Contamination of aquatic environments by pharmaceuticals used by modern societies has become a serious threat to human beings. Among them, antibiotics are of particular concern due to the risk of ...creating drug-resistant bacteria and, thus, developing efficient protocols for the capture of this particular type of drug is mandatory. Herein, we report a family of three isoreticular MOFs, derived from natural amino acids, that exhibit high efficiency in the removal of a mixture of four distinct families of antibiotics, such as fluoroquinolones, penicillins, lincomycins, and cephalosporins, as solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbents. In particular, a multivariate (MTV)-MOF, prepared using equal percentages of amino acids l-serine and l-methionine, also exhibits outstanding recyclability, surpassing the benchmark material activated carbon. The good removal performance of the MTV-MOF was rationalized by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction. These results highlight the situation of MOFs as a real and promising alternative for the capture of antibiotics from environmental matrices, especially wastewater streams.
The potential toxicity of ligand-protected nanoparticles (NPs) on biological targets is crucial for their clinical translation. A number of studies are aimed at investigating the molecular mechanisms ...shaping the interactions between synthetic NPs and neutral plasma membranes. The role played by the NP surface charge is still widely debated. We compare, via liposome leakage assays, the perturbation induced by the penetration of sub-6 nm anionic and cationic Au NPs into model neutral lipid membranes composed of the zwitterionic 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC). Our charged Au NPs are functionalized by a mixture of the apolar 1-octanethiol and a ω-charged thiol which is either the anionic 11-mercapto-1-undecanesulfonate or the cationic (11-mercaptoundecyl)-N,N,N-trimethylammonium. In both cases, the NP uptake in the bilayer is confirmed by quartz crystal microbalance investigations. Our leakage assays show that both negatively and positively charged Au NPs do not induce significant membrane damage on POPC liposomes when penetrating into the bilayer. By means of molecular dynamics simulations, we show that the energy barrier for membrane penetration is the same for both NPs. These results suggest that the sign of the NP surface charge, per se, does not imply different physicochemical mechanisms of interaction with zwitterionic lipid membranes.
Harmonizing biodiversity conservation and natural resource management often requires anticipating the potential impact that certain species can cause through their exploitation of specific resources. ...During the winter 2008/2009 we studied the feeding ecology of the Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis in SE Spain, in order to determine its dependence on different food sources available along an oceanic-continental gradient (open sea-freshwater bodies). Trophic niche was assessed using C and N stable isotopes, applying up-to date metrics and analytical tools.
Isotopic signatures revealed high mobility patterns for cormorants, illustrating differences between roosting and feeding areas (spatially well separated). Cormorants roosting in open sea move to inland freshwater bodies, their trophic niche overlapping that of individuals settled there. Similarly, individuals settled around transitional waters (coastal lagoon), seem to divide the predation pressure between different food sources along the marine-continental gradient. Recently in Spain, the Great Cormorant has been devoid of legal protection due to its supposed impact on fisheries. Our methods provide a useful and non-invasive tool that can be used as a first step for assessing such interaction. On the basis of its dispersed feeding distribution and expected predation pressure the cormorant does not seem to represent a serious threat to recreational or commercial fisheries which would justify downgrading its protection.
•Trophic niche of Great Cormorants was assessed using C and N stable isotopes.•Isotopic signatures revealed high mobility between roosting and feeding areas.•Feeding pressure seems to be spread among habitats in a marine-continental gradient.•Downgrading the level of protection of Great Cormorants seems unjustified.
Analyze the gender stereotypes present in the leaders of the Hospital Physiotherapy Units, determine the level of acceptance of female leadership and identify which factors influence these ...perceptions. Observational, descriptive, exploratory and cross-sectional study. The study subjects are the census of leaders of the Physiotherapy Units of public hospitals. The measurement instruments used are the Acceptance of Female Leadership Questionnaire (ACT-LM), and the sociodemographic and job-related variables. Most of the leaders of the hospital physiotherapy units were women (69.4%) physiotherapists. Gender stereotypes emerge in the dimension of Instrumental Characteristics, with respondents not fully agreeing that women were sufficiently competitive (18.7%) or ambitious (20.8%) to be successful in the world of work. These data were influenced by gender, showing that men have a higher regard for female leadership abilities than women themselves. In the dimension of Acceptance of Female Leadership, 17.4% of those surveyed did not fully agree that women can rise to the same extent as men. Most of the leaders of the physiotherapy units in public hospitals in Spain are women, this is reversed in favor of men in highly complex hospitals. The stereotype persists, especially among women, that they do not have enough ambition and competitiveness to succeed in the world of work.
Dichlorvos (2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate, DDVP) is an organophosphorus (OP) insecticide and acaricide extensively used to treat external parasitic infections of farmed fish. In previous ...studies we have demonstrated the importance of the glutathione (GSH) metabolism in the resistance of the European eel (
Anguilla anguilla L.) to thiocarbamate herbicides. The present work studied the effects of the antioxidant and glutathione pro-drug
N-acetyl-
l-cysteine (NAC) on the survival of a natural population of
A. anguilla exposed to a lethal concentration of dichlorvos, focusing on the glutathione metabolism and the enzyme activities of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and caspase-3 as biomarkers of neurotoxicity and induction of apoptosis, respectively. Fish pre-treated with NAC (1
mmol
kg
−1, i.p.) and exposed to 1.5
mg
l
−1 (the 96-h LC
85) of dichlorvos for 96
h in a static-renewal system achieved an increase of the GSH content, GSH/GSSG ratio, hepatic glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione
S-transferase (GST), glutamate:cysteine ligase (GCL), and γ-glutamyl transferase (γGT) activities, which ameliorated the glutathione loss and oxidation, and enzyme inactivation, caused by the OP pesticide. Although NAC-treated fish presented a higher survival and were two-fold less likely to die within the study period of 96
h, Cox proportional hazard models showed that hepatic GSH/GSSG ratio was the best explanatory variable related to survival. Hence, tolerance to a lethal concentration of dichlorvos can be explained by the individual capacity to maintain and improve the hepatic glutathione redox status. Impairment of the GSH/GSSG ratio can lead to excessive oxidative stress and inhibition of caspase-3-like activity, inducing cell death by necrosis, and, ultimately, resulting in the death of the organism. We therefore propose a reconsideration of the individual effective dose or individual tolerance concept postulated by Gaddum 50 years ago for the log-normal dose–response relationship. In addition, as NAC increased the tolerance to dichlorvos, it could be a potential antidote for OP poisoning, complementary to current treatments.
Great efforts are being made worldwide to identify the specific clinical characteristics of infected critically ill patients that mediate the associated pathogenesis, including vascular dysfunction, ...thrombosis, dysregulated inflammation, and respiratory complications. Recently, coronavirus disease 2019 has been closely related to sepsis, which suggests that most deaths in ICUs in infected patients are produced by viral sepsis. Understanding the physiopathology of the disease that lead to sepsis after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection is a current clinical need to improve intensive care-applied therapies applied to critically ill patients. Although the whole representative data characterizing the immune and inflammatory status in coronavirus disease 2019 patients are not completely known, it is clear that hyperinflammation and coagulopathy contribute to disease severity. Here, we present some common features shared by severe coronavirus disease 2019 patients and sepsis and describe proposed anti-inflammatory therapies for coronavirus disease 2019 which have been previously evaluated in sepsis.
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