BAMBI (bone morphogenetic protein and activin membrane-bound inhibitor) reveals the involvement of the transforming growth factor-beta family in pain modulation

Transforming growth factors- (TGF- s) signal through type I and type II serine–threonine kinase receptor complexes. During ligand binding, type II receptors recruit and phosphorylate type I receptors, triggering downstream signaling. BAMBI [bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and activin membrane-bound inhibitor] is a transmembrane pseudoreceptor structurally similar to type I receptors but lacks the intracellular kinase domain. BAMBI modulates negatively pan-TGF- family signaling; therefore, it can be used as an instrument for unraveling the roles of these cytokines in the adult CNS. BAMBI is expressed in regions of the CNS involved in pain transmission and modulation. The lack of BAMBI in mutant mice resulted in increased levels of TGF- signaling activity, which was associated with attenuation of acute pain behaviors, regardless of the modality of the stimuli (thermal, mechanical, chemical/inflammatory). The nociceptive hyposensitivity exhibited by BAMBI / mice was reversed by the opioid antagonist naloxone. Moreover, in a model of chronic neuropathic pain, the allodynic responses of BAMBI / mice also appeared attenuated through a mechanism involving -opioid receptor signaling. BasalmRNAand protein levels of precursor proteins of the endogenous opioid peptides proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and proenkephalin (PENK) appeared increased in the spinal cords of BAMBI / . Transcript levels of TGF- s and their intracellular effectors correlated directly with genes encoding opioid peptides, whereas BAMBI correlated inversely. Furthermore, incubation of spinal cord explants with activin A or BMP-7 increased POMC and/or PENK mRNA levels. Our findings identify TGF- family members as modulators of acute and chronic pain perception through the transcriptional regulation of genes encoding the endogenous opioids

Primera cita de Eilema lutarella (Linnaeus, 1758), (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae, Lithosiini), para Galicia (NO España)

Primera cita de Eilema lutarella (Linnaeus, 1758), (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae, Lithosiini), para Galicia (NO España)

Megistopus flavicornis (Rossi, 1790), mirmeleóntido (Neuroptera, Myrmeleontidae) para el Parque Nacional de las Islas Atlánticas de Galicia (NO España)

The species Megistopus flavicornis is cited for the first time in Atlantic Islands of Galicia Maritime-Terrestrial National Park. The vegetation in which it was located is described and some data on the species in Galicia are offered. Keywords: Megistopus flavicornis, Islas Cíes, Galicia, vegetation.Se cita Megistopus flavicornis por primera vez para el Parque Nacional Marítimo-Terrestre de las Islas Atlánticas de Galicia. Se describe la vegetación en la que se localizó y se ofrecen algunos datos sobre la especie en Galicia. Palabras clave: Megistopus flavicornis, Islas Cíes, Galicia, vegetación

Using rules to adapt applications for business models with high evolutionary rates

Nowadays, business models are in permanent evolution since the requirements belongs to a rapidly evolving world. In a context where communications all around the world travel so fast the business models need to be adapted permanently to the information the managers receive. In such world, traditional software development, needed for adapting software to changes, do not work properly since business changes need to be in exploitation in shorter times. In that situation, it is needed to go quicker from the business idea to the exploitation environment. This issue can be solved accelerating the development speed: from the expert to the customer, with no –or few, technical intervention. This paper proposes an approach to empower domain experts in developing adaptability solutions by using automated sets of production rules in a friendly way. Furthermore, a use case that implements this kind of development was used in a real problem prototype