Publications by authors named "Maria Pascual"

Ovarian lesions are common and often incidentally detected. A critical shortage of expert ultrasound examiners has raised concerns of unnecessary interventions and delayed cancer diagnoses. Deep learning has shown promising results in the detection of ovarian cancer in ultrasound images; however, external validation is lacking.

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Chronic ethanol exposure induces an inflammatory response within the intestinal tract, compromising mucosal and epithelial integrity and leading to dysbiosis of the gut microbiome. However, the specific roles of the gut microbiota in mediating ethanol-induced effects, as well as their interactions with the immune system, remain poorly characterized. This study aimed to evaluate sex-based differences in fecal microbiota profiles induced by chronic alcohol consumption and to assess whether TLR4 is involved in these effects.

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Objective: To determine the frequency of uterine contrast agent intravasation during HyCoSy/HyFoSy for assessing tubal patency in infertile women.

Methods: Prospective observational multicenter study performed in nine European university hospitals, comprising a series of non-consecutive women who underwent HyFoSy (ExEm foam) for tubal patency assessment in the context of infertility between May 2016 and December 2022. All examinations were performed using the same scanning protocol.

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Stress is a critical factor in the development of mental disorders such as addiction, underscoring the importance of stress resilience strategies. While the ketogenic diet (KD) has shown efficacy in reducing alcohol consumption in male mice without cognitive impairment, its impact on the stress response and addiction development, especially in females, remains unclear. This study examined the KD's effect on increasing ethanol intake due to vicarious social defeat (VSD) in female mice.

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Oleoylethanolamide (OEA) is a lipid with anti-inflammatory activity that modulates multiple reward-related behaviors. Previous studies have shown that OEA treatment reduces alcohol self-administration (SA) while inhibiting alcohol-induced inflammatory signaling. Nevertheless, the specific mechanisms that OEA targets to achieve these effects have not been widely explored.

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Article Synopsis
  • Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haploSCT) is gaining traction as a viable option for patients without suitable donors, especially following the advent of post-transplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy).
  • This study analyzed 372 adult haploSCT patients who received different GVHD prophylaxis strategies, finding no significant differences in acute GVHD rates among the groups, but noted lower chronic GVHD rates in patients treated with single-agent tacrolimus.
  • The results indicate that while all three prophylaxis methods (single-agent tacrolimus, CNI + MMF, sirolimus + MMF) produced similar short-term outcomes, further research is needed to explore differences in chronic GVHD
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Background: Metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) is treatment-resistant and generally considered incurable. The development of prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission-computed tomography (PSMA PET/CT) has generated immense expectations due to its diagnostic accuracy in prostate cancer (PCa). PSMA expression of the primary tumor, quantified by SUVmax, is a predictor of oncological outcomes.

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JOURNAL/nrgr/04.03/01300535-202504000-00030/figure1/v/2024-07-06T104127Z/r/image-tiff Our previous studies have reported that activation of the NLRP3 (NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3)-inflammasome complex in ethanol-treated astrocytes and chronic alcohol-fed mice could be associated with neuroinflammation and brain damage. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) have been shown to restore the neuroinflammatory response, along with myelin and synaptic structural alterations in the prefrontal cortex, and alleviate cognitive and memory dysfunctions induced by binge-like ethanol treatment in adolescent mice.

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Article Synopsis
  • Pityriasis versicolor is a common fungal skin infection, typically treated with keratolytic agents, which are cheap and available over-the-counter, while conventional antifungals are pricier and require prescriptions.
  • The goal of this study was to systematically review and compare the safety and effectiveness of these antifungal treatments against keratolytic agents for managing pityriasis versicolor.
  • The review included data from 8 randomized controlled trials with 617 participants, using statistical analysis to evaluate the outcomes, although publication bias could not be assessed due to the limited number of studies.
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New adjuvant strategies are needed to improve protein-based subunit vaccine immunogenicity. We examined the potential to use nanostructure of 6-O-ascorbyl palmitate to formulate ovalbumin (OVA) protein and an oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG-ODN) (OCC). In mice immunized with a single dose, OCC elicited an OVA-specific immune response superior to OVA/CpG-ODN solution (OC).

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Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the association between endogenous hormones and bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women.

Materials And Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 798 postmenopausal women aged 47-85 years. Data were collected on age, age at menopause, years since menopause, smoking status, body mass index, adiposity, BMD, physical activity, and Vitamin D supplementation.

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Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders, with the consumption of alcohol considered a leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide. Lipids play a crucial functional role in cell membranes; however, we know little about the role of lipids in extracellular vesicles (EVs) as regulatory molecules and disease biomarkers.

Methods: We employed a sensitive lipidomic strategy to characterize lipid species from the plasma EVs of AUD patients to evaluate functional roles and enzymatic activity networks to improve the knowledge of lipid metabolism after alcohol consumption.

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Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is known to cause financial losses and decreased productivity in the cattle industry worldwide. Currently, there are no available antiviral treatments for effectively controlling BVDV infections in laboratories or farms. The BVDV envelope protein (E2) mediates receptor recognition on the cell surface and is required for fusion of virus and cell membranes after the endocytic uptake of the virus during the entry process.

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Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05821153, Registered April 20 2023, Retrospectively registered, https://classic.

Clinicaltrials: gov/ct2/show/NCT05821153.

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Background: Psychosis is a common manifestation of Parkinson's disease (PD), and a major source of caregiver burden, nursing home placement, and mortality. Psychosis symptoms are often not volunteered during the clinic visit because of embarrassment or lack of insight, and there is no validated screening scale. We compare a new self-administered psychosis screening questionnaire against the Parkinson's Disease Psychosis Scale (PDPS) and physician interview as the gold standard assessments.

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(1) Background: The presence of adenomyosis among pregnant patients has been associated with a higher incidence of miscarriage and pregnancy complications. Although the role of adenomyosis in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) was investigated in several studies and demonstrated a potentially detrimental effect on live birth rates following IVF, most of them were small studies in which the adenomyosis diagnosis was not confirmed based on solid ultrasonographic criteria. (2) Methods: 3503 patients undergoing their first blastocyst frozen transfer through a hormonal replacement (HRT) FET cycle.

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Public funding of assisted reproduction technologies (ARTs) is a controversial issue. Some health systems have proposed public funding of ARTs. In recent years, there has been evidence of a change in the line of jurisprudence and legislation in Colombia about this topic.

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Background: Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) epidemiology, clinical characteristics and risk factors for poor outcome after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-HCT) remain a poorly investigated area.

Methods: This retrospective multicenter cohort study examined the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and risk factors for poor outcomes associated with human metapneumovirus (hMPV) infections in recipients of allo-HCT.

Results: We included 428 allo-HCT recipients who developed 438 hMPV infection episodes between January 2012 and January 2019.

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Article Synopsis
  • Extracellular vesicles (EVs) from mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are shown to help reduce neuroinflammation and cognitive issues caused by binge-like ethanol exposure in adolescent mice.
  • The study administered MSC-derived EVs to mice treated with ethanol, observing significant reductions in inflammatory gene expression and restoration of myelin and synaptic function.
  • These findings suggest that MSC-derived EVs could be a promising treatment for addressing neuroimmune responses and cognitive dysfunction related to adolescent alcohol consumption.
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The actual prevalence of superficial endometriosis is not known. However, it is considered the most common subtype of endometriosis. The diagnosis of superficial endometriosis remains difficult.

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The lipid oleoylethanolamide (OEA) has been shown to affect reward-related behavior. However, there is limited experimental evidence about the specific neurotransmission systems OEA may be affecting to exert this modulatory effect. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of OEA on the rewarding properties of cocaine and relapse-related gene expression in the striatum and hippocampus.

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Background: We investigated whether donor-recipient mismatch involving one or more cytomegalovirus (CMV) immunodominant (ID) human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-I alleles may impact on the degree of CMV pp65/immediate-early 1 (IE-1) T-cell reconstitution and the incidence of CMV DNAemia in patients undergoing unmanipulated haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with high-dose posttransplant cyclophosphamide (PT/Cy-haplo).

Methods: Multicenter observational study including 106 consecutive adult PT/Cy-haplo patients (34 CMV ID HLA-I matched and 72 mismatched). A real-time PCR was used for plasma CMV DNA load monitoring.

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Background: Lipids represent essential components of extracellular vesicles (EVs), playing structural and regulatory functions during EV biogenesis, release, targeting, and cell uptake. Importantly, lipidic dysregulation has been linked to several disorders, including metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and neurological dysfunction. Our recent results demonstrated the involvement of plasma EV microRNAs as possible amplifiers and biomarkers of neuroinflammation and brain damage induced by ethanol intoxication during adolescence.

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