The deregulation of several microRNAs (miRNAs) has been associated with neurodegenerative processes, including Parkinson’s disease (PD). Our aim was to characterize the level of miRNAs in the ...substantia nigra (SN) of PD patients and healthy donors. This is an important issue to characterize new putative markers and therapeutic targets for PD. RNA was extracted from the SN of postmortem PD (
n
= 8) and healthy (
n
= 4) subjects, and the level of 733 human miRNAs was assayed with TaqMan low-density arrays (TLDAs). Overall, there was a miRNA downregulation in the SN of patients. The mean level of 11 miRNAs was significantly different (
p
< 0.05) between patients and controls, with 10 downregulated among the patients. MiR-198, -135b, -485-5p, and -548d were the best candidates and were quantified with individual TaqMan assays in the 12 samples. MiR-135b showed the most significant difference between patients and healthy donors. The bioinformatic analysis suggested that this miRNA could bind to genes implicated in several neurodegenerative pathways.
Throughout pregnancy, the decidua is predominantly populated by NK lymphocytes expressing Killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) that recognize human leukocyte antigen-C (HLA-C) ligands from ...trophoblast cells. This study aims to investigate the association of KIR-HLA-C phenotypes in couples facing infertility, particularly recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) and recurrent implantation failure (RIF), in comparison to a reference population and fertile controls. This observational, non-interventional retrospective case-control study included patients consecutively referred to our Reproductive Immunology Unit from 2015 to 2019. We analyzed the frequencies of KIR and HLA-C genes. As control groups, we analyzed a reference Spanish population for KIR analysis and 29 fertile controls and their male partners for KIR and HLA-C combinations. We studied 397 consecutively referred women with infertility and their male partners. Among women with unexplained RPL (133 women) and RIF (176 women), the centromeric (cen)AA KIR genotype was significantly more prevalent compared to the reference Spanish population (p = 0.001 and 0.02, respectively). Furthermore, cenAA was associated with a 1.51-fold risk of RPL and a 1.2-fold risk of RIF. Conversely, the presence of BB KIR showed a lower risk of reproductive failure compared to non-BB KIR (OR: 0.12, p < 0.001). Women and their partners with HLA-C1C1/C1C1 were significantly less common in the RPL-Group (p < 0.001) and RIF-Group (p = 0.002) compared to the control group. Moreover, the combination of cenAA/C1C1 in women with C1C1 partners was significantly higher in the control group than in the RPL (p = 0.009) and RIF (p = 0.04) groups, associated with a 5-fold increase in successful pregnancy outcomes. In our cohort, the cenAA KIR haplotype proved to be a more accurate biomarker than the classic AA KIR haplotype for assessing the risk of RPL and RIF, and might be particularly useful to identify women at increased risk among the heterogeneous KIR AB or Bx population. The classification of centromeric KIR haplotypes outperforms classical KIR haplotypes, making it a better indicator of potential maternal-fetal KIR-HLA-C mismatch in patients.
Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in paediatric patients after the first year of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate effects of locally ...administered allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), in the acute period after a TBI.
Methodology: MSC were isolated from peritoneal fat of healthy rats, expanded in vitro and labelled with the green fluorescent protein. Rats were placed in one of three experimental groups: (1) Control: TBI, (2) IP-Control: TBI + local saline and (3) IP-Treat: TBI + 2 × 10
5
MSC 24 hours after receiving a moderate, unilateral, controlled cortical impact. Motor and cognitive behavioural tests were performed to evaluate functional recovery. Histological examination and immunohistochemistry were used to identify cell distribution.
Main results: Improved performance was found on motor tests in the MSC-treated group compared to control groups. MSC were found in the perilesional area and their number decreased with time after transplantation. MSC treatment increased the cell density in the hippocampus (CA3 pyramidal cells and granule cells in the dentate gyrus) and enhanced neurogenesis in this area.
Conclusion: MSC cell therapy resulted in better recovery of motor function compared with the control group. This cellular therapy might be considered for patients suffering from TBI.
Parkinsonism-hyperpyrexia syndrome (PHS) is a rare neurological emergency that shares clinical features with neuroleptic malignant syndrome. It is usually due to sudden deprivation of dopaminergic ...treatment, although there are cases related to failure of the deep brain stimulation system.
Previous studies linked disease-progression variables such as age at onset or survival to both genetic, and non-genetic factors in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.
The aim of this study was to ...assess how genetic and non genetic factors act as modifiers of age at onset and survival and in a cohort of 753 PD patients, and to determine how these variables interact to define the overall risk.
We analyzed the effect of gender, tobacco, alcohol, type of PD (genetic, gPD or idiopathic, iPD) and three genetic variants rs5848- GRN, rs1042522- TP53 and APOE. We studied two cohorts (PPMI and IPDGC) to replicate positive results.
Regarding age at onset, male smokers PD had a significantly lower mean age compared to non-smoker (p = 0.001). APOE-Ɛ4 carriers had a younger onset-age compared to non-carriers (p = 0.03) in the Spanish cohort, but these results were not replicated in the other cohorts. Concerning survival, PD patients with an early onset (below 50 years) had an increased survival rate (p < 0.001).
Our study showed how several genetic and non-genetic risk factors influenced the age at onset and survival in PD.
•Smoking is associated with a lower mean age at PD onset.•In the overall PD cohort, APOE genotype was not associated with age at PD onset.•PD patients with an early onset (below 50 years) had an increased survival rate.
En este artículo se describe un estudio llevado a cabo para evaluar la accesibilidad de los contenidos de los portales Web de algunas de las universidades extranjeras y españolas más relevantes según ...tres rankings universitarios publicados. Se han seleccionado universidades incluidas simultáneamente en “Academic Ranking of World Universities”, en “Times Higher Education Supplement” y en “Webometrics Rankings of World Universities”. La evaluación de la accesibilidad se ha realizado comprobando el cumplimiento de las pautas de accesibilidad de contenidos Web establecidas por el World Wide Web Consortium en la recomendación WCAG 2.0. Se ha tratado de determinar si universidades con prestigio a nivel académico ofrecen la información sobre la universidad a través de su Web, de tal forma que pueda ser visitada por todas las personas (profesores, estudiantes), independientemente de si tienen o no algún tipo de discapacidad. Desafortunadamente los resultados no han sido tan buenos como cabría esperar de universidades de tanta importancia.
Summary
Folliculitis decalvans is a chronic form of deep folliculitis that occurs on the scalp as patches of scarring alopecia at the expanding margins of which are follicular pustules. Treatment of ...folliculitis decalvans is extremely difficult with a resultant poor prognosis. Photodynamic therapy has been reported to be effective in disorders as acne or folliculitis. We report one patient with folliculitis decalvans who was successfully treated with photodynamic therapy.
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