Differential effects of two virtual reality interventions: distraction versus pain control

There is evidence that virtual reality (VR) pain distraction is effective at improving pain-related outcomes. However, more research is needed to investigate VR environments with other pain-related goals. The main aim of this study was to compare the differential effects of two VR environments on a set of pain-related and cognitive variables during a cold pressor experiment. One of these environments aimed to distract attention away from pain (VRD), whereas the other was designed to enhance pain control (VRC). Participants were 77 psychology students, who were randomly assigned to one of the following three conditions during the cold pressor experiment: (a) VRD, (b) VRC, or (c) Non-VR (control condition). Data were collected regarding both pain-related variables (intensity, tolerance, threshold, time perception, and pain sensitivity range) and cognitive variables (self-efficacy and catastrophizing). Results showed that in comparison with the control condition, the VRC intervention significantly increased pain tolerance, the pain sensitivity range, and the degree of time underestimation. It also increased self-efficacy in tolerating pain and led to a reduction in reported helplessness. The VRD intervention significantly increased the pain threshold and pain tolerance in comparison with the control condition, but it did not affect any of the cognitive variables. Overall, the intervention designed to enhance control seems to have a greater effect on the cognitive variables assessed. Although these results need to be replicated in further studies, the findings suggest that the VRC intervention has considerable potential in terms of increasing self-efficacy and modifying the negative thoughts that commonly accompany pain problems

Bacteria detection with high-frequency gravimetric biosensors based on AlN thin film resonators

Gravimetric sensors based on shear-mode resonators are suitable for in-liquid detection of biological species because their quality factors barely decrease during in-liquid operation. However, we have found that in the particular case of large ligands, such as bacteria, the transmission of the surface movement to them appears to be more efficient when movement takes place normal to the surface (longitudinal modes) instead of to parallel to it (shear modes). In this work, we succeeded in detecting bacteria with AlN-based bulk acoustic wave solidly mounted resonators operating in longitudinal modes at 2 GHz that we were unable to detect with shear mode

Effects of classical PKC activation on hippocampal neurogenesis and cognitive performance: mechanism of action

Hippocampal neurogenesis has widely been linked to memory and learning performance. New neurons generated from neural stem cells (NSC) within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus (DG) integrate in hippocampal circuitry participating in memory tasks. Several neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders show cognitive impairment together with a reduction in DG neurogenesis. Growth factors secreted within the DG promote neurogenesis. Protein kinases of the protein kinase C (PKC) family facilitate the release of several of these growth factors, highlighting the role of PKC isozymes as key target molecules for the development of drugs that induce hippocampal neurogenesis. PKC activating diterpenes have been shown to facilitate NSC proliferation in neurogenic niches when injected intracerebroventricularly. We show in here that long-term administration of diterpene ER272 promotes neurogenesis in the subventricular zone and in the DG of mice, affecting neuroblasts differentiation and neuronal maturation. A concomitant improvement in learning and spatial memory tasks performance can be observed. Insights into the mechanism of action reveal that this compound facilitates classical PKC alpha activation and promotes transforming growth factor alpha (TGF alpha) and, to a lesser extent, neuregulin release. Our results highlight the role of this molecule in the development of pharmacological drugs to treat neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders associated with memory loss and a deficient neurogenesis

ID1 and ID4 Are Biomarkers of Tumor Aggressiveness and Poor Outcome in Immunophenotypes of Breast Cancer

Inhibitor of differentiation (ID) proteins are a family of transcription factors that contribute to maintaining proliferation during embryogenesis as they avoid cell differentiation. Afterward, their expression is mainly silenced, but their reactivation and contribution to tumor development have been suggested. In breast cancer (BC), the overexpression of ID1 has been previously described. However, whether the remaining ID genes have a specific role in this neoplasia is still unclear. We studied the mRNA expression of all ID genes by q RT-PCR in BC cell lines and 307 breast carcinomas, including all BC subtypes. Our results showed that ID genes are highly expressed in all cell lines tested. However, ID4 presented higher expression in BC cell lines compared to a healthy breast epithelium cell line. In accordance, ID1 and ID4 were predominantly overexpressed in Triple-Negative and HER2-enriched samples. Moreover, high levels of both genes were associated with larger tumor size, histological grade 3, necrosis and vascular invasion, and poorer patients’ outcomes. In conclusion, ID1 and ID4 may act as biomarkers of tumor aggressiveness and worse prognosis in breast cancer, and they could be used as potential targets for new treatments discover.This research was funded by the Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL) (UGP 16-149 and UGP 180184) and Navarro-Tripodi Foundation (BOLA00150). M.G.E. was supported by fellowships issued by the Valencian Government of Spain (GVA) and the European Social Fund (ACIF/2016/004)

External eating as a predictor of cue-reactivity to food-related virtual environments

The objective of this study was to assess the association between external eating style and food craving experienced during exposure to food cues in virtual reality (VR) environments in both clinical and non-clinical samples. According to the externality theory, people with external eating experience higher reactivity when exposed to food cues, which in turn increases the probability of overeating. Forty patients with eating disorders (23 with bulimia nervosa and 17 with binge eating disorder) and 78 undergraduate students were exposed to 10 different food cues in four VR environments (kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and café). After 30 seconds of exposure to each VR environment, food craving was assessed using a visual analog scale. External, emotional and restrictive eating styles were also assessed using the DEBQ. The results showed a strong association between external eating and cue-elicited food craving. After controlling for the presence of eating disorder diagnosis, external eating was the best predictor of reported food craving. The results lend support to the externality theory but highlight the need for further research in specific patterns of functioning in patients with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder

COVID-19 Severity and Survival over Time in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies: A Population-Based Registry Study

Mortality rates for COVID-19 have declined over time in the general population, but data in patients with hematologic malignancies are contradictory. We identified independent prognostic factors for COVID-19 severity and survival in unvaccinated patients with hematologic malignancies, compared mortality rates over time and versus non-cancer inpatients, and investigated post COVID-19 condition. Data were analyzed from 1166 consecutive, eligible patients with hematologic malignancies from the population-based HEMATO-MADRID registry, Spain, with COVID-19 prior to vaccination roll-out, stratified into early (February–June 2020; n = 769 (66%)) and later (July 2020–February 2021; n = 397 (34%)) cohorts. Propensity-score matched non-cancer patients were identified from the SEMI-COVID registry. A lower proportion of patients were hospitalized in the later waves (54.2%) compared to the earlier (88.6%), OR 0.15, 95%CI 0.11–0.20. The proportion of hospitalized patients admitted to the ICU was higher in the later cohort (103/215, 47.9%) compared with the early cohort (170/681, 25.0%, 2.77; 2.01–3.82). The reduced 30-day mortality between early and later cohorts of non-cancer inpatients (29.6% vs. 12.6%, OR 0.34; 0.22–0.53) was not paralleled in inpatients with hematologic malignancies (32.3% vs. 34.8%, OR 1.12; 0.81–1.5). Among evaluable patients, 27.3% had post COVID-19 condition. These findings will help inform evidence-based preventive and therapeutic strategies for patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19 diagnosis.Depto. de MedicinaFac. de MedicinaTRUEFundación Madrileña de Hematología y HemoterapiaFundación Leucemia y LinfomaAsociación Madrileña de Hematología y Hemoterapiapu

COVID-19 in patients with haematologic malignancies: Effect of RNAemia on clinical outcome in vaccinated patients

Patients with haematologic malignancies (HM) COVID-19 have more severe disease, with increased risk of mortality. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia and the specific humoral immune responses on the clinical outcomes of patients with HM and COVID-19.This study was supported by Plan Nacional de I+D+i 2013‐2016 and Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Subdirección General de Redes y Centros de Investigación Cooperativa, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases ( REIPI RD16/0016/0009 ); co‐financed by European Development Regional Fund ‘A way to achieve Europe’, Operative Program Intelligence Growth 2014‐2020; and supported by the grant PI21/01569 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the grant IM22/INF/13 from the CIBERINFEC, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain. RA-M, LM, JMC, EC, JS-C and MA-G ( CB21/13/00006 ) and ZRP-B, and PP-P ( CB21/13/00012 ) were also supported by CIBERINFEC – Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Unión Europea – NextGenerationEU. JM-E was supported by a predoctoral health research training contracts from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III ( FI22/00025 ). JS-C is a researcher belonging to the program ‘Nicolás Monardes’ (C-0059-2018), Servicio Andaluz de Salud, Junta de Andalucía, Spain.Peer reviewe

The inhibitor of differentiation genes expression and association with epithelial-to-mesenchymal markers in phenotypes of breast cancer: an in vitro and clinicopathological study

Inhibitor of Differentiation (ID) proteins are a family of four (ID1-4) bHLH transcription factors that lack the DNA binding domain. They act by forming dimers with other transcriptional regulators and inhibiting their interaction with DNA. They play a crucial role during embryonic development and later in the adulthood, their expression is mostly restricted to a few populations of stem cells. In the last decades, many authors have described their re-activation and participation in tumor development, angiogenesis and EMT although the results are still controversial. In the first chapter of this research work, the role of ID genes as prognostic markers in breast cancer was evaluated. We studied the mRNA expression of the four ID genes and four markers of EMT by qRT-PCR in a clinical series of 307 primary breast carcinomas previously stratified in immunophenotypes. In addition, the expression of all these genes was measured in breast cancer cell lines and mammospheres. Overexpression of at least one ID gene was found in 48.9% of the studied samples. ID1 and ID4 were overexpressed mostly in TNBL and HER2-enriched subtypes, whereas ID2 and ID3 were overexpressed more frequently in luminal tumors. High ID1 and ID4 was associated with larger tumor size, histological grade 3, presence of necrosis and vascular invasion, and poorer outcome. Multivariate analysis revealed that ID4 and vascular invasion were independent factors for DFS. Regarding EMT markers, high levels of SNAI1 were associated with the overexpression of the four ID genes. Additionally, ID1 overexpression was positively related to TWIST1, and the overexpression of ID2 and ID3 was more frequently paired with tumors that conserve CHD1 expression. In vitro studies showed high expression of the four ID genes in all cell lines. However, when mammospheres were formed, mRNA levels of ID genes decreased, in contrast to SNAI1 and TWIST1, which mostly increased. In the second chapter of this thesis, we aimed to (a) describe the mechanisms of action of a small molecule pan-ID antagonist, (b) define its main targets and (c) investigate potential pathways of acquire resistance. Treatment with AGX51 led to Id protein loss, increase in ROS accumulation, cell cycle arrest, and cell death in all tumor cell lines tested. Here, we used an antioxidant compound in different cell lines to demonstrate that ROS are the main responsible of cell death following treatment with AGX51. A model of cultured quiescent cells not expressing ID proteins served to show that the main target of AGX51 are these proteins. Experiments with AGX-derivatives also supported these results. Finally, three mutagenizing agents were used in order to generate mutations that confer resistance to treatment with AGX51. Treatment with ENU gave rise to two clones apparently resistant to AGX51 effects. Based on our in vitro and clinicopathological studies, we conclude that ID1 and ID4 may act as biomarkers of worse prognosis in patients with breast cancer, and seem to be involved in the initiation of EMT mechanism. Therefore, they are potential targets for the development of novel drugs. In line with this, AGX51 arises as a potent anti-ID compound that has anticancer effects