Follow-up of telemedicine mental health interventions amid COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiation of the program Mental Health Support Program for Coronavirus Infection addressed the increased demand for mental health services in the province of Salamanca, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The psychiatry service provided care for COVID-19 patients, their families, and healthcare workers who treated them, as these groups were identified as being at risk. This study aims to describe the assistance provided, including personnel and resources utilized, types of interventions carried out, and to assess the demand for mental health care and predominant symptoms and emotions experienced by patients.

Supercritical impregnation of starch aerogels with quercetin: Fungistatic effect and release modelling with a compartmental model.

This work proposes the use of supercritical CO to impregnate starch (potato and corn) aerogels with quercetin for a potential fungistatic application. Starch aerogels were successfully produced with supercritical drying, but different results were found depending on the amylose/amylopectin ratio. A higher amount of amylose increases aerogels' specific surface area (with a structure with nanofibrils and nodes) due to the linear and amorphous character of this polymer, whereas a higher amount of amylopectin decreases this property until values of only 25 m·g, obtaining an aerogel with a rough surface.

New cut-off points of PHQ-9 and its variants, in Costa Rica: a nationwide observational study.

The PHQ-9 questionnaire is a screening test worldwide used to measure depression. But it cannot be used in Costa Rica, due to the fact that it has not previously been validated for its population. The present study aims to show the validation of the PHQ-9 questionnaire and its variants (PHQ-2, PHQ-4, PHQ-8) in a population sample of adults residing in Costa Rica.

The challenge of community mental health interventions with patients, relatives, and health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic: a real-world 9-month follow-up study.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to implement protocols that respond to the mental health demands of the population has been demonstrated. The PASMICOR programme started in March 2020, involving a total of 210 requests for treatment. Out of those subjects, the intervention was performed in 53 patients with COVID-19 without history of past psychiatric illness, 57 relatives and 60 health professionals, all of them within the area of Salamanca (Spain).

Validation of a compartmental model to predict drug release from porous structures produced by ScCO techniques.

A global release model is proposed to study the drug release from porous materials for pharmaceutical applications. This model is defined by implementing a compartmental model where the release profile could be explained as the combination of mass transfer phenomena through three compartments as well as a desorption process or dissolution process from the support. This model was validated with five different systems produced with supercritical CO (aerogels, membranes, and fibers), showing different release processes.

Evolutionary Origin of Insulin-Degrading Enzyme and Its Subcellular Localization and Secretion Mechanism: A Study in Microglial Cells.

The insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) is a zinc-dependent metalloendopeptidase that belongs to the M16A metalloprotease family. IDE is markedly expressed in the brain, where it is particularly relevant due to its in vitro amyloid beta (Aβ)-degrading activity. The subcellular localization of IDE, a paramount aspect to understand how this enzyme can perform its proteolytic functions in vivo, remains highly controversial.

Protocol for a preclinical systematic review and meta-analysis of pharmacological targeting of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors in experimental renal injury.

Introduction: Impaired lipid metabolism in the renal tubule plays a prominent role in the progression of renal fibrosis following acute kidney injury (AKI) and in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are promising druggable targets to mitigate renal fibrosis by redirecting metabolism, including restoration of fatty acid oxidation (FAO) capacity. We aim to synthesise evidence from preclinical studies of pharmacological PPAR targeting in experimental renal injury, and inform the design of future studies evaluating PPAR-mediated restoration of FAO in AKI and CKD.

Impairment of Autophagic Flux Participates in the Antitumor Effects of TAT-Cx43 in Glioblastoma Stem Cells.

Autophagy is a physiological process by which various damaged or non-essential cytosolic components are recycled, contributing to cell survival under stress conditions. In cancer, autophagy can have antitumor or protumor effects depending on the developmental stage. Here, we use Western blotting, immunochemistry, and transmission electron microscopy to demonstrate that the antitumor peptide TAT-Cx43, a c-Src inhibitor, blocks autophagic flux in glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) under basal and nutrient-deprived conditions.

The First Aortic Endoaneurysmorrhaphy: Ricardo Lozano Monzón (1872-1934).

In 1888, Rudolph Matas described and performed a procedure (endoaneurysmorrhaphy) that revolutionized the treatment of aneurysms, which for centuries had been untreatable or simply involved treatment by ligation and other marginal techniques. In 1940, during the annual meeting of the Matas presented the excellent results he had obtained with 98 endoaneurysmorrhaphies, although none of these cases involved an aortic aneurysm. On November 4, 1904, a Spanish surgeon called Ricardo Lozano Monzón was the first person in the world to perform an endoaneurysmorrhaphy on a patient suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Viruses and Skin Cancer.

Advances in virology and skin cancer over recent decades have produced achievements that have been recognized not only in the field of dermatology, but also in other areas of medicine. They have modified the therapeutic and preventive solutions that can be offered to some patients and represent a significant step forward in our knowledge of the biology of skin cancer. In this paper, we review the viral agents responsible for different types of skin cancer, especially for solid skin tumors.

Food groups associated with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: a Mendelian randomization and disease severity study.

Background/objectives: Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are prevalent diseases. There is, however, a lack of understanding of the link between diet and IMIDs, how much dietary patterns vary between them and if there are food groups associated with a worsening of the disease.

Subjects/methods: To answer these questions we analyzed a nation-wide cohort of n = 11,308 patients from six prevalent IMIDs and 2050 healthy controls.

Steady and Oscillatory Shear Flow Behavior of Different Polysaccharides with Laponite.

The rheological behavior, in terms of steady and oscillatory shear flow, of Laponite with different polysaccharides (alginate, chitosan, xanthan gum and levan) in salt-free solutions was studied. Results showed that a higher polymer concentration increased the zero-rate viscosity and decreased the critical strain rate (Cross model fit) as well as increasing the elastic and viscous moduli. Those properties (zero-rate viscosity and critical strain rate) can be a suitable indicator of the effect of the Laponite on the shear flow behavior for the different solutions.

Targeting metabolic plasticity in glioma stem cells in vitro and in vivo through specific inhibition of c-Src by TAT-Cx43.

Background: Glioblastoma is the most aggressive primary brain tumour and has a very poor prognosis. Inhibition of c-Src activity in glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs, responsible for glioblastoma lethality) and primary glioblastoma cells by the peptide TAT-Cx43 reduces tumorigenicity, and boosts survival in preclinical models. Because c-Src can modulate cell metabolism and several reports revealed poor clinical efficacy of various antitumoral drugs due to metabolic rewiring in cancer cells, here we explored the inhibition of advantageous GSC metabolic plasticity by the c-Src inhibitor TAT-Cx43.

Amikacin initial dosage in patients with hypoalbuminaemia: an interactive tool based on a population pharmacokinetic approach.

Objectives: To characterize amikacin population pharmacokinetics in patients with hypoalbuminaemia and to develop a model-based interactive application for amikacin initial dosage.

Methods: A population pharmacokinetic model was developed using a non-linear mixed-effects modelling approach (NONMEM) with amikacin concentration-time data collected from clinical practice (75% hypoalbuminaemic patients). Goodness-of-fit plots, minimum objective function value, prediction-corrected visual predictive check, bootstrapping, precision and bias of parameter estimates were used for model evaluation.

Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma: From Biology to Therapy.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) is the second most frequent cancer in humans and its incidence continues to rise. Although CSCC usually display a benign clinical behavior, it can be both locally invasive and metastatic. The signaling pathways involved in CSCC development have given rise to targetable molecules in recent decades.

Role of rheological properties on physical chitosan aerogels obtained by supercritical drying.

Chitosan aerogels were obtained after using supercritical carbon dioxide to dry physical hydrogels, studying the effect of the rheological behavior of hydrogels and solutions on the final aerogels properties. An increase on the solutions pseudoplasticity increased the subsequent hydrogels physical entanglement, without showing a significant effect on aerogels morphology (nanoporous) and textural properties (pores of about 10 nm). However, an increase of hydrogel physical entanglement promoted the formation of aerogels with a higher compressive strength (from 0.

Implication of Opioid Receptors in the Antihypertensive Effect of a Bovine Casein Hydrolysate and α-Casein-Derived Peptides.

The antihypertensive activity of two α-casein-derived peptides and casein hydrolysate containing these sequences was evaluated in the presence of naloxone. The activity was abolished by this opioid antagonist at 2, 4, and 6 h post-administration. Similarly, the antihypertensive effect of the α-casein peptides RYLGY (-23.

Evaluation of renal function equations to predict amikacin clearance.

: To evaluate the predictive performance of eight renal function equations to describe amikacin elimination in a large standard population with a wide range of age. : Retrospective study of adult hospitalized patients treated with amikacin and monitored in the clinical pharmacokinetics laboratory of a pharmacy service. Renal function was calculated as Cockcroft-Gault with total, adjusted and ideal body weight, MDRD-4, CKD-EPI, rLM, BIS1, and FAS.

A Phenomenological Approach to Study Mechanical Properties of Polymeric Porous Structures Processed Using Supercritical CO₂.

This work proposes a modeling of the mechanical properties of porous polymers processed by scCO₂, using a phenomenological approach. Tensile and compression tests of alginate/gelatin and cellulose acetate/graphene oxide were modeled using three hyperelastic equations, derived from strain energy functions. The proposed hyperelastic equations provide a fair good fit for mechanical behavior of the nanofibrous system alginate/gelatin (deviations lower than 10%); whereas, due to the presence of the solid in the polymer network, a four-parameter model must be used to fit the composite cellulose acetate/graphene oxide behavior.

Genetic variation at the glycosaminoglycan metabolism pathway contributes to the risk of psoriatic arthritis but not psoriasis.

Objective: Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory arthritis affecting up to 30% of patients with psoriasis (Ps). To date, most of the known risk loci for PsA are shared with Ps, and identifying disease-specific variation has proven very challenging. The objective of the present study was to identify genetic variation specific for PsA.