Hugo Varela-Rodríguez

@uach.mx

Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH)

Hugo Varela-Rodríguez


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https://researchid.co/hvarela
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
11

Scopus Publications

Scopus Publications

  • Acanthamoeba castellanii: Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Affect Adhesion, Motility, and Encystment, Suggesting a Link with a gp63-like Protein Candidate
    Verónica I. Hernández-Ramírez, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Luis Varela-Rodríguez, Francisco Sierra-López, Daniela Eloísa San Juan-Mora, et al.
    Pathogens, 2026
    Acanthamoeba castellanii, an opportunistic free-living amoeba, causes severe infections including Acanthamoeba keratitis. This exploratory study evaluated whether three non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)—acetylsalicylic acid, ibuprofen, and diclofenac (100 µM)—modulate pathogenicity-related processes in A. castellanii and explored the involvement of a gp63-like protein during encystment and adhesion. Trophozoites were continuously exposed to each drug and analyzed for adhesion, migration on host-derived discontinuous brain micropatterns, encystment efficiency, and parasite-induced cytoskeletal remodeling in MDCK epithelial cells. In silico docking was performed to assess potential drug–protein interactions. Drug exposure reduced adhesion with maximal inhibition at 60 min. After 1 h, migration decreased by 49%, 64%, and 38%, and encystment was reduced by 50%, 85%, and up to 90%, respectively, in cultures treated with acetylsalicylic acid, ibuprofen, and diclofenac. Co-incubation with untreated trophozoites lowered actin fluorescence to approximately 50%, whereas drug-treated co-cultures preserved fluorescence near control levels. Colocalization analysis showed increased spatial overlap between gp63-like protein and F-actin in cysts (~40%) and migrating trophozoites (~20%) compared with non-stimulated forms (~3.8%). Collectively, these findings suggest that NSAID-sensitive pathways influence host interaction, migration, and encystment in A. castellanii and allow for the proposal of gp63-like protein as a putative molecular component of the NSAIDs sensitive pathways.
  • The Role of Bioinformatics and Computational Chemistry in Future Cancer Research
    Humberto Lopez-Baltierra, Celia M. Quiñonez-Flores, Morayma O. Romo-Garcia, Abimael Guzman-Pando, Luis C. Hinojos-Gallardo, et al.
    Ifmbe Proceedings, 2026
  • Screening and computational characterization of novel antimicrobial cathelicidins from amphibian transcriptomic data
    H. Varela-Rodríguez, A. Guzman-Pando, J. Camarillo-Cisneros
    Computational Biology and Chemistry, 2024
  • Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of SNPs and InDels of Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum from Mexico Based on Whole Genome Sequencing
    Valeria Itzel Moreno-Contreras, Ma. Carmen E. Delgado-Gardea, Jesús A. Ramos-Hernández, Alfonso Mendez-Tenorio, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, et al.
    Plants, 2024
    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.
  • Toxicological Evaluation of Kaempferol and Linearolactone as Treatments for Amoebic Liver Abscess Development in Mesocricetus auratus
    Luis Varela-Rodríguez, Fernando Calzada, José Velázquez-Domínguez, Verónica Hernández-Ramírez, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, et al.
    International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2024
    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.
  • MolGC: molecular geometry comparator algorithm for bond length mean absolute error computation on molecules
    Javier Camarillo-Cisneros, Graciela Ramirez-Alonso, Carlos Arzate-Quintana, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Abimael Guzman-Pando
    Molecular Diversity, 2024
  • Transcriptional Expression of Bioactive Antimicrobial Peptides with Biomedical Potential in Diverse Organs of the Mexican Axolotl
    Edgar Cera-Domínguez, Gabriel Arenas-Ballesteros, Luis Varela-Rodríguez, Javier Camarillo-Cisneros, Abimael Guzman-Pando, et al.
    Ifmbe Proceedings, 2024
  • Convolutional Neural Network for Classifying Thoracic Diseases in Adult Patients
    Luis Alberto Gómez-Celaya, Jorge Alonso Débora-Ramirez, Rolando Corral-Barrón, Poleth Rodríguez-Domínguez, Aldair Verdugo-Valerio, et al.
    Ifmbe Proceedings, 2024
  • Functional Characterization of the Lin28/let-7 Circuit During Forelimb Regeneration in Ambystoma mexicanum and Its Influence on Metabolic Reprogramming
    Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Diana G. Abella-Quintana, Annie Espinal-Centeno, Luis Varela-Rodríguez, David Gomez-Zepeda, et al.
    Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2020
    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.
  • Transient expression of a green fluorescent protein in tobacco and maize chloroplast
    Sigifredo Arévalo-Gallegos, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Héctor Lugo-Aguilar, Tania S. Siqueiros-Cendón, Blanca F. Iglesias-Figueroa, et al.
    Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, 2020
    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
  • Effect of gallic acid and myricetin on ovarian cancer models: A possible alternative antitumoral treatment
    Luis Varela-Rodríguez, Blanca Sánchez-Ramírez, Verónica Ivonne Hernández-Ramírez, Hugo Varela-Rodríguez, Rodrigo Daniel Castellanos-Mijangos, et al.
    BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, 2020