INSPiRE-MED project awarded to GABRMN & SeRMN

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Integrating Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Multimodal Imaging for Research and Education in MEDicine (INSPiRE-MED) is an European research project awarded in the call H2020-MSCA-ITN-2018, of the MSCA-ITN-ETN – European Training Networks, to a consortium of partners including the GABRMN and SeRMN at UAB. The project is coordinated by Prof. Dominique Sappey-Marinier, of the Université Lyon-1 Claude-Bernard, Lyon, France. The scientist-in-charge at UAB will be Prof. Carles Arús (GABRMN), and Silvia Lope-Piedrafita (SeRMN) and Miquel Cabañas (SeRMN) will participate as senior scientists in the project.

Starting 1st of January 2019, the INSPiRE-MED Initial Training Network will investigate the theoretical and practical aspects of in vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) with applications in oncology and neurology.

The network will host 15 Early Stage Researchers in the field of biomedical imaging, particularly in the field of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and MR Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) combined with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and enhanced by machine learning techniques. The research training is supervised by a consortium of 12 academic partners with an established collaborative track record in R&D and 9 industrial partners from the broad and competitive preclinical and clinical imaging sector.

The main research topic to be carried at UAB —in close collaboration with other project members— will be the implementation of innovative high spatial resolution MRSI methods in a pre-clinical scanner. The ultimate goal will be the validation of optimal methods for improving imaging biomarker development of brain tumour in longitudinal studies of therapy response in mouse glioblastoma models.

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Beneficial effects of Uric Acid Treatment After Stroke in Hypertensive Rats

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Jiménez-Xarrié, Elena, Belén Pérez, Ana Paula Dantas, Lídia Puertas-Umbert, Joan Martí-Fabregas, Ángel Chamorro, Anna Maria Planas, Elisabet Vila, Francesc Jiménez-Altayó. 2018. Uric Acid Treatment After Stroke Prevents Long-Term Middle Cerebral Artery Remodelling and Attenuates Brain Damage in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats. Translational Stroke Research. DOI: 10.1007/s12975-018-0661-8

Hypertension is the most important modifiable risk factor for stroke and is associated with poorer post-stroke outcomes. The antioxidant uric acid is protective in experimental normotensive ischaemic stroke. However, it is unknown whether this treatment exerts long-term protection in hypertension. The authors aimed to evaluate the impact of transient intraluminal middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion (90min)/reperfusion (1–15 days) on brain and vascular damage progression in adult and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) treated with uric acid. Ischaemic brain damage was assessed longitudinally with magnetic resonance imaging at the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Service of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

In SHR rats, more severe brain damage and poorer neurofunctional outcomes were coupled to higher cortical cerebral blood flow at the onset of reperfusion, a transient increase in oxidative stress and long-lasting stroke-induced MCA hypertrophic remodelling. Thus, stroke promotes larger brain and vascular damage in hypertensive rats that persists for long-time. Uric acid administered during early reperfusion attenuated short- and long-term brain injuries in both normotensive and hypertensive rats, an effect that was associated with abolishment of the acute oxidative stress response and prevention of stroke-induced long lasting MCA remodelling in hypertension. These results suggest that uric acid might be an effective strategy to improve stroke outcomes in hypertensive subjects.

New time-efficient approach in TOCSY and HSQC experiments

Our Publications, Our Research

Nolis, Pau, Kumar Motiram‐Corral, Míriam Pérez‐Trujillo & Teodor Parella. 2018. Interleaved Dual NMR Acquisition of Equivalent Transfer Pathways in TOCSY and HSQC Experiments. ChemPhysChem 20(3). 356–360. DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201801034

A dual NMR data acquisition strategy to handle and detect two active equivalent transfer pathways is presented and discussed. We illustrate the power of this time-efficient approach by collecting two different 2D spectra simultaneously in a single experiment: (i) TOCSY or HSQC-TOCSY spectra with different mixing times, (ii) F2-13C-coupled and decoupled HSQC spectra, (iii) conventional and pureshift HSQC spectra, and (iv) complementary HSQC and HSQC-TOCSY spectra.

MFA-Tocsy-TocsyDownload
MFA-HSQC-HSQCDownload

Saving time using different NMR concepts

Our Publications, Our Research

Nolis, Pau, Kumar Motiram-Corral, Míriam Pérez-Trujillo & Teodor Parella. 2019. Broadband homodecoupled time-shared 1H-13C and 1H-15N HSQC experiments. Journal of Magnetic Resonance 298. 23–30. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmr.2018.11.00

The concepts of pure-shift NMR and time-shared NMR are merged in a single NMR experiment. A 13C/15N time-shared version of the real-time BIRD-based broadband homodecoupled HSQC experiment is described. This time-efficient approach affords simultaneously 1H-13C and 1H-15N pure-shift HSQC spectra in a single acquisition, while achieving substantial gains in both sensitivity and spectral resolution. We also present a related 13C/15N-F2-coupled homodecoupled version of the CLIP-HSQC experiment for the simultaneous measurement of 1JCH and 1JNH from the simplified doublets observed along the direct dimension. Finally, a novel J-resolved HSQC experiment has been designed for the simple and automated determination of both 1JCH/1JNH from a 2D J-resolved spectrum.

4 experiments in 1 shot

Our Publications, Our Research

Motiram-Corral, Kumar, Míriam Pérez-Trujillo, Pau Nolis & Teodor Parella. 2018. Implementing one-shot multiple-FID acquisition into homonuclear and heteronuclear NMR experiments. Chemical Communications 54(96). 13507–13510. DOI: 10.1039/c8cc08065h

Multiple-FID acquisition (MFA) within the same scan is applied to acquire simultaneously multiple 2D spectra from a single NMR experiment. A discussion on the incorporation of the MFA strategy in several homonuclear and heteronuclear 2D pulse sequences is presented. As a proof of concept, a set of novel COSY, TOCSY and HMBC experiments are reported as a time-efficient solution in small-molecule NMR spectroscopy.

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MRI/MRS in treated Alzheimer mice

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Montoliu-Gaya, Laia, Jofre Güell-Bosch, Gisela Esquerda-Canals, Alejandro R. Roda, Gabriel Serra-Mir, Silvia Lope-Piedrafita, José Luís Sánchez-Quesada & Sandra Villegas. 2018. Differential effects of apoE and apoJ mimetic peptides on the action of an anti-Aβ scFv in 3xTg-AD mice. Biochemical Pharmacology 155. 380–392. DOI: 10.1016/j.bcp.2018.07.012

Anti-Aβ immunotherapy has emerged as a promising approach to treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The single-chain variable fragment scFv-h3D6 is an anti-Aβ antibody fragment that lacks the Fc region, which is associated with the induction of microglial reactivity by the full-length monoclonal antibody bapineuzumab. ScFv-h3D6 was previously shown to restore the levels of apolipoprotein E (apoE) and apolipoprotein J (apoJ) in a tripletransgenic- AD (3xTg-AD) mouse model. Since apoE and apoJ play an important role in the development of AD, we aimed to study the in vivo effect of the combined therapy of scFv-h3D6 with apoE and apoJ mimetic peptides (MPs).

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Exopolysaccharides from olive brines could reduce the adhesion of ETEC K88 to intestinal epithelial cells

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Zhu, Yanan, Gemma González-Ortiz, Rufino Jiménez-Díaz, Míriam Pérez-Trujillo, Teodor Parella, Paola López-Colom & Susana María Martín-Orúe. 2018. Exopolysaccharides from olive brines could reduce the adhesion of ETEC K88 to intestinal epithelial cells. Food & Function 9(7). 3884–3894. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c8fo00690c

This study aims to explore the biological functions of the isolated exopolysaccharides (EPSs) produced during the industrial fermentation of olives against enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) K88. Exopolysaccharides were isolated from five industrial fermenters. Analysis of their monosaccharide composition by GLC revealed that the main components were glucose (27%–50%) and galactose (23%–33%) followed by rhamnose (4–23%) and arabinose (6–17%). The 1H NMR spectrum showed a very similar profile between samples, and a more in-depth analysis revealed the presence of an α-pyranose in the form of α-D-Glcp-(1→) and two different α-furanoses, with chemicals shift values, suggesting the presence of α-D-Glcf and α-D-Galf. Miniaturized in vitro tests demonstrated the ability of EPS samples to attach specifically to ETEC K88 (P < 0.05) with variable intensities. The competition test did not show the ability to block the ETEC K88 adhesion to IPEC-J2 cells; however, in the displacement test, all EPS samples were shown to effectively remove the pathogens attached to the cells (P < 0.01).

These results suggest that the EPSs produced during the fermentation of table green olives could interfere with the attachment of opportunistic pathogens onto the intestinal epithelial cells. This would open the possibility of novel functional properties for this traditional Mediterranean fermented food and for the isolated EPSs as candidates for nutraceutics to be used in human and/or animal diets in the prevention and treatment of ETEC diarrhoea.

Solid State NMR supports a new study on hydride composite for hydrogen storage

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Bergemann, N., C. Pistidda, C. Milanese, M. Aramini, S. Huotari, P. Nolis, A. Santoru, M. R. Chierotti, A.-L. Chaudhary, M. D. Baro, T. Klassen & M. Dornheim. 2018. A hydride composite featuring mutual destabilisation and reversible boron exchange: Ca(BH4)2–Mg2NiH4. Journal of Materials Chemistry A 6(37). 17929–17946. DOI: 10.1039/c8ta04748k

The system Ca(BH4)2–Mg2NiH4 is used as a model to prove the unique possibility to fully reverse the borohydride decomposition process even in cases where the decomposition reaction leads to undesired stable boron containing species (boron sinks). The formation of MgNi2.5B2 directly from Ca(BH4)2 or from CaB12H12 and amorphous boron allows an unexpectedly easy transfer of the boron atoms to reversibly form Ca(BH4)2 during rehydrogenation. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, the mutual destabilisation of the starting reactants is observed for the first time in Ca(BH4)2 based Reactive Hydride Composite (RHC) systems. A detailed account of dehydrogenation and rehydrogenation reaction mechanisms as the function of applied experimental conditions is given.

PhD Thesis: Development of Resolution-Enhanced NMR Techniques for Improved Small Molecules Structural Analysis

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Last July 14th 2018 Núria Marcó defended her PhD Thesis entitled: Development of Resolution-Enhanced NMR Techniques for Improved Small Molecules Structural Analysis

The present doctoral thesis is framed within the field of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

NMR spectroscopy is an analytic technique and, therefore, one of its main objectives is to unravel the correct structure of the molecules analyzed.This present doctoral thesis  is focused on this main objective. This work consists in a compendium of 7 publications, written in several prestigious scientific journals, that develop in depth the efficient and accurate determination of the constitution, configuration and conformation of small molecules thanks to the application of resolution improvements techniques.

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Solid-State-NMR a useful tool for the characterization of Hydrogen Storage Composite System

Our Publications,

Karimi, Fahim, María V.C. Riglos, Antonio Santoru, Armin Hoell, Vikram S. Raghuwanshi, Chiara Milanese, Nils Bergemann, Claudio Pistidda, Pau Nolis , Maria D. Baro, Gökhan Gizer, Thi-Thu Le, P. Klaus Pranzas, Martin Dornheim, Thomas Klassen, Andreas Schrey & Julián Puszkiel. 2018. In Situ Formation of TiB2 Nanoparticles for Enhanced Dehydrogenation / Hydrogenation Reaction Kinetics of LiBH4–MgH2 as a Reversible Solid-State Hydrogen Storage Composite System. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 122(22). 11671–11681. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b02258

To enhance the dehydrogenation/rehydrogenation kinetic behavior of the LiBH4–MgH2 composite system, TiF4 is used as an additive. The effect of this additive on the hydride composite system has been studied by means of laboratory and advanced synchrotron techniques. Investigations on the synthesis and mechanism upon hydrogen interaction show that the addition of TiF4 to the LiBH4–MgH2 composite system during the milling procedure leads to the in situ formation of well-distributed nanosized TiB2 particles. These TiB2 nanoparticles act as nucleation agents for the formation of MgB2 upon dehydrogenation process of the hydride composite system. The effect of TiB2 nanoparticles is maintained upon cycling.