Use of Pediococcus parvulus to remove ochratoxin A from wine

A ocratoxina A (OTA) é uma micotoxina que pode ser encontrada no café, vinho tinto e frutos secos mas a sua principal fonte são os cereais e os seus derivados. É produzida principalmente por Penicillium verrucosum, Aspergillus westerdijkiae, Aspergillus carbonarius e Aspergillus niger. Estas duas últimas espécies são muito comuns em uvas e são responsáveis pela presença de OTA nos vinhos. Na Europa, o vinho é a segunda principal fonte dietética desta micotoxina, estando por isso estabelecido um limite máximo para a sua presença em vinho de 2 g/kg [1]. Para que os vinhos possam cumprir com esse limite, é necessário implementar medidas preventivas ou correctivas. O presente trabalho estudou a aplicação em mostos e em vinhos de uma bactéria láctica (Pediococcus parvulus) que tem a capacidade de hidrolisar a OTA em compostos não tóxicos. Desta forma, pretendeu-se avaliar se a bactéria seria capaz de eliminar esta micotoxina nas referidas matrizes. Para tal, suplementou-se mosto e vinho sintético com OTA comercial. De seguida, inocularam-se, em triplicado, matrazes com 100 mL de mosto ou de vinho com 109 CFU/mL da bactéria. Ensaios em que se inoculou a bactéria juntamente com uma levedura enológica, ensaios sem a bactéria e só com a levedura foram também realizados. Os matrazes foram incubados a 25 ºC no escuro durante 30 dias e amostras foram recolhidas ao longo do tempo para analisar a presença de OTA. Os açúcares totais, ácido málico, ácido láctico e etanol foram também determinados. No vinho sintético, verificou-se que o Pediococcus parvulus não foi capaz de eliminar a OTA embora tenha convertido o ácido málico em ácido láctico. Nos mostos, verificou-se que o Pediococcus parvulus foi capaz de eliminar esta micotoxina. Ao fim de 3 dias a bactéria tinha degradado 50% da OTA presente no mosto, ao fim de 6 dias essa percentagem atingiu os 80%. Nos ensaios realizados com a bactéria e S. cerevisiae em simultâneo, verificou-se uma tendência similar - 66% da OTA foi eliminada nos primeiros 3 dias e ao fim de 6 dias essa percentagem atingiu os 78%. Num dos ensaios conseguiu-se eliminar a totalidade da OTA do mosto ao fim de um período de 3 dias. No mosto, verificou-se ainda que os níveis de açúcares consumidos pela bactéria foram muito baixos, indicando que estes ficam disponíveis para a levedura possa levar a bom termo a fermentação alcoólica. Em estudos futuros pretende-se avaliar o impacto de Pediococcus parvulus na qualidade do vinho produzido.FEDER através do Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade ‐ COMPETE e por fundos nacionais através da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia ‐FCT, ref. FCOMP‐01‐0124‐FEDER‐028029 e PTDC/AGR‐TEC/3900/2012, respectivamente. Este trabalho também foi financiado pelo IBB/CGB‐UTAD e Centro de Química de Vila Real (CQ‐VR)

Synthesis of polymer-based triglycine sulfate nanofibres by electrospinning

In this work we present the synthesis and characterization of polyethylene oxide (PEO) based triglycine sulfate (NH2(CH2OOH)3H2S04, TGS) nanofibres obtained by electrospinning. The fibres, with typical diameters of about 190–750 nm and above several hundred micrometres in length, present the nanocrystals of TGS embedded in a polymer matrix. The obtained nanofibres were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy and the domain structure was examined by piezoforce microscopy. Dielectric permittivity measurements on the TGS–PEO nanofibres exhibit the characteristic ferroelectric–paraelectric phase transition at around 50 ºC.This work was financially supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (reference CIENCIA-2007 UMINHOCF-06). The authors would like to acknowledge Luis Vieira for help in FT-IR measurements

A Hospital Based Cross-Sectional Study, 2015–2019

792. The Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization through the Health System Strengthening (HSS) project. The Flandres Government, BICMINS project. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from where J?lia Sambo, Marta Cassocera and Assuc?nio Chissaque have a PhD fellowship. Acknowledgments: We would like to thank the parents or guardians who consented for their children to be enrolled in the surveillance and all ViNaDia team for their dedication and effort with recruitment, data collection and shipment of specimens to the central laboratory in Maputo: Miguel Bambo, Carlos Guilamba, Celina Nhamuave, M?rcia Nhaca, Judite Sal?ncia, Herm?nio Cossa, F?lix Gundane, Aun?sia Marurele, Angelina Pereira, Mulaja Kabeya ?tienne, Celso Gabriel, Titos Maulate, Julieta Ernesto, Siasa Mendes, H?rcio Simbine, Susete de Carvalho, Marcos Joaquim, Elvira Sarguene, Fernando Vilanculos, Felicidade Martins, Dulce Gra?a, Edma Samuel, Vivaldo Pedro, L?cia Matabel, Aida Junta, Gilda Maria Safrina, Nat?rcia Abreu, Vanessa da Silva, Nazareth Mabutana, Delcio Muteto, Benilde Munlela and Carolina Conjo. A special thank you also to Timothy Kellogg for all the guidance during the initial data analysis process. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Diarrhoea is associated with undernutrition and this association is related to increased morbidity and mortality in children under-five. In this analysis we aimed to assess the frequency and associated factors of undernutrition in children under-five with diarrhoea. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2019 through a surveillance system in five sentinel hospitals in Mozambique. Sociodemographic and clinical information was collected, including anthropometry. A total of 963 children were analysed. The overall undernutrition frequency was 54.1% (95% CI: 50.9–57.2), with 32.5% (95% CI: 29.6–35.5) stunting, 26.6% (95% CI: 23.9–29.6) wasting and 24.7% (95% CI: 22.1–27.5) underweight. Children from Nampula province had 4.7 (p = 0.016) higher odds for stunting compared with children from Maputo and Zambézia. Children whose mother was illiterate had higher odds of being underweight 5.4 (p < 0.001). Children born under 2500 g of weight had 2.85 (p = 0.001), 2.97 (p < 0.001) and 2.19 (p = 0.013) higher odds for being underweighted, wasted and stunted, respectively. The HIV positive status of the children was associated with higher odds of being underweight 2.88 (p = 0.005), wasted 2.24 (p = 0.025), and stunted 2.89 (p = 0.004). The province, caregiver education level, child’s birthweight and HIV status were factors associated with undernutrition in children with diarrhoea. These findings emphasise the need for additional caregiver’s education on the child’s nutrition and associated infectious diseases. More studies are needed to better understand the social context in which a child with diarrhoea and undernutrition is inserted.publishersversionpublishe

Effectiveness of Monovalent Rotavirus Vaccine in Mozambique, a Country with a High Burden of Chronic Malnutrition

Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by GAVI through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta and World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO). African Research in Neglected Tropical Diseases (EFINTD, grant number 89539); Deutsche Forschungsge-meinschaft (DFG; grant number JO369/5-1); Fundo Nacional de Investigação (FNI); United States Agency for International Development (USAID; grant number AID-656-F-16-00002); the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from where A.C., F.M., and J.S. have a PhD fellowship. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Mozambique introduced monovalent rotavirus vaccine (Rotarix® ) in September 2015. We evaluated the effectiveness of Rotarix® under conditions of routine use in Mozambican children hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis (AGE). A test negative case-control analysis was performed on data collected during 2017–2019 from children <5 years old, admitted with AGE in seven sentinel hospital sites in Mozambique. Adjusted VE was calculated for ≥1 dose of vaccine vs. zero doses using unconditional logistic regression, where VE = (1 − aOR) × 100%. VE estimates were stratified by age group, AGE severity, malnutrition, and genotype. Among 689 children eligible for analysis, 23.7% were rotavirus positive (cases) and 76.3% were negative (controls). The adjusted VE of ≥1 dose in children aged 6–11 months was 52.0% (95% CI, −11, 79), and −24.0% (95% CI, −459, 62) among children aged 12–23 months. Estimated VE was lower in stunted than non-stunted children (14% (95% CI, −138, 66) vs. 59% (95% CI, −125, 91)). Rotavirus vaccination appeared moderately effective against rotavirus gastroenteritis hospitalization in young Mozambican children. VE point estimates were lower in older and stunted children, although confidence intervals were wide and overlapped across strata. These findings provide additional evidence for other high-mortality countries considering rotavirus vaccine introduction.publishersversionpublishe

Enhanced control of porosity in electrospun nanofiber meshes

Electrospinning has gained popularity as a simple and versatile technique to produce synthetic polymeric ultrafine fibers. This technique allows the production of non-woven meshes with fiber diameters in the nanometer range, which results in a high surface area-to-volume ratio and high porosity. Additionaly, these nanofiber meshes can mimic the extracellular matrix of human tissues and, therefore, can be used as scaffolds for Tissue Engineering (TE) applications. However, electrospun nanofibers meshes have an important drawback to this type of application. The obtained pore size is tipically too small to allow cell penetration into the inner regions of the nanofibrous scaffold. To overcome this problem, PCL and PEO solutions were electrospun simultaneously to obtain a dual composition nanofiber mesh. Then,a selective dissolution of PEO nanofibers was performed. These structures were characterized in terms of morphology, mechanical properties and cellular response. PCL nanofiber meshes with comparable volume of material were used as control. The dual composition electrospun nanofiber meshes showed an increased porosity when compared with PCL meshes. The biologic assays were conducted with human osteoblast-like cells (Saos-2 cell line). By SEM and confocal microscopy, it was shown that the cells can penetrate into the nanofibrous structure, forming a fully cellularized construct appropriated for TE applications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fungal growth and mycotoxin production in a new formulated meat product with structured emulsions as substitutes for pork rigid fat

One of the major changes in dietary habits of the last half-century has been the increase of meat-based products consumption. This increase has contributed to a diet rich in saturated fats, which can result in adverse health effects. A recent trend in food industry is the development of new meat products based on traditional ones, though having less saturated fats and adding healthy ingredients. In this work, the growth and mycotoxin production of three mycotoxigenic species that colonize meat products was evaluated in a new formulation of cured salami, where rigid pork fat was replaced by O/W structured emulsions based on sunflower oil. Together with the traditional formulation (TS), two degrees of rigid pork fat substitution were analysed, 50% (SF1) and total substitution (SF2). To evaluate fungal and mycotoxins contamination, salami produced in industrial environment were grinded and mixed with agar. This medium was inoculated with the toxigenic species Aspergillus nomius, Aspergillus westerdijkiae and Penicillium nordicum. At the end of the incubation period, fungal growth did not show significant differences between the three analysed samples for A. nomius; for P. nordicum results show a variation of approximately ± 10% of SF1 e SF2 in relation to TS; as for A. westerdijkiae SF1 and SF2 showed growth inhibitions up to 20% and 40%, respectively, when compared with TS samples. Despite fungal growth not being affected in the different, mycotoxin analysis revealed an almost complete inhibition of aflatoxin production by A. nomius in the SF2 medium and up to 90% for SF1, when compared with traditional salami. OTA production by P. nordicum was hindered by 15 to 30% for SF2 and up to 20% for SF1; and A. westerdijkiae OTA production was reduced by approximately 15%, in SF2 medium and up to 10% for SF1 medium, when comparing with traditional salami. Fatty acid profile shows a reduction of total fat of approximately 30% for SF1 and 60% for SF2, when compared with the traditional salami. More expressive differences are observed in palmitic, stearic, and oleic acid, where concentrations drop to half in SF2 samples. It is hypothesized that reduction of these fatty acids may be related to the reduced levels of mycotoxins, specially, in SF2 samples. Further studies are being developed to determine the factors responsible for mycotoxin inhibition in these new formulations.Fundação para a Ciência e TecnologiaStudy supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (grant UIDB/04469/2020) and by project BetterFat4Meat (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039718).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterizing Undernourished Children Under-Five Years Old with Diarrhoea in Mozambique: A Hospital Based Cross-Sectional Study, 2015–2019

Diarrhoea is associated with undernutrition and this association is related to increased morbidity and mortality in children under-five. In this analysis we aimed to assess the frequency and associated factors of undernutrition in children under-five with diarrhoea. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2019 through a surveillance system in five sentinel hospitals in Mozambique. Sociodemographic and clinical information was collected, including anthropometry. A total of 963 children were analysed. The overall undernutrition frequency was 54.1% (95% CI: 50.9–57.2), with 32.5% (95% CI: 29.6–35.5) stunting, 26.6% (95% CI: 23.9–29.6) wasting and 24.7% (95% CI: 22.1–27.5) underweight. Children from Nampula province had 4.7 (p = 0.016) higher odds for stunting compared with children from Maputo and Zambézia. Children whose mother was illiterate had higher odds of being underweight 5.4 (p < 0.001). Children born under 2500 g of weight had 2.85 (p = 0.001), 2.97 (p < 0.001) and 2.19 (p = 0.013) higher odds for being underweighted, wasted and stunted, respectively. The HIV positive status of the children was associated with higher odds of being underweight 2.88 (p = 0.005), wasted 2.24 (p = 0.025), and stunted 2.89 (p = 0.004). The province, caregiver education level, child’s birthweight and HIV status were factors associated with undernutrition in children with diarrhoea. These findings emphasise the need for additional caregiver’s education on the child’s nutrition and associated infectious diseases. More studies are needed to better understand the social context in which a child with diarrhoea and undernutrition is inserted

Validity of a Minimally Invasive Autopsy for Cause of Death Determination in Adults in Mozambique: An Observational Study

Background There is an urgent need to identify tools able to provide reliable information on the cause of death in low-income regions, since current methods (verbal autopsy, clinical records, and complete autopsies) are either inaccurate, not feasible, or poorly accepted. We aimed to compare the performance of a standardized minimally invasive autopsy (MIA) approach with that of the gold standard, the complete diagnostic autopsy (CDA), in a series of adults who died at Maputo Central Hospital in Mozambique. Methods and Findings In this observational study, coupled MIAs and CDAs were performed in 112 deceased patients. The MIA analyses were done blindly, without knowledge of the clinical data or the results of the CDA. We compared the MIA diagnosis with the CDA diagnosis of cause of death. CDA diagnoses comprised infectious diseases (80; 71.4%), malignant tumors (16; 14.3%), and other diseases, including non-infectious cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, kidney, and lung diseases (16; 14.3%). A MIA diagnosis was obtained in 100/112 (89.2%) cases. The overall concordance between the MIA diagnosis and CDA diagnosis was 75.9% (85/112). The concordance was higher for infectious diseases and malignant tumors (63/80 [78.8%] and 13/16 [81.3%], respectively) than for other diseases (9/16; 56.2%). The specific microorganisms causing death were identified in the MIA in 62/74 (83.8%) of the infectious disease deaths with a recognized cause. The main limitation of the analysis is that both the MIA and the CDA include some degree of expert subjective interpretation. Conclusions A simple MIA procedure can identify the cause of death in many adult deaths in Mozambique. This tool could have a major role in improving the understanding and surveillance of causes of death in areas where infectious diseases are a common cause of mortality