Laser nanostructuring of polymers: Ripples and applications

Polymer nanostructures and nanopatterns are being profusely used for developing next-generation organic devices with analytical and biological functions and photonic applications. Laser based strategies constitute an advantageous approach for the assembly and control of this type of soft matter nanostructures as they afford the sought versatility and reliability. Recent and on-going research on laser nanostructuring of thin films of synthetic polymers and natural biopolymers will be exemplified by studies on the generation of laser induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) and their use for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based sensors. © 2012 American Institute of PhysicsFunded by MICINN, Spain, Projects CTQ2010-15680 and MAT2009-07789. MICINN, Spain, Juan de la Cierva contract and an FPI fellowshipPeer Reviewe

Acidification induces condensation of the adenovirus core

The adenovirus (AdV) icosahedral capsid encloses a nucleoprotein core formed by the dsDNA genome bound to numerous copies of virus-encoded, positively charged proteins. For an efficient delivery of its genome, AdV must undergo a cascade of dismantling events from the plasma membrane to the nuclear pore. Throughout this uncoating process, the virion moves across potentially disruptive environments whose influence in particle stability is poorly understood. In this work we analyze the effect of acidic conditions on AdV particles by exploring their mechanical properties, genome accessibility and capsid disruption. Our results show that under short term acidification the AdV virion becomes softer and its genome less accessible to an intercalating dye, even in the presence of capsid openings. The AFM tip penetrates deeper in virions at neutral pH, and mechanical properties of genome-less particles are not altered upon acidification. Altogether, these results indicate that the main effect of acidification is the compaction of the nucleoproteic core, revealing a previously unknown role for chemical cues in AdV uncoating. Statement of significance: Studying the behavior of virus particles under changing environmental conditions is key to understand cell entry and propagation. One such change is the acidification undergone in certain cell compartments, which is thought to play a role in the programmed uncoating of virus genomes. Mild acidification in the early endosome has been proposed as a trigger signal for human AdV uncoating. However, the actual effect of low pH in AdV stability and entry is not well defined. Understanding the consequences of acidification in AdV structure and stability is also relevant to define storage conditions for therapeutic vectors, or design AdV variants resistant to intestinal conditions for oral administration of vaccinesWe thank M. G. Mateu (CBMSO-CSIC-UAM) for careful reading and insightful comments on early drafts, M. Castellanos and L. A. Campos (CNB-CSIC) for advice with fluorescence measurements and analyses, and M.I. Laguna (CNB-CSIC) for expert technical help. This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (FIS2017- 89549- R; “Maria de Maeztu” Program for Units of Excellence in R&D MDM-2014-0377; and FIS2017-90701-REDT) and from the Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSPO RGP0012/2018) to P.J.P.; as well as grants PID2019-104098GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and BFU2016-74868-P, co-funded by the Spanish State Research Agency and the European Regional Development Fund, and 2019AEP045 from the Agencia Estatal CSIC to C.S.M. The CNB-CSIC is further supported by a Severo Ochoa Excellence grant (SEV 2017-0712). MM was funded by grant RTI2018-099985-B-I00, (MICINN/FEDER, UE) and the Ciber of Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES), an initiative from the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). M.H.-P. was a recipient of a Juan de la Cierva Incorporation postdoctoral contract funded by the Spanish State Research Agency. M.P.-I. held a predoctoral contract from La Caixa Foundation (ID 100010434, under agreement LCF/BQ/SO16/52270032). J. G. is a re cipient of a FPI predoctoral contract (BES-2017-079868) funded by the Spanish State Research Agenc

Evaluación de la oxidación de la vitamina c en zumos en función del envase

La vitamina C es un nutriente esencial hidrosoluble que se encuentra principalmente en frutas y verduras. El déficit de esta vitamina tiene como resultado la aparición de una enfermedad conocida como escorbuto. La vitamina C es una mezcla de ácido ascórbico y su producto de oxidación, el ácido dehidroascórbico. La proporción final de los ácidos determinará la capacidad antioxidante de la vitamina C, ya que la capacidad antioxidante de cada uno de ellos es muy diferente. Actualmente, la capacidad antioxidante de un producto que se considera un parámetro de calidad en la elección de un alimento. El ácido ascórbico tiene mayor capacidad antioxidante que el ácido dehidroascórbico, por lo que sería interesante poder determinar ambos compuestos individualmente y la evolución de la composición para conocer así la variación de la capacidad antioxidante. Debido a la importancia nutricional de la vitamina C, se están buscando métodos sencillos y rápidos para evaluar de forma individual el ácido ascórbico y el ácido dehidroascórbico. En este trabajo se busca determinar de forma precisa la concentración de vitamina C como suma de ácido ascórbico y ácido dehidroascórbico y ver la evolución de los mismos en las condiciones de estudio. Para ello se estudiará la influencia de los distintos tipos de envases y diferentes condiciones de conservación con respecto a la capacidad antioxidante de los zumos. Se comprobará como le afecta el tipo de envase desde el punto de vista del material, la incidencia de la luz, el tiempo transcurrido desde el envasado, la forma final de llenado y si los envases activos, de gran interés en la actualidad, pueden ayudar a su conservación. Para la determinación de estos compuestos existen muchas técnicas, pero la mayoría de ellas consiguen la determinación por diferencia entre el contenido de vitamina C total y el contenido de ácido ascórbico. La determinación de la composición de la vitamina C se ha llevado a cabo por medio del UPLC con detección simultánea de MS/MS en tandem con UV. En el proyecto se han realizado diferentes ensayos y determinaciones. Se presentan los resultados del trabajo y las conclusiones que se han obtenido después de la finalización del proyecto

SH3BP2 Silencing Increases miRNAs Targeting ETV1 and Microphthalmia-Associated Transcription Factor, Decreasing the Proliferation of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. Gain of function in receptor tyrosine kinases type III, KIT, or PDGFRA drives the majority of GIST. Previously, our group reported that silencing of the adaptor molecule SH3 Binding Protein 2 (SH3BP2) downregulated KIT and PDGFRA and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) levels and reduced tumor growth. This study shows that SH3BP2 silencing also decreases levels of ETV1, a required factor for GIST growth. To dissect the SH3BP2 pathway in GIST cells, we performed a miRNA array in SH3BP2-silenced GIST cell lines. Among the most up-regulated miRNAs, we found miR-1246 and miR-5100 to be predicted to target MITF and ETV1. Overexpression of these miRNAs led to a decrease in MITF and ETV1 levels. In this context, cell viability and cell cycle progression were affected, and a reduction in BCL2 and CDK2 was observed. Interestingly, overexpression of MITF enhanced cell proliferation and significantly rescued the viability of miRNA-transduced cells. Altogether, the KIT-SH3BP2-MITF/ETV1 pathway deserves to be considered in GIST cell survival and proliferation

Automation Proposal for the Intermediate Steps in the 16S FFPE Samples Analysis Pipeline

Cursos e Congresos, C-155[Abstract] In the day-to-day work of bioinformatics, the use of integrated software packages, which encompass a wide range of tools, enables the development of pipelines for omics data analysis. Within the various existing pipelines, we focus on the analysis of the 16S rRNA gene as it allows for the study of diversity and taxonomy of prokaryotic microorganisms such as Bacteria and Archaea. However, these pipelines often involve a sequence of multiple tools that require intermediate steps before further processing can proceed, as in the case between Cutadapt and DADA2. In fact, in a typical pipeline, the values for DADA2 input arguments ’trunc-len-f’ and ’trunc-len-r’ are extracted from the output of Cutadapt. The best approach for selecting optimal values (aka the trimming positions) is graphically visualizing Cutadapt output and manually selecting the most accurate trimming position length. Therefore, we propose the automation of this specific intermediate step between Cutadapt and DADA2 tools, by selecting values displayed in the graphs that meet the filtering criteria. This automation has been incorporated into a custom pipeline for the analysis of the microbiome in 16S paired-end samples from colorectal cancer patients, and could potentially serve as a standardization approach in these processesThe authors of this paper extend their sincere appreciation to the collaborative efforts and contributions of the meiGAbiome Group, aswell as the entire team of medical and anatomopathologists. Finally, we are deeply grateful to the patients whose selfless donations have made this and numerous other studies possibl

6th International Conference on Mechanical Models in Structural Engineering

Producción CientíficaThis ebook contains the 37 full papers submitted to the 6th International Conference on Mechanical Models in Structural Engineering (CMMOST 2021) held in Valladolid on December 2021

Role of the LPA1 receptor in mood and emotional regulation

Depression is a debilitating psychiatric condition characterized by anhedonia and behavioural despair among others symptoms. Despite the high prevalence and devastating impact of depression, underlying neurobiological mechanisms of mood disorders are still not well known. Regardless its complexity, central features of this disease can be modelled in rodents in order to better understand the potential mechanisms underlying. On the other hand, the lack of LPA1 receptor compromises the morphological and functional integrity of the limbic circuit and the neurogenesis in hippocampus, induces cognitive alterations on hippocampal-dependent tasks and dysfunctional coping of chronic stress, provokes exaggerated endocrine responses to emotional stimuli and impairs adaptation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis after chronic stress. Factors, which all have been related with depression. Here, we sought to establish the involvement of the LPA1 receptor in regulation of mood and emotion. To this end, in wild-type and maLPA1-null mice active coping responses to stress were examined using the forced swimming test (FST). To assess hedonic behaviour saccharine preference test and female urine sniffing test were used. Our data indicated that the absence of the LPA1 receptor significantly affected to coping strategies. Thus, while null mice displayed less immobility than wt in FST, exhibited more climbing and less swimming behaviour, responses that could be interpreted as an emotional over-reaction (i.e., a panic-like response) to stress situations. Concerning hedonic behaviour, the lack of the LPA1 receptor diminished saccharin preference and female urine sniffing time. Overall, these data supports the role of LPA1 receptor in mood and emotional regulation. Specially, the lack of this receptor induced emotional dysregulation and anhedonic behaviour, a core symptom of depression.Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Excelencia Andalucía Tech. Andalusian Regional Ministries of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment (SEJ-1863; CTS643) and of Health (PI-0234-2013; Nicolas Monardes Programme), MINECO (PSI2013-44901-P) and National Institute of Health Carlos III (Sara Borrel)

Sexual differences in hippocampal microglia of adult mice subjected to maternal separation stress.

Introduction: It is well known that early life adversities could a"ect brain development and increase the vulnerability to stress-related disorders later in adulthood. Nevertheless, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this susceptibility have been poorly characterized and sex could be an important variable. Recently, microglia, which is involved in many neurodevelopmental processes such as neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity, has been proposed as a mediator of this stress response and early life stress could “prime” microglia to be over- responsive in future challenges. Objective: The analysis of hippocampal microglia morphology and distribution in the dentate gyrus (DG) of mice subjected to early stress. Methods: Female and male C57BL/6J mice were subjected to 3h daily maternal separation (MS) for 21 days. In postnatal day 60, adult mice undertook a single 2h restriction stress (RS). Accordingly, the experimental groups were as follows: CTRL, RS, MS, MS+RS. The DG was analyzed using immunohistochemistry techniques against Iba1 (microglia) following image analysis (ImageJ) to obtain morphological and distribution data of microglial somas and DG surface area. Results: Smaller DG surface area was observed in MS male mice compared with the CTRL group, but not in female. Furthermore, microglial soma area changed in a sex-dependent manner, having female mice from MS group an increased soma area than those of MS male mice. This was also observed to be region-specific, with a larger microglia soma in DG subgranular zone (SGZ) of MS female compared to MS male. Since microglia in this DG zone is involved in neurogenesis, this might suggest a possible change in the formation of new born neurons. Conclusion: These results revealed a di"erent microglial response to stress depending on the animal sex and open the door to a better understanding of neurobiological basis in pathologies like depression. .University of Málaga, the project PID2020-117464RB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN/AEI) Spain, awarded to Pedraza, C. and Pérez-Martín, M. ; the project P20_00460 from Consejería de Conocimiento, Investigación y Universidades, Junta de Andalucía awarded to Pedraza, C. and predoctoral fellowship FPU21/01318 awarded to Munoz- Martin, J. funded by MCIN/AEI, Spain. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Mild juvenile stress increases resilience to the development of anxious behaviors and prevents neurogenic reduction after stress exposure in adulthood.

Stress, especially during sensitive periods of development, can induce neuroplastic changes in brain regions such as the hippocampus, which increases vulnerability to the negative effects of a second stressor during adulthood, precipitating the development of depressive symptoms. For this reason, C57BL/6J mice were subjected to two stress protocols, the first in the juvenile period and the second in adulthood. Neurogenic and behavioral changes (saccharin preference test and social behavior test) were analyzed. The results revealed that juvenile stress increased basal saccharin preference in adulthood. However, animals subjected to stress in both juvenile and adulthood showed anhedonic behavior. In addition, stress in adulthood resulted in increased anxious behavior without affecting interest in social relationships. Stress in adulthood reduced neurogenesis. In contrast, juvenile stress prevented the development of anxious behavior and the reduction of hippocampal neurogenesis induced by stress in adulthood. In conclusion, juvenile stress increases the risk of developing anhedonia after exposure to a second stress, but, in contrast to our expectations, mild stress during the juvenile period increases resilience to the development of anxious behaviors and prevents neurogenic reduction after stress exposure in adulthoodUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech