Dyestuffs and formaldehyde content in split leather treated with formaldehyde resins

Formaldehyde resins are present in textile, leather and wood industries. Due to the harmful character of formaldehyde, different alternatives have been found to exclude or reduce its content on processed goods. However, the effect of dyestuffs on the formaldehyde content of goods containing formaldehyde-synthesized resins has not been studied up to date. The aim of this work is to check if the presence of free amino groups in the structure of dyestuffs exerts an influence on the formaldehyde content on leathers treated with formaldehyde-synthesized resins. Six dyes, belonging to three different families (acid dyes, direct dyes and basic dyes), have been taken as examples to evaluate how their structures affect the reaction with formaldehyde present in leather. The variation of the formaldehyde content in dyed leathers with respect to control samples (treated with resin only) and its evolution with time have been also considered. It has been found that the ability of dyes in reducing the formaldehyde content in leather depends on the amount of amino groups amenable to reaction with formaldehyde. Those amino groups that in their vicinity have other functionalities, with which to form relatively stable structures, have a reduced reactivity with formaldehyde. The reduction ability of dyes also depends on the formaldehyde content in leather. The lower the formaldehyde content is in the leather, the higher this reduction ability. Acid Black 234 dye caused a formaldehyde content reduction of approximately 84% in leathers treated with melamine-formaldehyde resin of low formaldehyde content in the analysis carried out after 90 days of leather processing whereas the reduction was approximately 20% when the resin was of high formaldehyde content. The highest reduction ability of basic dyes corresponded to the dye that has the greatest amount of amino residues amenable to reaction with formaldehyde (Basic Orange 2). Basic Orange 2 dye exhibited higher reduction ability (90% of reduction in leathers treated with resin of high formaldehyde content after 90 days of leather processing) than the Acid Black 234 dye (approximately 20%), both containing similar amount of free amino residues. Thin layer chromatography analysis revealed that the Basic Orange 2 dye is mainly a single major component, while the Acid Black dye 234 is a mixture of components that can have a reduced reactivity with formaldehyde. Further experiments are required to investigate if the surface leather dyeing (Basic Orange 2 dye) have a higher influence on formaldehyde content reduction than the through-dyeing (Acid Black 234 dye).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The Role of SeDeM Characterizing the Active Substance and Polyvynilpyrrolidone Eliminating Metastable Forms in an Oral Lyophilizate - A Preformulation Study.

A preformulation study of an oral lyophilisate with cetirizine dihydrochloride (CTZ) as active ingredient, mannitol and PVP K30 as bulking agents is presented. CTZ shown a humidity content of 0.150% and a spontaneous hygroscopicity of 0.200% (both determined by SeDeM diagram), demonstrating an adequate stability behavior in solid form. A design of experiments (DoE) performed with both mannitol and PVP K30, followed by a simple factorial design (32) has determined the optimum combination of excipients and CTZ, and showed that a higher proportion of PVP K30 was able to prevent metastable forms generated by mannitol

Approach to design space from retrospective quality data

Context: Nowadays, the entire manufacturing process is based on the current GMPs, which emphasize the reproducibility of the process, and companies have a lot of recorded data about their processes. Objective: The establishment of the design space (DS) from retrospective data for a wet compression process. Materials and methods: A design of experiments (DoE) with historical data from 4 years of industrial production has been carried out using the experimental factors as the results of the previous risk analysis and eight key parameters (quality specifications) that encompassed process and quality control data. Results: Software Statgraphics 5.0 was applied, and data were processed to obtain eight DS as well as their safe and working ranges. Discussion and conclusion: Experience shows that it is possible to determine DS retrospectively, being the greatest difficulty in handling and processing of high amounts of data; however, the practicality of this study is very interesting as it let have the DS with minimal investment in experiments since actual production batch data are processed statistically

HISTOFLASH: una eina per al reconeixement de teixits que millora l'aprenentatge

Podeu consultar la Vuitena trobada de professorat de Ciències de la Salut completa a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/66524Els estudiants de Fisiologia i Fisiopatologia III del Grau de Farmàcia realitzen pràctiques de laboratori entre d’altres activitats complementàries. El curs 2011-12, l’Equip Docent de l’assignatura va posar a punt una pràctica d'histologia que té com a objectiu que els estudiants, per mitjà de l'observació al microscopi òptic, identifiquin estructures en diferents sistemes orgànics. El temps dedicat a aquesta pràctica depenia, en gran mesura, de les habilitats de l’estudiant i de la presència del professor, que havia de confirmar o corregir la identificació que feia l'alumne i donar les pautes per a una correcte interpretació de les preparacions. En una enquesta realitzada durant el curs 2012-2013, un 84% dels estudiants van opinar que seria útil disposar de les imatges de les preparacions, tant per preparar la pràctica com per repassar els continguts posteriorment. En aquest context, l’Equip Docent de l’assignatura ha creat un programa interactiu, l’Histoflash, que permet a l’alumne estudiar els teixits a l’ordinador a través de la simulació de l’observació al microscopi. El desenvolupament i l’aplicació del programa pretén facilitar l’aprenentatge autònom dels estudiants per a millorar de forma no presencial les habilitats d’observació al microscopi, prèviament i posteriorment a les que adquireixen al laboratori de pràctiques. Durant el curs 2013-2014, per mitjà d’una enquesta, es va observar que els estudiants valoren molt positivament aquesta eina ja que poden dedicar a cada preparació el temps necessari segons les seves necessitats. A més a més, en les activitats d’avaluació del curs 2013-14, el nombre d’estudiants que supera aquesta pràctica ha augmentat significativament després de la implementació d’aquesta eina. Es pot concloure que l’Histoflash és un bon complement a l’activitat presencial i facilita el procés de ensenyament-aprenentatge

Creació i aplicació del programa HISTOFLASH a les classes pràctiques d'histologia de l'assignatura Fisiologia i Fisiopatologia III del Grau de Farmàcia de la Universitat de Barcelona. Programa interactiu com a eina d'aprenentatge

Els estudiants de Fisiologia i Fisiopatologia III del Grau de Farmàcia realitzen pràctiques de laboratori entre d'altres activitats complementàries. Una de les pràctiques es basa en l'observació i identificació de teixits humans sans i patològics de diferents sistemes orgànics. L'equip docent de l'assignatura ha creat un programa interactiu, l'Histoflash, que permet a l'alumne estudiar els teixits a l'ordinador a través de la simulació de l'observació al microscopi

A pan-cancer clinical platform to predict immunotherapy outcomes and prioritize immuno-oncology combinations in early-phase trials

Immunooncology; Predictive biomarkers; Tumor microenvironmentInmunooncología; Biomarcadores predictivos; Microambiente tumoralImmunooncologia; Biomarcadors predictius; Microambient tumoralBackground Immunotherapy is effective, but current biomarkers for patient selection have proven modest sensitivity. Here, we developed VIGex, an optimized gene signature based on the expression level of 12 genes involved in immune response with RNA sequencing. Methods We implemented VIGex using the nCounter platform (Nanostring) on a large clinical cohort encompassing 909 tumor samples across 45 tumor types. VIGex was developed as a continuous variable, with cutoffs selected to detect three main categories (hot, intermediate-cold and cold) based on the different inflammatory status of the tumor microenvironment. Findings Hot tumors had the highest VIGex scores and exhibited an increased abundance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes as compared with the intermediate-cold and cold. VIGex scores varied depending on tumor origin and anatomic site of metastases, with liver metastases showing an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The predictive power of VIGex-Hot was observed in a cohort of 98 refractory solid tumor from patients treated in early-phase immunotherapy trials and its clinical performance was confirmed through an extensive metanalysis across 13 clinically annotated gene expression datasets from 877 patients treated with immunotherapy agents. Last, we generated a pan-cancer biomarker platform that integrates VIGex categories with the expression levels of immunotherapy targets under development in early-phase clinical trials. Conclusions Our results support the clinical utility of VIGex as a tool to aid clinicians for patient selection and personalized immunotherapy interventions.A.H.C. would like to acknowledge fellowship funding from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), CRIS Contra el Cancer and Hold'em For Life Oncology Fellowship. This research has been funded by the Comprehensive Program of Cancer Immunotherapy & Immunology II (CAIMI-II) supported by the BBVA Foundation (grant 53/2021) and the 2020–2021 Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology (DMOH) Fellowship award at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. VHIO would like to acknowledge the Cellex Foundation for providing research facilities and equipment and the CERCA Programme from the Generalitat de Catalunya for their support of this research. Authors from VHIO acknowledge the State Agency for Research (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) for providing financial support as a Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa (CEX2020-001024-S/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). A.V. was the recipient of a project award from the FAECC (AVP/18/AECC/3219) and received funding from the Advanced Molecular Diagnostic (DIAMAV) program from the FERO Foundation. Graphical abstract was created with BioRender.com. Diagram in Figure 3B was created with SankeyMATIC (sankeymatic.com)

Phase I prognostic online (PIPO): A web tool to improve patient selection for oncology early phase clinical trials

Immunotherapy; Phase 1 trials; Prognostic modelInmunoterapia; Ensayos de fase 1; Modelo pronósticoImmunoteràpia; Assajos de fase 1; Model pronòsticPurpose Patient selection in phase 1 clinical trials (Ph1t) continues to be a challenge. The aim of this study was to develop a user-friendly prognostic calculator for predicting overall survival (OS) outcomes in patients to be included in Ph1t with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) or targeted agents (TAs) based on clinical parameters assessed at baseline. Methods Using a training cohort with consecutive patients from the VHIO phase 1 unit, we constructed a prognostic model to predict median OS (mOS) as a primary endpoint and 3-month (3m) OS rate as a secondary endpoint. The model was validated in an internal cohort after temporal data splitting and represented as a web application. Results We recruited 799 patients (training and validation sets, 558 and 241, respectively). Median follow-up was 21.2 months (m), mOS was 10.2 m (95% CI, 9.3–12.7) for ICIs cohort and 7.7 m (95% CI, 6.6–8.6) for TAs cohort. In the multivariable analysis, six prognostic variables were independently associated with OS – ECOG, number of metastatic sites, presence of liver metastases, derived neutrophils/(leukocytes minus neutrophils) ratio [dNLR], albumin and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels. The phase 1 prognostic online (PIPO) calculator showed adequate discrimination and calibration performance for OS, with C-statistics of 0.71 (95% CI 0.64–0.78) in the validation set. The overall accuracy of the model for 3m OS prediction was 87.2% (95% CI 85%–90%). Conclusions PIPO is a user-friendly objective and interactive tool to calculate specific survival probabilities for each patient before enrolment in a Ph1t. The tool is available at https://pipo.vhio.net/.The research leading to these results has received funding from “la Caixa” Foundation (LCF/PR/CE07/50610001). Cellex Foundation for providing research facilities and equipment. This work was supported by the Accelerator Award (UpSMART) from Fundacion Científica – Asociacion Espanola Contra el Cancer (FC -AECC)/ Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) /Cancer Research United Kingdom (CRUK)

Early-Stage Breast Cancer Detection in Breast Milk

Breast cancer; Breast milkCáncer de mama; Leche maternaCàncer de mama; Llet maternaBreast cancer occurring during pregnancy (PrBC) and postpartum (PPBC) is usually diagnosed at more advanced stages compared with other breast cancer, worsening its prognosis. PPBC is particularly aggressive, with increased metastatic risk and mortality. Thus, effective screening methods to detect early PrBC and PPBC are needed. We report for the first time that cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA) is present in breast milk (BM) collected from patients with breast cancer. Analysis of ctDNA from BM detects tumor variants in 87% of the cases by droplet digital PCR, while variants remain undetected in 92% of matched plasma samples. Retrospective next-generation sequencing analysis in BM ctDNA recapitulates tumor variants, with an overall clinical sensitivity of 71.4% and specificity of 100%. In two cases, ctDNA was detectable in BM collected 18 and 6 months prior to standard diagnosis. Our results open up the potential use of BM as a new source for liquid biopsy for PPBC detection. Significance: For the first time, we show that BM obtained from patients with breast cancer carries ctDNA, surpassing plasma-based liquid biopsy for detection and molecular profiling of early-stage breast cancer, even prior to diagnosis by image.We thank the patients who participated in the study and donated samples for analysis for their generous contribution, with particular thanks to the first patient, Maite, and her daughter Àneu, who inspired us to initiate this study (oral consent to name the patient and her daughter was provided by the patient, and her legal partner provided written consent after patient's exitus). We are grateful to Javier Carmona for his valuable contributions and support in the manuscript's conceptualization, preparation, and revision. VHIO would like to acknowledge the Cellex Foundation for providing research facilities and equipment and the CERCA Programme from the Generalitat de Catalunya for their support of this research. The authors from VHIO acknowledge the State Agency for Research (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) for the financial support as a Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa (CEX2020-001024-S/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). This research is financially supported by the “El paseíco de la mama” Foundation. C. Saura was the recipient of a II FERO-GHD grant from the FERO Foundation (FERO/5086), a Junior Clinical award from the Spanish Association Against Cancer Foundation (FAECC; CLJUN212026ORTI), and a SEOM-Daiichi Sankyo grant for its support on the Breast Cancer Research Projects 2021 (SEOM/FECMA2022) and received funding from the Department of Health (Generalitat de Catalunya SLT008/18/00198) and from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), cofunded by the European Union (PI21/01020). C. Ortiz was the recipient of a Junior Clinician award from the FAECC (CLJUN212026ORTI) and a SEOM-Daiichi Sankyo grant for its support on the Breast Cancer Research Projects 2021 (SEOM/FECMA2022), and received funding from the Department of Health (Generalitat de Catalunya SLT008/18/00198). N. Bayó-Puxan received funding from the Department of Health (Generalitat de Catalunya SLT008/18/00205), MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (GPE2022-001029) and MCIN/AEI/10.130.39/501100011033, and the European Union “Next GenerationEU/PRTR” (ECT2020-000827). J.M. Miquel received funding from the Department of Health (Generalitat de Catalunya SLT008/18/00205), MCIN/AEI/10.130.39/501100011033, and the European Union “Next GenerationEU/PRTR” (ECT2020-000827). J. Arribas is funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF-23-008), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (project reference numbers AC15/00062, CB16/12/00449, and PI22/00001), and the European Commission under the framework of the ERA-NET TRANSCAN-2 initiative cofinanced by FEDER and Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer. A. Vivancos was the recipient of a project award from the FAECC (AVP/18/AECC/3219) and received funding from the Advanced Molecular Diagnostic (DIAMAV) program from the FERO Foundation (8361) and from ISDIN for supporting the development of liquid biopsy applications at the Cancer Genomics Lab (1848). M. Sansó was the recipient of a II FERO-GHD grant from the FERO Foundation (FERO/5086) and an investigator award from the FAECC (INVES19056SANS), and received funding from the Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands (IdISBa), the RADIX-Janssen program (RADIX/JANSSEN21/01), and the Miguel Servet Program funded by the ISCIII (CP22/00131)

Teatre a la nova bocana del Port de Barcelona

El director de teatro Ricard Salvat nos propuso, como ejercicio de Proyecto Final de Carrera, proyectar un teatro de dos salas. Una sala grande con un aforo aproximado de 1500 espectadores y una más pequeña para unas 500 personas. Con la posibilidad de simultanear el funcionamiento de las dos salas y con las áreas técnicas auxiliares comunes a los dos escenarios. La diferencia entre las salas radicaría en el tipo de obras puestas en escena, dependiendo del concepto teatral y espacial que cada pieza requiriese. Podríamos entender el proyecto final como el agradecimiento del alumno para con la universidad mediante la aportación de algo más que la demostración de unos conocimientos adquiridos. Algo parecido a una tesina. Este proyecto formó parte de una tesis compartida con otros cinco estudiantes de la ETSAV y seis estudiantes extranjeros con el objetivo común de comprobar que un teatro es susceptible de ser construido en casi cualquier lugar