Browsing by Autor "Alvarado-Arnez, Lucia Elena"

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Book Review: Modern Epidemics, From Spanish Flu to COVID-19 by Salvador Macip Maresma
(2024) Vargas, Paola A.; Alvarado-Arnez, Lucia Elena; Montellano Duran, Natalia; Universidad Católica Boliviana “San Pablo” (Santa Cruz, Bolivia); Instituto de Investigaciones de Enfermedades Tropicales IIET, Universidad Nacional de Salta UNSA, Salta, Argentina; Coordinación Nacional de Investigación, Universidad Privada Franz Tamayo (Unifranz), La Paz, Bolivia
doi: 10.3389/fpos.2021.709290
Cloud-controlled microscopy enables remote project-based biology education in underserved Latinx communities
(2024) Montellano Duran, Natalia; Baudin, Pierre V.; Sacksteder, Raina E.; Worthington, Atesh K.; Voitiuk, Kateryna; T. Ly, Victoria; Hoffman, Ryan N.; Elliott, Matthew A.T.; Parks, David F.; Ward, Rebecca; Torres-Montoya, Sebastian; Amend, Finn; Vargas, Paola A.; Martinez, Guadalupe; Ramirez, Sandra M.; Alvarado-Arnez, Lucia Elena; Ehrlich, Drew; Rosen, Yohei M.; Breevoort, Arnar; Schouten, Tallulah; Kurniawan, Sri; Haussler, David; Mostajo-Radji, Mohammed A.
https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2405-8440%2822%2902884-5 | Project-based learning (PBL) has long been recognized as an effective way to teach complex biology concepts. However, not all institutions have the resources to facilitate effective project-based coursework for students. We have developed a framework for facilitating PBL using remote-controlled internet-connected microscopes. Through this approach, one lab facility can host an experiment for many students around the world simultaneously. Experiments on this platform can be run on long timescales and with materials that are typically unavailable to high school classrooms. This allows students to perform novel research projects rather than just repeating standard classroom experiments. To investigate the impact of this program, we designed and ran six user studies with students worldwide. All experiments were hosted in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, California, with observations and decisions made remotely by the students using their personal computers and cellphones. In surveys gathered after the experiments, students reported increased excitement for science and a greater desire to pursue a career in STEM. This framework represents a novel, scalable, and effective PBL approach that has the potential to democratize biology and STEM education around the world.
Pharmacogenetics of HIV therapy: State of the art in Latin American countries.
(2022) Velozo, Camila de Almeida; Lamarão, Flávia Rachel Moreira; Alvarado-Arnez, Lucia Elena; Cardoso, Cynthia Chester
The use of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) has resulted in a remarkable reduction in morbidity and mortality of people living with HIV worldwide. Nevertheless, interindividual variations in drug response often impose a challenge to cART effectiveness. Although personalized therapeutic regimens may help overcome incidence of adverse reactions and therapeutic failure attributed to host factors, pharmacogenetic studies are often restricted to a few populations. Latin American countries accounted for 2.1 million people living with HIV and 1.4 million undergoing cART in 2020-21. The present review describes the state of art of HIV pharmacogenetics in this region and highlights that such analyses remain to be given the required relevance. A broad analysis of pharmacogenetic markers in Latin America could not only provide a better understanding of genetic structure of these populations, but might also be crucial to develop more informative dosing algorithms, applicable to non-European populations.
Risk factors for mortality in patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Bolivia: An analysis of the first 107 confirmed cases.
(2020) Escalera-Antezana, Juan Pablo; Lizon-Ferrufino, Nicolas Freddy; Maldonado-Alanoca, Americo; Alarcon-De-la-Vega, Gricel; Alvarado-Arnez, Lucia Elena; Balderrama-Saavedra, Maria Alejandra; Bonilla-Aldana, D Katterine; Rodriguez-Morales, Alfonso J
The present study is aimed to assess the risk factors for mortality in the first 107 rRT-PCR confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Bolivia. For this observational, retrospective and cross-sectional study, the epidemiological data records were collected from the Hospitals and the Ministry of Health of Bolivia, obtaining the clinical and epidemiological data of the COVID-19 cases that were laboratory-diagnosed during March 2-29, 2020. Samples were tested by rRT-PCR to SARS-CoV-2 at the Laboratory of the National Center of Tropical Diseases (CENETROP), following the protocol Charite, Berlin, Germany. The odds ratio (OR) with respective 95% confidence interval (95%CI) for mortality as dependent variable was calculated. When we comparatively analyzed survivors and non-survivors in this first group of 107 cases in Bolivia, we found that at bivariate analyses, age (±60 years old), hypertension, chronic heart failure, diabetes, and obesity, as well as the requirement of ICU, were significantly exposure variables associated with death. At the multivariate analysis (logistic regression), two variables remained significantly associated, age, ±60 years-old (OR=9.4, 95%CI 1.8-104.1) and hypertension (OR=3.3, 95%CI 1.3-6.3). As expected, age and comorbidities, particularly hypertension, were independent risk factors for mortality in Bolivia in the first 107 cases group. More further studies are required to better define risk factors and preventive measures related to COVID-19 in this and other Latin American countries.