Perfil antibiótico de estreptococos del grupo viridans aislados de cavidad oral en individuos con uso prolongado de antibióticos

Viridans group streptococci (VGS) are a heterogeneous group of saprophytic facultative anaerobic bacteria that are part of the normal flora of the oral cavity. The increased resistance to multiple antibiotics in this group of bacteria becomes important in prolonged antibiotic therapies inpatient where these common microorganisms are replaced by multi-resistant bacteria. Objectives: To determine the percentage of VGS strains isolated from oral cavity resistant to antibiotics used in hospital infectious diseases. Material and Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that included 60 hospitalized patients with a history of antibiotic therapy for more than 3 weeks. The samples were processed following standardized protocols for collection, isolation and identification of oral cavity VGS and a protocol of antibiotic susceptibility testing. The results are shown in tables and graphics of absolute and relative frequencies. Results: The main indication for antibiotic therapy was orofacial infection with a 28.33%. Penicillin was the antibiotic further used either in single, combined or multiple therapies in all patients. A total of 108 samples (1.8 per patient swabs) were collected. The predominantly identified specie was Streptococcus mutans. The 96.3% of all VGS strains were sensitive to all antibiotics included in the panel. Conclusion: Using different combinations and types of antibiotic therapy inpatient has no effect on the susceptibility of VGS isolated from oral cavity separate from treatment.Los estreptococos del grupo viridans (EGV) son un grupo heterogéneo de bacterias saprófitas anaerobias facultativas que forman parte de la flora normal de cavidad oral. El incremento de la resistencia antibiótica de este grupo de bacterias cobra importancia en pacientes hospitalizados con terapia antibiótica prolongada, en los cuales estos microorganismos pueden ser sustituidos por bacterias multirresistentes. Objetivos: Determinar el porcentaje de cepas de EGV aisladas de cavidad oral resistentes a los antibióticos utilizados en el tratamiento de diversas patologías infecciosas hospitalarias. Material y métodos: Estudio observacional descriptivo en el que se incluyeron 60 pacientes hospitalizados con historia de terapia antibiótica por más de 3 semanas. Las muestras se procesaron siguiendo protocolos estandarizados de recolección, aislamiento e identificación para EGV de cavidad oral y un protocolo de pruebas de sensibilidad antibiótica. Los resultados se muestran en tablas y gráficas de frecuencia. Resultados: La principal indicación para terapia antibiótica intrahospitalaria fue infección orofacial: 28,33%. La penicilina fue el antibiótico más utilizado ya sea en terapia única, combinada o múltiple en todos los pacientes. Se aislaron en total 108 cepas de EGV, con un promedio de 1,8 cepas por paciente. La especie predominantemente identificada fue S. mutans. El 96,3% de las cepas de EGV fue sensible a todos los antibióticos incluidos en el panel. Conclusiones: El uso de distintas combinaciones y modalidades de terapia antibiótica no tiene efecto en la susceptibilidad de EGV aislados de cavidad oral en pacientes hospitalizados, independiente de la duración del tratamiento

Elucidation of the chemical role of the pyroclastic materials on the state of conservation of mural paintings from Pompeii

Pyroclastic strata have always been thought to protect the archaeological remains of the Vesuvian area (Italy), hence allowing their conservation throughout the centuries. In this work, we demonstrate that they constitute a potential threat for the conservation state of the mural paintings of Pompeii. The ions that could be leached from them and the ion‐rich groundwater coming from the volcanic soil/rocks may contribute to salt crystallisation. Thermodynamic modelling not only allowed to predict which salts can precipitate from such leaching events but also assisted the identification of additional sources of sulfates and alkali metals to explain the formation of the sulfates identified in efflorescences from the mural paintings of Pompeii. For the future, fluorine, mainly related to a volcanic origin, can be proposed as a marker to monitor the extent of the impact in the mural paintings of Pompeii in situ

Concentración de fluoruro en agua subterránea y su relación con los niveles de calcio sérico en niños residentes en el distrito de Loreto, Concepción, Paraguay

Como parte del ciclo biogeoquímico, el fluoruro del suelo puede disolverse e ingresar al agua. La Organización Mundial de la Salud y la Norma Paraguaya NP 24 001 80 establecen una concentración máxima de 1,5 mg.L-1 de fluoruro en agua de consumo, pudiendo producir fluorosis cuando es elevada, tal como se encontró en niños residentes de Loreto. Estudios indican que la exposición al fluoruro concomitante al déficit de calcio puede agravar la pérdida de masa ósea, causando fragilidad y fluorosis esquelética. Además, se demostró mediante bioensayos en ratones que el exceso de fluoruro reduce la concentración de calcio sérico, por lo que el objetivo del estudio descriptivo con componente analítico fue elaborar un mapa de distribución espacial de fluoruro del agua subterránea de Loreto y relacionar con la calcemia en niños. Se determinó la concentración de fluoruro en muestras de veintitrés pozos de agua subterránea y el calcio sérico de dieciocho niños en edad escolar, ambos por método normalizado. Se identificaron dos pozos con concentraciones superiores al máximo permitido y en 61% de los niños el calcio sérico fue inferior al valor de referencia. Se encontró una correlación débil entre las variables (r = 0,212). El estudio proporciona información relevante sobre sitios con elevadas concentraciones de fluoruro lo que representa un riesgo para la salud pues aun con ingesta adecuada de calcio, los niños presentaron hipocalcemia. Sería importante incluir en estudios posteriores factores no abordados en esta investigación para una evaluación más completa del riesgo de la población expuesta

Drosophila Araucan and Caupolican Integrate Intrinsic and Signalling Inputs for the Acquisition by Muscle Progenitors of the Lateral Transverse Fate

A central issue of myogenesis is the acquisition of identity by individual muscles. In Drosophila, at the time muscle progenitors are singled out, they already express unique combinations of muscle identity genes. This muscle code results from the integration of positional and temporal signalling inputs. Here we identify, by means of loss-of-function and ectopic expression approaches, the Iroquois Complex homeobox genes araucan and caupolican as novel muscle identity genes that confer lateral transverse muscle identity. The acquisition of this fate requires that Araucan/Caupolican repress other muscle identity genes such as slouch and vestigial. In addition, we show that Caupolican-dependent slouch expression depends on the activation state of the Ras/Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase cascade. This provides a comprehensive insight into the way Iroquois genes integrate in muscle progenitors, signalling inputs that modulate gene expression and protein activity

Genome-wide association analysis of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes reveal novel loci associated with Alzheimer's disease and three causality networks : The GR@ACE project

Introduction: Large variability among Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases might impact genetic discoveries and complicate dissection of underlying biological pathways. Methods: Genome Research at Fundacio ACE (GR@ACE) is a genome-wide study of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes, defined based on AD's clinical certainty and vascular burden. We assessed the impact of known AD loci across endophenotypes to generate loci categories. We incorporated gene coexpression data and conducted pathway analysis per category. Finally, to evaluate the effect of heterogeneity in genetic studies, GR@ACE series were meta-analyzed with additional genome-wide association study data sets. Results: We classified known AD loci into three categories, which might reflect the disease clinical heterogeneity. Vascular processes were only detected as a causal mechanism in probable AD. The meta-analysis strategy revealed the ANKRD31-rs4704171 and NDUFAF6-rs10098778 and confirmed SCIMP-rs7225151 and CD33-rs3865444. Discussion: The regulation of vasculature is a prominent causal component of probable AD. GR@ACE meta-analysis revealed novel AD genetic signals, strongly driven by the presence of clinical heterogeneity in the AD series

COVID-19 vaccine failure

COVID-19 affects the population unequally with a higher impact on aged and immunosuppressed people. Hence, we assessed the effect of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in immune compromised patients (older adults and oncohematologic patients), compared with healthy counterparts. While the acquired humoral and cellular memory did not predict subsequent infection 18 months after full immunization, spectral and computational cytometry revealed several subsets within the CD8+ T-cells, B-cells, NK cells, monocytes and CD45RA+ CCR7- Tγδ cells differentially expressed in further infected and non-infected individuals not just following immunization, but also prior to that. Of note, up to 7 subsets were found within the CD45RA+ CCR7- Tγδ population with some of them being expanded and other decreased in subsequently infected individuals. Moreover, some of these subsets also predicted COVID-induced hospitalization in oncohematologic patients. Therefore, we hereby have identified several cellular subsets that, even before vaccination, strongly related to COVID-19 vulnerability as opposed to the acquisition of cellular and/or humoral memory following vaccination with SARS-CoV2 mRNA vaccines.This study has been funded through Programa Estratégico Instituto de Biología y Genética Molecular (IBGM Junta de Castilla y León. Ref. CCVC8485), Junta de Castilla y León (Proyectos COVID 07.04.467B04.74011.0) and the European Commission – NextGenerationEU (Regulation EU 2020/2094), through CSIC's Global Health Platform (PTI Salud Global; SGL21-03-026 and SGL2021-03-038)N

Common variants in Alzheimer’s disease and risk stratification by polygenic risk scores

Funder: Funder: Fundación bancaria ‘La Caixa’ Number: LCF/PR/PR16/51110003 Funder: Grifols SA Number: LCF/PR/PR16/51110003 Funder: European Union/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Number: 115975 Funder: JPco-fuND FP-829-029 Number: 733051061Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer's disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer's disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene). Assessment of the polygenic risk score and stratifying by APOE reveal a 4 to 5.5 years difference in median age at onset of Alzheimer's disease patients in APOE ɛ4 carriers. Because of this study, the underlying mechanisms of APP can be studied to refine the amyloid cascade and the polygenic risk score provides a tool to select individuals at high risk of Alzheimer's disease

Large scale multifactorial likelihood quantitative analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants: An ENIGMA resource to support clinical variant classification

The multifactorial likelihood analysis method has demonstrated utility for quantitative assessment of variant pathogenicity for multiple cancer syndrome genes. Independent data types currently incorporated in the model for assessing BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants include clinically calibrated prior probability of pathogenicity based on variant location and bioinformatic prediction of variant effect, co-segregation, family cancer history profile, co-occurrence with a pathogenic variant in the same gene, breast tumor pathology, and case-control information. Research and clinical data for multifactorial likelihood analysis were collated for 1,395 BRCA1/2 predominantly intronic and missense variants, enabling classification based on posterior probability of pathogenicity for 734 variants: 447 variants were classified as (likely) benign, and 94 as (likely) pathogenic; and 248 classifications were new or considerably altered relative to ClinVar submissions. Classifications were compared with information not yet included in the likelihood model, and evidence strengths aligned to those recommended for ACMG/AMP classification codes. Altered mRNA splicing or function relative to known nonpathogenic variant controls were moderately to strongly predictive of variant pathogenicity. Variant absence in population datasets provided supporting evidence for variant pathogenicity. These findings have direct relevance for BRCA1 and BRCA2 variant evaluation, and justify the need for gene-specific calibration of evidence types used for variant classification

Red “Universidad, género, docencia e igualdad”

La Red de investigación en docencia universitaria “Universidad, docencia, genero e igualdad” persigue avanzar en la calidad e innovación de las enseñanzas universitarias a partir de la inclusión de la perspectiva de género. Se busca dar cumplimiento a las directrices generales de los nuevos planes de estudio respecto del principio de igualdad de oportunidades entre hombres y mujeres en la formación universitaria (Real Decreto 1393/2007. BOE nº 260, 30 de octubre de 2007). En la quinta edición de la Red, y dada su composición multidisciplinar, se ha trabajado en tres líneas de investigación: 1) mantenimiento del “Portal web con recursos docentes con perspectiva de género”, proyecto financiado por el Instituto de la Mujer (PACUI, 2012) e iniciado en el curso 2012-2013; 2) desarrollo de la primera versión de “iLengUA”, una herramienta informática para un discurso inclusivo e igualitario; y 3) diseño de una Guía de recomendaciones para la inclusión de la perspectiva de género en la docencia universitaria