Ellagic Acid Combined with Tacrolimus Showed Synergistic Cell Growth Inhibition in Fission Yeast.

Calcineurin (CN) is a conserved Ca2+-calmodulin activated protein phosphatase, which plays important roles in immune regulation, cardiac hypertrophy, and apoptosis in humans. In pathogenic fungi, CN is essential for stress survival, sexual development, and virulence. The immunosuppressant tacrolimus (FK506) is a specific inhibitor of CN in humans and fungi including nonpathogenic fission yeast. Although calcineurin inhibition by FK506 or CN deletion in fission yeast does not induce growth defects, treatment with some anti-fungal drugs such as micafungin and valproic acid, induced synthetic lethality with calcineurin inhibition. Here, we searched for the compounds that induce synthetic growth defects with CN inhibition in fission yeast. We found that ellagic acid (EA) preferentially induced growth inhibition in CN deletion cells. Consistently, co-treatment with EA and FK506 induced severe growth inhibition in the wild-type cells, whereas neither of the single treatment with each compound did so. Moreover, deletion of the calcineurin-regulated transcription factor Prz1 also induced a marked EA sensitivity. Intriguingly, EA also enhanced the growth inhibitory effect of other anti-fungal drugs, including micafungin and miconazole. Thus, our data suggesting the synergistic growth inhibitory effect of the calcineurin inhibitor FK506 and EA may be useful to understand the mechanism to overcome the antifungal resistance.

[A survey of medical information education in radiological technology schools].

The purpose of this study was to clarify actual conditions and problems in medical information education and to propose the educational concept to be adopted in medical information. A questionnaire survey was carried out by the anonymous method in June 2008. The survey was intended for 40 radiological technology schools. The questionnaire items were as follows: (1) educational environment in medical information education, (2) content of a lecture in medical information, (3) problems in medical information education. The response rate was 55.0% (22 schools). Half of the responding schools had a laboratory on medical information. Seventeen schools had a medical information education facility, and out of them, approximately 50% had an educational medical information system. The main problems of the medical information education were as follows: (a) motivation of the students is low, (b) the educational coverage and level for medical information are uncertain, (c) there are not an appropriate textbook and educational guidance. In conclusion, these findings suggest that it is necessary to have a vision of medical information education in the education of radiological technologists.

[Survey on medical information education for radiologic technologists working at hospitals].

Recently, the importance of medical information for radiologic technologists has increased. The purpose of this questionnaire survey was to clarify the method of acquiring skill in medical information for radiologic technologists from the point of view of the managers of radiology departments. The questionnaire was sent to 260 hospitals that had introduced picture archiving and communication systems (PACSs) for the person responsible for medical information in the radiology department. The response rate was 35.4% (92 hospitals). The results of this survey clarified that few hospital have staff for medical information in the radiology department. Nevertheless, the excellent staff who have the skills to troubleshoot and develop systems are earnestly needed in radiology departments. To solve this problem, many technologists should understand the content, work load, and necessity of medical information. In addition, cooperation between radiologic technologist schools and hospitals is important in the field of medical information education.