Publications by authors named "Rocio Ramos-Medina"

Breast cancer, a prevalent malignancy among women, has various physical and psychological impacts. This comprehensive review offers an in-depth look at multidisciplinary dermo-aesthetic intervention approaches, emphasizing the balance between oncological therapies and the management of these effects. The information presented spans specialties such as aesthetic medicine, plastic surgery, dermatology, physiotherapy, nutrition, odontology, and gynecology.

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75Cancer research has found in the recent years a formidable ally in liquid biopsy, a noninvasive technique that allows the study of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and biomolecules involved in the dynamics of cancer spread like cell-free nucleid acids or tumor-derived extracellular vesicles. However, single-cell isolation of CTCs with high viability for further genetic, phenotypic, and morphological characterization remains a challenge. We present a new approach for single CTC isolation in enriched blood samples using a liquid laser transfer (LLT) process, adapted from standard laser direct write techniques.

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Breast cancer is the most common neoplasm in women worldwide. Tissue biopsy, currently the gold standard to obtain tumor molecular information, is invasive and might be affected by tumor heterogeneity rendering it incapable to portray the complete dynamic picture by the absence of specific genetic changes during the evolution of the disease. In contrast, liquid biopsy can provide unique opportunities for real-time monitoring of disease progression, treatment response and for studying tumor heterogeneity combining the information of DNA that tumors spread in the blood (circulating tumor DNA) with CTCs analysis.

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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is highly responsive to neoadjuvant polychemotherapy regimens including anthracyclines, taxanes, and, more recently, carboplatin. However, there is inadequate information on the individual contribution of each of these agents to the global activity of the combinations, and the use of combinations of up to four of these drugs is associated with relevant toxicity. Identifying single-drug activity in the clinical neoadjuvant setting is challenging.

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Intratumoral therapies, especially Toll-like receptor agonists, can trigger both the innate and adaptive immune systems. BO-112 is a nanoplexed form of polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly I:C) that induces local and systemic immunotherapeutic effects in mouse models. In a multicenter phase 1 clinical trial, repeated intratumoral administrations of BO-112 induced an increase in tumor cell necrosis and apoptosis, as well as augmented immune reactivity according to gene expression profiling.

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Purpose: Genetic heterogeneity between primary tumors and their metastatic lesions has been documented in several breast cancer studies. However, the selection of therapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer and the search for biomarkers for targeted therapy are often based on findings from the primary tumor, mainly because of the difficulty of distant metastasis core biopsies. New methods for monitoring genomic changes in metastatic breast cancer are needed (ie, circulating tumor DNA [ctDNA] genomic analysis).

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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) requires the iden- tification of reliable predictors of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). For this purpose, we aimed to evaluate the performance of the TNBCtype-4 classifier in a cohort of patients with TNBC treated with neoadjuvant carboplatin and docetaxel (TCb). Patients with TNBC were accrued in a nonrandomized trial of neoadjuvant carboplatin AUC 6 and docetaxel 75 mg/m for six cycles.

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A striking common feature of most autoimmune diseases is their female predominance, with at least twice as common among women than men in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), the prevailing MS clinical form with onset at childbearing age. This fact, together with the protective effect on disease activity during pregnancy, when there are many biological changes including high levels of estrogens and progesterone, puts sex hormones under the spotlight. The role of natural killer (NK) and NKT cells in MS disease beginning and course is still to be elucidated.

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We describe the status and frequency of germline DNA genetic findings in an unselected prospective cohort of triple negative breast cancer patients participating in a platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy trial. Study population includes 124 consecutive patients with stage II-III TNBC from a trial exploring the antitumor activity of neoadjuvant carboplatin/docetaxel chemotherapy enrolled between 2012 and March 2015, to determine the frequency of germline DNA genetic mutations. 17.

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Multiple sclerosis, the most common cause of neurological disability in young population after trauma, represents a significant public health burden. Current challenges associated with management of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients stem from the lack of biomarkers that might enable stratification of the different clinical forms of MS and thus prompt treatment for those patients with progressive MS, for whom there is currently no therapy available. In the present work we analyzed a set of thirty different plasma cytokines, chemokines and growth factors present in circulation of 129 MS patients with different clinical forms (relapsing remitting, secondary progressive and primary progressive MS) and 53 healthy controls, across two independent cohorts.

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In multiple sclerosis (MS), the immune damage to the central nervous system results from the net balance between self-reactive and immunoregulatory cells, among other factors. We identified novel perforin-expressing regulatory B-cells (BReg) in patients with clinically isolated syndrome, significantly enriched within the cerebrospinal fluid when compared to peripheral blood, of memory B cell phenotype (CD19(+)CD25(+), CD19(+)CD25(+)FoxP3(+) and CD19(+)FoxP3(+), p=0.007, p=0.

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Problem: Recurrent reproductive failure (RRF) has been associated with expansion of circulating NK cells, key cells for maternal tolerance, decidual vasculogenesis and embryo growth. This study reports our experience in intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) therapy of a large cohort of women with RRF with expanded circulating NK and/or NKT-like cells (blood NKT cells are a heterogeneous subset of T cells that share properties of both T cells and NK cells).

Method Of Study: Observational study of RRF women with NK or NKT-like expansion (>12% or 10% cutoff levels of total lymphocytes, respectively), treated with IVIg for the next gestation.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a prototypic Th1/Th17 chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4 or CD26) is a multifunctional molecule involved in autoimmune diseases' pathophysiology. We sought to integrate disparate pieces of data and analyze the plasma levels of sDPP4, DPP activity and DPP4 surface expression on T-cells in 129 MS patients with different clinical forms and 53 healthy controls, across two independent cohorts.

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Problem: Natural killer (NK) cells play a key role in embryo implantation and pregnancy success, whereas blood and uterine NK expansions have been involved in the pathophysiology of reproductive failure (RF). Our main goal was to design in a large observational study a tree-model decision for interpretation of risk factors for RF.

Methods Of Study: A hierarchical multivariate decision model based on a classification and regression tree was developed.

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SPIB is an Ets transcription factor that is expressed exclusively in mature B cells, T-cell progenitors, and plasmacytoid dendritic cells. In the present study, we developed a novel mAb against the SPIB protein and characterized its expression in major hematolymphoid neoplasms, including a series of 45 cases of blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell (BPDC) neoplasms and their potential cutaneous mimics. We found that SPIB is expressed heterogeneously among B- and T-cell lymphoma types.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) represents the leading cause of neurological deficit among young adults, affecting women more frequently than men. In MS, the extent of central nervous system lesions is determined by the net balance between self-reactive and regulatory T-cells at any given time, among other factors, as well as by the effect of inflammatory response. Here, we studied both CD4+ and CD8+ T(Reg) in parallel in blood and CSF during MS relapse.

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Problem: Natural killer (NK, CD3(-)CD56(+)/CD16(+)) and NKT-like cells (CD3(+)CD56(+)/CD16(+)) activity is considered among the key factors for reproductive success. In the absence of immunological screening, beneficial effects of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in preventing recurrent reproductive failure (RRF) have not been reported. Here, we analyse the IVIG influence on pregnancy success in women with RRF and circulating NK or/and NKT-like cells expansion.

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The mechanisms of action of intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) are complex and mostly reproduce those of the natural immunoglobulin G (IgG) in our organism. The therapeutic doses used range from substitutive (200-400mg/kg of body weight) in immunodeficiencies to high doses (1-2g/kg of body weight) in autoimmune or inflammatory diseases. The paradoxical pro- or anti-inflammatory effects of IVIG are based on the modulation of the expression of activating versus inhibitory Fc receptors, the type and stage of maturation of the target cell.

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Hereditary pheochromocytoma (PCC) is often caused by germline mutations in one of nine susceptibility genes described to date, but there are familial cases without mutations in these known genes. We sequenced the exomes of three unrelated individuals with hereditary PCC (cases) and identified mutations in MAX, the MYC associated factor X gene. Absence of MAX protein in the tumors and loss of heterozygosity caused by uniparental disomy supported the involvement of MAX alterations in the disease.

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The study of human leukocyte antigens, predominantly by monoclonal antibody (mAb) techniques, has become a fundamental part of basic research and clinical investigation. In particular, mAbs have allowed a more precise phenotypic dissection of lymphocyte subsets and have increased our understanding of the mechanisms that regulate humoral immunity and tumour transformation. In the present study we have investigated the expression, in both reactive and neoplastic lymphoid tissues, of a panel of HLDA9 mAbs (TRAIL-R2 (CD262), CCR6 (CD196), HVEM (CD270), Galectin-3 and BAFF-R (CD268)) capable of recognizing their target molecules in paraffin-embedded tissue sections.

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