AMRC

Cerebellar ataxia, neuropathy, vestibular areflexia syndrome (CANVAS) is a late-onset, slow-progressing multisystem neurodegenerative disorder. Biallelic AAGGG repeat expansion in RFC1 has been identified as causative of this disease, and repeat conformation heterogeneity (ACAGG repeat) was also recently implied. To molecularly characterize this disease in Japanese patients with adult-onset ataxia, we accumulated and screened 212 candidate families by an integrated approach consisting of flanking PCR, repeat-primed PCR, Southern blotting and long-read sequencing using Sequel II, GridION or PromethION.

Background Little is known about the population prevalence of antibodies against emerging immune escape variants of SARS-CoV-2. Methods A population-based prevalence study was conducted in Yokohama City, the most populous municipality of Japan. Quantitative measurements of immunoglobulin G against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SP-IgG) and qualitative measurements of neutralization antibodies against the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants were performed.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there were concerns that suicides would increase due to changes in lifestyle that restricted human contact in schooling, employment, and social activities.

Background: Emergence of vaccine-escaping SARS-CoV-2 variants is a serious problem for global public health. The currently rampant Omicron has been shown to possess remarkable vaccine escape; however, the selection pressure exerted by vaccines might pave the way for other escape mutants in the near future.