Disposable screen-printed carbon-based electrodes in amperometric detection for simultaneous determination of parabens in complex-matrix personal care products by HPLC

Parabens are chemicals widely used as preservatives in different types of industrial products. In recent years, the concern about the safety of these compounds has increased due to their endocrine disrupting activity. For this reason, their use is highly regulated and even some of them have already been banned. Thus, methods for the sensitive and selective detection of these compounds are required to control their presence in food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products. This paper presents an HPLC method with electrochemical detection using disposable screen-printed electrodes (SPE) for simultaneous determination of 6 different parabens in personal care products. Electrochemical behaviour of parabens was studied on SPE with different carbon-based materials as working electrode: carbon, ordered mesoporous carbon and graphene. From these studies, pH, detection potential, and the most adequate SPE were chosen. Due to the wide range of textures and viscosities (e.g., liquid, solid, and semi-solid) of personal care products, adequate sample pretreatments are required before chromatographic measurement. Here, a fast ultrasound-assisted extraction method was applied to simultaneously extract 6 parabens (methyl-, ethyl-, isopropyl-, propyl-, butyl-and benzyl-paraben) from different complex-matrix cosmetic products. Instrumental limits of detection between 20 and 115 μg L− 1 were obtained applying +1.0 V (vs. Ag) as detection potential on carbon-based SPE. The total analysis time, including sample extraction and HPLC run, was shorter than 35 min. The proposed method is more versatile and faster than the current available methods and has been successfully applied to determine parabens in commercial samples such as shampoos, body creams, facial tonics, and toothpastesLucia Abad acknowledges to Universidad Autonoma de Madrid for the predoctoral fellowship (FPI-UAM program). Sergio Lucas and Carmen Isabel thanks to Community of Madrid and European Social Fund for the contracts PEJ-2018-AI/BIO-11845 and PEJ-2019-TL/IND-14286, respectively through the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI

Investigación en docencia por contenidos (español como segunda lengua) en el proceso de internacionalización de la UA

La creciente internacionalización de nuestra universidad, junto con la experiencia acumulada desde la coordinación de programas Erasmus y la docencia a alumnado universitario no nativo, en diversas titulaciones, así como en las cinco ediciones del Curso de español académico para alumnos extranjeros, nos ha permitido constatar la relevancia de la integración académica de los estudiantes internacionales. El objetivo de la red es presentar la percepción del profesorado acerca de su presencia en las clases (cómo ha afectado a su docencia), así como la situación de los propios estudiantes, para averiguar cuáles son los retos a los que ambos colectivos se enfrentan. Nuestros informantes han sido 23 profesores del Dpto. de Filología Española con alumnado internacional y 30 estudiantes de movilidad matriculados en asignaturas ofertadas por dicho departamento, de quienes hemos recabado información a través de cuestionarios que nos han permitido obtener datos estadísticos. Los resultados finales nos indican, entre otros aspectos, la importancia del requisito lingüístico y del conocimiento de las rutinas académicas por parte del alumnado, así como la conveniencia de pautas sobre su evaluación para el profesorado. Se percibe a su vez la necesidad de una futura Guía académica para el alumnado extranjero, que contribuiría a un mejor rendimiento académico de su estancia

Development of a prediction model for short-term remission of patients with Crohn’s disease treated with anti-TNF drugs

Therapy with anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) has dramatically changed the natural history of Crohn’s disease (CD). However, these drugs are not without adverse events, and up to 40% of patients could lose efficacy in the long term. We aimed to identify reliable markers of response to anti-TNF drugs in patients with CD. A consecutive cohort of 113 anti-TNF naive patients with CD was stratified according to clinical response as short-term remission (STR) or non-STR (NSTR) at 12 weeks of treatment. We compared the protein expression profiles of plasma samples in a subset of patients from both groups prior to anti-TNF therapy by SWATH proteomics. We identified 18 differentially expressed proteins (p ≤ 0.01, fold change ≥ 2.4) involved in the organization of the cytoskeleton and cell junction, hemostasis/platelet function, carbohydrate metabolism, and immune response as candidate biomarkers of STR. Among them, vinculin was one of the most deregulated proteins (p < 0.001), whose differential expression was confirmed by ELISA (p = 0.054). In the multivariate analysis, plasma vinculin levels along with basal CD Activity Index, corticosteroids induction, and bowel resection were factors predicting NSTR

Downregulation of miR-31 in Diabetic Nephropathy and its Relationship with Inflammation

Background/Aims: There is a lack of reliable biological markers for the early diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy (DN) during type 2 diabetes. In this pilot study we aim to assess whether miR-31 levels are modulated by the presence of DN and whether the expression of this miRNA is related to leukocyte-endothelial interactions and inflammation. Methods: Thirty-one T2D patients were enrolled in this pilot study; 18 with no diabetic complications and 13 with diabetic nephropathy. 24 non-diabetic subjects and 13 T2D patients with retinopathy (absent of other complications) were included to test the specificity of miR-31. Following anthropometric and biochemical evaluation, serum miR-31 levels were assessed by Real Time-PCR. Leukocyte-endothelial interactions were evaluated by a parallel flow chamber in vitro model. Serum TNFα, IL-6 and ICAM-1 levels were determined by XMAP-technology in a flow cytometry-based Luminex 200 instrument. Results: Serum miR-31 levels were similar between control and T2D subjects. However, T2D patients with DN displayed reduced levels of miR-31 with respect to patients without complications. This decrease in miR-31 was more pronounced in patients with macroalbuminuria than in those with microalbuminuria and was specific for DN, since patients with retinopathy displayed unaltered miR-31 levels. The presence of DN involved a lower leukocyte rolling velocity and an increased rolling flux and adhesion. miR-31 levels were positively correlated with leukocyte rolling velocity and negatively associated to leukocyte adhesion, TNFα, IL-6 and ICAM-1 levels. Conclusion: Serum miR-31 may be a biomarker for DN in T2D patients. The regulation of this miRNA seems to be related to the recruitment of leukocytes to vascular walls induced by pro-inflammatory and adhesion molecules

Additional file 8 of Higher plasma levels of thymosin-α1 are associated with a lower waning of humoral response after COVID-19 vaccination: an eight months follow-up study in a nursing home

Additional file 8. Detailed methodology.Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades Instituto de Salud Carlos III Consejería de Salud y Familias, Junta de AndalucíaPeer reviewe

Additional file 6 of Higher plasma levels of thymosin-α1 are associated with a lower waning of humoral response after COVID-19 vaccination: an eight months follow-up study in a nursing home

Additional file 6: Supplementary Fig. 3. Correlations among Log of anti-S antibody titers at all different study points.Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades Instituto de Salud Carlos III Consejería de Salud y Familias, Junta de AndalucíaPeer reviewe

Additional file 2 of Higher plasma levels of thymosin-α1 are associated with a lower waning of humoral response after COVID-19 vaccination: an eight months follow-up study in a nursing home

Additional file 2: Supplementary Table 1. Demographical and anthropometrics characteristics of the study population.Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades Instituto de Salud Carlos III Consejería de Salud y Familias, Junta de AndalucíaPeer reviewe

Factors associated with the humoral response after three doses of COVID-19 vaccination in kidney transplant recipients

[Introduction] Kidney transplant recipients showed a weak humoral response to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine despite receiving three cumulative doses of the vaccine. New approaches are still needed to raise protective immunity conferred by the vaccine administration within this group of high-risk patients.[Methods] To analyze the humoral response and identify any predictive factors within these patients, we designed a prospective monocentric longitudinal study of Kidney transplant recipients (KTR) who received three doses of mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine. Specific antibody levels were measured by chemiluminescence. Parameters related to clinical status such as kidney function, immunosuppressive therapy, inflammatory status and thymic function were analyzed as potential predictors of the humoral response.[Results] Seventy-four KTR and sixteen healthy controls were included. One month after the administration of the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 64.8% of KTR showed a positive humoral response. As predictive factors of seroconversion and specific antibody titer, we found that immunosuppressive therapy, worse kidney function, higher inflammatory status and age were related to a lower response in KTR while immune cell counts, thymosin-a1 plasma concentration and thymic output were related to a higher humoral response. Furthermore, baseline thymosin-a1 concentration was independently associated with the seroconversion after three vaccine doses.[Discussion] In addition to the immunosuppression therapy, condition of kidney function and age before vaccination, specific immune factors could also be relevant in light of optimization of the COVID-19 vaccination protocol in KTR. Therefore, thymosin-a1, an immunomodulatory hormone, deserves further research as a potential adjuvant for the next vaccine boosters.This study was supported by a grant from the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS/PI21/00357), which is co-founded by Fondos Europeos para el Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) “Una manera de hacer Europa”. VG-R, IO-M and AB-R were supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CD19/00143, FI19/00298 and CM19/00051, respectively). MP-B was supported by the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades [DOC_01646 to MP-B] and YP was supported by the Consejería de Salud y Familias of Junta de Andalucía through the “Nicolás Monardes” [RC-0006-2021].Peer reviewe

Role of the first WHO mutation catalogue in the diagnosis of antibiotic resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Valencia Region, Spain: a retrospective genomic analysis

9 páginas, 2 figuras, 1 tablaBackground: In June, 2021, WHO published the most complete catalogue to date of resistance-conferring mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here, we aimed to assess the performance of genome-based antimicrobial resistance prediction using the catalogue and its potential for improving diagnostics in a real low-burden setting. Methods: In this retrospective population-based genomic study M tuberculosis isolates were collected from 25 clinical laboratories in the low-burden setting of the Valencia Region, Spain. Culture-positive tuberculosis cases reported by regional public health authorities between Jan 1, 2014, and Dec 31, 2016, were included. The drug resistance profiles of these isolates were predicted by the genomic identification, via whole-genome sequencing (WGS), of the high-confidence resistance-causing variants included in the catalogue and compared with the phenotype. We determined the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the isolates with discordant resistance profiles using the resazurin microtitre assay. Findings: WGS was performed on 785 M tuberculosis complex culture-positive isolates, and the WGS resistance prediction sensitivities were: 85·4% (95% CI 70·8–94·4) for isoniazid, 73·3% (44·9–92·2) for rifampicin, 50·0% (21·1–78·9) for ethambutol, and 57·1% (34·0–78·2) for pyrazinamide; all specificities were more than 99·6%. Sensitivity values were lower than previously reported, but the overall pan-susceptibility accuracy was 96·4%. Genotypic analysis revealed that four phenotypically susceptible isolates carried mutations (rpoB Leu430Pro and rpoB Ile491Phe for rifampicin and fabG1 Leu203Leu for isoniazid) known to give borderline resistance in standard phenotypic tests. Additionally, we identified three putative resistance-associated mutations (inhA Ser94Ala, katG Leu48Pro, and katG Gly273Arg for isoniazid) in samples with substantially higher MICs than those of susceptible isolates. Combining both genomic and phenotypic data, in accordance with the WHO diagnostic guidelines, we could detect two new multidrug-resistant cases. Additionally, we detected 11 (1·6%) of 706 isolates to be monoresistant to fluoroquinolone, which had been previously undetected. Interpretation: We showed that the WHO catalogue enables the detection of resistant cases missed in phenotypic testing in a low-burden region, thus allowing for better patient-tailored treatment. We also identified mutations not included in the catalogue, relevant at the local level. Evidence from this study, together with future updates of the catalogue, will probably lead in the future to the partial replacement of culture testing with WGS-based drug susceptibility testing in our setting. Funding: European Research Council and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia.This project received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program Grant 101001038 (TB-RECONNECT; awarded to IC), from Ministerio de Ciencia (Spanish Government) Project PID2019-104477RB-I00 (awarded to IC), and from Generalitat Valenciana Project AICO/2018/113 (awarded to IC). AMG-M is funded by a Formación deProfesorado Universitario grant programme (FPU19/04562) from Ministerio de Universidades (Spanish Government). IC is also supported by the European Commission–NextGenerationEU, through Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Global Health Platform (PTI Salud Global). We thank all the members of the Valencia RegionTuberculosis Working Group