Prevalence of depression in Parkinson's disease

CONTEXTO: O reconhecimento da prevalência da depressão em pacientes com doença de Parkinson (DP) é necessário para o desenvolvimento de práticas direcionadas ao tratamento da depressão e a melhora na qualidade de vida deles. OBJETIVO: Identificar na literatura indexada estudos relacionados à prevalência de depressão na DP, visto que normalmente há sub-reconhecimento e subdiagnóstico da comorbidade. MÉTODOS: Levantamento de artigos no PubMed, LILACS e SciELO que cumpriram com as palavras-chave: prevalence, depression e Parkinson. Critérios para inclusão: artigos nos idiomas inglês, português e espanhol, sem limite de tempo. Excluíram-se artigos relacionados ao tratamento da DP e validação de escalas. RESULTADOS: Selecionaram-se 20 artigos com taxas de prevalência de depressão de 1,8% a 68,1%. Seis estudos foram casos-controle, dois foram coortes, um, longitudinal prospectivo e 13, transversais. Quanto à técnica de avaliação, oito empregaram entrevista clínica, nove utilizaram apenas instrumentos de auto-avaliação, um empregou entrevista clínica e instrumentos de auto-avaliação e quatro consultaram bancos de dados. CONCLUSÕES: A prevalência de depressão variou de acordo com a metodologia, porém, em geral, as taxas foram bastante elevadas. Evidenciou-se a necessidade de definições mais precisas sobre depressão na DP para se estabelecer uma taxa de prevalência mais acurada.BACKGROUND: The recognition of depression prevalence in Parkinson's disease (PD) is necessary for the development of treatment techniques as well as the improvement in the patient's quality of life. OBJECTIVE: To identify in the literature studies related to the prevalence of depression in PD. METHODS: The search for articles was based on PubMed, LILACS and SciELO matching the key-words prevalence, depression and Parkinson. Inclusion criteria of articles were: papers in English, Portuguese and Spanish; without time limitation. Articles related to the treatment of PD and to the validation of scales were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 20 studies were selected, including six case-control studies, 3 longitudinal (2 cohort) studies, and 43 non-sectional studies. Prevalence rates ranged from 1.8% to 68.1%. Concerning the evaluation of techniques employed, eight studies used clinical interviews, nine used just self-report instruments, one utilized clinical interviews and self-report instruments and four consulted data bases. DISCUSSION: The prevalence of depression varied according to the methodology, however, in general, rates proved to be considerably elevated. The analysis reveals the necessity of more precise and consensual definitions regarding depression in PD so that more accurate prevalence rates can be obtained

Prevalência de depressão na doença de Parkinson

BACKGROUND: The recognition of depression prevalence in Parkinson's disease (PD) is necessary for the development of treatment techniques as well as the improvement in the patient's quality of life. OBJECTIVE: To identify in the literature studies related to the prevalence of depression in PD. METHODS: The search for articles was based on PubMed, LILACS and SciELO matching the key-words prevalence, depression and Parkinson. Inclusion criteria of articles were: papers in English, Portuguese and Spanish; without time limitation. Articles related to the treatment of PD and to the validation of scales were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 20 studies were selected, including six case-control studies, 3 longitudinal (2 cohort) studies, and 43 non-sectional studies. Prevalence rates ranged from 1.8% to 68.1%. Concerning the evaluation of techniques employed, eight studies used clinical interviews, nine used just self-report instruments, one utilized clinical interviews and self-report instruments and four consulted data bases. DISCUSSION: The prevalence of depression varied according to the methodology, however, in general, rates proved to be considerably elevated. The analysis reveals the necessity of more precise and consensual definitions regarding depression in PD so that more accurate prevalence rates can be obtained.CONTEXTO: O reconhecimento da prevalência da depressão em pacientes com doença de Parkinson (DP) é necessário para o desenvolvimento de práticas direcionadas ao tratamento da depressão e a melhora na qualidade de vida deles. OBJETIVO: Identificar na literatura indexada estudos relacionados à prevalência de depressão na DP, visto que normalmente há sub-reconhecimento e subdiagnóstico da comorbidade. MÉTODOS: Levantamento de artigos no PubMed, LILACS e SciELO que cumpriram com as palavras-chave: prevalence, depression e Parkinson. Critérios para inclusão: artigos nos idiomas inglês, português e espanhol, sem limite de tempo. Excluíram-se artigos relacionados ao tratamento da DP e validação de escalas. RESULTADOS: Selecionaram-se 20 artigos com taxas de prevalência de depressão de 1,8% a 68,1%. Seis estudos foram casos-controle, dois foram coortes, um, longitudinal prospectivo e 13, transversais. Quanto à técnica de avaliação, oito empregaram entrevista clínica, nove utilizaram apenas instrumentos de auto-avaliação, um empregou entrevista clínica e instrumentos de auto-avaliação e quatro consultaram bancos de dados. CONCLUSÕES: A prevalência de depressão variou de acordo com a metodologia, porém, em geral, as taxas foram bastante elevadas. Evidenciou-se a necessidade de definições mais precisas sobre depressão na DP para se estabelecer uma taxa de prevalência mais acurada

Combined Treatment of Heterocyclic Analogues and Benznidazole upon Trypanosoma cruzi In Vivo

Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in Latin America but no vaccines or safe chemotherapeutic agents are available. Combined therapy is envisioned as an ideal approach since it may enhance efficacy by acting upon different cellular targets, may reduce toxicity and minimize the risk of drug resistance. Therefore, we investigated the activity of benznidazole (Bz) in combination with the diamidine prodrug DB289 and in combination with the arylimidamide DB766 upon T. cruzi infection in vivo. The oral treatment of T.cruzi-infected mice with DB289 and Benznidazole (Bz) alone reduced the number of circulating parasites compared with untreated mice by about 70% and 90%, respectively. However, the combination of these two compounds decreased the parasitemia by 99% and protected against animal mortality by 100%, but without providing a parasitological cure. When Bz (p.o) was combined with DB766 (via ip route), at least a 99.5% decrease in parasitemia levels was observed. DB766+Bz also provided 100% protection against mice mortality while Bz alone provided about 87% protection. This combined therapy also reduced the tissular lesions induced by T. cruzi infection: Bz alone reduced GPT and CK plasma levels by about 12% and 78% compared to untreated mice group, the combination of Bz with DB766 resulted in a reduction of GPT and CK plasma levels of 56% and 91%. Cure assessment through hemocultive and PCR approaches showed that Bz did not provide a parasitological cure, however, DB766 alone or associated with Bz cured ≥13% of surviving animals

ATLANTIC-PRIMATES: a dataset of communities and occurrences of primates in the Atlantic Forests of South America

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate species, as hybrids in the genera Callithrix and Alouatta. The dataset includes 700 primate communities, 8,121 single species occurrences and 714 estimates of primate population sizes, covering most natural forest types of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and some other biomes. On average, primate communities of the Atlantic Forest harbor 2 ± 1 species (range = 1–6). However, about 40% of primate communities contain only one species. Alouatta guariba (N = 2,188 records) and Sapajus nigritus (N = 1,127) were the species with the most records. Callicebus barbarabrownae (N = 35), Leontopithecus caissara (N = 38), and Sapajus libidinosus (N = 41) were the species with the least records. Recorded primate densities varied from 0.004 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta guariba at Fragmento do Bugre, Paraná, Brazil) to 400 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta caraya in Santiago, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Our dataset reflects disparity between the numerous primate census conducted in the Atlantic Forest, in contrast to the scarcity of estimates of population sizes and densities. With these data, researchers can develop different macroecological and regional level studies, focusing on communities, populations, species co-occurrence and distribution patterns. Moreover, the data can also be used to assess the consequences of fragmentation, defaunation, and disease outbreaks on different ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, species invasion or extinction, and community dynamics. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this Data Paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data. © 2018 by the The Authors. Ecology © 2018 The Ecological Society of Americ

Caenorhabditis elegans as a model to screen plant extracts and compounds as natural anthelmintics for veterinary use

AbstractThe most challenging obstacles to testing products for their anthelmintic activity are: (1) establishing a suitable nematode in vitro assay that can evaluate potential product use against a parasitic nematode of interest and (2) preparation of extracts that can be redissolved in solvents that are miscible in the test medium and are at concentrations well tolerated by the nematode system used for screening. The use of parasitic nematodes as a screening system is hindered by the difficulty of keeping them alive for long periods outside their host and by the need to keep infected animals as sources of eggs or adults when needed. This method uses the free-living soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a system to screen products for their potential anthelmintic effect against small ruminant gastrointestinal nematodes, including Haemonchus contortus. This modified method uses only liquid axenic medium, instead of agar plates inoculated with Escherichia coli, and two selective sieves to obtain adult nematodes. During screening, the use of either balanced salt solution (M-9) or distilled water resulted in averages of 99.7 (±0.73)% and 96.36 (±2.37)% motile adults, respectively. Adult worms tolerated DMSO, ethanol, methanol, and Tween 80 at 1% and 2%, while Labrasol® (a bioenhancer with low toxicity to mammals) and Tween 20 were toxic to C. elegans at 1% and were avoided as solvents. The high availability, ease of culture, and rapid proliferation of C. elegans make it a useful screening system to test plant extracts and other phytochemical compounds to investigate their potential anthelmintic activity against parasitic nematodes

In vitro activity of the essential oil from Hesperozygis myrtoides on Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus and Haemonchus contortus

ABSTRACT Commercial antiparasitics have been the main tool to control parasites, but due to the resistance development, plant extracts have been widely investigated to find new molecules. The present study aimed to investigate the in vitro acaricide and anthelmintic activities of the essential oil from the aerial parts of Hesperozygis myrtoides (A.St.-Hil. ex Benth.) Epling, Lamiaceae. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation analyzed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Four tests were conducted in vitro to screen the antiparasitic action of the essential oil. The evaluation on Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus was performed with the adult immersion test at concentrations ranging from 0.391 to 25 mg/ml and the larval packet test from 3.125 to 100 mg/ml. For Haemonchus contortus the egg hatch test was performed from 0.012 to 25 mg/ml and the larval development test from 0.003 to 0.4 mg/ml. The LC50 and LC90 values were calculated by Probit. The main components identified in the essential oil were isomenthone (47.7%), pulegone (21.4%), limonene (7.7%), isomenthyl acetate (6.8%) and neoisomenthol (3.9%). In the larval packet test the LC50 and LC90 were 13.5 and 21.8 mg/ml, respectively. In egg hatch test, the LC50 and LC90 were 0.249 and 0.797 mg/ml, respectively, while in the larval development test were 0.072 and 0.167 mg/ml, respectively. This is the first report of the H. myrtoides evaluation against those parasites. The anthelmintic results proved its efficacy on H. contortus encouraging new research with a focus on their main bioactives

Anthelmintic effect of plant extracts containing condensed and hydrolyzable tannins on Caenorhabditis elegans, and their antioxidant capacity

Although tannin-rich forages are known to increase protein uptake and to reduce gastrointestinal nematode infections in grazing ruminants, most published research involves forages with condensed tannins (CT), while published literature lacks information on the anthelmintic capacity, nutritional benefits, and antioxidant capacity of alternative forages containing hydrolyzable tannins (HT). We evaluated the anthelmintic activity and the antioxidant capacity of plant extracts containing either mostly CT, mostly HT, or both CT and HT. Extracts were prepared with 70% acetone, lyophilized, redissolved to doses ranging from 1.0mg/mL to 25mg/mL, and tested against adult Caenorhabditis elegans as a test model. The extract concentrations that killed 50% (LC50) or 90% (LC90) of the nematodes in 24h were determined and compared to the veterinary anthelmintic levamisole (8mg/mL). Extracts were quantified for CT by the acid butanol assay, for HT (based on gallic acid and ellagic acid) by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and total phenolics, and for their antioxidant activity by the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay. Extracts with mostly CT were Lespedeza cuneata, Salix X sepulcralis, and Robinia pseudoacacia. Extracts rich in HT were Acer rubrum, Rosa multiflora, and Quercus alba, while Rhus typhina had both HT and CT. The extracts with the lowest LC50 and LC90 concentrations, respectively, in the C. elegans assay were Q. alba (0.75 and 1.06mg/mL), R. typhina collected in 2007 (0.65 and 2.74mg/mL), A. rubrum (1.03 and 5.54mg/mL), and R. multiflora (2.14 and 8.70mg/mL). At the doses of 20 and 25mg/mL, HT-rich, or both CT- and HT-rich, extracts were significantly more lethal to adult C. elegans than extracts containing only CT. All extracts were high in antioxidant capacity, with ORAC values ranging from 1800μmoles to 4651μmoles of trolox equivalents/g, but ORAC did not correlate with anthelmintic activity. The total phenolics test had a positive and highly significant (r=0.826, p≤0.01) correlation with total hydrolyzable tannins. Plants used in this research are naturalized to the Appalachian edaphoclimatic conditions, but occur in temperate climate areas worldwide. They represent a rich, renewable, and unexplored source of tannins and antioxidants for grazing ruminants, whereas conventional CT-rich forages, such as L. cuneata, may be hard to establish and adapt to areas with temperate climate. Due to their high in vitro anthelmintic activity, antioxidant capacity, and their adaptability to non-arable lands, Q. alba, R. typhina, A. rubrum, and R. multiflora have a high potential to improve the health of grazing animals and must have their anthelmintic effects confirmed in vivo in both sheep and goats. © 2012