Prevalência e fatores associados às alterações cervicais em unidades do Sistema Único de Saúde

Objetivo: Estimar a prevalência e fatores de risco associados as alterações citopatológicas do colo uterino de mulheres atendidas pelo Sistema Único de Saúde.Método: É um estudo transversal com 350 mulheres de 14 a 79 anos que realizaram exame Papanicolau em unidades de saúde de Francisco Beltrão, Paraná. Realizou-se análise citopatológica e aplicou-se um questionário com informações socioeconômicas, comportamento sexual, ginecológico e hábitos de vida. Para análise estatística foi feito teste Qui-quadrado e regressão logística (p<0,05).Resultados: Prevalência das alterações cervicais foi 3,4%, incluindo Lesão intraepitelial de baixo e alto grau e Atipias de significado indeterminado. Destas, a primeira teve 16,6% de frequência nas mulheres abaixo de 25 anos. A análise multivariada apontou associações entre resultado citopatológico anterior (OR=25,693), hábito de fumar (OR=7,576) e anticoncepcional (OR=5,265) com o desfecho.Conclusão: Mulheres com história de alteração cervical, uso de anticoncepcional e fumantes possuem maiores chances de alterações no colo uterino. Palavras-chave: Neoplasia intraepitelial cervical. Teste de Papanicolaou. Saúde da mulher. Tabaco. Anticoncepcionais

Moonlighting Proteins Hal3 and Vhs3 Form a Heteromeric PPCDC with Ykl088w in Yeast CoA Biosynthesis

Premi a l'excel·lència investigadora. 2010Unlike most other organisms, the essential five-step Coenzyme A biosynthetic pathway has not been fully resolved in yeast. Specifically, the gene(s) encoding the phosphopantothenoylcysteine decarboxylase (PPCDC) activity still remains unidentified. Sequence homology analyses suggest three candidates, namely Ykl088w, Hal3 and Vhs3, as putative PPCDC enzymes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Interestingly, Hal3 and Vhs3 have been characterized as negative regulatory subunits of the Ppz1 protein phosphatase. Here we show that YKL088w does not encode a third Ppz1 regulatory subunit, and that the essential roles of Ykl088w and the Hal3/Vhs3 pair are complementary, cannot be interchanged and can be attributed to PPCDC-related functions. We demonstrate that while known eukaryotic PPCDCs are homotrimers, the active yeast enzyme is a heterotrimer which consists of Ykl088w and Hal3/Vhs3 monomers that separately provides two essential catalytic residues. Our results unveil Hal3/Vhs3 as moonlighting proteins, involved in both CoA biosynthesis and protein phosphatase regulation

Prevalência e preditores do excesso de peso e do risco cardiovascular em mulheres quilombola de Palmas, PR / Prevalence and predictors of overweight and cardiovascular risk in quilombola women of Palmas, PR

 Objetivo:  Determinar a prevalência de excesso de peso e do risco cardiovascular das mulheres quilombolas da comunidade, verificar a relação entre as duas condições e identificar os possíveis preditores tanto do excesso de peso quanto do risco cardiovascular. Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo quantitativo, observacional do tipo transversal com 76 mulheres pertencentes a comunidade quilombola Adelaide Maria da Trindade Batista de Palmas, Paraná. Foram realizadas avaliações antropométricas com intuito de estimar o estado nutricional (IMC) e risco cardiovascular do grupo e clínicas para averiguar a condição de hipertensão. Foram aplicados questionários socioeconômicos e da ABEP. A análise estatística incluiu a descritiva e inferencial, com construção do modelo final de regressão linear multivariado com significância de 95%.  Resultados: foi verificado uma prevalência alta de excesso de peso (75,8%) e de risco cardiovascular (43,3%) na população. A correlação entre IMC e RCE revela que as mulheres quilombolas com excesso de peso possuem até 67 vezes mais chances de risco cardiovascular aumentado. Os principais preditores identificados pelo modelo de regressão multivariado para excesso de peso e risco cardiovascular foram CC, CA, RCE e CC, RCQ e massa corporal gorda, respectivamente. Ainda, a população em questão pertence predominantemente as classes econômicas D-E. Conclusão: Os resultados encontrados no estudo trazem um alerta para a condição de saúde das mulheres da comunidade quilombola do município de Palmas. O risco cardiovascular associado ao excesso de peso sugere hábitos de vida e alimentares que expõem o grupo à diversas DCNT. Logo, torna-se primordial o planejamento de ações e estratégias para promoção da saúde dessas mulheres. 

Functional expression and characterization of five wax ester synthases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and their utility for biodiesel production

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Wax ester synthases (WSs) can synthesize wax esters from alcohols and fatty acyl coenzyme A thioesters. The knowledge of the preferred substrates for each WS allows the use of yeast cells for the production of wax esters that are high-value materials and can be used in a variety of industrial applications. The products of WSs include fatty acid ethyl esters, which can be directly used as biodiesel.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, heterologous WSs derived from five different organisms were successfully expressed and evaluated for their substrate preference in <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</it>. We investigated the potential of the different WSs for biodiesel (that is, fatty acid ethyl esters) production in <it>S. cerevisiae</it>. All investigated WSs, from <it>Acinetobacter baylyi </it>ADP1, <it>Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus </it>DSM 8798, <it>Rhodococcus opacus </it>PD630, <it>Mus musculus </it>C57BL/6 and <it>Psychrobacter arcticus </it>273-4, have different substrate specificities, but they can all lead to the formation of biodiesel. The best biodiesel producing strain was found to be the one expressing WS from <it>M. hydrocarbonoclasticus </it>DSM 8798 that resulted in a biodiesel titer of 6.3 mg/L. To further enhance biodiesel production, acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase was up-regulated, which resulted in a 30% increase in biodiesel production.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Five WSs from different species were functionally expressed and their substrate preference characterized in <it>S. cerevisiae</it>, thus constructing cell factories for the production of specific kinds of wax ester. WS from <it>M. hydrocarbonoclasticus </it>showed the highest preference for ethanol compared to the other WSs, and could permit the engineered <it>S. cerevisiae </it>to produce biodiesel.</p

SWI/SNF and Asf1 Independently Promote Derepression of the DNA Damage Response Genes under Conditions of Replication Stress

The histone chaperone Asf1 and the chromatin remodeler SWI/SNF have been separately implicated in derepression of the DNA damage response (DDR) genes in yeast cells treated with genotoxins that cause replication interference. Using genetic and biochemical approaches, we have tested if derepression of the DDR genes in budding yeast involves functional interplay between Asf1 and SWI/SNF. We find that Asf1 and SWI/SNF are both recruited to DDR genes under replication stress triggered by hydroxyurea, and have detected a soluble complex that contains Asf1 and the Snf2 subunit of SWI/SNF. SWI/SNF recruitment to DDR genes however does not require Asf1, and deletion of Snf2 does not affect Asf1 occupancy of DDR gene promoters. A checkpoint engagement defect is sufficient to explain the synthetic effect of deletion of ASF1 and SNF2 on derepression of the DDR genes in hydroxyurea-treated cells. Collectively, our results show that the DDR genes fall into a class in which Asf1 and SWI/SNF independently control transcriptional induction

Hunger Artists: Yeast Adapted to Carbon Limitation Show Trade-Offs under Carbon Sufficiency

As organisms adaptively evolve to a new environment, selection results in the improvement of certain traits, bringing about an increase in fitness. Trade-offs may result from this process if function in other traits is reduced in alternative environments either by the adaptive mutations themselves or by the accumulation of neutral mutations elsewhere in the genome. Though the cost of adaptation has long been a fundamental premise in evolutionary biology, the existence of and molecular basis for trade-offs in alternative environments are not well-established. Here, we show that yeast evolved under aerobic glucose limitation show surprisingly few trade-offs when cultured in other carbon-limited environments, under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. However, while adaptive clones consistently outperform their common ancestor under carbon limiting conditions, in some cases they perform less well than their ancestor in aerobic, carbon-rich environments, indicating that trade-offs can appear when resources are non-limiting. To more deeply understand how adaptation to one condition affects performance in others, we determined steady-state transcript abundance of adaptive clones grown under diverse conditions and performed whole-genome sequencing to identify mutations that distinguish them from one another and from their common ancestor. We identified mutations in genes involved in glucose sensing, signaling, and transport, which, when considered in the context of the expression data, help explain their adaptation to carbon poor environments. However, different sets of mutations in each independently evolved clone indicate that multiple mutational paths lead to the adaptive phenotype. We conclude that yeasts that evolve high fitness under one resource-limiting condition also become more fit under other resource-limiting conditions, but may pay a fitness cost when those same resources are abundant

Prevalência e fatores associados às alterações cervicais em unidades do Sistema Único de Saúde

Objetivo: Estimar a prevalência e fatores de risco associados as alterações citopatológicas do colo uterino de mulheres atendidas pelo Sistema Único de Saúde.Método: É um estudo transversal com 350 mulheres de 14 a 79 anos que realizaram exame Papanicolau em unidades de saúde de Francisco Beltrão, Paraná. Realizou-se análise citopatológica e aplicou-se um questionário com informações socioeconômicas, comportamento sexual, ginecológico e hábitos de vida. Para análise estatística foi feito teste Qui-quadrado e regressão logística (p&lt;0,05).Resultados: Prevalência das alterações cervicais foi 3,4%, incluindo Lesão intraepitelial de baixo e alto grau e Atipias de significado indeterminado. Destas, a primeira teve 16,6% de frequência nas mulheres abaixo de 25 anos. A análise multivariada apontou associações entre resultado citopatológico anterior (OR=25,693), hábito de fumar (OR=7,576) e anticoncepcional (OR=5,265) com o desfecho.Conclusão: Mulheres com história de alteração cervical, uso de anticoncepcional e fumantes possuem maiores chances de alterações no colo uterino. Palavras-chave: Neoplasia intraepitelial cervical. Teste de Papanicolaou. Saúde da mulher. Tabaco. Anticoncepcionais

Prevalence and factors associated to cervical changes in units from the Single Health System

ABSTRACT Objective: To estimate the prevalence and risk factors associated with cytopathological changes in the uterine cervix of women treated by the Unified Health System. Method: This is a cross-sectional study carried out with 350 women, between 14 and 79 years old who underwent pap smear tests in heath units in Francisco Beltrão, Paraná. Cervical cytopathological analyses and a questionnaire were applied to obtain socioeconomic information, as well as data on sexual behavior, gynecological aspects, and life habits. Chi-square test and logistic regression with p &lt;0.05 were applied for statistical analysis. Results: The prevalence of cervical changes was 3.4% and the main categories found were low-grade cervical intraepithelial lesion, high-grade cervical intraepithelial lesion, and atypical cells of undetermined significance. From these, the first were present in 16.6% of women under 25 years old. The multivariate analysis pointed at associations between previous results of the cytopathology test (OR = 25.693), smoking (OR = 7.576), and oral contraceptives (OR = 5.265) and the outcome. Conclusion: Women with a history of previous cervical cytopathological abnormality, use of oral contraceptives, and smokers were more likely to have an abnormal result in the pap smear test.</jats:p