Farmacocinética del Busulfán: Absorción gastrointestinal e influencia del DMSO

Se ha estudiado la farmacocinética de la absorción gastrointestinal del busulfán en dos grupos de ratas, tras su administración por vía oral. La dosis influye en el valor de la constante de absorción (Ka) y en la concentración máxima normalizada (Cmax), presentando ambos parámetros una disminución al aumentar la dosis de 0,5 a 5mg. El empleo de un modelo aparente monocompartimental con absorción de primer orden permite una adecuada descripción del perfil de niveles plasmáticos del antineoplásico. El dimetilsulfóxido, utilizado como disolvente del busulfán, no interfiere en los parámetros farmacocinéticos orales del mismo.We have studied the pharmacokinetics of gastrointestinal absorption of busulfan in two groups of rats, after oral administration. The dose effect on the value of the absorption constant (Ka) and the normalized maximum concentration (Cmax), presenting both parameters decreased with increasing dose from 0.5 to 5 mg. Using a model with monocompartimental apparent first order absorption allows an adequate description of the profile of plasma levels of antineoplastic. The dimethylsulfoxide used as busulfan solvent, does not interfere with oral pharmacokinetic parameters of it.Ciencias Experimentale

Bone metabolism. Vitamin D and Parathyroid Hormone

La vitamina D es una hormona involucrada en un complejo sistema endocrino que regula la homeostasis mineral, protege la integridad del esqueleto y modula el crecimiento y la diferenciación celular en una amplia variedad de tejidos. El hígado y el riñón son los órganos donde se producen el calcidiol o 25-hidroxivitamina D3 (forma circulante de vitamina D más abundante) y el calcitriol o 1-α,25-dihidroxivitamina D3 (la forma biológicamente más activa), respectivamente. La concentración de calcidiol es el índice más fiable para definir las situaciones de déficit, insuficiencia, hipovitaminosis, suficiencia y toxicidad de vitamina D. Su cuantificación se realiza mayoritariamente por métodos de RIA, aunque se están introduciendo con fuerza en el mercado los de ELISA y quimioluminiscencia; por su parte, los métodos para cuantificar calcitriol son de RIA con inmunoextracción. Hay que destacar que para establecer una correcta definición del umbral exacto de la situación de vitamina D, en una comunidad, se necesita tener un método de cuantificación bien estandarizado y con valores de referencia propios. La paratirina (PTH) es el regulador más importante en la homeostasis del calcio, ya que potencia su reabsorción en el túbulo renal, haciendo que se incremente su concentración sanguínea. En la circulación existen formas moleculares diferentes y de procedencia tisular, vida media, destino y afección en la enfermedad variadas; precisamente el conocimiento de esta heterogeneidad es el que ha permitido poder interpretar resultados procedentes de métodos que cuantifican diferentes regiones de la molécula. Actualmente se usan métodos inmunométricos (sándwich) de segunda generación para cuantificarla, por lo que se puede obviar la presencia de péptidos de cadena larga de la región aminoterminal que se metabolizan en algunos estadios de la insuficiencia renal. La concentración de paratirina tiene un marcado ritmo circadiano, por lo que se aconseja la toma de muestra no antes de las 7 de la mañana y, en sentido académico, una extracción después de las 10 h de la mañana podría discriminar entre población normal e hiperparatiroidismo primario leve. La PTH se ha introducido como prueba protocolizada en campo operatorio abierto en paratiroidectomía y tiroidectomía. En el primer caso, descensos de un 50% respecto a su valor basal representan éxito quirúrgico; en el segundo caso, se pueden seleccionar pacientes con riesgo de hipocalcemia.Vitamin D is a hormone involved in a complex endocrine system that regulates mineral homeostasis, protects the integrity of the skeleton, and modulates growth and cellular differentiation in a wide variety of tissues. Calcidiol, or 25-hydroxivitamin D3 (the more abundant circulating form of vitamin D), is synthesized in the liver, and calcitriol, or 1-α,25-dihydroxivitamin D3 (the biologically more active form), is synthesized in the kidney. The concentration of calcidiol is the most reliable index for defining vitamin D deficiency, insufficiency, hypovitaminosis, sufficiency and toxicity. It is mainly quantified by radioimmunoassay (RIA) methods, although ELISA and chemoluminescence are being strongly introduced in the market. Calcitriol quantification methods usually consist of RIA with immunoextraction. It is important to highlight that to accurately define vitamin D levels in a community, a standardized method of quantification and specific reference values are required. Parathyrin (PTH) is the most important regulator in calcium homeostasis, since it promotes calcium reabsorption in the renal tubules, increasing calcium concentrations in blood. There are several different molecular forms in the circulation with distinct tissular origin, half life, purpose, and involvement in disease. Indeed, knowledge of this heterogeneity is what has enabled results from methods that quantify different regions of the molecule to be interpreted. Currently, second generation immunometric (sandwich) methods are used to quantify PTH, so that the presence of long chain N-terminal peptides appearing in some stages of renal insufficiency can be obviated. PTH concentrations have a marked circadian rhythm and consequently sample extraction after 7 am is advisable, and, theoretically, extraction after 10 am could discriminate between the normal population and that with mild primary hyperparathyroidism. PTH determination has been introduced as a standardized test in open parathyroidectomy and thyroidectomy. In the first case, reductions of 50% with respect to the basal value represent surgical success; in the second case, patients at risk for hypocalcemia can be selected.Ciencias Experimentale

A comparative study between olive oil and corn oil on oxidative metabolism

Fats are an important part of diet, but not all lipids have the same structure and chemical properties. Unsaturated fatty acids have one or more double bonds in their structure and can be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, respectively. Most vegetable oils, such as olive oil and corn oil, contain significant amounts of these fatty acids. The presence of double bonds in the molecule of a fatty acid constitutes vulnerable sites for oxidation reactions generating lipid peroxides, potentially toxic compounds that can cause cellular damage. In response to this oxidative damage, aerobic organisms have intracellular enzymatic antioxidant defense mechanisms. The aim of the present investigation was to study comparatively the effects of control liquid diets, of a defined composition, containing olive oil or corn oil as a lipid source respectively of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, on the oxidative metabolism of rats. Rats were divided into three groups which received a control animal feed diet (A.F.), olive oil liquid diet (O.O) and corn oil liquid diet (C.O) for 30 days. It was observed that the activity of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), increased in the liver and white fat tissue of rats fed with olive oil when compared to the corn oil group. However, in brown fat tissue and blood cells, the enzyme activities showed a tendency to decrease in the olive oil group. In addition, the effect of olive oil and corn oil on several glucose metabolism parameters (pyruvate, lactate, LDH, acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate) showed that corn oil impairs to a greater extent the cellular metabolism. All these results helped in concluding that some body tissues are more adversely affected than others by the administration of corn oil or olive oil, and their antioxidant defenses and cellular metabolism respond differently too.This work was supported by the Universidad Católica de Valencia “San Vicente Mártir” (grant number: UCV257-001)Nutrición humana y dietétic

Oxygenic metabolism in nutritional obesity induced by olive oil

Obesity is a medical and sociological problem of great importance due to the high percentage of people affected and the important health consequences that it involves. Most cases of obesity are related to an inadequate diet, rich in fats, which could lead to changes in the patient's oxygenic metabolism. That is why this study has been proposed to evaluate how some aspects of oxygenic metabolism are affected in a nutritional experimental model, with a controlled hyperlipidic liquid diet based on olive oil, and the effect of the antioxidant vitamin C on these conditions. Wistar rats were divided into four groups which received a control and hyperlipidic liquid diet for 30 days, with or without a vitamin C supplement (CO, COC, HO and HOC). First of all the body and fat tissue development was measured in the four groups. Our results showed that the excessive intake of nutritional and healthy fat such as olive oil did not prevent the appearance of obesity and the supplementation with vitamin C did not have a protective effect on body and fat development. The study of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in total liver, liver cytosol, abdominal white fat, brown fat and blood cells showed that vitamin C could have different selectivities and affinities for different enzymes and compartments/tissues of the body. Finally, the effect of vitamin C on various metabolic parameters (glucose, pyruvate, lactate, LDH, ATP, acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate) provided positive protection against oxidative stress especially under hyperlipidic conditions. All things considered, the present study concludes that vitamin C treatment could protect Wistar rats from the oxidative stress impairment induced by obesity generated by an excessive intake of fats.This work was supported by the Universidad Católica de Valencia “San Vicente Mártir” (Grant Number: UCV257-001)Nutrición humana y dietétic

SkyFlow: heterogeneous streaming for skyline computation using FlowGraph and SYCL

The skyline is an optimization operator widely used for multi-criteria decision making. It allows minimizing an n-dimensional dataset into its smallest subset. In this work we present SkyFlow, the first heterogeneous CPU+GPU graph-based engine for skyline computation on a stream of data queries. Two data flow approaches, Coarse-grained and Fine-grained, have been proposed for different streaming scenarios. Coarse-grained aims to keep in parallel the computation of two queries using a hybrid solution with two state-of-the-art skyline algorithms: one optimized for CPU and another for GPU. We also propose a model to estimate at runtime the computation time of any arriving data query. This estimation is used by a heuristic to schedule the data query on the device queue in which it will finish earlier. On the other hand, Fine-grained splits one query computation between CPU and GPU. An experimental evaluation using as target architecture a heterogeneous system comprised of a multicore CPU and an integrated GPU for different streaming scenarios and datasets, reveals that our heterogeneous CPU+GPU approaches always outperform previous only-CPU and only-GPU state-of-the-art implementations up to 6.86×and 5.19×, respectively, and they fall below 6% of ideal peak performance at most. We also evaluate Coarse-grained vs Fine-Grained finding that each approach is better suited to different streaming scenarios.This work was partially supported by the Spanish projects PID2019-105396RB-I00, UMA18-FEDERJA-108 and P20-00395-R. // Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA

Nutrition planning and hydration control during a six-stage Pirineos FIT Endurance trail-running race. A case report

Ultra-endurance competitions are highly demanding sport events for athletes and require a carefully controlled nutrition, hydration and supplementation before, during and after the physical effort. Scientific research has shown a positive relationship between dietetic (caloric and macronutrient ingestion) recommendations and sport performance. This study describes the nutritional and hydration planning applied to an athlete competing at the Pirineos FIT (a semi-self-sufficient trail-running multi-stage event). Diary caloric ingestion was around 4000 Kcal, 550 Kcal were consumed during the race. In general, the athlete maintained the minimal recommendable levels of hydration (2.5% Body Weight Loss) and Borg's Scale of Exertion (RPE) was used to report subjective perception of fatigue after each stage. Hematological and biochemical parameters showed a normal response to endurance physical exercise. Therefore, the nutrition and hydration planning were successfully applied.Nutrición humana y dietétic

Interés de la elaboración de vídeos didácticos como material de prácticas en la asignatura de "Seguridad Química"

El presente trabajo tiene por objeto presentar el proceso seguido en la elaboración de una serie videográfica constituida por tres videos didácticos, que abordan los aspectos fundamentales de los riesgos derivados de la exposición a sustancias químicas y agentes biológicos en un labo - ratorio universitario. dicho material didáctico innovador, se utilizará en los seminarios teóricos de la asignatura seguridad Química, impartida por los profesores del área de toxicología de la universidad de sevilla. los objetivos fundamentales de dichos videos han sido despertar el mayor interés posible y favorecer la asimilación de conceptos básicos en el alumnado de dicha asignatura, haciendo especial hincapié en la correcta y segura manipulación, el adecuado almacenamiento y la correcta eliminación de las sustancias, contribuyendo en definitiva a la prevención de los riesgos derivados de su exposición.The present work aims to illustrate the process followed to elaborate a set of three didactic illustrate the process followed to elaborate a set of three didactic videos, which shows the main aspects of derived risks from the exposure to the chemical substances and biological agents present in a university laboratory. this innovator didactic material will be used in the subject “chemical security” seminaries lectured by the professors from toxicology area in the university of seville. the most important aims of these videos have been to implicate the students in their learning, making easier for them to assimilate the basic concepts of the subject, such as the correct and secure way of manipulate the chemical substances, its appropriate storage and its suitable elimination, contributing to the prevention of the risks derived from their exposure

Psychological Discomfort in Nursing Degree Students as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Students are a population at risk of developing psychological complications, such as psychological discomfort, stress, and anxiety, among other problems, especially during the current health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study’s objective was to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological discomfort of final-year nursing students. A crosssectional descriptive observational study was carried out. To analyze the psychological discomfort of the participants, the Kessler test (previously validated) was used. The results of this test were divided into two levels (High ≥ 21/Low < 21), showing high sensitivity as a screening method for anxiety and depression. Questionnaires were sent via email to final-year nursing students of Spanish and South American universities, inviting them to participate voluntarily. The sample consisted of 400 students, with an average age of 23.29 years and a sex proportion of 82.75% women and 17.28% men. Almost all participants (n = 396) belonged to Spanish universities, and the greatest participation corresponded to Andalusian universities (64.5%). The average psychological discomfort was high (M = 27.94). Statistically significant relationships were detected between age, sex, and feeling ready for the world of work, observing no relationships with the rest of the studied variables. The sample of 4th-year students of the Degree of Nursing presented a high level of psychological discomfort. This pathology does not seem to be related to having suffered from COVID-19 or being in contact with infected people during the practicum and is more strongly related to personal sociodemographic variables and students’ preparation for the world of workUniversity of Huelv

Possible Reduction of Cardiac Risk after Supplementation with Epigallocatechin Gallate and Increase of Ketone Bodies in the Blood in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease that causes anthropometric changes characterised by functional disability, increase in fat mass, and decrease in lean mass. All these variables are related to a greater cardiac risk. The polyphenol epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and an increase in ketone bodies in the blood have been shown to have beneficial effects on anthropometric and biochemical variables related to cardiovascular activity. The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of the intervention with EGCG and ketone bodies on cardiac risk in MS patients. A population of 51 MS patients were randomly assigned to a control group and an intervention group (daily dose of 800 mg of EGCG and 60 mL of coconut oil). Both groups followed an isocaloric diet for 4 months. Levels of beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), albumin, paraoxonase 1 (PON1) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured in serum before and after the intervention, as well as determining functional ability, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), fat percentage and muscle percentage. After 4 months, in the intervention group there was a significant increase in BHB, PON1 and albumin, while CRP did not vary; a significant decrease in cardiac risk associated with a significant decline in WHR; as well as a significant increase in muscle percentage. By contrast, these changes were not observed in the control group. Finally, results from analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant time-condition interaction effect, observing that WHtR and fat mass decreased in the intervention group, while they increased in the control group.This work was supported by the Catholic University of Valencia San Vicente Mártir (grant number 2018-203-001).Medicin