Molecular Bases of Protein Antigenicity and Determinants of Immunogenicity, Anergy, and Mitogenicity.

Background: The immune system is able to recognize substances that originate from inside or outside the body and are potentially harmful. Foreign substances that bind to immune system components exhibit antigenicity and are defined as antigens. The antigens exhibiting immunogenicity can induce innate or adaptive immune responses and give rise to humoral or cell-mediated immunity.

Colorectal cancer. Genetic variants in BMP signaling pathway and ancestry in the Mexican population.

Introduction: Genetic variants related to bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP2, BMP4, GREM1, SMAD7) signaling pathway have been associated with colorectal cancer, mainly in Caucasian populations.

Objective: To describe the association of variants in members of the BMP signaling pathway in a Mexican population, characterized by its indigenous American and Caucasian ancestry.

Methods: Genotyping of 1,000 colorectal cancer cases and 1,043 control individuals recruited in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Torreón was carried out using the Sequenom platform.

and () Downregulation by Neoadjuvant Therapy is Associated with Better Therapeutic Outcomes and Survival in Breast Cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate whether changes in genomic expression that occur beginning with breast cancer (BC) diagnosis and through to tumor resection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) reveal biomarkers that can help predict therapeutic response and survival.

Materials And Methods: We determined gene expression profiles based on microarrays in tumor samples from 39 BC patients who showed pathologic complete response (pCR) or therapeutic failure (non-pCR) after NCT (cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin/epirubicin). Based on unsupervised clustering of gene expression, together with functional enrichment analyses of differentially expressed genes, we selected , , , and .

Survivin in Breast Cancer: A Review.

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women and ranks second among causes for cancer-related death in women. Gene technology has led to the recognition that breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease composed of different biological subtypes, and genetic profiling enables the response to chemotherapy to be predicted. This fact emphasizes the importance of selecting sensitive diagnostic and prognostic markers in the early disease stage and more efficient targeted treatments for this disease.

Role of β-Klotho and Malondialdehyde in Metabolic Disorders, HIV Infection, and Antiretroviral Therapy.

Metabolic alterations, resulting from factors such as obesity or infections (HIV), generate inflammation in the body, affecting the immune system and causing oxidative stress. Prolonged exposure to antiretroviral therapy (ART) conditions the appearance of alterations considered risk factors for metabolic syndrome (MetS), affecting the quality of life in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). β-klotho is a protein that can counteract levels of oxidative stress.

FGF21 serum levels are related to insulin resistance, metabolic changes and obesity in Mexican people living with HIV (PLWH).

Background: Antiretroviral therapy has significantly improved prognosis in treatment against HIV infection, however, prolonged exposure is associated to cardiovascular diseases, lipodystrophy, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic alteration, as obesity which includes the accumulation of oxidative stress in adipose tissue. FGF21 is a peptide hormone that is known to regulate glucose and lipid metabolism. FGF21 is expressed and secreted primarily in the liver and adipose tissue, promoting oxidation of glucose/fatty acids and insulin sensitivity.

Klotho-HIV and Oxidative Stress: The Role of Klotho in Cardiovascular Disease Under HIV Infection-A Review.

Combined antiretroviral therapy has improved quality and life expectancy of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, this therapy increases oxidative stress (OS), which in turn causes alterations in lipid and carbon metabolism, kidney disease, liver cirrhosis, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The Klotho gene has been implicated in cardiovascular risk increase.

Analysis of Polymorphisms in the 3 and Genes and CTX-II Urinary Levels in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis in a Northeast Mexican-Mestizo Population.

To investigate the possible roles of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs77245812) and (rs12982744) with susceptibility to knee osteoarthritis (KOA) among mestizos from the northeast region of Mexico. In addition, we analyzed the relationship of their urinary levels of carboxy terminal telopeptide of collagen type II (CTX-II) and the radiological grade of disease. A total of 223 individuals from a Northeast Mexico Mestizo population were included in this study: 110 patients with primary KOA and 113 healthy controls.

Genetic alterations of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in women from Northeastern Mexico.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer of heterogeneous nature that is negative for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and growth factor human epidermal 2 (HER2) following immunohistochemical analysis. TNBC is frequently characterized by relapse and reduced survival. To date, there is no targeted therapy for this type of cancer.

[¿Azitromicina como tratamiento contra Chlamydia trachomatis?].

Azithromycin and doxycycline effectiveness has been demonstrated in the treatment of urogenital chlamydiasis, which has remained unchanged for a long time. Autoinoculation has been proposed as a method of reinfection and persistence of the disease in women and probably also owing to azithromycin pharmacokinetics in this tissue. With the new diagnostic methods and tests of cure, a difference has been demonstrated in favor of doxycycline in the treatment of rectal chlamydiasis Antimicrobial resistance has not played a relevant role since no treatment-resistant strains have been found in vivo.

Comprehensive Analysis of Germline Variants in Mexican Patients with Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Susceptibility.

Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC) represents 5⁻10% of all patients with breast cancer and is associated with high-risk pathogenic alleles in genes, but only for 25% of cases. We aimed to find new pathogenic alleles in a panel of 143 cancer-predisposing genes in 300 Mexican cancer patients with suspicion of HBOC and 27 high-risk patients with a severe family history of cancer, using massive parallel sequencing. We found pathogenic variants in 23 genes, including .

Association Between the SNP rs143383 + 104T/C in the GDF5 Gene and the Risk of Knee Osteoarthritis in a Population from Northern Mexico-A Case-Control Study.

Background: Previous studies have found an association between the SNP rs143383 + 104T/C in the growth differentiation factor 5 (GDF5) gene and the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis (KOA) in various populations worldwide.

Objective: To discover if there is an association between the SNP rs143383 + 104T/C, in the GDF5 gene and the risk of developing KOA in individuals from northern Mexico.

Methods: We used a case-control study format that included 145 patients with KOA and 145 healthy controls unrelated to patients.

Toxic Effect of Cadmium, Lead, and Arsenic on the Sertoli Cell: Mechanisms of Damage Involved.

Over the past decades, an increase has been described in exposure to environmental toxins; consequently, a series of studies has been carried out with the aim of identifying problems associated with health. One of the main risk factors is exposure to heavy metals. The adverse effects that these compounds exert on health are quite complex and difficult to elucidate, in that they act at different levels and there are various signaling pathways that are implicated in the mechanisms of damage.

In Vitro Evaluation of Damage by Heavy Metals in Tight and Gap Junctions of Sertoli Cells.

The Sertoli cell plays a vital role during the spermatogenesis process and has been identified as one of the main targets of the toxic action of heavy metals on the seminiferous epithelium. In the present work, the effect of lead (Pb), Arsenic (As), and Cadmium (Cd) in primary cultures of Sertoli cells was analyzed by measuring the expression of the genes Cldn11, Ocln, and Gja1 that participate in the tight and gap junctions, which are responsible for maintaining the blood-testis barrier. Sertoli cells were isolated from the testes of Wistar rats.

ATM polymorphisms IVS24-9delT, IVS38-8T>C, and 5557G>A in Mexican women with familial and/or early-onset breast cancer.

Objective: To assess whether in Mexican population the frequencies of ATM polymorphisms IVS24-9delT, IVS38-8-T>C, and 5557G>A in breast cancer (BC) cases and healthy controls were different from those found in other countries.

Materials And Methods: Frequencies of polymorphisms conferring BC risk IVS24-9delT, IVS38-8T>C, and 5557G>A were analyzed by PCR-RFLP in 94 patients with familial and/or early onset BC, and 97 healthy controls randomly selected. Allele frequencies analysis was done using χ(2) and Hardy-Weinberg test.

Serum circulating microRNA profiling for identification of potential breast cancer biomarkers.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, non-coding RNA molecules that can regulate gene expression, thereby affecting crucial processes in cancer development. miRNAs offer great potential as biomarkers for cancer detection because of their remarkable stability in blood and their characteristic expression in different diseases. We investigated whether quantitative RT-PCR miRNA profiling on serum could discriminate between breast cancer patients and healthy controls.

Serum levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in Mexican women and breast cancer risk.

The most prevalent female cancer across the world is breast cancer. Current established breast cancer risk factors explain only a fraction of the breast cancer cases diagnosed, and for this reason, other environmental factors have been studied. Exposure to organochlorine compounds has been linked to an increased incidence of breast cancer, although not all data have been consistent.

Clinical follow up of mexican women with early onset of breast cancer and mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

Objective: This study describes the presence of mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in a group of Mexican women and the clinical evolution of early onset breast cancer (EOBC).

Material And Methods: A prospective hospital-based study was performed in a sample of 22 women with EOBC (7 in clinical stage IIA, 8 in IIB, and 7 in IIIA). The patients attended a tertiary care hospital in northeastern Mexico in 1997 and were followed up over a 5-year period.

Split hand malformation, hypospadias, microphthalmia, distinctive face and short stature in two brothers suggest a new syndrome.

Split hand/foot malformation (SHFM) is a genetically heterogeneous limb malformation that may be isolated or associated with other malformations. More than 50 recognizable entities with SHFM have been described and at least 5 mapped genetic loci have been implicated. Two brothers with intrauterine growth retardation, short stature, distinctive face, microphthalmia, genital anomalies, and SHFM are described.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation analysis of early-onset and familial breast cancer cases in Mexico.

The entire coding regions of BRCA1 and BRCA2 were screened for mutations by heteroduplex analysis in 51 Mexican breast cancer patients. One BRCA1 and one BRCA2 truncating mutation each was identified in the group of 32 (6%) early-onset breast cancer patients (< or =35 years). Besides these two likely deleterious mutations, eight rare variants of unknown significance, mostly in the BRCA2 gene, were detected in six of 32 (19%) early-onset breast cancer cases and in three of 17 (18%) site-specific breast cancer families, one containing a male breast cancer case.