Mercè Durfort: A lifetime love of biology

Mercè Durfort i Coll va ser biòloga i mestra. Absolutament dedicada a la cièn­cia i la docència, fou una persona curiosa i amable, enamorada del treball cap­davanter en neurobiologia de Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Va ser un referent per a més de quaranta promocions d’estudiants de la Facultat de Ciències, i després de la Facultat de Biologia, a la Universitat de Barcelona. Sòcia d’honor de la Societat Catalana de Biologia.  Mercè Durfort Coll was a biologist and a teacher. Devoted heart and soul to science and teaching, she was a kind person who was very curious about the world and stood in scientific awe of the seminal neurobiology work of Santia­go Ramón y Cajal. Moreover, she has been a role model for the students of over forty graduation classes, first at the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Sciences and subsequently at its Faculty of Biology. She was an honorary mem­ber of the Catalan Society of Biology

Systemic Oncological Treatments versus Supportive Care for Patients with Advanced Hepatobiliary Cancers : An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Altres ajuts: This study is funded through a grant from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI18/00034), co-financed by funds from the European Regional Development Fund.Hepatobiliary cancers (that include hepatocellular carcinoma, intrahepatic or extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer) are usually treated with systemic oncological treatments (i.e., chemotherapy, immunotherapy and biological or targeted therapies) mainly due to their improvement in survival. However, the trade-off between these therapies and usual practice supportive care is not clear, and other outcomes beyond survival should be considered in advanced stages, such as quality of life or symptom control. The present study is part of a wider project aiming to conduct broad evidence syntheses assessing the effects of systemic oncological treatments versus usual practice supportive care for patients with advanced non-intestinal digestive cancers. We performed an overview of systematic reviews assessing the effects of systemic oncological treatments versus usual practice supportive care for patients with primary advanced hepatobiliary cancer. We found evidence that for these patients (specifically for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma), systemic oncological treatments tend to improve survival at the expense of greater toxicity. Much of systematic reviews included was of low quality and highly overlapped. Nevertheless, the evidence we found failed to report other important outcomes that could be critical for decision making, including quality of life or symptom control. Future research assessing these patient-important outcomes is needed. Background: The trade-off between systemic oncological treatments (SOTs) and UPSC in patients with primary advanced hepatobiliary cancers (HBCs) is not clear in terms of patient-centred outcomes beyond survival. This overview aims to assess the effectiveness of SOTs (chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted/biological therapies) versus UPSC in advanced HBCs. Methods: We searched for systematic reviews (SRs) in PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Epistemonikos and PROSPERO. Two authors assessed eligibility independently and performed data extraction. We estimated the quality of SRs and the overlap of primary studies, performed de novo meta-analyses and assessed the certainty of evidence for each outcome. Results: We included 18 SRs, most of which were of low quality and highly overlapped. For advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, SOTs showed better overall survival (HR = 0.62, 95% CI 0.55-0.77, high certainty for first-line therapy; HR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.79-0.92, moderate certainty for second-line therapy) with higher toxicity (RR = 1.18, 95% CI 0.87-1.60, very low certainty for first-line therapy; RR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.28-1.96, low certainty for second-line therapy). Survival was also better for SOTs in advanced gallbladder cancer. No outcomes beyond survival and toxicity could be meta-analysed. Conclusion: SOTs in advanced HBCs tend to improve survival at the expense of greater toxicity. Future research should inform other patient-important outcomes to guide clinical decision making

Post-Hospital Syndrome and Hyponatremia

Introduction: Post-hospital syndrome (PHS) is defined as a period of vulnerability during the first 30 days after a patient is discharged from hospital, in which multiple factors come into play. Hyponatremia is the most frequent hydroelectrolytic disorder in hospitalized patients and may be related to the appearance of PHS. Objective: The objective is to estimate the prevalence of PHS that is assessed as the rate of readmissions in the first 30 days after discharge, in patients with hyponatremia. Material and Methods: It is a descriptive observational study of patients with hyponatremia who were discharged from 1 September 2010 to 2 February 2020 at the Internal Medicine Service of the Hospital University of San Juan (Alicante, Spain). Results: Of the 25 included patients, 5 (20%) were readmitted within a month of discharge, after a mean of 11.4 days (standard deviation [SD] 5.1). The overall mortality of the study was 20% (n = 5), with one case of death in the first 30 days post-hospitalization (4%). In 12 patients (48%) the origin of the hyponatremia was undetermined. The most frequently recorded etiology for the condition was pharmacological (n = 7, 28%), and there was pronounced variability in its clinical and laboratory study. The most widely used corrective measure was drug withdrawal, in 16 patients (64%). Water intake restriction was the most common treatment after discharge (5 patients, 20%), followed by urea (2 patients, 8%), while tolvaptan was not used. Conclusion: Hyponatremia may be the cause of PHS, which could increase the rate of early readmission. Hyponatremia is an underdiagnosed and undertreated entity, so it is necessary to apply an appropriate system to optimize its management and, in future studies, to assess its impact on PHS

Biología I: una experiencia de aprendizaje activo para asumir competencias generales y específicas

Podeu consultar la versió catalana a recurs relacionat.[spa] En este cuaderno se describe el proceso de gestación y desarrollo de la Biología I, una asignatura de 6 ECTS que se imparte en los grados de Biología, Bioquímica, Biotecnología y Ciencias Biomédicas en la Facultad de Biología de la Universidad de Barcelona. Para impartir la Biología I se constituyó un equipo docente multidisciplinar, formado por 30 profesores de diferentes departamentos. Es importante destacar la labor de coordinación y colaboración entre todos los integrantes. Consideramos esta experiencia muy importante, ya que en ninguna asignatura había participado un número tan elevado de profesores y departamentos de la Facultad de Biología. En los distintos apartados se explican detalladamente todas las actividades que se han llevado a cabo: clases de teoría, aprendizaje basado en problemas (ABP), seminarios, prácticas de campo y visitas a diferentes centros de investigación u hospitalarios. También se presentan y se discuten los resultados obtenidos. Analizando la asignatura de Biología I, tanto desde el punto de vista de la actividad docente realizada como de los resultados obtenidos, llegamos a la conclusión de que es una experiencia de aprendizaje activo que ha permitido la adquisición con éxito tanto de competencias generales como específicas.[eng] This book describes the process of conception and development of Biology I, a course of 6 ECTS, taught in the degrees of Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona. To teach Biology I a multidisciplinary teaching team, comprising 30 teachers from different departments, was created. It is important to highlight the work of coordination and cooperation between all those members. We consider this experience as very important because, never before, such a large number of teachers and departments of the Faculty of Biology were involved in one single course. Through the different book sections, all the activities that took place are explained in detail: lecturers, problem based learning (PBL), seminars, field practicals and visits to research centers or hospitals. Results are also presented and discussed. Both from the standpoint of the work done and the final results, we conclude that this Biology I course proposal is an experience of active learning which allowed the successful achievement of general and specific skills by the students

Immune cellular networks underlying recovery from influenza virus infection in acute hospitalized patients

How innate and adaptive immune responses work in concert to resolve influenza disease is yet to be fully investigated in one single study. Here, we utilize longitudinal samples from patients hospitalized with acute influenza to understand these immune responses. We report the dynamics of 18 important immune parameters, related to clinical, genetic and virological factors, in influenza patients across different severity levels. Influenza disease correlates with increases in IL-6/IL-8/MIP-1α/β cytokines and lower antibody responses. Robust activation of circulating T follicular helper cells correlates with peak antibody-secreting cells and influenza heamaglutinin-specific memory B-cell numbers, which phenotypically differs from vaccination-induced B-cell responses. Numbers of influenza-specific CD8+ or CD4+ T cells increase early in disease and retain an activated phenotype during patient recovery. We report the characterisation of immune cellular networks underlying recovery from influenza infection which are highly relevant to other infectious diseases

Understanding human B cell and antibody responses against seasonal influenza viruses

© 2020 Maria Auladell BernatVaccination is the best available means to reduce the burden of seasonal influenza. However, current influenza vaccines need to be updated frequently to keep up with evolution among circulating viruses. Antigenic evolution, otherwise termed drift, is most rapid among A/H3N2 viruses, and the A/H3N2 component of vaccines is frequently updated. Despite this, influenza vaccine effectiveness against the A/H3N2 subtype has been poor in recent years, especially among previously vaccinated individuals. Protection induced by inactivated influenza vaccines is largely mediated by B cells and antibodies reactive against the head of the hemagglutinin (HA) protein, with help from T follicular helper cells. The cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the attenuating effects of prior vaccination and existing immunity are largely undefined. It has been suggested that existing antibodies clear or mask antigen, or that memory B cells induced by prior exposures competitively dominate responses so that B cells and antibodies become focused on epitopes that are shared between prior and prevailing vaccine strains. The aim of the work presented in this PhD thesis was to examine the impact of pre-existing immune responses induced by prior infection with different A/H3N2 strains on influenza vaccine immunogenicity. In depth antibody as well as B cell assessments were performed to understand the impact of existing antibodies and memory B cells following vaccination and provide insights into the design of new vaccine strategies. As a lead up to the ex vivo analysis of B cells from vaccinees, we first sought to understand how human naive versus memory B cells differentiate in vitro. Experiments were conducted in Chapter 3 to compare the stimuli required for their differentiation into plasmablasts, and subsequently understand how they change phenotypically once stimulated. Specifically, sorted human naive and memory B cells from healthy individuals were stimulated in vitro to induce differentiation into plasmablasts. Data obtained in this PhD thesis showed that stimulation with the Toll-like receptor (TLR) 7/8 agonist R848 in the presence of monocytes induced the highest activation of both naive and memory B cells. Conversely, stimulation with the TLR9 agonist CpG or with R848 in the absence of monocytes induced little to no differentiation of naive B cells but were able to stimulate memory B. cell differentiation. Despite robust differentiation into antibody secreting plasmablasts, naive-derived B cells remained phenotypically distinct from memory-derived B cells up to day 6 after in vitro activation, with differential expression of CD27, CD38 and CD20. This work resulted in a first-author publication in Clin Transl Immunol, 2019. The focus of Chapters 4 and 5 was to understand how prior influenza virus infection affects antibody and B cell responses to influenza vaccination. To address this question, vaccine responses were investigated in a unique influenza vaccine-naive cohort in Viet Nam, that had been monitored for both clinical and asymptomatic influenza virus infection for more than 9 years. In 2016, twenty-eight participants without documented A/H3N2 virus infection (since 2007) and 72 participants who had been infected with A/H3N2 viruses, belonging to a range of genetic clades, received an inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine containing an A/Hong Kong/4801/2014-like (H3N2) antigen. This work investigated whether influenza vaccination induced naive B cell responses specific for new epitopes or largely recalled B cells specific for conserved epitopes, common to the vaccine A/H3N2 component and prior infecting strains. Hemagglutination inhibition antibody titres were measured in pre- and serial post-vaccination sera against 40 A/H3N2 viruses spanning 1968-2018 to understand how the titre and cross-reactivity of antibodies against the HA head evolve. B cells were assessed by flow cytometry using a panel of phenotypic markers in addition to recombinant HA probes representing the vaccine and recently infecting strains (A/Perth/16/2009, A/Victoria/361/2011 and A/Switzerland/9715293/2013). Participants who had at least one pre-vaccination A/H3N2 virus infection had on average 2 to 3-fold higher vaccine-specific antibody titres, steeper titre rises in the weeks following vaccination (mean peak on day 14), and less titre decay by days 21 and 280 compared to participants without prior infection. Moreover, participants with prior infection exhibited greater and better-maintained titre rises against viruses that circulated a year after vaccination, indicating that prior infection extends the strain coverage of antibodies induced by vaccination. Notably, A/H3N2 viruses that circulated 275-340 days after vaccination caused illness in only 1.4% of participants with infection prior to vaccination and in 14% of participants without prior infection. This suggests that vaccine effectiveness can be enhanced by pre-existing immunity. However, it was also clear that the range of strains against which antibodies were induced was dictated by the strain with which participants were previously infected, indicating that vaccination may simply recall rather than update antibody-mediated immunity. HA-probe reactive B cell frequencies and activation status increased substantially after vaccination. The greatest increases in HA probe-reactive B cells were detected among participants who had recent prior infection, with the majority of B cells exhibiting cross-reactivity with prior strains. A modest but significant increase in the frequency of B cells that reacted with the HA of the vaccine strain, but not of past strains, could be detected in participants who lacked prior infection. The phenotype of vaccine HA single-positive B cells, including increased IgM expression, indicated that they may have been naive-derived B cells. Vaccination induced B cells that preferentially reacted with the HA of A/Perth/16/2009 and/or A/Victoria/361/2011 viruses, but not A/Switzerland/9715293/2013 viruses, among participants who had prior A/Perth/16/2009-like virus infection. However, B cells induced by vaccination in participants who had prior A/Switzerland/9715293/2013-like virus infection were equally cross-reactive with HA of all tested viruses. These results support the inference that immune responses to standard inactivated influenza vaccines are dominated and shaped by recalled memory B cells with limited activation of naive B cells to update immunity. Overall, this PhD thesis investigated how pre-existing immunity induced by documented influenza virus infection affected the humoral response to seasonal influenza vaccines in healthy adults. This work provides new insights into the capacity of influenza vaccines to stimulate naive B cells, which may be limited due to memory B cell dominance and to a lack of sufficient stimulation to activate naive B cells. This knowledge could be used to design new vaccine strategies and improve influenza vaccine-induced protection

Implementing living evidence to inform health decisions : A strategy for building capacity in health sector (Protocol)

Every day important healthcare decisions are made with incomplete or outdated information about the effects of the healthcare interventions available, what delivers the best value for the health system and where more research is needed. It is necessary to invest in strategies that allow access to reliable and updated evidence on which to base health decisions. The objective is to develop and evaluate a strategy for building the capacity among different actors of a country's health system to implement the model known as 'Living Evidence' [LE] in the evidence synthesis and dissemination of knowledge transfer [KT] products to inform health decisions. The study will involve professional members of health system organizations in charge of developing KT products to inform health decisions. The project will be developed in three complementary phases: 1) LE-implementation framework development through review of the literature, brainstorming meetings, user testing, and expert consultation; 2) training in LE tools and strategies; 3) developing LE synthesis for KT products by applying the framework to real-life diverse situations. To achieve the capacity-building strategy assessment goal, several surveys and interviews will take place during the process to assess: 1) the LE-implementation framework for the incorporation of LE synthesis in the development of KT products; 2) the training workshops; 3) the whole capacity-building strategy used for health system organizations be able of implementing the LE as part of the KT products they regularly produce. The expected results are an effective capacity-building strategy for health system organizations to implement the living evidence model in different KT products; a LE-implementation framework to be applicable to any country or region to incorporate LE in the KT products; LE synthesis for KT products directly applicable to the real-setting situations; integration of Epistemonikos-L.OVE platform for keeping the LE process in the development and updating of KT products

Micromón marí

Este recurso forma parte de la iniciativa "El Oceano en casa - L'Oceà a casa" del Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), un blog que recopila contenidos y recursos, variados y prácticos, para que los más pequeños y pequeñas de la casa descubran los secretos del Océano desde casa. Se desarrolló entre el 27 de marzo y el 17 de abril de 2020, durante el confinamiento por la crisis COVID-19[ES] En esta entrada del blog “El Océano en Casa” se introduce a las bacterias y virus marinos y la importancia de los microorganismos en el océano. [...] ¿Estáis preparados para sumergiros en el Océano? 3, 2, 1… ¡Al agua! Hoy, por ser el primer día, hablaremos de aquello que más aparece estos días en la televisión, radio, periódicos… de los virus. También hablaremos de las bacterias. Antes de comenzar, ¿crees que en el Océano hay virus? ¿Y bacterias? Para poder responder a nuestra pregunta, lo primero que hay que preguntarse es… ¿Qué es un virus?¿Y una bacteria? [...][CAT] Esteu preparats per submergir-vos en l’Oceà? 3, 2, 1… A l’aigua! Avui, per ser el primer dia, parlarem d’allò que més apareix aquests dies a la televisió, ràdio, diaris… dels virus. També parlarem dels bacteris. Abans de començar, creus que a l’Oceà hi ha virus? I bacteris? Per poder respondre a la nostra pregunta, el primer que cal preguntar-se és… Què és un virus? I un bacteri? . [...]Peer reviewe

Un Imprès desconegut d'Ogier le Danois en prosa de 1516 (París, François Regnault)

Amb aquesta nota volem donar notícia d'un imprès antic, fins ara desconegut, d'Ogier le Danois en prosa.1 Es tracta d'un llibre fet a París el 1516 per al llibreter François Regnault, un exemplar del qual es conserva a la secció de Reserva de la Bi-blioteca de la Universitat de Barcelona.2 Aquest imprès no ha estat, fins ara, reperto-riat; no apareix en Moreau (1972-2004), ni a la base de dades USTC; tampoc, en la llista d'impresos dreçada per Dompierre (2015: 75-76), ni en els catàlegs del patrimoni bibliogràfic de França, Itàlia, Anglaterra o Espanya (on només hi apareix l'exemplar de la BUB).3 Per tant, i fins on sabem actualment, d'aquesta edició només se'n conser-va un exemplar

Biologia I: una experiència d'aprenentatge actiu per assolir competències generals

Podeu consultar la versió castellana a recurs relacionat.En aquest quadern es descriu el procés de gestació i desenvolupament de la Biologia I, una assignatura de 6 ECTS, que s'imparteix en els graus de Biologia, Bioquímica, Biotecnologia i Ciències Biomèdiques a la Facultat de Biologia de la Universitat de Barcelona. Per impartir la Biologia I es va constituir un equip docent multidisciplinari, format per 30 professors de diferents departaments. És important destacar la feina de coordinació i col·laboració entre tots els integrants. Considerem aquesta experiència molt important, ja que mai en cap assignatura no hi havia participat un nombre tan elevat de professors ni de departaments de la Facultat de Biologia. En els diferents apartats s¿expliquen detalladament totes les activitats que s¿han portat a terme: classes de teoria, aprenentatge basat en problemes (ABP), seminaris, pràctiques de camp i visites a diferents centres de recerca o hospitalaris. També es presenten i es discuteixen els resultats obtinguts. Analitzant l'assignatura de Biologia I, tant des del punt de vista de l'activitat docent realitzada com dels resultats obtinguts, arribem a la conclusió que és una experiència d'aprenentatge actiu que ha permès l'adquisició amb èxit tant de competències generals com específiques