Acute onset supraclavicular lymphadenopathy coinciding with intramuscular mRNA vaccination against COVID-19 may be related to vaccine injection technique, Spain, January and February 2021

Monitoring adverse reactions following immunisation is essential, particularly for new vaccines such as those against COVID-19. We describe 20 cases of acute onset of a single supraclavicular lymphadenopathy manifesting between 24 h and 9 days after ipsilateral intramuscular administration of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, referred to our WHO Collaborating Centre for Vaccine Safety. Our results indicate that the swelling of supraclavicular lymph nodes following immunisation may constitute a benign and self-limited condition, related to a higher than recommended injection siteS

Identification and Functional Analysis of Healing Regulators in Drosophila

© 2015 Álvarez-Fernández et al. Wound healing is an essential homeostatic mechanism that maintains the epithelial barrier integrity after tissue damage. Although we know the overall steps in wound healing, many of the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Genetically amenable systems, such as wound healing in Drosophila imaginal discs, do not model all aspects of the repair process. However, they do allow the less understood aspects of the healing response to be explored, e.g., which signal(s) are responsible for initiating tissue remodeling? How is sealing of the epithelia achieved? Or, what inhibitory cues cancel the healing machinery upon completion? Answering these and other questions first requires the identification and functional analysis of wound specific genes. A variety of different microarray analyses of murine and humans have identified characteristic profiles of gene expression at the wound site, however, very few functional studies in healing regulation have been carried out. We developed an experimentally controlled method that is healing-permissive and that allows live imaging and biochemical analysis of cultured imaginal discs. We performed comparative genome-wide profiling between Drosophila imaginal cells actively involved in healing versus their non-engaged siblings. Sets of potential wound-specific genes were subsequently identified. Importantly, besides identifying and categorizing new genes, we functionally tested many of their gene products by genetic interference and overexpression in healing assays. This non-saturated analysis defines a relevant set of genes whose changes in expression level are functionally significant for proper tissue repair. Amongst these we identified the TCP1 chaperonin complex as a key regulator of the actin cytoskeleton essential for the wound healing response. There is promise that our newly identified wound-healing genes will guide future work in the more complex mammalian wound healing response.CAF and FP were supported by the EU FP6 STREP project WOUND and ST held a Spanish FPU PhD studentship. Research in the EMB laboratory is funded by grants of the EU (FP6 STREP project WOUND), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (DGI and CONSOLIDER grants) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR)Peer Reviewe

SPARC endogenous level, rather than fibroblast-produced SPARC or stroma reorganization induced by SPARC, is responsible for melanoma cell growth

SPARC (secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine) is a matricellular protein whose overexpression in malignant or tumor-stromal cells is often associated with increased aggressiveness and bad prognosis in a wide range of human cancer types, particularly melanoma. We established the impact that changes in the level of SPARC produced by malignant cells and neighboring stromal cells have on melanoma growth. Melanoma cell growth in monolayer was only slightly affected by changes in SPARC levels. However, melanoma growth in spheroids was strongly inhibited upon SPARC hyperexpression and conversely enhanced when SPARC expression was downregulated. Interestingly, SPARC overexpression in neighboring fibroblasts had no effect on spheroid growth irrespective of SPARC levels expressed by the melanoma cells, themselves. Downregulation of SPARC expression in melanoma cells induced their rejection in vivo through a mechanism mediated exclusively by host polymorphonuclear cells. On the other hand, SPARC hyperexpression enhanced vascular density, collagen deposition, and fibroblast recruitment in the surrounding stroma without affecting melanoma growth. In agreement with the in vitro data, overexpression of SPARC in co-injected fibroblasts did not affect melanoma growth in vivo. All the data indicate that melanoma growth is not subject to regulation by exogenous SPARC, nor by stromal organization, but only by SPARC levels produced by the malignant cells themselves.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

A trans-cultural study about sustainability and sustainable food

Sustainability is a popular concept widely used by many companies in sectors as diverse as food, banking or transport. However, consumers have trouble defining and understanding it, so companies' communication efforts can be ineffective. This is even more relevant in the food production and distribution sector, since for years it has been stressed that the agricultural sector is responsible for issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation or biodiversity loss. For this reason, we considered it interesting to analyze how consumers perceive sustainability, especially in relation to food production and consumption. As the concept is difficult to define, and can be influenced by cultural aspects or lifestyles, it was decided to conduct consumer surveys in three countries with different cultural and development contexts (Spain, Turkey and Colombia), which allowed us to assess the differences in consumer perceptions, as well as to identify groups of consumers with different attitudes towards sustainability

Early Detection of External Neurological Symptoms through a Wearable Smart-Glasses Prototype

The Internet of Things (IoT) framework is moving the research community to provide smart systems and solutions aimed at revolutionizing medical sciences and healthcare. Given the extreme diffusion of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), the demand for a solution to early detect neurological symptoms of such diseases strongly arose. According to the medical literature, such early detection can be obtained through the correlation between PD and AD and some external symptoms: the Essential Tremor (ET) and the number of Eye Blinks (EBs). In this paper, which can be considered as an extended version of [1], we present a prototype of wearable smart glasses able to detect the presence of ET of the head and to count the number of EBs at the same time, in a transparent way with respect to the final user. Numerical results demonstrate the reliability of the proposed approach: the proposed algorithms are able to i) correctly recognize the ET with an overall accuracy above 97% and ii) count the number of EBs with an overall error around 9%

Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine produced by human melanoma cells modulates polymorphonuclear leukocyte recruitment and antitumor cytotoxic capacity

The expression of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) has been associated with the malignant progression of different types of human cancer. SPARC was associated with tumor cell capacity to migrate and invade, although its precise role in tumor progression is still elusive. In the present study, we show that SPARC produced by melanoma cells modulates the antitumor activity of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). Administration to nude mice of human melanoma cells in which SPARC expression was transiently or stably knocked down by antisense RNA (SPARC-sup cells) promoted PMN recruitment and obliterated tumor growth even when SPARC-sup cells accounted for only 10% of injected malignant cells. In addition, SPARC-sup cells stimulated the in vitro migration and triggered the antimelanoma cytotoxic capacity of human PMN, an effect that was reverted in the presence of SPARC purified from melanoma cells or by reexpressing SPARC in SPARC-sup cells. Leukotrienes, interleukin 8, and growth-related oncogene, in combination with Fas ligand and interleukin 1, mediated SPARC effects. These data indicate that SPARC plays an essential role in tumor evasion from immune surveillance through the inhibition of the antitumor PMN activity.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine produced by human melanoma cells modulates polymorphonuclear leukocyte recruitment and antitumor cytotoxic capacity

The expression of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) has been associated with the malignant progression of different types of human cancer. SPARC was associated with tumor cell capacity to migrate and invade, although its precise role in tumor progression is still elusive. In the present study, we show that SPARC produced by melanoma cells modulates the antitumor activity of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). Administration to nude mice of human melanoma cells in which SPARC expression was transiently or stably knocked down by antisense RNA (SPARC-sup cells) promoted PMN recruitment and obliterated tumor growth even when SPARC-sup cells accounted for only 10% of injected malignant cells. In addition, SPARC-sup cells stimulated the in vitro migration and triggered the antimelanoma cytotoxic capacity of human PMN, an effect that was reverted in the presence of SPARC purified from melanoma cells or by reexpressing SPARC in SPARC-sup cells. Leukotrienes, interleukin 8, and growth-related oncogene, in combination with Fas ligand and interleukin 1, mediated SPARC effects. These data indicate that SPARC plays an essential role in tumor evasion from immune surveillance through the inhibition of the antitumor PMN activity.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

The multi-reference contrast method: facilitating set enrichment analysis

Set enrichment analysis (SEA) is used to identify enriched biological categories/terms within high-throughput differential expression experiments. This is done by evaluating the proportion of differentially expressed genes against a background reference (BR). However, the choice of the "appropriate" BR is a perplexing problem and results will depend on it. Here, a visualization procedure that integrates results from several BRs and a stability analysis of enriched terms is presented as a tool to aid SEA. The multi-reference contrast method (MRCM) combines results from multiple BRs in a unique picture. The application of the proposed method was illustrated in one proteomic and three microarray experiments. The MRCM facilitates the exploration task involved in ontology analysis on proteomic/genomic experiments, where consensus terms were found to validate main experimental hypothesis. The use of more than one reference may provide new biological insights. The tool automatically highlights non-consensus terms assisting SEA.S

SPARC endogenous level, rather than fibroblast-produced SPARC or stroma reorganization induced by SPARC, is responsible for melanoma cell growth

SPARC (secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine) is a matricellular protein whose overexpression in malignant or tumor-stromal cells is often associated with increased aggressiveness and bad prognosis in a wide range of human cancer types, particularly melanoma. We established the impact that changes in the level of SPARC produced by malignant cells and neighboring stromal cells have on melanoma growth. Melanoma cell growth in monolayer was only slightly affected by changes in SPARC levels. However, melanoma growth in spheroids was strongly inhibited upon SPARC hyperexpression and conversely enhanced when SPARC expression was downregulated. Interestingly, SPARC overexpression in neighboring fibroblasts had no effect on spheroid growth irrespective of SPARC levels expressed by the melanoma cells, themselves. Downregulation of SPARC expression in melanoma cells induced their rejection in vivo through a mechanism mediated exclusively by host polymorphonuclear cells. On the other hand, SPARC hyperexpression enhanced vascular density, collagen deposition, and fibroblast recruitment in the surrounding stroma without affecting melanoma growth. In agreement with the in vitro data, overexpression of SPARC in co-injected fibroblasts did not affect melanoma growth in vivo. All the data indicate that melanoma growth is not subject to regulation by exogenous SPARC, nor by stromal organization, but only by SPARC levels produced by the malignant cells themselves.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria