No abstract

The pandemic of novel coronavirus disease is not yet close to being over, more than 8 months after the first cases, but researchers are making great progress in fighting the disease. We have conducted a brief review of the geographic differences in the prevalence of COVID-19, the updated pathological findings, prognostic factors, and treatments for disease prevention and improvement of prognosis. Although hydroxychloroquine and tocilizumab have been recommended by some researchers, many clinical trials have failed to confirm any beneficial effect of these and other drugs on COVID-19, in terms of improved clinical status or reduced patient mortality. Currently, glucocorticoid is the only drug that reduces the mortality of COVID-19 in a randomized controlled trial; however, it is still necessary to establish the optimal timing of administration. It is also urgent to set up an international or national cohort to address the risk factors associated with infection, the natural history of COVID-19, including the disease type, surrogate markers for critically ill, long-term sequelae, and reinfection after exposure, identify responders to glucocorticoid, and establish optimal treatment strategies for disease control.

IntroductionThere are currently no effective treatments preventing conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease. Cilostazol is a selective type-3 phosphodiesterase inhibitor that ameliorates accumulation of amyloid-β and has prevented cognitive decline in rodent models. Furthermore, cilostazol is known to suppress platelet aggregation, protect vascular endothelia, dilate vessels, and increase cerebral blood flow. Beneficial effects have also been shown in observational cohort studies, demonstrating the need for a prospective clinical trial.MethodsThe Cilostazol for prevention of COnversion from MCI to Dementia (COMCID) study is a double-blind, randomized phase II study of patients with MCI. Participants will receive cilostazol or placebo for 96 weeks. The primary objective is to evaluate whether cilostazol slows down cognitive decline measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination. Secondary objectives are assessing time to conversion from MCI to dementia and assessing incremental changes in several psychological assessment scales.DiscussionThe COMCID trial will identify the therapeutic potential of cilostazol. This trial, which is based on a drug repositioning strategy, may aid the development of a neurovascular treatment for neurocognitive disorders.

To verify molecular mechanisms by which leukemia stem cells (LSCs) maintain a dormant state, we explored the activity of the major prosurvival signal pathways in CD34

While FDG-PET alone is insufficient, whole-body cancer screening with selected modalities including FDG-PET has initial performance supporting possible utility by detecting a wide variety of early-stage cancers with reasonable sensitivity. However, the detection of many indolent cancers and false positives necessitate continuing study for appropriate evaluation.

Our study determined if Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) was activated in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML; n = 77, excluding acute promyelocytic leukemia) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using a phosphor‐specific antibody against JAK2. p‐JAK2 was detectable in all cases, although its levels varied between patient samples (high levels, n = 31; low levels, n = 46). The quantification of levels of p‐JAK2 by IHC was well correlated with that assessed by Western blot analyses and fluorescence‐activated cell sorting (FACS). Levels of p‐JAK2 were directly correlated with high white blood cell count (52.3 × 103/L in patients with high p‐JAK2 vs. 28.3 × 103/L in patients with low p‐JAK2, p < 0.01) and were inversely correlated with complete remission rates (45% in patients with high p‐JAK2 vs. 78% in patients with low p‐JAK2, p < 0.003). In addition, multivariate analysis confirmed that high levels of p‐JAK2 remained a significant factor for overall survival (hazard ratio = 2.213; 95% confidence interval, 1.212–4.041, p = 0.023). Moreover, we found that AZ960, a novel and specific inhibitor of the JAK2 kinase, potently inhibited the clonogenic growth and induced apoptosis of freshly isolated AML cells from patients in association with cleavage of caspase 3 and downregulation of anti‐apoptotic Bcl‐xL proteins. Taken together, JAK2 may be a promising molecular target for treatment of AML.

The J-POPS, a nationwide prospective cohort study that enrolled approximately 40 % of all PI cases in Japan, will provide highly reliable evidence, including outcomes and quality of life, after long-term follow-up.

Background: In this study, we examined the construct validity, concurrent validity concerning other standard scales, intrarater reliability, and changes in scores at 12 weeks of the previously developed ABC Dementia Scale (ABC-DS), a novel assessment tool for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: Data were obtained from 312 patients diagnosed with either AD or mild cognitive impairment. The scores on the ABC-DS and standard scales were compared. Results: The 13 items of the ABC-DS are grouped into three domains, and the domain-level scores were highly correlated with the corresponding conventional scales. Statistically significant changes in assessment scores after 12 weeks were observed for the total ABC-DS scores. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the ABC-DS to have good validity and reliability, and its usefulness in busy clinical settings.