La Ciencia Andina y la Salud / Andean science and Health

Introducción: en la actualidad, algunos estudios académicos sugieren que las ciencias andinas, aportan conocimientos relacionados con las ciencias médicas que poseen valor académico y científico. Sin embargo, este conocimiento aún debe sistematizarse, ordenarse y difundirse entre la academia y el público. Objetivo: dilucidar la riqueza de la cosmovisión andina para interpretar nuestra realidad, aplicada al ámbito de los conocimientos sobre la salud. El propósito fue identificar una relación entre la temática de las ciencias andinas y la salud. Métodos: se examinaron fuentes originales en castellano de distintas bases de datos: Google Scholar, Biblioteca UNED, Ruidera (biblioteca UCLM), de artículos y textos escritos entre los años 2009 y 2018, utilizando los siguientes descriptores: ciencia andina, medicina tradicional andina. Resultados: los nativos del mundo mesoaméricano y andino desarrollaron formas particulares de abordar los procesos de salud-enfermedad a través de medicina ancestral o andina que tiene un valor científico para el desarrollo de la ciencia médica. Conclusiones: entender con la intención de difundir las prácticas de salud tradicionales, favorece y complementa el desarrollo de la labor del personal que trabaja en salud.

Introduction: currently, some academic studies suggest that Andean Sciences, provide expertise related to medical science that possess academic and scientific value. However, this knowledge must still be systematized, ordered and spread between the academy and the public. Objective: to elucidate the richness of the andean cosmovision to interpret our reality, applied to the field of knowledge about health. The purpose was to identify a relationship between the subject of Andean Sciences and health. Methods: we reviewed original sources in Spanish from different databases: Google Scholar, library UNED, Ruidera (UCLM library), of articles and texts written between 2009 and 2018, using the following key words: andean science, medicine traditional andean. Results: The native peoples of the Mesoamerican world and Andean developed particular forms of tackling health-disease, through the ancestral or Andean medicine that have a scientific value for the development of medical science. Conclusions: the most significant result was to find the relationship that is sought between the subject of Andean Sciences and health.

Measurement of thermal diffusivities of silver nanoparticle colloidal suspensions by means of a frequency-resolved thermal lensing approach.

A frequency-resolved thermal lensing (TL) approach to measure thermal diffusivity properties of both diluted liquid solutions and silver nanoparticle colloidal suspensions is demonstrated. The experiment is based on a classical two-color pump-probe TL configuration, which is adapted to measure the induced TL signal as a function of the chopping frequency of the pump beam. Because of the thermal diffusivity lengths in the samples, the TL signal decreases exponentially with the increment of the frequency. The exponential decay factor can be associated with the thermal diffusivity of the medium. Measurements are performed on diluted liquid solutions and silver nanoparticles suspended in a PVP solution. A suitable fitting to a theoretical model based on the Fresnel diffraction approximation of the experimental data is obtained. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using this approach for the thermal characterization of nanoparticles in liquid solutions. Thermal diffusivity as low as 0.094×10(-7) m2 s(-1) can be estimated by using this approach.

Arachidonic acid ω-hydroxylase CYP4A11: inter-ethnic variations in the 8590T>C loss-of-function variant.

The human Cytochrome P450 4A11 (CYP4A11) is a major ω-hydroxylase involved in the regulation of blood pressure in the kidney through the conversion of arachidonic acid into 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE). Previous studies have reported a significant association between the 8590T>C genetic variant of CYP4A11 and hypertension. Interestingly, several population-based studies have reported ethnic differences in the prevalence of hypertension, with the highest prevalence in African populations. The aim of this work was to determine the frequency and inter-ethnic comparison of the CYP4A11 (8590T>C) functional polymorphism, in five new ethnic groups: European (99 French Caucasians), African (36 Gabonese and 50 Senegalese), South American (60 Peruvians) and North African (53 Tunisians) populations, using polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformational polymorphism and sequencing strategies. We confirmed that the CYP4A11 (8590T>C) functional polymorphism exhibits inter-ethnic frequency differences. Noteworthy, the highest 8590C allele frequency was observed in the Tunisian (30.2%), followed by Senegalese (20%) populations. In addition, the CC genotype was only found in the Gabonese and Tunisian populations (5.6% and 8.4%, respectively). These populations may be of major interest to help to clarify the linkage between hypertension and CYP4A11 (8590T>C) genotype in African populations. These findings provide data for further studies that investigate the potential association of CYP4A11 (8590T>C) variant with an incidence of hypertension genesis in respect of ethnicity.

Origins of cell selectivity of cationic steroid antibiotics.

A key factor in the potential clinical utility of membrane-active antibiotics is their cell selectivity (i.e., prokaryote over eukaryote). Cationic steroid antibiotics were developed to mimic the lipid A binding character of polymyxin B and are shown to bind lipid A derivatives with affinity greater than that of polymyxin B. The outer membranes of Gram-negative bacteria are comprised primarily of lipid A, and a fluorophore-appended cationic steroid antibiotic displays very high selectivity for Gram-negative bacterial membranes over Gram-positive bacteria and eukaryotic cell membranes. This cell selectivity of cationic steroid antibiotics may be due, in part, to the affinity of these compounds for lipid A.