The associations of the number of medications and the use of anticholinergics with recovery from tubal feeding: a longitudinal hospital-based study.

BACKGROUND: Several medications, such as anticholinergics, are considered to affect the swallowing function adversely; however, whether or not anticholinergics or polypharmacy should be avoided to prevent eating dysfunction in elderly populations remains unclear. We therefore examined whether or not the number of medications or the use of anticholinergics was associated with recovery from tubal feeding in elderly inpatients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective 1-year observation study in 95 Japanese hospitalized patients (83.3 ± 9.7 years old) receiving nutrition through a feeding tube. The anticholinergic cognitive burden scale (ACBs) was used as an index for quantifying the anticholinergic action. RESULTS: Thirty-six (37.9%) subjects recovered from tubal to oral feeding during the observation period. The logistic regression models showed that an increased number of prescribed medications and an increase in ACBs decreased the incidence of recovery from tubal feeding (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 0.66 [0.50-0.87], P = 0.003 and 0.52 [0.29-0.92], P = 0.024, respectively). Furthermore, the cumulative incidence of recovery from tubal feeding was significantly lower in the subjects who were given an additional ≥3 medications during the observation period than in those who were not (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval]: 0.08 [0.01-0.59], P = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that an increased exposure to medications, especially anticholinergics, may be an important factor interfering with recovery from tubal feeding in hospitalized elderly patients.

Processing of Japanese cleft constructions in context: evidence from event-related brain potentials.

Numerous studies have found "subject gap preference" in relative clauses and cleft constructions in English, French, and other languages. In contrast, previous studies have reported "object gap preference" in cleft constructions in Japanese. However, the effect of integrating a filler and its gap may be influenced by the effect of transitional probabilities, so previous studies confounded these two factors. This study explores processing asymmetries in Japanese cleft constructions by conducting an event-related brain potential experiment by controlling transitional probabilities. The results demonstrate that the subject gap preference in Japanese is well aligned with that observed in other languages, suggesting that subject gap preference is a universal aspect of language comprehension.

Evaluation of Antibacterial Drugs Using Silkworms Infected by Cutibacterium acnes.

Cutibacterium acnes is a causative agent of inflammatory skin diseases and systemic infections. Systemic infections caused by C. acnes are difficult to treat, and the development of a systemic infection model for C. acnes would be useful for elucidating the mechanisms of infection and searching for therapeutic agents. In this study, we established a silkworm infection model as a new experimental system to evaluate the interaction between C. acnes and the host, and the efficacy of antibacterial drugs. Silkworms infected with C. acnes died when reared at 37 °C. The dose of injected bacterial cells required to kill half of the silkworms (LD50) was determined under rearing conditions at 37 °C. The viable cell number of C. acnes was increased in the hemolymph and fat body of the infected silkworms. Silkworms injected with autoclaved C. acnes cells did not die during the study period. The survival time of silkworms injected with C. acnes was prolonged by the injection of antibacterial drugs such as tetracycline and clindamycin. These findings suggest that the silkworm C. acnes infection model can be used to evaluate host toxicity caused by C. acnes and the in vivo efficacy of antimicrobial drugs.

A novel silkworm infection model with fluorescence imaging using transgenic Trichosporon asahii expressing eGFP.

Trichosporon asahii is a pathogenic fungus that causes deep mycosis in patients with neutropenia. Establishing an experimental animal model for quantitatively evaluating pathogenicity and developing a genetic recombination technology will help to elucidate the infection mechanism of T. asahii and promote the development of antifungal drugs. Here we established a silkworm infection model with a transgenic T. asahii strain expressing eGFP. Injecting T. asahii into silkworms eventually killed the silkworms. Moreover, the administration of antifungal agents, such as amphotericin B, fluconazole, and voriconazole, prolonged the survival time of silkworms infected with T. asahii. A transgenic T. asahii strain expressing eGFP was obtained using a gene recombination method with Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The T. asahii strain expressing eGFP showed hyphal formation in the silkworm hemolymph. Both hyphal growth and the inhibition of hyphal growth by the administration of antifungal agents were quantitatively estimated by monitoring fluorescence. Our findings suggest that a silkworm infection model using T. asahii expressing eGFP is useful for evaluating both the pathogenicity of T. asahii and the efficacy of antifungal drugs.