Kyoto University

About: Kyoto University is a education organization based out in Kyoto, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 85837 authors who have published 217215 publications receiving 6526826 citations. The organization is also known as: Kyōto University & Kyōto daigaku.

PD-L1/B7H-1 Inhibits the Effector Phase of Tumor Rejection by T Cell Receptor (TCR) Transgenic CD8+ T Cells

Abstract: Although increased circulating tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T cells can be achieved by vaccination or adoptive transfer, tumor progression nonetheless often occurs through resistance to effector function. To develop a model for identifying mechanisms of resistance to antigen-specific CTLs, poorly immunogenic B16-F10 melanoma was transduced to express the Kb-binding peptide SIYRYYGL as a green fluorescent protein fusion protein that should be recognized by high-affinity 2C TCR transgenic T cells. Although B16.SIY cells expressed high levels of antigen and were induced to express Kb in response to IFN-γ, they were poorly recognized by primed 2C/RAG2−/− T cells. A screen for candidate inhibitory ligands revealed elevated PD-L1/B7H-1 on IFN-γ-treated B16-F10 cells and also on eight additional mouse tumors and seven human melanoma cell lines. Primed 2C/RAG2−/−/PD-1−/− T cells showed augmented cytokine production, proliferation, and cytolytic activity against tumor cells compared with wild-type 2C cells. This effect was reproduced with anti-PD-L1 antibody present during the effector phase but not during the priming culture. Adoptive transfer of 2C/RAG2−/−/PD-1−/− T cells in vivo caused tumor rejection under conditions in which wild-type 2C cells or CTLA-4-deficient 2C cells did not reject. Our results support interfering with PD-L1/PD-1 interactions to augment the effector function of tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment.

Health-related quality of life associated with chronic conditions in eight countries: results from the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project.

Abstract: Context: Few studies and no international comparisons have examined the impact of multiple chronic conditions on populations using a comprehensive health-related quality of life (HRQL) questionnaire Objective: The impact of common chronic conditions on HRQL among the general populations of eight countries was assessed Design: Cross-sectional mail and interview surveys were conducted Participants and setting: Sample representatives of the adult general population of eight countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States) were evaluated Sample sizes ranged from 2031 to 4084 Main outcome measures: Self-reported prevalence of chronic conditions (including allergies, arthritis, congestive heart failure, chronic lung disease, hypertension, diabetes, and ischemic heart disease), sociodemographic data and the SF-36 Health Survey were obtained The SF-36 scale and summary scores were estimated for individuals with and without selected chronic conditions and compared across countries using multivariate linear regression analyses Adjustments were made for age, gender, marital status, education and the mode of SF-36 administration Results: More than half (551%) of the pooled sample reported at least one chronic condition, and 302% had more than one Hypertension, allergies and arthritis were the most frequently reported conditions The effect of ischemic heart disease on many of the physical health scales was noteworthy, as was the impact of diabetes on general health, or arthritis on bodily pain scale scores Arthritis, chronic lung disease and congestive heart failure were the conditions with a higher impact on SF-36 physical summary score, whereas for hypertension and allergies, HRQL impact was low (comparing with a typical person without chronic conditions, deviation scores were around −4 points for the first group and −1 for the second) Differences between chronic conditions in terms of their impact on SF-36 mental summary score were low (deviation scores ranged between −1 and −2) Conclusions: Arthritis has the highest HRQL impact in the general population of the countries studied due to the combination of a high deviation score on physical scales and a high frequency Impact of chronic conditions on HRQL was similar roughly across countries, despite important variation in prevalence The use of HRQL measures such as the SF-36 should be useful to better characterize the global burden of disease

Spin-triplet superconductivity in Sr2RuO4 identified by 17O knight shift

Abstract: Superconductivity — one of the best understood many-body problems in physics — has again become a challenge following the discovery of unconventional superconducting materials: these include heavy-fermion1, organic2 and the high-transition-temperature copper oxide3 superconductors In conventional superconductors, the electrons form superconducting Cooper pairs in a spin-singlet state, which has zero total spin (S = 0) In principle, Cooper pairs can also form in a spin-triplet state (S = 1), analogous to the spin-triplet ‘p-wave’ state of paired neutral fermions in superfluid 3He (ref 4) At present, the heavy-fermion compound UPt3 is the only known spin-triplet superconductor5,6, although the layered oxide superconductor Sr2RuO4 (ref 7) is believed, on theoretical grounds8, to be a promising candidate The most direct means of identifying the spin state of Cooper pairs is from measurements of their spin susceptibility, which can be determined by the Knight shift (as probed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)) Here we report Knight-shift measurements of Sr2RuO2 using 17O NMR Our results show no change in spin susceptibility on passing through the superconducting transition temperature, which provides the definitive identification of Sr2RuO4 as a spin-triplet superconductor