Net-TF-SW: Event Popularity Quantification with Network Structure.

Event popularity quantification is essential in the determination of current trends in events on social media and the internet. Particularly, it is important during a crisis to ensure appropriate information transmission and prevention of false-rumor diffusion. Here, we propose Net-TF-SW - a noise-robust and explainable topic popularity analysis method. This method is applied to tweets related to COVID-19 and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, which are two significant crises that have caused significant anxiety and confusion among Japanese citizens. The proposed method is compared to existing methods, and it is verified to be more robust with respect to noise.

CD147/Basigin Deficiency Prevents the Development of Podocyte Injury through FAK Signaling.

Podocytes, which are susceptible to injury by various stimuli and stress, are critical regulators of proteinuric kidney diseases, regardless of the primary disease and pathogenesis. We further confirmed a significant correlation between urinary CD147/basigin (Bsg) levels and proteinuria in patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. However, the molecular mechanism of podocyte injury involving Bsg is not fully understood. Here, the involvement of Bsg in the pathogenesis of podocyte injury was elucidated. Healthy podocytes rarely express Bsg protein. In two independent mouse models, including adriamycin-induced nephropathy and Nω-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-name)-induced endothelial dysfunction, Bsg induction in injured podocytes caused podocyte effacement, which led to development of proteinuria. Bsg silencing in cultured podocytes exposed to transforming growth factor-ß suppressed focal adhesion rearrangement and cellular motility via the activation of ß1 integrin-focal adhesion kinase-matrix metallopeptidase signaling. In addition, induction of vascular endothelial growth factor and endothelin-1, which are implicated in podocyte-to-endothelial cross-communication, was lower in the supernatants of cultured Bsg-silenced podocytes stimulated with transforming growth factor-ß. In this setting, Bsg may be involved in a physiological positive feedback loop that accelerates podocyte cell motility and depolarization. The current study thus suggests that Bsg silencing via suppression of ß1 integrin-focal adhesion kinase-matrix metallopeptidase signaling may be an attractive therapeutic strategy for the maintenance of podocytes in patients with proteinuric kidney diseases.

The clinical relevance of plasma CD147/basigin in biopsy-proven kidney diseases.

BACKGROUND: Precise understanding of kidney disease activity is needed to design therapeutic strategies. CD147/basigin is involved in the pathogenesis of acute kidney injury and renal fibrosis through inflammatory cell infiltration. The present study examined the clinical relevance of CD147 in biopsy-proven kidney diseases that lead to the progression of chronic kidney disease. METHODS: Kidney biopsy specimens and plasma and urine samples were obtained from patients with kidney diseases, including IgA nephropathy (IgAN), Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis (HSPN), diabetic kidney disease (DKD), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), and membranous nephropathy (MN), who underwent renal biopsy between 2011 and 2014. Plasma and urinary CD147 levels were measured and evaluated for their ability to reflect histological features. Disease activity of IgAN tissues was evaluated according to the Oxford classification and the Japanese histological grading system. RESULTS: In biopsy tissues, CD147 induction was detected in injured lesions representing renal inflammation. Plasma CD147 values correlated with eGFR in patients with inflammation-related kidney diseases such as IgAN, HSPN, and DKD. Particularly in IgAN patients, plasma CD147 levels were correlated with injured regions comprising more than 50% of glomeruli or with tubular atrophy/interstitial injury in biopsy tissues. Proteinuria showed a closer correlation with urinary values of CD147 and L-FABP. Of note, plasma and urinary CD147 levels showed a strong correlation with eGFR or proteinuria, respectively, only in DKD patients. CONCLUSION: Evaluation of plasma and urinary CD147 levels might provide key insights for the understanding of the activity of various kidney diseases.

CD147/basigin reflects renal dysfunction in patients with acute kidney injury.

BACKGROUND: Acute tubular necrosis (ATN) describes a form of intrinsic acute kidney injury (AKI) that results from persistent hypoperfusion and subsequent activation of the immune system. A glycosylated transmembrane protein, CD147/basigin, is involved in the pathogenesis of renal ischemia and fibrosis. The present study investigated whether CD147 can reflect pathological features and renal dysfunction in patients with AKI. METHODS: Plasma and spot urine samples were collected from 24 patients (12 controls and 12 with ATN) who underwent renal biopsy between 2008 and 2012. In another study, patients undergoing open surgery to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) were enrolled in 2004. We collected urine and plasma samples from seven patients with AKI and 33 patients without AKI, respectively. In these experiments, plasma and urinary CD147, and urinary L-fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP) levels were measured, and the former expression in kidneys was examined by immunostaining. RESULTS: In biopsy tissues of ATN with severe histological features, CD147 induction was strikingly present in inflammatory cells such as macrophages and lymphocytes in the injured interstitium, but not in damaged tubules representing atrophy. Both plasma and urinary CD147 levels were strikingly increased in ATN patients; both values showed greater correlations with renal dysfunction compared to urinary L-FABP. In patients who had undergone open AAA surgery, urinary and plasma CD147 values in AKI patients were significantly higher than in non-AKI patients at post-operative day 1, similar to the profile of urinary L-FABP. CONCLUSION: CD147 was prominent in its ability to detect AKI and may allow the start of preemptive medication.

Intravenously administered darbepoetin alfa once a week could maintain hemoglobin level more efficiently than once every 2 weeks in patients on hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND: Darbepoetin alfa, which has a much longer half-life than recombinant human erythropoietin, is used to treat renal anemia. However, there are few reports investigating the efficacy of darbepoetin alfa administered every 2 weeks (Q2W). METHODS: We performed the single-center, prospective, and randomized study in chronic hemodialysis patients. Clinically stable patients on hemodialysis were recruited, and darbepoetin alfa 15-40 microg/week was administered intravenously once a week (QW) to achieve a hemoglobin (Hb) level of 10.5-12.0 g/dl for 8 weeks prior to randomization. The patients were randomly assigned to 2 different dosing frequency groups: once a week (QW) or every 2 weeks (Q2W). We switched to a double dose in the Q2W group. We measured Hb level every 2 weeks and administered darbepoetin alfa to achieve an Hb level of 10.5-11.5 g/dl. The primary endpoints were the weekly dose of darbepoetin alfa administered at week 24. RESULTS: We assigned 19 and 20 patients into QW and Q2W, respectively. There were no significant differences between the groups in Hb, transferrin saturation, ferritin, and weekly dose of darbepoetin alfa at end of the baseline period. There was no significant difference in Hb level at week 24, at which time the weekly dose requirement and dose per dry body weight were much higher in the Q2W than in the QW group. CONCLUSION: Administration of darbepoetin alfa Q2W could maintain Hb level similarly to to that obtained QW, but we did not confirm efficiency at a higher dose requirement or blood pressure elevation.

Administration of alfacalcidol for patients with predialysis chronic kidney disease may reduce cardiovascular disease events.

BACKGROUND: Besides its effect on calcium metabolism, vitamin D may play a part in preventing the onset and progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. Only a few reports on the studies relating to whether vitamin D may reduce CVD events in patients with predialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) are available, and many ambiguities remain. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 665 patients with predialysis CKD. With log-rank test using the Kaplan-Meyer survival curve, comparison of incidences of CVD events, CVD-related mortality, and all-cause mortality were made between patients in the alfacalcidol treatment group (107 patients) in the predialysis stage to whom alfacalcidol 0.25-0.5 microg/day was orally administered for at least 24 weeks, and patients in the nontreatment group (558 patients) who received no administration of alfacalcidol or other type of activated vitamin D and its analogues. Patients to whom alfacalcidol administration was discontinued within 24 weeks as well as initiation of dialysis of <24 weeks were excluded for this study. Factors relating to CVD events were examined using Cox's proportional hazards analysis. RESULTS: The mean follow-up period was 55.1 +/- 38.9 months in the alfacalcidol treatment group and 41.9 +/- 38.4 months in the nontreatment group. CVD events occurred in 172 patients during the follow-up period, and 74 of those occurred during the predialysis period. In the alfacalcidol treatment group, the incidence of cumulative CVD events was significantly lower. In relation to all-cause deaths and CVD-related deaths, the cumulative mortality rate was significantly lower in the alfacalcidol treatment group during the follow-up period. Throughout the follow-up period, the association between CVD events and alfacalcidol use was detected when adjusted for age, sex, diabetes, hypertension, use of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and albumin and parathyroid hormone. CONCLUSION: These data showed that oral administration of alfacalcidol for predialysis CKD patients was associated with reduced risk for CVD.

Relationship between serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D and mortality in patients with pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND: It is known that vitamin D has many functions besides involvement in calcium metabolism. It has recently been recognized that vitamin D deficiency is associated with mortality, especially in cardiovascular disease (CVD). Vitamin D deficiency is common in end-stage renal disease, but develops from the early stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD). So we investigated whether the serum level of the activated form of vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D) affected mortality in patients with CKD stages 3 and 4. METHODS: Between January 1, 1995, and June 30, 2006 we measured serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D In 226 patients with CKD stages 3 and 4 and classified the results into two groups depending on whether the level was below (group I) or above (group II) 20 pg/ml. We ended the follow-up period on December 31, 2006. We compared all-cause and cardiovascular mortality between the two groups. We also examined predictors of mortality by using Cox proportional regression analysis. RESULTS: Two-hundred and twenty-six patients (67 men and 159 women, mean age 67.0) were registered in this study, and groups 1 and 2 comprised 84 and 142 patients, respectively. During the follow-up period 43 patients died. CVD was the major cause of death, followed by infectious disease. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve revealed that all-cause mortality was significantly higher in group I, but a significant difference between CVD mortality in the two groups was not demonstrated. By Cox proportional regression analysis, group I was related to all-cause mortality, but this was not proved to be an independent predictor. CONCLUSION: The results suggested that serum level of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D was associated with all-cause mortality in patients with CKD stages 3 and 4.

Allergy immunotherapy as an early intervention in patients with child-onset atopic asthma.

BACKGROUND: In patients with bronchial asthma an effective treatment is required at early stages of the disease to prevent irreversible structural changes of the airways. The objective of this study was to evaluate the beneficial effects of our routine immunotherapy as an early intervention on FEV1 in patients with child-onset atopic asthma. METHODS: Beneficial effects of successful immunotherapy on FEV1 were analyzed retrospectively in 43 unselected patients who received our routine standard subcutaneous immunotherapy with periodic FEV1 measurements and became asymptomatic. RESULTS: Although there was no significant correlation between the duration of asthma symptoms prior to immunotherapy and the changes in FEV1 before and after immunotherapy in 43 unselected patients, there was a significant inverse correlation between these two parameters in 23 patients whose asthma duration was less than 20 years. As the FEV1 increased after immunotherapy in all 14 patients whose asthma duration was less than 5 years, the 43 patients were divided into a group 1 including these 14 patients and a group 2 including 29 patients whose asthma duration was more than 5 years. The FEV1 decreased in 7 of the 29 asymptomatic patients in group 2. There was no difference in the initial FEV1 between the two groups, but the final FEV1 and the mean of the average increase in FEV1 per year by immunotherapy were significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2. CONCLUSIONS: Immunotherapy should be started as early as possible at the youngest age in order to increase a beneficial effect of successful immunotherapy on FEV1 improvement.