New prevention and treatment strategies for HIV infection

Tese de doutoramento, Farmácia (Microbiologia), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia, 2018To successfully control the global spread of HIV, it is crucial to combine effective prevention and treatment strategies. The aims of this thesis are: a) to characterize the antiviral activity of dolutegravir (DTG) against HIV-2 primary isolates; b) to develop dendrimers as topical anti-HIV-2 microbicides; c) to evaluate P3 peptide as a potential microbicide to prevent HIV transmission in women. In Chapter 2, we observed that DTG had potent activity against all raltegravir (RAL)-resistant HIV-2 isolates, indicating its usefulness as second line therapy for patients failing RAL. Mutation Q148K was responsible for high-level of resistance to RAL, however, it did not affect the activity of DTG. Importantly, we described for the first time primary resistance to DTG and we propose a new mechanism of resistance: mutations K221Q and D222K increase the activity of reverse transcriptase, thus increasing viral replication, leading to indirect resistance to DTG. In Chapter 3, we showed that dendrimers G2-S16, G2-NS16 and G3-Sh16 inhibited HIV-2 infection acting in the early steps of the HIV-2 lifecycle. They blocked HIV-2 cell-free and cell-to-cell fusion and had synergistic effects with tenofovir and RAL. Vaginal application of 3% HEC-G2-S16 gel formulation in mice did not affect mucosa integrity, further confirming that these dendrimers are promising candidates for future topical microbicides. In Chapter 4, we proved that the fusion inhibitor peptide P3 was stable and active in the presence of body fluids and at different temperatures. P3 was also active in the acidic environment of the vagina, was not be affected by the H2O2 produced by Lactobacillus and did not have spermicidal activity. Importantly, we showed that a P3-1.5% HEC gel was very effective at blocking HIV-1 infection. These findings suggest that dendrimers and P3 are good microbicide candidates to prevent vaginal HIV transmission in humans

Dendroecology of Araucaria angustifolia under two geomorphological conditions in the seasonal semideciduous forest and mixed ombrophilous forest ecotone of Paraná, Brazil.

Ameridendro

Musical preferences of Brazilian high school students

Music is considered a vital element in young people’s lives. It functions as an important means for expressing the emotions and feelings they experience in a daily basis. As such, this study explores the music preferences of high school Brazilian students (N = 940), 530 female (56.9%) and 410 male (43.1%) participants between 14 and 20 years old (M = 16.14 years old, SD = 1.22). The main instrument for data collection was the Questionnaire on Musical Style Preferences, which was adapted to the Brazilian context and encompassed 33 different music styles. A principal component analysis resulted in five dimensions representing different musical styles: (1) Intense, (2) Unique, (3) Sophisticated, (4) Contemporary, and (5) Mellow. The results of this study reinforced theory of the five-factor model of musical preference. Results also suggest that Mellow music was the most preferred while Sophisticated music was the least preferred among participants. Regarding gender, male participants showed a greater preference towards Contemporary, Intense, and Sophisticated music, whereas women generally preferred Mellow and Unique. Regarding age, participants under 20 years old showed a greater preference towards Mellow musical styles as compared to older participants. On the one hand, regression analyses showed that preferences towards Intense music decrease with age. On the other hand, gender was a better predictor for music preferences than age. Although the results of this study correspond to those of previous studies, more research studies are necessary to further explain musical preferences within the Brazilian contex

Informação revista : projeto de uma nova revista de jornalismo científico

Orientador: Mário Messagi JúniorMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Humanas, Letras e Artes, Curso de Graduação em Jornalism

Pasture Dynamics after Sodseeding Cool Season Species with or without Glyphosate in Subtropical Natural Grasslands

This trial was conducted to evaluate vegetation dynamics of natural grasslands fertilized and sodseeded with the cool season species Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), white clover (Trifolium repens) and birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) with or without glyphosate. Treatments that included herbicide spraying on natural vegetation caused a substitution of perennial grasses by undesirable species, and did not show a significant contribution of introduced species. Andropogon lateralis, Paspalum notatum, Paspalum dilatatum and Paspalum plicatulum almost disappeared, and were replaced by Chaptalia nutans and Apium spp, among others