Tsuyoshi Nakai

Abstract Hypertension is a major cause of cardiovascular diseases. Several recent studies reported that pharmacists’ remote follow-up reduced hypertension patients’ blood pressure (BP). This meta-analysis aims to verify whether remote follow-up by pharmacists improves BP levels and reveal the factors that make the intervention effective. The search, conducted using PubMed/Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library from June to July 2023, targeted articles published between October 1982 and June 2023, using terms including “pharmacist”, “hypertension”, and “randomized controlled trial (RCT)”. The inclusion criteria were: (a) RCTs involving hypertension patients with or without comorbidities, (b) pharmacists using remote communication tools to conduct follow-up encounter during the intervention period, (c) reporting systolic blood pressure (SBP) at baseline and during intervention. SBP was the primary outcome for the meta-analysis. Thirteen studies (3969 participants) were included in this meta-analysis. The mean difference of SBP between intervention group and control group was − 7.35 mmHg (P < 0.0001). Subgroup analyses showed the greater reduction of SBP in the “regularly scheduled follow-up cohort” (− 8.89 mmHg) compared with the “as needed follow-up cohort” (− 3.23 mmHg, P < 0.0001). The results revealed that remote follow-up by pharmacists reduced SBP levels in hypertension patients and scheduled remote follow-up may contribute to the effectiveness.

Abstract The budding yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiaeis commonly used as an expression platform to produce valuable compounds. Yeast-based genetics research can uniquely utilize use auxotrophy in transformant selection: auxotrophic complementation by an auxotrophic marker gene on exogenous DNA (such as plasmids). However, the number of auxotrophic nutrients required restricts the number of plasmids maintained by the cells. We therefore developed novel Δ10 strains that are auxotrophic for 10 different nutrients, and new plasmids with two multicloning sites and auxotrophic markers for use in Δ10 strains. We confirmed that Δ10 strains could maintain 10 types of these plasmids. Because each plasmid can express two different genes, this Δ10 strain-based expression system has the potential to co-express a maximum of 20 different proteins.