Pesquisa de hábitos alimentarios y factores de riesgo cardiovasculares en adultos en Isla Santiago, Buenos Aires / Survery of dietary habits and cardiovascular risk factors in adults of Isla Santiago, Buenos Aires

Introducción: Existe evidencia acerca de la estrecha relación entre las enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles, los hábitos alimentarios y la actividad física. Sobre el marco de los resultados de la 4ta. Encuesta Nacional de Factores de Riesgo (ENFR), se buscó un territorio isleño de la provincia de Buenos Aires, donde se suponía que el modo de vida podría influir positivamente. Objetivos: analizar la frecuencia de hábitos, la frecuencia de patologías crónicas y la relación entre estas; asumiendo que un estilo de vida alejado de las grandes ciudades llevaría a hábitos más saludables, y con ello, a mejores indicadores de salud. Material y métodos: Estudio de prevalencia. Pesquisa casa por casa sobre 42 hogares en Isla Santiago, donde se aplicó una encuesta y un examen físico, el cual incluyó: medidas antropométricas, presión arterial y glucemia capilar. Resultados: La mayoría de las viviendas (71,4%) tenían, al momento de la recolección de datos, árboles frutales o huerta en sus domicilios. Sin embargo, al realizar la comparación con la 4ta. ENFR, los resultados mostraron que se trataba de una población en la que la inactividad física, la mala alimentación y el consumo problemático de alcohol y tabaco superaba la media nacional. Las enfermedades crónicas resultaron con una tendencia similar a la nacional. Conclusiones: Si bien la accesibilidad a los recursos debe considerarse un elemento importante, esta característica se suma a otros por factores asociados como los socioculturales, la publicidad y aspectos sobre educación para la salud. Se destaca la importancia de trabajar profundamente en los hábitos poblacionales, así como hacer énfasis en la necesidad de implementar programas educativos eficientes y con una mirada loca

Introduction: There is evidence about the close relationship between chronic non-communicable diseases, eating habits and physical activity. Based on the results of the 4th National Survey of Risk Factors (ENFR), an island territory in the province of Buenos Aires was sought where it was assumed that the way of life could have a positive influence. Objectives: to analyze the frequency of habits, the frequency of chronic pathologies and the relationship between them; assuming that a lifestyle away from the big cities would lead to healthier habits, and with it, better health indicators. Material and methods: Prevalence study. A house-to-house survey of 42 homes on Santiago Island, where a survey and physical examination were applied, which included: anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, and capillary blood glucose. Results: Most of the dwellings (71.4%) had fruit trees or orchards in their homes at the time of data collection. However, when making the comparison with the 4th ENFR, the results showed that it was a population in which physical inactivity, poor diet and problematic consumption of alcohol and tobacco exceeded the national average. Chronic diseases resulted in a trend similar to the national one. Conclusions: Although accessibility to resources should be considered an important element, this characteristic is added to others due to associated factors such as sociocultural, advertising and aspects of health education. The importance of working deeply on population habits is highlighted, as well as emphasizing the need to implement efficient educational programs with a local perspective

Identification and mapping of post-transcriptional modifications on the HIV-1 antisense transcript Ast in human cells.

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) encodes multiple RNA molecules. Transcripts that originate from the proviral 5' long terminal repeat (LTR) function as messenger RNAs for the expression of 16 different mature viral proteins. In addition, HIV-1 expresses an antisense transcript (Ast) from the 3'LTR, which has both protein-coding and noncoding properties. While the mechanisms that regulate the coding and noncoding activities of Ast remain unknown, post-transcriptional modifications are known to influence RNA stability, interaction with protein partners, and translation capacity. Here, we report the nucleoside modification profile of Ast obtained through liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. The epitranscriptome includes a limited set of modified nucleosides but predominantly ribose methylations. A number of these modifications were mapped to specific positions of the sequence through RNA modification mapping procedures. The presence of modifications on Ast is consistent with the RNA-modifying enzymes interacting with Ast The identification and mapping of Ast post-transcriptional modifications is expected to elucidate the mechanisms through which this versatile molecule can carry out diverse activities in different cell compartments. Manipulation of post-transcriptional modifications on the Ast RNA may have therapeutic implications.

Oxidative Damage to RNA is Altered by the Presence of Interacting Proteins or Modified Nucleosides.

Oxidative stress triggered by the Fenton reaction (chemical) or UVR exposure (photo) can damage cellular biomolecules including RNA through oxidation of nucleotides. Besides such xenobiotic chemical modifications, RNA also contains several post-transcriptional nucleoside modifications that are installed by enzymes to modulate structure, RNA-protein interactions, and biochemical functions. We examined the extent of oxidative damage to naturally modified RNA which is required for cellular protein synthesis under two different contexts. The extent of oxidative damage is higher when RNA is not associated with proteins, but the degree of damage is lower when the RNA is presented in the form of a ribonucleoprotein complex, such as an intact ribosome. Our studies also indicate that absence of methylations in ribosomal RNA at specific positions could make it more susceptible to photooxidative stress. However, the extent of guanosine oxidation varied with the position at which the modification is deficient, indicating position-dependent structural effects. Further, an E. coli strain deficient in 5-methylaminomethyl-2-thiouridine (mnm5s2U) (found in lysine and glutamate tRNA anticodon) is more vulnerable to oxidative RNA damage compared to its wildtype strain suggesting an auxiliary function for the mnm5s2U modification. These studies indicate that oxidative damage to RNA is altered by the presence of enzymatic modified nucleosides or protein association inside the cell.

Improved RNA modification mapping of cellular non-coding RNAs using C- and U-specific RNases.

Locating ribonucleoside modifications within an RNA sequence requires digestion of the RNA into oligoribonucleotides of amenable size for subsequent analysis by LC-MS (liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry). This approach, widely referred to as RNA modification mapping, is facilitated through ribonucleases (RNases) such as T1 (guanosine-specific), U2 (purine-selective) and A (pyrimidine-specific) among others. Sequence coverage by these enzymes depends on positioning of the recognized nucleobase (such as guanine or purine or pyrimidine) in the sequence and its ribonucleotide composition. Using E. coli transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) as model samples, we demonstrate the ability of complementary nucleobase-specific ribonucleases cusativin (C-specific) and MC1 (U-specific) to generate digestion products that facilitate confident mapping of modifications in regions such as G-rich and pyrimidine-rich segments of RNA, and to distinguish C to U sequence differences. These enzymes also increase the number of oligonucleotide digestion products that are unique to a specific RNA sequence. Further, with these additional RNases, multiple modifications can be localized with high confidence in a single set of experiments with minimal dependence on the individual tRNA abundance in a mixture. The sequence overlaps observed with these complementary digestion products and that of RNase T1 improved sequence coverage to 75% or above. A similar level of sequence coverage was also observed for the 2904 nt long 23S rRNA indicating their utility has no dependence on RNA size. Wide-scale adoption of these additional modification mapping tools could help expedite the characterization of modified RNA sequences to understand their structural and functional role in various living systems.