Fármacos biotecnológicos y quimioterapia antiinfecciosa

Developments in biotechnology in recent years have enabled the discovery of new pharmacological agents for the treatment and prophylaxis of infectious diseases. The agents obtained from these biotechnological procedures possess specific characteristics which significantly distinguish them from drugs obtained by chemical synthesis. These properties cover the entire development process, from investigation and production up to their administration to patients. The pharmokinetics of these preparations influence their administration routes and dosage regimens. The discovery of these drugs has led to major advances in the treatment and prophylaxis of infectious processes which until very recently had no effective treatment. The investigation and production of these drugs requires the use of highly technical resources resulting in high costs and therefore a more expensive drug on the market compared to other drugs. Nevertheless, well documented pharmoeconomic studies show that the use of this type of drug for certain symptoms may be highly cost effective. This article includes some of the possible applications of biotechnology in the infectious disease field, although the current situation indicates that more detailed and broader applications may be elaborated on in ensuing issues. The future of these drugs in chemical therapy for the treatment and prophylaxis of infectious diseases is exceedingly promising and many of these drugs are currently under laboratory investigation, more so than those under development from a chemical synthesis approach

Production of doubly charged vector bilepton pairs at γγ\gamma \gamma colliders

The production of pairs of doubly charged vector bileptons is studied at future $\gamma \gamma$ colliders. The unpolarized cross--section for the $\gamma \gamma \to Y^{--}Y^{++}$ subprocess is analytically calculated and convoluted to predict the number of events in the complete $e^+e^-\to \gamma \gamma \to Y^{--}Y^{++}$ process. The gauge or non--gauge character of the vector bilepton $Y^{\pm \pm}$ is discussed. It is found that as a consequence of its spectacular signature, as it decays dominantly into two identical charged leptons, and also due to its charge contents, which significantly enhance the cross--section, the detection of this class of particles with mass in the sub--TeV region can be at the reach of these colliders. The model--independent nature of our results is stressed.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, submitted to physical review

Light charged Higgs boson production at the Large Hadron electron Collider

We study the production of a light charged Higgs boson at the future Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC), through the process $e^- p \to \nu_e H^- q$ considering both decay channels $H^- \to b \bar c$ and $H^- \to \tau \bar \nu_\tau$ in the final state. We analyse these processes in the context of the 2-Higgs Doublet Model Type III (2HDM-III) and assess the LHeC sensitivity to such $H^-$ signals against a variety of both reducible and irreducible backgrounds. We confirm that prospects for $H^-$ detection in the 2HDM-III are excellent assuming standard collider energy and luminosity conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures. Accepted in Physical Review

Caracterização bromatológica de farelos de pinhão-manso.

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Review: mitochondrial defects in breast cancer

Mitochondria play important roles in cellular energy metabolism, free radical generation, and apoptosis. Mitochondrial DNA has been proposed to be involved in carcinogenesis because of its high susceptibility to mutations and limited repair mechanisms in comparison to nuclear DNA. Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer type among women in the world and, although exhaustive research has been done on nuclear DNA changes, several studies describe a variety of mitochondrial DNA alterations present in breast cancer. In this review article, we to provide a summary of the mitochondrial genomic alterations reported in breast cancer and their functional consequences