Involvement of an Oct4-related PouV gene, pou5f3/pou2, in neurogenesis in the early neural plate of zebrafish embryos.

In early vertebrate embryos, the dorsal ectoderm is induced by the axial mesendoderm to form the neural plate, which is given competence to form neural cells by soxB1 genes. Subsequently, neurogenesis proceeds in proneural clusters that are generated by a gene network involving proneural genes and Notch signaling. However, what occurs between early neural induction and the later initiation of neurogenesis has not been fully revealed. In the present study, we demonstrated that during gastrulation, the expression of the Oct4-related PouV gene pou5f3 (also called pou2), which is widely observed at earlier stages, was rapidly localized to an array of isolated spotted domains, each of which coincided with individual proneural clusters. Two-color in situ hybridization confirmed that each pou5f3-expressing domain included a proneural cluster. Further analysis demonstrated that anterior pou5f3 domains straddled the boundaries between rhombomere 1 (r1) and r2, whereas posterior domains were included in r4. The effects of forced expression of an inducible negative dominant-interfering pou5f3 gene suggested that pou5f3 activated early proneural genes, such as neurog1 and ebf2, and also soxB1, but repressed the late proneural genes atoh1a and ascl1b. Furthermore, pou5f3 was considered to repress her4.1, a Notch-dependent Hairy/E(spl) gene involved in lateral inhibition in proneural clusters. These results suggest that pou5f3 promotes early neurogenesis in proneural clusters, but negatively regulates later neurogenesis. Suppression of pou5f3 also altered the expression of other her genes, including her3, her5, and her9, further supporting a role for pou5f3 in neurogenesis. In vitro reporter assays in P19 cells showed that pou5f3 was repressed by neurog1, but activated by Notch signaling. These findings together demonstrate the importance of the pou5f3-mediated gene regulatory network in neural development in vertebrate embryos.

A case of successful concurrent anti-cancer treatment in a patient who developed follicular lymphoma during treatment with afatinib for advanced lung adenocarcinoma.

The present report describes the case of a 64-year-old woman with advanced lung adenocarcinoma expressing mutant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The patient developed follicular lymphoma during treatment with the EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor afatinib. Standard immunochemotherapy for follicular lymphoma was introduced in addition to continuing treatment with afatinib for lung cancer. Immunochemotherapy was effective and improved the patient's performance status while afatinib controlled the progression of lung cancer. Our case study suggests that it is safe to introduce standard immunochemotherapy for patients who develop malignant lymphoma while continuing treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors for lung adenocarcinoma expressing mutant EGFR.

Fulminant onset of insulin-dependent diabetes with positive anti-GAD antibody titers during treatment with nivolumab in a patient with NSCLC.

Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death-ligand-1 (PD-L1) inhibitors have been highlighted in the field of cancer treatment. The interaction between PD-1 and PD-L1 is thought to play an important role in the regulation of the self-immune tolerance mechanism, so blocking these molecules may cause serious immune-related adverse events (IrAE), including fulminant insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes. Here, we describe a patient with fulminant type 1 diabetes induced by nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody. The patient, a 78-year-old man, was being treated with nivolumab as a third-line treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. After three cycles, he experienced an abrupt flare-up of the blood glucose within half a day. His blood glucose further increased without clinical symptoms until his hospital visit. Laboratory data showed the complete exhaustion of intrinsic insulin and the elevation of serum antibody titer to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD). Although the patient was previously diagnosed with non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes, his disease activity had been well controlled with oral medication and low-dose insulin therapy until just before the flare-up. Because of the laboratory findings and the extremely rapid onset of hyperglycemia, a diagnosis of fulminant, rather than the rapid onset, type 1 diabetes related to nivolumab therapy was strongly suspected. Our case study indicates that fulminant hyperglycemia can occur extremely rapidly. The blood glucose of patients receiving PD-1 antibody therapy should be closely monitored.

Diastereoselective solid-phase radical addition to oxime ether anchored to polymer support.

Stereocontrol in radical reactions of oxime ether anchored to polymer support was studied. Highly diastereoselective solid-phase radical reaction was achieved by using triethylborane and diethylzinc as a radical initiator at low reaction temperature, providing a novel method for the synthesis of the alpha-amino acid derivatives with excellent diastereoselectivities.