Skull Cryptococcal Osteomyelitis Complicated with Pulmonary Tuberculosis

A rare case of bone cryptococcosis solely involving the skull is presented. A 63-year-old man had received an antituberculous treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis. His initial symptom was a headache that was followed by a development of slow growing elastic soft mass in the right parietal region. CT scan showed a well-circumscribed smooth margined mass in the parietal bone associated with osteo lytic changes. On aspiration biopsy an abscess containing abundant Cryptococcus neoformans was observed. He was treated with drainage and irrigation of abscess and craniectomy of the right parietal bone. He also received 200mg of oral fluconazole. About half of the patients with skeletal cryptococcosis have underlying diseases that cause abnormalities of cellular immunity (e.g., lymphoma, leukemia, sarcoidosis, TB etc), or are receiving therapies that affect cell mediated immunity (e.g., a long-term steroid therapy). It is assumed that his cell-mediated immunity was decreased because of his low lymphocyte value and his underlying disease. Clinical and radiological manifestations of bone cryptococcosis are non-specific. It should be included in the differential diagnosis, especially in the patients with bone abscess who has underlying diseases

Facilitation of Th1-mediated immune response by prostaglandin E receptor EP1

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) exerts its actions via four subtypes of the PGE receptor, EP1–4. We show that mice deficient in EP1 exhibited significantly attenuated Th1 response in contact hypersensitivity induced by dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB). This phenotype was recapitulated in wild-type mice by administration of an EP1-selective antagonist during the sensitization phase, and by adoptive transfer of T cells from sensitized EP1−/− mice. Conversely, an EP1-selective agonist facilitated Th1 differentiation of naive T cells in vitro. Finally, CD11c+ cells containing the inducible form of PGE synthase increased in number in the draining lymph nodes after DNFB application. These results suggest that PGE2 produced by dendritic cells in the lymph nodes acts on EP1 in naive T cells to promote Th1 differentiation

Electrochemical Na-Insertion/Extraction Properties of Phosphorus Electrodes in Ionic Liquid Electrolytes

The electrochemical Na-insertion/extraction properties of phosphorus as a Na-ion battery anode in ionic liquid electrolytes were investigated by using a thick film without any binder or conductive additive. The ionic liquid with more electrochemically-stable cation structure, 1-((2-methoxyethoxy)methyl)-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide (Py1MEM-FSA), delivered a high reversible capacity of 310 mA h g−1 at the 100th cycle, whereas the phosphorus electrode in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide (EMI-FSA) showed a low capacity of only 110 mA h g−1. It was revealed that disintegration of the electrode after cycling was effectively suppressed by applying Py1MEM-FSA instead of an organic electrolyte including propylene carbonate (PC), and that a surface layer induced by the decomposition of EMI-FSA hindered Na-insertion into the active material layer. The performance obtained in Py1MEM-FSA was very superior to that in PC. We applied for the first time a closed-system fire-resistance test to the ionic liquid electrolyte for quantitatively evaluating its non-flammability. The Py1MEM-FSA-based electrolyte exhibited an excellent fire resistance in comparison with the PC-based organic electrolyte, which can be an advantage for realizing a Na-ion battery with a high-energy density and a high safety

Pharmacodynamic analysis of eribulin safety in breast cancer patients using real-world postmarketing surveillance data

Postmarketing surveillance is useful to collect safety data in real-world clinical settings. In this study, we applied postmarketing real-world data on a mechanistic model analysis for neutropenic profiles of eribulin in patients with recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Demographic and safety data were collected using an active surveillance method from eribulin-treated recurrent or metastatic breast cancer patients. Changes in neutrophil counts over time were analyzed using a mechanistic pharmacodynamic model. Pathophysiological factors that might affect the severity of neutropenia were investigated, and neutropenic patterns were simulated for different treatment schedules. Clinical and laboratory data were collected from 401 patients (5199 neutrophil count measurements) who had not received granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and were eligible for pharmacodynamic analysis. The estimated mean parameters were as follows: mean transit time =\ua0104.5\ua0h, neutrophil proliferation rate constant =\ua00.0377\ua0h−1, neutrophil elimination rate constant =\ua00.0295\ua0h−1, and linear coefficient of drug effect =\ua00.0413\ua0mL/ng. Low serum albumin levels and low baseline neutrophil counts were associated with severe neutropenia. The probability of grade ≥3 neutropenia was predicted to be 69%, 27%, and 27% for patients on standard, biweekly, and triweekly treatment scenarios, respectively, based on virtual simulations using the developed pharmacodynamic model. In conclusion, this is the first application of postmarketing surveillance data to a model-based safety analysis. This analysis of safety data reflecting authentic clinical settings will provide useful information on the safe use and potential risk factors of eribulin

Curated genome annotation of Oryza sativa ssp. japonica and comparative genome analysis with Arabidopsis thaliana

We present here the annotation of the complete genome of rice Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cultivar Nipponbare. All functional annotations for proteins and non-protein-coding RNA (npRNA) candidates were manually curated. Functions were identified or inferred in 19,969 (70%) of the proteins, and 131 possible npRNAs (including 58 antisense transcripts) were found. Almost 5000 annotated protein-coding genes were found to be disrupted in insertional mutant lines, which will accelerate future experimental validation of the annotations. The rice loci were determined by using cDNA sequences obtained from rice and other representative cereals. Our conservative estimate based on these loci and an extrapolation suggested that the gene number of rice is ~32,000, which is smaller than previous estimates. We conducted comparative analyses between rice and Arabidopsis thaliana and found that both genomes possessed several lineage-specific genes, which might account for the observed differences between these species, while they had similar sets of predicted functional domains among the protein sequences. A system to control translational efficiency seems to be conserved across large evolutionary distances. Moreover, the evolutionary process of protein-coding genes was examined. Our results suggest that natural selection may have played a role for duplicated genes in both species, so that duplication was suppressed or favored in a manner that depended on the function of a gene

The Japanese space gravitational wave antenna; DECIGO

DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. DECIGO is expected to open a new window of observation for gravitational wave astronomy especially between 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz, revealing various mysteries of the universe such as dark energy, formation mechanism of supermassive black holes, and inflation of the universe. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of three drag-free spacecraft, whose relative displacements are measured by a differential Fabry– Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch two missions, DECIGO pathfinder and pre- DECIGO first and finally DECIGO in 2024