Agricultura en la Luna

Este artículo revisa los últimos estudios y técnicas desarrolladas para el futuro cultivo de plantas en la Luna. Se trata de aportar altas intensidades de luz a los cultivos con el fin de aumentar los rendimientos. Un factor a tener en cuenta en dicho cultivo son las condiciones de baja gravedad. No se han hecho muchos estudios acerca de cómo afecta este factor a las plantas, pero sí se sabe que tiene un efecto negativo en la orientación de la raíz y el metabolismo del almidón. Se trata además de conseguir el máximo aprovechamiento del espacio en los posibles cultivos lunares. Para ello se han diseñado diferentes sistemas de cultivo en cámaras de crecimiento, dentro de grandes complejos ecológicos con altas tasas de autorregeneración de residuos, conocidos como “sistemas ecológicos de soporte vital” (CELSS) o Base Lunar con Sistema de Soporte Vital Bioregenerativo (LBLSS), que aún no han sido puestos en march

Aptamers against live targets: Is in vivo SELEX finally coming to the edge?

Targeted therapeutics underwent a revolution with the entry of monoclonal antibodies in the medical toolkit. Oligonucleotide aptamers form another family of target agents that have been lagging behind in reaching the clinical arena in spite of their potential clinical translation. Some of the reasons for this might be related to the challenge in identifying aptamers with optimal in vivo specificity, and the nature of their pharmacokinetics. Aptamers usually show exquisite specificity, but they are also molecules that display dynamic structures subject to changing environments. Temperature, ion atmosphere, pH, and other variables are factors that could determine the affinity and specificity of aptamers. Thus, it is important to tune the aptamer selection process to the conditions in which you want your final aptamer to function; ideally, for in vivo applications, aptamers should be selected in an in vivo-like system or, ultimately, in a whole in vivo organism. In this review we recapitulate the implementations in systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) to obtain aptamers with the best in vivo activity

A Molecular Mechanism Underlying Genotype-Specific Intrahepatic Cholestasis Resulting From MYO5B Mutations

Altres ajuts: Supported by grants from the Nederlandse vereniging voor Gastroenterologie (to S. I. J.) and the Natural Science Foundation of China, Nos. 81873543 and 81570468 (to J. S. W.).Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) 6 has been associated with missense but not biallelic nonsense or frameshift mutations in MYO5B, encoding the motor protein myosin Vb (myoVb). This genotype-phenotype correlation and the mechanism through which MYO5B mutations give rise to PFIC are not understood. The aim of this study was to determine whether the loss of myoVb or expression of patient-specific myoVb mutants can be causally related to defects in canalicular protein localization and, if so, through which mechanism. We demonstrate that the cholestasis-associated substitution of the proline at amino acid position 600 in the myoVb protein to a leucine (P660L) caused the intracellular accumulation of bile canalicular proteins in vesicular compartments. Remarkably, the knockout of MYO5B in vitro and in vivo produced no canalicular localization defects. In contrast, the expression of myoVb mutants consisting of only the tail domain phenocopied the effects of the Myo5b-P660L mutation. Using additional myoVb and rab11a mutants, we demonstrate that motor domain-deficient myoVb inhibited the formation of specialized apical recycling endosomes and that its disrupting effect on the localization of canalicular proteins was dependent on its interaction with active rab11a and occurred at the trans -Golgi Network/recycling endosome interface. Our results reveal a mechanism through which MYO5B motor domain mutations can cause the mislocalization of canalicular proteins in hepatocytes which, unexpectedly, does not involve myoVb loss-of-function but, as we propose, a rab11a-mediated gain-of-toxic function. The results explain why biallelic MYO5B mutations that affect the motor domain but not those that eliminate myoVb expression are associated with PFIC6

Investigation of the role of tyrosine kinase receptor EPHA3 in colorectal cancer

EPH signaling deregulation has been shown to be important for colorectal carcinogenesis and genome-wide sequencing efforts have identified EPHA3 as one of the most frequently mutated genes in these tumors. However, the role of EPHA3 in colorectal cancer has not been thoroughly investigated. We show here that ectopic expression of wild type EPHA3 in colon cancer cells did not affect their growth, motility/invasion or metastatic potential in vivo. Moreover, overexpression of mutant EPHA3 or deletion of the endogenous mutant EPHA3 in colon cancer cells did not affect their growth or motility. EPHA3 inactivation in mice did not initiate the tumorigenic process in their intestine, and had no effects on tumor size/multiplicity after tumor initiation either genetically or pharmacologically. In addition, immunohistochemical analysis of EPHA3 tumor levels did not reveal associations with survival or clinicopathological features of colorectal cancer patients. In conclusion, we show that EPHA3 does not play a major role in colorectal tumorigenesis. These results significantly contribute to our understanding of the role of EPH signaling during colorectal carcinogenesis, and highlighting the need for detailed functional studies to confirm the relevance of putative cancer driver genes identified in sequencing efforts of the cancer genome

Mechanisms of inactivation of the tumour suppressor gene RHOA in colorectal cancer

Reduced RHOA signalling has been shown to increase the growth/metastatic potential of colorectal tumours. However, the mechanisms of inactivation of RHOA signalling in colon cancer have not been characterised. A panel of colorectal cancer cell lines and large cohorts of primary tumours were used to investigate the expression and activity of RHOA, as well as the presence of RHOA mutations/deletions and promoter methylation affecting RHOA. Changes in RHOA expression were assessed by western blotting and qPCR after modulation of microRNAs, SMAD4 and c-MYC. We show here that RHOA point mutations and promoter hypermethylation do not significantly contribute to the large variability of RHOA expression observed among colorectal tumours. However, RHOA copy number loss was observed in 16% of colorectal tumours and this was associated with reduced RHOA expression. Moreover, we show that miR-200a/b/429 downregulates RHOA in colorectal cancer cells. In addition, we found that TGF- β /SMAD4 upregulates the RHOA promoter. Conversely, RHOA expression is transcriptionally downregulated by canonical Wnt signalling through the Wnt target gene c-MYC that interferes with the binding of SP1 to the RHOA promoter in colon cancer cells. We demonstrate a complex pattern of inactivation of the tumour suppressor gene RHOA in colon cancer cells through genetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms

Myosin VB in intestinal pathogenesis

Miosina VB es una proteína que actúa como un motor molecular usando la energía del ATP para moverse a lo largo de filamentos de actina. Participa en el trafico intracelular de endosomas de reciclaje en la parte subapical de células polarizadas y no polarizadas. Su expresión es muy abundante en el intestino donde participa en el establecimiento y mantenimiento de la polaridad de los enterocitos. Mutaciones en MYO5B causan la enfermedad de inclusión de microvellosidades, in raro trastorno congénito que afecta a las células epiteliales del intestino cursando con diarrea acuosa persistente que suele ser fatal. Esta enfermedad se caracteriza por la presencia de alteraciones morfológicas en los enterocitos, atrofia de las vellosidades y deslocalización de proteínas del polo apical y basolateral del enterocito. Su patología molecular no se conoce, principalmente por la falta de modelos animales. En el presente estudio, describimos un versátil modelo murino con inactivación constitutiva de Myo5b e inactivación condicional en las células epiteliales intestinales inducida por tamoxifeno. En ambos casos, los animales muestras un cuadro clínico muy semejantes al de los pacientes con enfermedad de inclusión de microvellosidades, presentado diarrea y deshidratación que causan la muerte del animal. A nivel histológico, el intestino muestra las mismas alteraciones en los enterocitos que las presentes en pacientes humanos, incluyendo atrofia de vellosidades y deslocalización de marcadores proteicos. Además, la inactivación de Myo5b también provocó hiperproliferación de las criptas intestinales. Por lo tanto, el modelo animal presentado constituye una herramienta muy útil para investigar las causas moleculares de la enfermedad y ensayar de manera preclínica fármacos u otras opciones terapéuticas. Por otro lado, la pérdida de polaridad y diferenciación es también una de las señas de identidad de los carcinomas metastásicos avanzados y correlaciona con un mal pronóstico de los pacientes. En concreto, para el cáncer colorrectal, investigaciones previas llevadas a cabo en nuestro laboratorio ya han demostrado que la pérdida de miosina IA promueve la progresión la enfermedad y tiene actividad supresora de tumores. Dicha proteína es abundante en el borde en cepillo de los enterocitos, y participa en el mantenimiento de la estructura polarizada. Otros estudios han señalado la relación entre la inactivación de MYO5B con un incremento en la motilidad e invasión de células de cáncer gástrico, aunque todavía no se conoce nada de su relación con en el cáncer colorrectal. Para resolver esta cuestión, hemos diseñado modelos in vitro inducibles por doxiciclina para sobre expresar y reducir la expresión de dicha proteína en líneas celulares de cáncer de colon. Además, se ha empleado la tecnología CRISPR/Cas9 para inactivar la expresión de MYO5B en la línea de cáncer de colon Caco2-BBE. Los resultados muestran cambios en la polarización y diferenciación de dichas líneas celulares, de acuerdo con observaciones previas. También se ha observado una posible relación entre MYO5B y la capacidad de movilidad e invasión de las líneas de cáncer de colon. Sin embargo, la hiperproliferación observada en el intestino de los ratones no se reproduce en las líneas de cáncer de colon empleadas tras reducir o sobre expresar MYO5B, o en modelos xenograft subcutáneos in vivo de dichas líneas. Por otro lado, usando un microarray de tejidos con 155 muestras de tumores primarios de pacientes con cáncer colorrectal en estadio Dukes C se ha comprobado que una reducción en la expresión de MYO5B se asocia con una disminución en el tiempo de recaída y en la supervivencia total de los pacientes de cáncer de colon. Además, tumores con un grado de diferenciación bajo también expresan niveles de MYO5B significativamente reducidos. Finalmente, todos estos resultados indican que MYO5B juega un papel importante en la diferenciación del intestino normal y de las líneas de cáncer de colon. De la misma manera, MYO5B también podría desempeñar un papel en la progresión del cáncer colorrectal promoviendo movilidad e invasión de las células tumorales.Myosin VB is a molecular motor protein that uses the energy of ATP to move along actin filaments. It participates in the recycling endosomes trafficking in the subapical cytoplasmic region of non-polarized and polarized cells. It is highly expressed in the small and large intestine, where its role in the establishment of polarized function in enterocytes is also well known. Inactivating mutations of MYO5B have been associated with microvillus inclusion disease (MVID), a rare congenital disorder of the intestinal epithelial cells that presents with persistent life-threatening watery diarrhea. It is characterized by morphological enterocyte abnormalities such as microvillus atrophy and mislocalization of apical and basolateral protein transporters. The molecular pathology of the disease is not well known mainly due to the lack of animal models. In the present study, we report a versatile murine model with targeted inactivation of Myo5b. This model allowed us to generate and characterized a constitutive Myo5b knockout mice and a tamoxifen-inducible intestinal-epithelium-specific Myo5b knockout. In both cases, the mice closely resemble the phenotype of MVID patients, developing watery diarrhea and dehydration causing the death of the animal. Histological study of the intestine showed all the characteristic enterocyte defects observed in MVID patients, including microvillus atrophy and mislocalization of protein markers. Moreover, the inactivation of MYO5B also originated hyperproliferation of the intestinal crypts. Therefore, our mice constitute a useful model to further investigate the underlying molecular mechanism of this disease and to preclinically assess the efficacy of novel therapeutic approaches. In addition, hyperproliferation as well as loss of cell polarity, differentiation, and tissue architecture are hallmarks of advanced metastatic carcinomas and strongly correlate with poor patient prognosis. Specifically, for colorectal cancer, the third most common type of cancer worldwide, we have previously demonstrated that the loss of brush border MYO1A, also involved in cell polarity, promotes cancer progression and has tumor suppressor activity. Other studies have indicated a relationship between MYO5B inactivation and gastric cancer, promoting invasion and motility, but little is known regarding its role in colorectal cancer. To address this question, we have developed novel doxycycline-inducible in vitro models of MYO5B overexpression and downregulation. Moreover, we have generated MYO5B knockout Caco2-BBE cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Our results showed changes in the polarization and differentiation of colon cancer cells, in agreement with previous observations in the normal intestine. Moreover, we have observed a relationship between MYO5B and the motility and invasion capacity of colon cancer cells, indicating a possible role of MYO5B in colon cancer progression. However, the effect of MYO5B loss in cell proliferation observed in our Myo5b knockout mice could not be confirmed in our models in vitro and in vivo, employing cell line-derived xenografts. In addition, using a tissue microarray containing triplicate samples from 155 primary Dukes C colorectal tumors, reduced MYO5B expression was found to be associated with shorter disease-free and overall survival of the patients. Moreover, poorly differentiated tumors showed significantly reduced expression of MYO5B. Collectively, our results indicate that MYO5B plays an important role in the differentiation of the normal intestinal epithelium and colon cancer cells, as well as a possible role in cancer progression promoting cell motility and invasion

Myosin VB in intestinal pathogenesis

Miosina VB es una proteína que actúa como un motor molecular usando la energía del ATP para moverse a lo largo de filamentos de actina. Participa en el trafico intracelular de endosomas de reciclaje en la parte subapical de células polarizadas y no polarizadas. Su expresión es muy abundante en el intestino donde participa en el establecimiento y mantenimiento de la polaridad de los enterocitos. Mutaciones en MYO5B causan la enfermedad de inclusión de microvellosidades, in raro trastorno congénito que afecta a las células epiteliales del intestino cursando con diarrea acuosa persistente que suele ser fatal. Esta enfermedad se caracteriza por la presencia de alteraciones morfológicas en los enterocitos, atrofia de las vellosidades y deslocalización de proteínas del polo apical y basolateral del enterocito. Su patología molecular no se conoce, principalmente por la falta de modelos animales. En el presente estudio, describimos un versátil modelo murino con inactivación constitutiva de Myo5b e inactivación condicional en las células epiteliales intestinales inducida por tamoxifeno. En ambos casos, los animales muestras un cuadro clínico muy semejantes al de los pacientes con enfermedad de inclusión de microvellosidades, presentado diarrea y deshidratación que causan la muerte del animal. A nivel histológico, el intestino muestra las mismas alteraciones en los enterocitos que las presentes en pacientes humanos, incluyendo atrofia de vellosidades y deslocalización de marcadores proteicos. Además, la inactivación de Myo5b también provocó hiperproliferación de las criptas intestinales. Por lo tanto, el modelo animal presentado constituye una herramienta muy útil para investigar las causas moleculares de la enfermedad y ensayar de manera preclínica fármacos u otras opciones terapéuticas. Por otro lado, la pérdida de polaridad y diferenciación es también una de las señas de identidad de los carcinomas metastásicos avanzados y correlaciona con un mal pronóstico de los pacientes. En concreto, para el cáncer colorrectal, investigaciones previas llevadas a cabo en nuestro laboratorio ya han demostrado que la pérdida de miosina IA promueve la progresión la enfermedad y tiene actividad supresora de tumores. Dicha proteína es abundante en el borde en cepillo de los enterocitos, y participa en el mantenimiento de la estructura polarizada. Otros estudios han señalado la relación entre la inactivación de MYO5B con un incremento en la motilidad e invasión de células de cáncer gástrico, aunque todavía no se conoce nada de su relación con en el cáncer colorrectal. Para resolver esta cuestión, hemos diseñado modelos in vitro inducibles por doxiciclina para sobre expresar y reducir la expresión de dicha proteína en líneas celulares de cáncer de colon. Además, se ha empleado la tecnología CRISPR/Cas9 para inactivar la expresión de MYO5B en la línea de cáncer de colon Caco2-BBE. Los resultados muestran cambios en la polarización y diferenciación de dichas líneas celulares, de acuerdo con observaciones previas. También se ha observado una posible relación entre MYO5B y la capacidad de movilidad e invasión de las líneas de cáncer de colon. Sin embargo, la hiperproliferación observada en el intestino de los ratones no se reproduce en las líneas de cáncer de colon empleadas tras reducir o sobre expresar MYO5B, o en modelos xenograft subcutáneos in vivo de dichas líneas. Por otro lado, usando un microarray de tejidos con 155 muestras de tumores primarios de pacientes con cáncer colorrectal en estadio Dukes C se ha comprobado que una reducción en la expresión de MYO5B se asocia con una disminución en el tiempo de recaída y en la supervivencia total de los pacientes de cáncer de colon. Además, tumores con un grado de diferenciación bajo también expresan niveles de MYO5B significativamente reducidos. Finalmente, todos estos resultados indican que MYO5B juega un papel importante en la diferenciación del intestino normal y de las líneas de cáncer de colon. De la misma manera, MYO5B también podría desempeñar un papel en la progresión del cáncer colorrectal promoviendo movilidad e invasión de las células tumorales.Myosin VB is a molecular motor protein that uses the energy of ATP to move along actin filaments. It participates in the recycling endosomes trafficking in the subapical cytoplasmic region of non-polarized and polarized cells. It is highly expressed in the small and large intestine, where its role in the establishment of polarized function in enterocytes is also well known. Inactivating mutations of MYO5B have been associated with microvillus inclusion disease (MVID), a rare congenital disorder of the intestinal epithelial cells that presents with persistent life-threatening watery diarrhea. It is characterized by morphological enterocyte abnormalities such as microvillus atrophy and mislocalization of apical and basolateral protein transporters. The molecular pathology of the disease is not well known mainly due to the lack of animal models. In the present study, we report a versatile murine model with targeted inactivation of Myo5b. This model allowed us to generate and characterized a constitutive Myo5b knockout mice and a tamoxifen-inducible intestinal-epithelium-specific Myo5b knockout. In both cases, the mice closely resemble the phenotype of MVID patients, developing watery diarrhea and dehydration causing the death of the animal. Histological study of the intestine showed all the characteristic enterocyte defects observed in MVID patients, including microvillus atrophy and mislocalization of protein markers. Moreover, the inactivation of MYO5B also originated hyperproliferation of the intestinal crypts. Therefore, our mice constitute a useful model to further investigate the underlying molecular mechanism of this disease and to preclinically assess the efficacy of novel therapeutic approaches. In addition, hyperproliferation as well as loss of cell polarity, differentiation, and tissue architecture are hallmarks of advanced metastatic carcinomas and strongly correlate with poor patient prognosis. Specifically, for colorectal cancer, the third most common type of cancer worldwide, we have previously demonstrated that the loss of brush border MYO1A, also involved in cell polarity, promotes cancer progression and has tumor suppressor activity. Other studies have indicated a relationship between MYO5B inactivation and gastric cancer, promoting invasion and motility, but little is known regarding its role in colorectal cancer. To address this question, we have developed novel doxycycline-inducible in vitro models of MYO5B overexpression and downregulation. Moreover, we have generated MYO5B knockout Caco2-BBE cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Our results showed changes in the polarization and differentiation of colon cancer cells, in agreement with previous observations in the normal intestine. Moreover, we have observed a relationship between MYO5B and the motility and invasion capacity of colon cancer cells, indicating a possible role of MYO5B in colon cancer progression. However, the effect of MYO5B loss in cell proliferation observed in our Myo5b knockout mice could not be confirmed in our models in vitro and in vivo, employing cell line-derived xenografts. In addition, using a tissue microarray containing triplicate samples from 155 primary Dukes C colorectal tumors, reduced MYO5B expression was found to be associated with shorter disease-free and overall survival of the patients. Moreover, poorly differentiated tumors showed significantly reduced expression of MYO5B. Collectively, our results indicate that MYO5B plays an important role in the differentiation of the normal intestinal epithelium and colon cancer cells, as well as a possible role in cancer progression promoting cell motility and invasion

Oligonucleotide-Based Therapies for Renal Diseases

The global burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing every year and represents a great cost for public healthcare systems, as the majority of these diseases are progressive. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new therapies. Oligonucleotide-based drugs are emerging as novel and promising alternatives to traditional drugs. Their expansion corresponds with new knowledge regarding the molecular basis underlying CKD, and they are already showing encouraging preclinical results, with two candidates being evaluated in clinical trials. However, despite recent technological advances, efficient kidney delivery remains challenging, and the presence of off-targets and side-effects precludes development and translation to the clinic. In this review, we provide an overview of the various oligotherapeutic strategies used preclinically, emphasizing the most recent findings in the field, together with the different strategies employed to achieve proper kidney delivery. The use of different nanotechnological platforms, including nanocarriers, nanoparticles, viral vectors or aptamers, and their potential for the development of more specific and effective treatments is also outlined

Quantification of lesions in nuclear and mitochondrial genes of Sparus aurata cryopreserved sperm

Cryopreservation is a common procedure for long-term storage of sperm in animal reproduction and is also employed in the aquaculture industry. The freezing-thawing process originates reactive oxygen species (ROS) which cause serious damage at chromatin level. Analyzing and characterizing this type of damage, especially in specific DNA regions, could be particularly interesting for germplasm banking purposes. This type of study could provide information about damage in some regions of interest or specific genes with important roles in fertilization and embryo development. This is the first report on quantification of DNA lesions in specific genes after cryopreservation in any species. We performed a specific DNA assay based on the quantitative PCR (qPCR) approach to quantify lesions generated after sperm cryopreservation in two Sparus aurata nuclear genes with important roles in embryo development (Igf1 and Gh) and two mitochondrial genes (Cytb and CoI). We tested different cryopreservation protocols using DMSO as permeable cryoprotectant, with or without BSA supplementation. The maximum number of lesions per 10 kb observed after cryopreservation was 2.28 (for Igf1) and 0.8 (Gh), significantly lower than that detected for mitochondrial genes, 8.43 (Cytb) and 5.34 (CoI). A complementary analysis of DNA fragmentation (Comet assay) and telomere length measurement (qPCR) was done. The results demonstrated that the protocol used did not induce telomere shortening and that DNA integrity was very well preserved (%DNAt lower than 2.47 ± 0.19%). The results suggest that this protocol offers a high degree of DNA protection; however the qPCR assay demonstrated different vulnerability of the DNA regions to undergoing damage during freezing/thawing processes. This study demonstrates the usefulness of using qPCR approaches to study gene-specific damage after cryopreservation, which can be an excellent complement for traditional techniques. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.This work was supported by MICINNAGL2009-06994, the Ramón Areces Foundation and the Ramón y Cajal program (RYC-2008-02339 and RYC-2007-01650, Spain). The authors would like to thank JCyL (E-24-2009-0036681), Fondo Social Europeo, Dr. Susana Martínez Guerra, David García Valcarce and Cintia Miranda Rodríguez.Peer Reviewe