La salud espiritual, ¿El factor olvidado? / No disponible

La revisión comenta la importancia de espiritualidades y religiones en la Antropología evolutiva, y analiza desde el punto de vista cerebro-mente la estructura de estas trascendencias. Sugiere que estas dimensiones mentales podrían tenerse en cuenta en la psiquiatría, al margen de consideraciones ideológicas, como elementos de salud espiritual, factor con frecuencia olvidado

The review comments on the importance of spiritualities and religions in evolutionary Anthropology, and analize from the brainmind point of view the structure of transcendencies. He suggest that these mental dimensions could be taken into account in psychiatry, apart of ideological considerations, as element of spiritual health, a factor often forgotten

Molecular polymorphism of the ABO blood group: a study in Poland, Spain, and Andorra.

OBJECTIVES: The main goal of this study is to increase knowledge on the molecular level of the ABO blood group system in Europe by providing data for Poland, Spain, and Andorra populations. METHODS: A total of 172 oral scrapings samples from individuals of Polish origin, 108 peripheral blood samples of autochthonous individuals from the province of Zamora (Spain), and 81 peripheral blood samples from individuals with Andorran origin, were analyzed. Molecular characterization of the allelic variants was performed by the analysis of exons 6 and 7 of the ABO gene. RESULTS: Seven common alleles were identified, namely: A101, A102, A201, B101, O01, O02, and O03. Less common variants (O05, O09, O21, O26, O06, O11, and O12), were also detected. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained contribute to the knowledge of the molecular European ABO map, and are discussed in regard to the allelic frequency reported by other Caucasian and Asian populations.

Validated primer set that prevents nuclear DNA sequences of mitochondrial origin co-amplification: a revision based on the New Human Genome Reference Sequence (GRCh37).

A new human genome reference sequence--GRCh37--was recently generated and made available by the Genome Reference Consortium. Since the prior disposable human reference sequence--hg18--was previously used for the mitochondrial DNA primer BLAST validation, a revision of those previously published primer pairs is required. Thus, the aim of this Short Communication is to perform an in silico BLAST test of the published disposable nine primer pairs using the new human reference sequence and to report the pertinent modifications. The new analysis showed that one of the tested primer pairs requires a revision. Therefore, a new validated primer pair, which specifically amplifies the mitochondrial region located between positions 6520 and 9184, is presented.

Human mitochondrial DNA complete amplification and sequencing: a new validated primer set that prevents nuclear DNA sequences of mitochondrial origin co-amplification.

To date, there are no published primers to amplify the entire mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that completely prevent the amplification of nuclear DNA (nDNA) sequences of mitochondrial origin. The main goal of this work was to design, validate and describe a set of primers, to specifically amplify and sequence the complete human mtDNA, allowing the correct interpretation of mtDNA heteroplasmy in healthy and pathological samples. Validation was performed using two different approaches: (i) Basic Local Alignment Search Tool and (ii) amplification using isolated nDNA obtained from sperm cells by differential lyses. During the validation process, two mtDNA regions, with high similarity with nDNA, represent the major problematic areas for primer design. One of these could represent a non-published nuclear DNA sequence of mitochondrial origin. For two of the initially designed fragments, the amplification results reveal PCR artifacts that can be attributed to the poor quality of the DNA. After the validation, nine overlapping primer pairs to perform mtDNA amplification and 22 additional internal primers for mtDNA sequencing were obtained. These primers could be a useful tool in future projects that deal with mtDNA complete sequencing and heteroplasmy detection, since they represent a set of primers that have been tested for the non-amplification of nDNA.

Frequency and pattern of heteroplasmy in the control region of human mitochondrial DNA.

In this work, we present the results of the screening of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) heteroplasmy in the control region of mtDNA from 210 unrelated Spanish individuals. Both hypervariable regions of mtDNA were amplified and sequenced in order to identify and quantify point and length heteroplasmy. Of the 210 individuals analyzed, 30% were fully homoplasmic and the remaining presented point and/or length heteroplasmy. The prevalent form of heteroplasmy was length heteroplasmy in the poly(C) tract of the hypervariable region II (HVRII), followed by length heteroplasmy in the poly(C) tract of hypervariable region I (HVRI) and, finally, point heteroplasmy, which was found in 3.81% of the individuals analyzed. Moreover, no significant differences were found in the proportions of the different kinds of heteroplasmy in the population when blood and buccal cell samples were compared. The pattern of heteroplasmy in HVRI and HVRII presents important differences. Moreover, the mutational profile in heteroplasmy seems to be different from the mutational pattern detected in population. The results suggest that a considerable number of mutations and, particularly, transitions that appear in heteroplasmy are probably eliminated by drift and/or by selection acting at different mtDNA levels of organization. Taking as a whole the results reported in this work, it is mandatory to perform a broad-scale screening of heteroplasmy to better establish the heteroplasmy profile which would be important for medical, evolutionary, and forensic proposes.