Contributions of the international plant science community to the fight against human infectious diseases - part 1: epidemic and pandemic diseases.

Infectious diseases, also known as transmissible or communicable diseases, are caused by pathogens or parasites that spread in communities by direct contact with infected individuals or contaminated materials, through droplets and aerosols, or via vectors such as insects. Such diseases cause ~17% of all human deaths and their management and control places an immense burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Traditional approaches for the prevention and control of infectious diseases include vaccination programmes, hygiene measures and drugs that suppress the pathogen, treat the disease symptoms or attenuate aggressive reactions of the host immune system. The provision of vaccines and biologic drugs such as antibodies is hampered by the high cost and limited scalability of traditional manufacturing platforms based on microbial and animal cells, particularly in developing countries where infectious diseases are prevalent and poorly controlled. Molecular farming, which uses plants for protein expression, is a promising strategy to address the drawbacks of current manufacturing platforms. In this review article, we consider the potential of molecular farming to address healthcare demands for the most prevalent and important epidemic and pandemic diseases, focussing on recent outbreaks of high-mortality coronavirus infections and diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world

Profiling the Responses of Soccer Substitutes: A Review of Current Literature.

Depending upon competition regulations, the laws of soccer allow between three and an unlimited number of substitutions that can be made on either a permanent or rolling basis. Substitutes are typically introduced to minimise/offset the effects of fatigue, alter tactics, replace players deemed as underperforming or injured, and/or give playing time to youth players or to squad members returning from injury. While the match-day practices of substitutes include participation in the pre-match warm-up, and sporadic periods of rewarm-up activity, it is currently unclear as to whether these pre-entry preparations facilitate optimal match performance thereafter. Acknowledging the contextual factors that possibly influence substitutes' performance, this review summarises the presently available literature on soccer substitutes, and makes recommendations for future research. Literature searching and screening yielded 13 studies, which have typically focused on characterising: (1) the patterns, including timing, of substitutes' introduction; (2) indices of match-performance; and (3) the emotional experiences of soccer substitutes. The majority of substitutions occur after the first-half has ended (i.e. at half-time or during the second-half), with introduced players exceeding the second-half physical performances of those who started the match. Observations of progressive improvements in running performance as playing time increases, and findings that substitutes mostly experience negative emotions, highlight the potential inadequacies of pre-match preparations, and present future research opportunities. Additional work is therefore needed to confirm these findings and to determine the efficacy of current preparation strategies, thereby providing opportunities to assess then address substitutes' pre-pitch entry preparations, on-field performance and emotional responses

Contributions of the international plant science community to the fight against infectious diseases in humans-part 2: Affordable drugs in edible plants for endemic and re-emerging diseases.

The fight against infectious diseases often focuses on epidemics and pandemics, which demand urgent resources and command attention from the health authorities and media. However, the vast majority of deaths caused by infectious diseases occur in endemic zones, particularly in developing countries, placing a disproportionate burden on underfunded health systems and often requiring international interventions. The provision of vaccines and other biologics is hampered not only by the high cost and limited scalability of traditional manufacturing platforms based on microbial and animal cells, but also by challenges caused by distribution and storage, particularly in regions without a complete cold chain. In this review article, we consider the potential of molecular farming to address the challenges of endemic and re-emerging diseases, focusing on edible plants for the development of oral drugs. Key recent developments in this field include successful clinical trials based on orally delivered dried leaves of Artemisia annua against malarial parasite strains resistant to artemisinin combination therapy, the ability to produce clinical-grade protein drugs in leaves to treat infectious diseases and the long-term storage of protein drugs in dried leaves at ambient temperatures. Recent FDA approval of the first orally delivered protein drug encapsulated in plant cells to treat peanut allergy has opened the door for the development of affordable oral drugs that can be manufactured and distributed in remote areas without cold storage infrastructure and that eliminate the need for expensive purification steps and sterile delivery by injection

Estudos de PET/CT – gordura castanha

Resumo do poster apresentado ao XII Congresso Nacional de Medicina Nuclear, 12-14 Novembro 2009, Mealhad

Efectividad de sábanas de cama en pacientes encamados y de apósitos de tela de quitina en el tratamiento tópico perilesional de úlceras cutáneas

Se pretende conocer la efectividad del apósito de tela de Quitina en el tratamiento de úlceras cutáneas en fase de cicatrización y con tejido de granulación, piel perilesional artefacta, sin signos de infección ni de alta carga bacteriana, en pacientes atendidos en la Unidad de Enfermería Dermatológica,úlceras y heridas del Consorcio Hospital General Universitario de Valencia durante el periodo de tiempo de marzo,abril mayo, junio del 2009.Enfermerí

Synthesis, crystal structure, and magnetic properties of oxalato−copper(II) complexes with 3,3-bis(2-imidazolyl)propionic acid, an imidazole−carboxylate polyfunctional ligand: from mononuclear entities to ladder-like chains

The synthesis of five new Cu(II) compounds of formula [Cu(HBIP)(C2O4)]·H2O (1), [Cu(HBIP)(C2O4) OH2)]·2H2O (2), [{Cu(HBIP)Cl}2(μ-2O4)]·2H2O (3), [{Cu(BIP)}2(μ-C2O4)]·2H2O (4) and [{Cu(BIP)}2(μ-C2O4)]·6H2O (5), together with their spectral and magnetic characterization, is reported. Crystal structures of compounds 2, 3 and 5 have been solved. All these compounds crystallize in the triclinic system, space group P1̄, with a = 7.3322(3) Å, b = 10.014(1) Å, c = 11.541(1) Å, α = 113.22(1)°, β = 91.37(1)°, γ = 94.51(1)°, Z = 2 for compound 2; a = 7.444(2) Å, b = 8.518(2) Å, c = 11.231(2) Å, α = 97.45(2)°, β = 98.99(2)°, γ = 97.95 (2)°, Z = 1 for compound 3; and a = 7.977(1) Å, b = 8.656(1) Å, c = 11.807(1) Å, α = 69.06(1)°, β = 86.07(1)°, γ = 67.36(1)°, Z = 1 for compound 5. In compound 2 the asymmetric unit consists of one isolated neutral [Cu(HBIP) 2O4)(OH2)] molecule and two noncoordinated water molecules. The Cu(II) ion is five-coordinated (4+1 coordination mode) with HBIP and oxalato entities acting as bidentate ligands and the water molecule as the fifth ligand. The structure of compound 3 is made up of centrosymmetric binuclear [{Cu(HBIP)(Cl)}2(μ-C2O4)] units and noncoordinated water molecules. The two copper atoms are linked through a bis-bidentate oxalato group leading to a metal−metal separation of 5.28(3) Å. The coordination stereochemistry of the CuN2O2Cl chromophore is approximately SP. Compound 5 exhibits a structure built of ladder-like chains. In these chains the rungs are constituted by the neutral dinuclear centrosymmetric [(BIP)Cu(C2O4)Cu(BIP)] entities. The oxalato group bridges two copper atoms in a bis-bidentate fashion, whereas the BIP acts as a tridentate ligand, connecting through their carboxylate groups these dimeric units along the a axis. The copper atom is involved in a five-coordinated CuN2O2O‘ chromophore, with a coordination geometry intermediate between SP and TBP. The magnetic properties of all complexes have been investigated. Compound 1 and 2 follow a Curie−Weiss law with very low values of θ. The other three compounds exhibit an antiferromagnetic coupling, with 2J = −265 cm-1 for 3, 2J = −108 cm-1 for 4, and 2J = −5.7 cm-1 for 5. The strength of the exchange interaction is discussed on the basis of the structural features and correlated with published magneto-structural data on similar oxalato-bridged copper(II) compounds