Participatory Guarantee Systems: When People Want to Take Part

Participatory guarantee systems (PGSs) have emerged as a response to exclusion and intermediation processes involving third-party certification, which is currently the only guarantee system recognised by the European Union for organic food. Despite their unofficial recognition, PGSs are developing and generating shared frameworks of action. In this research, through three certification bodies (two public and one private) and eight PGSs in Spain, we investigate the similarities and differences between the procedures and tasks that both systems develop in order to generate trust in the decision-making structures involved and the responsibilities on which they are based. While the overall organisation of the systems is very similar, there are profound differences in their decision-making: their procedures and who participates in them. The differences we highlight lead us to argue that PGSs effectively solve the exclusion problems that third-party certification generates. Specifically, they offer lower costs and more accessible bureaucracy. They also generate and strengthen, through trust-building, the links and processes of local self-management and empowerment. However, developing PGSs demands much time and dedication, and their official regulation is complex, so it is difficult to predict that they will be widely adopted

Polipéptido quimérico fibrina-filagrina citrulinado capaz de detectar los anticuerpos generados en la artritis reumatoide

Peer reviewedConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Fundació Clinic per a la Recerca BiomédicaT3 Traducción de patente europe

Conjugation of cell-penetrating peptides with poly(Lactic-co-glycolic acid)-polyethylene glycol nanoparticles improves ocular drug delivery

In this work, a peptide for ocular delivery (POD) and human immunodeficiency virus transactivator were conjugated with biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PGLA)- polyethylene glycol (PEG)-nanoparticles (NPs) in an attempt to improve ocular drug bioavail- ability. The NPs were prepared by the solvent displacement method following two different pathways. One involved preparation of PLGA NPs followed by PEG and peptide conjugation (PLGA-NPs-PEG-peptide); the other involved self-assembly of PLGA-PEG and the PLGA-PEG- peptide copolymer followed by NP formulation. The conjugation of the PEG and the peptide was confrmed by a colorimetric test and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Flur- biprofen was used as an example of an anti-inflammatory drug. The physicochemical properties of the resulting NPs (morphology, in vitro release, cell viability, and ocular tolerance) were studied. In vivo anti-inflammatory effcacy was assessed in rabbit eyes after topical instillation of sodium arachidonate. Of the formulations developed, the PLGA-PEG-POD NPs were the smaller particles and exhibited greater entrapment effciency and more sustained release. The positive charge on the surface of these NPs, due to the conjugation with the positively charged peptide, facilitated penetration into the corneal epithelium, resulting in more effective preven- tion of ocular inflammation. The in vitro toxicity of the NPs developed was very low; no ocular irritation in vitro (hen’s egg test-chorioallantoic membrane assay) or in vivo (Draize test) was detected. Taken together, these data demonstrate that PLGA-PEG-POD NPs are promising vehicles for ocular drug delivery.This work was supported by the Cooperation Research Program CSIC-CITMA and a project (MAT2011-26994) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. AV is a recipient of a PhD grant from the CSIC. The authors thank Nacho Pérez of the IQAC-CSIC for performing the cytotoxicity assays.Peer reviewe

Participatory Guarantee Systems Vs Official Certification System. When People Want To Take Part Of It...

There are many initiatives of short food supply chains in Spain that have been implementing participatory guarantee systems, with great involvement of producers and, in some cases, consumers. In this context, a research have been developed to systematize the procedures under which 8 Spanish and 1 French PGS have developed, to assess conformity under a participatory approach involving local communities. Through the review of the documentation provided by the initiatives, we have analyzed the procedures and tools that are shared among the experiences, that allow them to be identified as PGS. We highlight the way these initiatives understand confidence building as a matter of collective implication and involvement at local scale. To identify the differences between a guarantee system as a participatory and collective, and that impose by the official regulation of the third party certification, we have generated a comparative table to highlight the main differences between both systems

Lipid Vesicles Loaded with an HIV-1 Fusion Inhibitor Peptide as a Potential Microbicide

The effective use of fusion inhibitor peptides against cervical and colorectal infections requires the development of sustained release formulations. In this work we comparatively study two different formulations based on polymeric nanoparticles and lipid vesicles to propose a suitable delivery nanosystem for releasing an HIV-1 fusion inhibitor peptide in vaginal mucosa. Polymeric nanoparticles of poly-d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and lipid large unilamellar vesicles loaded with the inhibitor peptide were prepared. Both formulations showed average sizes and polydispersity index values corresponding to monodisperse systems appropriate for vaginal permeation. High entrapment efficiency of the inhibitor peptide was achieved in lipid vesicles, which was probably due to the peptide's hydrophobic nature. In addition, both nanocarriers remained stable after two weeks stored at 4 °C. While PLGA nanoparticles (NPs) did not show any delay in peptide release, lipid vesicles demonstrated favorably prolonged release of the peptide. Lipid vesicles were shown to improve the retention of the peptide on ex vivo vaginal tissue in a concentration sufficient to exert its pharmacological effect. Thus, the small size of lipid vesicles, their lipid-based composition as well as their ability to enhance peptide penetration on vaginal tissue led us to consider this formulation as a better nanosystem than polymeric nanoparticles for the sustained delivery of the HIV-1 fusion inhibitor peptide in vaginal tissues

Design, Characterization, and Biopharmaceutical Behavior of Nanoparticles Loaded with an HIV‑1 Fusion Inhibitor Peptide

New therapeutic alternatives to fight against the spread of HIV-1 are based on peptides designed to inhibit the early steps of HIV-1 fusion in target cells. However, drawbacks, such as bioavailability, short half-life, rapid clearance, and poor ability to cross the physiological barriers, make such peptides unattractive for the pharmaceutical industry. Here we developed, optimized, and characterized polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) coated with glycol chitosan to incorporate and release an HIV-1 fusion inhibitor peptide (E1) inside the vaginal mucosa. The NPs were prepared by a modified double emulsion method, and optimization was carried out by a factorial design. In vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo studies were carried out to evaluate the optimized formulation. The results indicate that the physicochemical features of these NPs enable them to incorporate and release HIV fusion inhibitor peptides to the vaginal mucosa before the fusion step takes place. KEYWORDS: GB virus C, HIV-1, fusion inhibitor peptide of HIV-1, polymeric nanoparticles, factorial design, permeation studie

La utilización de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TICS) en el ámbito de los tratamientos psicológicos

Setzenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació (Any 2011)Las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TICs) están demostrando utilidad en el campo de la salud. En concreto, Internet ofrece un nuevo modo de dispensar tratamientos TCC (Anderson, 2009) y ha demostrado ser una intervención eficaz y de bajo coste para los trastornos de ansiedad y los trastornos del estado de ánimo (Botella, Hoffman & Moscovitch, 2004; Botella et al., 2010; Cuijpers & Schuurmans, 2007). Una ventaja fundamental de estos programas es que reducen el tiempo de contacto entre paciente y clínico, y además llegan a pacientes que no recibirían tratamiento de otro modo (Bauer, Golkaramnay & Kordy, 2005). Las revisiones sobre el tema indican que estos tratamientos son eficaces (p.ej., Anderson, 2008, 2009; Cuijpers, et al., 2008; Spek et al., 2007). En estos momentos, las guías clínicas NICE en Inglaterra apoyan la utilización de programas como “Beating the Blues” (Cavanagh et al., 2004; Proudfoot et al., 2004) y el programa “FearFighter” (Marks, Kenwright, McDonough, et al., 2003). En Australia el grupo de Andrews ha desarrollado programas basados en Internet para diversos trastornos psicológicos (Titov et al., 2008, 2011; Andrews et al., 2010) Los resultados obtenidos hasta el momento son consistentes y prometedores, aunque aún existen una serie de problemas que hay que resolver, especialmente por lo que se refiere a la cantidad de apoyo y de ayuda que es necesario que el clínico proporcione al paciente (¿qué cantidad y qué tipo de apoyo por parte del clínico se necesita para que el programa sea eficaz ?) y las tasas de abandonos, que son más altas en los tratamientos que utilizan Internet, que en los tradicionales “cara a cara” (Anderson, 2009). El objetivo de esta comunicación es presentar una revisión de los logros obtenidos en este campo y las posibles líneas futuras que resulta necesario abordar para seguir avanzando

Priming Maritime Pine Megagametophytes during Somatic Embryogenesis Improved Plant Adaptation to Heat Stress

In the context of global climate change, forest tree research should be addressed to provide genotypes with increased resilience to high temperature events. These improved plants can be obtained by heat priming during somatic embryogenesis (SE), which would produce an epigenetic mediated transgenerational memory. Thereby, we applied 37 ◦C or 50 ◦C to maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) megagametophytes and the obtained embryogenic masses went through the subsequent SE phases to produce plants that were further subjected to heat stress conditions. A putative transcription factor WRKY11 was upregulated in priming-derived embryonal masses, and also in the regenerated P37 and P50 plants, suggesting its role in establishing an epigenetic memory in this plant species. In vitro-grown P50 plants also showed higher cytokinin content and SOD upregulation, which points to a better responsiveness to heat stress. Heat exposure of two-year-old maritime pine plants induced upregulation of HSP70 in those derived from primed embryogenic masses, that also showed better osmotic adjustment and higher increases in chlorophyll, soluble sugars and starch contents. Moreover, φPSII of P50 plants was less affected by heat exposure. Thus, our results suggest that priming at 50 ◦C at the SE induction phase is a promising strategy to improve heat resilience in maritime pine

Thirty-day suicidal thoughts and behaviours in the Spanish adult general population during the first wave of the Spain COVID-19 pandemic

To investigate the prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STB; i.e. suicidal ideation, plans or attempts) in the Spanish adult general population during the first wave of the Spain coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (March−July, 2020), and to investigate the individual- and population-level impact of relevant distal and proximal STB risk factor domains. Cross-sectional study design using data from the baseline assessment of an observational cohort study (MIND/COVID project). A nationally representative sample of 3500 non-institutionalised Spanish adults (51.5% female; mean age = 49.6 [ = 17.0]) was taken using dual-frame random digit dialing, stratified for age, sex and geographical area. Professional interviewers carried out computer-assisted telephone interviews (1-30 June 2020). Thirty-day STB was assessed using modified items from the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Distal (i.e. pre-pandemic) risk factors included sociodemographic variables, number of physical health conditions and pre-pandemic lifetime mental disorders; proximal (i.e. pandemic) risk factors included current mental disorders and a range of adverse events-experiences related to the pandemic. Logistic regression was used to investigate individual-level associations (odds ratios [OR]) and population-level associations (population attributable risk proportions [PARP]) between risk factors and 30-day STB. All data were weighted using post-stratification survey weights. Estimated prevalence of 30-day STB was 4.5% (1.8% active suicidal ideation; n = 5 [0.1%] suicide attempts). STB was 9.7% among the 34.3% of respondents with pre-pandemic lifetime mental disorders, and 1.8% among the 65.7% without any pre-pandemic lifetime mental disorder. Factors significantly associated with STB were pre-pandemic lifetime mental disorders (total PARP = 49.1%) and current mental disorders (total PARP = 58.4%), i.e. major depressive disorder (OR = 6.0; PARP = 39.2%), generalised anxiety disorder (OR = 5.6; PARP = 36.3%), post-traumatic stress disorder (OR = 4.6; PARP = 26.6%), panic attacks (OR = 6.7; PARP = 36.6%) and alcohol/substance use disorder (OR = 3.3; PARP = 5.9%). Pandemic-related adverse events-experiences associated with STB were lack of social support, interpersonal stress, stress about personal health and about the health of loved ones (PARPs 32.7-42.6%%), and having loved ones infected with COVID-19 (OR = 1.7; PARP = 18.8%). Up to 74.1% of STB is potentially attributable to the joint effects of mental disorders and adverse events−experiences related to the pandemic. STB at the end of the first wave of the Spain COVID-19 pandemic was high, and large proportions of STB are potentially attributable to mental disorders and adverse events−experiences related to the pandemic, including health-related stress, lack of social support and interpersonal stress. There is an urgent need to allocate resources to increase access to adequate mental healthcare, even in times of healthcare system overload. NCT0455656