Molecular Identification of a New Pestivirus Associated with Increased Mortality in the Pyrenean Chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica) in Spain

Pestivirus infection was identified in 16 of 17 chamois during an outbreak of a previously unreported disease in Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica) in northeastern Spain in 2001-02. By analysis of the 5' noncoding regions of the virus, we assigned it to the border disease virus cluster with pairwise similarity values ranging from 82.1% to 88.1%. It will be important to investigate the association of this pestivirus with disease in Pyrenean chamois

Juego serio para la evaluación de competencias digitales en educación secundaria

En los últimos años, se ha puesto el foco en la importancia de las competencias digitales con el fin de reducir la brecha entre lo que se enseña en las aulas y lo que necesita el alumnado para afrontar el día a día en la sociedad digital actual. Este énfasis de ofrecer una formación acorde a los tiempos, se observa al analizar los principales ejes transversales de la legislación educativa española (LOMLOE), en donde cabe destacar la educación digital y el aprendizaje competencial-crítico-reflexivo. Dicho desafío está a la orden del día con los intereses de la educación a nivel europeo, donde se identifican lotes de financiación para impulsar las competencias digitales entre el alumnado y el profesorado acorde al modelo DigComp. No obstante, la evaluación de estas competencias digitales se realiza a través de un cuestionario tradicional que puede ser tedioso y poco atractivo para el alumnado. Teniendo en cuenta estos aspectos, este trabajo presenta un juego serio para la autoevaluación de las competencias digitales, desarrollado en el marco de un proyecto europeo, así como los resultados preliminares de su aplicación en educación secundaria.In recent years, the focus has been placed on the importance of digital competencies in order to reduce the gap between what is taught in the classroom and what students need to face daily life in today's digital society. This emphasis on offering training connected with the current society can be seen when analyzing the main cross-cutting themes of Spanish educational legislation (LOMLOE), where digital education and critical-reflective competency learning stand out. This challenge is up-to-date with the interests of education at the European level, where funding lots are identified to promote digital competencies among students and teachers according to the DigComp framework. However, the assessment of these digital competencies is done through a traditional questionnaire that can be tedious and unattractive for students. Taking these aspects into account, this paper presents a serious game for the self-assessment of digital competences, developed in the framework of a European project, as well as the preliminary results of its application in secondary education.Este trabajo ha sido financiado por el Programa Erasmus+ de la Unión Europea a través del proyecto Dig4Life – Digital for Literacy and Future Education (2020-1-IT02-KA201-079420), por la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) con fondos FEDER dentro del proyecto EngageIT (PID2019-105455GB-C33) y el Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación con fondos FEDER dentro del proyecto PlayfulLife (P20_00330) y el grupo de investigación Mejora del Proceso Software y Métodos Formales (TIC-195)

Role of NOD1 in heart failure progression via regulation of Ca2+ handling

Instituto de Salud Carlos III; CP11/00080Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PI14/01078Ministerio de Economía y competitividad; SAF2014-52492RMinisterio de Economía y competitividad; SAF2014-57190RMinisterio de Economía y competitividad; RTC2015-374

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligand FICZ improves left ventricular remodeling and cardiac function at the onset of pressure overload-Induced heart failure in mice

Adverse ventricular remodeling is the heart’s response to damaging stimuli and is linked to heart failure and poor prognosis. Formyl-indolo [3,2-b] carbazole (FICZ) is an endogenous ligand for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), through which it exerts pleiotropic effects including protection against inflammation, fibrosis, and oxidative stress. We evaluated the effect of AhR activation by FICZ on the adverse ventricular remodeling that occurs in the early phase of pressure overload in the murine heart induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC). Cardiac structure and function were evaluated by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) before and 3 days after Sham or TAC surgery in mice treated with FICZ or with vehicle, and cardiac tissue was used for biochemical studies. CMRI analysis revealed that FICZ improved cardiac function and attenuated cardiac hypertrophy. These beneficial effects involved the inhibition of the hypertrophic calcineurin/NFAT pathway, transcriptional reduction in pro-fibrotic genes, and antioxidant effects mediated by the NRF2/NQO1 pathway. Overall, our findings provide new insight into the role of cardiac AhR signaling in the injured heart.This research was supported by Grants SAF2017-84777-R, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spain, PID2020-113238RB-I00 funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN)/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 of Spain and the “European Union Next GenerationEU/PRTR”; PI20/01482-1 funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, CB16/11/00222 funded by the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBERCV) and a Grant (Proyectos 2021) financed by the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria

Calcitriol, the Bioactive Metabolite of Vitamin D, Increases Ventricular K+ Currents in Isolated Mouse Cardiomyocytes

Calcitriol, the bioactive metabolite of vitamin D, interacts with the ubiquitously expressed nuclear vitamin D receptor (VDR) to induce genomic effects, but it can also elicit rapid responses via membrane-associated VDR through mechanisms that are poorly understood. The down-regulation of K+ currents is the main origin of electrophysiological remodeling in pathological hypertrophy and heart failure (HF), which can contribute to action potential prolongation and subsequently increase the risk of triggered arrhythmias. Adult mouse ventricular myocytes were isolated and treated with 10 nM calcitriol or vehicle for 15–30 min. In some experiments, cardiomyocytes were pretreated with the Akt inhibitor triciribine. In the adult mouse ventricle, outward K+ currents involved in cardiac repolarization are comprised of three components: the fast transient outward current (Itof), the ultrarapid delayed rectifier K+ current (Ikur), and the non-inactivating steady-state outward current (Iss). K+ currents were investigated using the whole-cell or the perforated patch-clamp technique and normalized to cell capacitance to obtain current densities. Calcitriol treatment of cardiomyocytes induced an increase in the density of Itof and Ikur, which was lost in myocytes isolated from VDR-knockout mice. In addition, calcitriol activated Akt in cardiomyocytes and pretreatment with triciribine prevented the calcitriol-induced increase of outward K+ currents. In conclusion, we demonstrate that calcitriol via VDR and Akt increases both Itof and Ikur densities in mouse ventricular cardiomyocytes. Our findings may provide new mechanistics clues for the cardioprotective role of this hormone in the heart

Specialized proresolving mediators protect against experimental autoimmune myocarditis by modulating Ca2+ handling and NRF2 activation

Preclinical research[Abstract] Specialized proresolving mediators and, in particular, 5(S), (6)R, 7-trihydroxyheptanoic acid methyl ester (BML-111) emerge as new therapeutic tools to prevent cardiac dysfunction and deleterious cardiac damage associated with myocarditis progression. The cardioprotective role of BML-111 is mainly caused by the prevention of increased oxidative stress and nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-like 2 (NRF2) down-regulation induced by myocarditis. At the molecular level, BML-111 activates NRF2 signaling, which prevents sarcoplasmic reticulum–adenosine triphosphatase 2A down-regulation and Ca2+ mishandling, and attenuates the cardiac dysfunction and tissue damage induced by myocarditis.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España); SAF-2017-84777RInstituto de Salud Carlos III; PI17/01093Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PI17/01344Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PI20/01482Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España); PGC2018-097019-B-I00Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (España); 10.13039/501100011033Ministerio de Industria, Economía y Competitividad; PID2020-113238RB-I00Ministerio de Industria, Economía y Competitividad (España); PID2019-105600RB-I00Fundación La Caixa; HR17-0024

Disentangling signatures of selection before and after European colonization in latin Americans

Throughout human evolutionary history, large-scale migrations have led to intermixing (i.e., admixture) between previously separated human groups. Although classical and recent work have shown that studying admixture can yield novel historical insights, the extent to which this process contributed to adaptation remains underexplored. Here, we introduce a novel statistical model, specific to admixed populations, that identifies loci under selection while determining whether the selection likely occurred post-admixture or prior to admixture in one of the ancestral source populations. Through extensive simulations, we show that this method is able to detect selection, even in recently formed admixed populations, and to accurately differentiate between selection occurring in the ancestral or admixed population. We apply this method to genome-wide SNP data of ∼4,000 individuals in five admixed Latin American cohorts from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Our approach replicates previous reports of selection in the human leukocyte antigen region that are consistent with selection post-admixture. We also report novel signals of selection in genomic regions spanning 47 genes, reinforcing many of these signals with an alternative, commonly used local-ancestry-inference approach. These signals include several genes involved in immunity, which may reflect responses to endemic pathogens of the Americas and to the challenge of infectious disease brought by European contact. In addition, some of the strongest signals inferred to be under selection in the Native American ancestral groups of modern Latin Americans overlap with genes implicated in energy metabolism phenotypes, plausibly reflecting adaptations to novel dietary sources available in the Americas

una mirada desde las Ciencias de la Conducta

Este libro es el resultado de los trabajos presentados en el 1er Congreso Internacional "Convivencia y bienestar con sentido humanista para una cultura de paz"