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ABSTRACT: introduction: The main goal in this study was to know the efficacy of treatment with Secnidazole in schoolchildren acting as asymptomatic carriers of Giardia lumblia and Entamoela histolytica and also to evaluate its toleration. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 children with parasitic disease (from 53 children with Entamoeba histolytica and/or Giardia lamblia) were chosen for the study, with ages ranking from 5 to 14, of either gender, to whom the drug was administered, and coproparasitological control tests were performed to them at third day of therapy. A question form was used to evaluate oral toleration to the drug. Result: From 53 cases studied, the protozoal ratio was as follows: Giardia lamblia 66.03%, followed by Entamoeba histolytica, 33.97 %. Parasitological effectiveness of Secnidazole against Gíardia lamblía was 100%, and against Entamoeba histolytica was 95.45 %. Only one carrier (4.55 %) did not respond to treatment. The drug had a good toleration in 50% of the cases. Most frequent symptoms were hyporexy, headache, abdominal discomfort/pair, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, taste sense anomal1e and itching. Conclusion: Efficacy and a relatively good oral toleration to Secnidazole was demonstrated in this study. Parasite absence was demonstrated after three days of trea1ment. RIESUMEN: Introducción: El propósito de la investigación es conocer la eficacia del Secnidazol en el tratamiento de escolares asintomáticos portadores de Giardia lamblia y/o Entamoeba histolytica, así como el evaluar su tolerancia. Material y métodos: Se escogieron 50 niños parasitados (totalizando 53 casos con Entamoeba histolytica y/o Giardia lamblia), con edades comprendidas entre 5 y 14 años, de uno u otro sexo, a quienes se les administró el medicamento y tres días después se realizaron exámenes coproparasitológicos controles. La tolerancia del medicamento se evaluó mediante encuesta. Resultados: De 53 casos parasitados, la relación de protozoarios fue: Giardia lamblia (66,03%) seguidos de Entamoeba histolylica (33,97%). La efectividad parasitológica del Secnidazol contra Giardia lamblia fue del 100% y de Entamoeba histolytica de 95,45%. Se obtuve un solo caso portador que no respondió al tratamiento (4,55%). El medicamento fue bien tolerado en el 50% de los casos. Los síntomas más frecuentes fueron: hiporexia, cefalea, dolor abdominal, mareos, náuseas, vómitos, diarrea, fatiga, alteración del gusto y prurito. Conclusiones: La eficacia y la relativamente buena tolerancia del Secnidazol fue demostrada en d presente estudie. Se obtuvo cura parasitológica al tercer día de administrado el medicamento.

ABSTRACT: introduction: The objective is to know the prevalence of enteric parasitosis in an urban school in San Francisco parish. Material and methods: 114 children oscillating between 5 and l 5 years of age and of both sexes were chosen among the total school population; coproparasitologics assays were made and epidemiological inquiries were used to obtain data. Results Among the selected children. 74.67% reported positive to one or more enteric parasites; 40.35% were males and 34.21% were females. The 9 to 12 year old group, proved most infected (34.24%), followed by the 5 to 8 year olds (30.69%). Most frequent helminths were: Enterobius vermicularis (45.55%), Trichuris trichiura (27.80%), Ascaris lumbricoides (23.35%) e Hymenolepis nana (3,30%) and protozoa were Blastocystis hominis (37.28%), Giardia lamblia (17.79%), Endolimax nana (16.95%), Entamoeba coli (15.26%). Polyparasitism showed predominance over monoparasitism. Most of the helminthiasis observed were slight cases Poor hygienic habits were evident in the children as well as in the school. Conclusions: An elevated parasitic prevalence was evident at the population submitted to study. RESUMEN: Introducción: El propósito de la investigación es conocer la prevalencia de las enteroparasitosis en una escuda urbana de la parroquia San Francisco. Material y métodos: Del total de la población escolar, se escogieron 114 niños, de edades comprendidas entre 5 y 15 años, de ambos sexos, donde se les realizó exámenes coproparasitológicos y recolección de información a través de encuestas epidemiológicas. Resultados: De los niños seleccionados, 74,55% reportaron positividad para uno o más enteroparásitos. 40,35% fueron masculinos y 34,21% femeninos. Las edades más parasitadas fueron las comprendidas entre 9 y 12 años (34,24%) seguidas de 5 a 8 años 30,69%. Los helmintos más frecuentes fueron: Enterobius vermicularis (45,55%), Trichuris trichiura (27,80%), Ascaris lumbricoides (23,35%) e Hymenolepis nana (3,30%) y lOS protozoos fueron: Blastocystis hominis (37,28%), Giardia lamblia (17,79%), Endolimax nana (16,95%), Entamoeba coli (15,26%). El poliparasilismo predominó sobre el monoparasitismo. Las helmintiasis observadas presentaron en su mayoría una infestación leve. Se evidencia acentuados malos hábitos higiénicos en los niños, así como en la escuela. Conclusiones: Se obtuvo una elevada prevalencia parasitaria en la población estudiada. La Enterobiasis fue la helmintiasis más común.

Fernando Mérida, 1 Carlos Rinaldi, 2, 3 Eduardo J Juan, 4 Madeline Torres-Lugo 1 1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico; 2Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 3J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 4Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, Mayagüez, Puerto RicoCorrespondence: Madeline Torres-Lugo Road 108 Km. 1.0 Bo. Miradero. P.O. Box 9046, Mayagüez 00681-9046, Puerto RicoTel +1787 832 4040 Ext. 2585Email madeline@ece.uprm.eduBackground: Magnetic Fluid Hyperthermia (MFH) is a promising adjuvant for chemotherapy, potentiating the action of anticancer agents. However, drug delivery to cancer cells must be optimized to improve the overall therapeutic effect of drug/MFH combination treatments.Purpose: The aim of this work was to demonstrate the potentiation of 2-phenylethynesulfonamide (PES) at various combination treatments with MFH, using low-intensity ultrasound as an intracellular delivery enhancer.Methods: The effect of ultrasound (US), MFH, and PES was first evaluated individually and then as combination treatments. Definity® microbubbles and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated iron oxide nanoparticles were used to induce cell sonoporation and MFH, respectively. Assessment of cell membrane permeabilization was evaluated via fluorescence microscopy, iron uptake by cells was quantified by UV-Vis spectroscopy, and cell viability was determined using automatic cell counting.Results: Notable reductions in cancer cell viability were observed when ultrasound was incorporated. For example, the treatment US+PES reduced cell viability by 37% compared to the non-toxic effect of the drug. Similarly, the treatment US+MFH using mild hyperthermia (41°C), reduced cell viability by an additional 18% when compared to the effect of MH alone. Significant improvements were observed for the combination of US+PES+MFH with cell viability reduced by an additional 26% compared to the PES+MFH group. The improved cytotoxicity was attributed to enhanced drug/nanoparticle intracellular delivery, with iron uptake values nearly twice those achieved without ultrasound. Various treatment schedules were examined, and all of them showed substantial cell death, indicating that the time elapsed between sonoporation and magnetic field exposure was not significant.Conclusion: Superior cancer cell-killing patterns took place when ultrasound was incorporated thus demonstrating the in vitro ultrasonic potentiation of PES and mild MFH. This work demonstrated that ultrasound is a promising non-invasive enhancer of PES/MFH combination treatments, aiming to establish a sono-thermo-chemotherapy in the treatment of ovarian cancer.Keywords: MFH, ultrasound, sonoporation, microbubble, PES, membrane permeabilization, enhanced cytotoxicity

Tourettes syndrome (TS) is a developmental disorder that has one of the highest familial recurrence rates among neuropsychiatric diseases with complex inheritance. However, the identification of definitive TS susceptibility genes remains elusive. Here, we report the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of TS in 1285 cases and 4964 ancestry-matched controls of European ancestry, including two European-derived population isolates, Ashkenazi Jews from North America and Israel and French Canadians from Quebec, Canada. In a primary meta-analysis of GWAS data from these European ancestry samples, no markers achieved a genome-wide threshold of significance (P

Tourette's syndrome (TS) is a developmental disorder that has one of the highest familial recurrence rates among neuropsychiatric diseases with complex inheritance. However, the identification of definitive TS susceptibility genes remains elusive. Here, we report the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of TS in 1285 cases and 4964 ancestry-matched controls of European ancestry, including two European-derived population isolates, Ashkenazi Jews from North America and Israel and French Canadians from Quebec, Canada. In a primary meta-analysis of GWAS data from these European ancestry samples, no markers achieved a genome-wide threshold of significance (P

Merlis P Alvarez-Berríos,1 Amalchi Castillo,1 Carlos Rinaldi,1–3 Madeline Torres-Lugo1 1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico; 2J Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, 3Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Abstract: The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (BZ) has shown promising results in some types of cancer, but in others it has had minimal activity. Recent studies have reported enhanced efficacy of BZ when combined with hyperthermia. However, the use of magnetic nanoparticles to induce hyperthermia in combination with BZ has not been reported. This novel hyperthermia modality has shown better potentiation of chemotherapeutics over other types of hyperthermia. We hypothesized that inducing hyperthermia via magnetic nanoparticles (MFH) would enhance the cytotoxicity of BZ in BZ-sensitive and BZ-resistant cancer cells more effectively than hyperthermia using a hot water bath (HWH). Studies were conducted using BZ in combination with MFH in two BZ-sensitive cell lines (MDA-MB-468, Caco-2), and one BZ-resistant cell line (A2780) at two different conditions, ie, 43°C for 30 minutes and 45°C for 30 minutes. These experiments were compared with combined application of HWH and BZ. The results indicate enhanced potentiation between hyperthermic treatment and BZ. MFH combined with BZ induced cytotoxicity in sensitive and resistant cell lines to a greater extent than HWH under the same treatment conditions. The observation that MFH sensitizes BZ-resistant cell lines makes this approach a potentially effective anticancer therapy platform. Keywords: magnetic fluid hyperthermia, hot water hyperthermia, BZ, enhanced cytotoxicity, thermal sensitization

Merlis P Alvarez-Berríos, Amalchi Castillo, Janet Mendéz, Orlando Soto, Carlos Rinaldi, Madeline Torres-LugoDepartment of Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto RicoAbstract: Magnetic fluid hyperthermia as a cancer treatment method is an attractive alternative to other forms of hyperthermia. It is based on the heat released by magnetic nanoparticles subjected to an alternating magnetic field. Recent studies have shown that magnetic fluid hyperthermia-treated cells respond significantly better to chemotherapeutic treatment compared with cells treated with hot water hyperthermia under the same temperature conditions. We hypothesized that this synergistic effect is due to an additional stress on the cellular membrane, independent of the thermal heat dose effect that is induced by nanoparticles exposed to an alternating magnetic field. This would result in an increase in Cis-diammine-dichloroplatinum (II) (cDDP, cisplatin) uptake via passive transport. To test this hypothesis, we exposed cDDP-treated cells to extracellular copper in order to hinder the human cell copper transporter (hCTR1)-mediated active transport of cDDP. This, in turn, can increase the passive transport of the drug through the cell membrane. Our results did not show statistically significant differences in surviving fractions for cells treated concomitantly with magnetic fluid hyperthermia and cDDP, in the presence or absence of copper. Nonetheless, significant copper-dependent variations in cell survival were observed for samples treated with combined cDDP and hot water hyperthermia. These results correlated with platinum uptake studies, which showed that cells treated with magnetic fluid hyperthermia had higher platinum uptake than cells treated with hot water hyperthermia. Changes in membrane fluidity were tested through fluorescence anisotropy measurements using trimethylamine-diphenylhexatriene. Additional uptake studies were conducted with acridine orange and measured by flow cytometry. These studies indicated that magnetic fluid hyperthermia significantly increases cell membrane fluidity relative to hot water hyperthermia and untreated cells, and hence this could be a factor contributing to the increase of cDDP uptake in magnetic fluid hyperthermia-treated cells. Overall, our data provide convincing evidence that cell membrane permeability induced by magnetic fluid hyperthermia is significantly greater than that induced by hot water hyperthermia under similar temperature conditions, and is at least one of the mechanisms responsible for potentiation of cDDP by magnetic fluid hyperthermia in Caco-2 cells.Keywords: magnetic nanoparticles, synergistic effect, hot water hyperthermia, surviving fraction, viability ratio