Osteotomía de Weil percutánea en el tratamiento de las metatarsalgias: correlación clínico-radiológica

El objetivo del presente trabajo fue evaluar los resultados de la osteotomía de Weil percutánea para el tratamiento de la metatarsalgia de origen mecánico. Para ello, se revisaron de forma retrospectiva los primeros 28 casos consecutivos intervenidos mediante osteotomía de Weil percutánea en pacientes con metatarsalgia mecánica por sobrecarga de los metatarsianos centrales. Se entrevistó a la totalidad de los pacientes, evaluando los resultados radiológicos, estéticos y funcionales, utilizando para ello la Escala de Valoración funcional AOFAS (American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society) para el antepié. Los resultados fueron considerados como buenos o excelentes desde el punto de vista funcional en 81% de los pies intervenidos y en el 89% desde el punto de vista estético. La puntuación final media en la escala AOFAS fue de 78,3. Tuvimos 3 casos de infección por estafilococo aureus que se resolvieron con tratamiento antibiótico específico. No se observaron pseudoartrosis. Por todo ello, consideramos que la osteotomía de Weil es una técnica adecuada y segura para tratar las metatarsalgias de causa mecánica.The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the short-term results after percutaneous Weil osteotomy for the treatment secondary metatarsalgia related to repetitive high-pressure loading under the metatarsal heads. We analyzed retrospectively clinical and radiological outcome of 28 consecutive patients who were treated with percutaneous, subcapital osteotomy for metatarsalgia with overload etiology. Analysis of the esthetic, functional and radiologic results was performed using AOFAS forefoot score. Good to excellent functional results were achieved in 81% of the feet, cosmetic in 89% with average score 78,3 points. Three patients developed a superficial wound infections, which responded to antibiotics. Union occurred in all cases. Percutaneous Weil osteotomy is safe and effective technique for treatment of secondary metatarsalgia with mechanic etiology

Report of the Workshop on Age estimation of European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus)

Based on the results of a full-scale otolith exchange held in 2014, the Working Group on Biological Parameters (WGBIOP 2015) identified the need for an age reading workshop on European Anchovy otoliths (WKARA2). This workshop (chaired by Andres Uriarte, Spain, Begoña Villamor, Spain and Gualtiero Basilone, Italy), was held in Pasaia, Gui-puzcoa (Spain) from the 28 November to 2 December 2016. Five countries took part in this workshop (Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Tunisia), with a total of 16 participants from 9 laboratories. In total 17 areas/stocks were analysed (4 from the Atlantic area and 13 from Mediterranean Sea) The aim of this workshop was to review the information on age determination, discuss the results of the previous exchange (2014), review the validation methods existing on these species, clarify the interpretation of annual rings and update the age reading pro-tocol and a reference collection of well-defined otoliths. Age validation studies, in the Bay of Biscay and preliminary validation studies in Divi-sion 9a, Alboran Sea and Strait of Sicily areas were presented, including a compilation of age validation studies of this species as well in the literature. There are several ar-eas/stocks in which validations of the anchovy annual age determination have not been done yet. Due to the poor percentage of agreement achieved in the 2014 Exchange (mean agree-ment of 66%; mean CV of 58%), the workshop proceeded with a detailed and joint dis-cussion on the growth patterns shown by otoliths from the different areas to find out the major reasons for discrepancies in age determination among readers. At the same time, the joint discussion allowed a better understanding of the pattern of otolith growth in-crements by areas to improve the guidelines for their interpretation. The discussions on examples among otoliths which generated discrepancies in the age determination led to conclude that there were two major sources of disagreements: a) Divergent otolith inter-pretation: different interpretations of the marks, growth bands and edges in terms of their conformity with the expected growth pattern of the anchovies, seasonal formation of the otolith by ages and most common checks. and b) wrong application of the age allocation Rules: it was evidenced during the workshop that for the birthdate first July (or first June) in some cases the age determination rule was not being correctly applied during the first half of the year (from January to June). Following the workshop discussions there has been a progressive change in the percep-tion of the growth pattern applicable to these anchovy otoliths in many areas which led to some revisions of the otolith interpretation and assigned ages, by which growth at ages 0 and 1 are far prominent than at older ages and the occurrence of checks became more frequently admitted. Furthermore, there have been evidences that the age determination rules have in some instances been inconsistently applied. All these evidences led to con-clude on the need to review past age determinations. Although this task should be de-layed until running an exchange in 2018 to be sure that all the readers apply the protocol and the current criteria of this workshop coherently, since current criteria would change the otoliths interpretation and the age determination in many areas. In addition, for the Mediterranean regions the convenience of midyear birthdates was put in question in comparison with the simplicity of the conventional birthdates at first of January (as these anchovies are in the northern hemisphere). As a corollary of the former statements, intercalibration exercises by areas, for the differ-ent countries taking part in the age reading of the same exploited stock, are still required. Finally, this Workshop adopted a common protocol for all areas in order to standardize the anchovy age assignments and to improve the coherence of the age estimates. An agreed collection of otoliths by areas were produced and upload to the Age Readers Fo-rum

Issues related to the MEDITS reference list of species

The MEDITS survey programme started in 1994 and adopted the basic protocols by the four first partners, just before the first survey. These protocols included the design of the survey, the sampling gear, the information collected, and the management of the data as far as the production of common standardized analyses of the data (Bertrand et al., 2002). The last updating of protocols has been done in 2007 (MEDITS, 2007). According to it, for each species the total weight and number of individuals is recorded. For a reference list of 38 species of fish, crustaceans and cephalopods, the length frequency by sex must be reported, as well as the maturity stage of the gonads. However, two different things should be taken into account. On one hand, for most works performed using MEDITS data (including assessments), the length frequency distributions are used, without taking into account the sex. On the other hand, the period of the surveys is not always coincident with the spawning season for all the species in the MEDITS reference list. This document attempts to be a practical exercise in relation to these topics, using both surveys and commercial data, and gives some proposals to the reference list of specie

Adipocytes disrupt the translational programme of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia to favour tumour survival and persistence

The specific niche adaptations that facilitate primary disease and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) survival after induction chemotherapy remain unclear. Here, we show that Bone Marrow (BM) adipocytes dynamically evolve during ALL pathogenesis and therapy, transitioning from cellular depletion in the primary leukaemia niche to a fully reconstituted state upon remission induction. Functionally, adipocyte niches elicit a fate switch in ALL cells towards slow-proliferation and cellular quiescence, highlighting the critical contribution of the adipocyte dynamic to disease establishment and chemotherapy resistance. Mechanistically, adipocyte niche interaction targets posttranscriptional networks and suppresses protein biosynthesis in ALL cells. Treatment with general control nonderepressible 2 inhibitor (GCN2ib) alleviates adipocyte-mediated translational repression and rescues ALL cell quiescence thereby significantly reducing the cytoprotective effect of adipocytes against chemotherapy and other extrinsic stressors. These data establish how adipocyte driven restrictions of the ALL proteome benefit ALL tumours, preventing their elimination, and suggest ways to manipulate adipocyte-mediated ALL resistance

Spatial and temporal variability of discards indicators and fishery factors affecting otter-trawl fishery in the spanish Mediterranean sea

A set of diversity indices were studied from data of observers on board two Mediterranean trawlers from 2001 to 2009. These diversity indices comprise relationships between total catch, landing and discard fractions to explore the accuracy of the estimates and to analyse the series trends using different methods, such as ARIMA. The hypothesis tested was that diversity indicators give a good representation of the changes produced in impacted bottom‐trawl areas, providing a reasonable fit of the data. ARIMA models are useful because they handle time-correlated modelling and forecasting. These techniques can also reveal changes in total catch as well changes in catch composition, probably induced by changes in effort fishery, seasonal (time) fluctuations, and environmental or climatic processes. Contrasted trends were also compared with survey data by MEDITS Mediterranean trawl survey time‐series indicator

Current challenges in software solutions for mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics

This work was in part supported by the PRIME-XS project, grant agreement number 262067, funded by the European Union seventh Framework Programme; The Netherlands Proteomics Centre, embedded in The Netherlands Genomics Initiative; The Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre; and the Centre for Biomedical Genetics (to S.C., B.B. and A.J.R.H); by NIH grants NCRR RR001614 and RR019934 (to the UCSF Mass Spectrometry Facility, director: A.L. Burlingame, P.B.); and by grants from the MRC, CR-UK, BBSRC and Barts and the London Charity (to P.C.

Fumarate is an epigenetic modifier that elicits epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

Mutations of the tricarboxylic acid cycle enzyme fumarate hydratase cause hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer. Fumarate hydratase-deficient renal cancers are highly aggressive and metastasize even when small, leading to a very poor clinical outcome. Fumarate, a small molecule metabolite that accumulates in fumarate hydratase-deficient cells, plays a key role in cell transformation, making it a bona fide oncometabolite. Fumarate has been shown to inhibit α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases that are involved in DNA and histone demethylation. However, the link between fumarate accumulation, epigenetic changes, and tumorigenesis is unclear. Here we show that loss of fumarate hydratase and the subsequent accumulation of fumarate in mouse and human cells elicits an epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition (EMT), a phenotypic switch associated with cancer initiation, invasion, and metastasis. We demonstrate that fumarate inhibits Tet-mediated demethylation of a regulatory region of the antimetastatic miRNA cluster mir-200ba429, leading to the expression of EMT-related transcription factors and enhanced migratory properties. These epigenetic and phenotypic changes are recapitulated by the incubation of fumarate hydratase-proficient cells with cell-permeable fumarate. Loss of fumarate hydratase is associated with suppression of miR-200 and the EMT signature in renal cancer and is associated with poor clinical outcome. These results imply that loss of fumarate hydratase and fumarate accumulation contribute to the aggressive features of fumarate hydratase-deficient tumours.This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (UK). S.F. was supported by a Herchel Smith Research Studentship and K.F. by an MRC Career Development Award. E.R.M is supported by the ERC Advanced Researcher award 323004–ONCOTREAT. P.H.M. is supported by Senior Investigator Awards from the Wellcome Trust and NIHR. The Cambridge Human Research Tissue Bank and A.W. are supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature19353

The Mediterranean fishery management: A call for shifting the current paradigm from duplication to synergy

Independence of science and best available science are fundamental pillars of the UN-FAO code of conduct for responsible fisheries and are also applied to the European Union (EU) Common Fishery Policy (CFP), with the overarching objective being the sustainable exploitation of the fisheries resources. CFP is developed by DG MARE, the department of the European Commission responsible for EU policy on maritime affairs and fisheries, which has the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) as consultant body. In the Mediterranean and Black Sea, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (FAO-GFCM), with its own Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries (GFCM-SAC), plays a critical role in fisheries governance, having the authority to adopt binding recommendations for fisheries conservation and management. During the last years, advice on the status of the main stocks in the Mediterranean and Black Sea has been provided both by GFCM-SAC and EU-STECF, often without a clear coordination and a lack of shared rules and practices. This has led in the past to: i) duplications of the advice on the status of the stocks thus adding confusion in the management process and, ii) a continuous managers’ interference in the scientific process by DG MARE officials hindering its transparency and independence. Thus, it is imperative that this stalemate is rapidly resolved and that the free role of science in Mediterranean fisheries assessment and management is urgently restored to assure the sustainable exploitation of Mediterranean marine resources in the future.En prens

Co-infections and superinfections complicating COVID-19 in cancer patients: A multicentre, international study

Background: We aimed to describe the epidemiology, risk factors, and clinical outcomes of co-infections and superinfections in onco-hematological patients with COVID-19. Methods: International, multicentre cohort study of cancer patients with COVID-19. All patients were included in the analysis of co-infections at diagnosis, while only patients admitted at least 48 h were included in the analysis of superinfections. Results: 684 patients were included (384 with solid tumors and 300 with hematological malignancies). Co-infections and superinfections were documented in 7.8% (54/684) and 19.1% (113/590) of patients, respectively. Lower respiratory tract infections were the most frequent infectious complications, most often caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Only seven patients developed opportunistic infections. Compared to patients without infectious complications, those with infections had worse outcomes, with high rates of acute respiratory distress syndrome, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and case-fatality rates. Neutropenia, ICU admission and high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) were independent risk factors for infections. Conclusions: Infectious complications in cancer patients with COVID-19 were lower than expected, affecting mainly neutropenic patients with high levels of CRP and/or ICU admission. The rate of opportunistic infections was unexpectedly low. The use of empiric antimicrobials in cancer patients with COVID-19 needs to be optimized

Clear Genetic Distinctiveness between Human- and Pig-Derived Trichuris Based on Analyses of Mitochondrial Datasets

The whipworm, Trichuris trichiura, causes trichuriasis in ∼600 million people worldwide, mainly in developing countries. Whipworms also infect other animal hosts, including pigs (T. suis), dogs (T. vulpis) and non-human primates, and cause disease in these hosts, which is similar to trichuriasis of humans. Although Trichuris species are considered to be host specific, there has been considerable controversy, over the years, as to whether T. trichiura and T. suis are the same or distinct species. Here, we characterised the entire mitochondrial genomes of human-derived Trichuris and pig-derived Trichuris, compared them and then tested the hypothesis that the parasites from these two host species are genetically distinct in a phylogenetic analysis of the sequence data. Taken together, the findings support the proposal that T. trichiura and T. suis are separate species, consistent with previous data for nuclear ribosomal DNA. Using molecular analytical tools, employing genetic markers defined herein, future work should conduct large-scale studies to establish whether T. trichiura is found in pigs and T. suis in humans in endemic regions