Evaluation of diet pattern related to the symptoms of mexican patients with Ulcerative Colitis (UC): through the validity of a questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is a chronic disease characterized by inflammation of colonic mucosa. Environmental factors such as dietary patterns may increase symptoms in UC patients. AIM: To validate and implement a questionnaire to identify foods that exacerbates symptoms in UC patients. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted to validate and to assess the relationship of food and symptoms in Mexican UC patients. RESULTS: The IVC obtained was 0.56 in the questionnaire and kappa = 0.03 in foods from animal origin, 0.5 cereals and tubers, 0.2 legumes, 0.4 vegetables and fruits, 0.4 fats and 0.3 in others. The evaluation was carried out in UC patients (n = 233), 65% active and 35% in UC remission, the current age was 45 (SD; 15) years in active UC and 40 (SD; 15) years in UC remission. Three food groups were made based on the frequency of symptoms: Group A; symptoms more often, especially the active vs remission (P <0.05); Group B caused more symptoms in remission UC vs active UC (P = 0.07) and Group C caused more symptoms in the active UC (P = 0.05). CONCLUSION: Foods with higher frequency of symptoms in patients with UC were: beans, whole milk, plum, lima beans and spicy sauce.

Differential Expression of MUC12, MUC16, and MUC20 in Patients with Active and Remission Ulcerative Colitis.

Background. Patients with UC have shown an important defect in the secretion and maintenance of the mucosal barrier as part of inadequate expression of mucin genes. The aim of the present study was to determine the expression of MUC12, MUC16, and MUC20 in colonic tissue from patients with UC in regard to their clinical outcomes. Methods. We included a total of 40 patients with UC and 30 normal controls. Mucin gene expression was performed by RT-PCR and protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry. Results. Patients with active UC showed no significant expression of MUC12 gene in mucosa compared to the group of patients with UC in remission and the normal control group. MUC16 gene expression was significantly increased in the UC active and remission groups compared to the normal control group (P = 0.03). MUC20 gene expression was found significantly decreased in patients with active UC compared to both remission group (P = 0.001) and normal controls (P = 0.001). Furthermore, an association was found between MUC20 gene expression and the presence of histological remission in patients with UC (P = 0.003, OR = 0.37). Conclusions. An increased gene expression of MUC16 and MUC20 was found in patients with remission UC.

Analysis and prediction of pathways in HeLa cells by integrating biological levels of organization with systems-biology approaches.

It has recently begun to be considered that cancer is a systemic disease and that it must be studied at every level of complexity using many of the currently available approaches, including high-throughput technologies and bioinformatics. To achieve such understanding in cervical cancer, we collected information on gene, protein and phosphoprotein expression of the HeLa cell line and performed a comprehensive analysis of the different signaling pathways, transcription networks and metabolic events in which they participate. A total expression analysis by RNA-Seq of the HeLa cell line showed that 19,974 genes were transcribed. Of these, 3,360 were over-expressed, and 2,129 under-expressed when compared to the NHEK cell line. A protein-protein interaction network was derived from the over-expressed genes and used to identify central elements and, together with the analysis of over-represented transcription factor motifs, to predict active signaling and regulatory pathways. This was further validated by Metal-Oxide Affinity Chromatography (MOAC) and Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS) assays which retrieved phosphorylated proteins. The 14-3-3 family members emerge as important regulators in carcinogenesis and as possible clinical targets. We observed that the different over- and under-regulated pathways in cervical cancer could be interrelated through elements that participate in crosstalks, therefore belong to what we term "meta-pathways". Additionally, we highlighted the relations of each one of the differentially represented pathways to one or more of the ten hallmarks of cancer. These features could be maintained in many other types of cancer, regardless of mutations or genomic rearrangements, and favor their robustness, adaptations and the evasion of tissue control. Probably, this could explain why cancer cells are not eliminated by selective pressure and why therapy trials directed against molecular targets are not as effective as expected.