to alkaline (pH 6.5–11) for the others. In F. velutipes, higher proteolytic activity was observed in the basement of the stem than in the cap and stem. Purification and characterization of protease were also carried out to identify a protease from Grifola frondosa using t-butyloxycarbonyl-Leu-Arg-Arg-4-methylcoumaryl-7-amide (Boc-LRR-MCA) as the substrate.autho