Publications by authors named "Luz Cumba Garcia"

This article examines the landscape of Science, Technology, and Innovation policies in Central America, focusing on Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. These nations face significant challenges in leveraging STI for sustainable development, including financial constraints and limited resources. Additionally, Central America struggles with systemic issues such as corruption, violence, and high levels of emigration, further complicating efforts to advance STI.

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The relevance of science diplomacy and open science in today's world is undeniable. Science diplomacy enables countries to jointly address pressing global challenges, such as climate change, pandemics, and food security. Open science, promoting accessible and transparent research, plays a pivotal role in this context.

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Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant brain tumor and has a poor prognosis. Imaging findings at diagnosis and in response to treatment are nonspecific. Developing noninvasive assays to augment imaging would be helpful.

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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-bound particles released by all cells. Previous research has found that these microscopic vesicles contribute to intercellular signaling and communication. EVs carry a variety of cargo, including nucleic acids, proteins, metabolites, and lipids.

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Background: Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common primary brain tumor, has a median survival of 15-16 months. Immunotherapy is promising but GBM-mediated immunosuppression remains a barrier. GBMs express the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)-responsive immunosuppressive molecules programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to isolate extracellular vesicles (EVs) from the plasma of traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients to find new biomarkers that could help in quick diagnosis and classification of the injury.
  • Researchers collected plasma from 15 TBI patients and 5 healthy controls, isolating EVs and analyzing their contents, which revealed that TBI patients with altered consciousness had significantly higher levels of a protein called GFAP and specific microRNAs compared to healthy individuals and those with normal consciousness.
  • The findings suggest that EVs contain valuable biomarkers related to TBI and that further research with larger groups of patients is needed to validate these results.
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As the pace of biomedical innovation rapidly evolves, there is a need to train researchers to understand regulatory science challenges associated with clinical translation. We describe a pilot course aimed at addressing this need delivered jointly through the Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science and the Yale-Mayo Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation. Course design was informed by the Association for Clinical and Translational Science's Regulatory Science Working Group's competencies.

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Gliomas including glioblastoma (GBM) are the most common primary malignant brain tumors. Glioma extracellular vesicles (EVs) including exosomes have biological effects (e.g.

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In this study, we investigated the role of CD38 in a pristane-induced murine model of lupus. CD38-deficient (Cd38) but not ART2-deficient (Art2) mice developed less severe lupus compared to wild type (WT) mice, and their protective phenotype consisted of (i) decreased IFN-I-stimulated gene expression, (ii) decreased numbers of peritoneal CCR2Ly6C inflammatory monocytes, TNF-α-producing Ly6G neutrophils and Ly6C monocytes/macrophages, (iii) decreased production of anti-single-stranded DNA and anti-nRNP autoantibodies, and (iv) ameliorated glomerulonephritis. Cd38 pristane-elicited peritoneal exudate cells had defective CCL2 and TNF-α secretion following TLR7 stimulation.

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Brain atrophy is a common feature of numerous neurologic diseases in which the role of neuroinflammation remains ill-defined. In this study, we evaluated the contribution of major histocompatibility complex class I molecules to brain atrophy in Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV)-infected transgenic FVB mice that express the D class I molecule. FVB/D and wild-type FVB mice were evaluated for changes in neuroinflammation, virus clearance, neuropathology, and development of brain atrophy T2-weighted MRI and subsequent 3-dimensional volumetric analysis.

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Effective recovery of activated brain infiltrating lymphocytes is critical for investigations involving murine neurological disease models. To optimize lymphocyte recovery, we compared two isolation methods using brains harvested from seven-day Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) and TMEV-OVA infected mice. Brains were processed using either a manual dounce based approach or enzymatic digestion using type IV collagenase.

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