Methotrexate Gold Nanocarriers: Loading and Release Study: Its Activity in Colon and Lung Cancer Cells

In the present study, the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) loaded with methotrexate (MTX) has been carried out in order to obtain controlled size and monodispersed nanocarriers of around 20 nm. The characterization study shows metallic AuNPs with MTX polydispersed on the surface. MTX is linked by the replacement of citrate by the MTX carboxyl group. The drug release profiles show faster MTX release when it is conjugated, which leads to the best control of plasma concentration. Moreover, the enhanced release observed at pH 5 could take advantage of the pH gradients that exist in tumor microenvironments to achieve high local drug concentrations. AuNP–MTX conjugates were tested by flow cytometry against lung (A-549) and colon (HTC-116) cancer cell lines. Results for A-549 showed a weaker dose–response e ect than for colon cancer ones. This could be related to the presence of folate receptors in line HTC-116 in comparison to line A-549, supporting the specific uptake of folate-conjugated AuNP–MTX by folate receptor positive tumor cells. Conjugates exhibited considerably higher cytotoxic e ects compared with the e ects of equal doses of free MTX. Annexin V-PI tests sustained the cell death mechanism of apoptosis, which is normally disabled in cancer cells.Spanish GovernmentJunta de Andalucía P18-RT-419

VIRUP "En busca de los viral"

Este trabajo es la idea llevada a la práctica, de cuatro amigos, compañeros y alumnos del Grado de Publicidad y Relaciones Públicas de la Universidad de Valladolid. Todo comenzó en una asignatura de segundo de carrera, en la que se nos proponía realizar un proyecto relacionado con las nuevas tecnologías. Nosotros no quisimos quedarnos en lo convencional, y fuimos más allá. Así es como nació VIRUP: “En busca de lo viral”. La organización de eventos es una de las salidas profesionales que más nos ha llamado la atención desde que comenzamos la carrera, es por ello que quisimos crear algo nuevo y diferente, que fuera por y para alumnos. Durante las tres ediciones, el principal objetivo ha sido ofrecer a nuestros compañeros contenidos de calidad sobre redes sociales, a través de profesionales del sector. En definitiva, poder generar conocimiento e ideas sobre el mundo digital, que en un futuro les fuesen útiles laboralmente.Departamento de Historia Moderna, Contemporánea y de América, Periodismo y Comunicación Audiovisual y PublicidadGrado en Publicidad y Relaciones Pública

Online teaching in COVID-19 times. Student satisfaction and analysis of their academic performance

[EN] Online teaching has grown exponentially as a result of COVID-19. Universities and teaching institutions the world over have had to adapt their curricula to this new teaching and learning model. The main goal of this study is to analyse various teaching methodologies used on a sample of university students to analyse their effectiveness in terms of satisfaction, competencies and academic performance. The results suggest that methodologies that include greater student-teacher interaction or the use of videoconferencing for classes and problem-solving help to raise student satisfaction. Students also positively assess online teaching as it allows them to acquire new competencies and even to identify business opportunities. The online evaluation method used also seems to have been appropriate, as it led students to obtain better grades than in face-to-face teaching contexts. The study offers several implications for university teachers of Social Sciences who wish to adopt this type of teaching method

Online teaching in COVID-19 times. Student satisfaction and analysis of their academic performance

[EN] Online teaching has grown exponentially as a result of COVID-19. Universities and teaching institutions the world over have had to adapt their curricula to this new teaching and learning model. The main goal of this study is to analyse various teaching methodologies used on a sample of university students to analyse their effectiveness in terms of satisfaction, competencies and academic performance. The results suggest that methodologies that include greater student-teacher interaction or the use of videoconferencing for classes and problem-solving help to raise student satisfaction. Students also positively assess online teaching as it allows them to acquire new competencies and even to identify business opportunities. The online evaluation method used also seems to have been appropriate, as it led students to obtain better grades than in face-to-face teaching contexts. The study offers several implications for university teachers of Social Sciences who wish to adopt this type of teaching method.Jiménez-Parra, B.; Alonso-Martínez, D.; Cabeza-García, L.; González-Álvarez, N. (2021). Online teaching in COVID-19 times. Student satisfaction and analysis of their academic performance. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 289-296. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.12855OCS28929

ADIÓS A LA IGUALDAD DE SEXOS. UNA NUEVA PERSPECTIVA EN LA INVESTIGACIÓN DE SEXO Y GÉNERO.

Este estudio se enmarca en una investigación más amplia, que se está realizando con estudiantes de Ecuador, y entre cuyos objetivos se persigue identificar claves culturales y socioeducativas que pueden sesgar el desarrollo vocacional y posterior elección profesional de mujeres y varones, en función de creencias, valores y esquemas existenciales basados en la desigualdad entre sexos. Se presentan los primeros datos de la fase exploratoria en diferencias de sexo y género en habilidades cognitivas y factores actitudinales de feminidad, masculinidad, sumisión y machismo, sobre una muestra de 1120 adolescentes, de ambos sexos, de 2º de Bachillerato (16-18 años) de centros educativos del Ecuador. Se ha aplicado el cuestionario IMAFE, (Inventario Masculinidad-Feminidad), y las ocho subpruebas del Test de Aptitudes Diferenciales (DAT). Se avanza la información derivada de las correlaciones entre los factores de IMAFE, entre cuatro subpruebas del DAT: razonamiento verbal (RV), razonamiento abstracto (RA), razonamiento espacial (RE) y cálculo (C), y entre las puntuaciones de ambos instrumentos. En estos primeros datos, cabe destacar que se ha encontrado coherencia con hallazgos de investigaciones actuales, referidos a perfiles de rasgos indiferenciados entre sexos en asociación a los distintos niveles de desarrollo socio-cultural. Esta última observación constituye un enfoque alternativo de aproximación a las cuestiones de género. Abstract This study is part of wider research being conducted amongst school-age students in Ecuador, and one of the aims it pursues is to identify the cultural and socio-educational keys that may influence the vocational development and subsequent choice of career by both males and females, according to their beliefs, values and life experiences based on inequality between the sexes. Presentation is made of the initial data from the exploratory stage on differences of sex and gender in cognitive skills and attitudinal factors of femininity, masculinity, submission and male chauvinism, or machismo, involving a sample of 1120 adolescents (aged 16-18) of both sexes studying secondary education(2nd year of the bachillerato) at schools in Ecuador. Application has been made of theMasculine-Feminine Personality Traits Inventory (IMAFE) questionnaire, and the eight subtests of the Differential Aptitudes Tests (DAT). Information is provided as forthcoming from the correlations between IMAFE factors, between four subtests of the DAT: verbal reasoning (VR), abstract reasoning (AR), space relations (SR) and numerical ability (NA), and between the scores for both instruments. Based on these initial data, it is worth noting that consistency has been found with recent research findings on profiles of undifferentiated traits between sexes as regards different levels of socio-cultural development. This last observation is an alternative focus for the approach to gender issues

Adolescencia e identidades LGBT en el cine español: evolución, personajes y significados

Sea como sujeto o como objeto de deseo; aislado en su soledad esencial o vinculado a otros en relaciones simétricas o asimétricas, depositarios de la mayor ingenuidad o lúcidos manipulado-res, víctimas o verdugos, cuando no ambas cosas, los personajes homosexuales en su tránsito por la adolescencia constituyen una categoría en sí mismos. Por otra parte el modo en el que han ido siendo representados dice mucho de la evolución del imaginario colectivo en relación con la cuestión homosexual. En este artículo se aborda el desarrollo de las representaciones de los adolescentes homosexua-les en el cine español desde las primeras representaciones hasta la actualidad, analizando los personajes que han ido apareciendo en las pantallas de la cinematografía española, así como la evolución de los roles y de los significados que se han ido vinculando a cada uno de ellos. [ABSTRACT]Either as a subject or as an object of desire, isolated in his essential loneliness or related to others through symmetrical or asymmetrical relation-ships, innocent or manipulative, victim or culprit (or often both), the teenage homosexual character forms a category itself. Furthermore, the way in which characters functioning in this category have been portrayed speaks clearly about the evolution of the discourse, and consequently the social imaginary, around homosexuality. This paper analyzes the evolution of teenage homosexual characters in Spanish cinema, from early represen-tations to contemporary ones, examining the characters in terms of both the roles and the meanings attached to them

Estilos de pensamiento en universitarios y su relación con el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior

Los estilos de pensamiento, tal como establece la Teoría del Autogobierno Mental de Sternberg (1999), representan la forma en que cada individuo prefiere procesar la información y tratar con las tareas, lo que relacionado con el ámbito académico y con las diferencias individuales entorno al rendimiento, puede suponer que los estudiantes obtengan mejores resultados ante determinados tipos de actividades y con unos sistemas de evaluación concretos. El presente trabajo se ha desarrollado con la intención de conocer, qué estilos de pensamiento son los más representativos en los estudiantes universitarios de primer curso, y además, reflexionar de manera teórica, acerca de aquellos que con el nuevo sistema de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la futura Educación Superior, se ajustarán más favorablemente a las exigencias del Espacio Europeo. Para ello se ha trabajado con una muestra de 559 alumnos/as de primer curso de la Universidad de Oviedo, con un total de 190 hombres (34 %) y 369 mujeres (66 %), que han respondido al Thinking Styles Questionnaire for Students (TSQS) de Sternberg y Wagner (1991).Thinking Styles, as Stenberg (1999) sets in his Mental Self-Government Theory, represent the way each individual prefers to process information and face the tasks. Referring to the academic area and individual differences in achievement it could mean that students reach a better performance on some specific tasks with a particular assessment method. This work has been developed to know what the most representative first-year students´ Thinking Styles are and which of them fits or fit better with the new teaching-learning process that the EHEA enacts. For this aim the present research works with a sample of 559 first-year students from the University of Oviedo, 190 men (34 %) and 369 women (66 %), who answered the Thinking Styles Questionnaire for Students (TSQS) (Sternberg & Wagner, 1991).peerReviewe

Inhibition of the SphK1/S1P signaling pathway by melatonin in mice with liver fibrosis and human hepatic stellate cells

30 p.The sphingosine kinase 1/sphingosine 1-phosphate (SphK1/S1P) system is involved in different pathological processes, including fibrogenesis. Melatonin abrogates activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and attenuates different profibrogenic pathways in animal models of fibrosis, but it is unknown if protection associates with its inhibitory effect on the SphK1/S1P axis. Mice in treatment groups received carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) 5 μL/g body wt i.p. twice a week for 4 or 6 weeks. Melatonin was given at 5 or 10 mg/kg/day i.p, beginning two weeks after the start of CCl4 administration. At both 4 and 6 weeks following CCl4 treatment, liver mRNA levels, protein concentration and immunohistochemical labelling for SphK1 increased significantly. S1P production, and expression of S1P receptor (S1PR)1, S1PR3 and acid sphingomyelinase (ASMase) were significantly elevated. However, there was a decreased expression of S1PR2 and S1P lyase (S1PL). Melatonin attenuated liver fibrosis, as shown by a significant inhibition of the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and collagen (Col) Ι. Furthermore, melatonin inhibited S1P production, lowered expression of SphK1, S1PR1, SP1R3 and ASMase, and increased expression of S1PL. Melatonin induced a reversal of activated human HSCs cell line LX2, as evidenced by a reduction in α-SMA, TGF-β, and Col I expression. Melatonin-treated cells also exhibited an inhibition of the SphK1/S1P axis. Antifibrogenic effect of SphK1 inhibition was confirmed by treatment of LX2 cells with PF543. Abrogation of the lipid signaling pathway by the indole reveals novel molecular pathways that may account for the protective effect of melatonin in liver fibrogenesi

Melatonin inhibits the sphingosine kinase 1/sphingosine-1-phosphate signaling pathway in rabbits with fulminant hepatitis of viral origin

25 p.The sphingosine kinase (SphK)1/sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) pathway is involved in multiple biological processes, including liver diseases. This study investigate whether modulation of the SphK1/S1P system associates to the beneficial effects of melatonin in an animal model of acute liver failure (ALF) induced by the rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV). Rabbits were experimentally infected with 2x104 hemagglutination units of a RHDV isolate and received 20 mg/kg of melatonin at 0 hr, 12 hr and 24 hr postinfection. Liver mRNA levels, protein concentration and immunohistochemical labelling for SphK1 increased in RHDV-infected rabbits. S1P production and protein expression of the S1PR1 receptor were significantly elevated following RHDV infection. These effects were significantly reduced by melatonin. Rabbits also exhibited increased expression of toll-like receptor (TLR)4, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-6, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) p50 and p65 subunits and phosphorylated inhibitor of kappa B (IκB)α. Melatonin administration significantly inhibited those changes and induced a decreased immunoreactivity for RHDV viral VP60 antigen in the liver. Results obtained indicate that the SphK1/S1P system activates in parallel to viral replication and the inflammatory process induced by the virus. Inhibition of the lipid signaling pathway by the indole reveals novel molecular pathways that may account for the protective effect of melatonin in this animal model of ALF, and supports the potential of melatonin as an antiviral agen