Browsing by Author "Larenas Barrera, Gabriela Paz"

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    Increased BMI is associated with an altered decision-making process during healthy food choices in males and females
    (Academic Press, 2025) Larenas Barrera, Gabriela Paz; Luarte, L.; Kerr, B.; Ossandón, Tomás; Cortés Mora, Víctor Antonio; Baudrand Biggs, René; Pérez Leighton, Claudio
    Unhealthy diets (rich in calories, sugar, fat, and sodium) are a major cause of obesity. Why individuals struggle to make healthy food choices remains unclear. This study examined how body mass index, biological sex, and eating context influence food attribute perception, the food choice process, and the percentage of healthy food choices. In an online study, males and females with and without obesity (n = 910) rated food images for healthiness and tastiness and made food choices after prompts directing them to choose foods they considered healthy (healthy prompt) or to choose as they would in their daily lives (typical prompt), which aimed to model healthy and typical eating contexts. When foods were classified as healthy or unhealthy using nutritional labeling information, all participants rated healthy foods with larger healthiness ratings, but females rated healthy foods as healthier and tastier than males. Still, participants with obesity had fewer healthy choices (i.e., choosing the food with the largest healthiness rating) regardless of sex and prompt. Further, tastiness differences were more relevant than healthiness differences during healthy food choices among participants with obesity, and more so after the typical prompt. On the contrary, healthiness differences were more relevant among participants with healthy weight regardless of prompt type. Our findings highlight the importance of eating contexts in how individuals use their perception of food attributes during healthy food choices and suggest that increasing the presence of healthy prompts and perceived tastiness of healthy foods may promote healthy food choices among individuals with obesity.
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    Prophylactic treatment with the c-Abl inhibitor, neurotinib, diminishes neuronal damage and the convulsive state in pilocarpine-induced mice
    (Elsevier B.V., 2024) Chandía Cristi, América Valeska; Gutiérrez García, Daniela A.; Dulcey, Andrés E.; Lara, Marcelo; Vargas Rojas, Lina Marcela; Lin, Yi-Han; Jiménez Muñoz, Pablo Salvador; Larenas Barrera, Gabriela Paz; Xu, Xin; Wang, Amy; Owens, Ashley; Dextras, Christopher; Chen, YuChi; Pinto, Claudio; Marín Marín, Tamara Alejandra; Almarza Salazar, Hugo Alcester; Acevedo, Keryma; Cancino Lobos, Gonzalo Ignacio; Hu, Xin; Rojas, Patricio; Ferrer, Marc; Southall, Noel; Henderson, Mark J.; Zanlungo Matsuhiro, Silvana; Marugan, Juan J.; Álvarez Rojas, Alejandra
    The molecular mechanisms underlying seizure generation remain elusive, yet they are crucial for developing effective treatments for epilepsy. The current study shows that inhibiting c-Abl tyrosine kinase prevents apoptosis, reduces dendritic spine loss, and maintains N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor subunit 2B (NR2B) phosphorylated in in vitro models of excitotoxicity. Pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (SE) in mice promotes c-Abl phosphorylation, and disrupting c-Abl activity leads to fewer seizures, increases latency toward SE, and improved animal survival. Currently, clinically used c-Abl inhibitors are non-selective and have poor brain penetration. The allosteric c-Abl inhibitor, neurotinib, used here has favorable potency, selectivity, pharmacokinetics, and vastly improved brain penetration. Neurotinib-administered mice have fewer seizures and improved survival following pilocarpine-SE induction. Our findings reveal c-Abl kinase activation as a key factor in ictogenesis and highlight the impact of its inhibition in preventing the insurgence of epileptic-like seizures in rodents and humans.