Eyes on the Future: Inspiring Latino Middle School Youth to Pursue Careers in STEM Through Early Interactive Science Programming.

Background: Given the need for a diverse health care workforce, efforts must be made early in their education to support underrepresented minorities in medicine and the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Methods: The Eyes on the Future program introduces underrepresented minority 8th grade students to science and medicine via interactive science-based programming and mentorship by medical and graduate students. Program impact was evaluated using pre- and post-program surveys.

Non-Nutritive Sweeteners Acesulfame Potassium and Sucralose Are Competitive Inhibitors of the Human P-glycoprotein/Multidrug Resistance Protein 1 (PGP/MDR1).

Non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) are popular sugar replacements used in foods, beverages, and medications. Although NNS are considered safe by regulatory organizations, their effects on physiological processes such as detoxification are incompletely understood. Previous studies revealed that the NNS sucralose (Sucr) altered P-glycoprotein (PGP) expression in rat colon.

Coxiella burnetii and Leishmania mexicana residing within similar parasitophorous vacuoles elicit disparate host responses.

Coxiella burnetii is a bacterium that thrives in an acidic parasitophorous vacuole (PV) derived from lysosomes. Leishmania mexicana, a eukaryote, has also independently evolved to live in a morphologically similar PV. As Coxiella and Leishmania are highly divergent organisms that cause different diseases, we reasoned that their respective infections would likely elicit distinct host responses despite producing phenotypically similar parasite-containing vacuoles.

Identification of the intracellular gate for a member of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter (ENT) family.

Equilibrative nucleoside transporters of the SLC29 family play important roles in many physiological and pharmacological processes, including import of drugs for treatment of cancer, AIDS, cardiovascular, and parasitic diseases. However, no crystal structure is available for any member of this family. In previous studies we generated a computational model of the Leishmania donovani nucleoside transporter 1.

Cysteine cross-linking defines the extracellular gate for the Leishmania donovani nucleoside transporter 1.1 (LdNT1.1).

Equilibrative nucleoside transporters are a unique family of proteins that enable uptake of nucleosides/nucleobases into a wide range of eukaryotes and internalize a myriad of drugs used in the treatment of cancer, heart disease, AIDs, and parasitic infections. In previous work we generated a structural model for such a transporter, the LdNT1.1 nucleoside permease from the parasitic protozoan Leishmania donovani, using ab initio computation.

Purine restriction induces pronounced translational upregulation of the NT1 adenosine/pyrimidine nucleoside transporter in Leishmania major.

Leishmania and other parasitic protozoa are unable to synthesize purines de novo and are reliant upon purine nucleoside and nucleobase transporters to import preformed purines from their hosts. To study the roles of the four purine permeases NT1-NT4 in Leishmania major, null mutants in each transporter gene were prepared and the effect of each gene deletion on purine uptake was monitored. Deletion of the NT3 purine nucleobase transporter gene or both NT3 and the NT2 nucleoside transporter gene resulted in pronounced upregulation of adenosine and uridine uptake mediated by the NT1 permease and also induced up to a 200-fold enhancement in the level of the NT1 protein but not mRNA.

An ab Initio structural model of a nucleoside permease predicts functionally important residues.

Permeases belonging to the equilibrative nucleoside transporter family promote uptake of nucleosides and/or nucleobases into a wide range of eukaryotes and mediate the uptake of a variety of drugs used in the treatment of cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and parasitic infections. No experimental three-dimensional structure exists for any of these permeases, and they are not present in prokaryotes, the source of many membrane proteins used in crystal structure determination. To generate a structural model for such a transporter, the LdNT1.

Children of alcoholics in Spain: from risk to pathology. Results from the ALFIL program.

Objective: To identify the possible risk factors and negative outcomes associated with parental alcoholism. A secondary aim was to determine the influence of the family density of alcoholism on children of alcoholics' (COAs) psychological functioning.

Method: A multisite epidemiological study was conducted in 8 Spanish cities, recruiting a total sample of 371 COAs (whose parents were in contact with alcohol treatment centers and accepted to participate in this study) and 147 controls (from schools in the same localities as COAs).

Applications of computer assisted surgery and medical robotics at the ISSSTE, México: preliminary results.

We present the first results of four projects of a second phase of a Mexican Project Computer Assisted Surgery and Medical Robotics, supported by the Mexican Science and Technology National Council (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) under grant SALUD-2002-C01-8181. The projects are being developed by three universities (UNAM, UAM, ITESM) and the goal of this project is to integrate a laboratory in a Hospital of the ISSSTE to give service to surgeons or clinicians of Endoscopic surgeons, urologist, gastrointestinal endoscopist and neurosurgeons.

Comprehensive examination of charged intramembrane residues in a nucleoside transporter.

Permeases of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter family mediate the uptake of nucleosides and/or nucleobases in a diverse array of eukaryotes and transport a host of drugs used for treatment of cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and parasitic infections. To identify residues that play central roles in transport function, we have systematically substituted by site-directed mutagenesis all the charged residues located within predicted transmembrane domains of the Leishmania donovani nucleoside transporter 1.1, LdNT1.

Up-regulation of the high-affinity pyrimidine-preferring nucleoside transporter concentrative nucleoside transporter 1 by tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 in liver parenchymal cells.

Background/aims: Concentrative nucleoside transporter 1 (CNT1), a high affinity transporter for pyrimidine nucleosides, is responsible for their Na+-dependent concentrative uptake into hepatocytes. Though CNT1 protein amounts increase in rat liver soon after partial hepatectomy, the physiological regulators of CNT1 expression have not yet been identified.

Methods: Rat hepatoma cell lines and hepatocytes isolated from fetuses and adult rats were used to identify single agents able to up-regulate CNT1 expression and activity in liver.

Transmembrane domain 5 of the LdNT1.1 nucleoside transporter is an amphipathic helix that forms part of the nucleoside translocation pathway.

Transporters of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter (ENT) family promote the uptake of nucleosides, nucleobases, and a variety of therapeutic drugs in eukaryotes from protozoa to mammals. Despite its importance, the translocation pathway that mediates the internalization of these substrates has not been identified yet in any of the ENT carriers. Previous genetic studies on the LdNT1.

Cell-cycle-dependent regulation of CNT1, a concentrative nucleoside transporter involved in the uptake of cell-cycle-dependent nucleoside-derived anticancer drugs.

Most nucleoside-derived anticancer drugs are taken up by the high-affinity Na-dependent nucleoside transporter CNT1. Since such drugs are to some extent cell-cycle-dependent in their cytotoxic action, we examined the relationship between CNT1 expression and cell-cycle progression in the rat hepatoma cell line FAO. Cell cultures were synchronized either at late G1 or early S stages by combining mimosin treatment with either previous synchronization or not by serum starvation.