Semana de conscientização sobre o cérebro em Botucatu: Interação entre a Universidade e o ensino fundamental

A população carece de boas fontes de informações sobre temas relacionados às neurociências. Eventos de extensão podem contribuir para divulgar e estimular o gosto pelo campo de estudo desde o ensino fundamental. Neste artigo relatamos nossas experiências durante três anos consecutivos de eventos nas semanas de conscientização sobre o cérebro em Botucatu. As principais ações foram realizadas em um educandário e em um projeto ligado à ação da cidadania do município. As ações incluíram: (i) atividades lúdicas seguidas de gincana de perguntas e respostas para fixação do conteúdo trabalhado; (ii) distribuição de palavras cruzadas, caças palavras, labirintos e folhas para colorir sobre os temas abordados para as crianças e para usuários de um restaurante popular localizado ao lado do hospital das clínicas do campus; (iii) palestra noturna sobre o tema da semana para pais e amigos das crianças do educandário. As ações tiveram grande aceitação por parte das crianças, alunos (7-14 anos), professores e adultos. Estimamos que houve, nos três anos, envolvimento de cerca de 590 crianças e 600 adultos, atingindo o objetivo de promover a popularização da neurociência em âmbito escolar e público, aproximando comunidade e universidade. Palavras-chave: Popularização da Ciência; Cérebro; Lúdico; Neurociências Botucatu Brain Awareness Week: University and elementary school interaction Abstract: The population lacks good sources of information on neuroscience topics. Outreach events can contribute to this dissemination and stimulate a taste for neurosciences since elementary school. In this article, we report our experiences over three consecutive years of events in Brain Awareness Week in Botucatu. The main actions of the events were carried out in an school and a municipality project related to citizenship. The actions included: (i) play activities followed by a question and answer session to fix the content worked; (ii) distribution of crosswords, word hunts, labyrinths and coloring sheets on topics addressed to children and users of a popular restaurant, located next to the clinic hospital of the campus, (iii) evening talk for parents and friends (200 adults) of the children studying in the school, about the topic of the week. The actions were widely accepted by the children, students (7-14 years old), teachers, and adults participating. We estimate in the three years about 590 children and 600 adults, achieving the goal of promoting the popularization of neuroscience in school and public, approaching the university community. Keywords: Popularization of Science; Brain; Playful; Neuroscienc

Would right atrial stretch inhibit sodium intake following GABAA receptor activation in the lateral parabrachial nucleus?

The knowledge of the mechanisms underlying circulating volume control may be achieved by stretching a balloon placed at the junction of the superior vena cava-right atrial junction (SVC-RAJ). We investigated whether the inflation of a balloon at the SVC-RAJ inhibits the intake of 0.3M NaCl induced by GABAA receptor activation in the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN) in euhydrated and satiated rats. Male Wistar rats (280-300g) with bilateral stainless steel LPBN cannulae and balloons implanted at the SVC-RAJ were used. Bilateral injections of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol (0.5ηmol/0.2l) in the LPBN with deflated balloons increased intake of 0.3M NaCl (30.1±3.9 vs. saline: 2.2±0.7)ml/210min, n=8) and water (17.7±1.9 vs. saline: 2.9±0.5ml/210min). Conversely, 0.3M NaCl (27.8±2.1ml/210min) and water (22.8±2.3ml/210min) intake were not affected in rats with inflated balloons at the SVC-RAJ. The results show that sodium and water intake induced by muscimol injected into the LPBN was not affected by balloon inflation at the SVC-RAJ. We suggest that the blockade of LPBN neuronal activity with muscimol injections impairs inhibitory mechanisms activated by signals from cardiopulmonary volume receptors determined by balloon inflation. © 2013 The Authors

Higher salt preference in heart failure patients

Heart failure (HF) is a complex syndrome that involves changes in behavioral, neural and endocrine regulatory systems. Dietary salt restriction along with pharmacotherapy is considered an essential component in the effective management of symptomatic HF patients. However, it is well recognized that HF patients typically have great difficulty in restricting sodium intake. We hypothesized that under HF altered activity in systems that normally function to regulate body fluid and cardiovascular homeostasis could produce an increased preference for the taste of salt. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the perceived palatability (defined as salt preference) of food with different concentrations of added salt in compensated chronically medicated HF patients and comparable control subjects. Healthy volunteers (n = 25) and medicated, clinically stable HF patients (n = 38, NYHA functional class II or III) were interviewed and given an evaluation to assess their preferences for different amounts of saltiness. Three salt concentrations (0.58, 0.82, and 1.16 g/100 g) of bean soup were presented to the subjects. Salt preference for each concentration was quantified using an adjective scale (unpleasant, fair or delicious). Healthy volunteers preferred the soup with medium salt concentration (p = 0.042), HF patients disliked the low concentration (p < 0.001) and preferred the high concentration of salted bean soup (p < 0.001). When compared to healthy volunteers, HF patients demonstrated a significantly greater preference for the soup with a high salt concentration (p = 0.038). It is concluded that medicated, compensated patients under chronic treatment for HF have an increased preference for salt. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Improvement in fractional shortening in aortic regurgitation rats: cardiac muscle network

Aortic regurgitation (AR), a volume overload to the heart, impairs systolic function. Paroxetine (parox) treatment, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, improves systolic function in AR rats, probably due decreases in the expression of β-myosin heavy chain (βMyHC) gene. An intricate network regulate genes co-expressing microRNAs (miR-208a,-208b and -499) and transcriptional repressors which in turn controls MyHCisoforms content. Thus, we verify the gene expression of those microRNAs and the transcriptional repressor (Thrap1) in AR rats treated with parox. Male Wistar rats (280-300kg) were submitted to sham or AR surgery. Morphofunctional variables of the hearts were analyzed by echocardiograms. Parox (10mg/kg) was administered subcutaneously for 4 weeks. There were 4 groups: AR+parox, AR+saline, Sham+parox and Sham+saline. At week 8 the animals were euthanized for tissue collection and analysis of gene expression by RTq-PCR. Two way repeated measures ANOVA were used for comparisons. Parox treatment preserved the fractional shortening in AR rats. The expression of miR-208a and Thrap 1 were not changed. Though there was a decrease in miR-208b and miR-499 gene expression, which may regulate the decrease of β-MyHC isoform in AR rats treated with parox, explaining the improvement in systolic function.Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

Does the gastroprotective action of a medicinal plant ensure healing effects? An integrative study of the biological effects of Serjania marginata Casar. (Sapindaceae) in rats

Serjania marginata (Sapindaceae), a medicinal plant commonly found in the Brazilian Cerrado, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina, is also known as cipó-uva or cipó-timbó. Ethnopharmacological studies indicate that the leaves from this medicinal plant are used in folk medicine to treat gastric pain. The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the gastroprotective and healing effect of the hydroalcoholic extract obtained from S. marginata (HESM) leaves using rodent experimental models. As part of the integrative study of this medicinal plant, we also evaluated the acute toxicity, antimicrobial, antidiarrheal, (anti)mutagenic, and hemodynamic effects. We performed a pharmacological study to test the acute toxicity and antimutagenic effect (Ames assay) of the HESM. The HESM was tested against different necrosis-promoting agents and experimental manipulations, such as absolute ethanol, cysteamine, pyloric ligature, and ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. The gastroprotective effect of the HESM was assessed by analyzing the gastric juice (volume, pH, total acidity) and the mucus in the gastric mucosa from rats. We assessed the levels of NO, sulfhydryl compounds, PGE2, vanilloid receptor, glutathione (GSH), and malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as the myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. The gastric healing effects of the HESM were evaluated during 7 or 14 days of treatment. The intestinal motility, antidiarrheal action, and antibacterial effects (microdilution methods) of the HESM were also evaluated. The phytochemical analysis of the HESM revealed the presence of saponins, flavonoid glycosides, and tannins. The extract exhibited no sign of acute toxicity or mutagenic effect in vitro. In contrast, this extract exhibited a protective effect against the mutagenic action of direct- and indirect-acting mutagens. Only the oral administration of HESM (250mg/kg) significantly decreased the severity of gastric damage induced by ethanol (60.13%) and I/R (58.31%). The HESM exerts its gastroprotective effects by decreasing the MPO and MDA activities in the gastric tissue and by increasing the amount of adherent mucus covering the gastric mucosa. In vitro, the extract also displayed evident antimicrobial effects against Helicobacter pylori. However, the preventive effect of the HESM was not accompanied by an ulcer-healing effect. The treatment with HESM (14 days) significantly increased gastric lesions in 99% of the tested animals compared with the control group. This result represents a highly relevant piece of evidence that should resonate as an alert against the chronic use of this medicinal plant as an antiulcer in folk medicine. Despite the anti-H. pylori and gastroprotective actions of S. marginata in experimental models, the gastric injuries aggravation induced after chronic treatment with the HESM argues against the use of this plant species in folk medicine.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Right atrial stretch alters fore- and hind-brain expression of c-fos and inhibits the rapid onset of salt appetite

The inflation of an intravascular balloon positioned at the superior vena cava and right atrial junction (SVC-RAJ) reduces sodium or water intake induced by various experimental procedures (e.g. sodium depletion; hypovolaemia). In the present study we investigated if the stretch induced by a balloon at this site inhibits a rapid onset salt appetite, and if this procedure modifies the pattern of immunohistochemical labelling for Fos protein (Fos-ir) in the brain. Male Sprague–Dawley rats with SVC-RAJ balloons received a combined treatment of furosemide (Furo; 10 mg (kg bw)−1) plus a low dose of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor captopril (Cap; 5 mg (kg bw)−1). Balloon inflation greatly decreased the intake of 0.3 m NaCl for as long as the balloon was inflated. Balloon inflation over a 3 h period following Furo–Cap treatment decreased Fos-ir in the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis and the subfornical organ and increased Fos-ir in the lateral parabrachial nucleus and caudal ventrolateral medulla. The effect of balloon inflation was specific for sodium intake because it did not affect the drinking of diluted sweetened condensed milk. Balloon inflation and deflation also did not acutely change mean arterial pressure. These results suggest that activity in forebrain circumventricular organs and in hindbrain putative body fluid/cardiovascular regulatory regions is affected by loading low pressure mechanoreceptors at the SVC-RAJ, a manipulation that also attenuates salt appetite