[Survey of Prophylactic Administration of Naldemedine for Opioid-induced Constipation].

Opioid-induced constipation (OIC), an adverse event that occurs due to opioid analgesics, reportedly causes poor quality of life and adherence to opioid analgesics in patients. Therefore, this issue must be addressed appropriately. Naldemedine (NAL), a peripherally-acting µ-opioid receptor antagonist, is currently recommended for treating OIC when other laxatives are ineffective, but there have been no clinical reports of NAL being used prophylactically for OIC. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective survey of hospitalized patients who received NAL as prophylaxis for OIC with strong opioid analgesics to clarify the reality of this situation and to consider points to be taken into account in its clinical implementation. In this study, 61.7% of the subjects had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score of 3 or higher. The rate of addition of new laxatives and increased laxatives during seven days of NAL prophylaxis was 46.8%, and the rate of diarrhea was 6.1%. This study suggests that patients initiated with strong opioid analgesics during hospitalization often presented with poor performance status, and it is important to pay attention to constipation even under NAL prophylaxis. However, the incidence of diarrhea was low, and the safety of NAL prophylaxis was considered to be good.

Evolutionary effects of geographic and climatic isolation between Rhododendron tsusiophyllum populations on the Izu Islands and mainland Honshu of Japan.

Geographic and environmental isolations of islands and the mainland offer excellent opportunity to investigate colonization and survival dynamics of island populations. We inferred and compared evolutionary processes and the demographic history of Rhododendron tsusiophyllum, in the Izu Islands and the much larger island Honshu, treated here as the mainland, using thousands of nuclear SNPs obtained by ddRAD-seq from eight populations of R. tsusiophyllum and three populations of R. tschonoskii as an outgroup. Phylogenetic relationships and their habitats suggest that R. tsusiophyllum had evolved and migrated from cold north to warm south regions. We detected clear genetic divergence among populations in three regions of Honshu and the Izu Islands, suggesting restricted migration between them due to isolated habitats on mountains even in the mainland. The three regions have different changes in effective population size, especially, genetic diversity and population size of the Izu Islands are small compared to the others. Further, habitats of populations in the Izu Islands are warmer than those in Honshu, suggesting that they have undergone adaptive evolution. Our study provides evidences of montane rather than insular isolation on genetic divergence, survival of populations and significance of adaptive evolution for island populations with small population size and low genetic diversity, despite close proximity to mainland populations.

Synthesis of Aminobenzopyranoxanthenes with Nitrogen-Containing Fused Rings.

An efficient and practical method for the synthesis of a variety of aminobenzopyranoxanthenes (ABPXs) with different nitrogen-containing fused rings was developed. On the basis of the mechanistic studies of the formation of the xanthene framework, the presented methodology was developed to facilitate access to previously inaccessible asymmetric ABPXs.

Measurement of 2-nonenal and diacetyl emanating from human skin surface employing passive flux sampler-GCMS system.

It is commonly said elderly persons have a characteristic body odor, and, at present, two chemical compounds have been found to vary with age in male Japanese: 2-nonenal and diacetyl. To investigate dermal emission flux of the ageing odor related compounds, we have developed a non-invasive sampling device based on a concept of passive flux sampler (PFS). The sampler was placed on the skin surface to create a headspace, and the gases emanating from skin moved toward a disk-type adsorbent. The trapped gases were then extracted with dichloromethane and determined by GCMS. The PFS was practically applied to healthy volunteers covering a wide range of age. Since emission fluxes of both compounds remarkably varied with sampling position, the nape of the neck was fixed as regular sampling position where there are dense networks of both sebaceous and eccrine glands which are potential sources of both compounds. The emission flux of 2-nonenal increased with age for both male and female volunteers, whilst the flux of diacetyl showed highest in 30s and decreased over 40s. Although diacetyl has been known as a middle-aged male odor, this study showed the odor caused by diacetyl was not specific to male.