The Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has been previously associated with Zika virus infection. We analysed the data from all the patients with GBS diagnosis that were admitted to a referral hospital, in Tapachula City during the period from January 2013 to August 2016, comparing the incidence of GBS according to the temporality of the Zika outbreak in Southern Mexico. Additionally, we described the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the GBS patients admitted before or after the Zika outbreak. We observed a sharp increase in the number of patients hospitalised due to GBS from the time the first confirmed Zika cases appeared in Mexico. Clinically we observed GBS cases before zika outbreak had more frequently history of respiratory/gastrointestinal symptoms and GBS during zika outbreak had significantly more frequently recent history of rash/conjunctivitis. Although we cannot affirm that the increased cases of GBS have a specific aetiologic association with Zika, our results suggest that this observed outbreak of in Tapachula, might have been associated to the emerging Zika epidemic, locally and suggests that rare complications associated with acute infections (such as GBS) might be useful in the surveillance systems for emerging infections.

Perinatal maternal high-fat diet (HFD) increases susceptibility to obesity and fatty liver diseases in adult offspring, which can be attenuated by the potent hypolipidaemic action of fish oil (FO), an n-3 PUFA source, during adult life. Previously, we described that adolescent HFD offspring showed resistance to FO hypolipidaemic effects, although FO promoted hepatic molecular changes suggestive of reduced lipid accumulation. Here, we investigated whether this FO intervention only during the adolescence period could affect offspring metabolism in adulthood. Then, female Wistar rats received isoenergetic, standard (STD: 9 % fat) or high-fat (HFD: 28·6 % fat) diet before mating, and throughout pregnancy and lactation. After weaning, male offspring received the standard diet; and from 25 to 45 d old they received oral administration of soyabean oil or FO. At 150 d old, serum and hepatic metabolic parameters were evaluated. Maternal HFD adult offspring showed increased body weight, visceral adiposity, hyperleptinaemia and decreased hepatic pSTAT3/STAT3 ratio, suggestive of hepatic leptin resistance. FO intake only during the adolescence period reduced visceral adiposity and serum leptin, regardless of maternal diet. Maternal HFD promoted dyslipidaemia and hepatic TAG accumulation, which was correlated with reduced hepatic carnitine palmitoyl transferase-1a content, suggesting lipid oxidation impairment. FO intake did not change serum lipids; however, it restored hepatic TAG content and hepatic markers of lipid oxidation to STD offspring levels. Therefore, we concluded that FO intake exclusively during adolescence programmed STD offspring and reprogrammed HFD offspring male rats to a healthier metabolic phenotype in adult life, reducing visceral adiposity, serum leptin and hepatic TAG content in offspring adulthood.

The composition of the raw legume Phaseolus vulgaris L. var. athropurpurea (PhVa) and its effects on the metabolism of young growing rats have been evaluated. The levels of protein, unsaturated fatty acids, carbohydrate, fibre and bioactive factors present in PhVa were comparable with those in other Phaseolus vulgaris varieties. However, the lectins of PhVa were predominantly of the leucoagglutinating type, and concentrated in the albumin protein fraction. Rats fed a diet (110 g total protein, 16·0 M/g) in which PhVa meal provided about half of the protein excreted high levels of N in faeces and urine, and grew more slowly, than rats fed a high-quality control diet (ad libitum or pair-fed). Small intestine, large intestine and pancreas weights were increased (by almost 100 %, P<0·05), whilst skeletal muscle, thymus and spleen weights were reduced. Blood insulin 16·20 v. 0·50 m/, P<0·05, thyroxine, glucose, protein (60·5 v. 48·3 /, P<0·05) and LDL-cholesterol were lowered, whilst glucagon (155·3 v. 185·4 n/, P<0·05), triiodothyronine and urea were elevated, as were urinary urea, creatinine and glucose. These changes in the local (gut) and systemic metabolism of rats were probably mediated primarily by lectins in PhVa, which were concentrated in the albumin protein fraction, whereas in many other Phaseolus vulgaris lines they are distributed across the globulin and albumin fractions.

The retention of the protein nutritional value during storage of lactosehydrolysed dried milk at different water activities (aw) was studied and compared with that of ordinary milk. In the lactose-hydrolysed milk biologically available lysine decreased much more rapidly than in the ordinary milk at all the different aw studied. Thus, at conditions normally accepted for ordinary dried milk (aw ~0·2; moisture ~ 4 %) there was an available lysine loss in the hydrolysed milk of about 25 % after 2 months and about 40 % after 6-months storage at room temperature. This occurred without any visible browning. It is concluded that drying to very low aw (≦ 0·11) is necessary to obtain good stability of the protein nutritional value (PNV) in lactose-hydrolysed milk. The drying, however, must be done so that losses in nutritional value are minimal during that process. It should also be noted that fat oxidation might be a problem at such low aw. A chemical method for available lysine assay (guanidination and assay of homoarginine) gave values in good agreement with the biological evaluations with rats.