Histopathological changes in female rabbits administered with aqueous extract of Calotropis procera

Calotropis procera is an evergreen perennial shrub, which is found mainly in the arid regions and produces copious latex when cut. It has been reported to possess medicinal properties but equally pose deleterious effect in animals. In a bid to exploit its pharmacological properties, it was necessary to ascertain its level of safety. A toxicological evaluation of the aqueous extract of fresh leaves of the plant was therefore conducted in the more sensitive female rabbits of the same weight range. Low levels of phytochemicals (alkaloids, saponins, tannins, cardiac glycosides and flavonoids) were found, while elemental analyses showed traces of iron, lead, sodium, and potassium in concentrations of 0.23, 0.03, 0.82 and 9.5 mg/g, respectively. Acute toxicity study was conducted with oral administration of 200, 400, 800 and 1600 mg/kg of the extract once to groups I, II, III and IV, respectively with a 24 h observation period. Clinical signs such as mouth chewing, photophobia, bradycardia, coughing, vomiting and convulsion amongst others were noticed. Four rabbits died within 24 h and LD50 was estimated (940 mg/kg). 80, 40 and 20 mg/kg of the extract were administered daily to groups I, II, and III, respectively, during sub-acute toxicity study for 14 days. Grossly, catarrhal enteritis and mesenteric congestion of the small intestines, congestion of the lungs, hepatization and paleness of the liver, congestion and pallor of the kidney cortex, and congestion of the meninges were noticed. Histopathological examination of the tissues revealed mild pulmonary oedema and peribronchial lymphocytic infiltration of the lungs, hepatization of the liver, disruption of cardiac architecture, generalised cell necrosis and erosion of the villi of the small intestine. All the rabbits that survived gained weight, which is indicative of some nutrient value in the extract. It was concluded that the extract had dose-dependent deleterious effects on the tissues as higher dose groups were more affected. Hence, it is evident that sub-chronic toxicity studies would reveal greater lesions to better ascertain extent of damage.Key words: Calotropis procera, phytochemical, histopathology, toxicity, lesions, tissues, organs

Mass-Up and Decision Peptide-Driven: two open-source applications for MALDI-TOF MS data analysis and protein quantification

Poster presentation at EUBIC Winter School 2017 (10th - 13th January 2017, Sporthotel Semmering, Austria)

A new approach to bacterial colony morphotyping by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight-based mass spectrometry

Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry has been explored as a tool to bacterial colony morphotyping.To this end,four colony morphotypes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and four of Staphylococcus aureus were analysed using intact bacteria.Results suggest that mass spectrometry of intact bacteria could,in some extent,be used to complement the classical morphological classification of bacteria.Financial support from IBB-CEB and Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) and European Community fund FEDER, through Program COMPETE, in the ambit of the FCT project "PTDC/SAU-SAP/113196/2009/ FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-016012" and Ana Margarida Sousa PhD grant (SFRH/BD/72551/2010), is gratefully acknowledged. Authors also thank Portugal-Spain cooperation action sponsored by the Foundation of Portuguese Universities [E 48/11] and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [AIB2010PT-00353]

PileLineGUI: a desktop environment for handling genome position files in next-generation sequencing studies

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are making sequence data available on an unprecedented scale. In this context, new catalogs of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism and mutations generated by resequencing studies are usually stored in genome position files (e.g. Variant Call Format, SAMTools pileup, BED, GFF) comprising of large lists of genomic positions, which are difficult to handle by researchers. Here, we present PileLineGUI, a novel desktop application primarily designed for manipulating, browsing and analysing genome position files (GPF), with specific support to somatic mutation finding studies. The developed tool also integrates a new genome browser module specially designed for inspecting GPFs. PileLineGUI is free, multiplatform and designed to be intuitively used by biomedical researchers. PileLineGUI is available at: http://sing.ei.uvigo.es/pileline/pilelinegui.html

Prediction of Evapotranspiration in a Mediterranean Region Using Basic Meteorological Variables

A critical need for farmers, particularly those in arid and semiarid areas is to have a reliable, accurate and reasonably accessible means of estimating the evapotranspiration rates of their crops to optimize their irrigation requirements. Evapotranspiration is a crucial process because of its influence on the precipitation that is returned to the atmosphere. The calculation of this variable often starts from the estimation of reference evapotranspiration, for which a variety of methods have been developed. However, these methods are very complex either theoretically and/or because of the large amount of parameters on which they are based, which makes the development of a simple and reliable methodology for the prediction of this variable important. This research combined three concepts such as cluster analysis, multiple linear regression (MLR), and Voronoi diagrams to achieve that end. Cluster analysis divided the study area into groups based on its weather characteristics, whose locations were then delimited by drawing the Voronoi regions associated with them. Regression equations were built to predict daily reference evapotranspiration in each cluster using basic climate variables produced in forecasts made by meteorological agencies. Finally, the Voronoi diagrams were used again to regionalize the crop coefficients and calculate evapotranspiration from the values of reference evapotranspiration derived from the regression models. These operations were applied to the Valencian region (Spain), a Mediterranean area which is partly semiarid and for which evapotranspiration is a critical issue. The results demonstrated the usefulness and accuracy of the methodology to predict the water demands of crops and hence enable farmers to plan their irrigation needs.This paper was possible thanks to the research project RHIVU (Ref. BIA2012-32463), financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness with funds from the State General Budget (PGE) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The authors also wish to express their gratitude to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA) for providing the data necessary to develop this study

An RNA-seq Based Machine Learning Approach Identifies Latent Tuberculosis Patients With an Active Tuberculosis Profile.

A better understanding of the response against Tuberculosis (TB) infection is required to accurately identify the individuals with an active or a latent TB infection (LTBI) and also those LTBI patients at higher risk of developing active TB. In this work, we have used the information obtained from studying the gene expression profile of active TB patients and their infected -LTBI- or uninfected -NoTBI- contacts, recruited in Spain and Mozambique, to build a class-prediction model that identifies individuals with a TB infection profile. Following this approach, we have identified several genes and metabolic pathways that provide important information of the immune mechanisms triggered against TB infection. As a novelty of our work, a combination of this class-prediction model and the direct measurement of different immunological parameters, was used to identify a subset of LTBI contacts (called TB-like) whose transcriptional and immunological profiles are suggestive of infection with a higher probability of developing active TB. Validation of this novel approach to identifying LTBI individuals with the highest risk of active TB disease merits further longitudinal studies on larger cohorts in TB endemic areas

Threat of allergenic airborne grass pollen in Szczecin, NW Poland: the dynamics of pollen seasons, effect of meteorological variables and air pollution

The dynamics of Poaceae pollen season, in particularly that of the Secale genus, in Szczecin (western Poland) 2004–2008 was analysed to establish a relationship between the meteorological variables, air pollution and the pollen count of the taxa studied. Consecutive phases during the pollen season were defined for each taxon (1, 2.5, 5, 25, 50, 75, 95, 97.5, 99% of annual total), and duration of the season was determined using the 98% method. On the basis of this analysis, the temporary differences in the dynamics of the seasons were most evident for Secale in 2005 and 2006 with the longest main pollen season (90% total pollen). The pollen season of Poaceae started the earliest in 2007, when thermal conditions were the most favourable. Correlation analysis with meteorological factors demonstrated that the relative humidity, mean and maximum air temperature, and rainfall were the factors influencing the average daily pollen concentrations in the atmosphere; also, the presence of air pollutants such as ozone, PM10 and SO2 was statistically related to the pollen count in the air. However, multiple regression models explained little part of the total variance. Atmospheric pollution induces aggravation of symptoms of grass pollen allergy

Spatial and Temporal Variations in the Annual Pollen Index Recorded by Sites Belonging to the Portuguese Aerobiology Network

This study presents the findings of a 10-year survey carried out by the Portuguese Aerobiology Network (RPA) at seven pollen-monitoring stations: five mainland stations (Oporto, Coimbra, Lisbon, Évora and Portimão) and two insular stations [Funchal (Madeira archipelago) and Ponta Delgada (Azores archipelago)]. The main aim of the study was to examine spatial and temporal variations in the Annual Pollen Index (API) with particular focus on the most frequently recorded pollen types. Pollen monitoring (2003–2012) was carried out using Hirst-type volumetric spore traps, following the minimum recommendations proposed by the European Aerobiology Society Working Group on Quality Control. Daily pollen data were examined for similarities using the Kruskal–Wallis nonparametric test and multivariate regression trees. Simple linear regression analysis was used to describe trends in API. The airborne pollen spectrum at RPA stations is dominated by important allergenic pollen types such as Poaceae, Olea and Urticaceae. Statistically significant differences were witnessed in the API recorded at the seven stations. Mean API is higher in the southern mainland cities, e.g. Évora, Lisbon and Portimão, and lower in insular and littoral cities. There were also a number of significant trends in API during the 10-year study. This report identifies spatial and temporal variations in the amount of airborne pollen recorded annually in the Portuguese territory. There were also a number of significant changes in API, but no general increases in the amount of airborne pollen