The Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) and international astronaut biobank.

Spaceflight induces molecular, cellular, and physiological shifts in astronauts and poses myriad biomedical challenges to the human body, which are becoming increasingly relevant as more humans venture into space1-6. Yet, current frameworks for aerospace medicine are nascent and lag far behind advancements in precision medicine on Earth, underscoring the need for rapid development of space medicine databases, tools, and protocols. Here, we present the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), an integrated data and sample repository for clinical, cellular, and multi-omic research profiles from a diverse range of missions, including the NASA Twins Study7, JAXA CFE study8,9, SpaceX Inspiration4 crew10-12, plus Axiom and Polaris. The SOMA resource represents a >10-fold increase in publicly available human space omics data, with matched samples available from the Cornell Aerospace Medicine Biobank. The Atlas includes extensive molecular and physiological profiles encompassing genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiome data sets, which reveal some consistent features across missions, including cytokine shifts, telomere elongation, and gene expression changes, as well as mission-specific molecular responses and links to orthologous, tissue-specific murine data sets. Leveraging the datasets, tools, and resources in SOMA can help accelerate precision aerospace medicine, bringing needed health monitoring, risk mitigation, and countermeasures data for upcoming lunar, Mars, and exploration-class missions.

Human NLRC4 expression promotes cancer survival and associates with type I interferon signaling and immune infiltration.

The immune system can control cancer progression. However, even though some innate immune sensors of cellular stress are expressed intrinsically in epithelial cells, their potential role in cancer aggressiveness and subsequent overall survival in humans is mainly unknown. Here, we show that nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor (NLR) family CARD domain-containing 4 (NLRC4) is downregulated in epithelial tumor cells of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) by using spatial tissue imaging. Strikingly, only the loss of tumor NLRC4, but not stromal NLRC4, was associated with poor immune infiltration (mainly DCs and CD4+ and CD8+ T cells) and accurately predicted progression to metastatic stage IV and decrease in overall survival. By combining multiomics approaches, we show that restoring NLRC4 expression in human CRC cells triggered a broad inflammasome-independent immune reprogramming consisting of type I interferon (IFN) signaling genes and the release of chemokines and myeloid growth factors involved in the tumor infiltration and activation of DCs and T cells. Consistently, such reprogramming in cancer cells was sufficient to directly induce maturation of human DCs toward a Th1 antitumor immune response through IL-12 production in vitro. In multiple human carcinomas (colorectal, lung, and skin), we confirmed that NLRC4 expression in patient tumors was strongly associated with type I IFN genes, immune infiltrates, and high microsatellite instability. Thus, we shed light on the epithelial innate immune sensor NLRC4 as a therapeutic target to promote an efficient antitumor immune response against the aggressiveness of various carcinomas.

Public Health Accountability in Action: The King County Pandemic and Racism Community Advisory Group.

After a tumultuous 3 years of pandemic-, political-, and race-related unrest in the United States, the public is demanding accountability to communities of color (defined here as American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic people) to rectify historic and contemporary injustices that perpetuate health inequities and threaten public health. Structural racism pervades all major societal systems and exposes people to detrimental social determinants of health. Disrupting structural racism within public health systems is essential to advancing health equity and requires organized partnerships between health departments and community leaders. As those who are most affected by structural racism, communities of color are the experts in knowing its impacts. This case study describes the King County Pandemic and Racism Community Advisory Group (PARCAG) and its use of an innovative accountability tool. The tool facilitated institutional transparency and accountability in the adoption of community recommendations. PARCAG was influential in shaping Public Health-Seattle & King County's COVID-19 and antiracism work, with 66 of 75 (88%) recommendations adopted partially or fully. For example, a fully adopted recommendation in May 2020 was to report King County COVID-19 case data by race and ethnicity, and a partially adopted recommendation was to translate COVID-19 information into additional languages. PARCAG members were recruited from a 2019 advisory board on Census 2020 and were adept at shifting to advising on COVID-19 and equitable practices and policies. Organizations that have made declarations that racism is a public health crisis should center the experiences, expertise, and leadership of communities of color in accountable ways when developing and implementing strategies to disrupt and repair the effects of structural racism and efforts to promote and protect public health.

Common genetic associations between age-related diseases.

Age is a common risk factor in many diseases, but the molecular basis for this relationship is elusive. In this study we identified 4 disease clusters from 116 diseases in the UK Biobank data, defined by their age-of-onset profiles, and found that diseases with the same onset profile are genetically more similar, suggesting a common etiology. This similarity was not explained by disease categories, co-occurrences or disease cause-effect relationships. Two of the four disease clusters had an increased risk of occurrence from age 20 and 40 years respectively. They both showed an association with known aging-related genes, yet differed in functional enrichment and evolutionary profiles. Moreover, they both had age-related expression and methylation changes. We also tested mutation accumulation and antagonistic pleiotropy theories of aging and found support for both.

Características antropométricas de personal militar masculino chileno / Anthropometric characteristics of Chilean male military personnel

Introducción: La preparación militar en sus distintas aristas es uno de los procesos más duros que viven los sujetos que desarrollan labores en pro de la defensa y mantenimiento de la paz de las naciones. Se espera que esta preparación impacte de manera progresiva en la condición física y composición corporal de los soldados con la finalidad de aportar a un mejor desenvolvimiento en sus labores diarias. Objetivo: Comparar el perfil antropométrico de varones militares chilenos en situación de soldados conscriptos y personal cuadro permanente. Métodos: Se valoraron 83 sujetos militares varones con edades entre los 18,91 ± 1,76 y 51,19 ± 7,96 años, se estimó el índice de masa corporal, la composición corporal y el somatotipo. Resultados: Se encontraron valores más elevados de índice de masa corporal (28,64 ± 3,56), tejido muscular (37,57 ± 5,02 kg) y tejido adiposo (24,95 ± 7,88 kg) en el personal cuadro permanente y menores valores en soldados conscriptos (22,53 ± 2,39) p < 0,000, tejido muscular (33,85 ± 4,11 kg), tejido adiposo (18,12 ± 5,01 kg), p < 0,024. En los componentes del somatotipo, de igual forma, hubo diferencias significativas (p < 0,000) en endomorfía, mesomorfía y ectomorfia. Conclusiones: Los sujetos militares presentan diferencias significativas en cuanto a la composición corporal, el somatotipo y el estado ponderal según su situación contractual. El uso del índice de masa corporal sería complejo de utilizar en sujetos militares, ya que pueden ser erróneamente clasificados en las categorías establecidas para este índice(AU)

Introduction: The military preparation in its different edges is one of the hardest processes that live the subjects that develop work in favor of the defense and maintenance of the peace of the nations. It is expected that this preparation will progressively impact the physical condition and body composition of the soldiers in order to contribute to a better performance in their daily tasks. Objective: To compare the anthropometric profile of Chilean military men in a situation of conscripted soldiers and permanent staff. Methods: 83 male military subjects aged between 18.91 ± 1.76 and 51.19 ± 7.96 years were evaluated, body mass index, body composition and somatotype were estimated. Results: Higher values ​​of body mass index (28.64 ± 3.56), muscle tissue 37.57 ± 5.02 kg and adipose tissue (24.95 ± 7.88 kg) were found in permanent staff and lower values ​​in conscripted soldiers (22.53 ± 2.39) p < 0.000 muscle tissue (33.85 ± 4.11 kg), adipose tissue (18.12 ± 5.01) p < 0.024. In the somatotype components, similarly, there were significant differences (p <0.000) in endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy. Conclusion: The military subjects present significant differences in terms of body composition, somatotype and weight status according to their contractual situation. The use of the body mass index would be complex to use in military subjects, since these can be erroneously classified in the categories established for the body mass index(AU)

A Db-Scan Binarization Algorithm Applied to Matrix Covering Problems.

The integration of machine learning techniques and metaheuristic algorithms is an area of interest due to the great potential for applications. In particular, using these hybrid techniques to solve combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) to improve the quality of the solutions and convergence times is of great interest in operations research. In this article, the db-scan unsupervised learning technique is explored with the goal of using it in the binarization process of continuous swarm intelligence metaheuristic algorithms. The contribution of the db-scan operator to the binarization process is analyzed systematically through the design of random operators. Additionally, the behavior of this algorithm is studied and compared with other binarization methods based on clusters and transfer functions (TFs). To verify the results, the well-known set covering problem is addressed, and a real-world problem is solved. The results show that the integration of the db-scan technique produces consistently better results in terms of computation time and quality of the solutions when compared with TFs and random operators. Furthermore, when it is compared with other clustering techniques, we see that it achieves significantly improved convergence times.

Gene expression-based drug repurposing to target aging.

Aging is the largest risk factor for a variety of noncommunicable diseases. Model organism studies have shown that genetic and chemical perturbations can extend both lifespan and healthspan. Aging is a complex process, with parallel and interacting mechanisms contributing to its aetiology, posing a challenge for the discovery of new pharmacological candidates to ameliorate its effects. In this study, instead of a target-centric approach, we adopt a systems level drug repurposing methodology to discover drugs that could combat aging in human brain. Using multiple gene expression data sets from brain tissue, taken from patients of different ages, we first identified the expression changes that characterize aging. Then, we compared these changes in gene expression with drug-perturbed expression profiles in the Connectivity Map. We thus identified 24 drugs with significantly associated changes. Some of these drugs may function as antiaging drugs by reversing the detrimental changes that occur during aging, others by mimicking the cellular defence mechanisms. The drugs that we identified included significant number of already identified prolongevity drugs, indicating that the method can discover de novo drugs that meliorate aging. The approach has the advantages that using data from human brain aging data, it focuses on processes relevant in human aging and that it is unbiased, making it possible to discover new targets for aging studies.

Embarazo en la adolescencia: educación sexual y anticoncepción previa / Pregnancy in the adolescence: sexual education and previous contraception

El objetivo de este trabajo es dar a conocer la relación previa entre la educación sexual y el uso de métodos anticonceptivos (MAC) en las adolescentes que se embarazan. Para esto se analizaron 347 fichas de embarazadas entre 11 y 16 años correspondientes al área oriente de Santiago entre los años 2002 y 2004. Del total, un 79,5 por ciento (276) refirió haber recibido educación sexual, el 98,5 por ciento (342) dijo conocer algún MAC y el 36,5 por ciento (127) los utilizó; de éstas últimas, un 85,8 por ciento de las pacientes (109) los usó por un plazo menor a 6 meses. De las pacientes que afirmaron haber recibido educación sexual, sólo un 34 por ciento (94) usaba algún tipo de contraceptivo. Dentro de los MAC, los más usados fueron los anticonceptivos orales (55,1 por ciento). Estos resultados constituyen un llamado de alerta y a la vez un incentivo para la revisión y promoción de las estrategias para la prevención del embarazo adolescente.