Criptococose Cutânea Primária em Paciente Imunocompetente: Um Relato de Caso

Cryptococcosis is a systemic infection caused by Cryptococcus neoformans, an encapsulated opportunistic yeast. It primarily causes significant infections in immunocompromised individuals and the symptoms vary according to the integrity of the immune system. Cutaneous cryptococcosis affects about 20% of patients with disseminated cryptococcosis, but primary cutaneous cryptococcosis (PCC) without systemic infection is rare. A 76-year-old male patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension and dyslipidemia, presented with a violaceus inflammatory skin plaque with blisters that progressed despite intravenous ceftriaxone for 7 days. Histopathology of an incisional biopsy was compatible with the diagnosis of cutaneous cryptococcosis. There was a complete response to fluconazole 300 mg/day for 3 months. No systemic disease was detected and there was no evidence of immunosuppression. The importance of including cutaneous cryptococcosis in the differential diagnosis of skin lesions in patients without immunosuppression or the use of immunosuppressive therapy is emphasized. The cutaneous manifestations of the infection can be the first indication for a disseminated disease, therefore, its early recognition is essential to obtain a good prognosis.A criptococose é uma infecção sistémica causada por Cryptococcus neoformans, levedura oportunista encapsulada. Esta infeção ocorre principalmente em indivíduos imunocomprometidos e os sintomas variam de acordo com a integridade do sistema imunológico. A criptococose cutânea afeta aproximadamente 20% dos pacientes com criptococose disseminada, mas a criptococose cutânea primária (PCC) sem infecção sistémica é rara. Um paciente do sexo masculino de 76 anos, com doença pulmonar obstrutiva crónica, hipertensão arterial e dislipidemia, apresentou-se com placa cutânea inflamatória violácea com bolhas que progrediu apesar de ceftriaxone endovenoso por 7 dias, sem sucesso. A biópsia incisional revelou o diagnóstico histopatológico de criptococose cutânea. As lesões resolveram após tratamento com fluconazol 300 mg/dia durante 3 meses. Não se detectou doença sistémica e não havia qualquer evidência de imunossupressão. Enfatiza-se a importância da inclusão da criptococose cutânea no diagnóstico diferencial das lesões cutâneas, mesmo em pacientes sem terapia imunossupressora. As manifestações cutâneas da infecção podem ser o primeiro indício para uma doença disseminada, pelo que o seu reconhecimento precoce é fundamental para um bom prognóstico

A note on high-security general-purpose elliptic curves

In this note we describe some general-purpose, high-efficiency elliptic curves tailored for security levels beyond $2^{128}$. For completeness, we also include legacy-level curves at standard security levels. The choice of curves was made to facilitate state-of-the-art implementation techniques

Production of bacterial cellulose nanocrystals via enzymatic hydrolysis and evaluation of their coating on alginate particles formed by ionotropic gelation

This study aimed to obtain the bacterial cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) by enzymatic hydrolysis and verify the CNC application as coating material in alginate particles. Therefore, the production of CNC was carried out through two enzymatic hydrolysis methods involving a time period of 48 and 72 h. 0.35 mg of dry mass of cellulose was produced approximately 1.6 × 1011 CNC/mL. The CNC obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis at 72 h (Method II) was applied to cover the alginate particles, obtained by ionotropic gelation. The CNC Zeta potential value was about +15 mV and for alginate particles -26.46 ± 1.48 mV. These results confirmed the application of CNC as coating material for alginate particles. It brings an incremental contribution to the knowledge advancement in the pharmaceutical and food area, allowing the engineering of systems to use a mixed composition of nanobiomaterials to modify the release pattern of drugs, macromolecule, nutrients, stabilizers and target specific drug release.The authors acknowledge financial support from Coordination for Higher Level Graduate Improvements (CAPES/Brazil, Grant Numbers 001), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq/Brazil), and the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP/Brazil, grant numbers 2019/22,626–5 and 2018/10,508–5).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Recomendações de cultivares de milho para os ecossistemas dos tabuleiros costeiros, agreste e sertão.

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Cultivares de milho para o nordeste brasileiro: ensaios realizados no ano de 1997.

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Upregulated sirtuin 1 by miRNA-34a is required for smooth muscle cell differentiation from pluripotent stem cells

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. microRNA-34a (miR-34a) and sirtuin 1 (SirT1) have been extensively studied in tumour biology and longevityaging, but little is known about their functional roles in smooth muscle cell (SMC) differentiation from pluripotent stem cells. Using well-established SMC differentiation models, we have demonstrated that miR-34a has an important role in SMC differentiation from murine and human embryonic stem cells. Surprisingly, deacetylase sirtuin 1 (SirT1), one of the top predicted targets, was positively regulated by miR-34a during SMC differentiation. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that miR-34a promoted differentiating stem cells' arrest at G0G1 phase and observed a significantly decreased incorporation of miR-34a and SirT1 RNA into Ago2-RISC complex upon SMC differentiation. Importantly, we have identified SirT1 as a transcriptional activator in the regulation of SMC gene programme. Finally, our data showed that SirT1 modulated the enrichment of H3K9 tri-methylation around the SMC gene-promoter regions. Taken together, our data reveal a specific regulatory pathway that miR-34a positively regulates its target gene SirT1 in a cellular context-dependent and sequence-specific manner and suggest a functional role for this pathway in SMC differentiation from stem cells in vitro and in vivo

Three little pieces for computer and relativity

Numerical relativity has made big strides over the last decade. A number of problems that have plagued the field for years have now been mostly solved. This progress has transformed numerical relativity into a powerful tool to explore fundamental problems in physics and astrophysics, and I present here three representative examples. These "three little pieces" reflect a personal choice and describe work that I am particularly familiar with. However, many more examples could be made.Comment: 42 pages, 11 figures. Plenary talk at "Relativity and Gravitation: 100 Years after Einstein in Prague", June 25 - 29, 2012, Prague, Czech Republic. To appear in the Proceedings (Edition Open Access). Collects results appeared in journal articles [72,73, 122-124

p53 Interaction with JMJD3 Results in Its Nuclear Distribution during Mouse Neural Stem Cell Differentiation

Conserved elements of apoptosis are also integral components of cellular differentiation. In this regard, p53 is involved in neurogenesis, being required for neurite outgrowth in primary neurons and for axonal regeneration in mice. Interestingly, demethylases regulate p53 activity and its interaction with co-activators by acting on non-histone proteins. In addition, the histone H3 lysine 27-specific demethylase JMJD3 induces ARF expression, thereby stabilizing p53 in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. We hypothesized that p53 interacts with key regulators of neurogenesis to redirect stem cells to differentiation, as an alternative to cell death. Specifically, we investigated the potential cross-talk between p53 and JMJD3 during mouse neural stem cell (NSC) differentiation. Our results demonstrated that JMJD3 mRNA and protein levels were increased early in mouse NSC differentiation, when JMJD3 activity was readily detected. Importantly, modulation of JMJD3 in NSCs resulted in changes of total p53 protein, coincident with increased ARF mRNA and protein expression. ChIP analysis revealed that JMJD3 was present at the promoter and exon 1 regions of ARF during neural differentiation, although without changes in H3K27me3. Immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated a direct interaction between p53 and JMJD3, independent of the C-terminal region of JMJD3, and modulation of p53 methylation by JMJD3-demethylase activity. Finally, transfection of mutant JMJD3 showed that the demethylase activity of JMJD3 was crucial in regulating p53 cellular distribution and function. In conclusion, JMJD3 induces p53 stabilization in mouse NSCs through ARF-dependent mechanisms, directly interacts with p53 and, importantly, causes nuclear accumulation of p53. This suggests that JMJD3 and p53 act in a common pathway during neurogenesis

Distinct Regulatory Functions of Calpain 1 and 2 during Neural Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Differentiation

Calpains are calcium regulated cysteine proteases that have been described in a wide range of cellular processes, including apoptosis, migration and cell cycle regulation. In addition, calpains have been implicated in differentiation, but their impact on neural differentiation requires further investigation. Here, we addressed the role of calpain 1 and calpain 2 in neural stem cell (NSC) self-renewal and differentiation. We found that calpain inhibition using either the chemical inhibitor calpeptin or the endogenous calpain inhibitor calpastatin favored differentiation of NSCs. This effect was associated with significant changes in cell cycle-related proteins and may be regulated by calcium. Interestingly, calpain 1 and calpain 2 were found to play distinct roles in NSC fate decision. Calpain 1 expression levels were higher in self-renewing NSC and decreased with differentiation, while calpain 2 increased throughout differentiation. In addition, calpain 1 silencing resulted in increased levels of both neuronal and glial markers, β-III Tubulin and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Calpain 2 silencing elicited decreased levels of GFAP. These results support a role for calpain 1 in repressing differentiation, thus maintaining a proliferative NSC pool, and suggest that calpain 2 is involved in glial differentiation