Extrahepatic manifestations associated with Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been associated with both organ-specific and systemic autoimmune diseases, with cryoglobulinemia being the most frequent associated disease. Experimental, virologic, and clinical evidence have demon-strated a close association between HCV infection and some systemic autoimmune diseases, especially Sjögren's syndrome, but also rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. A higher prevalence of hematological processes has also been described in patients with HCV infection, including cytopenias and lymphoproliferative disorders (B-cell lymphoma). In addition, patients with chronic HCV infection have a higher frequency of other extrahepatic manifestations including endocrine, metabolic and cardiovascular disorders that may worse the prognosis of patients, along with neuropsychiatric manifestations and general symptoms that have a significant influence on the quality of life of the patient. Direct-acting antiviral therapies (DAAs) that have recently begun to be used are providing the opportunity to effectively cure chronic HCV infection and reduce the burden of both hepatic and extrahepatic complications

Impact of Postharvest Handling on Preharvest Latent Infections Caused by Monilinia spp. in Nectarines

Latent infections caused by Monilinia spp. in nectarines cause great economic losses since they are not detected and rejected at harvest and can appear at any time post-harvest, even at the consumer’s home. The effect of a pre-cooling chamber, water dump operation, and cold-storage chamber on the activation and/or development of preharvest latent infections caused by Monilinia spp. on nectarines were studied under different postharvest conditions: (a) cold storage for 0, 1, or 3 d at 4 °C at either 75% relative humidity (RH) or 100% RH before water dumping, (b) water dumping for 10 minutes at 15 °C, and (c) cold storage for 0, 3, or 10 d at 4 °C at either 75% RH or 100% RH after water dumping. These storage conditions were transformed to fungal physiological time. For visualization of the latent infections caused by Monilinia spp., the nectarines were placed in sterile paper bags and frozen at −20 °C for 48 h in order to damage the epidermis. To compare different handling scenarios, the incidence of latent infection was modelled for physiological time description by a modified Gompertz model. The activation and/or development of preharvest natural latent infections caused by Monilinia spp. at postharvest was mainly related to temperature and incubation time at postharvest. Storing nectarines with any postharvest handling less than 11 days at 4 °C avoids brown rot symptoms and reduced the activation and/or development of pre-harvest latent infections caused by Monilinia spp., while more cold days caused the exponential phase of latent infection activation and/or development. The Gompertz model employed could be used for predicting the activation and/or development of latent infection caused by Monilinia spp. at postharvest conditions and looks at the postharvest life. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the effects of post-harvest handling on latent infections in fruit have been studied.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

La familia de transportadores de amonio (AMT) y su papel funcional en el transporte de nitrógeno en la conífera modelo de pinus pinaster

La familia de transportadores de amonio (AMT) y su papel funcional en el transporte del nitrógeno en la conífera modelo de Pinus pinaster. Vanessa Castro-Rodríguez*, Iman Assaf-Casals, Jacob Rafael Pérez-Tienda, Concepción Ávila, Francisco Cánovas Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad de Málaga. Campus Universitario de Teatinos S/N, 29071-MÁLAGA. [email protected]* El amonio es una de las principales fuentes de nitrógeno inorgánico en los bosques de coníferas, esto debido a que la mayor parte del nitrógeno disponible se encuentra en esta forma (1). El amonio es incorporado a través de proteínas de transmembrana denominadas transportadores de amonio (AMT) y posteriormente asimilado para su transporte en el interior de la planta. En nuestro laboratorio se ha llevado a cabo estudios de transcriptómica en diferentes órganos de la conífera modelo Pinus pinaster y bajo diferentes condiciones nutricionales con amonio como fuente de nitrógeno (2). EuroPineDB (http://www.scbi.uma.es/pindb/) es la base de datos donde se recogen actualmente estos resultados. Búsquedas en esta base de datos nos han permitido identificar 5 isogenes de la familia de transportadores de amonio (AMT): 3 isoformas pertenecientes a la subfamilia 1; PpAMT1.1, PpAMT1.2 y PpAMT1.3 y 2 isoformas pertenecientes a la subfamilia 2: PpAMT2.1 y PpAMT2.3. En la presente comunicación se recopila la caracterización molecular de estos genes y su estudio comparado con AMT de otra gimnosperma y otras angiospermas. Como primera aproximación molecular se han determinado los niveles de expresión y la distribución de transcritos en diferentes órganos de la planta, en diferentes estadios de desarrollo y bajo diferentes condiciones nutricionales. Además, se han realizado construcciones de las correspondientes proteínas recombinantes para estudiar las características bioquímicas de las diferentes isoformas mediante expresión heteróloga en levadura. Los resultados obtenidos indican que los genes AMT de pino se expresan de forma diferencial en distintos órganos de la planta y las proteínas que codifican difieren en sus características moleculares y parámetros cinéticos y por consiguiente podrían desempeñar funciones diferentes en el transporte de nitrógeno de esta conífera. (1) Cánovas et al. (2007) Ammonium assimilation and amino acid metabolism in conifers. Journal Experiment Botany 58: 2307–2318. (2) Canales et al. (2010) Identification of genes regulated by ammonium availability in the roots of maritime pine trees. Amino Acids 39, 4: 991-1001.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Clinically-useful serum biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of sarcoidosis

Introduction: Sarcoidosis is a complex systemic disease with a silent, long-term evolution, and a heterogeneous clinical presentation. The diagnostic approach is complex with no single diagnostic test that may confirm the disease. Areas covered: A large list of serum biomarkers has been tested during the last 40 years. In this review, we analyse the potential usefulness in the diagnosis and prognosis of sarcoidosis of serum biomarkers classified according to their corresponding cellular source. Expert commentary: Diagnosis of sarcoidosis must always be approached as a multistep process based on a case-by-case integration of clinical, radiological, histological and serological data, none of which being pathognomonic. We found sIL-2R, CRP, SAA and chitotriosidase to be the best markers to confirm sarcoidosis (highest sensitivity), while ACE, gammaglobulins and lysozyme may be more useful for discarding sarcoidosis (highest specificity), taking into account that with the use of a higher cut-off we can increase specificity and with a lower cut-off we can increase sensitivity. Other biomarkers (TNF-a and CCL18) could help to identify patients with an enhanced risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis or progressive disease. The future scenario of the serological diagnostic approach of sarcoidosis will be the use of multi-assays including biomarkers from different cellular sources.Fil: Ramos Casals, Manuel. Sociedad Española de Medicina; España. Instituto Clínic de Medicina y Dermatología; EspañaFil: Retamozo, Maria Soledad. Instituto Clínic de Medicina y Dermatología; España. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Instituto Modelo de Cardiología Privado; ArgentinaFil: Siso Almirall, Antoni. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas August Pi i Sunyer; EspañaFil: Pérez Alvarez, Roberto. Sociedad Española de Medicina; EspañaFil: Pallarés, Lucio. Sociedad Española de Medicina; España. Sarco GEAS SEMI Study Group; EspañaFil: Brito Zenón, Pilar. Sociedad Española de Medicina; España. Sarco GEAS SEMI Study Group; Españ

Do selected drugs increase the risk of lupus? A matched case-control study

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT • Numerous previous case reports have suggested that lupus can be induced by a range of prescription medications.• Analytical studies quantifying risk of drug-induced lupus are lacking. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS • This was the first large study to quantify risk of lupus associated with carbamazepine, hydralazine, and other prescription medicines suspected of inducing the disease.• We confirmed some, but not all, associations that have been hypothesized in case reports.• This study provides evidence that increased risks may be causal given the lack of an increased risk observed with deliberately selected ‘comparison’ drugs.To investigate the association between risk of lupus and exposure to selected drugs implicated in risk of lupus in a number of case reports.In this matched nested case-control study we utilized primary care data from the UK General Practice Research Database recorded between 1987 and 2001. Cases with at least one medical code for systemic lupus erythematosus or drug-induced lupus in their computerized records were matched to controls without a medical code for lupus or any other autoimmune disorder. Using conditional logistic regression we computed odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for risk of lupus associated with exposure to selected drugs.There were 875 incident cases, of which 12% ( n = 107) had evidence of a prescription for one or more of the suspected drugs, and 3632 matched controls. For some drugs, prescriptions were too uncommon to be able to estimate associated risk of lupus. Despite small numbers of exposed patients and low statistical precision we observed an increased risk of lupus for hydralazine (OR = 6.62, 95% CI 1.03, 42.74), minocycline (OR = 4.23, 95% CI 2.65, 6.75) and carbamazepine (OR = 1.88, 95% CI 1.09, 3.22). There was some indication that the effect of carbamazepine was restricted to women ( P for interaction by gender = 0.047).This study shows that even those drugs suggested by case reports as causing lupus cannot all be clearly shown to be associated, even in a very large population-based database. Our findings support causal relationships for carbamazepine, minocycline and possibly hydralazine. Overall, drugs do not seem to be a major cause of lupus.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79216/1/j.1365-2125.2010.03733.x.pd