Efeitos do solventes na deposição de filmes finos de ZnO por pulverização pirolítica sol-gel

In this work we analyze the characteristics of the ZnO film made by sol-gel pyrolytic nebulization, in terms of the variation of solvent composition. For this purpose, we present and discuss a characterization using macroscopic images of the films, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-VIS-NIR transmittance spectroscopy. Among the relevant results, increase in the water/ethanol ratio was found to be related to an increase in film thickness. Furthermore, the thickness, coverage area and transparency of the film were also found to be dependent on the solvent composition of the starting solution. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between a major growth parameter such as the composition of the starting solution, and the desired characteristics of ZnO films that are relevant for technological applications.En este trabajo, se analizaron las características de películas de ZnO fabricadas con nebulización pirolítica sol-gel, en términos de la variación de la composición del solvente. Para este propósito, se muestra y discute una caracterización usando imágenes macroscópicas de las películas, difracción de rayos X (XRD) y espectroscopía de transmitancia UV-VIS-NIR. Entre los resultados relevantes se obtuvo que el aumento de la relación agua/etanol está relacionado con un aumento en el espesor de los films. Además, se encontró que el espesor, el área de cobertura y la transparencia de las películas también dependían de la composición del solvente de la solución de partida. Este estudio ayuda a comprender la relación entre un parámetro de crecimiento importante, como lo es la composición de la solución de partida y las características deseadas de las películas de ZnO que son importantes para las aplicaciones tecnológicas.Neste trabalho foram analisadas as características do filme de ZnO fabricadas por nebulização pirolítica sol-gel, em termos da variação da composição do solvente. Para tanto, é mostrada e discutida uma caracterização utilizando imagens macroscópicas dos filmes, difração de raios X (XRD) e espectroscopia de transmitância UV-VIS-NIR. Dentre os resultados relevantes, obteve-se que o aumento da relação água/etanol está relacionado ao aumento da espessura dos filmes. Além disso, verificou-se que a espessura, a área de cobertura e a transparência do filme também dependiam da composição do solvente da solução inicial. Este estudo ajuda a compreender a relação entre um importante parâmetro de crescimento, como a composição da solução inicial, e as características desejadas dos filmes de ZnO que são importantes para aplicações tecnológicas

Prioritization of Candidate Biomarkers for Degenerative Aortic Stenosis through a Systems Biology-Based In-Silico Approach

Degenerative aortic stenosis is the most common valve disease in the elderly and is usually confirmed at an advanced stage when the only treatment is surgery. This work is focused on the study of previously defined biomarkers through systems biology and artificial neuronal networks to understand their potential role within aortic stenosis. The goal was generating a molecular panel of biomarkers to ensure an accurate diagnosis, risk stratification, and follow-up of aortic stenosis patients. We used in silico studies to combine and re-analyze the results of our previous studies and, with information from multiple databases, established a mathematical model. After this, we prioritized two proteins related to endoplasmic reticulum stress, thrombospondin-1 and endoplasmin, which have not been previously validated as markers for aortic stenosis, and analyzed them in a cell model and in plasma from human subjects. Large-scale bioinformatics tools allow us to extract the most significant results after using high throughput analytical techniques. Our results could help to prevent the development of aortic stenosis and open the possibility of a future strategy based on more specific therapies

Diabetes Mellitus and Its Implications in Aortic Stenosis Patients

Aortic stenosis (AS) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are both progressive diseases that if left untreated, result in significant morbidity and mortality. Several studies revealed that the prevalence of DM is substantially higher in patients with AS and, thus, the progression from mild to severe AS is greater in those patients with DM. DM and common comorbidities associated with both diseases, DM and AS, increase patient management complexity and make aortic valve replacement the only effective treatment. For that reason, a better understanding of the pathogenesis underlying both these diseases and the relationships between them is necessary to design more appropriate preventive and therapeutic approaches. In this review, we provided an overview of the main aspects of the relationship between AS and DM, including common comorbidities and risk factors. We also discuss the established treatments/therapies in patients with AS and DM

Epidemiological trends of HIV/HCV coinfection in Spain, 2015-2019

Altres ajuts: Spanish AIDS Research Network; European Funding for Regional Development (FEDER).Objectives: We assessed the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies and active HCV infection (HCV-RNA-positive) in people living with HIV (PLWH) in Spain in 2019 and compared the results with those of four similar studies performed during 2015-2018. Methods: The study was performed in 41 centres. Sample size was estimated for an accuracy of 1%. Patients were selected by random sampling with proportional allocation. Results: The reference population comprised 41 973 PLWH, and the sample size was 1325. HCV serostatus was known in 1316 PLWH (99.3%), of whom 376 (28.6%) were HCV antibody (Ab)-positive (78.7% were prior injection drug users); 29 were HCV-RNA-positive (2.2%). Of the 29 HCV-RNA-positive PLWH, infection was chronic in 24, it was acute/recent in one, and it was of unknown duration in four. Cirrhosis was present in 71 (5.4%) PLWH overall, three (10.3%) HCV-RNA-positive patients and 68 (23.4%) of those who cleared HCV after anti-HCV therapy (p = 0.04). The prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies decreased steadily from 37.7% in 2015 to 28.6% in 2019 (p < 0.001); the prevalence of active HCV infection decreased from 22.1% in 2015 to 2.2% in 2019 (p < 0.001). Uptake of anti-HCV treatment increased from 53.9% in 2015 to 95.0% in 2019 (p < 0.001). Conclusions: In Spain, the prevalence of active HCV infection among PLWH at the end of 2019 was 2.2%, i.e. 90.0% lower than in 2015. Increased exposure to DAAs was probably the main reason for this sharp reduction. Despite the high coverage of treatment with direct-acting antiviral agents, HCV-related cirrhosis remains significant in this population

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio

Diabetes mellitus and aortic stenosis head to head: toward personalized medicine in patients with both pathologies

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and calcific aortic stenosis (CAS) are common morbidities in the elderly, which are both chronic, progressive and often concomitant diseases. Several studies revealed that DM increases the risk of developing severe CAS, yet clear information about the relationship between both these diseases and the influence of DM on the progression of CAS is currently lacking. To evaluate the effect of DM on aortic valves and on the process of calcification, and to achieve better patient management in daily clinical practice, we analysed calcified and noncalcified valve tissue from patients with severe CAS, with or without DM. A proteomic strategy using isobaric tags was adopted and the plasma concentrations of nine proteins were studied using 3 orthogonal methods and in a separate cell model. The differentially expressed proteins identified are implicated in biological processes like endopeptidase activity, lipid metabolism, coagulation, and fibrinolysis. The results obtained provide evidence that DM provokes changes in the proteome of aortic valves, affecting valve calcification. This finding may help enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of CAS and how DM affects the evolution of this condition, an important step in identifying targets to personalize the treatment of these patients.This study has been funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III through the projects PI18/00995 and PI21/00384 and co-funded by the European Union #1, Sociedad Española de Cardiología 2020 #1, Grant PRB3 (IPT17/0019—ISCIII-SGEFI/ERDF), and Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (JCCM, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, SBPLY/19/180501/000226, SBPLY/21/180501/000078, SBPLY/21/180225/000035). These results are aligned with the Spanish initiative on the Human Proteome Project (SpHPP). #1 Laboratorio de Fisiopatología Vascular, Fundación del Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos, Toledo, Spain.Peer reviewe

Código de buena práctica para el control del dolor oncológico

Patients with cancer often fail to talk about their pain fearing that their doctor might draw his or her attention to that symptom rather than focus on the management of their underlying disease. However, patients should know that pain management will not interfere with their curative therapy but will supplement it. Fear that the advancing disease will lead to unbearable suffering situations beyond medical possibilities is common among patients, and it is our duty to help them become aware tha medicine offers a number of therapies that actually can suppress pain and relieve suffering. This awareness is key to increase trust in therapy and improve doctor-patient relationships. Facing this challenge SECPAL (Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos), SED (Sociedad Española del Dolor), SEOM (Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica), and SEOR (Sociedad Española de Oncología Radioterápica) unite in a joint venture to create ALIADO (Alianza Contra el Dolor Oncológico), an interdisciplinary work team emerging with the goal of raising awareness and involvement among health providers regarding the need for quality of life improvement in cancer patients with pain. In this respect, ALIADO's first initiative is the development of a good practice code for the management of cancer pain in an attempt to contribute to the further understanding and management of these patients.En muchas ocasiones, los pacientes con cáncer no expresan su dolor por miedo a que el médico desvíe su atención hacia este síntoma, en lugar de centrarse en el tratamiento de su enfermedad principal. No obstante, el paciente debe saber que el tratamiento de su dolor no solo no interfiere con la terapia curativa, sino que colabora con ella. Entre los enfermos, es habitual el temor a que el avance de la enfermedad les lleve a situaciones de sufrimiento insostenible que supere todas las posibilidades médicas, pero es nuestro deber ayudarles a ser conscientes de que la medicina ofrece un abanico de terapias capaces de aliviar su dolor y evitar su sufrimiento. Este conocimiento es esencial para aumentar su confianza en el tratamiento y mejorar la relación médico-paciente. Frente a este desafío, SECPAL (Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos), SED (Sociedad Española del Dolor), SEOM (Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica) y SEOR (Sociedad Española de Oncología Radioterápica) unen sus esfuerzos y crean ALIADO (Alianza Contra el Dolor Oncológico), un grupo de trabajo interdisciplinario que nace con el objetivo de concienciar e implicar a todo el colectivo médico en la necesidad de mejorar la calidad de vida del paciente con dolor oncológico. La primera iniciativa de ALIADO en este sentido es la elaboración del Código de buena praxis para el tratamiento del dolor oncológico, que pretende contribuir al avance en el conocimiento y el manejo de estos pacientes

DataSheet_1_A combination of GRA3, GRA6 and GRA7 peptides offer a useful tool for serotyping type II and III Toxoplasma gondii infections in sheep and pigs.xlsx

The clinical consequences of toxoplasmosis are greatly dependent on the Toxoplasma gondii strain causing the infection. To better understand its epidemiology and design appropriate control strategies, it is important to determine the strain present in infected animals. Serotyping methods are based on the detection of antibodies that react against segments of antigenic proteins presenting strain-specific polymorphic variations, offering a cost-effective, sensitive, and non-invasive alternative to genotyping techniques. Herein, we evaluated the applicability of a panel of peptides previously characterized in mice and humans to serotype sheep and pigs. To this end, we used 51 serum samples from experimentally infected ewes (32 type II and 19 type III), 20 sheep samples from naturally infected sheep where the causative strain was genotyped (18 type II and 2 type III), and 40 serum samples from experimentally infected pigs (22 type II and 18 type III). Our ELISA test results showed that a combination of GRA peptide homologous pairs can discriminate infections caused by type II and III strains of T. gondii in sheep and pigs. Namely, the GRA3-I/III-43 vs. GRA3-II-43, GRA6-I/III-213 vs. GRA6-II-214 and GRA6-III-44 vs. GRA6-II-44 ratios showed a statistically significant predominance of the respective strain-type peptide in sheep, while in pigs, in addition to these three peptide pairs, GRA7-II-224 vs. GRA7-III-224 also showed promising results. Notably, the GRA6-44 pair, which was previously deemed inefficient in mice and humans, showed a high prediction capacity, especially in sheep. By contrast, GRA5-38 peptides failed to correctly predict the strain type in most sheep and pig samples, underpinning the notion that individual standardization is needed for each animal species. Finally, we recommend analyzing for each animal at least 2 samples taken at different time points to confirm the obtained results.</p

Albumin redox modifications promote cell calcification reflecting the impact of oxidative status on aortic valve disease and atherosclerosis

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) and coronary artery disease (CAD) are related cardiovascular diseases in which common mechanisms lead to tissue calcification. Oxidative stress plays a key role in these diseases and there is also evidence that the redox state of serum albumin exerts a significant influence on these conditions. To further explore this issue, we used multimarker scores (OxyScore and AntioxyScore) to assess the global oxidative status in patients with CAVD, with and without CAD, also evaluating their plasma thiol levels. In addition, valvular interstitial cells were treated with reduced, oxidized, and native albumin to study how this protein and its modifications affect cell calcification. The differences we found suggest that oxidative status is distinct in CAVD and CAD, with differences in redox markers and thiol levels. Importantly, the in vitro interstitial cell model revealed that modified albumin affects cell calcification, accelerating this process. Hence, we show here the importance of the redox system in the development of CAVD, emphasizing the relevance of multimarker scores, while also offering evidence of how the redox state of albumin influences vascular calcification. These data highlight the relevance of understanding the overall redox processes involved in these diseases, opening the door to new studies on antioxidants as potential therapies for these patients.Depto. de Farmacología y ToxicologíaFac. de MedicinaTRUEpu