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The potential use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in biomedicine as magnetic resonance, drug delivery, imagenology, hyperthermia, biosensors, and biological separation has been studied in different laboratories. One of the challenges on MNP elaboration for biological applications is the size, biocompatibility, heat efficiency, stabilization in physiological conditions, and surface coating. Magnetoliposome (ML), a lipid bilayer of phospholipids encapsulating MNPs, is a system used to reduce toxicity. Encapsulated MNPs can be used as a potential drug and a gene delivery system, and in the presence of magnetic fields, MLs can be accumulated in a target tissue by a strong gradient magnetic field. Here, we present a study of the effects of DC magnetic fields on encapsulated MNPs inside liposomes. Despite their widespread applications in biotechnology and environmental, biomedical, and materials science, the effects of magnetic fields on MLs are unclear. We use a modified coprecipitation method to synthesize superparamagnetic nanoparticles (SNPs) in aqueous solutions. The SNPs are encapsulated inside phospholipid liposomes to study the interaction between phospholipids and SNPs. Material characterization of SNPs reveals round-shaped nanoparticles with an average size of 12 nm, mainly magnetite. MLs were prepared by the rehydration method. After formation, we found two types of MLs: one type is tense with SNPs encapsulated and the other is a floppy vesicle that does not show the presence of SNPs. To study the response of MLs to an applied DC magnetic field, we used a homemade chamber. Digitalized images show encapsulated SNPs assembled in chain formation when a DC magnetic field is applied. When the magnetic field is switched off, it completely disperses SNPs. Floppy MLs deform along the direction of the external applied magnetic field. Solving the relevant magnetostatic equations, we present a theoretical model to explain the ML deformations by analyzing the forces exerted by the magnetic field over the surface of the spheroidal liposome. Tangential magnetic forces acting on the ML surface result in a press force deforming MLs. The type of deformations will depend on the magnetic properties of the mediums inside and outside the MLs. The model predicts a coexistence region of oblate–prolate deformation in the zone where χ = 1. We can understand the chain formation in terms of a dipole–dipole interaction of SNP.

RESUMEN OBJETIVO Analizar la influencia de cambios socio-políticos, educativos y feministas de España en el mantenimiento de lactancia materna. MÉTODO Revisión histórico-descriptiva de documentación en bases de datos, Boletines Oficiales del Estado, del Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo y Bienestar Social. RESULTADOS La lactancia materna es un fenómeno complejo influenciado por factores demográficos, biológicos, sociales y psicológicos. Ha cambiado a lo largo de la historia y, evolucionado con los movimientos feministas. La incorporación de la mujer al mercado laboral (s.XIX), produjo una modificación en el rol familiar y pareja. La sociedad del siglo XXI reclama a los poderes públicos la conciliación personal y laboral para la crianza de sus hijos. CONCLUSIONES E IMPLICACIÓN PARA LA PRÁCTICA Han sido múltiples los factores y procesos evolutivos para la situación socio-cultural de la mujer en la lactancia materna. Actualmente sigue siendo complicado compaginar gestación y crianza con el empleo, las redes formales e informales permiten avances en políticas sanitarias. RESUMO OBJETIVO Analisar a influência das mudanças sócio-políticas, educativas e feministas em Espanha na manutenção do aleitamento materno. MÉTODO Revisão histórico-descritiva da documentação em bases de dados, Boletins Oficiais do Estado, do Ministério da Saúde e do Consumo e da Previdência Social. RESULTADOS O aleitamento materno é um fenómeno complexo influenciado por factores demográficos, biológicos, sociais e psicológicos. Ela mudou ao longo da história e evoluiu com os movimentos feministas. A incorporação das mulheres ao mercado de trabalho (século XIX), produziu uma modificação no papel da família e do casal. A sociedade do século XXI exige do poder público a conciliação pessoal e laboral para a educação dos seus filhos. CONCLUSÕES E IMPLICAÇÕES PARA A PRÁTICA Tem havido múltiplos factores e processos evolutivos para a situação sociocultural das mulheres em aleitamento materno. Hoje em dia, ainda é complicado combinar gravidez e educação com emprego, e as redes formais e informais permitem avanços nas políticas de saúde. ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To analyze the influence of socio-political, educational and feminist changes in Spain on the maintenance of breastfeeding. METHOD Historical-descriptive review of documentation in databases, Official State Bulletins, of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare. RESULTS Breastfeeding is a complex phenomenon influenced by demographic, biological, social and psychological factors. It has changed throughout history and evolved with the feminist movements. The incorporation of women to the labor market (19th century), produced a modification in the family and couple role. The society of the 21st century demands from the public authorities the personal and labor conciliation for the upbringing of their children. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE There have been multiple factors and evolutionary processes for the socio-cultural situation of women in breastfeeding. Nowadays, it is still complicated to combine pregnancy and upbringing with employment, and formal and informal networks allow advances in health policies.

Durante los años 1900 hasta 1936, la salud infantil comenzaba a ganar importancia en Europa. En España, la mortalidad infantil era elevada. Para contrarrestar esta situación, el estado propuso medidas sanitarias, educativas y alimentarias. Objetivo. Analizar la Guerra Civil Española (1936-1939), que continuó con los “años del hambre” durante la posguerra (1939-1949), conocidos por el racionamiento de alimentos y decadencia de la salud materno-infantil. Método. Estudio histórico descriptivo con fuentes primarias y secundarias. Que trata sobre, el contexto sociosanitario y la transición alimentaria, que vivieron los infantes durante la guerra y posguerra española (1936-1949). Resultados. El gobierno realizó una promoción de la lactancia materna guiada por pediatras de la época, no obstante, la leche de fórmula ganó importancia, debido a la modificación de la estructura familiar básica. La figura clásica de la mujer se fracturó, en favor del trabajo en las fábricas o, en última instancia, como participantes activas en la guerra. Conclusiones. Las instituciones sanitarias, se centraron en el cuidado de heridos, cuestión que repercutió en la atención del niño enfermo. Esta situación dio lugar a altas tasas de morbimortalidad infantil, las cuales se mantuvieron hasta el final de la posguerra. During the years 1900 to 1936, children’s health began to gain importance in Europe. In Spain, infant mortality was high. To counteract this situation, the state proposed health, educational and food measures. Objective. To analyze the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), which continued with the “hungry years” of the post-war period (1939-1949), known for food rationing and the decline of mother and child health. Method. Historical descriptive study with primary and secondary sources. It deals with the socio-health context and the food transition experienced by infants during the Spanish war and post-war period (1936-1949). Results. The government carried out a promotion of breastfeeding guided by pediatricians of the time, however, formula gained importance, due to the modification of the basic family structure. The classic figure of the woman was fractured, in favour of working in factories or, ultimately, as active participants in the war. Conclusions. Health institutions focused on the care of the wounded, an issue that impacted on the care of the sick child. This situation resulted in high rates of child morbidity and mortality, which continued until the end of the post-war period. Durante os anos de 1900 a 1936, a saúde das crianças começou a ganhar importância na Europa. Em Espanha, a mortalidade infantil foi elevada. Para contrariar esta situação, o Estado propôs medidas sanitárias, educativas e alimentares. Objectivo. Analisar a Guerra Civil Espanhola (1936-1939), que continuou com os “anos de fome” do pós-guerra (1939-1949), conhecida pelo racionamento de alimentos e pelo declínio da saúde materna e infantil. Método. Estudo descritivo histórico com fontes primárias e secundárias. Trata do contexto sócio-sanitário e da transição alimentar vivida pelos bebés durante a guerra espanhola e o período pós-guerra (1936-1949). Resultados. O governo realizou uma promoção da amamentação orientada por pediatras da época, mas a fórmula ganhou importância, devido à modificação da estrutura básica da família. A figura clássica da mulher foi fracturada, a favor de trabalhar em fábricas ou, em última análise, como participante activa na guerra. Conclusões. As instituições de saúde concentraram-se no cuidado dos feridos, uma questão que teve impacto no cuidado da criança doente. Esta situação resultou em elevadas taxas de morbilidade e mortalidade infantil, que se mantiveram até ao final do período pós-guerra.

Human histidine decarboxylase (HDC) and dopa decarboxilase (DDC) are highly homologous enzymes responsible for the synthesis of biogenic amines (BA) like histamine, and serotonin and dopamine, respectively. The enzymes share many structural and functional analogies, while their product metabolisms also follow similar patterns that are confluent in some metabolic steps. They are involved in common physiological functions, such as neurotransmission, gastrointestinal track function, immunity, cell growth and cell differentiation. As a consequence, metabolic elements of both BA subfamilies are also co-participants in a long list of human diseases. This review summarizes the analogies and differences in their origin (HDC and DDC) as well as their common pathophysiological scenarios. The major gaps of information are also underlined, as they delay the possibility of holistic approaches that would help personalized medicine and pharmacological initiatives for prevalent and rare diseases.

Copy number variations (CNVs) are genomic structural variations (deletions, duplications, or translocations) that represent the 4.8-9.5% of human genome variation in healthy individuals. In some cases, CNVs can also lead to disease, being the etiology of many known rare genetic/genomic disorders. Despite the last advances in genomic sequencing and diagnosis, the pathological effects of many rare genetic variations remain unresolved, largely due to the low number of patients available for these cases, making it difficult to identify consistent patterns of genotype-phenotype relationships. We aimed to improve the identification of statistically consistent genotype-phenotype relationships by integrating all the genetic and clinical data of thousands of patients with rare genomic disorders (obtained from the DECIPHER database) into a phenotype-patient-genotype tripartite network. Then we assessed how our network approach could help in the characterization and diagnosis of novel cases in clinical genetics. The systematic approach implemented in this work is able to better define the relationships between phenotypes and specific loci, by exploiting large-scale association networks of phenotypes and genotypes in thousands of rare disease patients. The application of the described methodology facilitated the diagnosis of novel clinical cases, ranking phenotypes by locus specificity and reporting putative new clinical features that may suggest additional clinical follow-ups. In this work, the proof of concept developed over a set of novel clinical cases demonstrates that this network-based methodology might help improve the precision of patient clinical records and the characterization of rare syndromes.

Background Network medicine is a promising new discipline that combines systems biology approaches and network science to understand the complexity of pathological phenotypes. Given the growing availability of personalized genomic and phenotypic profiles, network models offer a robust integrative framework for the analysis of "omics" data, allowing the characterization of the molecular aetiology of pathological processes underpinning genetic diseases. Methods Here we make use of patient genomic data to exploit different network-based analyses to study genetic and phenotypic relationships between individuals. For this method, we analyzed a dataset of structural variants and phenotypes for 6,564 patients from the DECIPHER database, which encompasses one of the most comprehensive collections of pathogenic Copy Number Variations (CNVs) and their associated ontology-controlled phenotypes. We developed a computational strategy that identifies clusters of patients in a synthetic patient network according to their genetic overlap and phenotype enrichments. Results Many of these clusters of patients represent new genotype-phenotype associations, suggesting the identification of newly discovered phenotypically enriched loci (indicative of potential novel syndromes) that are currently absent from reference genomic disorder databases such as ClinVar, OMIM or DECIPHER itself. Conclusions We provide a high-resolution map of pathogenic phenotypes associated with their respective significant genomic regions and a new powerful tool for diagnosis of currently uncharacterized mutations leading to deleterious phenotypes and syndromes. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-2569-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Resumen Objetivos Evaluar la eficacia y seguridad del oxido nitroso mezclado al 50% con oxigeno en la utilizacion como analgesico inhalado durante el parto. Material y metodos Revision sistematica de la literatura cientifica. Para ello se realizo una busqueda bibliografica (2010) en bases de datos electronicas. Como criterios de inclusion se seleccionaron estudios que comparasen la administracion del oxido nitroso inhalado al 50% frente a otra intervencion, en mujeres adultas durante la fase de parto, y que mostrasen resultados de seguridad y eficacia. Resultados Se obtuvieron un total de 230 referencias, seleccionandose 24 trabajos que podian cumplir los criterios de inclusion. Tras el analisis a texto completo, se seleccionaron una revision sistematica y 3 ensayos clinicos. La calidad de los ensayos incluidos ha sido moderada-alta. El oxido nitroso como tecnica analgesica frente a placebo presenta resultados aceptables, pero frente a otros analgesicos sus resultados son menos satisfactorios. Los resultados de seguridad son similares a los que ocurren con otros tratamientos analgesicos. Conclusiones La administracion inhalada de oxido nitroso al 50% a mujeres durante el parto podria ser una alternativa frente a las intervenciones utilizadas habitualmente para este fin.

Biogenic amines play important roles in most important physiological processes, from cell proliferation and differentiation to nutrition, immune response, and neurobiology and reproduction. These effects are spread through a wide variety of cell-specific receptors, cell-specific signaling, and metabolic pathways. However, the biochemical events underlying these effects conform very complex networks of interactions that are far from being completely understood in most cases. In addition, two or more biogenic amines can coexist in the same physiological scenarios keeping cross talk events with influence in their respective physiological functions. In this respect, histamine seems to be the most pleiotropic biogenic amine keeping biochemical and functional interactions with both growth-related polyamines and neurotransmitters in different cell models and tissues. As diseases are the consequence of a biochemical imbalance in one or more tissues, the physiological importance of these compounds and their multiple relationships must have a reflection in the human diseasome, the scope of which is not yet known. This fact impedes development of new solutions for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the multiple diseases involving the action of biogenic amines. This work is a further effort of our group to integrate genetic, functional, and clinical information about biogenic amine-related diseases assisted by text mining and network theory-based tools with the aim of helping to advance in personalized biomedical strategies.

The molecular complexity of genetic diseases requires novel approaches to break it down into coherent biological modules. For this purpose, many disease network models have been created and analyzed. We highlight two of them, “the human diseases networks” (HDN) and “the orphan disease networks” (ODN). However, in these models, each single node represents one disease or an ambiguous group of diseases. In these cases, the notion of diseases as unique entities reduces the usefulness of network-based methods. We hypothesize that using the clinical features (pathophenotypes) to define pathophenotypic connections between disease-causing genes improve our understanding of the molecular events originated by genetic disturbances. For this, we have built a pathophenotypic similarity gene network (PSGN) and compared it with the unipartite projections (based on gene-to-gene edges) similar to those used in previous network models (HDN and ODN). Unlike these disease network models, the PSGN uses semantic similarities. This pathophenotypic similarity has been calculated by comparing pathophenotypic annotations of genes (human abnormalities of HPO terms) in the “Human Phenotype Ontology”. The resulting network contains 1075 genes (nodes) and 26197 significant pathophenotypic similarities (edges). A global analysis of this network reveals: unnoticed pairs of genes showing significant pathophenotypic similarity, a biological meaningful re-arrangement of the pathological relationships between genes, correlations of biochemical interactions with higher similarity scores and functional biases in metabolic and essential genes toward the pathophenotypic specificity and the pleiotropy, respectively. Additionally, pathophenotypic similarities and metabolic interactions of genes associated with maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) have been used to merge into a coherent pathological module. Our results indicate that pathophenotypes contribute to identify underlying co-dependencies among disease-causing genes that are useful to describe disease modularity.

Introducción y objetivos. Los métodos actuales de ablación conllevan sistemas de navegación manual y ablación cardiaca, y presentan ciertas limitaciones. El objetivo de este trabajo ha sido evaluar la eficacia y seguridad de los nuevos sistemas de navegación magnética intracardiaca.Métodos. Se hizo una revisión sistemática en las bases MedLine, Embase, Cochrane Library, CRD, ECRI, Hayes y bases de datos de HTA. Como términos Mesh se usaron: “electrophisiologic techniques”, “magnetics”, “stereotaxic techniques”, “heart catheterization” y “catheter ablation”. Los criterios de inclusión fueron estudios con adultos y lesiones cardíacas. La intervención fue el sistema de navegación magnética intracardiaca Niobe®. Los resultados medidos fueron: tiempos totales de procedimiento, tiempo de fluoroscopia, tiempo de colocación del catéter, tiempo de mapeo y tiempo de ablación. La calidad se evaluó con los cuestionarios CASPe y STROBE.Resultados. Se localizaron 467 referencias y se incluyeron 14. Hubo dos ensayos clínicos de calidad moderada y 10 estudios observacionales con calidad baja a moderada. Los ensayos presentaron un tiempo total de procedimiento mediante la intervención, igual o superior al comparador (151 y 113 vs. 151 y 77,2 minutos), mientras que los tiempos de fluoroscopia fueron inferiores (17,8 y 10,6 vs. 27,1 y 15,0 minutos). En los estudios observacionales, el tiempo total de intervención osciló entre 59 y 243 minutos para los sistemas magnéticos, frente a 57 a 332 minutos empleando técnicas convencionales. Los trabajos reflejaron la técnica magnética como segura, sin efectos secundarios graves.Conclusiones. No se ha logrado obtener información de calidad para afirmar que los sistemas de navegación magnética intracardiaca superen con claridad a los sistemas convencionales.

Background Several types of genetic interactions in humans can be directly or indirectly associated with the causal effects of mutations. These interactions are usually based on their co-associations to biological processes, coexistence in cellular locations, coexpression in cell lines, physical interactions and so on. In addition, pathological processes can present similar phenotypes that have mutations either in the same genomic location or in different genomic regions. Therefore, integrative resources for all of these complex interactions can help us prioritize the relationships between genes and diseases that are most deserving to be studied by researchers and physicians. Results PhenUMA is a web application that displays biological networks using information from biomedical and biomolecular data repositories. One of its most innovative features is to combine the benefits of semantic similarity methods with the information taken from databases of genetic diseases and biological interactions. More specifically, this tool is useful in studying novel pathological relationships between functionally related genes, merging diseases into clusters that share specific phenotypes or finding diseases related to reported phenotypes. Conclusions This framework builds, analyzes and visualizes networks based on both functional and phenotypic relationships. The integration of this information helps in the discovery of alternative pathological roles of genes, biological functions and diseases. PhenUMA represents an advancement toward the use of new technologies for genomics and personalized medicine. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12859-014-0375-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.