Potential Antibacterial Action of α-Pinene

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics generates several problems for human health, the main one being bacterial resistance. The abuse of antibiotics is responsible for reducing the effectiveness of medicines, making it difficult to treat diseases and representing a major obstacle for researchers and health professionals. Natural alternatives have been widely studied, such as essential oils and their phyto-constituents, in order to verify their antibacterial action. This research aimed to identify the antibacterial activity of α-pinene. This is a descriptive study, using a qualitative approach, with methodological experience based on an integrative review. The bibliographic survey was carried out in the LILACS and MEDLINE, though the Virtual Health Library, PubMed and Web of Science databases, using the following search strategies: Anti-bacterial agents AND α-pinene for the PubMed and VHL databases, and (Antibacterial agents AND pinene) and (Antimicrobial AND α-pinene) on the Web of Science. After reading the articles in full, 10 works were selected. α-pinene was relatable, including its positive mix and its association with antimicrobials. The article points out that α-pinene has wide potential in antimicrobial therapy in order to inhibit the growth of bacteria as an isolated result or as a synergist of antibiotics. However, they are bactericidal and bacteriostatic when against bacterial strains. Therefore, it is concluded that it is relevant to develop scientific research to analyze the effectiveness of this compound to the most diverse microorganisms that affect human health

COVID-19 and Mucormycosis: The Toll of Hyperglycemia in Viral and Fungal Coinfection

A fungal infection that is difficult to diagnose and treat, mucormycosis gained prominence with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as infection with the new coronavirus predisposes patients to a greater risk of developing opportunistic infections, such as that caused by the “black fungus”. In order to identify the physiological changes and risk factors related to SARS-CoV-2 infection that favor the development of mucormycosis, an integrative review was carried out based on the PICO strategy, in which searches were performed in December 2021 in the Virtual Library in Health, on the PubMed portal and on the Web of Science, using the Mesh terms: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Mucormycosis together with the Boolean operators “AND” and “OR”. Full-text articles were included that were available in journals/periodicals and were published in Portuguese, English or Spanish from December 2019 to 2021 that addressed the metabolic changes caused by COVID-19 related to the involvement of mucormycosis and excluded review, editorial and duplicate studies. With the application of filters and the exclusion of duplicates, 140 and 151 studies were selected by title and abstract—113 convergent and 41 divergent—and, after reading in full, nine studies remained to compose the review. The results indicated a greater number of publications from India and a predominance of male and diabetic patients with elevated inflammatory markers. The higher prevalence of diabetics and hyperglycemia are in line with the hypotheses raised by other literature, given the impacts resulting from COVID-19 on glycemic control and the risks to the body from diabetes. Thus, post-SARS-CoV-2 hyperglycemia may be a risk factor for the development of mucormycosis