UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES

3 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Developmental Biology

Establishment of Larval Zebrafish as an Animal Model to Investigate Trypanosoma cruzi Motility In Vivo

Veronica Akle¹, Nathalie Agudelo-Dueñas^*1,2, Maria A. Molina-Rodriguez^*1, Laurel Brianne Kartchner^1,3,4,6, Annette Marie Ruth^1,3,5,6, John M. González³, Manu Forero-Shelton²

¹Laboratory of Neurosciences and Circadian Rhythms, School of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, ²Biophysics Group, Department of Physics, Universidad de los Andes, ³Laboratory of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, ⁴Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, ⁵Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development, University of Notre Dame, ⁶USAID Research and Innovation Fellowship program

In this protocol, fluorescently labeled T. cruzi were injected into transparent zebrafish larvae, and parasite motility was observed in vivo using light sheet fluorescence microscopy.

Behavior

Fear Incubation Using an Extended Fear-Conditioning Protocol for Rats

César Acevedo-Triana^1,6, Javier L. Rico², Leonardo A. Ortega², Melissa Andrea N. Cardenas³, Fernando P. Cardenas³, Manuel J. Rojas⁴, Juan Carlos Forigua-Vargas², Julián Cifuentes², Camilo Hurtado-Parrado^2,5

¹School of Psychology, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, ²Animal Behavior Laboratory, Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, ³Department of Psychology, Universidad de Los Andes, ⁴School of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Health Department, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, ⁵Department of Psychology, Troy University, ⁶Department of Neurobiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

We describe an extended fear-conditioning protocol that produces overtraining and fear incubation in rats. This protocol entails a single training session with 25 tone-shock pairings (i.e., overtraining) and a comparison of conditioned freezing responses during context and cue tests 48 h (short-term) and 6 weeks (long-term) after training.

Biology

Detecting SARS-CoV-2 Virus by Reverse Transcription-Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification

Steven A. David-Jimenez¹, Paola A. Caicedo¹, Maria F. Villegas-Torres^1,2, Natalia Campillo-Pedroza^1,3

¹Facultad de Ingeniería, Diseño y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad Icesi, ²Centro de Investigaciones Microbiológicas (CIMIC), Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, ³BioDx: Diagnóstico y Soluciones Biotecnológicas S.A.S, Universidad Icesi

Here we provide a complete protocol to standardize and implement the method for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human samples by reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP). This method, done within 60 min, could be adapted to any laboratory or point-of-care at a low cost and using inexpensive equipment.