Professional development and academic satisfaction from a wound programme in Latin America: 10 years of experience.

OBJECTIVE: Latin America had only one Spanish-speaking postgraduate academic programme on managing wounds and ostomies until 2021. Since then, two more programmes have been developed; one in Colombia and another in Mexico. Therefore, studying alumni outcomes becomes highly relevant. We aimed to describe the alumni's professional development and academic satisfaction from a Wound, Ostomy and Burn Therapy postgraduate programme in Mexico City, Mexico. METHOD: An electronic survey was sent to all alumni from January-July 2019 from the School of Nursing of Universidad Panamericana. Employability, academic development and satisfaction following completion of the academic programme were evaluated. RESULTS: From 88 respondents, 77 of whom were nurses, 86 (97.7%) answered that they were working, and 86.4% were working in an area related to the studied programme. Regarding general satisfaction, 88% were totally satisfied/satisfied with the programme and 93.2% would recommend it. CONCLUSION: Alumni from the Wound, Ostomy and Burn Therapy postgraduate programme are satisfied with the academic curriculum and have good professional development, demonstrated by a high employment rate.

Active cancer as the main predictor of mortality for COVID-19 in oncology patients in a specialized center.

Introduction: The role of the type, stage and status of cancer in the outcome of COVID-19 remains unclear. Moreover, the characteristic pathological changes of severe COVID-19 reveled by laboratory and radiological findings are similar to those due to the development of cancer itself and antineoplastic therapies. Objective: To identify potential predictors of mortality of COVID-19 in cancer patients. Materials and methods: A retrospective and cross-sectional study was carried out in patients with clinical suspicion of COVID-19 who were confirmed for COVID-19 diagnosis by RT-PCR testing at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases between April and December 2020. Demographic, clinical, laboratory and radiological data were analyzed. Statistical analyses included area under the curve and univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results: A total of 226 patients had clinical suspicion of COVID-19, the diagnosis was confirmed in 177 (78.3%), and 70/177 (39.5%) died. Age, active cancer, leukocyte count ≥12.8 × 109/L, urea ≥7.4 mmol/L, ferritin ≥1,640, lactate ≥2.0 mmol/L, and lung involvement ≥35% were found to be independent predictors of COVID-19 mortality. Conclusion: Active cancer represents the main prognosis factor of death, while the role of cancer stage and type is unclear. Chest CT is a useful tool in the prognosis of death from COVID-19 in cancer patients. It is a challenge to establish the prognostic utility of laboratory markers as their altered values it could have either oncological or pandemic origins.

Lactate-Loaded Nanoparticles Induce Glioma Cytotoxicity and Increase the Survival of Rats Bearing Malignant Glioma Brain Tumor.

A glioblastoma is an aggressive form of a malignant glial-derived tumor with a poor prognosis despite multimodal therapy approaches. Lactate has a preponderant role in the tumor microenvironment, playing an immunoregulatory role as well as being a carbon source for tumor growth. Lactate homeostasis depends on the proper functioning of intracellular lactate regulation systems, such as transporters and enzymes involved in its synthesis and degradation, with evidence that an intracellular lactate overload generates metabolic stress on tumor cells and tumor cell death. We propose that the delivery of a lactate overload carried in nanoparticles, allowing the intracellular release of lactate, would compromise the survival of tumor cells. We synthesized and characterized silica and titania nanoparticles loaded with lactate to evaluate the cellular uptake, metabolic activity, pH modification, and cytotoxicity on C6 cells under normoxia and chemical hypoxia, and, finally, determined the survival of an orthotopic malignant glioma model after in situ administration. A dose-dependent reduction in metabolic activity of treated cells under normoxia was found, but not under hypoxia, independent of glucose concentration. Lactated-loaded silica nanoparticles were highly cytotoxic (58.1% of dead cells) and generated significant supernatant acidification. In vivo, lactate-loaded silica nanoparticles significantly increased the median survival time of malignant glioma-bearing rats (p = 0.005) when administered in situ. These findings indicate that lactate-loaded silica nanoparticles are cytotoxic on glioma cells in vitro and in vivo.

Potential Use of Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotube Sponges as Payload Carriers Against Malignant Glioma.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain tumor with a low median survival of 14 months. The only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for topical delivery of the cancer drug carmustine is Gliadel. However, its use has been associated with several side-effects, mainly provoked by a mass effect. Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube sponges (N-CNSs) are a new type of nanomaterial exhibiting high biocompatibility, and they are able to load large amounts of hydrophobic drugs, reducing the amount of carriers. This study evaluated the use of N-CNSs as potential carmustine carriers using malignant glioma cell lines. N-CNSs were characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis and transmission electron microscopy. The biocompatibility of N-CNSs was determined in glioma cell lines and in primary astrocytes. Afterward, N-CNSs were loaded with carmustine (1:10 w/w), and the drug and liberation efficiency, as well as cytotoxicity induction, were determined. N-CNSs presented a homogeneous size distribution formed by round nanotubes, without induced cytotoxicity, at concentrations below 40 µg/mL. The N-CNSs loaded with carmustine exhibited a continuous kinetic release of carmustine with a maximum release after 72 h. The cytotoxic effect of N-CNSs loaded with carmustine was similar to that of carmustine alone. The results demonstrated that N-CNSs are a biocompatible nanostructure that could be used as carriers for the tumoral load of large amounts of chemotherapeutic agents.