3,134 publications from this institution
The gut microbiota—the community of microorganisms in the gut—has been implicated in many physical and mental disorders in addition to intestinal diseases. Diets are the most studied and promising factors for altering it. Indeed, certain dietary interventions that increase fiber intake rapidly change levels of certain nutrients that can modify the composition of the microbiota, promoting richness and diversity. Recent intriguing evidence from several human clinical trials suggested that the composition and diversity of patients’ gut microbiotas at baseline can influence their responses to cancer immunotherapy. If the factors that influence the gut microbiota were fully understood, it is conceivable that manipulating them could boost therapeutic responses in cancer patients. In this review, we investigate the possibility of using fruits, vegetables, or whole grains to enhance response to cancer therapies in humans, as current evidence suggests that these dietary components can manipulate and enhance diversity of the gut microbiota. Accordingly, dietary interventions with locally available fruits, vegetables, and whole grains might be an affordable and safe approach to enhancing the diversity of the gut microbiota before immunotherapy, in turn improving patients’ responses to their treatments.
The use of a set of new end points derived from ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), in addition to the blood pressure (BP) values themselves, has been advocated to improve the sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing hypertension and to evaluate a person's response to treatment. An adequate estimation of rhythmic parameters depends, however, on the ability to describe properly the circadian pattern of BP variability. The purpose of this study was to identify a simple model that could characterize sufficiently well the circadian pattern of BP in normotensive healthy volunteers sampled by ambulatory monitoring. We studied 278 clinically healthy Spanish adults (184 men), 22.7 +/- 3.3 yr of age, without medical history of hypertension and mean BP from ambulatory profiles always below 135/85 mmHg for systolic/diastolic BP, who underwent sequential ABPM providing a total of 1115 series of BPs and heart rates (HRs), sampled on each occasion at 0.5h intervals for 48 h. Subjects were assessed while adhering to their usual diurnal activity and nocturnal sleep routine, without restrictions but avoiding the use of medication. The circadian rhythm in BP and HR for each subject was established by multiple-component analysis. A statistically significant 24h component is documented for 97% of the BP profiles, with a significant second (12h) harmonic documented in 65% of the profiles. Other ultradian harmonic components were significant in less than 20% of the profiles. A statistically significant increase in the coefficient of determination (percent of overall variability explained by the function fitted to the data) was only obtained after including the periods of 24 and 12 h for BP, and periods of 24, 12, and 6 h for HR in the model components. Although other ultradian components can be demonstrated as statistically significant in a small percent of subjects, a rather simple model including only the two first harmonics of the 24h period describes sufficiently well, at the specified sampling rate, the circadian pattern of BP in normotensive subjects. Departure from this model could characterize overt pathology, as recently demonstrated in the diagnosis of preeclampsia.
International guidelines for the prevention and treatment of hypertension recommended hygienic-dietary intervention (including sodium restriction, weight loss, the DASH diet, limit alcohol intake, and regular aerobic exercise) as the starting non-pharmacological treatment of patients with grade-1 hypertension. A recent trial on a very small number of patients already under pharmacological antihypertensive treatment and who were required to eat once daily at the clinic, has shown the expected significant blood pressure (BP) reduction after 9 weeks of intervention with all those recommendations [Hypertension. 2002;40:612–618]. Accordingly, we have evaluated the efficacy of hygienic-dietary recommendations (HDR) in unrestricted patients with untreated hypertension. We studied 218 patients with grade 1 essential hypertension (117 men), 47.3±14.0 years of age. BP was measured by ambulatory monitoring (ABPM) at 20-min intervals from 07:00 to 23:00 hours and at 30-min intervals at night for 48 consecutive hours at baseline and after 3 months of HDR without pharmacological treatment. A complete clinical evaluation was also performed in all patients following the standardized protocol at the Hypertension Unit, including blood and urine tests, both before and after HDR. Results indicate the lack of statistically significant changes after 3 months of intervention in weight (mean loss of 0.2 Kg), body mass index, or waist and hip perimeters (always P>0.208). The average of six conventional BP measurements taken at the clinic was unchanged after 3 months of HDR (average reduction of 2.2 and 1.3 mm Hg for systolic and diastolic BP, respectively; P>0.122). Serum values of glucose, creatinine, cholesterol and triglycerides also remained unchanged. With regard to ABPM, results indicate a small and not statistically significant BP reduction after 3 months of HDR (0.1 and 0.3 mm Hg in the 24-hour mean of systolic and diastolic BP, respectively; P>0.608). While the beneficial effects of HDR on BP under full compliance seem unquestionable, results from this trial indicate that in real-life conditions these non-pharmacological recommendations are very poorly followed by patients with mild hypertension, thus limiting the practical use of HDR for BP control in those patients. Am J Hypertens (2004) 17, 40A–40A; doi: 10.1016/j.amjhyper.2004.03.094
Abstract Plasmonic metal‐organic frameworks are composite nanoparticles comprising plasmonic metal nanoparticles (NPs) embedded within a metal‐organic framework (MOF) matrix. As a result, not only the functionalities of the individual components are retained, but synergistic effects additionally provide improved chemical and physical properties. Recent progress in plasmonic MOFs has demonstrated the potential for nanofabrication and various nanotechnology applications. Synthetic challenges toward plasmonic MOFs have been recently addressed, resulting in new opportunities toward practical applications, such as surface‐enhanced Raman scattering, therapy, and catalysis. The impact of key parameters (thermodynamic vs. kinetic) on the synthetic pathways of plasmonic MOFs is reviewed, while providing insight into related progress toward structure‐derived applications.
