Anàlisi del títol d’anticossos anti-achr i la seva correlació clínica en pacients amb miastenia gravis seropositiva

Els anticossos contra el receptor de l’acetilcolina representen el principal mecanisme patogènic en la Miastènia Gravis, però la seva utilitat com a biomarcador durant el seguiment de la malaltia és desconeguda. S’ha realitzat un estudi retrospectiu amb 77 pacients que disposen de múltiples determinacions en el títol d’anticossos, relacionant-los amb l’estat clínic de cada moment. L’anàlisi demostra una correlació significativa entre la variació dels Ac i l’evolució clínica intrapacient, tant al llarg de la malaltia com en les fluctuacions clíniques. Per tant, la determinació seriada d’anticossos representa una mida dels canvis clínics i pot ser d’utilitat en el seguiment d’aquests pacients.

La Representación del movimiento social anti-desahucios en la prensa española : una perspectva de agenda-setting

Aunque hasta este momento se abundan estudios acerca de los movimientos sociales, la mayoría se aborda desde los propios movimientos y investigar los movimientos que se desarrollan y alcanzan una magnitud increíble mediante las redes sociales ocupa una posición imprescindible en este tipo de la investigación, mientras que realizar un estudio sobre los movimientos sociales a través de los medios tradicionales y oficiales carece de atención de los investigadores. Por esta razón, tomo el caso del movimiento antidesahucios como un ejemplo clàsico para examinar los movimientos sociales desde la perspectiva mediàtica, es decir, la perspectiva de agenda-setting

(Re-) Shaping hatred: Anti-Semitic attitudes in Germany, 1890-2006

In this paper, we assess the determinants of long-run persistence of localculture, and examine the success of policy interventions designed to change attitudes.We analyze anti-Semitic attitudes drawing on individual-level survey results fromGermany s social value survey in 1996 and 2006. On average, we find that historicalvoting patterns for anti-Semitic parties between 1890 and 1933 are powerfulpredictors of anti-Jewish attitudes today. There is evidence that transmission takesplace both vertically (parent to child) and horizontally (among peers). Policy modifiedGerman views on Jews in important ways: The cohort that grew up under the Naziregime shows significantly higher levels of anti-Semitism. After 1945, the victoriousAllies implemented denazification programs in their zones of occupation. We usedifferences in these policies between the occupying powers as a source of identifyingvariation. The US and French zones today still show high anti-Semitism, reflecting anambitious botched attempt at denazification. In contrast, the British and Soviet zones,register much lower levels of Jew-hatred.

Persecution perpetuated: The medieval origins of anti-semitic violence in Nazi Germany

How persistent are cultural traits? This paper uses data on anti-Semitism in Germany and finds continuity at the local level over more than half a millennium. When the Black Death hit Europe in 1348-50, killing between one third and one half of the population, its cause was unknown. Many contemporaries blamed the Jews. Cities all over Germany witnessed mass killings of their Jewish population. At the same time, numerous Jewish communities were spared these horrors. We use plague pogroms as an indicator for medieval anti-Semitism. Pogroms during the Black Death are a strong and robust predictor of violence against Jews in the 1920s, and of votes for the Nazi Party. In addition, cities that saw medieval anti-Semitic violence also had higher deportation rates for Jews after 1933, were more likely to see synagogues damaged or destroyed in the Night of Broken Glass in 1938, and their inhabitants wrote more anti-Jewish letters to the editor of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer.

A Variant of Higher-Order Anti-Unification

We present a rule-based Huet’s style anti-unification algorithm for simply-typed lambda-terms in ɳ long β normal form, which computes a least general higher-order pattern generalization. For a pair of arbitrary terms of the same type, such a generalization always exists and is unique modulo α equivalence and variable renaming. The algorithm computes it in cubic time within linear space. It has been implemented and the code is freely available

Search for nonstandard Higgs boson in diphoton events at p anti-p collisions

We estimate the attainable limits on the coupling of a nonstandard Higgs boson to two photons taking into account the data collected by the Fermilab collaborations on diphoton events. We based our analysis on a general set of dimension-6 effective operators that give rise to anomalous couplings in the bosonic sector of the standard model. If the coefficients of all blind operators have the same magnitude, indirect bounds on the anomalous triple vector-boson couplings can also be inferred, provided there is no large cancellation in the Higgs-gamma-gamma coupling.

Anti-Hellenism and Anti-Classicism in Oscar Wilde's Works. The Second Pole of a Paradoxical Mind.

Thanks to a powerful intellectual weapon, paradox, Oscar Wilde also discovers the dark side of both Classicism and Hellenism. An accurate analysis of his works from the point of view of the Classical Tradition shows an Oscar Wilde who is quite different from the usual Philhellenic one and, above all, from the Platonic one. The aim of this article is to approach a theme which has been hardly studied by classical philologists, that is, anti-classicism and anti-hellenism as an intellectual urge.

Low-dose theophylline enhances the anti-inflammatory effects of steroids during exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

ABSTRACT Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterised by an abnormal inflammatory response mainly to cigarette smoke that flares up during exacerbations of the disease (ECOPD). Reduced activity of histone deacetylases (HDAC) contributes to enhanced inflammation in stable COPD. It was hypothesised that HDAC activity is further reduced during ECOPD and that theophylline, an HDAC activator, potentiates the antiinflammatory effect of steroids in these patients. A study was performed to investigate HDAC activity during ECOPD and the effects of theophylline on the anti-inflammatory effects of steroids in a randomised single-blind controlled study. Methods: 35 patients hospitalised with ECOPD and treated according to international guidelines (including systemic steroids) were randomised to receive or not to receive low-dose oral theophylline (100 mg twice daily). Before treatment and 3 months after discharge, HDAC and nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) activity in sputum macrophages, the concentration of nitric oxide in exhaled air (eNO) and total antioxidant status (TAS), tumour necrosis factor a (TNFa), interleukin (IL)-6 and IL8 levels in sputum supernatants were measured. Results: Patients receiving standard therapy showed decreased NF-kB activity, eNO concentration and sputum levels of TNFa, IL6 and IL8, as well as increased TAS during recovery of ECOPD, but HDAC activity did not change. The addition of low-dose theophylline increased HDAC activity and further reduced IL8 and TNFa concentrations. Conclusions: During ECOPD, low-dose theophylline increases HDAC activity and improves the anti-inflammatory effects of steroids.

Anti-inflammatory effects of pancreatitis associated protein in inflammatory bowel disease

Background and aims: Increased pancreatitis associated protein (PAP) mRNA has been reported in active inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aims of the current study were to characterise PAP production in IBD and the effects of PAP on inflammation. Patients and methods: Serum PAP levels were determined in healthy controls (n¿=¿29), inflammatory controls (n¿=¿14), and IBD patients (n¿=¿171). Ex vivo PAP secretion in intestinal tissue was measured in 56 IBD patients and 13 healthy controls. Cellular origin of PAP was determined by immunohistochemistry. The effects of exogenous PAP on nuclear factor ¿B (NF¿B) activation, proinflammatory cytokine production, and endothelial adhesion molecule expression were also analysed ex vivo. Results: Patients with active IBD had increased serum PAP levels compared with controls, and these levels correlated with clinical and endoscopic disease severity. Ex vivo intestinal PAP synthesis was increased in active IBD and correlated with endoscopic and histological severity of inflammatory lesions. PAP localised to colonic Paneth cells. Incubation of mucosa from active Crohn¿s disease with PAP dose dependently reduced proinflammatory cytokines secretion. PAP prevented TNF-¿ induced NF¿B activation in monocytic, epithelial, and endothelial cells and reduced proinflammatory cytokine mRNA levels and adhesion molecule expression. Conclusions: PAP is synthesised by Paneth cells and is overexpressed in colonic tissue of active IBD. PAP inhibits NF¿B activation and downregulates cytokine production and adhesion molecule expression in inflamed tissue. It may represent an anti-inflammatory mechanism and new therapeutic strategy in IBD.

Roman amphora trade across the Straits of Gibraltar: An ancient 'anti-economic practice'?

Summary. Olive oil and fish products from the south of Hispania and North Africa played an important role in the Roman economy. The authors call attention to the asymmetrical distribution of archaeological data available on this subject, in particular the location of amphora kilns, and try to give an explanation, based on the evolution of European archaeology in the twentieth century.

Therapeutic targeting of tumor growth and angiogenesis with a novel anti-S100A4 monoclonal antibody

S100A4, a member of the S100 calcium-binding protein family secreted by tumor and stromal cells, supports tumorigenesis by stimulating angiogenesis. We demonstrated that S100A4 synergizes with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), via the RAGE receptor, in promoting endothelial cell migration by increasing KDR expression and MMP-9 activity. In vivo overexpression of S100A4 led to a significant increase in tumor growth and vascularization in a human melanoma xenograft M21 model. Conversely, when silencing S100A4 by shRNA technology, a dramatic decrease in tumor development of the pancreatic MiaPACA-2 cell line was observed. Based on these results we developed 5C3, a neutralizing monoclonal antibody against S100A4. This antibody abolished endothelial cell migration, tumor growth and angiogenesis in immunodeficient mouse xenograft models of MiaPACA-2 and M21-S100A4 cells. It is concluded that extracellular S100A4 inhibition is an attractive approach for the treatment of human cancer.

Dual inhibitors of beta-amyloid aggregation and acetylcholinesterase as multi-target anti-Alzheimer drug candidates

Notwithstanding the functional role that the aggregates of some amyloidogenic proteins can play in different organisms, protein aggregation plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of a large number of human diseases. One of such diseases is Alzheimer"s disease (AD), where the overproduction and aggregation of the β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) are regarded as early critical factors. Another protein that seems to occupy a prominent position within the complex pathological network of AD is the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), with classical and non-classical activities involved at the late (cholinergic deficit) and early (Aβ aggregation) phases of the disease. Dual inhibitors of Aβ aggregation and AChE are thus emerging as promising multi-target agents with potential to efficiently modify the natural course of AD. In the initial phases of the drug discovery process of such compounds, in vitro evaluation of the inhibition of Aβ aggregation is rather troublesome, as it is very sensitive to experimental assay conditions, and requires expensive synthetic Aβ peptides, which makes cost-prohibitive the screening of large compound libraries. Herein, we review recently developed multi-target anti-Alzheimer compounds that exhibit both Aβ aggregation and AChE inhibitory activities, and, in some cases also additional valuable activities such as BACE-1 inhibition or antioxidant properties. We also discuss the development of simplified in vivo methods for the rapid, simple, reliable, unexpensive, and high-throughput amenable screening of Aβ aggregation inhibitors that rely on the overexpression of Aβ42 alone or fused with reporter proteins in Escherichia coli.