Identifying microRNA regulators of oncogenes could have far-reaching implications for lung cancer patients including improving patient selection for targeted agents, development of novel therapeutics, or development as early biomarkers of disease.

Mine's in the middle: We report here a novel methodology for the ribosomal synthesis of backbone‐macrocyclic peptides containing γ‐amino acids under the reprogrammed genetic code. Integration of reprogrammed initiation by using exotic dipeptides with C‐terminal diketopiperadine‐thioester formation has successfully afforded backbone‐cyclized peptides with γ‐amino acids at an internal position.

Background: Oxidative stress is one of the causative factors in the pathogenesis of neuro-degenerative diseases including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. We previously reported that molecular hydrogen (H2) acts as a therapeutic and preventive antioxidant.Objective: We assess the effects of drinking H2-water (water infused with H2) on oxidative stress model mice and subjects with MCI.Methods: Transgenic mice expressing a dominant-negative form of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 were used as a dementia model. The mice with enhanced oxidative stress were allowed to drink H2-water. For a ran-domized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical study, 73 subjects with MCI drank ~300 mL of H2-water (H2-group) or placebo water (control group) per day, and the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) scores were determined after 1 year.Results: In mice, drinking H2-water decreased oxidative stress markers and suppressed the decline of memory impairment and neurodegeneration. Moreover, the mean lifespan in the H2-water group was long-er than that of the control group. In MCI subjects, although there was no significant difference between the H2- and control groups in ADAS-cog score after 1 year, carriers of the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) geno-type in the H2-group were improved significantly on total ADAS-cog score and word recall task score (one of the sub-scores in the ADAS-cog score).Conclusion: H2-water may have a potential for suppressing dementia in an oxidative stress model and in the APOE4 carriers with MCI.

Background Sensitivity to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and frequency of activation mutations in EGFR is lower in Caucasian than Asian non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Increased EGFR gene copy numbers evaluated by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has been reported as predictor of clinical benefit from EGFR-TKIs in Caucasian NSCLC patients. This study was carried out to verify whether EGFR FISH had similar performance in Japanese patients. Methods A cohort of 44 Japanese patients with recurrent NSCLC after surgery was treated with gefitinib 250 mg daily. The cohort included 48% females and 52% never-smokers; 73% had prior chemotherapy and 57% had stage III-IV at the time of surgery. Adenocarcinoma was the most common histology (86%). FISH was performed using the EGFR/Chromosome Enumeration Probe 7 and PathVysion DNA probes (Abbott Molecular). Specimens were classified as FISH positive when showing gene amplification or high polysomy (≥4 copies of the gene in ≥40% of tumor cells). Tumor response to gefitinib was assessed by RECIST for 33 patients with measurable diseases. Results Twenty-nine tumors (66%) were EGFR FISH+ and 23 (53%) were HER2 FISH+. Overall response rate was 52%, representing 65% of EGFR FISH+ patients and 29% of EGFR FISH+ patients (p = 0.0777). Survival was not impacted by the EGFR FISH (p = 0.9395) or the HER2 FISH (p = 0.0671) status. EGFR FISH= was significantly associated with HER2 FISH+ (p = 0.015) and presence of EGFR mutation (p = 0.0060). EGFR mutation significantly correlated with response (p < 0.0001) and survival after gefitinib (p = 0.0204). EGFR and HER2 FISH status were not associated with KRAS mutation. Conclusion Frequency of EGFR FISH+ status was higher and its predictive power for TKI sensitivity was lower in this Japanese cohort than in Western NSCLC cohorts. These findings support differences in the mechanisms of EGFR pathway activation in NSCLC between Asian and Caucasian populations. Confirmation of these results in larger cohorts is warranted.

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Alcoholic fermentation from grains with a noncooking system was successfully carried out for the first time on an industrial scale. The results were compared with those with a conventional hightemperature cooking system and a low-temperature cooking one and it was found that:(l) The fermentation efficiency is equal or superior to that of the high-temperature cooking system.(2) Mashing at a concentration high enough to obtain an average 14.2% final alcohol concentration can be very easily done on an industrial scale.(3) The need for heavy fuel oil for the mashing process is eliminated.(4) The noncooking system allows much energy saving in industrial production of alcohol from starchy materials.

Chylous fistulas in cases treated surgically for breast cancer only, are rare. We encountered four chylous fistula cases after breast cancer operations out of a total of 851 cases, all of which involved the left breast. Chylous fistulas were confirmed by axillary white fluid and were unrelated to obesity, surgical method or the area of axillary lymph node dissection. All four cases of chylous fistulas were successfully treated conservatively, with no special dietary control and no surgical treatment.

Serine/threonine protein phosphatase (PP) 2A regulates many biological processes, however it remains unclear whether PP2A participates in cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion. We show here that the core enzyme of PP2A (PP2A-AC) is localized in the cell-cell adhesion sites between adjacent cells and associated with the E-cadherin-catenins complex in non-malignant human mammary epithelial (HME) cells at confluence. Treatment of the cells with either okadaic acid (OA), an inhibitor of PP2A, or siRNA for the regulatory subunit A of PP2A (PP2A-A) caused disruption of cell-cell adhesion and F-actin assembly, without affecting the complex formation of E-cadherin with beta- and alpha-catenins. While a small GTPase Rac and its effector IQGAP1 were associated with the E-cadherin-catenins complex, either OA or PP2A-A siRNA concomitantly induced the dissociation of IQGAP1, but not Rac, from the complex and the internalization of E-cadherin from the cell surface. We therefore propose that PP2A plays a crucial role in the maintenance of cell-cell adhesion through recruitment of IQGAP1 to the Rac-bound E-cadherin-catenins complex.