Murine models susceptibility to distinct Trypanosoma cruzi i genotypes infection

Chagas disease is a complex zoonosis that affects around 8 million people worldwide. This pathology is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a kinetoplastid parasite that shows tremendous genetic diversity evinced in six distinct Discrete Typing Units (TcI-TcVI) including a recent genotype named as TcBat and associated with anthropogenic bats. TcI presents a broad geographical distribution and has been associated with chronic cardiomyopathy. Recent phylogenetic studies suggest the existence of two genotypes (Domestic (TcIDom) and sylvatic TcI) within TcI. The understanding of the course of the infection in different mouse models by these two genotypes is not yet known. Therefore, we infected 126 animals (ICR-CD1, National Institute of Health (NIH) and Balb/c) with two TcIDom strains and one sylvatic strain for a follow-up period of 60 days. We quantified the parasitaemia, immune response and histopathology observing that the maximum day of parasitaemia was achieved at day 21 post-infection. Domestic strains showed higher parasitaemia than the sylvatic strain in the three mouse models; however in the survival curves Balb/c mice were less susceptible to infection compared with NIH and ICR-CD1. Our results suggest that the genetic background plays a fundamental role in the natural history of the infection and the sympatric TcI genotypes have relevant implications in disease pathogenesis. © 2016 Cambridge University Press

FIRI - a Far-Infrared Interferometer

Half of the energy ever emitted by stars and accreting objects comes to us in the FIR waveband and has yet to be properly explored. We propose a powerful Far-InfraRed Interferometer mission, FIRI, to carry out high-resolution imaging spectroscopy in the FIR. This key observational capability is essential to reveal how gas and dust evolve into stars and planets, how the first luminous objects in the Universe ignited, how galaxies formed, and when super-massive black holes grew. FIRI will disentangle the cosmic histories of star formation and accretion onto black holes and will trace the assembly and evolution of quiescent galaxies like our Milky Way. Perhaps most importantly, FIRI will observe all stages of planetary system formation and recognise Earth-like planets that may harbour life, via its ability to image the dust structures in planetary systems. It will thus address directly questions fundamental to our understanding of how the Universe has developed and evolved - the very questions posed by ESA's Cosmic Vision.Comment: Proposal developed by a large team of astronomers from Europe, USA and Canada and submitted to the European Space Agency as part of "Cosmic Vision 2015-2025

P82 238. ¿Es segura la reintervención dejando los injertos arteriales permeables sin clampar?

ObjetivoEl objetivo de no dañar la arteria mamaria evitando su disección y clampaje supone un reto para la protección miocárdica debido al lavado de la cardioplejía.Presentamos nuestra experiencia en reintervenciones sin disecar ni clampar los injertos arteriales.Material y métodosDesde septiembre de 2000 hasta febrero de 2010 se realizaron 29 reintervenciones en 28 pacientes, (89,7% varones), edad media 73,17±7,38años. Las causas de reoperación fueron: progresión de valvulopatía 17 pacientes (58,6%), endocarditis 10 (34,4%), disfunción protésica no estructural 2 (6,9%). La mediana del EuroS-CORE logístico fue 14,84 (4-77,25). La cirugía fue urgente en 7 pacientes. Se realizó sustitución valvular aórtica aislada en 18 y se asoció revascularización en 4, sustitución/plastia mitral en 4, sustitución de aorta en 2; sustitución mitral aislada en 1.La protección miocárdica se realizó con cardioplejía hemática con esmolol, K+ y Mg+, administrándola siempre que no dificultaba el trabajo quirúrgico (intervalos nunca > 20min). Temperatura sistémica media 32,26±3,23 °C.ResultadosLa mediana del tiempo de circulación extracorpórea (CEC) fue 153 (91-494) y de clampaje 103 (71-430)min. Presentaron infarto postoperatorio 1 paciente (3,4%) y síndrome de bajo gasto postoperatorio 2 pacientes (6,5%). La mediana de troponina I postoperatoria fue 7,03ng/ml (1,84-109,5). La mortalidad hospitalaria fue 3 pacientes (10,3%) (cirugía urgente por endocarditis). Las causas de mortalidad fueron: daño neurológico irreversible (1 paciente), sepsis y bajo gasto (2 pacientes). La mediana de estancia hospitalaria fue 7 (1-33) días.ConclusiónEn nuestra experiencia, sin clampar los injertos arteriales y con la estrategia descrita, la protección miocárdica parece adecuada y la mortalidad hospitalaria aceptable

First signs and symptoms of spondyloarthritis—data from an inception cohort with a disease course of two years or less (REGISPONSER-Early)

Objective. To determine the first signs and symptoms, and the clinical, biological and radiological characteristics of patients with early SpA

In planta expression of human polyQ-expanded huntingtin fragment reveals mechanisms to prevent disease-related protein aggregation

In humans, aggregation of polyglutamine repeat (polyQ) proteins causes disorders such as Huntington’s disease. Although plants express hundreds of polyQ-containing proteins, no pathologies arising from polyQ aggregation have been reported. To investigate this phenomenon, we expressed an aggregation-prone fragment of human huntingtin (HTT) with an expanded polyQ stretch (Q69) in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. In contrast to animal models, we find that Arabidopsis sp. suppresses Q69 aggregation through chloroplast proteostasis. Inhibition of chloroplast proteostasis diminishes the capacity of plants to prevent cytosolic Q69 aggregation. Moreover, endogenous polyQ-containing proteins also aggregate on chloroplast dysfunction. We find tha

Seasonal analysis of the atmosphere during five years by using microwave radiometry over a mid-latitude site

This work focuses on the analysis of the seasonal cycle of temperature and relative humidity (RH) profiles and integrated water vapor (IWV) obtained from microwave radiometer (MWR) measurements over the mid-latitude city of Granada, southern Spain. For completeness the study, the maximum atmospheric boundary layer height (ABLHmax) is also included. To this end, we have firstly characterized the HATPRO-RPG MWR errors using 55 co-located radiosondes (RS) by means of the mean-bias (biasbar) profile and the standard deviation (SDbias) profile classified under all-weather conditions and cloud-free conditions. This characterization pointed out that temperature from HATPRO-MWR presents a very low biasbar respects RS mostly below 2.0 km agl, ranging from positive to negative values under all-weather conditions (from 1.7 to -0.4 K with SDbias up to 3.0 K). Under cloud-free conditions, the bias was very similar to that found under all-weather conditions (1.8 to -0.4 K) but with smaller SDbias (up to 1.1 K). The same behavior is also seen in this lower part (ground to 2.0 km agl) for RH. Under all-weather conditions, the mean RH bias ranged from 3.0 to -4.0% with SDbias between 10 and 16.3% while under cloud-free conditions the bias ranged from 2.0 to -0.4% with SDbias from 0.5 to 13.3%. Above 2.0 km agl, the SDbias error increases considerably up to 4 km agl (up to -20%), and then decreases slightly above 7.0 km agl (up to -5%). In addition, IWV values from MWR were also compared with the values obtained from the integration of RS profiles, showing a better linear fit under cloud-free conditions (R2 = 0.96) than under all-weather conditions (R2 = 0.82). The mean bias under cloud-free conditions was -0.80 kg/m2 while for all-weather conditions it was -1.25 kg/m2. Thus, the SDbiasfor all the statistics (temperature, RH and IWV) of the comparison between MWR and RS presented higher values for all-weather conditions than for cloud-free conditions ones. It points out that the presence of clouds is a key factor to take into account when MWR products are used. The second part of this work is devoted to a seasonal variability analysis over five years, leading us to characterize thermodynamically the troposphere over our site. This city atmosphere presents a clear seasonal cycle where temperature, ABLHmax and IWV increase from winter to summer and decrease in autumn, meanwhile RH decreases along the warmer seasons. This city presents cold winters (mean daily maximum temperature: 10.6 ± 1.1 °C) and dry/hot summers (mean daily maximum temperature of 28.8 ± 0.9 °C and mean daily maximum of surface RH up to 55.0 ± 6.0%) at surface (680 m asl). Moreover, considering temporal trends, our study pointed out that only temperature and RH showed a linear increase in winters with a mean-rate of (0.5 ± 0.1) °C/year and (3.4 ± 1.7) %/year, respectively, from ground to 2.0 km agl, meanwhile IWV presented a linear increase of 1.0 kg·m-2/year in winters, 0.78 kg·m-2/year in summers and a linear decrease in autumns of -0.75 kg·m-2/year.Andalusia Regional Government through project P12-RNM-2409Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through projects CGL2013-45410-R, CGL2015-73250-JIN and CGL2016-81092-RJuan de la Cierva grant IJCI-2016-3000

Electro-oxidation of cyanide on active and non-active anodes: Designing the electrocatalytic response of cobalt spinels

[EN] The feasibility of the electrochemical technologies for wastewater treatment greatly relies on the design of efficient but inexpensive electrocatalysts. It is generally accepted that the so-called ¿non-active¿ anodes (like the boron-doped diamond (BDD) or SnO2-based anodes), producing highly oxidizing hydroxyl radicals, are the most promising candidates for pollutants abatement. In this work, the electrocatalytic performance of various cobalt oxides, pure and doped with Cu or Au, for CN¿ oxidation has been studied and compared with that of conventional graphite, BDD, SnO2-Sb and SnO2-Sb-Pt. The metal oxide electrodes were prepared by thermal decomposition of the salt precursors onto Ti. For the M-doped Co3O4 electrodes, the nominal M/Co ratios were Cu/ Co=0.07¿1.00; and Au/Co=0.05¿0.20. The electrodes were characterized by different techniques (XRD, SEM, EDX, XPS) and their electrocatalytic response was studied by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic electrolysis in a H-type cell in aqueous 0.1M NaOH. The obtained results show that the nature of the dopant plays a key role on the electrocatalytic behavior of cobalt spinels. Thus, while Cu catalyzes the CN¿ electro-oxidation, Au declines it. This is explained by the fact that, unlike Au (which segregates as Au-rich particles), Cu is effectively incorporated into the spinel structure by forming a solid solution (CuxCo3-xO4). In this solid solution, atomic scale Cu(spinel)-CN¿ specific interactions occur to catalyze the reaction, whereas in segregated Au particles the oxidation is hindered probably by a too-strong adsorption of cyanide and/or its inaccessibility to oxide active sites. Electrolysis runs have revealed that ¿active¿ over-saturated Cu-doped spinels (Cu/Co=1.00) exhibit higher current efficiencies than conventional graphite and ¿non-active¿ BDD and SnO2-based anodes. Hence, we hereby demonstrate that an inexpensive ¿active¿ electrocatalyst can show even higher efficiency than the most powerful BDD anode. These results highlight the significance of anode design in the application of the electrochemical technique for wastewater treatment.Financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and FEDER funds (MAT2016-76595-R, IJCI-2014-20012) is gratefully acknowledgedBerenguer, R.; Quijada, C.; La Rosa-Toro, A.; Morallón, E. (2019). Electro-oxidation of cyanide on active and non-active anodes: Designing the electrocatalytic response of cobalt spinels. Separation and Purification Technology. 208:42-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2018.05.024S425020

Preparation of polycaprolactone nanoparticles via supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of emulsions

Polycaprolactone (PCL) nanoparticles were produced via supercritical fluid extraction of emulsions (SFEE) using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). The efficiency of the scCO2 extraction was investigated and compared to that of solvent extraction at atmospheric pressure. The effects of process parameters including polymer concentration (0.6–10% w/w in acetone), surfactant concentration (0.07 and 0.14% w/w) and polymer-to-surfactant weight ratio (1:1–16:1 w/w) on the particle size and surface morphology were also investigated. Spherical PCL nanoparticles with mean particle sizes between 190 and 350 nm were obtained depending on the polymer concentration, which was the most important factor where increase in the particle size was directly related to total polymer content in the formulation. Nanoparticles produced were analysed using dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that SFEE can be applied for the preparation of PCL nanoparticles without agglomeration and in a comparatively short duration of only 1 h

Relationship between damage and mortality in juvenile-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: Cluster analyses in a large cohort from the Spanish Society of Rheumatology Lupus Registry (RELESSER)

Objectives: To identify patterns (clusters) of damage manifestation within a large cohort of juvenile SLE (jSLE) patients and evaluate their possible association with mortality. Methods: This is a multicentre, descriptive, cross-sectional study of a cohort of 345 jSLE patients from the Spanish Society of Rheumatology Lupus Registry. Organ damage was ascertained using the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics Damage Index. Using cluster analysis, groups of patients with similar patterns of damage manifestation were identified and compared. Results: Mean age (years) ± S.D. at diagnosis was 14.2 ± 2.89; 88.7% were female and 93.4% were Caucasian. Mean SLICC/ACR DI ± S.D. was 1.27 ± 1.63. A total of 12 (3.5%) patients died. Three damage clusters were identified: Cluster 1 (72.7% of patients) presented a lower number of individuals with damage (22.3% vs. 100% in Clusters 2 and 3, P < 0.001); Cluster 2 (14.5% of patients) was characterized by renal damage in 60% of patients, significantly more than Clusters 1 and 3 (P < 0.001), in addition to increased more ocular, cardiovascular and gonadal damage; Cluster 3 (12.7%) was the only group with musculoskeletal damage (100%), significantly higher than in Clusters 1 and 2 (P < 0.001). The overall mortality rate in Cluster 2 was 2.2 times higher than that in Cluster 3 and 5 times higher than that in Cluster 1 (P < 0.017 for both comparisons). Conclusions: In a large cohort of jSLE patients, renal and musculoskeletal damage manifestations were the two dominant forms of damage by which patients were sorted into clinically meaningful clusters. We found two clusters of jSLE with important clinical damage that were associated with higher rates of mortality, especially for the cluster of patients with predominant renal damage. Physicians should be particularly vigilant to the early prevention of damage in this subset of jSLE patients with kidney involvement

Hydroxychloroquine is associated with a lower risk of polyautoimmunity: data from the RELESSER Registry

OBJECTIVES: This article estimates the frequency of polyautoimmunity and associated factors in a large retrospective cohort of patients with SLE. METHODS: RELESSER (Spanish Society of Rheumatology Lupus Registry) is a nationwide multicentre, hospital-based registry of SLE patients. This is a cross-sectional study. The main variable was polyautoimmunity, which was defined as the co-occurrence of SLE and another autoimmune disease, such as autoimmune thyroiditis, RA, scleroderma, inflammatory myopathy and MCTD. We also recorded the presence of multiple autoimmune syndrome, secondary SS, secondary APS and a family history of autoimmune disease. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate possible risk factors for polyautoimmunity. RESULTS: Of the 3679 patients who fulfilled the criteria for SLE, 502 (13.6%) had polyautoimmunity. The most frequent types were autoimmune thyroiditis (7.9%), other systemic autoimmune diseases (6.2%), secondary SS (14.1%) and secondary APS (13.7%). Multiple autoimmune syndrome accounted for 10.2% of all cases of polyautoimmunity. A family history was recorded in 11.8%. According to the multivariate analysis, the factors associated with polyautoimmunity were female sex [odds ratio (95% CI), 1.72 (1.07, 2.72)], RP [1.63 (1.29, 2.05)], interstitial lung disease [3.35 (1.84, 6.01)], Jaccoud arthropathy [1.92 (1.40, 2.63)], anti-Ro/SSA and/or anti-La/SSB autoantibodies [2.03 (1.55, 2.67)], anti-RNP antibodies [1.48 (1.16, 1.90)], MTX [1.67 (1.26, 2.18)] and antimalarial drugs [0.50 (0.38, 0.67)]. CONCLUSION: Patients with SLE frequently present polyautoimmunity. We observed clinical and analytical characteristics associated with polyautoimmunity. Our finding that antimalarial drugs protected against polyautoimmunity should be verified in future studies