The lymphatic system performs important immune functions, and runs parallel to the blood circulatory system to provide a secondary circulation that transports excess interstitial fluid, proteins and metabolic waste products from the systemic tissues back into the blood. For centuries, it was thought that the central nervous system lacks a lymphatic drainage system and the […]
Just as people constantly exchange messages via email, cells communicate with each other and their microenvironment by sending and receiving packages of information; and as we react in one way or another depending on the news we get, cells respond to the “message” by changing the expression of their genes. Following the analogy, in a […]
The way we approach pain therapies doesn’t differ from the ones taken for other diseases. The aim is to look for molecular targets, which can be suitable for chemical intervention thoroughly assessing both efficacy and safety profiles for the drug, issues that are addressed throughout various stages of clinical trials. In the specific case of […]
Enantiomers are any two molecules that are mirror images of each other, in the same way that, within a same person, left and right hands are: both hands look exactly the same but indeed they are not, as they cannot be superimposed. This is very easily seen when we try to put the wrong glove […]
Last Friday I was, as is always the case listening to an enthusiastic talk given by one of the PhD students from my department. As part of her PhD work, she is trying to understand why periodontitis, an inflammatory disease where gums get swollen as a consequence of bacterial infection, is essentially painless. This is […]
Most people in Spain have heard about the ongoing bitter polemic between the Victims of Hepatitis C Platform and the Spanish government with regard to the access to a new medication called Sovaldi approved by the Spanish government last 1st October. The main reason for such clash between them is simple: the asking price for […]
Trying to know the cause/s of cancer is nowadays a key issue for our society. Scientists and doctors from all over the world are working to study how cancer appears and what factors can increase its risk to help developing new ways of prevention and treatment. Accordingly, government and charity budgets dedicated to cancer research […]
Tracking back human civilization there are evidences of dog domestication as far as 10,000 years ago. During this time, the ancient wolves’ genome evolved to give rise to the domestic dog that gradually adapted to human habitat as many organic functions were selected in detriment of others. Dogs have similar circadian rhythms, have adapted to […]
Diabetes is becoming a huge problem in our society, affecting nowadays one in every 20 people in this planet. Although some people don’t know, diabetes is a very serious disease that can cause damage in the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves, producing different neuropathies, kidney failures, blindness and increasing in the risk of […]
The Ebola outbreak has brought the fear of a viral pandemic to the headlines once more, as it happened before with the avian or swine flu. Although viruses-caused infections catch most of attention on the media, the greatest risk to human health comes from other microorganisms, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Contrary to viral outbreaks, the threat […]