Desenvolvimento e acúmulo de macronutrientes em plantas de milho biofertilizadas com manipueira.

Objetivou-se, neste estudo, avaliar o desenvolvimento vegetativo e o acúmulo de macronutrientes em plantas de milho submetidas às doses de manipueira. O experimento foi conduzido em ambiente protegido no período de março a maio de 2011. O delineamento experimental foi inteiramente casualizado em esquema fatorial 2 (tipos de solo: franco-arenoso e franco-argiloso) × 4 (doses de manipueira: 0; 11,2; 22,4 e 44,8 m3 ha-1), com oito repetições. As variáveis analisadas foram: altura das plantas, diâmetro de colmos, número de folhas, matéria fresca e matéria seca da parte aérea das plantas e teores de N, P, K, Ca e Mg no tecido foliar. O aumento das doses de manipueira elevou o conteúdo de massa fresca, o teor de nitrogênio e potássio da parte aérea das plantas, mas diminuiu a altura das plantas e o teor de magnésio na parte aérea das plantas. Os acréscimos de matéria seca e de cálcio na parte aérea das plantas foram maiores no solo franco-arenoso

Development of Inhalable Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) in microparticulate system for antituberculosis drug delivery

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease which affects millions of people worldwide. Inhalable polymeric dry powders are promising alternatives as anti-TB drug carriers to the alveoli milieu and infected macrophages, with potential to significantly improve the therapeutics efficiency. Here, the development of a magnetically responsive microparticulate system for pulmonary delivery of an anti-TB drug candidate (P3) is reported. Microparticles (MPs) are developed based on a cast method using calcium carbonate sacrificial templates and incorporate superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to concentrate MPs in alveoli and enable drug on demand release upon actuation of an external alternate magnetic field (AMF). The MPs are shown to be suitable for P3 delivery to the lower airways and for alveolar macrophage phagocytosis. The developed MPs reveal unique and promising features to be used as an inhalable dry powder allowing the AMF control over dosage and frequency of drug delivery anticipating improved TB treatments.The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the postdoctoral grant of M.S.M. (SFRH/BPD/110868/2015) and R.M.A.D (SFRH/BPD/112459/2015), FCT grant of E.T. (IF/01390/2014) and Recognize project (UTAP-ICDT/CTM-BIO/0023/2014). This article is also a result of the project “Accelerating tissue engineering and personalized medicine discoveries by the integration of key enabling nanotechnologies, marine-derived biomaterials and stem cells,” supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The authors acknowledge the financial support from the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020, under the TEAMING Grant Agreement No. 739572 – The Discoveries CTR.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio