Enzyme activity and partial characterization of proteases obtained from Bromelia karatas fruit and compared with Bromelia pinguin proteases

Libier Meza-Espinoza,Marı´a de los A ´ ngeles Vivar-Vera,Marı´a de Lourdes Garcı´a-Magan˜a,Sonia G. Sa´yago-Ayerdi,Alejandra Chaco´n-Lo´pez,Eduardo M. Becerrea-Verdı´n,Efigenia Montalvo-Gonza´lez 한국식품과학회 2018 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.27 No.2

The enzymatic activity and partial characterization of proteases from Bromelia karatas fruits were evaluated and compared with Bromelia pinguin proteases. The specific activity increased twofold after partial purification in both proteases. Partially purified proteases from Bromelia karatas showed good specific activity at pH 6.0–8.0 and residual activity of 70–100% for 60 min at 37–60 C, similar to Bromelia pinguin proteases. The Km value of proteases from Bromelia karatas was higher (253.32 lM) than that of Bromelia pinguin proteases (234.94 lM). The use of specific protease inhibitors indicated the presence of cysteine and serine proteases. Proteases with molecular weight of 66.2–97 and 21–31 kDa were detected. Bromelia karatas proteases registered 73% hydrolysis using a soy protein concentrate, similar to the enzyme activity of Bromelia pinguin proteases and commercial bromelain. These results demonstrate that Bromelia karatas proteases could be a potential alternative protease in the food industry.

A Girl with 15q Overgrowth Syndrome and dup(15)(q24q26.3) that Included Telomeric Sequences

María de los Ángeles Gutiérrez-Franco,María de la Luz Madariaga-Campos,Ana I. Vásquez-Velásquez,Esmeralda Matute,Roberto Guevara-Yáñez,Horacio Rivera 대한진단검사의학회 2010 Annals of Laboratory Medicine Vol.30 No.3

Distal 15q trisomy or tetrasomy is associated with a characteristic phenotype that includes mild to moderate intellectual disability, abnormal behavior, speech impairment, overgrowth, hyperlaxity, long face, prominent nose, puffy cheeks, pointed chin, small ears, and hand anomalies (mainly arachno- and camptodactyly). We present the case of a 13-yr-old girl with the main clinical features of 15q overgrowth syndrome and a 46,XX,dup(15)(q24q26.3)[117]/46,XX[3].ish dup(15)(q24q26.3) (SNPRN+,PML+,subtel++,tel++) de novo karyotype. The findings in this case are consistent with those in the previous distal 15q trisomy cases that presented with overgrowth and mental retardation. Further, the rearranged chromosome had a double set of directly oriented telomeric and subtelomeric sequences. (Korean J Lab Med 2010;30:318-24)

High Estradiol Differentially Affects the Expression of the Glucose Transporter Type 4 in Pelvic Floor Muscles of Rats

María de los Ángeles Carrasco-Ruiz,Laura G. Hernández-Aragón,Jesús Ramsés Chávez-Ríos,Jorge Rodríguez-Antolín,Pablo Pacheco,Margarita Martínez-Gómez,Estela Cuevas-Romero,Francisco Castelán 대한배뇨장애요실금학회 2018 International Neurourology Journal Vol.22 No.3

Purpose: To characterize the relationship between serum estradiol levels and the expression of glucose transporter type 4 (Glut4) in the pubococcygeus and iliococcygeus muscles in female rats. Methods: The muscles were excised from virgin rats during the metestrus and proestrus stages of the estrous cycle, and from sham and ovariectomized rats implanted with empty or estradiol benzoate–filled capsules. The expression of estrogen receptors (ERs) was inspected in the muscles at metestrus and proestrus. Relative Glut4 expression, glycogen content, and serum glucose levels were measured. Appropriate statistical tests were done to identify significant differences (P≤0.05). Results: The pubococcygeus and iliococcygeus muscles expressed ERα and ERβ. Glut4 expression and glycogen content in the pubococcygeus muscle were higher at proestrus than at metestrus. No significant changes were observed in the iliococcygeus muscle. In ovariectomized rats, the administration of estradiol benzoate increased Glut4 expression and glycogen content in the pubococcygeus muscle alone. Conclusions: High serum estradiol levels increased Glut4 expression and glycogen content in the pubococcygeus muscle, but not in the iliococcygeus muscle.

Review of Cortical Bone Trajectory: Evidence of a New Technique

Juan Delgado-Fernandez,Maria Ángeles García-Pallero,Guillermo Blasco,Paloma Pulido-Rivas,Rafael,G. Sola 대한척추외과학회 2017 Asian Spine Journal Vol.11 No.5

This article summarizes recent evidence on the cortical bone trajectory (CBT) obtained from published anatomical, biomechanical, and clinical studies. CBT was proposed by Santoni in 2009 as a new trajectory that can improve the fixation of pedicle screws in response to screw loosening in osteoporotic patients. Recently, research interest has been growing with increasing numbers of published series and frequent reports of new applications. We performed an online database search using the terms “cortical bone trajectory,” “pedicle screw,” “CBT spine,” “CBT fixation,” “MISS CBT,” and “traditional trajectory.” The search included the PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases, resulting in an analysis of 42 articles in total. These covered three aspects of CBT research: anatomical studies, biomechanical parameters, and clinical cases or series. Compared to the traditional trajectory, CBT improves pullout strength, provides greater stiffness in cephalocaudal and mediolateral loading, and shows superior resistance to flexion/extension; however, it is inferior in lateral bending and axial rotation. CBT seems to provide better immediate implant stability. In clinical studies, CBT has shown better perioperative results for blood loss, length of stay in hospital, and surgery time; similar or better clinical postoperative scores; and similar comorbidity, without any major fixation system complications due to instrumentation failure or screw misplacement. In addition, advantages such as less lateral exposure allow it to be used as a minimally invasive technique. However, most of the clinical studies were retrospective case series or case-control studies; prospective evidence on this technique is scarce, making a definitive comparison with the traditional trajectory difficult. Nevertheless, we can conclude that CBT is a safe technique that offers good clinical results with similar biomechanical and perioperative parameters to those of the traditional trajectory. In addition, new applications can improve its results and make it useful for additional pathologies.

Multibeam Satellite Frequency/Time Duality Study and Capacity Optimization

Jiang Lei,María Ángeles Vázquez-Castro 한국통신학회 2011 Journal of communications and networks Vol.13 No.5

In this paper, we investigate two new candidate transmission schemes, non-orthogonal frequency reuse (NOFR) and beamhopping (BH). They operate in different domains (frequency and time/space, respectively), and we want to know which domain shows overall best performance. We propose a novel formulation of the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) which allows us to prove the frequency/time duality of these schemes. Further,we propose two novel capacity optimization approaches assuming per-beam SINR constraints in order to use the satellite resources (e.g., power and bandwidth)more efficiently.Moreover, we develop a general methodology to include technological constraints due to realistic implementations, and obtain the main factors that prevent the two technologies dual of each other in practice, and formulate the technological gap between them. The Shannon capacity (upper bound) and current state-of-the-art coding and modulations are analyzed in order to quantify the gap and to evaluate the performance of the two candidate schemes. Simulation results show significant improvements in terms of power gain, spectral efficiency and traffic matching ratio when comparing with conventional systems,which are designed based on uniform bandwidth and power allocation. The results also show that BH system turns out to show a less complex design and performs better than NOFR system specially for non-real time services.

The Role of Information Processing Speed in Clinical and Social Support Variables of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

María Bárbara Eizaguirre,Sandra Vanotti,Ángeles Merino,Cecilia Yastremiz,Berenice Silva,Ricardo Alonso,Orlando Garcea 대한신경과학회 2018 Journal of Clinical Neurology Vol.14 No.4

Background and Purpose Information processing speed is one of the most impaired cognitive functions in multiple sclerosis (MS). There are two tests widely used for evaluating information processing speed: the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). To analyze the relationship between processing speed and the clinical and social support variables of patients with MS. Methods A group of 47 patients with relapsing-remitting MS was studied, 31 were women and 16, men. Age: 39.04±13.17, years of schooling: 13.00±3.87, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS): 2.78±1.81, and disease evolution: 8.07±6.26. Instruments of measure; processing speed: SDMT, PASAT, clinical variables: EDSS, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Beck’s Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), and social support: Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS). Results Significant correlations were found between information processing speed and psychiatric, motor disability and social support variables. The SDMT correlated significantly and negatively with BDI-II, FSS, EDSS, and MOS (p<0.05), whereas the PASAT correlated negatively with FSS and positively with MOS (p<0.05). Information processing speed appeared as the performance predictor of these variables. The SDMT produced significant changes in EDSS (R2= 0.343, p=0.000); FSS (R2=0.109, p=0.031); BDI-II (R2=0.124, p=0.018), and MOS (R2=between 0.212 and 0.379, p<0.05). Conclusions Information processing speed has influence on the clinical variables and the social support of patients with MS. These aspects are important to bear in mind for therapeutic approach.

Functional Status in Older Adults following Hospitalization for COVID-19: A Cohort Study

Pía Izaguirre,Érica Arakaki,Jorge Vogt Boero,Ángeles Zalazar,Mariano Ghirlanda,Diego Caruso 대한노인병학회 2023 Annals of geriatric medicine and research Vol.27 No.4

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can cause multiple acute complications. This study evaluated the long-term functional status of older patients hospitalized for acute COVID-19. Methods: We analyzed data from a multicenter ambispective cohort study on patients aged >60 years who were hospitalized for COVID-19 at two tertiary care hospitals in Argentina. The participants were contacted by telephone between November 2021 and September 2022 to collect data on their functional status. Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with functional limitations after discharge. Results: Among the 374 included patients, 205 (55%) showed functional limitations, including 58 (28%) who died during follow-up. The factors independently associated with functional limitations were low baseline functional status (odds ratio [OR]=9.19; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.35–25.17) and admission to the intensive care unit (OR=4.41; 95% CI, 2.28–8.53). Men had lower odds of functional impairment (OR=0.55; 95% CI, 0.35–0.86). Conclusion: Older patients had high mortality rates and poor functional status at 2 years post-discharge for COVID-19. Several factors at the time of discharge were associated with a higher risk of functional limitations and can be used to identify patients’ long-term needs for support and rehabilitation services.

Neurological Involvement in Erdheim-Chester Disease

Miriam Álvarez-Álvarez,Ronald Macías-Casanova,M Ángeles Fidalgo-Fernández,José Pablo Miramontes González 대한신경과학회 2016 Journal of Clinical Neurology Vol.12 No.1

Biofilm characterization of Fusarium solani keratitis isolate: increased resistance to antifungals and UV light

Itzel Margarita Córdova-Alcántara,Diana Laura Venegas-Cortés,María Ángeles Martínez-Rivera,Néstor Octavio Pérez,Aida Verónica Rodriguez-Tovar 한국미생물학회 2019 The journal of microbiology Vol.57 No.6

Fusarium solani has drawn phytopathogenic, biotechnological, and medical interest. In humans, it is associated with localized infections, such as onychomycosis and keratomycosis, as well as invasive infections in immunocompromised patients. One pathogenicity factor of filamentous fungi is biofilm formation. There is still only scarce information about the in vitro mechanism of the formation and composition of F. solani biofilm. In this work, we describe the biofilm formed by a clinical keratomycosis isolate in terms of its development, composition and susceptibility to different antifungals and ultraviolet light (UV) at different biofilm formation stages. We found five biofilm formation stages using scanning electron microscopy: adherence, germination, hyphal development, maturation, and cell detachment. Using epifluorescence microscopy with specific fluorochromes, it was elucidated that the extracellular matrix consists of carbohydrates, proteins, and extracellular DNA. Specific inhibitors for these molecules showed significant biofilm reductions. The antifungal susceptibility against natamycin, voriconazole, caspofungin, and amphotericin B was evaluated by metabolic activity and crystal violet assay, with the F. solani biofilm preformation to 24 h increased in resistance to natamycin, voriconazole, and caspofungin, while the biofilm preformation to 48 h increased in resistance to amphotericin B. The preformed biofilm at 24 h protected and reduced UV light mortality. F. solani isolate could produce a highly structured extra biofilm; its cellular matrix consists of carbohydrate polymers, proteins, and eDNA. Biofilm confers antifungal resistance and decreases its susceptibility to UV light. The fungal biofilm functions as a survival strategy against antifungals and environmental factors.

Performance Analysis of Coordinated Cognitive Radio Networks under Fixed-Rate Traffic with Hard Delay Constraints

S. Lirio Castellanos-López,Felipe A. Cruz-Pérez,Mario E. Rivero-Ángeles,Genaro Hernández-Valdez 한국통신학회 2014 Journal of communications and networks Vol.16 No.2

Due to the unpredictable nature of channel availability,carrying delay-sensitive traffic in cognitive radio networks (CRNs)is very challenging. Spectrum leasing of radio resources has beenproposed in the so called coordinated CRNs to improve the qualityof service (QoS) experienced by secondary users (SUs). In this paper,the performance of coordinated CRNs under fixed-rate withhard-delay-constraints traffic is analyzed. For the adequate andfair performance comparison, call admission control strategieswith fractional channel reservation to prioritize ongoing secondarycalls over new ones are considered. Maximum Erlang capacity isobtained by optimizing the number of reserved channels. Numericalresults reveal that system performance strongly depends on thevalue of the mean secondary service time relative to the mean primaryservice time. Additionally, numerical results show that, inCRNs without spectrum leasing, there exists a critical utilizationfactor of the primary resources from which it is not longer possibleto guarantee the required QoS of SUs and, therefore, services withhard delay constraints cannot be even supported in CRNs. Thus,spectrum leasing can be essential for CRN operators to providethe QoS demanded by fixed-rate applications with hard delay constraints. Finally, the cost per capacity Erlang as function of boththe utilization factor of the primary resources and the maximumallowed number of simultaneously rented channels is evaluated.