Development of a microencapsulated functional ingredient formulated with the neurotransmitter GABA and the Lactiplantibacillus plantarum K16 produced through biotechnological processes

208 p.This PhD thesis has developed a new functional ingredient characterised by the novelty of combining anew L. plantarum K16 strain, isolated from the fermented food Kimchi, with the postbiotic metaboliteGABA produced by a fermentation process using agri-food by-products as substrate media. According tothe scientific literature, this functional ingredient intends to exert a beneficial effect on human health byacting in the intestine, guaranteeing a synergistic effect of the probiotic and GABA. The first step in thedeveloping process was focused on isolating and characterising a GABA-producer lactic acid strain fromfermented food kimchi. Then, am evaluation of the ability to produce GABA by this strain wasconducted, firstly, using commercial MRS broth where the effect of different parameters was assessed.Next, several agri-food by-products have been selected to be used as fermentation media due, on onehand, to their high environmental impact and, on the other hand, to their nutritional value for developinglow-cost culture media. Finally, one of this agri-food by-products was chosen to grow the isolatedbacteria and to produce GABA with it, for finally develop a microencapsulated functional ingredient.Tecnalia Research and Innovatio

Educación social en el ámbito escolar y la Ley Rhodes = Social education in the educational system and the Rhodes Law

p. 21-39En este artículo de revisión se trata de responder a la pregunta sobre la necesidad de incorporar a todo el sistema educativo español, de forma normalizada y como una especialidad más en los centros escolares, las funciones y tareas que vienen desempeñando los educadores y educadoras sociales en la escuela. Para ello, se ha realizado una revisión sistemática de la literatura (SLR) de 56 artículos publicados en acceso abierto, de enero de 2000 a agosto de 2020, en las bases de datos: Scopus, Dialnet, Web of Science, Redalyc y Scielo. La validación se dio con los criterios ampliados de la Universidad de York. Los hallazgos reflejan que, en una sociedad compleja y cambiante, donde la interacción de la escuela con su entorno social es cada vez más determinante en el desarrollo y formación del alumnado, el papel de los profesionales de la educación social se hace imprescindible en el sistema educativo español. Se concluye que su función y tareas son actualmente necesarias y que el actual proyecto de Ley Rhodes sería una clara oportunidad para integrar el papel de estos profesionales en todos los centros escolares a través de la figura del coordinador o coordinadora de bienestar y protección.S

Biosynthesis of gamma-aminobutyric acid by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum K16 as an alternative to revalue agri-food by-products.

Probiotic metabolites, known as postbiotics, have received attention due to their wide variety of promoting health effects. One of the most exciting postbiotic is gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), widely produced by lactic acid bacteria, due to its benefits in health. In addition, the performance of the biosynthesis of GABA by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum could be modulated through the modification of fermentation parameters. Due to their high nutritional value, agri-food by-products could be considered a useful fermentation source for microorganisms. Therefore, these by-products were proposed as fermentation substrates to produce GABA in this study. Previously, several experiments in Man Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) broth were performed to identify the most critical parameters to produce GABA using the strain Lactiplantibacillus plantarum K16. The percentage of inoculum, the initial pH, and the concentration of nutrients, such as monosodium glutamate or glucose, significantly affected the biosynthetic pathway of GABA. The highest GABA yield was obtained with 500mM of monosodium glutamate and 25g/L of glucose, and an initial pH of 5.5 and 1.2% inoculum. Furthermore, these investigated parameters were used to evaluate the possibility of using tomato, green pepper, apple, or orange by-products to get GABA-enriched fermented media, which is an excellent way to revalorise them.This work was supported by the Basque government (grant ELKARTEK – KK-2019/00034)

Easy, fast, and clean fluorescence analysis of tryptophan with clays and graphene/clay mixtures

Clays (C) such as sepiolite (SEP) or bentonite (BEN) and their mixtures with graphene (G) have been used as sorbents in dispersive solid phase extraction (dSPE). Tryptophan (TRP) analysis by fluorescence combined with a sample preparation step using G/C 30/70 w/w mixture provides a quantitative TRP retention, independently of the amino acid concentration with a desorption process feasible in 80 mM aqueous solution of the surfactant Brij L23. Under these conditions, the detection and quantification limits are 3.5 and 11.8 mu g L-1, respectively. Additionally, a novel, simple and inexpensive method has been developed to directly analyse TRP in real sam-ples, in which the presence of matrix interferents typically limits to obtain accurate results. For the first time, BEN has been used as an effective clean-up sorbent for the fluorimetric analysis of TRP in beer, leading to results without statistical differences versus those of a reference HPLC method free of interferences, with recoveries of 90 % and 100 %. The proposed method can be applied to accurately analyse TRP in complex matrices in a direct, easy, fast and sustainable way.Ministerio de Innovación, Ciencia y Universidade

Fluorescence Study of Riboflavin Interactions with Graphene Dispersed in Bioactive Tannic Acid

The potential of tannic acid (TA) as a dispersing agent for graphene (G) in aqueous solutions and its interaction with riboflavin have been studied under different experimental conditions. TA induces quenching of riboflavin fluorescence, and the effect is stronger with increasing TA concentration, due to pi-pi interactions through the aromatic rings, and hydrogen bonding interactions between the hydroxyl moieties of both compounds. The influence of TA concentration, the pH, and the G/TA weight ratio on the quenching magnitude, have been studied. At a pH of 4.1, G dispersed in TA hardly influences the riboflavin fluorescence, while at a pH of 7.1, the nanomaterial interacts with riboflavin, causing an additional quenching to that produced by TA. When TA concentration is kept constant, quenching of G on riboflavin fluorescence depends on both the G/TA weight ratio and the TA concentration. The fluorescence attenuation is stronger for dispersions with the lowest G/TA ratios, since TA is the main contributor to the quenching effect. Data obey the Stern-Volmer relationship up to TA 2.0 g L-1 and G 20 mg L-1. Results demonstrate that TA is an effective dispersant for graphene-based nanomaterials in liquid medium and a green alternative to conventional surfactants and synthetic polymers for the determination of biomolecules.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidade

Brain and immune system-derived extracellular vesicles mediate regulation of complement system, extracellular matrix remodeling, brain repair and antigen tolerance in Multiple sclerosis

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated central nervous system disease whose course is unpredictable. Finding biomarkers that help to better comprehend the disease's pathogenesis is crucial for supporting clinical decision-making. Blood extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-bound particles secreted by all cell types that contain information on the disease's pathological processes. Purpose: To identify the immune and nervous system-derived EV profile from blood that could have a specific role as biomarker in MS and assess its possible correlation with disease state. Results: Higher levels of T cell-derived EVs and smaller size of neuron-derived EVs were associated with clinical relapse. The smaller size of the oligodendrocyte-derived EVs was related with motor and cognitive impairment. The proteomic analysis identified mannose-binding lectin serine protease 1 and complement factor H from immune system cell-derived EVs as autoimmune disease-associated proteins. We observed hepatocyte growth factor-like protein in EVs from T cells and inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 2 from neurons as white matter injury-related proteins. In patients with MS, a specific protein profile was found in the EVs, higher levels of alpha-1-microglobulin and fibrinogen β chain, lower levels of C1S and gelsolin in the immune system-released vesicles, and Talin-1 overexpression in oligodendrocyte EVs. These specific MS-associated proteins, as well as myelin basic protein in oligodendrocyte EVs, correlated with disease activity in the patients with MS. Conclusion: Neural-derived and immune-derived EVs found in blood appear to be good specific biomarkers in MS for reflecting the disease state.This work was sponsored by a grant from Miguel Servet (CP20/00024 to Laura Otero-Ortega), Miguel Servet (CPII20/00002 to María Gutiérrez-Fernández), a predoctoral fellowship (FI18/00026 to Fernando Laso-García), a Río-Hortega grant (CM22/00065 to Gabriel Torres Iglesias and CM20/00047 to Elisa Alonso-López) and by Research Project (PI21/00918) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and co-funded by the European Union and by a grant CA1/RSUE/2021-00753 to Dolores Piniella funded by Ministerio de Universidades, Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia y la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.S

Protein content of blood-derived extracellular vesicles: An approach to the pathophysiology of cerebral hemorrhage

Introduction: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) participate in cell-to-cell paracrine signaling and can be biomarkers of the pathophysiological processes underlying disease. In intracerebral hemorrhage, the study of the number and molecular content of circulating EVs may help elucidate the biological mechanisms involved in damage and repair, contributing valuable information to the identification of new therapeutic targets.Methods: The objective of this study was to describe the number and protein content of blood-derived EVs following an intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). For this purpose, an experimental ICH was induced in the striatum of Sprague-Dawley rats and EVs were isolated and characterized from blood at baseline, 24 h and 28 days. The protein content in the EVs was analyzed by mass spectrometric data-dependent acquisition; protein quantification was obtained by sequential window acquisition of all theoretical mass spectra data and compared at pre-defined time points.Results: Although no differences were found in the number of EVs, the proteomic study revealed that proteins related to the response to cellular damage such as deubiquitination, regulation of MAP kinase activity (UCHL1) and signal transduction (NDGR3), were up-expressed at 24 h compared to baseline; and that at 28 days, the protein expression profile was characterized by a higher content of the proteins involved in healing and repair processes such as cytoskeleton organization and response to growth factors (COR1B) and the regulation of autophagy (PI42B).Discussion: The protein content of circulating EVs at different time points following an ICH may reflect evolutionary changes in the pathophysiology of the disease

Methodology applied in the study of the language development in children with early detection of neonatal hearing loss.

Introducción y objetivo: Dado que el potencial discapacitante que causa la deficiencia auditiva neonatal disminuye con una detección e intervención tempranas, hemos elaborado un proyecto de investigación, con el que nos proponemos conocer el grado de desarrollo del lenguaje de los niños y niñas que procedentes del cribado auditivo universal, han sido diagnosticados/as por nosotros de hipoacusia prelingual en estos últimos 15 años y analizar las variables determinantes y las que son modificables. El objeto de esta comunicación consistirá en presentar la metodología que vamos a utilizar. Método: Partimos de los datos almacenados en nuestro Servicio de ORL, que comprende a 282 niños con hipoacusia. Hemos tenido la oportunidad de crear un grupo de investigación en el que coincidimos especialistas de la audición infantil y del lenguaje, por lo que contamos con medios suficientes para el estudio. Resultados: Describimos los elementos que configuran este proyecto, en relación al equipo de trabajo y a su desarrollo. Tras aplicar unos criterios de exclusión/inclusión, hemos seleccionado a un grupo de 45 niños entre 3 y 15 años, definiendo sus características auditivas. Mediante pruebas específicas, adaptadas a la edad, estudiaremos los diferentes aspectos del lenguaje; y a través de una entrevista estructurada realizada a los padres, intentaremos determinar las variables que influyen en el proceso re-habilitador. Finalmente, los datos serán analizados estadísticamente. Discusión: La variabilidad y la escasa prevalencia de la hipoacusia infantil, dificultan la realización de estudios con población suficiente para obtener resultados estadísticamente significativos. Sin embargo, creemos que el grupo de niños seleccionado y la metodología utilizada nos permitirán conocer mejor las variables influyentes en el desarrollo del lenguaje. Conclusiones: El programa de cribado auditivo universal ha permitido una intervención más precoz, lo que debería mejorar los niveles de lenguaje de los niños detectados/as con hipoacusia. Aunque el desarrollo normalizado de la comunicación depende de otros factores difíciles de determinar, a través del protocolo presentado pretendemos equiparar estos resultados, validando el proceso de cribado/diagnóstico e intervención de nuestro medio.Introduction and objective: Given that the disabling potential causing neonatal hearing impairment decreases with early detection and intervention, we have drawn up a research project, with which we intend to know the degree of development of the language of children and girls than from the universal hearing screening, have been diagnosed for us of prelingual hearing loss in the last 15 years and analyze the determining variables and which are modifiable. The object of this communication will be to present the methodology that we use. Method: We assume the data stored on our ENT service, including 282 children with hearing loss. We have had the opportunity to create a research group in which we agree ENT and language specialists so we have resources sufficient for the study. Results: We describe the elements that make up this project in relation to the team and to its development. After applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, we have selected a group of 45 children between 3 and 15 years, defining their auditory characteristics. Through specific tests, adapted to the age, we will study the different aspects of the language; and through a structured interview parents, we try to determine the variables that influence the rehabilitator process. Finally, the data will be analyzed statistically. Discussion: The variability and the low prevalence of infant hearing loss, make it difficult studies with sufficient population to obtain statistically significant results. However, we believe that the group of children and the methodology selected will allow us to learn more about the influential in the development of the language variables. Conclusions: The hearing screening program allowed us to earlier intervention, which should improve the levels of language of children detected with hearing loss. Although the standard development of communication depends on other factors difficult to determine, through the presented protocol we equate these findings, validating the process of screening/diagnosis and intervention of our environment

Physical therapy in unilateral and bilateral vestibular hypofunction

[ES] Introducción: La rehabilitación vestibular (RV) basada en la terapia física, tiene el objetivo, en el caso de patología vestibular, de inducir la compensación del sistema nervioso central (SNC) a nivel de núcleos vestibulares y de otros niveles del SNC. Incluye ejercicios de habituación, adaptación y sustitución vestibular, ejercicios para mejorar el equilibrio y el control postural dinámico y ejercicios para el acondicionamiento general. En este capítulo discutimos los recientes avances sobre el adiestramiento del equilibrio y de la marcha, la estabilidad de la mirada y la habituación, en el contexto de los trastornos vestibulares uni y bilaterales. Método: Revisión narrativa. Resultados: Los ejercicios se prescriben para mejorar la función; fortaleciendo, y favoreciendo la flexibilidad y la resistencia, a través de la adaptación del RVO, la habituación, la sustitución sensorial, la marcha y el equilibrio postural. Son más eficaces los programas personalizados que los genéricos. El cumplimiento mejora con la personalización y las visitas de seguimiento a un fisioterapeuta. Discusión/Conclusiones: La RV permite mejorar el déficit funcional y los síntomas subjetivos derivados de la hipofunción vestibular periférica uni y bilateral, así como las alteraciones del equilibrio de origen central. Los objetivos de la RV consisten en reducir los síntomas para mejorar la estabilidad postural y de la mirada (particularmente durante los movimientos de la cabeza) y devolver al individuo a sus actividades normales, incluyendo la actividad física, la conducción y el trabajo habitual. Los médicos deben ofrecer la RV a quienes muestren limitaciones funcionales relacionadas con un déficit vestibular, pues actualmente se considera el tratamiento estándar en la disfunción vestibular periférica

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio