Nova estratègia diagnòstica per la Tuberculosi : sí, però amb matisos

La realització de nous tests per diagnosticar la Infecció Latent per M.tuberculosi (ITBL), els TIGRAs, basats en la detecció d'una citosina relacionada amb la Resposta Immunològica Cel·lular que es desencadena contra el bacil tuberculós, sembla aportar noves llums al tractament de la infecció: són més sensibles i específics que el tractament estàndard de la Tuberculina (TST). Tot i així, encara es desconeix si la seva utilització posterior a un TST influeix en els resultats finals. Per això, i per ampliar aquesta línia d'investigació, un estudi de seguiment immunològic, dut a terme a la Unitat de Tuberculosi Experimental de l'hospital "Germans Trias i Pujol", ha obtingut uns resultats que demostren la necessitat d'aprofundir sobre aquest tema, malgrat alguns països valoren la possibilitat d'utilitzar-los seqüencialment

Thermal behavior of hard-axis magnetization in noninteracting particles with uniaxial anisotropy

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Experimental evidence is presented to support predictions made by an analytical model describing the temperature-dependent behavior of an assembly of noninteracting magnetic nanoparticles with uniaxial anisotropy under an external field. When the applied field is smaller than the anisotropy field of the particles and is oriented perpendicular to the easy axis, a maximum of the magnetization occurs at finite temperature. The theory shows good agreement with measurements of an array of CoCrPt nanoislands with uniaxial anisotropy. Deviations are discussed taking into account the thermal dependencies of the saturation magnetization and the anisotropy of the magnetic material.9520PIIC-DGIP-USMFondecyt Chile [1070224]Millennium Science Initiative ChileFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)CONICYTNational Science Foundation [DMR 02-13282]Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fondecyt Chile [1070224]National Science Foundation [DMR 02-13282

Asistencia a las urgencias psiquiátricas en Albacete.

Se han examinado las características de los pacientes atendidos en la Unidad de Urgencias Psiquiátricas de Albacete durante el año 1990. De los datos obtenidos destacan: 1) Los trastornos por alcohol y opiáceos fueron el grupo más numeroso, con casi un tercio de las urgencias. 2) Casi los dos tercios de las urgencias estuvieron entre las edades de 15 a 40 años. 3) Casi la cuarta parte de las mismas se quedaron ingresadas en la Unidad de Hospitalización Psiquiátrica. Y 4) La escasa incidencia de las urgencias enviadas por el juez

Asistencia a las urgencias psiquiátricas en Albacete.

Se han examinado las características de los pacientes atendidos en la Unidad de Urgencias Psiquiátricas de Albacete durante el año 1990. De los datos obtenidos destacan: 1) Los trastornos por alcohol y opiáceos fueron el grupo más numeroso, con casi un tercio de las urgencias. 2) Casi los dos tercios de las urgencias estuvieron entre las edades de 15 a 40 años. 3) Casi la cuarta parte de las mismas se quedaron ingresadas en la Unidad de Hospitalización Psiquiátrica. Y 4) La escasa incidencia de las urgencias enviadas por el juez

The correlation of RNase A enzymatic activity with the changes in the distance between Nepsilon2-His12 and N delta1-His119 upon addition of stabilizing and destabilizing salts.

The effect of stabilizing and destabilizing salts on the catalytic behavior of ribonuclease A (RNase A) was investigated at pH 7.5 and 25 degrees C, using spectrophotometric, viscometric and molecular dynamic methods. The changes in the distance between N(epsilon2) of His(12) and N(delta1) of His(119) at the catalytic center of RNase A upon the addition of sodium sulfate, sodium hydrogen sulfate and sodium thiocyanate were evaluated by molecular dynamic methods. The compactness and expansion in terms of Stokes radius of RNase A upon the addition of sulfate ions as kosmotropic salts, and thiocyanate ion as a chaotropic salt, were estimated by viscometric measurements. Enzyme activity was measured using cytidine 2', 3'-cyclic monophosphate as a substrate. The results from the measurements of distances between N(epsilon2) of His(12) and N(delta1) of His(119) and Stokes radius suggest (i) that the presence of sulfate ions decreases the distance between the catalytic His residues and increases the globular compactness, and (ii) that there is an expansion of the enzyme surface as well as elongation of the catalytic center in the presence of thiocyanate ion. These findings are in agreement with activity measurements

Changes of tau profiles in brains of the hamsters infected with scrapie strains 263 K or 139 A possibly associated with the alteration of phosphate kinases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Phospho-tau deposition has been described in a rare genetic human prion disease, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, but is not common neuropathological picture for other human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). This study investigated the possible changes of tau and phosphorylated tau (p-tau, at Ser396, Ser404, and Ser202/Thr205) in scrapie experimental animals.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The profiles of tau and p-tau (p-tau, at Ser396, Ser404, and Ser202/Thr205) in the brain tissues of agents 263K- or 139A-infected hamsters were evaluated by Western blots and real-time PCR. Meanwhile, the transcriptional and expressive levels of GSK3β and CDK5 in the brains were tested.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The contents of total tau and p-tau at Ser202/Thr205 increased, but p-tau at Ser396 and Ser404 decreased at the terminal stages, regardless of scrapie strains. Transcriptional levels of two tau isoforms were also increased. Additionally, it showed higher CDK5, but lower GSK3β transcriptional and expressive levels in the brains of scrapie-infected animals. Analysis of brain samples collected from different times after inoculated with agent 263 K revealed that the changes of tau profiles and phosphate kinases were time-relative events.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data suggest that changes of profiles of p-tau at Ser396, Ser404 and Ser202/Thr205 are illness-correlative phenomena in TSEs, which may arise of the alteration of phosphate kinases. Alteration of tau, p-tau (Ser396, Ser404, and Ser202/Thr205), GSK3β and CDK5 were either intermediate or consequent events in TSE pathogenesis and proposed the potential linkage of these bioactive proteins with the pathogenesis of prion diseases.</p

Simultaneous Analysis of Proteome, Phospho- and Glycoproteome of Rat Kidney Tissue with Electrostatic Repulsion Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography

Protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) are regulated separately from protein expression levels. Thus, simultaneous characterization of the proteome and its PTMs is pivotal to an understanding of protein regulation, function and activity. However, concurrent analysis of the proteome and its PTMs by mass spectrometry is a challenging task because the peptides bearing PTMs are present in sub-stoichiometric amounts and their ionization is often suppressed by unmodified peptides of high abundance. We describe here a method for concurrent analysis of phosphopeptides, glycopeptides and unmodified peptides in a tryptic digest of rat kidney tissue with a sequence of ERLIC and RP-LC-MS/MS in a single experimental run, thereby avoiding inter-experimental variation. Optimization of loading solvents and elution gradients permitted ERLIC to be performed with totally volatile solvents. Two SCX and four ERLIC gradients were compared in details, and one ERLIC gradient was found to perform the best, which identified 2929 proteins, 583 phosphorylation sites in 338 phosphoproteins and 722 N-glycosylation sites in 387 glycoproteins from rat kidney tissue. Two hundred low-abundance proteins with important functions were identified only from the glyco- or phospho-subproteomes, reflecting the importance of the enrichment and separation of modified peptides by ERLIC. In addition, this strategy enables identification of unmodified and corresponding modified peptides (partial phosphorylation and N-glycosylation) from the same protein. Interestingly, partially modified proteins tend to occur on proteins involved in transport. Moreover, some membrane or extracellular proteins, such as versican core protein and fibronectin, were found to have both phosphorylation and N-glycosylation, which may permit an assessment of the potential for cross talk between these two vital PTMs and their roles in regulation