Like asthma and atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis is an allergic disease, but of the three, it is the only type I allergic disease. Allergic rhinitis includes pollinosis, which is intractable and reduces quality of life (QOL) when it becomes severe. A guideline is needed to understand allergic rhinitis and to use this knowledge to develop a treatment plan. In Japan, the first guideline was prepared after a symposium held by the Japanese Society of Allergology in 1993. The current 8th edition was published in 2016, and is widely used today. To incorporate evidence based medicine (EBM) introduced from abroad, the most recent collection of evidence/literature was supplemented to the Practical Guideline for the Management of Allergic Rhinitis in Japan 2016. The revised guideline includes assessment of diagnosis/treatment and prescriptions for children and pregnant women, for broad clinical applications. An evidence-based step-by-step strategy for treatment is also described. In addition, the QOL concept and cost benefit analyses are also addressed. Along with Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact of Asthma (ARIA), this guideline is widely used for various clinical purposes, such as measures for patients with sinusitis, childhood allergic rhinitis, oral allergy syndrome, and anaphylaxis and for pregnant women. A Q&A section regarding allergic rhinitis in Japan was added to the end of this guideline.
Recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are of interest for cochlear gene therapy because of their ability to mediate the efficient transfer and long-term stable expression of therapeutic genes in a wide variety of postmitotic tissues with minimal vector-related cytotoxicity. In the present study, seven AAV serotypes (AAV1-5, 7, 8) were used to construct vectors. The expression of EGFP by the chicken beta-actin promoter associated with the cytomegalovirus immediate-early enhancer in cochlear cells showed that each of these serotypes successfully targets distinct cochlear cell types. In contrast to the other serotypes, the AAV3 vector specifically transduced cochlear inner hair cells with high efficiency in vivo, while the AAV1, 2, 5, 7, and 8 vectors also transduced these and other cell types, including spiral ganglion and spiral ligament cells. There was no loss of cochlear function with respect to evoked auditory brain-stem responses over the range of frequencies tested after the injection of AAV vectors. These findings are of value for further molecular studies of cochlear inner hair cells and for gene replacement strategies to correct recessive genetic hearing loss due to monogenic mutations in these cells.
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional regulator of immune response and hematopoiesis. Recently, it has been reported that expression of IL-6 is correlated with prognosis in various cancer patients. In this study, we investigated whether the proliferation and invasion potential of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) were influenced by IL-6. All HNSCC cell lines, HEp-2, HSC-2, HSC-4, and SAS, were tested by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and expressed the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R), and glycoprotein 130, which is responsible for signal transduction. HEp-2, HSC-2, and HSC-4 also produced IL-6. IL-6 inhibited the proliferation of HSC-2 and SAS, but the invasion potential of all the cell lines increased. Moreover, IL-6 down-regulated soluble IL-6R expression. Anti-IL-6R antibody abrogated the inhibited proliferation and increased invasion induced by IL-6. IL-6 stimulation also induced the extracellular regulated protein kinase 1/2 activation and increased vascular endothelial growth factor release. These results suggest that IL-6 can directly influence cell proliferation and the invasion potential as the first step of tumor metastasis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.