RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Survival and proliferation under severely hypoxic microenvironments using cell-laden oxygenating hydrogels

Different strategies have been employed to provide adequate nutrients for engineered living tissues. These have mainly revolved around providing oxygen to alleviate the effects of chronic hypoxia or anoxia that result in necrosis or weak neovascularization, leading to failure of artificial tissue implants and hence poor clinical outcome. While different biomaterials have been used as oxygen generators for in vitro as well as in vivo applications, certain problems have hampered their wide application. Among these are the generation and the rate at which oxygen is produced together with the production of the reaction intermediates in the form of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Both these factors can be detrimental for cell survival and can severely affect the outcome of such studies. Here we present calcium peroxide (CPO) encapsulated in polycaprolactone as oxygen releasing microparticles (OMPs). While CPO releases oxygen upon hydrolysis, PCL encapsulation ensures that hydrolysis takes place slowly, thereby sustaining prolonged release of oxygen without the stress the bulk release can endow on the encapsulated cells. We used gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels containing these OMPs to stimulate survival and proliferation of encapsulated skeletal myoblasts and optimized the OMP concentration for sustained oxygen delivery over more than a week. The oxygen releasing and delivery platform described in this study opens up opportunities for cell-based therapeutic approaches to treat diseases resulting from ischemic conditions and enhance survival of implants under severe hypoxic conditions for successful clinical translation. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Controle de Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille, 1806) (Acari: Ixodidae) no canil da Escola de Veterinária da UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil Control of Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille, 1806) (Acari: Ixodidae) in the kennel of the UFMG Veterinary School, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

O presente estudo teve como proposta controlar uma infestação natural de Rhipicephalus sanguineus em um canil pertencente à Escola de Veterinária da UFMG, com uma área de 72 m² e 25 cães de diversas raças. Um teste de sensibilidade a produtos acaricidas foi aplicado em uma amostra de carrapatos capturados no canil. Dos produtos testados: Amitraz 12,5% (Produto 1); uma associação de Alfametrina 2% e Dichlorvós 60% (produto 2); Deltametrina 5% (produto 3) e uma associação de Trichlorfon 77,6%, Coumaphós 1% e Cyfluthrin 1% (produto 4); somente os produtos 1 e 4 apresentaram 100% de eficácia. O Amitraz 12,5% foi utilizado no controle dos estádios de R. sanguineus presentes no ambiente do canil, com um esquema de 4 aplicações a cada 7 dias de intervalo. Para os estádios parasitários, um único tratamento com Flumetrina 1.0% pour-on foi empregado em todos os animais. A inspeção e o monitoramento do ambiente e dos animais foram realizados durante um período de um ano. Estas medidas de controle reduziram significativamente a população de carrapatos dentro do canil. O canil não apresentou infestação pelo carrapato nos seis meses seguintes aos tratamentos. Uma infestação leve foi observada no 7º mês pós-tratamento, quando foi realizada uma nova aplicação de Amitraz 12,5% no ambiente do canil e um novo tratamento com Flumetrina 1.0% pour-on nos animais, com resultados satisfatórios.<br>The present work was aimed at proposing a control measure for Rhipicephalus sanguineus in a naturally infected kennel of 72 m² of the UFMG Veterinary School with 25 dogs of different breeds. A sensitivity test to acaricide products was applied in a sample of R. sanguineus. Out of the acaricide products tested: 12.5% Amitraz (product 1); 2% Alfamethrin and 60% Dichlorvos association (product 2); 5% Deltamethrin (product 3) and the association between 77.6% Trichlorfon, 1.0% Coumaphos and 1.0% Cyfluthrin (product 4); only 1 and 4 products showed 100% efficacy. Amitraz (12.5%) was used for controlling R. sanguineus in the surrounding of the kennel, on which four treatments every seven days were carried out in the facilities. For parasitic R. sanguineus, a single topical treatment was used: Flumetrin 1.0% pour - on on all the 25 dogs. This control measure significantly reduced the population of R. sanguineus within the kennel. A slight infestation was observed in the seventh month after treatment. A new application of 12.5% Amitraz was done in the kennel as well as a new topical treatment with Flumetrin 1.0% pour - on on the dogs. The control procedure proposed in the present study was an emergency measure and its effectiveness was checked through environmental surveys throughout a one-year period