Chemotherapy for a child with relapsed acute myeloid leukemia complicated with persistent hepatitis C virus infection

An 8-year-old Mongolian female was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and treated at a hospital in Mongolia according to the BFM-AML2004 SR protocol. Although complete remission (CR) was achieved, chemotherapy was interrupted because of shortage of drugs. The patient moved to Japan 7 months after diagnosis. Screening for viral infection revealed the presence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody and RNA. At 11 months after initial diagnosis, the patient experienced bone marrow relapse and a RUNX1-RUNX1T1 fusion transcript was detected. Considering the inadequate intensity of initial treatment and the persistent HCV infection, chemotherapy was preferred and initiated over hematopoietic cell transplantation. After the first course of induction therapy, a second CR was confirmed and the chimeric transcript disappeared. The viral load mildly increased during myelosuppression and transient elevation of liver enzymes was observed along with hematological recovery. HCV infection remained stable, without progression to reactivation of hepatitis C. Given the high risk of second relapse and liver fibrosis and sclerosis following chronic HCV infection, treatment against HCV may be indicated during second remission.

Discovery of a novel compound: insight into mechanisms for acrylamide-induced axonopathy and colchicine-induced apoptotic neuronal cell death

The exposure of humans and experimental animals to certain industrial toxins such as acrylamide is known to cause nerve damage classified as axonopathy, but the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. Here we show that acrylamide induces morphological changes and tyrosine phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2), a member of the FAK subfamily, in human differentiating neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Furthermore, we identified a novel molecule designated 'compound-1' that inhibits the morphological and biochemical events. Daily oral administrations of the compound also effectively alleviated behavioral deficits in animals elicited by acrylamide in inclined plane testing, landing foot spread testing and rota-rod performance testing. The compound also effectively inhibited the biological and biochemical responses caused by another axonopathy inducer, colchicine, including tyrosine phosphorylation of Pyk2, formation of an 85-kDa poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP) fragment and apoptosis-associated induction of the NAPOR gene as well as neuronal cell death. Our findings not only provide insight into FAK and Pyk2 functions in neuronal cells, but may also be important in the development of therapeutic agents for peripheral neuropathy and neurodegeneration.

Monk-gillieson monochromator

The theory developed by Seya, Namioka, and Sai has been numerically evaluated with the purpose of furnishing practical data for designing a Monk-Gillieson monochromator, in which coma-type aberration is eliminated at one specific wavelength of the designer's choice. The numerical results are conveniently arranged in the form of graphs and tables so as to facilitate estimation of the optimum instrumental constants and the performance to be expected. The calculations included here have been verified experimentally with a monochromator whose instrumental constants were so chosen, in accordance with the theory, as to eliminate the coma-type aberration at 3000 A. For practical interest, the performance of the above monochromator has also been compared with that of a Schroeder-type monochromator.

Optical properties of a system consisting of a mirror and a grating

The optical properties have been studied analytically for a system consisting of a mirror and a grating, without imposing much restrictions on the manner of arranging the optical elements. For the sake of simplicity calculations were limited only to rays in the meridional plane of the system. Analytical expressions are given for the focal condition and a coma-type aberration. Remedies are described for eliminating the coma-type aberration at one wavelength, of designer's choice, without use of any auxiliary optics.