Denosumab-induced hypocalcemia in patients with solid tumors and renal dysfunction: a multicenter, retrospective, observational study.

BACKGROUND: Bone metastases are frequently observed in advanced cancer, and bone modifying agents are used to prevent or treat skeletal-related events. Zoledronic acid is contraindicated in patients with severe renal impairment (Ccr < 30 mL/min), but it is not completely known whether denosumab can be used in them. We aimed to determine the association between renal function and hypocalcemia development during denosumab treatment. METHODS: We included patients with solid cancer and bone metastases who started denosumab treatment between April 2017 and March 2019. They were classified into four groups based on creatinine clearance (Ccr; mL/min): normal (Ccr ≥ 80), mild (50 ≤ Ccr ˂80), moderate (30 ≤ Ccr ˂50), and severe (Ccr ˂30). Hypocalcemia was evaluated using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (v5.0) based on the albumin-adjusted serum calcium levels; its incidence (stratified by renal function) and risk factors were investigated using a Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Of 524 patients (age: 69 ± 11 years; 303 men), 153 had a normal renal function and 222, 117, and 32 had mild, moderate, and severe renal dysfunction. The albumin-adjusted serum calcium level was higher than the measured (total) calcium level in most patients. The incidence of grade ≥ 1 hypocalcemia was 32.0% in the normal group and 37.4%, 29.9%, and 62.5% in the mild, moderate, and severe renal dysfunction groups, respectively. It was, therefore, higher in the severe renal dysfunction groups than in the normal group (P = 0.002). The incidence of grade ≥ 3 hypocalcemia did not differ significantly among the groups. Pre-treatment low serum calcium levels and severe renal dysfunction were risk factors for hypocalcemia. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluating denosumab-induced hypocalcemia required albumin adjustment, and its incidence was high among patients with severe renal dysfunction. Reduced serum calcium levels and severely impaired renal function were associated with an elevated hypocalcemia risk.

Adverse Event Signal Detection Using Patients' Concerns in Pharmaceutical Care Records: Evaluation of Deep Learning Models.

BACKGROUND: Early detection of adverse events and their management are crucial to improving anticancer treatment outcomes, and listening to patients' subjective opinions (patients' voices) can make a major contribution to improving safety management. Recent progress in deep learning technologies has enabled various new approaches for the evaluation of safety-related events based on patient-generated text data, but few studies have focused on the improvement of real-time safety monitoring for individual patients. In addition, no study has yet been performed to validate deep learning models for screening patients' narratives for clinically important adverse event signals that require medical intervention. In our previous work, novel deep learning models have been developed to detect adverse event signals for hand-foot syndrome or adverse events limiting patients' daily lives from the authored narratives of patients with cancer, aiming ultimately to use them as safety monitoring support tools for individual patients. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to evaluate whether our deep learning models can screen clinically important adverse event signals that require intervention by health care professionals. The applicability of our deep learning models to data on patients' concerns at pharmacies was also assessed. METHODS: Pharmaceutical care records at community pharmacies were used for the evaluation of our deep learning models. The records followed the SOAP format, consisting of subjective (S), objective (O), assessment (A), and plan (P) columns. Because of the unique combination of patients' concerns in the S column and the professional records of the pharmacists, this was considered a suitable data for the present purpose. Our deep learning models were applied to the S records of patients with cancer, and the extracted adverse event signals were assessed in relation to medical actions and prescribed drugs. RESULTS: From 30,784 S records of 2479 patients with at least 1 prescription of anticancer drugs, our deep learning models extracted true adverse event signals with more than 80% accuracy for both hand-foot syndrome (n=152, 91%) and adverse events limiting patients' daily lives (n=157, 80.1%). The deep learning models were also able to screen adverse event signals that require medical intervention by health care providers. The extracted adverse event signals could reflect the side effects of anticancer drugs used by the patients based on analysis of prescribed anticancer drugs. "Pain or numbness" (n=57, 36.3%), "fever" (n=46, 29.3%), and "nausea" (n=40, 25.5%) were common symptoms out of the true adverse event signals identified by the model for adverse events limiting patients' daily lives. CONCLUSIONS: Our deep learning models were able to screen clinically important adverse event signals that require intervention for symptoms. It was also confirmed that these deep learning models could be applied to patients' subjective information recorded in pharmaceutical care records accumulated during pharmacists' daily work.

The non-Ig parts of the VpreB and λ5 proteins of the surrogate light chain play opposite roles in the surface representation of the precursor B cell receptor.

The VpreB and λ5 proteins, together with Igµ-H chains, form precursor BCRs (preBCRs). We established λ5(-/-)/VpreB1(-/-)/VpreB2(-/-) Abelson virus-transformed cell lines and reconstituted these cells with λ5 and VpreB in wild-type form or with a deleted non-Ig part. Whenever preBCRs had the non-Ig part of λ5 deleted, surface deposition was increased, whereas deletion of VpreB non-Ig part decreased it. The levels of phosphorylation of Syk, SLP65, or PLC-γ2, and of Ca(2+) mobilization from intracellular stores, stimulated by µH chain crosslinking Ab were dependent on the levels of surface-bound preBCRs. It appears that VpreB probes the fitness of newly generated VH domains of IgH chains for later pairing with IgL chains, and its non-Ig part fixes the preBCRs on the surface. By contrast, the non-Ig part of λ5 crosslinks preBCRs for downregulation and stimulation.

A cross-sectional survey of hepatitis B virus screening in patients who received immunosuppressive therapy for rheumatoid arthritis in Japan.

BACKGROUND: Patients with a history of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection who are receiving immunosuppressive therapy are at risk of HBV reactivation and disease. Therefore, HBV screening is required prior to administering antirheumatic drugs with immunosuppressive effects. This study aimed to determine the status of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb), and hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb) screening prior to the initiation of drug therapy, including new antirheumatic drugs, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: This retrospective cross-sectional study used data from April 2014 to August 2022 from the Japanese hospital-based administrative claims database. The inclusion criteria were rheumatoid arthritis and first prescription date of antirheumatic drugs. RESULTS: A total of 82,282 patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were first prescribed antirheumatic drugs between April 2016 and August 2022 were included. Of the eligible patients, 9.7% (n=7,959) were screened for all HBV (HBsAg, HBsAb, and HbcAb) within 12 months prior to the date of initial prescription. The HBsAg test was performed in 30.0% (n=24,700), HBsAb test in 11.8% (n=9,717), and HBcAb test in 13.1% (n=10,824) of patients. The proportion of patients screened for HBV infection has been increasing since 2018; however, the proportion of patients screened for rheumatoid arthritis remains low. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that HBV screening may be insufficient in patients who received antirheumatic drugs. With the increasing use of new immunosuppressive antirheumatic drugs, including biological agents, healthcare providers should understand the risk of HBV reactivation and conduct appropriate screening.

Adverse event signal extraction from cancer patients' narratives focusing on impact on their daily-life activities.

Adverse event (AE) management is important to improve anti-cancer treatment outcomes, but it is known that some AE signals can be missed during clinical visits. In particular, AEs that affect patients' activities of daily living (ADL) need careful monitoring as they may require immediate medical intervention. This study aimed to build deep-learning (DL) models for extracting signals of AEs limiting ADL from patients' narratives. The data source was blog posts written in Japanese by breast cancer patients. After pre-processing and annotation for AE signals, three DL models (BERT, ELECTRA, and T5) were trained and tested in three different approaches for AE signal identification. The performances of the trained models were evaluated in terms of precision, recall, and F1 scores. From 2,272 blog posts, 191 and 702 articles were identified as describing AEs limiting ADL or not limiting ADL, respectively. Among tested DL modes and approaches, T5 showed the best F1 scores to identify articles with AE limiting ADL or all AE: 0.557 and 0.811, respectively. The most frequent AE signals were "pain or numbness", "fatigue" and "nausea". Our results suggest that this AE monitoring scheme focusing on patients' ADL has potential to reinforce current AE management provided by medical staff.

[Investigation and Improvement of Techniques That Affect the Amount of Dispersal during Preparation of Anticancer Drugs].

Many healthcare workers who handle anticancer drugs are at risk for occupational exposure. However, there are no established permissible limits for occupational exposure to anticancer drugs; thus, in this study, we aimed to search for and improve procedures that have a greater impact on the amount of spatter for handling anticancer drugs in vials, which are frequently used, based on the quantitative evaluation of the amount of exposure. We used sodium riboflavin phosphate (FMN) as a simulated anticancer drug and measured the amount of FMN dispersed to the handling area by the wiping method and the amount of FMN dispersed in both gloves using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FL). In this study, it was suggested that the overall amount of dispersal in the preparation process was affected by the different methods of injecting the drug solution into the infusion bottles and whether recapping. It was also found that the variation in the amount of dispersal differed depending on the selected preparation technique. It was suggested that the amount of dispersal could be reduced by selecting an appropriate dissolution method for multiple vials, recapping, an appropriate method for injecting the drug into the infusion bottle, and properly preparing the internal pressure of the infusion bottle. The results of this study suggest that there are some techniques and procedures in the preparation process of vials that have a significant effect on the amount of dispersal, and that proper implementation of these techniques can contribute to the reduction of dispersal.

Quantitative comparison of anticancer drug dispersal before and after introducing appropriate preparation procedures during anticancer drug preparation.

BACKGROUND: In Japan, engineering controls for preparing injectable anticancer drugs are inadequate and compliance with appropriate preparation procedures is vital. In this study, we evaluated the effects of adherence to appropriate anticancer drug formulation and packaging procedures on reducing anticancer drug dispersal in clinical practice, especially in Japan. METHODS: We quantitatively evaluated the effectiveness of implementing procedures that were experimentally verified to help reduce the amount of anticancer drug dispersed during preparation based on procedures described in the "Anticancer Drug Preparation Manual." The target facilities were four regional hub hospitals in the Kanto area. Contamination of sheets and gloves with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and gemcitabine (GEM) in a safety cabinet during formulation was evaluated using wipe tests. Subsequently, the proper preparation procedure was shown on a video, training was provided, and the wipe tests were repeated. RESULTS: Forty-one and 39 pharmacists were engaged in drug preparation before and after intervention, respectively. 5-FU had the highest dispersal per prepared vial on the sheet before intervention. The dispersal amount per prepared vial decreased significantly (P = 0.01) after intervention. The amount of GEM dispersed before and after intervention did not differ significantly. However, the percentage of sheets below the detection limit after intervention was 62%, increasing from 46% before intervention. The amount dispersed on gloves was not significantly reduced by proper preparation technique. Although not explicitly noticeable and quantifiable, pharmacists must consider that a significant amount of anticancer drug is dispersed on gloves despite following appropriate preparation procedures. CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative amounts of anticancer drugs dispersed in the preparations of 5-FU and GEM were found in our study. The difference in the amount of contamination before and after intervention was significantly reduced only for the contamination of sheets with 5-FU. There was no decrease in the amount of glove contamination. There was also no difference between medical facilities. Despite following appropriate preparation procedures, dispersed amounts cannot be maintained below the detection limit, indicating the need for a combination of education and engineering controls.

Melatonin stimulates transcription of the rat phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase gene in hepatic cells.

Melatonin plays physiological roles in various critical processes, including circadian rhythms, oxidative stress defenses, anti-inflammation responses, and immunity; however, the current understanding of the role of melatonin in hepatic glucose metabolism is limited. In this study, we examined whether melatonin affects gene expression of the key gluconeogenic enzyme, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK). We found that melatonin treatment increased PEPCK mRNA levels in rat highly differentiated hepatoma (H4IIE) cells and primary cultured hepatocytes. In addition, we found that melatonin induction was synergistically enhanced by dexamethasone, whereas it was dominantly inhibited by insulin. We also report that the effect of melatonin was blocked by inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (MAPK/ERK), RNA polymerase II, and protein synthesis. Furthermore, the phosphorylated (active) forms of ERK1 and ERK2 (ERK1/2) increased 15 min after melatonin treatment. We performed luciferase reporter assays to show that melatonin specifically stimulated promoter activity of the PEPCK gene. Additional reporter analysis using 5'-deleted constructs revealed that the regulatory regions responsive to melatonin mapped to two nucleotide regions, one between -467 and -398 nucleotides and the other between -128 and +69 nucleotides, of the rat PEPCK gene. Thus, we conclude that melatonin induces PEPCK gene expression via the ERK1/2 pathway at the transcriptional level, and that induction requires de novo protein synthesis.

Rise in Haemophilus influenzae With Reduced Quinolone Susceptibility and Development of a Simple Screening Method.

BACKGROUND: ß-Lactamase-nonproducing ampicillin-resistant Haemophilus influenzae are prevalent in Japan. Resistance has increased as a consequence of the expanded use of antimicrobial agents, raising concerns about the rise of multidrug (macrolide and fluoroquinolone)-resistant H. influenzae. METHODS: In this study, we investigated susceptibility to fluoroquinolones in H. influenzae clinical isolates from 2013 to 2014 and identified the amino acid substitutions in quinolone resistance-determining regions of gyrA and parC. RESULTS: All isolates (n = 145) were susceptible to fluoroquinolones; however, some showed reduced susceptibility. The minimum inhibitory concentration of levofloxacin for these strains was 0.063-0.5 µg/mL, and the strains harbored the amino acid substitution S84L in GyrA. Such strains have seen a significant increase. Importantly, all mutants from 2014 were isolated from pediatric patients. In addition, we developed a simple polymerase chain reaction-based screening method for detecting isolates with reduced fluoroquinolone susceptibility. CONCLUSIONS: The mutation in GyrA is important as a first step in the development of fluoroquinolone resistance. Hence, detection of reduced susceptible strains may influence the choice of antimicrobial treatment.

5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxyamide-1-ß-D-ribofranoside stimulates the rat enhancer of split- and hairy-related protein-2 gene via atypical protein kinase C lambda.

The 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) functions as a cellular energy sensor. 5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxyamide-1-ß-D-ribofranoside (AICAR) is a chemical activator of AMPK. In the liver, AICAR suppresses expression of thephosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase(PEPCK) gene. The rat enhancer of split- and hairy-related protein-2 (SHARP-2) is an insulin-inducible transcriptional repressor and its target is thePEPCKgene. In this study, we examined an issue of whether theSHARP-2gene expression is regulated by AICAR via the AMPK. AICAR increased the level of SHARP-2 mRNA in H4IIE cells. Whereas an AMPK inhibitor, compound-C, had no effects on the AICAR-induction, inhibitors for both phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-K) and protein kinase C (PKC) completely diminished the effects of AICAR. Western blot analyses showed that AICAR rapidly activated atypical PKC lambda (aPKCλ). In addition, when a dominant negative form of aPKCλ was expressed, the induction of SHARP-2 mRNA level by AICAR was inhibited. Calcium ion is not required for the activation of aPKCλ. A calcium ion-chelating reagent had no effects on the AICAR-induction. Furthermore, the AICAR-induction was inhibited by treatment with an RNA polymerase inhibitor or a protein synthesis inhibitor. Thus, we conclude that the AICAR-induction of theSHARP-2gene is mediated at transcription level by a PI 3-K/aPKCλ pathway.

Time-resolved chemiluminescence of firefly luciferin generated by dissolving oxygen in deoxygenated dimethyl sulfoxide containing potassium tert-butoxide.

Chemiluminescence (CL) of firefly luciferin (Ln) consisting of red and green emission peaks can be generated by dissolving oxygen (O2) gas in deoxygenated dimethyl sulfoxide containing potassium tert-butoxide (t-BuOK) even without the enzyme luciferase. In this study, the characteristics of CL of Ln are examined by varying the concentrations of both Ln ([Ln]) and t-BuOK ([t-BuOK]). The time courses of the green and the red luminescence signals are also measured using a 32-channel photo sensor module. Interestingly, addition of 18-crown-6 ether (18-crown-6), a good clathrate for K(+), to the reaction solution before exposure to O2 changes the luminescence from green to red when [t-BuOK] = 20 mM and [18-crown-6] = 80 mM. Based on our experimental results, we propose a two-pathway model where K(+) plays an important role in the regulation of Ln CL to explain the two-color luminescence observed from electronically excited oxyluciferin via dioxetanone.

Reprint of: Environments of B cell development.

B lymphocyte development in the mouse begins with the generation of long-term reconstituting, pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells, over multipotent myeloid/lymphoid progenitors and common lymphoid progenitors to B-lineage committed pro/pre B and pre B cells, which first express pre B cell receptors and then immunoglobulins, B cell receptors, to generate the repertoires of peripheral B cells. This development is influenced and guided by cells of non-hematopoietic and hematopoietic origins. We review here some of the recent developments, and our contributions in this fascinating field of developmental immunology.

Environments of B cell development.

B lymphocyte development in the mouse begins with the generation of long-term reconstituting, pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells, over multipotent myeloid/lymphoid progenitors and common lymphoid progenitors to B-lineage committed pro/pre B and pre B cells, which first express pre B cell receptors and then immunoglobulins, B cell receptors, to generate the repertoires of peripheral B cells. This development is influenced and guided by cells of non-hematopoietic and hematopoietic origins. We review here some of the recent developments, and our contributions in this fascinating field of developmental immunology.

Time courses and time-resolved spectra of firefly bioluminescence initiated by two methods of ATP injection and photolysis of caged ATP.

The time-dependent characteristics of firefly bioluminescence initiated by manual injection of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into buffer solution containing luciferin (Ln), luciferase (Luc) and Mg(2+) were measured with a resolution of 10 ms, and compared with those obtained by photolysis of caged ATP. The time course depends on pH; both rise and decay rates decrease when pH is lowered from 7.8 to 6.8. In contrast, the parameter λ in the kinetic formula related to diffusion of ATP is almost independent of pH. The pH dependence of the time course of bioluminescence can be explained by the same pH tendency as the rate of ATP binding at the active site of Luc. The time-resolved spectra can be decomposed into two Gaussian components with maxima at 2.2 and 2.0 eV. At pH 7.8, the band at 2.2 eV is more intense than that at 2.0 eV for all three concentration conditions. At lower pH, the band at 2.2 eV becomes weaker than that at 2.0 eV. The intensity ratio of the 2.0 and 2.2 eV bands is constant for duration time of 600 s for both injection and photolysis experiments, and the above conclusions are unaffected by the concentration ratio [Ln]/[Luc].