Pharmaceutical Pollution in Aquatic Environments: A Concise Review of Environmental Impacts and Bioremediation Systems

MO received a Ph.D. grant from the Junta de Castilla y Leon (Spain). Open Access Funding was provided by the University of Helsinki.The presence of emerging contaminants in the environment, such as pharmaceuticals, is a growing global concern. The excessive use of medication globally, together with the recalcitrance of pharmaceuticals in traditional wastewater treatment systems, has caused these compounds to present a severe environmental problem. In recent years, the increase in their availability, access and use of drugs has caused concentrations in water bodies to rise substantially. Considered as emerging contaminants, pharmaceuticals represent a challenge in the field of environmental remediation; therefore, alternative add-on systems for traditional wastewater treatment plants are continuously being developed to mitigate their impact and reduce their effects on the environment and human health. In this review, we describe the current status and impact of pharmaceutical compounds as emerging contaminants, focusing on their presence in water bodies, and analyzing the development of bioremediation systems, especially mycoremediation, for the removal of these pharmaceutical compounds with a special focus on fungal technologies.Junta de Castilla y LeonUniversity of Helsink

Overview on the Biochemical Potential of Filamentous Fungi to Degrade Pharmaceutical Compounds

Pharmaceuticals represent an immense business with increased demand due to intensive livestock raising and an aging human population, which guarantee the quality of human life and well-being. However, the development of removal technologies for these compounds is not keeping pace with the swift increase in their use. Pharmaceuticals constitute a potential risk group of multiclass chemicals of increasing concern since they are extremely frequent in all environments and have started to exhibit negative effects on micro- and macro-fauna as well as on human health. In this context, fungi are known to be extremely diverse and poorly studied microorganisms despite being well suited for bioremediation processes, taking into account their metabolic and physiological characteristics for the transformation of even highly toxic xenobiotic compounds. Increasing studies indicate that fungi can transform many structures of pharmaceutical compounds, including anti-inflammatories, β-blockers, and antibiotics. This is possible due to different mechanisms in combination with the extracellular and intracellular enzymes, which have broad of biotechnological applications. Thus, fungi and their enzymes could represent a promising tool to deal with this environmental problem. Here, we review the studies performed on pharmaceutical compounds biodegradation by the great diversity of these eukaryotes. We examine the state of the art of the current application of the Basidiomycota division, best known in this field, as well as the assembly of novel biodegradation pathways within the Ascomycota division and the Mucoromycotina subdivision from the standpoint of shared enzymatic systems, particularly for the cytochrome P450 superfamily of enzymes, which appear to be the key enzymes in these catabolic processes. Finally, we discuss the latest advances in the field of genetic engineering for their further application

Neonatal sepsis by bacteria: a big problema for children.

Neonatal sepsis is an important but underestimated problem around the world. It is defined as disease affecting newborns ≤ 1 month of age with clinical symptoms and positive blood cultures. Infection is an important cause of morbidity and mortality during the neonatal period, despite the great improvements in intensive neonatal care and the use of extended spectrum antimicrobial agents. The incidence of this disease in developed countries is 1/1,000 in normal term neonates and 4/1,000 in preterm neonates. These values increase in low-weight preterm neonates. In developing countries, this incidence increases to 2.2-8.6/1,000 live births. Neonatal sepsis can be subdivided into early-onset neonatal sepsis and late-onset neonatal sepsis

Confinement by COVID-19 and Degree of Mental Health of a Sample of Students of Health Sciences

Background: In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, most countries have taken important measures to control the spread of the virus, such as population confinement and the closure of universities. Objective: The main objective of this study is to evaluate how the situation resulting from COVID-19 has affected the mental health of a group of health sciences students. Material and methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study with a sample of 160 people, conducted through an online survey of final-year students of dentistry, nursing and medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona. Results: A total of 82.4% of students reported having suffered stress, anxiety and distress due to the pandemic situation, and 83.10% of participants are worried about not knowing when the academic year will restart. Conclusions: Confinement has negatively affected the mental health of students

Narrow Diameter Dental Implants as an Alternative Treatment for Atrophic Alveolar Ridges. Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

To determine the marginal bone loss and the survival, success and failure rates of narrow dental implants, a systematic literature search was carried out in the MEDLINE (Pubmed), Cochrane, Scopus, and Scielo databases for articles published between 2010 and 2021. The exclusion criteria were: systematic reviews, case reports, expert opinions; animal studies; samples of less than 10 subjects; follow-up periods of less than 36 months; smokers of minimum 10 cigarettes/day; and articles about mini-implants for orthodontic anchorage. Meta-analyses were performed to assess marginal bone loss and implant survival, success, and failure rates. Fifteen studies were included: 7 clinical trials, 3 randomized clinical trials, 3 cohort studies, and 2 case series. The total number of subjects was 773, in whom 1245 implants were placed. The survival rate for the narrow diameter implants was 97%, the success rate 96.8%, and the failure rate 3%. Marginal bone loss was 0.821 mm. All these data were evaluated at 36 months. Based on the literature, it can be considered that there is sufficient evidence to consider small diameter implants a predictable treatment option. These show favorable survival and success rates and marginal bone loss. All of them are comparable to those of standard diameter dental implants

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT...IN VIGO:: THE TRANSLATOR SOLVES THE DILEMMA

What happens when a cruise tourist arrives in Vigo (Galicia-Spain) and feels culture-hungry enough to explore the local cuisine? There are two possible ways to go about it: walking around the port area and trying some of the exquisite dishes which are kindly offered by the surrounding caterers, or with modern day technology surfing the city’s websites, for example, http://www.turismodevigo.org. Precisely here, some of the information offered deals with typical food any visitor can taste and includes recipes and information about food festivals. “[A]s all our behaviour is culture-specific” (Vermeer, 1994, p. 10), this paper aims to discuss how the translation of food on this mainstream website translated from either Spanish or Galician (or both) into English and Portuguese, yet not into French or Italian, can encourage or discourage visitors from savouring some of the most typical Galician dishes. One of the challenges of Translation Studies is dealing with cross-cultural references, which always increase the difficulty of transferring content from one language to another. The specific cultural barriers related to food might lead the translator to modify, adapt or even omit some of the content in order to make the translation (and explicitly the food) more delectable

Analysis of Healthy Lifestyle Habits and Oral Health in a Patient Sample at the Dental Hospital of the University of Barcelona

The association between general health and oral health has been studied over recent years. In order to evaluate the lifestyle and the presence of healthy habits, a descriptive observational study was conducted from December 2018 to April 2019 with 230 patients, aged from 18 to 65 years old, that attended the Dental Hospital of the University of Barcelona for the first time. A total of 230 participants were considered, 98 (43%) were men and 132 (57%) were women, with a mean age of 37 years old. Our hypothesis was that patients with healthy habits had a better oral status in comparison with patients with bad lifestyle habits. No statistically significant results were found regarding oral hygiene between gender, smokers and patients with systemic pathology. Regarding a healthy lifestyle (High adherence to dietary intake), no statistically significant results were found. No significant differences were found regarding physical activity between male and female patients. Our hypothesis wasn't confirmed; therefore, we cannot conclude that patients with healthy habits have better oral status in comparison with patients with bad lifestyle habits. Consequently, more prospective longitudinal studies should be carried out

Pharmaceutical Pollution in Aquatic Environments: A Concise Review of Environmental Impacts and Bioremediation Systems

The presence of emerging contaminants in the environment, such as pharmaceuticals, is a growing global concern. The excessive use of medication globally, together with the recalcitrance of pharmaceuticals in traditional wastewater treatment systems, has caused these compounds to present a severe environmental problem. In recent years, the increase in their availability, access and use of drugs has caused concentrations in water bodies to rise substantially. Considered as emerging contaminants, pharmaceuticals represent a challenge in the field of environmental remediation; therefore, alternative add-on systems for traditional wastewater treatment plants are continuously being developed to mitigate their impact and reduce their effects on the environment and human health. In this review, we describe the current status and impact of pharmaceutical compounds as emerging contaminants, focusing on their presence in water bodies, and analyzing the development of bioremediation systems, especially mycoremediation, for the removal of these pharmaceutical compounds with a special focus on fungal technologies.Peer reviewe

Periodontal treatment on patients with cardiovascular disease : systematic review and meta-analysis

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the main cause of mortality in developed countries. It is a chronic and systemic inflammatory disease with a multifactorial etiology. Periodontal disease is one of the many factors that contribute to its development. To analyze the effects of periodontal treatment on cardiovascular risk parameters in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. A systematic research was conducted in the Pubmed/Medline databases for clinical trials published up to and including the year 2017. Ten articles were included for analysis. Periodontal treatment reduced C-reactive protein levels (77.8% of clinical trials), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (66.7%), interleukin-6 (100%) and leukocytes (50%). Fibrinogen levels also improved considerably (66.7%). Effects on lipid parameters were more limited, whereby only oxidized low density lipoprotein and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol decreased significantly. Meta-analysis showed a statistically significant decreased in C-reactive protein and leukocytes values when patients were submitted to non-surgical periodontal treatment in contrast to receiving no treatment at all (mean difference 1.199 mg/L, 95% confidence interval: 1.100-1.299, p<0.001; and mean difference 0,79 g/L, 95% confidence interval: 0.717-0.879, p<0.001, respectively). Periodontal treatment has a beneficial effect on some of the biochemical parameters considered to represent cardiovascular risk. Further randomized clinical trials are necessary, with longer follow-up periods including regular periodic monitoring, in order to determine the extent of the impact of periodontal treatment