2022-04-12

Association of maternal heavy metal exposure during pregnancy with isolated cleft lip and palate in offspring: Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) cohort study

suggested an association between perinatal exposure to heavy metals and cleft L/P in affected children. However, this association requires further investigation in a large cohort.
2022-03-31

Repeat conformation heterogeneity in cerebellar ataxia, neuropathy, vestibular areflexia syndrome

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.
2022-03-30

Analysis of humoral immunity against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants: a population-based prevalence study in Yokohama, Japan

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.
2022-03-30

HSP90 inhibition overcomes resistance to molecular targeted therapy in BRAFV600E mutant high-grade glioma

Purpose: Molecular targeted therapy using BRAF and/or MEK inhibitors has been applied to BRAFV600E-mutant high-grade gliomas (HGG); however, the therapeutic effect is limited by the emergence of drug resistance.