Evaluación de los factores determinantes del recuento de plaquetas en pacientes con cirrosis

Thrombocytopenia is considered one of the hallmarks of patients with cirrhosis. Several mechanisms have been implicated in the pathophysiology of thrombocytopenia in cirrhosis. Hypersplenism caused by splenomegay, classically regarded as an indirect marker of portal hypertension has been considered the main factor implicated [200]. Nevertheless, portal hypertension is best estimated by the hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) [32, 189], although contradictory results have been reported regarding the association between HVPG and platelet count [195-197]. The identification of thrombopoietin (TPO), a growth factor that enhances the maturation of megakaryocytes and the release of platelets from the bone marrow, has shed new light on the physiolgy of platelets [217]. In normal conditions in adults, TPO is mainly produced in the liver [93, 96] and the circulating leves of platelets are controlled by a negative feedback mechanism [99], so there is an inverse relationship between the amount of circulating platelets, and the amount of TPO that can reach the bone marrow to stimulate thrombopoiesis. In liver cirrhosis perhaps a decreased syntehesis of TPO could be implicated in the development of thrombocytopenia. Controversial findings regarding the role of each mechanism in thrombocytopenia of liver cirrhosis have been reported [142, 146, 160-161, 184] and no study has simultaneously evaluated the influence of the different mechanisms including portal hypertension and TPO production nor whether their influence could change in different stages of the disease..

Self-Assembly Method To Fabricate Reduced Graphene Oxide Aerogels Loaded with Nickel Hydroxyl Nanoparticles and Their Excellent Properties in Absorbing and Supercapacitors

A facile method for preparing nickel hydroxyl nanoparticles loaded graphene aerogels has been established. The prepared aerogels were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Their applications as absorbents or electrode materials for supercapacitors were investigated. They showed excellent performance on the absorption of different dyes. The absorption capacities ranged from 202 to 513 mg g^–1. They also displayed high absorption capacities toward oils and organic solvents. The aerogels demonstrated high capacitance and stability as electrode materials of supercapacitors. The specific capacitance reached 702 F g^–1 at current densities of 1 A g^–1

Additional file 1: Table S2. of Novel roles of DC-SIGNR in colon cancer cell adhesion, migration, invasion, and liver metastasis

The table shows the clinical data of the colon cancer patients in DC-SIGNR ELISA study. (DOCX 24 kb

Additional file 4: Figure S1. of Novel roles of DC-SIGNR in colon cancer cell adhesion, migration, invasion, and liver metastasis

DC-SIGNR did not promote colony formation in colon cancer cells. (A) The photographs indicated no influence of DC-SIGNR protein on cell proliferation efficiency of LoVo cells. (B) The histograms showed the clone cells number in respective cells. (TIF 1926 kb

Conjugation of a Nonspecific Antiviral Sapogenin with a Specific HIV Fusion Inhibitor: A Promising Strategy for Discovering New Antiviral Therapeutics

Triterpene saponins are a major group of active components in natural products with nonspecific antiviral activities, while T20 peptide (enfuvirtide), which contains a helix zone-binding domain (HBD), is a gp41-specific HIV-1 fusion inhibitor. In this paper, we report the design, synthesis, and structure–activity relationship (SAR) of a group of hybrid molecules in which bioactive triterpene sapogenins were covalently attached to the HBD-containing peptides via click chemistry. We found that either the triterpenes or peptide part alone showed weak activity against HIV-1 Env-mediated cell–cell fusion, while the hybrids generated a strong cooperative effect. Among them, P26–BApc exhibited anti-HIV-1 activity against both T20-sensitive and -resistant HIV-1 strains and improved pharmacokinetic properties. These results suggest that this scaffold design is a promising strategy for developing new HIV-1 fusion inhibitors and possibly novel antiviral therapeutics against other viruses with class I fusion proteins