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This study aimed to clarify the association between both hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and glucose transporter type-1 expression and survival outcome in advanced pharyngeal cancer without human papillomavirus infection.
Method
Twenty-five oropharyngeal and 55 hypopharyngeal cancer patients without human papillomavirus infection were enrolled. All patients had stage III–IV lesions and underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy or surgery. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and glucose transporter type-1 expression were investigated in primary lesions by immunohistochemistry.
Results
There were 41 and 39 cases with low and high hypoxia-inducible factor-1α expression, and 28 and 52 cases with low and high glucose transporter type-1 expression, respectively. There was no significant correlation between hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and glucose transporter type-1 expression. In univariate analysis, nodal metastasis, clinical stage and high hypoxia-inducible factor-1α expression, but not glucose transporter type-1 expression, predicted significantly worse prognosis. In multivariate analysis, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α overexpression was significantly correlated with poor overall survival, disease-specific survival and recurrence-free survival.
Conclusion
High hypoxia-inducible factor-1α expression was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis for advanced human papillomavirus-unrelated pharyngeal cancer.
The multiphase simulations are conducted with the kinetic-magnetohydrodynamics hybrid code MEGA to investigate the spatial and the velocity distributions of lost fast ions due to the Alfvén eigenmode (AE) bursts in the Large Helical Device plasmas. It is found that fast ions are lost along the divertor region with helical symmetry both before and during the AE burst except for the promptly lost particles. On the other hand, several peaks are present in the spatial distribution of lost fast ions along the divertor region. These peaks along the divertor region can be attributed to the deviation of the fast-ion orbits from the magnetic surfaces due to the grad-B and the curvature drifts. For comparison with the velocity distribution of lost fast ions measured by the fast-ion loss detector (FILD), the ‘numerical FILD’ which solves the Newton–Lorentz equation is constructed in the MEGA code. The velocity distribution of lost fast ions detected by the numerical FILD during AE burst is in good qualitative agreement with the experimental FILD measurements. During the AE burst, fast ions with high energy (100–180 keV) are detected by the numerical FILD, while co-going fast ions lost to the divertor region are the particles with energy lower than 50 keV.
We analysed associations between exposure to nightlife businesses and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 PCR test results at a tertiary hospital in Tokyo between March and April 2020. A nightlife group was defined as those who had worked at or visited the businesses. We included 1517 individuals; 196 (12.9%) were categorised as the nightlife group. After propensity score matching, the proportion of positive PCR tests in the nightlife group was significantly higher than that in the non-nightlife group (nightlife, 63.8%; non-nightlife, 23.0%; P < 0.001). An inclusive approach to mitigate risks related to the businesses needs to be identified.
The authors evaluated cerebral blood flow response in schizophrenia patients during face perception to test the hypothesis of diminished limbic activation related to emotional relevance of facial stimuli.
Method
Thirteen patients with schizophrenia and 17 comparison subjects viewed facial displays of happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear, and disgust as well as neutral faces using the Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion and Neutral Faces (Matsumoto and Ekman, 1988). Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal changes as the subjects alternated between tasks of discriminating sex with an interleaved reference condition.
Results
The groups did not differ in performance on the task. Healthy participants showed activation in the bilateral fusiform gyrus, medial temporal structures, occipital lobe, and inferior frontal cortex relative to the baseline condition. The increase was greater these regions in the right hemisphere than those in the left hemisphere. In the patients with schizophrenia, minimal focal response in the right fusiform gyrus, medial temporal structures, and occipital lobe was observed for the facial perception task relative to the baseline condition. Contrasting patients and comparison subjects revealed voxels in the left medial temporal structures, occipital lobe in which the healthy comparison subjects had significantly greater activation.
Conclusions
Impaired activation was seen in patients with schizophrenia for detection of facial attributes such as sex. Impairment in the medial temporal structure such as amygdale may lead to misunderstanding of social communication and may underlie difficulties in social adjustment experienced by people with schizophrenia.
Dietary intake of ω-3 fatty acids has been associated with a decreased lower risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Abnormal phospholipids metabolism in the brain has been shown to play a role in the pathophysiology of major psychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia, mood disorder. This study was conducted to determine whether essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (EPUFAs) levels in the erythrocyte membrane are correlate with severity of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), as well as cognitive function, in subjects with AD.
Methods
The protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Toyama School of Medicine.
Thirty out-patients (male/female = 6/24) with AD (n = 23) or amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI, n = 7) participated in the study. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) were administered to assess cognitive function and severity of BPSD respectively. Caregiver burden was assessed by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Caregiver Distress Scale (NPI-D). Fatty acids levels were analyzed using a gas chromatography system.
Results
Concentrations of EPUFAs and ω-3 fatty acids were positively correlated with MMSE score. Also, EPUFAs levels were negatively correlated with the NPI Global and caregiver scores. Specifically, EPUFAs levels predicted dysphoria, euphoria and apathy scores of NPI.
Conclusions
These results suggest that abnormal phospholipids metabolism provided a biological basis for BPSD and cognitive impairments of AD.
Previous studies have shown that the function of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is involved in the characterization of personality traits. FK506-binding protein 51 (FKBP51 or FKBP5) is a co-chaperone of heat-shock protein 90, and plays an important role in the negative feedback regulation of HPA axis function. It has been reported that a C/T single nucleotide polymorphism in the intron 2 of FKBP5 gene (rs1360780) affects FKBP5 protein levels and cortisol response to dexamethasone and psychological stress tests. Therefore, it is hypothesized that the FKBP5 polymorphism affects personality traits. In the present study, we studied the association between this polymorphism and personality traits in healthy subjects.
Methods
Subjects were 826 Japanese healthy volunteers. Personality traits were assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), and the FKBP5 genotype was detected by a real-time PCR and cycling probe technology for SNP typing.
Results
In total subjects, the group with the T allele predictive of impaired negative feedback regulation of the HPA axis had higher scores of harm avoidance (p = 0.043) and lower scores of cooperativeness (p = 0.019) compared to that without the T allele. The T allele was associated with higher scores of harm avoidance in females (p = 0.020) and lower scores of cooperativeness in males (p = 0.015).
Conclusion
The present study thus suggests that the FKBP5 polymorphism affects harm avoidance and cooperativeness in healthy subjects, with gender specificity.
Dopamine and norepinephrine are implicated in the characterization of personality traits. Dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH) is the enzyme responsible for conversion of dopamine to norepinephrine. Previous studies have shown that the -1021C/T polymorphism of the DBH gene promoter influences plasma DBH activity. Few studies investigated the association between this polymorphism and personality traits.
Aim
To examine the association between the -1021C/T DBH polymorphism and personality traits in healthy volunteers.
Methods
The participants were 627 Japanese unrelated volunteers. The subjects with present psychiatric disorders or past history of psychiatric disorders according to the DSM-IV were excluded. The DBH genotypes were identified by a PCR-RFLP method, and personality traits were assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Yamagata University School of Medicine, and all subjects provided written informed consent to participate.
Results
In the two-factor analysis of covariance with the DBH genotype and sex as factors and with age as a covariate, there was no main effect of the DBH genotype on any TCI score, while the interaction between the factors was significant in harm avoidance. In the post-hoc analysis, the group with the T allele predictive of lower DBH activity had higher scores of harm avoidance than that without the T allele in females (p=0.006), but not in males.
Conclusion
The present study suggests that the -1021C/T DBH polymorphism affects the personality trait of harm avoidance in healthy females.
Although longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have shown that various brain regions undergo progressive tissue loss during the early phases of schizophrenia, regional pattern of these changes remain unclear.
Methods
Longitudinal MRI data were obtained from 18 (12 males and 6 females) patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 20 (11 males and 9 females) healthy controls and at baseline and follow-up with mean scan interval of 2.7 years. To compare gray matter changes over time between patients and controls were evaluated with voxel-based morphometry (VBM) using SPM8 following the longitudinal DARTEL protocol.
Results
In both groups of patient and control longitudinal gray mater reduction was observed in various brain regions including lateral and medial frontal regions and superior temporal region. Excessive decrease in gray matter was found in patients as compared to healthy controls in the left superior temporal region and right inferior frontal region.
Discussion
Our findings suggest that there are differing longitudinal gray matter changes in patients with schizophrenia during the early phases of the illness as compared to healthy individuals.
Previous studies have shown that the function of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is involved in the characterization of personality traits. Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is the most important regulator of the HPA axis negative feedback system, and several polymorphisms of the GR gene are associated with altered glucocorticoid sensitivity. In the present study, we examined the associations between the GR polymorphisms and personality traits in healthy subjects.
Methods
Subjects were 880 Japanese healthy volunteers. Personality traits were assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Two polymorphisms of the GR gene, i.e., G/C SNP in the intron 2 (BcII polymorphism, rs41423247) and A/G SNP in the exon 9β (9β polymorphism, rs6198), were detected by a real-time PCR and cycling probe technology for SNP typing.
Results
The genotype distributions were G/G = 614, G/C = 240, and C/C = 26 for the BcII polymorphism, and A/A = 879 and A/G = 1 for the 9β polymorphism, respectively. There were no significant associations between the BcII genotype groups in any TCI dimension score.
Conclusion
The present study suggests that these two GR polymorphisms (BcII and 9β polymorphism) are not involved in the characterization of personality traits in healthy subjects.
In 2005, the Medical Treatment and Supervision (MTS) Act was enacted in Japan to hospitalize the criminally insane and to promote a self-supporting lifestyle after deinstitutionalization. As of October 2010, 490 patients remain hospitalized in 23 highly secure forensic hospitals. Most patients are diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia and exhibit symptoms of drug resistance. Battering is the most common criminal act they have committed.
The increased prevalence of the combination of criminal insanity with drug dependence is a common problem in other countries as well. It is a serious problem that diversity in prison medical care has not been achieved.
A characteristic feature of care for criminally insane patients in Japan is that they must live in a residential district where a public health center is located and close to forensic hospitals after deinstitutionalization. Although there may be concerns about social prejudice against psychiatric disorders, this limited area would help support rehabilitation of patients because medical staff can easily know the whereabouts, psychiatric condition and aspects, of daily life for each patient through frequent reports obtained from home-visiting nurses. As a result, patients who have been successfully deinstitutionalized lead a self-supporting lifestyle without treatment interruption or repetition of similar criminal acts.
In this presentation, we will show the current status of forensic care in Japan, analyze its characteristics and problems described above, and make suggestions for the treatment of the criminally insane in countries with a small national land area such as Japan.
The purpose of this study was to determine if perospirone, a second generation antipsychotic drug and partial agonist at serotonin-5-HT1A receptors, enhances electrophysiological activity, such as event-related potentials (ERPs), in frontal brain regions, as well as cognitive function in subjects with schizophrenia. P300 current source images were obtained by means of standardized low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) before and after treatment with perospirone for 6 months. Perospirone significantly increased P300 current source density in the left superior frontal gyrus, and improved positive symptoms and performance on the script tasks, a measure of verbal social cognition. Perospirone also tended to enhance verbal learning memory in patients with schizophrenia. There was a significant correlation between the changes in P300 amplitudes on the left frontal lead and those in social cognition. These results suggest the changes in three-dimensional distribution of cortical activity, as demonstrated by sLORETA, may mediate some of the actions of antipsychotic drugs. the distinct cognition-enhancing profile of perospirone may be related to its actions on 5-HT1A receptors.
There is a growing body of data suggesting the gene-environment interaction in the characterization of personality traits, but variation in ordinary parental rearing among environmental factors has not been focused yet. We examined the effects of the interaction between the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism and parental rearing on personality traits.
Methods
Subjects were 710 Japanese healthy volunteers. Perceived parental rearing was assessed by the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), which consists of the care and protection factors. Personality assessment was performed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), which has 7 dimensions, i.e., novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, persistence, self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence. The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism was detected by the PCR-RFLP method.
Results
Parental rearing has significant main effects on all TCI dimensions except novelty seeking, while no significant main effects of the BDNF genotype on the TCI scores were found. The interaction between the BDNF genotype and maternal care of the PBI had significant effects on harm avoidance and self-directedness of the TCI. Post-hoc analyses showed that decreased maternal care was correlated with increased harm avoidance and decreased self-directedness in most of the genotype groups, and for both personality traits the correlation was highest in the Met/Met genotype and lowest in the Val/Val genotype and that for the Val/Met genotype was in between the two values.
Conclusion
The present study suggests that the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism moderates the effects of parenting rearing, especially maternal care, on harm avoidance and self-directedness in healthy subjects.
It has been reported that certain personality traits are related to mortality and disease morbidity, but the biological mechanism linking them remains unclear. Telomeres are tandem repeat DNA sequences located at the ends of chromosomes, and shorter telomere length is a predictor of mortality and late-life disease morbidity. Thus, it is possible that personality traits influence telomere length. In the present study, we examined the relationship of leukocyte telomere length with personality traits in healthy subjects. The subjects were 209 unrelated physically healthy Japanese who were recruited from medical students at 4th-5th grade. None had psychiatric disorders. 128 subjects were males, and 81 were females. The mean±SD (range) of age was 23.3±1.7 (20-30) years. Personality traits were assessed by the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Leukocyte relative telomere length was determined by a quantitative real-time PCR method for a ratio of telomere/single copy gene. In the stepwise multiple regression analysis, shorter telomere length was related to lower scores of Neuroticism (β=0.208, p< 0.01) and Conscientiousness (β=0.146, p< 0.05) of the NEO-PI-R, and lower scores of Harm avoidance (β=0.144, p< 0.05) and Reward dependence (β=0.170, p< 0.05) of the TCI. The present study suggests that leukocyte telomere length is associated with some personality traits, and this association may be implicated in the relationship between personality traits and mortality.
It has been shown that certain personality traits are related to mortality and disease morbidity, but the biological mechanism linking them remains unclear. Telomeres are tandem repeat DNA sequences located at the ends of chromosomes, and shorter telomere length is a predictor of mortality and late-life disease morbidity. Thus, it is possible that personality traits influence telomere length. In the present study, we examined the relationship of leukocyte telomere length with personality traits in healthy subjects.
Subjects and methods:
The subjects were 209 unrelated healthy Japanese who were recruited from medical students at 4th–5th grade. Assessment of personality traits was performed by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Leukocyte relative telomere length was determined by a quantitative real-time PCR method for a ratio of telomere/single copy gene.
Results:
In the stepwise multiple regression analysis, shorter telomere length was related to lower scores of neuroticism (P < 0.01) and conscientiousness (P < 0.05) of the NEO-PI-R, and lower scores of harm avoidance (P < 0.05) and reward dependence (P < 0.05) of the TCI.
Conclusions:
The present study suggests that leukocyte telomere length is associated with some personality traits, and this association may be implicated in the relationship between personality traits and mortality.
Interpersonal sensitivity is defined as undue and excessive awareness of, and sensitivity to, the behavior and feelings of others and is one of the vulnerable factors to depression. In a twin study, it was suggested that this personality trait was characterized by both genetic and environmental factors. In the present study, we examined the effects of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism and parental rearing on interpersonal sensitivity. The subjects were 725 unrelated healthy Japanese volunteers (mean age±SD=27.1±8.5, 405 males and 320 females). Assessment of interpersonal sensitivity was performed by the Japanese version of the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM). Perceived parental rearing was assessed by the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), which consists of the care and protection factors. The BDNF polymorphism was detected by the PCR-RFLP method. There was no main effect of the BDNF genotype on the IPSM score, while the PBI factors except maternal care had significant main effect on the IPSM score. There was significant interaction effect between the BDNF genotype and maternal care of the PBI on the IPSM score. Post-hoc analysis of simple slopes showed that the negative relationship between the IPSM score and maternal care was strongest and significant in the Met/Met genotype group, intermediate in the Val/Met genotype group, and weakest in the Val/Val genotype group. The present study suggests that the interaction between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and parental rearing, especially maternal care, influences interpersonal sensitivity in healthy subjects.
Although treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) is a highly heterogeneous disorder, an established and efficacious treatment for those patients to date is pharmacotherapy with clozapine. Dopamine supersensitivity psychosis (DSP) is characterized by profound unstable positive symptoms and tardive dyskinesia, and its mechanism is related to up-regulation of dopamine D2 receptors (DRD2) which can be induced by long-term treatment with antipsychotics. Patients with DSP take generally excessive high dosages of neuroleptics and thus meet easily the criteria of TRS. A drug with secure and stable pharmacokinetic, which can keep an appropriate blockade of DRD2, may contribute to amelioration and prevention of the dopamine supersensitivity state. Risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI) is a candidate agent which meets this hypothesis.
Methods:
For 115 patients with TRS, we divided them into two groups; the one is those with a history of DSP and the other is without DSP, and treatment with RLAI was conducted for 12-month duration. This is an observational study which did not control concomitant medications or dosage of RLAI.
Results:
Clinical symptomatology and medications at baseline did not differ between the two groups. The results from the final analysis for remaining 95 patients revealed that the group with DSP showed greater improvements in the change of BPRS total score than the group without DSP.
Conclusions:
These results suggested strongly that the dopamine supersensitivity state could be related partly with the etiology of TRS. An atypical agent with long half-life time such as RLAI, can provide beneficial effect for patients with DSP.
Impaired self-awareness has been noted as a core feature of schizophrenia. Recent neuroimaging studies examining self-referential process in schizophrenia have yielded inconsistent results. We aimed to examine the self-referential neural network using the self- and other-evaluation tasks in schizophrenia.
Methods
Fifteen schizophrenia patients and fifteen age-, sex- and parental education-matched healthy subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects were required to make a decision whether the sentence described their own personal trait (self-evaluation) and that of their close friends (other-evaluation).
Results
Both patients and healthy groups showed significant activation in multiple brain regions including the medial- and lateral-prefrontal, temporal and parietal cortices during self- and other-evaluation tasks. The control subjects showed higher activations in left posterior cingulate and parahippocampal gyri during self-evaluation than other-evaluation, whereas there was no difference in activated regions between self- and other-conditions in the patients. As compared with the controls, the patients showed higher activations in the right superior frontal and right supramarginal gyri during self-evaluation.
Conclusions
These findings provide evidence for neural basis for deficits in self-awareness in schizophrenia and may underlie core clinical symptomatology of schizophrenia.
P-glycoprotein, which is encoded by the multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) gene, serves as a barrier to entry and as an active elimination for xenobiotics and cellular metabolites including cortisol, which is implicated in multiple brain functions. Meanwhile, previous studies suggested that genetic factors and cortisol are involved in formation of interpersonal sensitivity, a personality trait predisposing to depression. In the present study, we examined the effects of the C3435T MDR1 polymorphism on interpersonal sensitivity. The subjects were 842 healthy Japanese volunteers. The mean age ±SD of the subjects was 26.7±8.1 (490 males and 352 females). The C3435T polymorphism of MDR1 gene was detected by a PCR method, and interpersonal sensitivity was assessed by the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM). In total subjects, the C allele of the C3435T MDR1 polymorphism was associated with higher scores of the IPSM. In females the C/C genotype group had higher IPSM scores than the C/T genotype group and the T/T genotype group, and the C/T genotype group had higher IPSM scores than the T/T genotype group. In males no significant association was found between the MDR1 genotype and the IPSM scores. The present study suggests that the C3435T polymorphism of the MDR1 gene affects formation of a depression-prone personality trait in Japanese females.
Children with Learning Disorders (LD) are susceptible to decreased self-esteem and willingness because of their difficulty learning, which can lead to exacerbation of the learning difficulty in a vicious cycle. Appropriate learning supports may help not only in terms of learning, but also psychologically.
Objectives:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological effect of learning supports for children with LD.
Aims:
The aims are to make clear that psychological changes occur for children by the learning supports.
Methods:
We conducted 10 learning support sessions for 12 children (age 8–11 years) diagnosed as LD. Afterward, we gave a questionnaire on motivation and self-efficacy in learning to the children and their parents, and a questionnaire on positive participation in class to the children's teachers.
Results:
The children's responses showed increased intrinsic motivation with high autonomy, and decreased extrinsic motivation with low autonomy and self-efficacy after supports. the parents’ responses indicated increased self-efficacy and decreased motivation overall after supports, while the teachers’ responses indicated increased positive class participation after supports.
Conclusion:
Parents and teachers see that willingness for learning improve through learning supports, but the children themselves feel decreased efficacy. At the same time, the children came to have more autonomous intrinsic motivation for learning. Both of motivation and willigness increased through learning supports, but conversely the children came to notice their own weaknesses (true abilities), which is thought to have led to decreased self-efficacy. with continuing support improvement of true efficacy may be expected.
Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is significantly affected in individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder (BD-I). The current study investigated whether symptomatic remission and resilience might differently impact HRQOL in these patients.
Methods:
Fifty-two patients with schizophrenia and 60 patients suffering from BD-I from outpatient mental health services as well as 77 healthy control subjects from the general community were included into a cross-sectional study. HRQOL and resilience were assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF and the Resilience Scale. In patients, psychopathology was quantified by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale or the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale and the Young Mania Rating Scale, respectively.
Results:
Notably, both patient groups showed lower HRQOL and resilience compared to control subjects, non-remitted patients indicated lower HRQOL than remitted ones. The effect of remission on HRQOL was significantly larger in patients with BD-I than in those with schizophrenia but did not explain the difference in HRQOL between groups. Resilience predicted HRQOL in all three groups. When accounting for the effect of resilience among remitted patients, only the difference in HRQOL between schizophrenia patients and control subjects was significant.
Conclusion:
These findings demonstrate the impact of symptomatic remission and resilience on HRQOL of both patients suffering from schizophrenia and BD-I and indicate that these factors are especially relevant for HRQOL of patients with BD-I.