Fractional electrodamage in A549 human lung cancer cells was analyzed by introducing a non-integer order parameter to model the influence of electrical stimulation on cellular behavior. Numerical simulations were conducted to evaluate the conversion of electrical energy to heat within A549 cancer cells, emphasizing the electrocapacitive effects and electrical conductivity in modulating dielectric properties. Using the Riemann–Liouville fractional calculus framework, experimental results were accurately fitted, demonstrating the non-integer nature of electrodamage processes. The study identified a strong dependency of electrical behavior on frequency, revealing a critical role of fractional dynamics in the dielectric breakdown and susceptibility of A549 cells to voltage changes. These findings advance our understanding of cellular responses to electrical fields and provide insights into applications in cancer diagnostics, monitoring, and potential therapeutic treatments.

Hyaluronan (HA) is a natural biodegradable biopolymer; its biological functions include cell adhesion, cell proliferation, and differentiation as well as decreasing inflammation, angiogenesis, and regeneration of damaged tissue. This makes it a suitable candidate for fabricating nanomaterials with potential use in tissue engineering. However, HA nanofiber production is restricted due to the high viscosity, low evaporation rate, and high surface tension of HA solutions. Here, hybrids in the form of continuous and randomly aligned polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)–(HA)–siloxane nanofibers were obtained using an electrospinning process. PVA–HA fibers were crosslinked by a 3D siloxane organic–inorganic matrix via sol-gel that restricts natural hydrophilicity and stiffens the structure. The hybrid nanofiber mats were characterized by FT-IR, micro-Raman spectroscopy, SEM, and biological properties. The PVA/HA ratio influenced the morphology of the hybrid nanofibers. Nanofibers with high PVA content (10PVA-8 and 10PVA-10) form mats with few beaded nanofibers, while those with high HA content (5PVA-8 and 5PVA-10) exhibit mats with mound patterns formed by “ribbon-like” nanofibers. The hybrid nanofibers were used as mats to support osteoblast growth, and they showed outstanding biological properties supporting cell adhesion, cell proliferation, and cell differentiation. Importantly, the 5PVA-8 mats show 3D spherical osteoblast morphology; this suggests the formation of tissue growth. These novel HA-based nanomaterials represent a relevant advance in designing nanofibers with unique properties for potential tissue regeneration.

Cervical cancer (CC) is a public health concern related to the human papillomavirus (HPV) persistent infection. Minichromosome maintenance 2 (MCM2) has been postulated as a surrogate marker for HPV infection. Thymopoietin (TMPO) is a nuclear protein regulated by E2F such as MCM2 or p16. TMPO can give rise to six different isoforms. Herein, both the mRNA and protein levels of TMPO isoforms were analyzed in cervical cells. TMPO expression was selected and analyzed through in silico in several databases from the healthy cervix and cervical lesions. TMPO RNA expression was evaluated in cervical samples and cell lines by RT‐PCR and protein expression by Western‐blot and immunohistochemistry assays. TMPO and MCM2 immunostaining were evaluated in cervical smears. The clinical‐pathological correlation analysis was performed using Kruskal–Wallis or X ² tests. TMPO is overexpressed in 74% of CC cells and all CC cell lines. Moreover, negative immunostaining was observed in normal cervical tissue, compared to strong expression for cervical lesions. Interestingly, TMPO‐α, ‐β, ‐δ, ‐ε, and ‐γ are expressed in all cervical cells and tissues, but a differential expression for α, ‐β, and ‐γ isoforms among the cervical cells was observed as overexpressed when HPV is present. Also, the immunostaining of both MCM2 and TMPO was quite similar, but TMPO expression was more sensitive and specific than MCM2 protein. The present study has revealed that TMPO protein expression could be a potential molecular marker for cervical transformed cells, highlighting the TMPO‐α, ‐β, and ‐γ isoforms as a promising molecular marker of HPV infection.

The use of trained dogs for the detection of volatile biomarkers in biological samples has great potential to be used for non-invasive diagnosis and monitoring of several diseases such as cancer. It offers early, highly accurate detection with fast response times, non-invasive to patients and allows for repeated sampling. The aforementioned methods are useful as a portable technology to increase detection, screening, and monitoring coverage in populations at risk. In this sense, Cervical Cancer (CC) has become a public health concern of alarming proportions in many developing countries, particularly in low-income sectors and marginalized regions due to different factors that limit the coverage of screening methods and the acceptance rates of women attending their routine gynecological examination. As such, early detection is a crucial medical factor in improving not only their population’s quality of life but also its life expectancy. For the above, the great odor detection threshold exhibited by dogs is not unheard of and represents a potential opportunity to develop an affordable, accessible, and non-invasive method for detection of CC with high sensibility and specificity values.

Background: COVID-19 during pregnancy has been associated with various obstetric complications; however, epidemiological evidence regarding its relationship with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and preterm birth remains inconclusive. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association between COVID-19 during pregnancy and the risk of HDP and preterm birth among Mexican pregnant women. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study based on a review of 3710 medical records of women treated at a tertiary hospital between 2020 and 2023. COVID-19 was diagnosed by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. We estimated adjusted risk ratios (aRRs) using robust Poisson regression models, controlling for potential confounders. Results: The COVID-19 rate was 2.5%. We observed that women with COVID-19 had a higher risk of HDP (aRR = 1.59; 95% CI = 1.07–2.36). When HDP subgroups were analyzed separately, COVID-19 was associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia (aRR = 2.04; 95% CI = 1.34–4.20) and preterm birth (aRR = 1.50; 95% CI = 1.02–2.19). The association with gestational hypertension lost statistical significance after adjustment. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that COVID-19 during pregnancy may be associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and preterm birth. However, the observed association with preeclampsia should be interpreted cautiously because diagnostic overlap between severe COVID-19 and preeclampsia cannot be excluded.

Microbiological verification of reprocessed mechanical ventilators serves as a quality control measure aimed at interrupting potential transmission routes of pathogens before patient intubation. The aim of this study was to describe the microbiological findings and operational costs of the post-reprocessing surveillance program for mechanical ventilators at Hospital Juárez de México and to contextualize these costs using a hypothetical VAP-associated economic reference. This retrospective observational study included 1456 post-reprocessing microbiological evaluation events involving mechanical ventilators previously used by patients with laboratory-confirmed ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). All events meeting the surveillance eligibility criteria during the study period were included. Inspiratory and expiratory limbs were sampled for bacterial culture, with microbial identification by mass spectrometry. Any bacterial growth was considered residual contamination, and the ventilator underwent a new complete cycle of cleaning and high-level disinfection. An institutional analysis was applied to estimate operational costs and to contextualize the potential VAP-associated economic burden using the culture-positive ventilators as a hypothetical reference calculation, without assuming that each positive device represented a prevented VAP episode. Residual bacterial contamination was detected in 95 evaluation events (6.5%), with recovery of organisms including Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The operational cost of the microbiological surveillance program was 40,993 USD. Using institutional VAP cost estimates, a hypothetical calculation assigning the annual VAP cost to each of the 95 culture-positive evaluation events produced a reference value of 1,285,650 USD. Under this reference calculation, the difference between the VAP-associated reference value and program cost was 1,244,657 USD, corresponding to a cost ratio of 31.4:1. These estimates are hypothetical and depend on assumptions regarding infection probability and preventive effectiveness; they do not represent demonstrated economic savings. The break-even probability of device-attributable VAP per culture-positive evaluation event was 3.19%, assuming full institutional coverage of VAP-associated costs and complete prevention of these episodes through additional reprocessing. Within this defined surveillance population, microbiological surveillance of reprocessed mechanical ventilators is a useful quality-control strategy prior to patient intubation.