Hemodiálise veno-venosa lenta contínua no tratamento da intoxicação aguda por lítio

Our objective is to report a case of acute lithium carbonate self-poisoning. The patient presented with severe neuro logical and cardiovascular manifestations of lithium toxicity and with high serum lithium levels (8.0 mEq/l). Six hours after the first hemodialysis session, the patient evolved to a status of generalized tonic-clonic seizures (serum lithium 4.7 mEq/l). Seizures persisted for 4 days and with serum lithium varying from 2.5- 4.7 mEq/l until continuous venovenous hemodialysis was initiated. After 18 hours, serum lithium levels returned to normal (0.9 mmol/l) and the patient regained normal neurological function. We concluded that continuous venovenous hemodialysis can be a successful alternative for the treatment of acute lithium intoxication.Descrevemos um caso de intoxicação aguda por carbonato de lítio devido à tentativa de suicídio. O paciente apresentou-se com quadro neurológico e cardiovascular grave com lítio sérico de 8,0 mEq/L. Evoluiu para quadro convulsivo de difícil controle medicamentoso 6 horas após o término da primeira sessão de hemodiálise (lítio sérico 4,7 mEq/L). As convulsões tônico-clônicas generalizadas permaneceram durante 4 dias com os níveis séricos do lítio variando de 2,5 - 4,7 mEq/L até a instituição da hemodiálise veno-venosa lenta contínua durante 18 horas. Ocorreu então controle do quadro convulsivo e melhora dos níveis séricos do lítio (0,9 mEq/L)

Atividade carrapaticida do alfa-bisabolol sobre populações de Rhipicephalus microplus (acari: ixodidae) com diferentes perfis de resistência.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar a atividade acaricida do alfa-bisabolol sobre populações de Rhipicephalus microplus, com diferentes perfis de resistência.Evento online

Optimization of production, biochemical characterization and In Vitro evaluation of the therapeutic potential of fibrinolytic enzymes from a new Bacillus Amyloliquefaciens

The capacity of fibrinolytic enzymes to degrade blood clots makes them of high relevance in medicine and in the pharmaceutical industry. In this work, forty-three microorganisms of the genus Bacillus were evaluated for their potential to produce fibrinolytic proteases. Thirty bacteria were confirmed as producers of fibrinolytic enzymes, the best results obtained for the strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens UFPEDA 485. The optimization of the enzyme production conditions was done by a central composite design (CCD) star 23 that allowed to define the optimal conditions for soybean flour and glucose concentrations and agitation rate. The highest fibrinolytic activity (FA) of 813 U mL-1 and a degradation of blood clot in vitro of 62% were obtained in a medium with 2% (w/v) of soybean flour and 1% (w/v) glucose at 200 rpm after 48 h of cultivation, at pH 7.2 and 37 °C. The obtained fibrinolytic enzyme was characterized biochemically. Fibrinolytic activity was inhibited by PMSF (fluoride methylphenylsulfonyl - C7H7FO2S) 91.52% and EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid - C10H16N2O8) 89.4%, confirming to be a serine- metallo protease. The optimum pH and temperature were 7.0 and 37 oC, respectively, and the enzyme was stable for 12 h. The fibrinolytic activity at physiological conditions of this enzyme produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens UFPEDA 485, as well as its long term stability, demonstrate that it has suitable characteristics for human and veterinary applications, and promises to be a powerful drug for the treatment of vascular diseases.We express our thanks to Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Education Personnel (CAPES) - Doctoral Sandwich Program (PDSE) Nº 0259/ 12-8 and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) - Nº 202026/2011-6 for the financial support

Schizophrenia: do all roads lead to dopamine or is this where they start? Evidence from two epidemiologically informed developmental rodent models

The idea that there is some sort of abnormality in dopamine (DA) signalling is one of the more enduring hypotheses in schizophrenia research. Opinion leaders have published recent perspectives on the aetiology of this disorder with provocative titles such as ‘Risk factors for schizophrenia—all roads lead to dopamine' or ‘The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia—the final common pathway'. Perhaps, the other most enduring idea about schizophrenia is that it is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Those of us that model schizophrenia developmental risk-factor epidemiology in animals in an attempt to understand how this may translate to abnormal brain function have consistently shown that as adults these animals display behavioural, cognitive and pharmacological abnormalities consistent with aberrant DA signalling. The burning question remains how can in utero exposure to specific (environmental) insults induce persistent abnormalities in DA signalling in the adult? In this review, we summarize convergent evidence from two well-described developmental animal models, namely maternal immune activation and developmental vitamin D deficiency that begin to address this question. The adult offspring resulting from these two models consistently reveal locomotor abnormalities in response to DA-releasing or -blocking drugs. Additionally, as adults these animals have DA-related attentional and/or sensorimotor gating deficits. These findings are consistent with many other developmental animal models. However, the authors of this perspective have recently refocused their attention on very early aspects of DA ontogeny and describe reductions in genes that induce or specify dopaminergic phenotype in the embryonic brain and early changes in DA turnover suggesting that the origins of these behavioural abnormalities in adults may be traced to early alterations in DA ontogeny. Whether the convergent findings from these two models can be extended to other developmental animal models for this disease is at present unknown as such early brain alterations are rarely examined. Although it is premature to conclude that such mechanisms could be operating in other developmental animal models for schizophrenia, our convergent data have led us to propose that rather than all roads leading to DA, perhaps, this may be where they start