Hugo Varela-Rodríguez
@uach.mx
Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH)
Born in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, MX.
EDUCATION
Doctor of Science in Biotechnology (LANGEBIO-CINVESTAV)
Master of Science in Biotechnology (FCQ-UACH)
Chemist Bacteriologist and Parasitologist (FCQ-UACH)
FUTURE PROJECTS
Epimorphic regeneration in salamanders
Understand from the omics perspective the different regulatory mechanisms underlying salamanders, which allow them to regenerate a wide diversity of tissues and even complex biological structures, without triggering malignant neoplastic events.
Applications Invited
Data collection and analyzing
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
H. Varela-Rodríguez, A. Guzman-Pando, and J. Camarillo-Cisneros
Elsevier BV
Valeria Itzel Moreno-Contreras, Ma. Carmen E. Delgado-Gardea, Jesús A. Ramos-Hernández, Alfonso Mendez-Tenorio, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Blanca Sánchez-Ramírez, Zilia Y. Muñoz-Ramírez, and Rocío Infante-Ramírez
MDPI AG
Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum is an economically important horticultural crop and is considered the wild genetic ancestor of chili peppers. The distribution range extends from southern North America, through Central America, to South America. Approximately 226 million 150 paired-end reads were generated from CHMX_Ch1 (a C. annuum from Chihuahua, Mexico). To compare with the CHMX_Ch1 genome, high-quality reads from QO (a C. annuum from Querétaro, Mexico) were downloaded from the NCBI database. A total of 210,324 variants were detected in CHMX_Ch1, whereas 169,718 variants were identified in QO, all compared to the domesticated C. annuum reference genome, UCD10Xv1.1. This comprised 203,990 SNPs and 6334 InDels in CHMX_Ch1 and 164,955 SNPs and 4763 InDels in QO. The variants with high and moderate impact were identified as missense, splice acceptor, splice donor, start lost, stop gain, stop lost, frameshift, insertion, and deletion effects. The candidate genes with the highest fold enrichment values among the SNPs were predominantly involved in gene regulation and metabolic processes. InDels were associated with nuclear and transcriptional regulator activity in both genomes. Overall, a greater number of variants were found in CHMX_Ch1 compared to QO. This study provides knowledge of the principal functions associated with high- and moderate-impact variants and supplies a resource for further investigations of the genetic characteristics of these chiltepin peppers.
Luis Varela-Rodríguez, Fernando Calzada, José Velázquez-Domínguez, Verónica Hernández-Ramírez, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Elihú Bautista, Mayra Herrera-Martínez, Diana Pichardo-Hernández, Rodrigo Castellanos-Mijangos, Bibiana Chávez-Munguía,et al.
MDPI AG
Several studies with kaempferol (KP) and linearolactone (LL) have demonstrated their antiparasitic activity. However, the toxicity of these treatments is unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the possible toxicological effects of intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of KP or LL on the amoebic liver abscess model (ALA) in Mesocricetus auratus. An ALA was induced in male hamsters with 1.5 × 105Entamoeba histolytica (E. histolytica) trophozoites inoculated in the left hepatic lobe. The lesion evolved for 4 days, and then KP (5 mg/kg body weight/day) or LL (10 mg/kg body weight/day) was administered for 4 consecutive days. Then, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), paraclinical analyses, and necropsy for histopathological evaluation were performed. There was similar ALA inhibition by KP (19.42%), LL (28.16%), and metronidazole, the antiamoebic control (20.87%) (p ≤ 0.05, analysis of variance [ANOVA]). There were hepatic and renal biochemical alterations in all treatment groups, mainly for KP (aspartate aminotransferase: 347.5 ± 37.5 U/L; blood urea nitrogen: 19.4 ± 1.9 g/dL; p ≤ 0.05, ANOVA). Lesions found in the organs were directly linked to the pathology. In conclusion, KP and LL decreased ALA development and exerted fewer toxicological effects compared with metronidazole. Therefore, both compounds exhibit therapeutic potential as an alternative treatment of amoebiasis caused by E. histolytica. However, additional clinical studies in different contexts are required to reaffirm this assertion.
Javier Camarillo-Cisneros, Graciela Ramirez-Alonso, Carlos Arzate-Quintana, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, and Abimael Guzman-Pando
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Edgar Cera-Domínguez, Gabriel Arenas-Ballesteros, Luis Varela-Rodríguez, Javier Camarillo-Cisneros, Abimael Guzman-Pando, and Hugo Varela-Rodríguez
Springer Nature Switzerland
Luis Alberto Gómez-Celaya, Jorge Alonso Débora-Ramirez, Rolando Corral-Barrón, Poleth Rodríguez-Domínguez, Aldair Verdugo-Valerio, Carlos Eduardo Cañedo-Figueroa, Abimael Guzmán Pando, and Hugo Varela-Rodríguez
Springer Nature Switzerland
Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Diana G. Abella-Quintana, Annie Espinal-Centeno, Luis Varela-Rodríguez, David Gomez-Zepeda, Juan Caballero-Pérez, Paola L. García-Medel, Luis G. Brieba, José J. Ordaz-Ortiz, and Alfredo Cruz-Ramirez
Frontiers Media SA
The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is a caudate amphibian, which has an extraordinary ability to restore a wide variety of damaged structures by a process denominated epimorphosis. While the origin and potentiality of progenitor cells that take part during epimorphic regeneration are known to some extent, the metabolic changes experienced and their associated implications, remain unexplored. However, a circuit with a potential role as a modulator of cellular metabolism along regeneration is that formed by Lin28/let-7. In this study, we report two Lin28 paralogs and eight mature let-7 microRNAs encoded in the axolotl genome. Particularly, in the proliferative blastema stage amxLin28B is more abundant in the nuclei of blastemal cells, while the microRNAs amx-let-7c and amx-let-7a are most downregulated. Functional inhibition of Lin28 factors increase the levels of most mature let-7 microRNAs, consistent with an increment of intermediary metabolites of the Krebs cycle, and phenotypic alterations in the outgrowth of the blastema. In summary, we describe the primary components of the Lin28/let-7 circuit and their function during axolotl regeneration, acting upstream of metabolic reprogramming events.
Sigifredo Arévalo-Gallegos, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Héctor Lugo-Aguilar, Tania S. Siqueiros-Cendón, Blanca F. Iglesias-Figueroa, Edward A. Espinoza-Sánchez, Gerardo A. Aguado-Santacruz, and Quintín Rascón-Cruz
Elsevier BV
Abstract Background Maize is one of the most important crops worldwide and has been a target of nuclear-based transformation biotechnology to improve it and satisfy the food demand of the ever-growing global population. However, the maize plastid transformation has not been accomplished due to the recalcitrant condition of the crop. Results In this study, we constructed two different vectors with homologous recombination sequences from maize (Zea mays var. LPC13) and grass (Bouteloua gracilis var. ex Steud) (pZmcpGFP and pBgcpGFP, respectively). Both vectors were designed to integrate into rrn23S/rrn16S from an inverted repeat region in the chloroplast genome. Moreover, the vector had the mgfp5 gene driven by Prrn, a leader sequence of the atpB gene and a terminator sequence from the rbcL gene. Also, constructs have an hph gene as a selection marker gene driven by Prrn, a leader sequence from rbcL gene and a terminator sequence from the rbcL gene. Explants of maize, tobacco and Escherichia coli cells were transformed with both vectors to evaluate the transitory expression–an exhibition of green and red fluorescent light under epifluorescence microscopy. These results showed that both vectors were expressed; the reporter gene in all three organisms confirmed the capacity of the vectors to express genes in the cell compartments. Conclusions This paper is the first report of transient expression of GFP in maize embryos and offers new information for genetically improving recalcitrant crops; it also opens new possibilities for the improvement in maize chloroplast transformation with these vectors. How to cite: Arevalo-Gallegos S, Varela-Rodriguez H, Lugo-Aguilar H, et al. Transient expression of a green fluorescent protein in tobacco and maize chloroplast. Electron J Biotechnol 2020;44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2020.01.008
Luis Varela-Rodríguez, Blanca Sánchez-Ramírez, Verónica Ivonne Hernández-Ramírez, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Rodrigo Daniel Castellanos-Mijangos, Carmen González-Horta, Bibiana Chávez-Munguía, and Patricia Talamás-Rohana
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Background Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of mortality among malignant gynecological tumors. Surgical resection and chemotherapy with intravenous platinum/taxanes drugs are the treatments of choice, with little effectiveness in later stages and severe toxicological effects. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the antineoplastic activity of gallic acid (GA) and myricetin (Myr) administrated peritumorally in Nu/Nu mice xenotransplanted with SKOV-3 cells. Methods Biological activity of GA and MYR was evaluated in SKOV-3 and OVCAR-3 cells (ovarian adenocarcinomas) by confocal/transmission electron microscopy, PI-flow cytometry, H 2 -DCF-DA stain, MTT, and Annexin V/PI assays. Molecular targets of compounds were determined with ACD/I-Labs and SEA. Antineoplastic activity was performed in SKOV-3 cells subcutaneously xenotransplanted into female Nu/Nu mice treated peritumorally with 50 mg/kg of each compound (2 alternate days/week) for 28 days. Controls used were paclitaxel (5 mg/kg) and 20 μL of vehicle (0.5% DMSO in 1X PBS). Tumor lesions, organs and sera were evaluated with NMR, USG, histopathological, and paraclinical studies. Results In vitro studies showed a decrease of cell viability with GA and Myr in SKOV-3 (50 and 166 μg/mL) and OVCAR-3 (43 and 94 μg/mL) cells respectively, as well as morphological changes, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis induction due to ROS generation ( p ≤ 0.05, ANOVA). In silico studies suggest that GA and MYR could interact with carbonic anhydrase IX and PI3K, respectively. In vivo studies revealed inhibitory effects on tumor lesions development with GA and MYR up to 50% ( p ≤ 0.05, ANOVA), with decreased vascularity, necrotic/fibrotic areas, neoplastic stroma retraction and apoptosis. However, toxicological effects were observed with GA treatment, such as leukocyte infiltrate and hepatic parenchyma loss, hypertransaminasemia (ALT: 150.7 ± 25.60 U/L), and hypoazotemia (urea: 33.4 ± 7.4 mg/dL), due to the development of chronic hepatitis ( p ≤ 0.05, ANOVA). Conclusion GA and Myr (50 mg/kg) administered by peritumoral route, inhibit ovarian tumor lesions development in rodents with some toxicological effects. Additional studies will be necessary to find the appropriate therapeutic dose for GA. Therefore, GA and Myr could be considered as a starting point for the development of novel anticancer agents.