Effect of supplementation with extract of white bean flour in murine model

Common bean supplementation (Phaseolus vulgaris) "in natura" causes loss of body weight associated with a deficiency in nutrient absorption and histopathological changes. This effect has been attributed to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) present in high concentrations in red and white beans. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the safety of white bean flour as a dietary supplement. Animals were treated for 14 days with extract of white bean flour (WBFE) at doses of 2.65g/kg and 5.30g/kg. A significant reduction in body weight was observed, accompanied by the reduction of mean values of glycemia, in both groups in relation to the control group. Significant structural changes were also observed in the intestinal epithelium. Additionally, mice treated with WBFE 5.30g/kg presented mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate in the lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa accompanied by a dose-dependent increase in the dosage of chemokine MCP-1 and nitric oxide, although without causing intestinal and hepatic oxidative and oxidative damage.  The deleterious effects resulting from the use of the WBFE are not permanent since the treated animals after 14 days without WBFE stimuli. In conclusion, commercial bean flour did not prove to be safe as oral dietary supplementation at the dosages used because of the antinutritional and immunomodulatory effects.

Morphology of spermatozoa of the parasite Apanteles galleriae Wilkinson, 1932 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Braconidae)

Os Braconidae representam a segunda maior família de Hymenoptera e por serem vespas parasíticas de outros insetos são potencialmente importantes para o controle biológico. Como em outras famílias de Hymenoptera, nos Braconidae ainda há controvérsias em relação à sistemática de suas subfamílias, bem como entre eles e as outras famílias da superfamília Ichneumonoidea. A caracterização ultra- estrutural tem contribuído para o estudo filogenético de muitos grupos de animais, incluindo os insetos. Assim, neste trabalho descrevemos a estrutura e ultra-estrutura dos espermatozóides do parasitóide Apanteles galleriae, utilizando as microscopias de luz e eletrônica de transmissão. Os espermatozóides de A. galleriae são semelhantes àqueles descritos para os demais Braconidae não-ciclóstomos por: (1) se encontrarem entre os menores espermatozóides, medindo 12 µm de comprimento; (2) apresentarem axonema com arranjo 9 + 9 + 1 microtúbulos; (3) os dois derivados mitocondriais não apresentarem cristas e terem os diâmetros iguais e bem menores do que aquele do axonema e (4) possuírem os dois corpos acessórios de formato indefinido. Eles também apresentam características estruturais comuns apenas às vespas parasíticas, como uma camada espessa na membrana plasmática envolvendo o acrossomo e parte do núcleo e os microtúbulos acessórios do axonema terminando antes dos demais, mas não foi identificada qualquer estrutura que se assemelhe ao adjunto do centríolo. Entretanto, os espermatozóides desta espécie apresentaram características apomórficas como (1) acrossomo constituído apenas pela vesícula acrossomal e (2) filamentos de cromatina condensada na periferia lateral do núcleo. Portanto, esses dados confirmam que, em Hymenoptera, os espermatozóides fornecem caracteres morfológicos que podem ser usados em análises filogenéticas de diferentes níveis taxonômicos.Braconidae represents the second largest family of Hymenoptera and, being parasitic wasps of other insects, are potentially important for the biological control. As other families of Hymenoptera, there is still controversy over the systematic of the Braconidae subfamilies, as well as between them and the other families of the Ichneumonidae superfamily. The ultra-structural characterization has contributed to the phylogenetic study of many groups of animals, including insects. Thus, this present work describes the structure and ultra-structure of the parasitoid Apanteles galleriae sperm, using light and transmission electron microscopy. A. galleriae sperms are similar to those described for other non- cyclostomes Braconidae: (1) they are the minors sperm, measuring 12 µm length, (2) axonemes with a 9 + 1 + 1 microtubules configuration, (3) the two mitochondrial derived products do not present cristae and have the same diameter, smaller than that of the axoneme and (4) two accessory bodies with a indefinite format. They also have structural features only common to parasitic wasps, as a thick layer in the plasmatic membrane that covers the acrosome and part of the nucleus and the axoneme microtubules accessories finishing before the others, but no other structure that approaches to the centriolar adjunct was identified. Although, sperms of this species have apomorphic characteristic as (1) the acrosome made only by the acrosomal vesicle and (2) condensed chromatin filaments in the periphery of the nucleus. Therefore, these data confirm that, in Hymenoptera, the sperms provide morphological characters that can be used in phylogenetic analysis at different taxonomic levels.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superio

Evaluation of the safety of commercial white bean flour in a murine model

A suplementação de feijão comum (Phaseolus vulgaris) “in natura” causa perda de peso corporal associado à deficiência na absorção de nutrientes e mudanças histopatológicas. Este efeito tem sido atribuído à fitohemaglutinina (PHA) presente em altas concentrações no feijão vermelho e branco. O objetivo principal deste trabalho visa avaliar a segurança da farinha de feijão branco comercial como suplemento dietético, devido a possíveis malefícios decorrentes, principalmente, da presença de fitohemaglutininas. Animais foram tratados por 14 dias com extrato da farinha de feijão branco (EFFB) nas doses de 2,65g/kg e 5,30g/kg. Após a suplementação com EFFB foi observado significativa redução no peso corporal acompanhado da redução dos valores médios de glicemia, de uma maneira dose dependente, em ambos os grupos em relação ao grupo controle. Também foram observadas mudanças estruturais significativas no epitélio intestinal, como redução na altura das vilosidades intestinais acompanhada pelo aumento da profundidade das criptas e índice mitótico em ambos os tratamentos. Adicionalmente, camundongos tratados com a 5,30g/kg do EFFB apresentaram infiltrado inflamatório mononuclear na lâmina própria da mucosa intestinal acompanhado do aumento dose dependente da dosagem da quimiocina MCP-1 e óxido nítrico, porém sem causar estresse e danos oxidativos intestinais. Os efeitos deletérios oriundos do uso do EFFB não são perenes, uma vez que os animais tratados, após 14 dias sem os estímulos da FFB apresentaram reparo da integridade da mucosa do jejuno intestinal e restabelecendo os valores de glicemia, minimizando o impacto dos tratamentos sobre a perda de peso corporal, visto que os camundongos voltaram a ganhar peso. Em conclusão, a farinha de feijão comercial não se apresentou segura como suplementação dietética por via oral nas dosagens utilizadas devido aos efeitos antinutricionais e imunomoduladores, possivelmente, causados pela presença de lectina nas doses dos EFFB.Common bean supplementation (Phaseolus vulgaris) "in natura" causes loss of body weight associated with a deficiency in nutrient absorption and histopathological changes. This effect has been attributed to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) present in high concentrations in red and white beans. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the safety of commercial white bean flour as a dietary supplement, due to possible harms resulting from the presence of phytohemagglutinins. Animals were treated for 14 days with extract of white bean flour (WBFE) at doses of 2.65g/kg and 5.30g/kg. After supplementation with WBFE, a significant reduction in body weight was observed, accompanied by the reduction of mean values of glycemia, in a dose-dependent manner, in both groups in relation to the control group. Significant structural changes were also observed in the intestinal epithelium, such as reduction in intestinal villi height accompanied by increased crypt depth and mitotic index in both treatments. Additionally, mice treated with WBFE 5.30g/kg presented mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate in the lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa accompanied by a dose- dependent increase in the dosage of chemokine MCP-1 and nitric oxide, although without causing intestinal oxidative and oxidative damage. The deleterious effects resulting from the use of the WBFE are not permanent since the treated animals after 14 days without (WBFE) stimuli showed a repair of intestinal jejunal mucosa integrity and the reestablishment of the glycemia values, minimizing the impact of the treatments on the body weight loss , since the mice regained weight. In conclusion, commercial bean flour did not prove to be safe as oral dietary supplementation at the dosages used because of the antinutritional and immunomodulatory effects, possibly caused by the presence of lectin at the doses of WBFE

At-admission prediction of mortality and pulmonary embolism in an international cohort of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 using statistical and machine learning methods

By September 2022, more than 600 million cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported globally, resulting in over 6.5 million deaths. COVID-19 mortality risk estimators are often, however, developed with small unrepresentative samples and with methodological limitations. It is highly important to develop predictive tools for pulmonary embolism (PE) in COVID-19 patients as one of the most severe preventable complications of COVID-19. Early recognition can help provide life-saving targeted anti-coagulation therapy right at admission. Using a dataset of more than 800,000 COVID-19 patients from an international cohort, we propose a cost-sensitive gradient-boosted machine learning model that predicts occurrence of PE and death at admission. Logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards models, and Shapley values were used to identify key predictors for PE and death. Our prediction model had a test AUROC of 75.9% and 74.2%, and sensitivities of 67.5% and 72.7% for PE and all-cause mortality respectively on a highly diverse and held-out test set. The PE prediction model was also evaluated on patients in UK and Spain separately with test results of 74.5% AUROC, 63.5% sensitivity and 78.9% AUROC, 95.7% sensitivity. Age, sex, region of admission, comorbidities (chronic cardiac and pulmonary disease, dementia, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, obesity, smoking), and symptoms (any, confusion, chest pain, fatigue, headache, fever, muscle or joint pain, shortness of breath) were the most important clinical predictors at admission. Age, overall presence of symptoms, shortness of breath, and hypertension were found to be key predictors for PE using our extreme gradient boosted model. This analysis based on the, until now, largest global dataset for this set of problems can inform hospital prioritisation policy and guide long term clinical research and decision-making for COVID-19 patients globally. Our machine learning model developed from an international cohort can serve to better regulate hospital risk prioritisation of at-risk patients

ISARIC-COVID-19 dataset: A Prospective, Standardized, Global Dataset of Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19

The International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) COVID-19 dataset is one of the largest international databases of prospectively collected clinical data on people hospitalized with COVID-19. This dataset was compiled during the COVID-19 pandemic by a network of hospitals that collect data using the ISARIC-World Health Organization Clinical Characterization Protocol and data tools. The database includes data from more than 705,000 patients, collected in more than 60 countries and 1,500 centres worldwide. Patient data are available from acute hospital admissions with COVID-19 and outpatient follow-ups. The data include signs and symptoms, pre-existing comorbidities, vital signs, chronic and acute treatments, complications, dates of hospitalization and discharge, mortality, viral strains, vaccination status, and other data. Here, we present the dataset characteristics, explain its architecture and how to gain access, and provide tools to facilitate its use