Chitinase 3-like 1 is neurotoxic in primary cultured neurons

Chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1) is known to play a role as prognostic biomarker in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), and patients with high cerebrospinal fluid CHI3L1 levels have an increased risk for the development of neurological disability. Here, we investigated its potential neurotoxic effect by adding recombinant CHI3L1 in vitro to primary cultures of mouse cortical neurons and evaluating both neuronal functionality and survival by immunofluorescence. CHI3L1 induced a significant neurite length retraction after 24 and 48 hours of exposure and significantly reduced neuronal survival at 48 hours. The cytotoxic effect of CHI3L1 was neuron-specific and was not observed in mouse immune or other central nervous system cells. These results point to a selective neurotoxic effect of CHI3L1 in vitro and suggest a potential role of CHI3L1 as therapeutic target in MS patients

Polygenic Markers in Patients Diagnosed of Autosomal Dominant Hypercholesterolemia in Catalonia: Distribution of Weighted LDL-c-Raising SNP Scores and Refinement of Variant Selection

Hipercolesterolèmia familiar; Aterosclerosi; Puntuació de risc genèticFamilial hypercholesterolemia; Atherosclerosis; Genetic risk scoresHipercolesterolemia familiar; Aterosclerosis; Puntuaciones de riesgo genéticoFamilial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is associated with mutations in the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (LDLR), apolipoprotein B (APOB), and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) genes. A pathological variant has not been identified in 30–70% of clinically diagnosed FH patients, and a burden of LDL cholesterol (LDL-c)-raising alleles has been hypothesized as a potential cause of hypercholesterolemia in these patients. Our aim was to study the distribution of weighted LDL-c-raising single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) scores (weighted gene scores or wGS) in a population recruited in a clinical setting in Catalonia. The study included 670 consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of FH and a prior genetic study involving 250 mutation-positive (FH/M+) and 420 mutation-negative (FH/M−) patients. Three wGSs based on LDL-c-raising variants were calculated to evaluate their distribution among FH patients and compared with 503 European samples from the 1000 Genomes Project. The FH/M− patients had significantly higher wGSs than the FH/M+ and control populations, with sensitivities ranging from 42% to 47%. A wGS based only on the SNPs significantly associated with FH (wGS8) showed a higher area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and higher diagnostic specificity and sensitivity, with 46.4% of the subjects in the top quartile. wGS8 would allow for the assignment of a genetic cause to 66.4% of the patients if those with polygenic FH are added to the 37.3% of patients with monogenic FH. Our data indicate that a score based on 8 SNPs and the75th percentile cutoff point may identify patients with polygenic FH in Catalonia, although with limited diagnostic sensitivity and specificityThis research was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), and Fondo Europeo de DesarrolloRegional (FEDER) “Una manera de hacer Europa”, grants PI14/01648 (to F.B.-V. and J.M.M.-C.) and PI18/00164(to F.B.-V.), as well as by Fundacióla Maratóde TV3 grant 20152431 (to F.B.-V.), Centro de Investigación Biomédicaen Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM), and Centro de Investigación Biomédicaen Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN). CIBERDEM and CIBEROBN are ISCIII project

Polygenic markers in patients diagnosed of autosomal dominant hypercholesterolemia in Catalonia : distribution of weighted LDL-c-raising SNP scores and refinement of variant selection

Altres ajuts: Fundació la Marató de TV3 grant 20152431Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is associated with mutations in the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (LDLR), apolipoprotein B (APOB), and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) genes. A pathological variant has not been identified in 30-70% of clinically diagnosed FH patients, and a burden of LDL cholesterol (LDL-c)-raising alleles has been hypothesized as a potential cause of hypercholesterolemia in these patients. Our aim was to study the distribution of weighted LDL-c-raising single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) scores (weighted gene scores or wGS) in a population recruited in a clinical setting in Catalonia. The study included 670 consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of FH and a prior genetic study involving 250 mutation-positive (FH/M+) and 420 mutation-negative (FH/M−) patients. Three wGSs based on LDL-c-raising variants were calculated to evaluate their distribution among FH patients and compared with 503 European samples from the 1000 Genomes Project. The FH/M− patients had significantly higher wGSs than the FH/M+ and control populations, with sensitivities ranging from 42% to 47%. A wGS based only on the SNPs significantly associated with FH (wGS8) showed a higher area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and higher diagnostic specificity and sensitivity, with 46.4% of the subjects in the top quartile. wGS8 would allow for the assignment of a genetic cause to 66.4% of the patients if those with polygenic FH are added to the 37.3% of patients with monogenic FH. Our data indicate that a score based on 8 SNPs and the75th percentile cutoff point may identify patients with polygenic FH in Catalonia, although with limited diagnostic sensitivity and specificity

Physicochemical Properties of Lipoproteins Assessed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance as a Predictor of Premature Cardiovascular Disease. PRESARV-SEA Study

Some lipoprotein disorders related to the residual risk of premature cardiovascular disease (PCVD) are not detected by the conventional lipid profile. In this case-control study, the predictive power of PCVD of serum sdLDL-C, measured using a lipoprotein precipitation method, and of the physicochemical properties of serum lipoproteins, analyzed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques, were evaluated. We studied a group of patients with a first PCVD event (n = 125) and a group of control subjects (n = 190). Conventional lipid profile, the size and number of Very Low Density Lipoproteins (VLDL), Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL), High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) particles, and the number of particles of their subclasses (large, medium, and small) were measured. Compared to controls, PCVD patients had lower concentrations of all LDL particles, and smaller and larger diameter of LDL and HDL particles, respectively. PCVD patients also showed higher concentrations of small dense LDL-cholesterol (sdLDL), and triglycerides (Tg) in LDL and HDL particles (HDL-Tg), and higher concentrations of large VLDL particles. Multivariate logistic regression showed that sdLDL-C, HDL-Tg, and large concentrations of LDL particles were the most powerful predictors of PCVD. A strong relationship was observed between increased HDL-Tg concentrations and PCVD. This study demonstrates that beyond the conventional lipid profile, PCVD patients have other atherogenic lipoprotein alterations that are detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis

Aula d'Ecologia : cicles de conferències 1999 i 2000

Descripció del recurs: 13 juny 2007Conté: Rafael Argullol, Natura i ciutat en el canvi de mil·lenni ; Antoni Lloret, Energies per al segle XXI ; Jorge Wagensberg, Investigació científica i sostenibilitat: l'experiència amazònica ; Manuel Ludevid, El paper de les empreses en la societat sostenible ; Rafael Grasa, El paper de les ONG en la societat sostenible ; Luis Ángel Fernández Hermana, La comunicació en la transició cap a una societat sostenible ; Frederic Ximeno, Estratègies i eines de planificació territorial cap a una ciutat sostenible ; José Luis Porcuna, Estratègies agroecològiques cap a una agricultura sostenible ; Josep Germain, Estratègia catalana per a la biodiversitat ; Carles Gràcia, Els boscos i el funcionament sostenible del planeta ; Manuel Herce, El territori de la ciutat: criteris de sostenibilitat, ordenació i urbanització ; Josep Enric Llebot, Ciència i política del canvi climàtic ; Àlex Aguilar, L'extinció de les espècies: entre la ignorància i la tolerància ; Josep Olives, La ciutat com a idea d'equilibri ; Anna Cabré, Demografia i migracions al segle XXI: què és raonable preveure? ; Manolis Kogevinas, Càncer i exposicions mediambientals ; Ramon Arandes, L'aprofitament de les aigües del subsòl de Barcelona ; Rafael Simó, L'oceà i l'atmosfera, inseparables davant el canvi climàtic global ; Joan Caylà, Sobre el possible impacte mundial de la sida en la dècada 2000-2010 ; Jordi Serra Raventós, Ocupació del litoral i implicacions sobre el territori ; Joan Manuel Vilaplana, Catàstrofes i societat ; Montserrat Vilà, Causes i conseqüències de les invasions biològiques ; Josep Egozcue, Clonatge humà: tècnica i ètica ; Millán M. Millán, Contaminación fotoquímica en la cuenca mediterránea: revisión de los resultados de proyectos de investigación europeos ; Jaume Terradas i José Ángel Burriel, Mapa ecològic de Barcelona

Famílies botàniques de plantes medicinals

Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona. Ensenyament: Grau de Farmàcia, Assignatura: Botànica Farmacèutica, Curs: 2013-2014, Coordinadors: Joan Simon, Cèsar Blanché i Maria Bosch.Els materials que aquí es presenten són els recull de 175 treballs d’una família botànica d’interès medicinal realitzats de manera individual. Els treballs han estat realitzat per la totalitat dels estudiants dels grups M-2 i M-3 de l’assignatura Botànica Farmacèutica durant els mesos d’abril i maig del curs 2013-14. Tots els treballs s’han dut a terme a través de la plataforma de GoogleDocs i han estat tutoritzats pel professor de l’assignatura i revisats i finalment co-avaluats entre els propis estudiants. L’objectiu principal de l’activitat ha estat fomentar l’aprenentatge autònom i col·laboratiu en Botànica farmacèutica

Anàlisi de la tecnologia XML a partir del desenvolupament d'una aplicació client-servidor.

L'objectiu d'aquest projecte és analitzar la tecnologia XML, amb la finalitat d'esbrinar per a quins casos és realment útil i en quins casos és discutible.El objetivo de este proyecto es analizar la tecnología XML, con la finalidad de averiguar para qué casos es realmente útil y en qué casos su uso es discutible.The objective of this project is to analyze XML technology, with the aim of finding out in what cases it is really useful and in what cases its usefulness is arguable

Canvis en la personalitat desprès de patir un càncer de mama

Curs 2017-2018En aquest estudi ens centrarem en investigar quins trets de la personalitat s’han modificat desprès de patir un càncer de mama. Per fer-ho, hem descrit tota aquella informació que hem considerat rellevant per a crear una base teòrica que recolzi el treball. Parlarem sobre la malaltia en si, la forma en la que t’afecta física i psicològicament, de com els tractaments utilitzats afecten sobre les subjectes, dels tipus de personalitats existents i del pes que té la personalitat en el benestar psicològic de les persones. Posteriorment, com a part pràctica, hem realitzat una entrevista per poder extreure aquelles dades que considerem necessàries del moment previ a la malaltia i, seguidament, hem passat un test de personalitat per comprovar quins son els trets actuals. Els resultats obtinguts ens mostren que les subjectes, prèviament al diagnòstic de la malaltia, compartien trets com inseguretat, baixa extraversió, facetes evitatives i repressió. Arrel de haver sofert la malaltia, veiem que totes prenen consciència d’aquests aspectes que tenen que canviar o modificar, tot i que a dia d’avui hem comprovat que encara no ha han aconseguit, tot hi estar-ho treballant .Per últim, relacionem els conceptes esmentats en aquest estudi amb els resultats obtinguts. A més, introduïm el concepte de “resiliència” com a fil conductor d’aquests canvis emocionals desprès de superar la malaltia.In this study we will focus on investigating what personality traits have been modified after suffering from breast cancer. To do this, we have described all the information that we considered relevant to create a theoretical basis that supports the work. We will talk about the disease itself, the way in which it affects you physically and psychologically, how the treatments used affect the subjects, the types of personalities existing and the weight that has the personality in the psychological well-being of people. Subsequently, as a practical part, we have conducted an interview to extract those data that we deem necessary from the moment before the illness, and then we have passed a personality test to check the current features. The results obtained show that the subjects, prior to the diagnosis of the disease, shared features such as insecurity, low extraversion, avoidance and repression. As a result of having suffered the disease, we see that all are aware of these aspects that need to be changed or modified, although today we have verified that they have not yet managed to work on it. Finally, we relate the concepts mentioned in this study with the results obtained. In addition, we introduce the concept of "resilience" as a driver of these emotional changes after overcoming the disease