Associations between eating speed, diet quality, adiposity, and cardiometabolic risk factors

Objective: To assess the associations between eating speed, adiposity, cardiometabolic risk factors, and diet quality in a cohort of Spanish preschool-children. Study design: A cross-sectional study in 1371 preschool age children (49% girls; mean age, 4.8 ± 1.0 years) from the Childhood Obesity Risk Assessment Longitudinal Study (CORALS) cohort was conducted. After exclusions, 956 participants were included in the analyses. The eating speed was estimated by summing the total minutes used in each of the 3 main meals and then categorized into slow, moderate, or fast. Multiple linear and logistic regression models were fitted to assess the β-coefficient, or OR and 95% CI, between eating speed and body mass index, waist circumference, fat mass index (FMI), blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, and lipid profile. Results: Compared with participants in the slow-eating category, those in the fast-eating category had a higher prevalence risk of overweight/obesity (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.8-4.4; P < .01); larger waist circumference (β, 2.6 cm; 95% CI, 1.5-3.8 cm); and greater FMI (β, 0.3 kg/m2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.5 kg/m2), systolic blood pressure (β, 2.8 mmHg; 95% CI, 0.6-4.9 mmHg), and fasting plasma glucose levels (β, 2.7 mg/dL, 95% CI, 1.2-4.2 mg/dL) but lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet (β, −0.5 points; 95% CI, −0.9 to −0.1 points). Conclusions: Eating fast is associated with higher adiposity, certain cardiometabolic risk factors, and lower adherence to a Mediterranean diet. Further long-term and interventional studies are warranted to confirm these associations

Antileishmanial activity of furoquinolines and coumarins from Helietta apiculata

The bark infusion of H. apiculata are used to treat wound healing related to cutaneous leishmaniasis and as anti-inflammatory. Aim of the study: To isolate, purify active constituents of H. apiculata stem bark, and evaluate their in vitro and in vivo antileishmanial activities. Materials and methods: Isolation by chromatographic methods and chemical identification of furoquinoline alkaloids and coumarins, then evaluation of the in vitro leishmanicidal activity of these compounds against three strains of Leishmania sp. promastigotes and in vivo against Leigh mania amazonensis in Balb/c mice. Results: Furoquinoline alkaloids and coumarins presented a moderate in vitro activity against promastigote forms of Leishmania sp. with IC50 values in the range between 17 and > 50 mu g/ml. Balb/c mice infected with Leishmania amazonensis were treated with gamma-fagarine by oral route, or with 3-(1'-dimethylallyl)-decursinol or (-)-heliettin by subscutaneous route for 14 days at 10 mg/kg daily. In these conditions, gamma-fagarine, 3-(1'-dimethylally1)-decursinol and (-)-heliettin showed the same efficacy as the reference drug reducing by 97.4, 95.6 and 98.6% the parasite loads in the lesion, respectively. Conclusion: These compounds showed significant efficacy in L amazonensis infected mice, providing important knowledge to improve its potential role for a future use in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis

RHBDD2 overexpression promotes a chemoresistant and invasive phenotype to rectal cancer tumors via modulating UPR and focal adhesion genes

The current standard of care for locally advanced rectal cancer (RC) is neoadjuvant radio-chemotherapy (NRC) with 5-fluorouracil (5Fu) as the main drug, followed by surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy. While a group of patients will achieve a pathological complete response, a significant percentage will not respond to the treatment. The Unfolding Protein Response (UPR) pathway is generally activated in tumors and results in resistance to radio-chemotherapy. We previously showed that RHBDD2 gene is overexpressed in the advanced stages of colorectal cancer (CRC) and that it could modulate the UPR pathway. Moreover, RHBDD2 expression is induced by 5Fu. In this study, we demonstrate that the overexpression of RHBDD2 in CACO2 cell line confers resistance to 5Fu, favors cell migration, adhesion and proliferation and has a profound impact on the expression of both, the UPR genes BiP, PERK and CHOP, and on the cell adhesion genes FAK and PXN. We also determined that RHBDD2 binds to BiP protein, the master UPR regulator. Finally, we confirmed that a high expression of RHBDD2 in RC tumors after NRC treatment is associated with the development of local or distant metastases. The collected evidence positions RHBDD2 as a promising prognostic biomarker to predict the response to neoadjuvant therapy in patients with RC.Fil: Palma, Sabina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Inmunológicas Básicas y Aplicadas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Raffa, Carlos Ignacio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Garcia Fabiani, Maria Belen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner". Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner"; ArgentinaFil: Ferretti, Valeria. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Inmunológicas Básicas y Aplicadas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Zwenger, Ariel. Grupo Oncologico Cooperativo del Sur; Argentina. Provincia del Neuquén. Hospital Provincial Neuquén "Dr. E. Castro Rendón"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Perez Verdera, P. V.. No especifíca;Fil: Llontop, A.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Rojas Bilbao, E.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Cuartero, V.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Abba, Martín Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Inmunológicas Básicas y Aplicadas; ArgentinaFil: Lacunza, Ezequiel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Inmunológicas Básicas y Aplicadas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentin

Molecular Epidemiology of ALK Rearrangements in Advanced Lung Adenocarcinoma in Latin America

Objective: Latin American countries are heterogeneous in terms of lung cancer incidence and exposure to potential carcinogens. We evaluated the frequency and clinical characteristics of ALK rearrangements (ALKr) in Latin America. Methods: A total of 5,130 lung cancer patients from 10 Latin American countries were screened for inclusion. ALKr detection was performed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to assess method variability. Demographic and clinicopathologic characteristics were analyzed. Results: Among the 5,130 patients screened, 8.4% (n = 433) had nonevaluable FISH tests. Evaluable FISH analyses revealed positive ALKr in 6.8% (320/4,697) of the study population, which included patients from 9 countries. ALKr distribution for each country was: Mexico 7.6% (79/1,034), Colombia 4.1% (10/242), Argentina 6.0% (153/2,534), Costa Rica 9.5% (13/137), Panama 4.4% (5/114), Uruguay 5.4% (2/37), Chile 8.6% (16/185), Venezuela 8.9% (13/146), and Peru 10.8% (29/268). RT-PCR showed high positive (83.6%) and negative (99.7%) predictive values when compared to the gold standard FISH. In contrast, IHC only showed a high negative predictive value (94.6%). Conclusions: Although there is a clear country and continental variability in terms of ALKr frequency, this difference is not significant and the overall incidence of ALKr in Latin America does not differ from the rest of the world.Fil: Arrieta, Oscar. Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia; MéxicoFil: Cardona, Andrés F.. Institute Of Oncology; ColombiaFil: Bramuglia, Guillermo. Foundation For Clinical And Applied Cancer Research; ColombiaFil: Cruz Rico, Graciela. Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia; MéxicoFil: Corrales, Luis. Hospital San Juan de Dios; Costa RicaFil: Martín, Claudio. Instituto Alexander Fleming.; ArgentinaFil: Imaz Olguín, Victoria. Hospital ABC; Costa RicaFil: Castillo, Omar. National Institute of Cancer; PanamáFil: Cuello, Mauricio. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Rojas Bilbao, Érica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Casas, Gabriel. Hospital Aleman; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, Cristina. Hospital Clínico de la Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Arén Frontera, Osvaldo. Hospital Clínico de la Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Denninghoff, Valeria Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. CEMIC-CONICET. Centro de Educaciones Médicas e Investigaciones Clínicas "Norberto Quirno". CEMIC-CONICET; ArgentinaFil: Recondo, Gonzalo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. CEMIC-CONICET. Centro de Educaciones Médicas e Investigaciones Clínicas "Norberto Quirno". CEMIC-CONICET; ArgentinaFil: Avilés Salas, Alejandro. Instituto Nacional de Cancerología; MéxicoFil: Mas Lopez, Luis Alberto. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas; PerúFil: Oblitas, George. Instituto Oncologico “Dr. Luis Razetti”; VenezuelaFil: Rojas, Leonardo. Hospital Universitario San Ignacio; ColombiaFil: Piottante, Antonio. Clínica las Condes; ChileFil: Jiménez García, Ernesto. No especifíca;Fil: Sánchez-Sosa, Sergio. Hospital Ángeles de Puebla; MéxicoFil: Sáenz Frias, Julia. Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social; MéxicoFil: Lupera, Hernán. Hospital Metropolitano; EcuadorFil: Ramírez Tirado, Laura Alejandra. Instituto Nacional de Cancerología; MéxicoFil: Vargas, Carlos. Institute of Oncology; ColombiaFil: Carranza, Hernán. Institute of Oncology; ColombiaFil: Astudillo, Horacio. No especifíca;Fil: Wills, Laura Beatriz. No especifíca;Fil: Pichelbaur, Ernestina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Raez, Luis E.. Memorial Cancer Institute; Estados Unido