Xenobiotics Triggering Acute Intermittent Porphyria and Their Effect on Mouse Brain Respiratory Complexes.

Heme enzyme dysfunction causes a group of diseases called porphyrias. Particularly, a decrease in porphobilinogen deaminase, involved in the third step of heme biosynthesis, leads to acute intermittent porphyria (AIP). Considering our previous works demonstrating the multiplicity of brain metabolisms affected by porphyrinogenic agents, this study aimed to elucidate whether they cause any alteration on the mitochondrial respiratory chain.

Effects of Large Extracellular Vesicles from Kidney Cancer Patients on the Growth and Environment of Renal Cell Carcinoma Xenografts in a Mouse Model.

Plasma membrane-derived vesicles, also referred to as large extracellular vesicles (lEVs), are implicated in several pathophysiological situations, including cancer. However, to date, no studies have evaluated the effects of lEVs isolated from patients with renal cancer on the development of their tumors. In this study, we investigated the effects of three types of lEVs on the growth and peritumoral environment of xenograft clear cell renal cell carcinoma in a mouse model.

Evaluation and Pre-selection of New Grapevine Genotypes Resistant to Downy and Powdery Mildew, Obtained by Cross-Breeding Programs in Spain.

The need to develop an environmentally friendly, sustainable viticulture model has led to numerous grapevine improvement programmes aiming to increase resistance to downy and powdery mildew. The success of such programmes relies on the availability of protocols that can quantify the resistance/susceptibility of new genotypes, and on the existence of molecular markers of resistance loci that can aid in the selection process. The present work assesses the degree of phenotypic resistance/susceptibility to downy and powdery mildew of 28 new genotypes obtained from crosses between "Monastrell" and "Regent.

Use of health services among long-term breast cancer survivors in Spain: longitudinal study based on real-world data.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate health service utilization in Spain among long-term breast cancer survivors and to compare it with that among women with no history of breast cancer.

Methods: Study based on the SURBCAN cohort includes a sample of long-term breast cancer survivors and a sample of women without breast cancer from 5 Spanish regions. Healthcare utilization was assessed through primary care, hospital visits, and tests during the follow-up period (2012 to 2016) by using electronic health records.

Treating People With Epilepsy in Rural Low-Income Countries Is Feasible. Observations and Reflections From a "Real Life Experience" After a Long Lasting Intervention in the Rural Chaco.

Epilepsy represents an important public health issue, in particular in low and middle-income countries where significant disparities are present in the care available for patients with epilepsy. Treatment cost and unavailability of drugs represent important barriers in treating people with epilepsy especially in rural setting. Aim of the study was to evaluate, by means of routine data, the current real-life clinical practice in epilepsy in the rural communities of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Effects of volatile anaesthetics on heme metabolism in a murine genetic model of Acute Intermittent Porphyria. A comparative study with other porphyrinogenic drugs.

Background: Acute Intermittent Porphyria (AIP) is an inherited disease produced by a deficiency of Porphobilinogen deaminase (PBG-D). The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of Isoflurane and Sevoflurane on heme metabolism in a mouse genetic model of AIP to further support our previous proposal for avoiding their use in porphyric patients. A comparative study was performed administering the porphyrinogenic drugs allylisopropylacetamide (AIA), barbital and ethanol, and also between sex and mutation using AIP (PBG-D activity 70% reduced) and T1 (PBG-D activity 50% diminished) mice.

Pleiotropic effects of 5-aminolevulinic acid in mouse brain.

5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) seems to be responsible for the neuropsychiatric manifestations of acute intermittent porphyria (AIP). Our aim was to study the effect of ALA on the different metabolic pathways in the mouse brain to enhance our knowledge about the action of this heme precursor on the central nervous system. Heme metabolism, the cholinergic system, the defense enzyme system, and nitric oxide metabolism were evaluated in the encephalon of CF-1 mice receiving a single (40 mg/kg body mass) or multiple doses of ALA (40 mg/kg, every 48 h for 14 days).

Activities undertaken by Intensive Care Unit Liaison Nurses in Argentina.

Background: The Intensive Care Unit Liaison Nurse (ICULN), also known as an outreach nurse, is an advanced practice nursing role that emerged in the late 1990s in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK). Little is known about this role in less developed economies.

Objective: To describe the activities undertaken by ICULNs in Argentina.

Experimental protoporphyria: effect of bile acids on liver damage induced by griseofulvin.

The effect of bile acids administration to an experimental mice model of Protoporphyria produced by griseofulvin (Gris) was investigated. The aim was to assess whether porphyrin excretion could be accelerated by bile acids treatment in an attempt to diminish liver damage induced by Gris. Liver damage markers, heme metabolism, and oxidative stress parameters were analyzed in mice treated with Gris and deoxycholic (DXA), dehydrocholic (DHA), chenodeoxycholic, or ursodeoxycholic (URSO).

Risk factors associated with negative in-vivo diagnostic results in bovine tuberculosis-infected cattle in Spain.

Background: Despite great effort and investment incurred over decades to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB), it is still one of the most important zoonotic diseases in many areas of the world. Test-and-slaughter strategies, the basis of most bTB eradication programs carried out worldwide, have demonstrated its usefulness in the control of the disease. However, in certain countries, eradication has not been achieved due in part to limitations of currently available diagnostic tests.

A description of the ICU liaison nurse role in Argentina.

Background: Recognising and responding to clinical deterioration in hospital patients has been promoted by many western countries to improve patient safety. In non-western and developing countries it is likely to be even more important to focus on strategies of patient safety. This paper reflects the services provided by Intensive Care Unit Liaison Nurses (ICULN) in the first year of their work, July 2010-June 2011, in an Argentinean hospital.

First case of detection of Plasmodium knowlesi in Spain by Real Time PCR in a traveller from Southeast Asia.

Previously, Plasmodium knowlesi was not considered as a species of Plasmodium that could cause malaria in human beings, as it is parasite of long-tailed (Macaca fascicularis) and pig-tailed (Macaca nemestrina) macaques found in Southeast Asia. A case of infection by P. knowlesi is described in a Spanish traveller, who came back to Spain with daily fever after his last overseas travel, which was a six-month holiday in forested areas of Southeast Asia between 2008 and 2009.

The Florence city sample: dietary and life-style habits of a representative sample of adult residents. a comparison with the EPIC-Florence volunteers.

A representative sample of the general population residing in the city of Florence was invited to participate in the local section of the EPIC study with two major aims: i) to carry out a population-based survey on dietary and life-style habits in this urban area of Tuscany, Central Italy; ii) to compare these results with a large series of EPIC volunteers residing in the same municipality in order to evaluate the differences between the two groups. A random sample of 500 residents (250 women) aged 40-64 years, was invited to participate in the study; 362/500 (72.4%) accepted and followed the EPIC protocol.