[Clinicopathological Characteristics of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer(EOCRC)Cases in Our Hospital].

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the number of colorectal cancer in Europe and the U. S. has been decreasing, but there are increasing reports on the trend of early-onset colorectal cancer(EOCRC), which is a rare population with no established knowledge on its characteristics. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Of 3,501 colorectal cancer cases treated at our hospital between April 2011 and December 2021, those aged 39 years and younger were included. RESULTS: There were 32 EOCRC cases, 11 males/21 females. The histological type was tub in 31 cases and por in 1 case. Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy was administered in 14 patients, and 12 completed the scheduled course. Twenty nine patients underwent R0 resection, of which 6 patients had recurrence and 5 patients died of primary disease. In summary, although EOCRC patients were in good general condition and had a high completion rate of adjuvant chemotherapy, the relapse rate was high, suggesting the need for aggressive adjuvant chemotherapy and careful postoperative surveillance.

Major Carotenoids of Meiothermus ruber Are Deinoxanthin Glucoside Esters, Not Meiothermoxanthin Glucoside Esters.

Meiothermus ruber DSMZ 1279T was isolated from a hot spring in Kamchatka and was red in color. The major carotenoid present was reported to be 1'-(ß-d-glucopyranosyloxy)-3,4,3',4'-tetradehydro-1',2'-dihydro-ß,ψ-caroten-2-one after saponification (Burgess et al. J. Nat. Prod. 1999, 62, 859-863). In this study, we purified the major carotenoids in this species without saponification. We then reidentified the major carotenoids present using spectroscopic data, including electronic circular dichroism (ECD), 1H NMR, rotating-frame nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (ROESY), 13C NMR, heteronuclear single-quantum correlation spectroscopy (HSQC), heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation spectroscopy (HMBC), and MS, and enzymatic hydrolysis of fatty acid moieties and found deinoxanthin glucoside iso fatty acid esters. The bound fatty acids present included four iso types, and their composition differed from cellular lipids. Moreover, the previously identified carotenoid glucoside was a saponification artifact of deinoxanthin glucoside esters. Ketomyxocoxanthin glucoside esters and 1'-hydroxytorulene glucoside esters were also present. On the basis of the identification of carotenoids and the whole genome sequence of M. ruber, we propose a carotenoid biosynthetic pathway and note the corresponding genes.

Mechanism of Solubility Enhancement of Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs Triggered by Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks.

Numerous efforts have been devoted to improving the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs. Recently, it was reported that the use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are a new class of porous materials consisting of metal ions and organic ligands, is effective in improving the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs. Our previous study demonstrated an improvement in the solubility of indomethacin (IDM) triggered by the zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8). The present study aimed to elucidate the solubilization mechanism using the ZIF series, namely, ZIF-8, ZIF-67, and ZIF-L. It was confirmed that the solubility of ZIF-trapped IDM and ibuprofen (IBU) was enhanced compared to the raw drugs, regardless of the ZIF type. This study focused on 2-methylimidazole (2-MIM), which is commonly used as a ZIF organic ligand. Both IDM and IBU were easily dissolved by the addition of 2-MIM, suggesting that the presence of 2-MIM enhanced the solubility of the drugs. Inductively coupled plasma measurements also confirmed the presence of metal ions of ZIFs in the supernatant solution after the drug release tests, indicating the decomposition of ZIFs during drug release. The findings of this study demonstrated the solubilization mechanism of poorly water-soluble drugs using ZIF particles. We observed that the drugs loaded on the ZIFs were released simultaneously with the decomposition of some of the ZIFs. The 2-MIM molecules were also released concurrently. The presence of 2-MIM improved the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs.

Attitudes of early-career cardiologists in Japan about their cardiovascular training programs.

Understanding the perspective of early-career cardiologists is important to design effective responses to the challenges in modern cardiovascular (CV) training programs. We conducted a web-based survey on a total of 272 early-career cardiologists (within 10 postgraduate years) who registered for the 2011 annual Japanese Circulation Society Meeting. Main outcome measures were satisfaction with their training, confidence in their clinical skills, and professional expectations, scaled from 0 to 10. The median training time was 6 years, with 2 years for internal medicine and 4 years for CV disease. Most received their training in university hospitals at some point during their career (79.5%) and were interested in a subspecialty training, such as interventional cardiology (38.6%), electrophysiology (15.1%), and advanced heart failure (10.3%); only 9.6% showed interest in general cardiology. The respondents felt comfortable in managing common CV conditions such as coronary artery disease (average score 6.3 ± 2.4 on an 11-point Likert scale) but less so in peripheral arterial disease (3.8 ± 2.8), arrhythmias (3.7 ± 2.3), and congenital heart disease (2.9 ± 2.2). Their satisfaction rate with their CV training positively correlated with their clinical proficiency level and was associated with volume of coronary angiograms, percutaneous coronary interventions, and echocardiograms completed. In conclusion, the current young cardiologists have a positive perception of and interest in procedure-based subspecialty training, and their training satisfaction was related to volume of cardiac procedures. Additional effort is needed in enforcing the training in underappreciated subspecialty areas.