Asociación entre el control de urticaria crónica y la presencia de resistencia a insulina

Introducción: Las enfermedades crónico-degenerativas generan estrés en el cuerpo, desequilibrando la regulación del eje hipotálamo-hipófisis-suprarrenal. Esto provoca una respuesta inmunológica comprometida debido al aumento de cortisol en sangre, lo que, con el tiempo, aumenta la resistencia a la insulina y desregula el sistema inmunológico, contribuyendo a problemas inmunológicos y alérgicos. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar la asociación entre el control de la urticaria crónica con la presencia de resistencia a la insulina. Métodos: Estudio observacional, descriptivo y transversal que se realizó de noviembre de 2022 a octubre de 2023. Donde se incluyeron personas mayores a 18 años que acuden a la consulta de alergia en el Centro Regional de Alergia e Inmunología Clínica del Hospital Universitario “Dr. José Eleuterio González” con diagnóstico de urticaria crónica. Durante la consulta se aplicó la prueba de control de urticaria (UCT). Al terminar la consulta se realizó glucosa e insulina sérica para valorar la presencia de resistencia a insulina. Para el análisis estadístico se utilizó SPSS versión 28. Resultados: El estudio incluyó 36 pacientes y se analizaron variables demográficas, continuas y categóricas para investigar la relación entre la urticaria crónica y la resistencia a la insulina. Se identificaron características distintivas para pacientes con urticaria crónica no controlada y aquellos con resistencia a la insulina, como edad, género, talla, IMC, circunferencia de cintura y niveles de glucosa e insulina. Los sujetos estudiados presentan una edad media de 42 años, un peso medio de 80.5 kg, una altura media de 1.65 metros, índice de masa corporal (IMC) media de 29.6 y una circunferencia de cintura media de 99 cm. El control de la urticaria, medido por la puntuación UCT, con una media de 7, y los niveles séricos de glucosa media de 100 mg/dL. La insulina sérica media de 17.19 μU/mL, con una puntuación HOMA- IR media de 4.08. En términos de variables categóricas, 83.3 % de los pacientes no tenía control de la urticaria, mientras que 16.7 % la tenía bajo control. Sesenta y seis por ciento eran mujeres y 33.3 % hombres. En cuanto a la resistencia a la insulina, 44.4 % presentaron resistencia a la insulina, mientras que 55.6 % de los pacientes no la presentaban. Al comparar las medias entre estos dos grupos no se obtuvo alguna diferencia significativa (p < 0.05) Conclusiones: Este estudio es el primero en proporcionar información sobre las características de una población de pacientes con urticaria crónica y su perfil de resistencia a la insulina. Aunque se encontraron correlaciones significativas entre algunas variables, no se demostró una asociación directa entre el control de la urticaria crónica y la resistencia a la insulina en esta muestra, lo que descarta la hipótesis de este estudio. Estos hallazgos pueden tener implicaciones importantes para el manejo de pacientes con urticaria crónica y condiciones metabólicas asociadas y es el primero reportado en esta población de pacientes

Zebrafish have a competent p53-dependent nucleotide excision repair pathway to resolve ultraviolet B-induced DNA damage in the skin

Ultraviolet (UV) light is a primary environmental risk factor for melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer derived from the pigmented cells called melanocytes. UVB irradiation causes DNA damage, mainly in the form of pyrimidine dimers (cis-syn cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and pyrimidine (6-4) pyrimidone photoproducts), and organisms have developed complex multiprotein repair processes to cope with the DNA damage. Zebrafish is becoming an important model system to study the effects of UV light in animals, in part because the embryos are easily treated with UV irradiation, and the DNA damage repair pathways appear to be conserved in zebrafish and mammals. We are interested in exploring the effects of UV irradiation in young adult zebrafish, so that we can apply them to the study of gene–environment interactions in models of skin cancer. Using the Xiphophorus UV melanoma model as a starting point, we have developed a UV irradiation treatment chamber, and established UV treatment conditions at different ages of development. By translating the Xiphophorus UV treatment methodology to the zebrafish system, we show that the adult zebrafish skin is competent for nucleotide excision DNA damage repair, and that like in mammalian cells, UV treatment promotes phosphorylation of H2AX and a p53-dependent response. These studies provide the groundwork for exploring the role of UV light in melanoma development in zebrafish

OBTENCIÓN DEL MÁXIMO ANCHO DE BANDA PARA LA ADQUISICIÓN Y RECONSTRUCCIÓN DE SEÑALES ANALÓGICAS CON LA TARJETA SPARTAN 3E

ResumenEn este trabajo se presenta un sistema en el cual se obtiene el máximo ancho de banda posible para la adquisición y reconstrucción de señales analógicas en la tarjeta de desarrollo Spartan-3E del fabricante Xilinx, utilizando los convertidores que contiene dicha tarjeta, tanto el ADC como el DAC. El sistema está desarrollado en VHDL empleando el concepto de máquina de estados finitos (FSM) y el administrador digital de reloj (DCM) incluido en el FPGA de la tarjeta. En aplicaciones tales como procesamiento digital de señales en tiempo real, comunicaciones digitales y control digital, por mencionar algunas, es muy importante tener un ancho de banda considerable en el sistema. El valor máximo obtenido para el ancho de banda del sistema fue de 161 kHz.Palabras Claves: ADC, ancho de banda, DAC, FPGA, Spartan-3E.OBTAINING THE MAXIMUM BANDWIDTH FOR THE ACQUISITION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF ANALOGUE SIGNALS WITH THE SPARTAN 3E CARDAbstractThis paper presents a system in which the maximum bandwidth possible for the acquisition and reconstruction of analog signals is obtained in the Spartan-3E development board of the Xilinx manufacturer, using the converters contained in this board, both the ADC and The DAC. The system is developed in VHDL using the concept of finite state machine (FSM) and the digital clock manager (DCM) included in the FPGA. In applications such as digital processing of real-time signals, digital communications and digital control, to mention a few, it is very important to have a considerable bandwidth in the system. The maximum value obtained for the system bandwidth was 161 kHz.Keywords: ADC, bandwith, DAC, FPGA, Spartan-3E

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Simulación del gobernador de la turbina y del control de excitación de un generador

Este trabajo forma parte del proyecto : " Simulación Digital de Sistemas Dinámicos ", cuyo objetivo es desarrollar aplicaciones de software para apoyar los contenidos de algunas de las materias de la especialidad de Sistemas Eléctricos de Potencia de la carrera de Ingeniería Eléctrica. En la materia de Sistemas Eléctricos de Potencia II se efectúa el análisis dinámico del generador síncrono que requiere de la modelación , simulación y análisis del gobernador de la turbina así como del sistema de excitación . Aquí se presentarán algunos de los modelos , los diagramas de bloques para su simulación y el análisis de la respuesta en el dominio del tiempo

Intermittent hypoxia selects for genotypes and phenotypes that increase survival, invasion, and therapy resistance.

Hypoxia in tumors correlates with greater risk of metastases, increased invasiveness, and resistance to systemic and radiation therapy. The evolutionary dynamics that links specific adaptations to hypoxia with these observed tumor properties have not been well investigated. While some tumor populations may experience fixed hypoxia, cyclical and stochastic transitions from normoxia to hypoxia are commonly observed in vivo. Although some phenotypic adaptations to this cyclic hypoxia are likely reversible, we hypothesize that some adaptations may become fixed through mutations promoted by hypoxia-induced genomic instability. Here we seek to identify genetic alterations and corresponding stable phenotypes that emerge following cyclic hypoxia. Although these changes may originate as adaptations to this specific environmental stress, their fixation in the tumor genome may result in their observation in tumors from regions of normoxia, a condition known as pseudohypoxia. We exposed several epithelial cell lines to 50 cycles of hypoxia-normoxia, followed by culture in normoxia over a period of several months. Molecular analyses demonstrated permanent changes in expression of several oncogenes and tumor-suppressors, including p53, E-cadherin, and Hif-1α. These changes were associated with increased resistance to multiple cytotoxins, increased survival in hypoxia and increased anchorage-independent growth. These results suggest cycles of hypoxia encountered in early cancers can select for specific and stable genotypic and phenotypic properties that persist even in normoxic conditions, which may promote tumor progression and resistance to therapy

Drug Resistance and Cellular Adaptation to Tumor Acidic pH Microenvironment

Despite advances in developing novel therapeutic strategies, a major factor underlying cancer related death remains resistance to therapy. In addition to <i>biochemical</i> resistance, mediated by xenobiotic transporters or binding site mutations, resistance can be <i>physiological</i>, emerging as a consequence of the tumor’s physical microenvironment. This review focuses on extracellular acidosis, an end result of high glycolytic flux and poor vascular perfusion. Low extracellular pH, pHe, forms a physiological drug barrier described by an “ion trapping” phenomenon. We describe how the acid-outside plasmalemmal pH gradient negatively impacts drug efficacy of weak base chemotherapies but is better suited for weakly acidic therapeutics. We will also explore the physiologic changes tumor cells undergo in response to extracellular acidosis which contribute to drug resistance including reduced apoptotic potential, genetic alterations, and elevated activity of a multidrug transporter, p-glycoprotein, pGP. Since low pHe is a hallmark of solid tumors, therapeutic strategies designed to overcome or exploit this condition can be developed