RESUMEN
En el marco de los 40 años de la docencia médica en Cienfuegos, este artículo constituye un pequeño, pero sincero, homenaje para sus fundadores. El primer grupo de alumnos de 3er año de la carrera de Medicina, llegó en septiembre de 1980 al Hospital Dr. Gustavo Aldereguía Lima, de Cienfuegos. En este trabajo se hace una relatoría de los primeros trabajadores de la Unidad Docente, que radicó donde se encuentra hoy la oficina del Consejo Científico, la distribución de los alumnos y profesores por salas, la ubicación de los primeros albergues, las primeras actividades científicas, hoy Fórum Científico Estudiantil, el Movimiento de alumnos ayudantes, actividades extracurriculares: la primera actividad por el día de la mujer, las primeras celebraciones por el día del Educador, el primer chequeo de emulación de los tres centros de educación superior de la provincia, el inicio de las manifestaciones de la cultura, entre otros aspectos, anécdotas y comentarios.
Within the framework of 40 years of medical teaching in Cienfuegos, this article constitutes a small, but sincere, tribute to its founders. The first group of 3rd year Medicine students arrived in September 1980 at the Dr. Gustavo Aldereguía Lima Hospital in Cienfuegos. In this work, a report is made of the first workers of the Teaching Unit, which was located where the office of the Scientific Council is today, the distribution of students and teachers by rooms, the location of the first hostels, the first scientific activities, today the Student Scientific Forum, the Movement of student assistants, extracurricular activities: the first activity for Women's Day, the first celebrations for Educator's Day, the first emulation check of the three higher education centers in the province, the beginning of the manifestations of culture, among other aspects, anecdotes and comments.
RESUMEN
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive decline, brain atrophy due to neuronal and synapse loss, and formation of two pathological lesions: extracellular amyloid plaques, composed largely of amyloid-beta peptide (Aß), and neurofibrillary tangles formed by intracellular aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau protein. Lesions mainly accumulate in brain regions that modulate cognitive functions such as the hippocampus, septum or amygdala. These brain structures have dense reciprocal glutamatergic, cholinergic, and GABAergic connections and their relationships directly affect learning and memory processes, so they have been proposed as highly susceptible regions to suffer damage by Aß during AD course. Last findings support the emerging concept that soluble Aß peptides, inducing an initial stage of synaptic dysfunction which probably starts 20-30 years before the clinical onset of AD, can perturb the excitatory-inhibitory balance of neural circuitries. In turn, neurotransmission imbalance will result in altered network activity that might be responsible of cognitive deficits in AD. Therefore, Aß interactions on neurotransmission systems in memory-related brain regions such as amygdaloid complex, medial septum or hippocampus are critical in cognitive functions and appear as a pivotal target for drug design to improve learning and dysfunctions that manifest with age. Since treatments based on glutamatergic and cholinergic pharmacology in AD have shown limited success, therapies combining modulators of different neurotransmission systems including recent findings regarding the GABAergic system, emerge as a more useful tool for the treatment, and overall prevention, of this dementia. In this review, focused on inhibitory systems, we will analyze pharmacological strategies to compensate neurotransmission imbalance that might be considered as potential therapeutic interventions in AD.