The early-life exposome and epigenetic age acceleration in children

The early-life exposome influences future health and accelerated biological aging has been proposed as one of the underlying biological mechanisms. We investigated the association between more than 100 exposures assessed during pregnancy and in childhood (including indoor and outdoor air pollutants, built environment, green environments, tobacco smoking, lifestyle exposures, and biomarkers of chemical pollutants), and epigenetic age acceleration in 1,173 children aged 7 years old from the Human Early-Life Exposome project. Age acceleration was calculated based on Horvath’s Skin and Blood clock using child blood DNA methylation measured by Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips. We performed an exposure-wide association study between prenatal and childhood exposome and age acceleration. Maternal tobacco smoking during pregnancy was nominally associated with increased age acceleration. For childhood exposures, indoor particulate matter absorbance (PMabs) and parental smoking were nominally associated with an increase in age acceleration. Exposure to the organic pesticide dimethyl dithiophosphate and the persistent pollutant polychlorinated biphenyl-138 (inversely associated with child body mass index) were protective for age acceleration. None of the associations remained significant after multiple-testing correction. Pregnancy and childhood exposure to tobacco smoke and childhood exposure to indoor PMabs may accelerate epigenetic aging from an early ageThe study received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-206) (grant agreement no 308333) (HELIX project), the H2020-EU.3.1.2. - Preventing Disease Programme (grant agreement no 874583) (ATHLETE project), and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant Agreement number: 733206) (Early Life stressors and Lifecycle Health (LIFECYCLE)). BiB received funding from the Welcome Trust (WT101597MA), from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) (MR/N024397/1). INMA was supported by grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, CIBERESP, and the Generalitat de Catalunya-CIRIT. KANC was funded by the grant of the Lithuanian Agency for Science Innovation and Technology (6-04-2014_31V-66). The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Education and Research. The Rhea project was financially supported by European projects (EU FP6-2003-Food-3-NewGeneris, EU FP6. STREP Hiwate, EU FP7 ENV.2007.1.2.2.2. Project No 211250 Escape, EU FP7-2008-ENV-1.2.1.4 Envirogenomarkers, EU FP7-HEALTH-2009- single stage CHICOS, EU FP7 ENV.2008.1.2.1.6. Proposal No 226285 ENRIECO, EU- FP7- HEALTH-2012 Proposal No 308333 HELIX), and the Greek Ministry of Health (Program of Prevention of obesity and neurodevelopmental disorders in preschool children, in Heraklion district, Crete, Greece: 2011-2014; “Rhea Plus”: Primary Prevention Program of Environmental Risk Factors for Reproductive Health, and Child Health: 2012-15). We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023” Program (CEX2018-000806-S), and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program. OR was funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/S03532X/1). MV-U and CR-A were supported by a FI fellowship from the Catalan Government (FI-DGR 2015 and #016FI_B 00272). MC received funding from Instituto Carlos III (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) (CD12/00563 and MS16/00128)S

Educación para el desarrollo en Castilla y León: cómo vemos el mundo

439 p.Quienes creemos que son necesarios cambios en el sistema económico, político y financiero mundial que permitan avanzar en el desarrollo humano sostenible de los pueblos, superando las injusticias y las brechas de desigualdad en el acceso a los recursos, siempre hemos considerado la educación como una pieza clave para conducir ese cambio, y a la universidad como un agente fundamental que puede y debe desarrollarla. Es difícil reflexionar sobre la “Educación para el Desarrollo” distanciándose de los acontecimientos que durante los últimos meses están ocurriendo en Europa y España. Estamos viendo y viviendo cómo la crisis financiera y económica es utilizada para justificar decisiones políticas que reducen nuestro nivel de bienestar. Es inevitable la comparación con los planes de ajuste estructural (PAE) que desde los años 80 se impusieron al dictado del FMI y el BM a los países empobrecidos como respuesta a la crisis de la Deuda Externa, así como sus nefastas consecuencias sociales y económicas para los pueblos afectado

Novel genes and sex differences in COVID-19 severity

[EN] Here, we describe the results of a genome-wide study conducted in 11 939 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) positive cases with an extensive clinical information that were recruited from 34 hospitals across Spain (SCOURGE consortium). In sex-disaggregated genome-wide association studies for COVID-19 hospitalization, genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10−8) was crossed for variants in 3p21.31 and 21q22.11 loci only among males (P = 1.3 × 10−22 and P = 8.1 × 10−12, respectively), and for variants in 9q21.32 near TLE1 only among females (P = 4.4 × 10−8). In a second phase, results were combined with an independent Spanish cohort (1598 COVID-19 cases and 1068 population controls), revealing in the overall analysis two novel risk loci in 9p13.3 and 19q13.12, with fine-mapping prioritized variants functionally associated with AQP3 (P = 2.7 × 10−8) and ARHGAP33 (P = 1.3 × 10−8), respectively. The meta-analysis of both phases with four European studies stratified by sex from the Host Genetics Initiative (HGI) confirmed the association of the 3p21.31 and 21q22.11 loci predominantly in males and replicated a recently reported variant in 11p13 (ELF5, P = 4.1 × 10−8). Six of the COVID-19 HGI discovered loci were replicated and an HGI-based genetic risk score predicted the severity strata in SCOURGE. We also found more SNP-heritability and larger heritability differences by age (<60 or ≥60 years) among males than among females. Parallel genome-wide screening of inbreeding depression in SCOURGE also showed an effect of homozygosity in COVID-19 hospitalization and severity and this effect was stronger among older males. In summary, new candidate genes for COVID-19 severity and evidence supporting genetic disparities among sexes are provided.S

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

Propuesta metodológica para hacer un diagnóstico de la Educación para el Desarrollo

This article presents a methodological design to diagnose the current situation of Development Education (DE) in the Castilla y Léon region in Spain. This design was proposed by the Observatory for Development Cooperation at Valladolid University with the aim of developing a study which becomes the baseline for the development of a future DE strategy in that regionEl presente artículo quiere dar a conocer el diseño metodológico para la elaboración de un diagnóstico de situación de la educación para el desarrollo en Castilla y León, que se ha ideado desde el Observatorio de Cooperación Internacional de la Universidad de Valladolid con el fin de que el conocimiento sobre la situación actual de la educación para el desarrollo en Castilla y León sirva de base para la formulación de una futura estrategia de acción en educación para el desarrollo en la Comunida

A Methodological Proposal to Make a Diagnosis of Development Education

This article presents a methodological design to diagnose the current situation of Development Education (DE) in the Castilla y Léon region in Spain. This design was proposed by the Observatory for Development Cooperation at Valladolid University with the aim of developing a study which becomes the baseline for the development of a future DE strategy in that region

Propuesta metodológica para hacer un diagnóstico de la Educación para el Desarrollo

El presente artículo quiere dar a conocer el diseño metodológico para la elaboración de un diagnóstico de situación de la educación para el desarrollo en Castilla y León, que se ha ideado desde el Observatorio de Cooperación Internacional de la Universidad de Valladolid con el fin de que el conocimiento sobre la situación actual de la educación para el desarrollo en Castilla y León sirva de base para la formulación de una futura estrategia de acción en educación para el desarrollo en la Comunidad

Revista electrónica interuniversitaria de formación del profesorado

Monográfico con el título: 'La Educación para el Desarrollo ante las desigualdades del siglo XXI'. Resumen basado en el de la publicaciónSe pretende dar a conocer el diseño metodológico para la elaboración de un diagnóstico de situación de la Educación para el Desarrollo en Castilla y León, que se ha ideado desde el Observatorio de Cooperación Internacional de la Universidad de Valladolid con el fin de que el conocimiento sobre la situación de la Educación para el Desarrollo en Castilla y León a principios de la segunda década del siglo XXI, sirva de base para la formulación de una futura estrategia de acción en Educación para el Desarrollo en la Comunidad.AragónES

La percepción pública de la Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo en Castilla y León

Conocer el nivel de información y la opinión que las personas de la Comunidad de Castilla y León tienen sobre los principales problemas y retos que enfrenta el mundo en la actualidad y la cooperación para el desarrollo que se lleva a cabo desde el gobierno central, regional, entidades locales y otros agentes de cooperación como son las organizaciones no gubernamentales para el desarrollo o las universidades, es el objetivo del estudio de opinión pública llevado a cabo por el equipo investigador del Observatorio de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo de la Universidad de Valladolid durante el año 2011