Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of hereditary disorders caused by a single point mutation in the β-globin gene. This mutation results in the formation of a mutated hemoglobin S (HbS) and the consequent sickle phenotype of erythrocytes. SCD is common in regions of malaria endemicity. However, changes in population dynamics enabled the movement of the mutated gene to other areas such as North America and Europe. Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is the most severe form of SCD and affects millions of people around the globe. The clinical manifestations of SCA arise primarily from the polymerization of deoxygenated hemoglobin S (deoxyHbS) leading to vascular occlusion and hemolytic anemia. Clinical complications of the disease are derived from deoxyHbS polymerization, but there are several therapeutic strategies to reduce the severity of the symptoms. Gene therapy has arisen as a new therapeutic approach aimed to cure rather than to treat the symptomatology of SCA by targeting the altered β-globin gene for gene correction.

Synthetic Biology is the combination of basic sciences with engineering. The aim of Synthetic Biology is to create, design, and redesign biological systems and devices to understand biological processes and to achieve useful and sophisticated functionalities to improve human welfare. When the engineering community took part in the discussion for the definition of Synthetic Biology, the idea of extraction and reassembly of “biological parts” along with the principles of abstraction, modularity, and standardization was introduced. Genetic Engineering is one of the many essential tools for synthetic biology, and even though they share the DNA manipulation basis and approach to intervene in the complexity of molecular biology, they differ in many aspects, and the two terms should not be used interchangeably. Some of the applications that have already been done by Synthetic Biology include the production of 1,4-butanediol (BDO), the antimalarial drug artemisinin, and the anticancer compound taxol. The potential of Synthetic Biology to design new genomes without immediate biological ancestry has raised ontological, political, economic, and ethical concerns based on the possibility that synthetic biology may be intrinsically unethical.

This paper presents a bibliographical review on the relevance of the possible role of cytokines in depression. There is a consideration of the existing approaches to detection and diagnosis of depression; they are classified according to different criteria such as design methodologies and applications. Although the etiology of depression is still an issue, the focus of this paper is to highlight the various studies regarding the interactions of the immune system and brain activity linked to depression. These interactions are particularly important when trying to find a correlation between proinflammatory cytokines (such as IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α) and depression. This includes a brief comparison of results obtained by different studies.

Introducción: la asignatura Farmacología en Farmacia es de carácter teórico-práctico, dura un cuatrimestre y se imparte en el cuarto año. El desarrollo práctico involucra seis trabajos prácticos de laboratorio (tpl) y cuatro talleres. En tres tpl se realiza experimentación in vivo con animales, en otros dos se trabaja con programas computacionales, y en el restante técnicas in vitro, permitiendo al estudiante valorar el efecto de los fármacos mediante la experimentación, orientado a la investigación biológica y biomédica, además de reconocer la eficacia farmacológica para el tratamiento de enfermedades. Nuestro objetivo fue promover una encuesta para obtener un instrumento orientativo que permita aumentar la calidad de la enseñanza y conocer las percepciones y preferencias sobre las prácticas en cuestión. Metodología: se realizó un estudio transversal y descriptivo, concluido el primer cuatrimestre académico del ciclo lectivo 2015. Resultados: el 90,48 % aludió que las prácticas con animales resultaron útiles para su formación, y las dos terceras partes consideró necesario implementar alternativas al uso de animales en aspectos relacionados a su educación y formación. El 85,71 % prefirió las observaciones in vivo; 9,52 % las in vitro y 4,76% los programas computacionales. 90,48 % respondió que volvería a trabajar con animales de laboratorio. Conclusiones: creemos que es pertinente trabajar con animales en esta asignatura, es importante pensar en esta experiencia práctica en la farmacología. Los estudiantes manifiestan su interés por conocer e interpretar los efectos y mecanismos de acción de los fármacos mediante observaciones in vivo o de órganos manipulados por ellos mismos.