Grapholita molesta : characterization of an artificial rearing

Grapholita molesta (Busck) es considerada plaga principal del duraznero en Mendoza. Sus larvas han sido criadas, en condiciones de laboratorio, con dietas naturales por diversos autores. Los objetivos fueron: 1. poner a punto la cría artificial de la especie; 2. diseñar una jaula para el apareamiento y la oviposición de los adultos; 3. evaluar la eficiencia de la jaula y la dieta larvaria mediante grados día, ciclo biológico, peso de pupas, recuperación de huevoadulto, fecundidad, viabilidad y longevidad. La cría artificial de una especie constituye una herramienta para profundizar sus conocimientos bioetoecológicos y, en consecuencia, aplicarlos en su control. En 1996 se fundó una cría con larvas salvajes alimentadas con manzanas verdes pequeñas del cv. Granny Smith. Los adultos se desarrollaron en una jaula especialmente diseñada. En el ciclo biológico, la recuperación huevo-adulto y la fecundidad se obtuvieron valores superiores a los citados por otros autores pero no ocurrió lo mismo con las otras variables. La cría artificial de Grapholita molesta (Busck) se logró desarrollar por 37 generaciones y la alta fecundidad obtenida es una clave fundamental en el éxito de su mantenimiento.The Grapholita molesta (Busck) is considered the principal plague of peach trees in Mendoza. Its larva have been bred in laboratory conditions, with natural diets by different authors. The goals were: 1. to set the artificial breeding for this specie; 2. to design a cage for the mating and adult oviposition; 3. to evaluate the efficiency of the cage and larval diet by means of day egrees, biological cycle, pupae weight, egg-adult recovery, fertility, viability and longevity. The artificial rearing of a species constitutes a fundamental tool to obtain bioetoecological knowledge and in consequence apply it in its control. In 1996 offspring of wild larva which were fed small green Granny Smith apples were founded. The adults developed in a specially designed cage. In the biological cycle, egg-adult recovery and fertility superior values than those mentioned by other authors were obtained, but this didn't reoccur with the other variables. The artificial rearing of the Grapholita molesta (Busck) were able to develop for 37 generations, being the high fertility obtained a fundamental key in the success of their maintenance.Fil: Marín, María Susana. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ciencias BiológicasFil: Sáez, César C.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ciencias BiológicasFil: Caballero, Ariel E.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ciencias BiológicasFil: Quercetti, María J.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ciencias Biológica

Sistemas transportadores de fármacos basados en el polímero poly(e- caprolactona) para el tratamiento del cáncer

Chemotherapy agents have little or no specificity over cancer cells, resulting in low therapeutic concentrations at the tumor site (a consequence of a broad systemic distribution), and severe side effects. With the aim of avoiding cancer therapy failure, several approaches such as design of new anticancer drugs, chemical engineering of conventional drugs and development of drug delivery systems have been proposed. The objective is to enhance drug localization at the tumor region (by controlling its biodistribution profile) and, therefore, to increase the anti-tumor efficacy (even in multi-drug resistant tumors), while reducing systemic side effects. One of the most promising approaches to the problem is the development of drug nanocarriers based on the polymer poly(e-caprolactone). In this review we will focus our attention on these polymeric colloids, particularly on the most significant characteristics and formulation procedures, and on their use as nanoplatforms for the delivery of chemotherapy agents to the tumor site. Furthermore, the most recent in vitro and in vivo investigations on the subject are extensively reviewed

Review of the “state of the art” and possibilities of the most significant approaches to the specific delivery of chemotherapy agents to tumor cells

Los principales problemas de la quimioterapia proceden esencialmente de la relativa falta de especificidad derivada de la extensa biodistribución de los agentes antitumorales y de los efectos secundarios generados por la acción inespecífica de éstos en tejidos y órganos sanos. La necesidad de encontrar tratamientos eficaces contra el cáncer ha hecho que se incrementen las líneas de investigación en esta materia. Una de las aproximaciones más prometedoras en este sentido es el desarrollo de sistemas coloidales biodegradables para el transporte de fármacos antitumorales. Gracias a éstos, se logra acumular específicamente la cantidad de fármaco administrada en el lugar de acción, logrando así un aumento significativo de la eficacia clínica, junto con una minimización de las reacciones adversas asociadas. En este trabajo, pretendemos analizar el estado actual en el diseño de coloides como transportadores de fármacos antitumorales, junto con la aplicación de las novedosas estrategias de transporte pasivo y activo de fármacos.The main problems related to chemotherapy mainly come from a relative lack of selectivity, that is associated to the extensive biodistribution of antitumor molecules, and to the severe side effects generated by the unspecific drug action on healthy tissues and organs. The need of finding out efficient treatments against cancer has led to an enhancement in the number of research lines in the field. In this way, one of the most promising approaches is the development of biodegradable colloids for the delivery of antitumor drugs. Thanks to them, it is possible to specifically concentrate the drug into the site of action. Therefore, a significant improvement of the chemotherapy effect is obtained along with a minimization of the related adverse side effects. In this review, we analyze the current “state of the art” in the development of colloidal systems for the efficient delivery of anticancer drugs. The possibilities of novel drug delivery strategies based on passive and active targeting mechanisms are also discussed

Enhanced removal of a pesticides mixture by single cultures and consortia of free and immobilized Streptomyces strains

Pesticides are normally used to control specific pests and to increase the productivity in crops; as a result, soils are contaminated with mixtures of pesticides. In this work, the ability of Streptomyces strains (either as pure or mixed cultures) to remove pentachlorophenol and chlorpyrifos was studied. The antagonism among the strains and their tolerance to the toxic mixture was evaluated. Results revealed that the strains did not have any antagonistic effects and showed tolerance against the pesticides mixture. In fact, the growth of mixed cultures was significantly higher than in pure cultures. Moreover, a pure culture (Streptomyces sp. A5) and a quadruple culture had the highest pentachlorophenol removal percentages (10.6% and 10.1%, resp.),while Streptomyces sp.M7 presented the best chlorpyrifos removal (99.2%).Mixed culture of all Streptomyces spp. when assayed either as free or immobilized cells showed chlorpyrifos removal percentages of 40.17% and 71.05%, respectively, and for pentachlorophenol 5.24% and 14.72%, respectively, suggesting better removal of both pesticides by using immobilized cells. These results reveal that environments contaminated with mixtures of xenobiotics could be successfully cleaned up by using either free or immobilized cultures of Streptomyces, through in situ or ex situ remediation techniques.Fil: Fuentes, María Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Briceño, Gabriela E.. Universidad de la Frontera; Chile;Fil: Sáez, Juliana María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Benimeli, Claudia Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Tucumán. Unidad de Administración Territorial; Argentina. Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Diez, Maria Cecilia. Universidad de la Frontera; Chile;Fil: Amoroso, Maria Julia del R.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; Argentina. Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino; Argentin

Parallel workflows to personalize clinical guidelines recommendations: application to gestational diabetes mellitus

The MobiGuide system provides patients with personalized decision support tools, based on computerized clinical guidelines, in a mobile environment. The generic capabilities of the system will be demonstrated applied to the clinical domain of Gestational Diabetes (GD). This paper presents a methodology to identify personalized recommendations, obtained from the analysis of the GD guideline. We added a conceptual parallel part to the formalization of the GD guideline called "parallel workflow" that allows considering patient?s personal context and preferences. As a result of analysing the GD guideline and eliciting medical knowledge, we identified three different types of personalized advices (therapy, measurements and upcoming events) that will be implemented to perform patients? guiding at home, supported by the MobiGuide system. These results will be essential to determine the distribution of functionalities between mobile and server decision support capabilities

MOMIC: A multi-omics pipeline for data analysis, integration and interpretation

Background and Objectives: The burst of high-throughput omics technologies has given rise to a new era in systems biology, offering an unprecedented scenario for deriving meaningful biological knowledge through the integration of different layers of information. Methods: We have developed a new software tool, MOMIC, that guides the user through the application of different analysis on a wide range of omic data, from the independent single-omics analysis to the combination of heterogeneous data at different molecular levels. Results: The proposed pipeline is developed as a collection of Jupyter notebooks, easily editable, reproducible and well documented. It can be modified to accommodate new analysis workflows and data types. It is accessible via momic.us.es, and as a docker project available at github that can be locally installed. Conclusions: MOMIC offers a complete analysis environment for analysing and integrating multi-omics data in a single, easy-to-use platform.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2017-88209-C2-2-RJunta de Andalucía P18-RT-2778Junta de Andalucía US-1263341Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación IPT-2011-0952-90000

Betulinic Acid Hydroxamate is Neuroprotective and Induces Protein Phosphatase 2A-Dependent HIF-1α Stabilization and Post-transcriptional Dephosphorylation of Prolyl Hydrolase 2

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by unwanted choreatic movements, behavioral and psychiatric disturbances, and dementia. The activation of the hypoxic response pathway through the pharmacological inhibition of hypoxia-inducing factor (HIF) prolyl-hydroxylases (PHDs) is a promising approach for neurodegenerative diseases, including HD. Herein, we have studied the mechanism of action of the compound Betulinic acid hydroxamate (BAH), a hypoximimetic derivative of betulinic acid, and its efficacy against striatal neurodegeneration using complementary approaches. Firstly, we showed the molecular mechanisms through which BAH modifies the activity of the PHD2 prolyl hydroxylase, thus directly affecting HIF-1α stability. BAH treatment reduces PHD2 phosphorylation on Ser-125 residue, responsible for the control of its hydrolase activity. HIF activation by BAH is inhibited by okadaic acid and LB-100 indicating that a protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is implicated in the mechanism of action of BAH. Furthermore, in striatal cells bearing a mutated form of the huntingtin protein, BAH stabilized HIF-1α protein, induced Vegf and Bnip3 gene expression and protected against mitochondrial toxin-induced cytotoxicity. Pharmacokinetic analyses showed that BAH has a good brain penetrability and experiments performed in a mouse model of striatal neurodegeneration induced by 3-nitropropionic acid showed that BAH improved the clinical symptoms. In addition, BAH also prevented neuronal loss, decreased reactive astrogliosis and microglial activation, inhibited the upregulation of proinflammatory markers, and improved antioxidant defenses in the brain. Taken together, our results show BAH’s ability to activate the PP2A/PHD2/HIF pathway, which may have important implications in the treatment of HD and perhaps other neurodegenerative diseases

Interaction between Calpain 5, Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma and Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-delta genes: a polygenic approach to obesity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Context</p> <p>Obesity is a multifactorial disorder, that is, a disease determined by the combined effect of genes and environment. In this context, polygenic approaches are needed.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To investigate the possibility of the existence of a crosstalk between the <it>CALPAIN 10 </it>homologue <it>CALPAIN 5 </it>and nuclear receptors of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors family.</p> <p>Design</p> <p>Cross-sectional, genetic association study and gene-gene interaction analysis.</p> <p>Subjects</p> <p>The study sample comprise 1953 individuals, 725 obese (defined as body mass index ≥ 30) and 1228 non obese subjects.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the monogenic analysis, only the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (<it>PPARD</it>) gene was associated with obesity (OR = 1.43 [1.04–1.97], p = 0.027). In addition, we have found a significant interaction between <it>CAPN5 </it>and <it>PPARD </it>genes (p = 0.038) that reduces the risk for obesity in a 55%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that <it>CAPN5 </it>and <it>PPARD </it>gene products may also interact in vivo.</p

Predicción del desarrollo de fisuras en presas de hormigón de gravedad utilizando el modelo Concrete Damaged Plasticity

Las presas de gravedad de hormigón son estructuras que mantienen su estabilidad frente a las cargas de diseño a través de su geometría y de la masa y resistencia del material. En aquellos casos en los cuales se encuentran construidas en zonas de riesgo sísmico, debe verificarse si son capaces de resistir las cargas dinámicas asociadas a este fenómeno. De acuerdo con las recomendaciones del USACE, pueden emplearse técnicas modales para analizar el comportamiento tensional de presas de hormigón sometidas a acciones sísmicas. Estas técnicas incluyen modelos simplificados empleando espectros de respuesta y la utilización del Método de los Elementos Finitos (MEF). A los efectos de identificar las posibles zonas fisuradas en una presa y determinar su configuración de daño, deben utilizarse modelos no lineales. El comportamiento no lineal del hormigón puede simularse a través de dos procesos que involucran al material y su comportamiento mecánico: daño y plasticidad. La principal hipótesis de la teoría de la plasticidad, ampliamente utilizada para describir el comportamiento del hormigón, es la existencia de una superficie de fluencia que incluye sensibilidad a la presión, al camino, flujo no asociado y endurecimiento. Sin embargo, esta teoría no predice la degradación de la rigidez del material debido a la microfisuración. Por otro lado, la teoría del continuo que emplea el concepto de daño también ha sido utilizada para modelar el comportamiento no lineal del hormigón mediante un conjunto de variables internas a nivel macroscópico. Es necesaria la utilización conjunta de las teorías de plasticidad y de daño para poder modelar el comportamiento observado en el hormigón en forma experimental. En este trabajo se estudia la configuración de daño de la presa Portezuelo del Viento utilizando el modelo Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP), el cual se encuentra disponible en el código comercial de análisis por el MEF Abaqus/Standard. La presa objeto del análisis está proyectada para ser emplazada en la provincia de Mendoza, República Argentina, en la zona sísmica 3, de acuerdo con la normativa CIRSOC 103.Publicado en Terceras Jornadas de Investigación, Transferencia y Extensión. La Plata : Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 2015.Facultad de Ingenierí

Automatic blood glucose classification for gestational diabetes with feature selection: decision trees vs neural networks

Automatic blood glucose classification may help specialists to provide a better interpretation of blood glucose data, downloaded directly from patients glucose meter and will contribute in the development of decision support systems for gestational diabetes. This paper presents an automatic blood glucose classifier for gestational diabetes that compares 6 different feature selection methods for two machine learning algorithms: neural networks and decision trees. Three searching algorithms, Greedy, Best First and Genetic, were combined with two different evaluators, CSF and Wrapper, for the feature selection. The study has been made with 6080 blood glucose measurements from 25 patients. Decision trees with a feature set selected with the Wrapper evaluator and the Best first search algorithm obtained the best accuracy: 95.92%