Andrés Felipe Aristizábal-Pachón

• Professor
• Professor (Associate) at Pontifical Xavierian University

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is characterized by a decline in cognitive functioning without significant interference in daily activities. Its high heterogeneity and elevated conversion rate to dementia pose challenges for accurate diagnosis and monitoring, highlighting the urgent need to identify methodologies focused on the early detection and...

Numerous genetic and biological processes have been linked to the function of microRNAs which regulate gene expression by targeting messenger RNA mRNA. MicroRNAs play a role in the development of disease and the embryology of mammals. To further understand its function in the oncogenic process, the expression of the microRNA profile in cancer has b...

Astrocytes play a pivotal role in maintaining brain homeostasis. Recent research has highlighted the significance of palmitic acid (PA) in triggering pro-inflammatory pathways contributing to neurotoxicity. Furthermore, Genomic-scale metabolic models and control theory have revealed that metabolic switches (MSs) are metabolic pathway regulators by...

Introduction: Numerous genetic and biological processes have been linked to the func-tion of microRNAs (miRNAs), which regulate gene expression by targeting messenger RNA (mRNA). It is commonly acknowledged that miRNAs play a role in the development of disease and the embryology of mammals. Method: To further understand its function in the oncog...

Control theory, a well-established discipline in engineering and mathematics, has found novel applications in systems biology. This interdisciplinary approach leverages the principles of feedback control and regulation to gain insights into the complex dynamics of cellular and molecular networks underlying chronic diseases, including neurodegenerat...

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are characterized by a progressive deterioration of neuronal function, leading to motor and cognitive damage in patients. Astrocytes are essential for maintaining brain homeostasis, and their functional impairment is increasingly recognized as central to the etiology of various NDs. Such impairment can be induced by...

Chronic intake of a high-fat diet increases saturated fatty acids in the brain causing the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Palmitic acid is a free fatty acid abundant in the diet that at high concentrations may penetrate the blood-brain barrier and stimulate the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, leading to inflammation in astrocy...

The central function of telomerase is maintaining the telomere length. However, several extra-telomeric roles have been identified for this protein complex. In this study, we evaluated the effect of the silencing of the catalytic subunit of telomerase (TERT) on the expression of candidate microRNAs, cell activation markers and glial-related genes i...

microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in numerous functions and processes in the brain and other organs through the regulation of gene and protein expression. miRNA dysregulation is associated with the development of several diseases, including the brain and Central Nervous System cancer (CNS). The hsa-miR-516a-5p and hsa-miR-516b-5p are involved in prol...

Diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease (NDD) is complex, therefore simpler, less invasive, more accurate biomarkers are needed. small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) dysregulates in NDDs and sncRNA signatures have been explored for the diagnosis of NDDs, however, the performance of previous biomarkers is still better. Astrocyte dysfunction promotes neurode...

Diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease (NDD) is complex, therefore simpler, less invasive, more accurate biomarkers are needed. small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) dysregulates in NDDs and sncRNA signatures have been explored for the diagnosis of NDDs, however, the performance of previous biomarkers is still better. Astrocyte dysfunction promotes neurode...

The importance of miRNAs in cellular processes and their dysregulation has taken significant importance in understanding different pathologies. Due to the constant increase in the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases (ND) worldwide and their economic impact, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), considered a prodromal phase, is a logical starting p...

The association between neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) and obesity has been well studied in recent years. Obesity is a syndrome of multifactorial etiology characterized by an excessive accumulation and release of fatty acids (FA) in adipose and non-adipose tissue. An excess of FA generates a metabolic condition known as lipotoxicity, which trigge...

Excessive accumulation and release of fatty acids (FAs) in adipose and non-adipose tissue are characteristic of obesity and are associated with the leading causes of death worldwide. Chronic exposure to high concentrations of FAs such as palmitic acid (pal) is a risk factor for developing different neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) through several m...

Astrocytes play an important role in various processes in the brain, including pathological conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies have shown that the increase in saturated fatty acids such as palmitic acid (PA) triggers pro-inflammatory pathways in the brain. The use of synthetic neurosteroids such as tibolone has demonstrat...

Astrocytes are critical for the metabolic, structural and functional modulatory support of the brain. Lipotoxicity or high levels of saturated fatty acid as Palmitate (PA) has been associated with neurotoxicity, the loss or change of astrocytic functionality, and the etiology and progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson or Alzhei...

One of the most common lipids in the human body is palmitic acid (PA), a saturated fatty acid with essential functions in brain cells. PA is used by cells as an energy source, besides being a precursor of signaling molecules and protein tilting across the membrane. Although PA plays physiological functions in the brain, its excessive accumulation l...

Background: The vitamin D receptor (VDR) is responsible for mediating the effects of vitamin D through regulation of other gene transcriptions. There are several polymorphisms that alter the gene expression or the function of this protein. We aimed to analyze the association between two SNPs of VDR gene and melanoma cancer in Colombian patients....

Hypoxia is a condition characterized by a reduction of cellular oxygen levels derived from alterations in oxygen balance. Hypoxic events trigger changes in cell-signaling cascades, oxidative stress, activation of pro-inflammatory molecules, and growth factors, influencing the activity of various ion channel families and leading to diverse cardiovas...

Lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation, and mutations in mitochondrial DNA generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are involved in cell death and inflammatory response syndrome. ROS can also act as a signal in the intracellular pathways involved in normal cell growth and homeostasis, as well as in response to metabolic adaptations, autophagy, im...

With the advent of novel computational methods, it has been possible to improve the identification of new therapeutic alternatives as well as novel biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis. Considering the abundance of genomics data for cancer patients it is possible to extract genomic profiles and generate associations with rigorous clinical data. No...

The primate-specific microRNA gene cluster on chromosome 19 (C19MC) is composed of 56 mature microRNAs (miRNAs), which are divided into three subgroups according to the sequence similarity. This cluster is principally expressed in the placenta but not in other tissues. C19MC is involved in the regulation of proliferation, migration, and invasion of...

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are characterized by progressive neuronal dysfunction and death of brain cells population. As the early manifestations of NDs are similar, their symptoms are difficult to distinguish, making the timely detection and discrimination of each neurodegenerative disorder a priority. Several investigations have revealed th...

Astrocytes play pivotal roles in the brain and they become reactive under stress conditions. Here, we carried out, for the first time, an integrative meta-analysis of genome-wide expression profiling of astrocytes from human and mouse exposed to different stressful stimuli (hypoxia, infections by virus and bacteria, cytokines, ethanol, among others...

Background In patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), mortality is high due to multiple organ damage. Mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired oxygen consumption as causative mechanisms play a significant role in reducing the activity of immune cells in sepsis, resulting in the progress of the multiple organ dysfunction syndromes (MODS)....

The growing importance of astrocytes in the field of neuroscience has led to a greater number of computational models devoted to the study of astrocytic functions and their metabolic interactions with neurons. The modeling of these interactions demands a combined understanding of brain physiology and the development of computational frameworks base...

Lipotoxicity is a pathological condition resulting from the excessive accumulation of fatty acids, like palmitic acid (PA), within the cell. This pathological phenomenon induces deleterious metabolic changes in cells and is associated with neurodegenerative diseases, dyslipidemia, and obesity. Recent evidence has demonstrated that tibolone, a synth...

The co-expression of androgen (AR) and estrogen (ER) receptors, in terms of higher AR/ER ratio, has been recently associated with poor outcome in ER-positive (ER+) breast cancer (BC) patients. The aim of this study was to analyze if the biological aggressiveness, underlined in ER+ BC tumors with higher AR/ER ratio, could be due to higher expression...

Ginger is a plant that is native to southern China. In the last decade and research on the components of ginger has significantly increased; of these components, 6-shogaol exhibits the greatest potential antitumor capacity. However, the molecular mechanism through which 6-shogaol exerts its effects has not yet been elucidated. In this study, the ef...

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide that is used worldwide. It represents a potential harm to surface water, and when commercially mixed with surfactants, its uptake is greatly magnified. The most well-known glyphosate-based product is Roundup. This herbicide is potentially an endocrine disruptor and many studies have shown the cytotoxicity po...

Background: The high mortality rate of breast cancer is related to the occurrence of metastasis, a process that is promoted by tumor angiogenesis. MicroRNAs are small molecules of non-coding mRNA that play a key role in gene regulation and are directly involved in the progression and angiogenesis of various tumor types, including breast cancer. Se...

Este documento de trabajo tiene como objetivo presentar un breve y claro panorama desde una visión molecular del carcinoma mamario y de los nuevos marcadores tumorales, como la mamoglobina humana. Este tipo de cáncer en especial, ha tomado gran relevancia en los últimos años, ya que ha venido incrementando su incidencia, sobre todo en países en vía...

Aims: Breast cancer represents the second most prevalent tumor-related cause of death among women. Although studies have already been published regarding the association between breast tumors and miRNAs, this field remains unclear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are defined as non-coding RNA molecules, and are known to be involved in cell pathways through the...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by neuritic plaques (NPs), and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). β-Amyloid peptide 1-4 2 (Aβ(1-42)) is the principal component of NPs and is associated with oxidative stress, as well as dysfunction of cholinergic neurotransmission system and cell death. Nevertheless, one of the mo...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive condition, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen. Biochemically the disease is characterized by the presence of neuritic plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, in addition to cholinergic dysfunction in the central nervous system. The role of the cholinergic neurotransmission in AD is the basis of the widely a...

Women with breast cancer has the tumor progression and angiogenesis-induced metastasis as the main cause of death. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding mRNA molecules that play an important role in gene regulation and once deregulated, these molecules may be involved with the progression of different human tumor types, including breast cancer. Th...

Among the Indigenous cultures of Southern of Colombia, the chewing of coca and mambe are a very common and ancient practice in almost all age group. The leaves of several species of the shrub Erythroxylum, popularly known as coca, are the natural source of cocaine. Traditionally, indigenous population has chewed the coca leaves to prevent fatigue d...

Background: Breast cancer is one of the principal causes of death among Brazilian women, so it is a challenge to find new and specific early diagnostic markers, using simple and fast procedures. GSK3β gene is an important Wnt signaling regulator involved in β-Catenin degradation. Wnt signaling is associated with initiation and progression process...

Introducción. La cadherina-E (CDH1) cumple un papel importante en la transición epitelio-mesénquima y está relacionada con la invasión y metástasis en varios tipos de carcinomas. Sin embargo, el efecto de mutaciones y epimutaciones germinales en la susceptibilidad al cáncer de mama no es claro. Objetivo. Evaluar el polimorfismo rs5030625, cambios...

Biochemically, Alzheimeŕs disease (AD) is characterized by the presence of abnormal deposition of beta amyloid peptide (Aβ(1-42)), which is generated by proteolytic processing from its precursor, the amyloid precursor protein (APP) in a non-physiological pathway. The presence of Aβ(1-42) in the brain is strongly correlated with cognitive impairment...

Background: The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is an important regulator of cellular functions such as proliferation, survival and cell adhesion. Wnt/β-catenin signaling is associated with tumor initiation and progression; β-catenin mutations explain only 30% of aberrant signaling found in breast cancer, indicating that other components and/or re...

Background: Mammaglobin A (MGA), mainly expressed in the breast epithelium, is overexpressed in breast cancer, and has been established as a tumor and promissory marker for the early detection of metastasis. Aim: The main aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the presence of the MGA transcript in the peripheral blood of Brazi...

En el mundo se presentan aproximadamente 160 mil nuevos casos de melanoma al año y su tasa de mortalidad es mayor que la de otros tipos de cáncer de piel debido al alto potencial metastásico de melanoma. Por esto la detección de micrometástasis en sangre periférica mediante la identificación de biomarcadores tumorales específicos de células de mela...

RESUMEN Algunas investigaciones demuestran el potencial genotóxico de ciertos plaguicidas sobre los seres humanos, lo cual, hace necesario el desarrollo de metodologías que permitan evaluar el impacto de dichas sustancias, para alterar el ADN. El ensayo del cometa alcalino es un método económico, rápido y sensible que detecta, principalmente, rompi...

RESUMEN Algunas investigaciones demuestran el potencial genotóxico de ciertos plaguicidas sobre los seres humanos, lo cual, hace necesario el desarrollo de metodologías que permitan evaluar el impacto de dichas sustancias, para alterar el ADN. El ensayo del cometa alcalino es un método económico, rápido y sensible que detecta, principalmente, rompi...