Satohiro Masuda

International University of Healthcare and Welfare Narita Hospital · Pharmacy

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid®) consists of a peptidomimetic inhibitor (Nirmatrelvir) of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease and a pharmacokinetic enhancer (Ritonavir). It is approved for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19. This combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir can mediate significant and complex drug-drug interactions (DDIs), primaril...

Invasive Aspergillus infection is a major factor for poor prognosis in patients receiving lung transplantation (LT). An antifungal agent, itraconazole (ITCZ), that has antimicrobial activity against Aspergillus species, is used as a prophylactic agent against Aspergillus infection after LT. ITCZ and its metabolite, hydroxyitraconazole (OH-ITCZ), po...

When mycophenolic acid (MPA) was originally marketed for immunosuppressive therapy, fixed doses were recommended by the manufacturer. Awareness of the potential for a more personalized dosing has led to development of methods to estimate MPA area under the curve based on the measurement of drug concentrations in only a few samples. This approach is...

Nephrotoxicity is the major adverse reaction to tacrolimus; however, the underlying mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. Although several tacrolimus-induced nephrotoxicity animal models have been reported, most renal injury rat models contain factors other than tacrolimus. Here, we report the development of a new nephrotoxicity with interstiti...

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) play a central role in various cancers. ICIs can cause immune-related adverse events (irAEs). As severe irAEs can be life-threatening, biomarkers for estimating irAE onset are crucial. The neutrophils-to-lymphocytes ratio (NLR) reflects the systemic immune condition and known as a prognostic marker in ICI treatme...

Primary intracranial malignant melanoma (PIMM) is an uncommon cancer in childhood, that accounts for approximately 1% of melanoma, and 0.07% of brain tumors even in all age group. Because extracranial malignant melanoma usually occurs as a cutaneous lesion, affected patients have a chance to receive the early diagnosis and curable resection of the...

Purpose This study aimed to examine the association between the trough plasma concentration of lenvatinib with the objective response rate (ORR) and adverse events in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Twenty-one patients with HCC who received lenvatinib were enrolled. We examined the median trough concentration (Ctrough median)...

Vonoprazan fumarate (vonoprazan) is a new kind of acid suppressant with potent acid inhibitory effects. Therefore, it has been administered to kidney transplant recipients for treatment or prophylaxis of steroid ulcers, refractory peptic ulcers, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Because tacrolimus, which is a well-established immunosuppressant f...

For many of the novel antiepileptics, immunoassays, used for routine therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), cannot be used. We could monitor eight novel antiepileptics using an LC/MS method since July 2017. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significant changes associated with the transition from outsourcing to in-hospital monitoring of nove...

Tacrolimus has been used to induce remission in patients with steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis. It poses a problem of large individual differences in dosage necessary to attain target blood concentration and, often, this leads to drug inefficacy. We examined the difference in mRNA expression levels of ATP binding cassette transporter B1 (ABCB1...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate recipient safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of mycophenolate mofetil suspension compared with mycophenolate mofetil capsules as part of induction therapy after living-donor liver transplant. Materials and methods: Between July 2017 and April 2019, we retrospectively enrolled 20 adult pri...

CYP3A5 gene polymorphism in recipients plays an important role in tacrolimus blood pharmacokinetics after renal transplantation. Even though CYP3A5 protein is expressed in renal tubular cells, little is known about the influence on the tacrolimus intrarenal exposure and hence graft outcome. The aim of our study was to investigate how the tacrolimus...

Hypersensitivity reactions, including anaphylaxis, are common side effects associated with docetaxel treatment in breast cancer patients. However, preventive measures have not yet been established. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the risk factors for developing anaphylaxis in 182 female breast cancer patients treated with docetaxel. We f...

It is well known that the CYP3A5*3 polymorphism is an important marker that correlates with the tacrolimus dose requirement after organ transplantation. Recently, it has been revealed that the POR*28 polymorphism affects the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus in renal transplant patients. In this study, we examined whether POR*28 as well as CYP3A5*3 po...

The intravenous injection of bendamustine often induces venous irritation, which reduces patients’ QOL. We previously reported that the dilution of the final volume of bendamustine from 250 to 500 mL significantly decreased the incidence of venous irritation. However, the influence of this change on the therapeutic efficacy of bendamustine remains...

Several biomarkers are used to monitor organ damage caused by drug toxicity. Traditional markers of kidney function, such as serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen are commonly used to estimate glomerular filtration rate. However, these markers have several limitations including poor specificity and sensitivity. A number of serum and urine biomar...

Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD). However, acute rejection (AR) is a common complication in kidney transplantation and is associated with reduced graft survival. Current diagnosis of AR relies mainly on clinical monitoring including serum cre...

The dispensing procedure based on the gaze movement of pharmacists has not been analyzed. In addition, many aspects of the mechanisms of dispensing errors are unclear. So far, the error factor has been estimated depending on the memory of the pharmacists who caused the dispensing errors. In this study, we measured the gaze movement of the pharmacis...

Background Therapeutic drug monitoring of tacrolimus is necessary for appropriate dose adjustment for a successful immunosuppressive therapy. Several commercial immunoassays are available for tacrolimus measurements. This study aimed at simultaneously evaluating the analytical performances of 4 such immunoassays, using liquid chromatography-tandem...

Although transplantation procedures have been developed for patients with end-stage hepatic insufficiency or other diseases, allograft rejection still threatens patient health and lifespan. Over the last few decades, the emergence of immunosuppressive agents such as calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors h...

Tacrolimus is widely used as an immunosuppressant in liver transplantation, and tacrolimus-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious complication. The urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) level has been linked to tacrolimus-induced AKI in patients starting tacrolimus treatment the morning after liver transplantation. Here...

Although transplantation procedures have been developed for patients with end-stagec hepatic insufficiency or other diseases, allograft rejection still threatens patient health and lifespan. Over the last few decades, the emergence of immunosuppressive agents, such as calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in drug-metabolizing genes may affect tacrolimus pharmacokinetics. Here, we investigated the influence of genotypes of CYP3A5, CYP2C19, and POR on the concentration/dose (C/D) ratio of tacrolimus and episodes of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in Japanese recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transp...

Objectives: To examine the possible effects of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) on the safety and efficacy of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients and methods: Clinical data including ANA status were reviewed retrospectively for patients with advanced NSCLC who received mono...

Ten years ago, a consensus report on the optimization of tacrolimus was published in this journal. In 2017, the Immunosuppressive Drugs Scientific Committee of the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicity (IATDMCT) decided to issue an updated consensus report considering the most relevant advances in tacrolimus...

Mesalazine, also known as mesalamine or 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA), is an aminosalicylate anti-inflammatory drug used as a primary agent to treat inflammatory bowel disease, including ulcerative colitis and to maintain remission in Crohn's disease. The efficacy of 5-ASA is determined by the degree of drug delivery to the site of inflammation, bu...

The efficacy of 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) as the first-line therapy for ulcerative colitis (UC) is determined by the extent of drug delivery to the inflamed region. Moreover, differences among the various formulations influence delivery of the drug. In this study, we examined the clinical significance of colonic mucosal concentrations of 5-ASA...

Oxaliplatin causes acute cold hypersensitivity in most patients. We previously reported oxalate derived from oxaliplatin induced cold allodynia via overexpression of transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8) in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in rats. In this study, we examined the effect of riluzole on oxaliplatin-induced cold allodynia. In...

Objective: Lung ischemia-reperfusion injury is among the complications seen after lung transplantation, resulting in morbidity and mortality. Pirfenidone, an antifibrotic agent for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, is reported to have cytoprotective properties in various disease models. The purpose of this study was to investigate th...

Osimertinib is an irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) that is selective for both EGFR-TKI sensitizing and T790M resistance mutations. Because the application for drug approval was filed in Japan in 2016, few studies analyzing its adverse drug reactions in clinical practice have been reported. In this s...

Calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs), such as cyclosporine A and tacrolimus, are widely used immunosuppressive agents for the prevention of post-transplantation rejection and have improved 1-year graft survival rates by up to 90%. However, CNIs can induce severe reactions, such as acute or chronic allograft nephropathy, hypertension, and neurotoxicity. Be...

The actions for taking medicines are restricted by the progress of joint destruction in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Therefore, medication support by pharmacists is necessary for these patients. However, no method has been developed to evaluate the degree of action disability for taking medicines. On the other hand, the degree of physic...

Background: This study investigates the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of tacrolimus using the once-daily (OD) formulation in the early stage after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) in comparison with those using the twice-daily (TD) formulation. Methods: Nine patients undergoing primary LDLT and treated with the OD tacrolimus for...

We have disclosed 14 standardized laboratory data on out-of-hospital prescriptions since June 2015. In this study, we analyzed questions on out-of-hospital prescriptions related to laboratory data over 2 years. There were 229 prescription questions related to laboratory data (3.4％ of the total prescription questions), and 79.5％ of these were relate...

Objective: Acute rejection after kidney transplant is a complicated clinical problem. Autophagy is the intracellular lysosomal degradation and recycling of proteins and organelles, and is reported to be involved in various diseases. Microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) is a widely used marker to monitor autophagic activity. The involv...

Background: Oxaliplatin, a chemotherapy medication, causes severe peripheral neuropathy. Although oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy is a dose-limiting toxicity, a therapeutic strategy against its effects has not been established. We previously reported the involvement of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and their intracellular signalling path...

Oxaliplatin, a chemotherapy medication, causes severe peripheral neuropathy. Although oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy is a dose-limiting toxicity, a therapeutic strategy against its effects has not been established. We previously reported the involvement of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and their intracellular signalling pathway in oxali...

Calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) have been used off-label for the treatment of refractory Kawasaki disease (KD). However, it remains unknown whether CNIs show protective effects against the development of coronary artery lesions in KD patients. To investigate the effects of CNIs on coronary arteries and the mechanisms of their actions on coronary arte...

Adverse interactions between warfarin and cytotoxic agents are well documented; however, interactions between warfarin and erlotinib are not well characterized. Here we report two patients with non-small cell lung cancer in whom concomitant treatment with erlotinib and warfarin resulted in elevated prothrombin time-international normalized ratio (P...

Background: This study evaluated whether the recommended teicoplanin loading dose (three loading doses of 10 mg/kg every 12 h) achieves a 15-30 μg/mL trough levels in 26 children (2-16 years). In addition, we examined the incidences of renal impairment and hepatic dysfunction in children treated with teicoplanin. Methods: This retrospective stud...

Nicardipine hydrochloride injection often induces venous irritation despite infusion at the recommended concentrations in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Kyushu University Hospital. We retrospectively investigated the incidence and risk factors of venous irritation in ICU patients, and previously reported that administration time and infusion rate...

The aim of this retrospective study was to identify variable factors affecting tacrolimus blood concentration during the switch from continuous intravenous infusion to twice-daily oral administration in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients (n = 73). The blood concentration/dose ratio of tacrolimus immediately before the change f...

There are many reports regarding various medical institutions' attempts at the prevention of dispensing errors. However, the relationship between occurrence timing of dispensing errors and subsequent danger to patients has not been studied under the situation according to the classification of drugs by efficacy. Therefore, we analyzed the relations...

Background: Everolimus has been used for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Here, we measured blood concentrations of everolimus to obtain the population pharmacokinetic parameters and to examine the relationship between blood concentration and clinical outcomes. Methods: Twenty-two Japanese patients were enr...

Dopamine is a cationic natriuretic catecholamine synthesized in proximal tubular cells (PTCs) of the kidney before secretion into the lumen, a key site of its action. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying dopamine secretion into the lumen remain unclear. Multidrug and toxin extrusion (MATE) is a H⁺/organic cation antiporter that is highly ex...

Background: Ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) remains a significant complication after lung transplantation. Endothelial damage and inflammation contribute to its development. Imatinib has been reported to regulate vascular permeability by maintaining endothelial junctions and showing antiinflammatory effects through inhibition of the Abl kinases....

The first compound that inhibited the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), sirolimus (rapamycin) was discovered in the 1970s as a soil bacterium metabolite collected on Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Because sirolimus showed antiproliferative activity, researchers investigated its molecular target and identified the TOR1 and TOR2. The mTOR consists of...

Homeostasis of riboflavin should be maintained by transporters. Previous in vitro studies have elucidated basic information about riboflavin transporter RFVT3 encoded by SLC52A3 gene. However, the contribution of RFVT3 to the maintenance of riboflavin homeostasis and the significance in vivo remain unclear. Here, we investigated the physiological r...

The aim of this study was to assess inter-hospital laboratory variability (coefficient of variation; CV) of immunoassay methods for tacrolimus and the comparability of control samples and results obtained by immunoassay measurements. One hundred seven hospital laboratories routinely performing TDM of tacrolimus participated in the study. Thirteen s...

Purpose: Docetaxel is frequently used in the treatment of a wide variety of solid tumors, including breast cancer. The aim of this study is to obtain the population pharmacokinetic parameters of docetaxel in Japanese female patients with breast cancer. Methods: Blood samples from 24 patients were collected sequentially before and after docetaxel...

In an intensive care unit (ICU), diverse types of injectable drugs are administrated as continuous infusions according to the condition of the patient. Since incompatibilities of injectable drugs can result in loss of efficacy of medications, it is important that pharmacists quickly recommend appropriate administration routes and provide informatio...

In 2014, the Immunosuppressive Drugs Scientific Committee of the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology called a meeting of international experts to provide recommendations to guide therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of everolimus (EVR) and its optimal use in clinical practice. EVR is a potent inhibitor of t...

We investigated the involvement of intracellular cAMP in endothelial cell injury induced by epirubicin. Epirubicin-induced decrease in cell viability and increase in caspase-3/7 activity were reversed by a cAMP analogue dibutyryl cAMP (DBcAMP) or an activator of adenylate cyclase forskolin concomitant with a phosphodiesterase inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1...

There are many reports regarding various medical institutions’ attempts at incident prevention, but the relationship between incident types and impact on patients in drug name errors has not been studied. Therefore, we analyzed the relationship between them, while also assessing the relationship between preparation and inspection errors. Furthermor...

Purpose: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and serious adverse effect of cisplatin-based chemotherapy. However, traditional markers of kidney function, such as serum creatinine, are suboptimal, because they are not sensitive measures of proximal tubular injury. We aimed to determine whether the new urinary biomarkers such as kidney injury mole...

The anti-tumor effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) on several types of cancer cells have been reported. However, comparison of the anti-tumor effects of these drugs on human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells has not been studied. We compared the anti-tumor effe...

In chronic kidney disease (CKD), progressive nephron loss causes glomerular sclerosis, as well as tubulointerstitial fibrosis and progressive tubular injury. In this study, we aimed to identify molecular changes that reflected the histopathological progression of renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis and tubular cell damage. A discovery set of renal bi...

Pemetrexed plus carboplatin therapy is widely administered to patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Although severe neutropenia is often observed during this combination therapy, its predictive factors are unknown. Therefore, we investigated the predictive factors for severe neutropenia in 77 patients treated with this combination...

Little is known as to whether the interleukin4 (IL4) gene polymorphisms in recipients or donors affect the incidence of acute cellular rejection (ACR) following living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Therefore, we determined the effect of IL4 T-33C polymorphisms in recipients and donors on ACR in a large cohort of patients that underwent LDLT....

Differences in error rates between pharmacists and nurses in terms of drug confirmation have not been studied. The purpose of this study was to analyze differences in error rates between pharmacists and nurses from the viewpoint of error categories, and to clarify differences in recognition regarding drug name similarity. In this study, preparation...

The anti-prostate cancer drug flutamide occasionally causes hepatotoxicity, and predictive biomarkers of flutamide-induced liver injury (FILI) are needed to improve safety of this drug. The aim of this prospective study was to identify such a biomarker by analyzing peripheral blood samples from patients before flutamide therapy. Blood samples were...

Background and aim The intrarenal dopaminergic system is likely responsible for regulating over 50% of net renal salt and water excretion when salt intake increases. Although dopamine synthesis is localized at proximal tubular cells, the molecular mechanism underlying dopamine secretion into urine remains unknown. Multidrug and toxin extrusion (MAT...

Monitoring of pharmacodynamics in addition to pharmacokinetics is one of strategies to individualize mycophenolate mofetil therapy. The purpose of this study was to develop sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methods for evaluation of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of mycophenolic acid (MPA). Concentration...

Erlotinib and gefitinib are oral molecular target drugs for treating non-small cell lung cancer. To provide effective treatment and prevent severe toxicities, it is crucial to educate patients regarding the proper usage and adverse reactions of these drugs. Pharmacists play a key role in this respect. As there are no established patient education t...

Tacrolimus is widely used as an immunosuppressant in liver transplantation, and tacrolimus-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious complication of liver transplantation. For early detection of AKI, various urinary biomarkers such as monocyte chemotactic protein-1, liver-type fatty acid-binding protein, interleukin-18, osteopontin, cystatin C...

Purpose Clobazam (CLB) is metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 to yield N-desmethylclobazam (N-CLB), which is further inactivated by CYP2C19. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the relationship between CYP2C19 polymorphisms and the efficacy of low-dose, add-on CLB therapy in Japanese patients with epilepsy. Methods Fifty p...

The aims of this study were (i) to evaluate the relationship between teicoplanin (TEIC) dosage and subsequent trough concentration, (ii) to investigate factors that affect TEIC serum concentration fluctuations and (iii) to examine the association between serum concentration of TEIC and adverse reactions in neonates. A total of 37 eligible neonates...

The interaction between mycophenolate (MPA) and quinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin is considered to reduce the enterohepatic recycling of MPA, which is biotransformed in the intestine from MPA glucuronide (MPAG) conjugate excreted via the biliary system; however, the molecular mechanism underlying this biotransformation of MPA is still unc...

Objective We investigated whether the cytochrome P450 3A5*3 (CYP3A5*3) genotype affects tacrolimus pharmacokinetics and the risk of acute cellular rejection in living-donor liver transplant patients in Japan.Materials and methodsBetween July 2004 and June 2011, we enrolled 410 living-donor liver transplant patients receiving tacrolimus. Biopsy spec...

Background: Severe hypocalcemia sometimes develops during denosumab treatment for bone metastases from cancer and is, therefore, an important issue. However, limited information is available on the risk factors for hypocalcemia and the appropriate interval for monitoring serum calcium concentration. Objective: The present study aimed to identify...

Tissue damage by oxidative stress is a key pathogenic mechanism in various diseases, including AKI and CKD. Thus, early detection of oxidative tissue damage is important. Using a tRNA-specific modified nucleoside 1-methyladenosine (m1A) antibody, we show that oxidative stress induces a direct conformational change in tRNA structure that promotes su...

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and subsequent dosage adjustment for individual patients in the treatment with tacrolimus are required after liver transplantation to prevent rejection and over-immunosuppression, which leads to severe infection and adverse reactions including nephrotoxicity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the analytical...

Although oxaliplatin (L‐OHP) is an important anticancer agent against colorectal cancer, severe acute and chronic peripheral neuropathies are frequently occurred. We peviously reported that oxalate derived from L‐OHP is involved in acute cold hyperalgesia. In the present study, the mechanism of L‐OHP‐induced acute neuropathy was examined with the e...

Oxaliplatin (L‐OHP) is a key drug in the treatment of colorectal cancer, but it causes acute and chronic neuropathies in patients. We reported that NMDA receptors in spinal cord is involved in mechanical allodynia induced by L‐OHP (4 mg/kg, i.p., twice a week). In this study, we investigated the involvement of spinal glutamate in L‐OHP‐induced mech...

Telaprevir-based triple therapy is a highly effective treatment for chronic hepatitis C. However, adverse reactions include reversible and dose-dependent elevation of serum creatinine levels. We speculated that this effect reflects inhibition of the renal organic cation transporters hOCT2, hMATE1, and hMATE2-K by telaprevir or its metabolites (VRT-...

Telaprevir (TVR) is a protease inhibitor used in combination with pegylated interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin for hepatitis C, and TVR strongly inhibits cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) and CYP3A5. We reported successful TVR treatment of liver transplant patients with recurrence of hepatitis C during receiving immunosuppressive therapy. Before initiatio...

Association between cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4*1G genotype of donors (n=412) and/or recipients (n=410), and the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus and the risk of acute cellular rejection was examined in Japanese living-donor liver transplant patients between 2004 and 2011. The concentration/dose (C/D) ratio of tacrolimus in patients carrying graft live...

Organic anion transporters (OATs) and organic cation transporters (OCT) play pivotal roles in the uptake of drugs into epithelial cells at the basolateral membranes, and multidrug and toxin extrusion (MATE) mediates drug secretion into urine at the brush-border membranes. In this study, the expression and distribution of apical MATE1 and MATE2-K, a...

We retrospectively examined whether cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A5 genotypes are associated with high-dose steroid pulse treatment-induced functional gain of tacrolimus biotransformation in living-donor liver transplant patients. Concentrations of tacrolimus and its 3 primary metabolites, 13-O-demethyl tacrolimus (M-I), 31-O-demethyl tacrolimus (M-II),...

Riboflavin (vitamin B2) acts as an intermediary during various biochemical oxidation-reduction reactions in the liver. Hepatic riboflavin homeostasis is suggested to be maintained through its transporter(s). Riboflavin transporters, RFVT2/Slc52a2 and RFVT3/Slc52a3, have been identified in rodents. However, the role of each RFVT in the hepatic homeo...

Purpose Despite improvements in immunosuppressive therapy, acute cellular rejection (ACR) remains an important cause of graft loss in patients undergoing liver transplantation. Recently, associations between cytokine gene polymorphisms in recipients and the occurrence of ACR have been reported. However, most studies did not investigate gene polymor...

Despite improvements in immunosuppressive therapy, acute cellular rejection (ACR) remains an important cause of mortality and graft loss in patients undergoing liver transplantation. Recently, associations between gene polymorphisms and the incidence of ACR have been reported, though few studies have investigated those polymorphisms in donors. Tran...

The patient is a 3-year-old boy who received living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for hepatoblastoma, with his mother as the donor. Oral tacrolimus was started at a dose of 0.3 mg every 12 h from day 1, with the dosage adjusted on the basis of trough concentrations. The levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transferase (ALT), and...

Paraquat is a commonly used herbicide; however, it is highly toxic to humans and animals. Exposure to paraquat causes severe lung damage, leading to pulmonary fibrosis. However, it has not been well clarified as how paraquat causes cellular damage, and there is no established standard therapy for paraquat poisoning. Meanwhile, endoplasmic reticulum...

Because of the difficulty in detecting segment-specific response in the kidney, we investigated the molecular events underlying acute kidney injury in the proximal tubules of rats with cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum II)-induced nephrotoxicity. Microarray analysis revealed that mRNA levels of several cytokines and chemokines, such as interl...

The purpose of this study was to develop an ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method of 22 antiepileptics for routine therapeutic monitoring. The antiepileptics used in the analyses were carbamazepine, carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide, clobazam, N-desmethylclobazam, clonazepam, diazepam, N-desmethyldiazepam, e...