PVDF based nanocomposites produced by solution blow spinning, structure and morphology induced by the presence of MWCNT and their consequences on some properties

Nanocomposites based on poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, filled with multiwalled carbon nanotubes, MWCNT, were prepared by solution blow spinning, SBS. PVDF was modified with MWCNT with the aim of changing final properties inducing structural and morphological variations in the polymer by the simple presence of conductive particles. Different compositions were considered (0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, and 5% by weight of MWCNT) to understand the influence of the presence of MWCNT on the polymer structure, morphology, and consequently other properties. Morphology was inspected by optical and electron (SEM and TEM) microscopies, while structure was studied by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, FTIR. Thermal behavior was monitored by differential scanning calorimetry, DSC, while the surface and electrical properties were studied by contact angle and capacitance measurements, respectively. SBS allowed obtaining mats of nanocomposites constituted by submicrometric fibers where the MWCNT are uniformly dispersed and well aligned along the PVDF fibers. In this study, several aspects about structure and thermal behavior of PVDF were clarified in relation to other researches carried out up to the moment. Although MWCNT concentration did not seem to affect much the fibrous morphology of the SBS materials, the PVDF crystalline structure and surface properties of the materials were slightly modified. Dielectric behavior of PVDF was highly affected by the presence of MWCNT leading to a particular change in the permittivity and being possible to obtain a value of 0.023 for the percolation fraction.The authors appreciate the financial support received from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [MAT2014-59116-C2]; the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid due to Fondos de Investigación de Fco. Javier González Benito [2012/00130/004] and the strategic Action in Composites materials and interphases [2011/00287/002]. TEM characterization was made at LABMET, associated to the Red de Laboratorios de la Comunidad de Madrid.Publicad

Relation between anaerobic oxidation of methane and authigenic carbonates chimneys of Gulf of Cadiz: mineralogical, geochemical and petrological evidences

A partir de datos mineralógicos, geoquímicos y petrológicos procedentes de chimeneas de carbonatos autigénicos del Golfo de Cádiz se ha establecido la relación entre el metano, y en concreto de la oxidación anaeróbica del mismo en el interior de los sedimentos, y la formación de las chimeneas. La composición mineralógica de las chimeneas (dolomita rica en hierro y ankerita), la presencia de sulfuros y oxihidróxidos de hierro pseudomorfos con textura framboidal, los valores de δ13C (-9,24‰ y -38,36‰), los compuestos orgánicos encontrados en el interior de las chimeneas (hidrocarburos alcanos con menos de 20 carbonos y los isoprenoides regulares farnesano, pristano y fitano) y las microfábricas de carbonatos (pelloides, pellets, grumos de carbonatos y nódulos esféricos de carbonato) indican una estrecha relación entre oxidación anaeróbica del metano y la formación de las chimeneas.From mineralogical, geochemical and petrological data of authigenic carbonates chimneys of the Gulf of Cadiz, we are established the relation between methane, and more specifically the anaerobic oxidation of methane inner of sediments, and the formation of chimneys. The mineralogical composition of chimneys (rich Fe dolomite and ankerite), presence of iron sulphides and pseudomorf oxyhydroxides with framboidal texture, the δ13C values (-9.24‰ y -38.36‰), the organic compounds found inner of chimneys (n-alkanes with n<20 and the regular isoprenoids crocetane, pristane and phytane) and the microfabrics of carbonates (pelloids, pellets, clotted carbonates and spherical nodules of carbonate) indicate a close relation between anaerobic oxidation of methane and the formation of the chimneys.Depto. de Mineralogía y PetrologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEpu

Profibrotic role of inducible heat shock protein 90α isoform in systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease that affects skin and multiple internal organs. TGF-β, a central trigger of cutaneous fibrosis, activates fibroblasts with the involvement of the stress-inducible chaperone heat shock protein 90 isoform α (Hsp90α). Available evidence supports overexpression and secretion of Hsp90α as a feature in profibrotic pathological conditions. The aim of this work is to investigate the expression and function of Hsp90α in experimental models of skin fibrosis such as human fibroblasts, C57BL/6 mice, and in human SSc. For this purpose, we generated a new experimental model based on doxorubicin administration with improved characteristics with respect to the bleomycin model. We visualized disease progression in vivo by fluorescence imaging. In this work, we obtained Hsp90α mRNA overexpression in human skin fibroblasts, in bleomycin- and doxorubicin-induced mouse fibrotic skin, and in lungs of bleomycin- and doxorubicin-treated mice. Hsp90α-deficient mice showed significantly decreased skin thickness compared with wild-type mice in both animal models. In SSc patients, serum Hsp90α levels were increased in patients with lung involvement and in patients with the diffuse form of SSc (dSSc) compared with patients with the limited form of SSc. The serum Hsp90α levels of patients dSSc were correlated with the Rodnan score and the forced vital capacity variable. These results provide new supportive evidence of the contribution of the Hsp90α isoform in the development of skin fibrosis. In SSc, these results indicated that higher serum levels were associated with dSSc and lung fibrosis.This work was supported by Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España Grant RTI2018-095214-B-I00, as well as by the Instituto de Formación e Investigación Marqués de Valdecilla IDIVAL (InnVal 17/22; InnVal 20/34), 2020UCI22-PUB-0003 Gobierno de Cantabria (to A.V.V.), SAF2016-75195-R (to J.M.), SAF2017-82905-R (to R.M.), and (NextVal 18/14) to A.P

Prevalence of Symptomatic Axial Osteoarthritis Phenotypes in Spain and Associated Socio-Demographic, Anthropometric, and Lifestyle Variables

Epidemiology of RMDFinanciado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract] Objective. Axial osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of back and neck pain, however, few studies have examined its prevalence. The aim was to estimate the prevalence and the characteristics of symptomatic axial OA in Spain. Methods. EPISER2016 is a cross-sectional multicenter population-based study of people aged 40 years or older. Subjects were randomly selected using multistage stratified cluster sampling. Participants were contacted by telephone to complete rheumatic disease screening questionnaires. Two phenotypes were analyzed, patients with Non-exclusive axial OA (NEA-OA) and Exclusive axial OA (EA-OA). To calculate the prevalence and its 95% confidence interval (CI), the sample design was considered and weighting was calculated according to age, sex and geographic origin. Results. Prevalence of NEA-OA by clinical or clinical-radiographic criteria was 19.17% (95% CI: 17.82–20.59). The frequency of NEA-OA increased with age (being 3.6 times more likely in patients aged 80 s or more than in those between 40 and 49 years) and body mass index. It was significantly more frequent in women, as well as in the center of Spain. It was less frequent in those with a higher level of education. Lumbar OA was more frequent than cervical OA. This difference grew with increasing age and was not associated with gender. It was also greater in overweight and obese subjects. Conclusions. This is the first study on the prevalence of axial OA phenotypes in Europe describing the associated socio-demographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle variables.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. EPISER2016 was supported by Celgene, Gebro Pharma, Merck Sharp & Dohme in Spain, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Aventis, none of whom had any role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, or writing of this manuscript. MS was financed via the Rio Hortega Contract—Health Research Fund (CM17/00101), the Sanitary Research Fund integrated in the National Plan of Scientific Program, Technological Development and Innovation 2013–2016 and funded by the ISCIII-Subdirectorate General Evaluation and Promotion of Research-European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) "A way of making Europe

Artículos publicados en el diario El País sobre Antonio Fernández Alba

Artículos publicados sobre Antonio Fernández Alba en el diario El Paí

Abacavir increases purinergic P2X7 receptor activation by ATP: does a pro-inflammatory synergism underlie its cardiovascular toxicity?

16 p.-9 fig.-1 tab.The cardiovascular toxicity of Abacavir is related to its purinergic structure. Purinergic P2X7-receptors (P2X7R), characterized by activation by high concentrations of ATP and with high plasticity, seem implicated. We appraise the nature of the interplay between Abacavir and P2X7R in generating vascular inflammation. The effects of Abacavir on leukocyte-endothelium interactions were compared with those of its metabolite carbovir triphosphate (CBV-TP) or ATP in the presence of apyrase (ATP-ase) or A804598 (P2X7R-antagonist). CBV-TP and ATP levels were evaluated by HPLC, while binding of Abacavir, CBV-TP and ATP to P2X7R was assessed by radioligand and docking studies. Hypersensitivity studies explored a potential allosteric action of Abacavir. Clinical concentrations of Abacavir (20 µmol/L) induced leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions by specifically activating P2X7R, but the drug did not show affinity for the P2X7R ATP-binding site (site 1). CBV-TP levels were undetectable in Abacavir-treated cells, while those of ATP were unaltered. The effects of Abacavir were Apyrase-dependent, implying dependence on endogenous ATP. Exogenous ATP induced a profile of proinflammatory actions similar to Abacavir, but was not entirely P2X7R-dependent. Docking calculations suggested ATP-binding to sites 1 and 2, and Abacavir-binding only to allosteric site 2. A combination of concentrations of Abacavir (1 µmol/L) and ATP (0.1 µmol/L) that had no effect when administered separately induced leukocyte-endothelium interactions mediated by P2X7R and involving Connexin43 channels. Therefore, Abacavir acts as a positive allosteric modulator of P2X7R, turning low concentrations of endogenous ATP themselves incapable of stimulating P2X7R into a functional proinflammatory agonist of the receptor.This work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and the European Regional Development fund of the European Union (FEDER) (SAF2015–67678-R, RTI2018-094436-B-I00 and CTQ2017-88353-R), Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (CB06/04/0071, CIBERehd) and Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEOII/2014/035 and PROMETEO 2018/141), along with an unrestricted grant from GILEAD S.L. VCD and ASL were funded by VALI + D program from Generalitat Valenciana (grants number ACIF/2015/316 and ACIF/2016/119, respectively) and PGM by FPU program from Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (grant number FPU16/06064) and MABR by FPU program from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (grant number FPU17/04249).Peer reviewe

Noninvasive early detection of colorectal cancer by hypermethylation of the LINC00473 promoter in plasma cell-free DNA

Background Current noninvasive assays have limitations in the early detection of colorectal cancer. We evaluated the clinical utility of promoter methylation of the long noncoding RNA LINC00473 as a noninvasive biomarker to detect colorectal cancer and associated precancerous lesions. Methods We evaluated the epigenetic regulation of LINC00473 through promoter hypermethylation in colorectal cancer cell lines using bisulfite genomic sequencing and expression analyses. DNA methylation of LINC00473 was analyzed in primary colorectal tumors using 450K arrays and RNA-seq from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Tissue-based findings were validated in several independent cohorts of colorectal cancer and advanced colorectal polyp patients by pyrosequencing. We explored the clinical utility of LINC00473 methylation for the early detection of colorectal cancer in plasma cell-free DNA by quantitative methylation-specific PCR and droplet digital PCR. Results LINC00473 showed transcriptionally silencing due to promoter hypermethylation in colorectal cancer cell lines and primary tumors. Methylation of the LINC00473 promoter accurately detected primary colorectal tumors in two independent clinical cohorts, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of 0.94 and 0.89. This biomarker also identified advanced colorectal polyps from two other tissue-based clinical cohorts with high diagnostic accuracy (AUCs of 0.99 and 0.78). Finally, methylation analysis of the LINC00473 promoter in plasma cell-free DNA accurately identified patients with colorectal cancer and advanced colorectal polyps (AUCs of 0.88 and 0.84, respectively), which was confirmed in an independent cohort of patients. Conclusions Hypermethylation of the LINC00473 promoter is a new promising biomarker for noninvasive early detection of colorectal cancer and related precancerous lesions

Estrategia marina demarcación marina levantino-balear parte IV. Descriptores del buen estado ambiental. Descriptor 1: biodiversidad evaluación inicial y buen estado ambiental

El descriptor 1 de la Ley 41/2010 de protección del medio marino, trasposición a la ley española de la Directiva Marco sobre la Estrategia Marina (DMEM: 2008/56/CE) dice textualmente "Se mantiene la biodiversidad. La calidad y la frecuencia de los hábitats y la distribución y abundancia de las especies están en consonancia con las condiciones fisiográficas, geográficas y climáticas". Según el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (UNCED, 1992), ésta se define como: "La variabilidad de organismos vivos de cualquier fuente, incluidos, entre otras cosas, los ecosistemas terrestres y marinos y otros ecosistemas acuáticos y los complejos ecológicos de los que forman parte; comprende la diversidad dentro de cada especie, entre especies y de los ecosistemas"