Microencapsulation of Lactic Acid Bacteria Improves the Gastrointestinal Delivery and in situ Expression of Recombinant Fluorescent Protein

The microencapsulation process of bacteria has been used for many years, mainly in the food industry and, among the different matrixes used, sodium alginate stands out. This matrix forms a protective wall around the encapsulated bacterial culture, increasing its viability and protecting against environmental adversities, such as low pH, for example. The aim of the present study was to evaluate both in vitro and in vivo, the capacity of the encapsulation process to maintain viable lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains for a longer period of time and to verify if they are able to reach further regions of mouse intestine. For this purpose, a recombinant strain of LAB (L. lactis ssp. cremoris MG1363) carrying the pExu vector encoding the fluorescence protein mCherry [L. lactis MG1363 (pExu:mCherry)] was constructed. The pExu was designed by our group and acts as a vector for DNA vaccines, enabling the host cell to produce the protein of interest. The functionality of the pExu:mCherry vector, was demonstrated in vitro by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry after transfection of eukaryotic cells. After this confirmation, the recombinant strain was submitted to encapsulation protocol with sodium alginate (1%). Non-encapsulated, as well as encapsulated strains were orally administered to C57BL/6 mice and the expression of mCherry protein was evaluated at different times (0–168 h) in different bowel portions. Confocal microscopy showed that the expression of mCherry was higher in animals who received the encapsulated strain in all portions of intestine analyzed. These results were confirmed by qRT-PCR assay. Therefore, this is the first study comparing encapsulated and non-encapsulated L. lactis bacteria for mucosal DNA delivery applications. Our results showed that the microencapsulation process is an effective method to improve DNA delivery, ensuring a greater number of viable bacteria are able to reach different sections of the bowel

A Lagrangian Identification of the Main Sources of Moisture Affecting Northeastern Brazil during Its Pre-Rainy and Rainy Seasons

This work examines the sources of moisture affecting the semi-arid Brazilian Northeast (NEB) during its pre-rainy and rainy season (JFMAM) through a Lagrangian diagnosis method. The FLEXPART model identifies the humidity contributions to the moisture budget over a region through the continuous computation of changes in the specific humidity along back or forward trajectories up to 10 days period. The numerical experiments were done for the period that spans between 2000 and 2004 and results were aggregated on a monthly basis. Results show that besides a minor local recycling component, the vast majority of moisture reaching NEB area is originated in the south Atlantic basin and that the nearby wet Amazon basin bears almost no impact. Moreover, although the maximum precipitation in the “Poligono das Secas” region (PS) occurs in March and the maximum precipitation associated with air parcels emanating from the South Atlantic towards PS is observed along January to March, the highest moisture contribution from this oceanic region occurs slightly later (April). A dynamical analysis suggests that the maximum precipitation observed in the PS sector does not coincide with the maximum moisture supply probably due to the combined effect of the Walker and Hadley cells in inhibiting the rising motions over the region in the months following April

Sistema computacional para aquisição automática e disponibilização de dados meteorológicos

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar uma metodologia de automatização do processo de coleta e disponibilização de dados meteorológicos. Esta metodologia faz o uso de uma linguagem de scripts para definir as ações a serem executadas desde a coleta dos dados na estação climática, passando pelo seu processamento e finalizando com o envio dos dados processados para publicação em um site na internet. Os dados meteorológicos temperatura, umidade, velocidade do vento, chuva, radiação e evapotranspiração disponibilizados no site permitem aos produtores e pesquisadores analisar as variações climáticas, auxiliando assim em tomadas de decisão mais eficientes. O resultado obtido é o fornecimento sem custos de informações importantes e de qualidade sobre o clima

Stress neuropeptide levels in adults with chest pain due to coronary artery disease: potential implications for clinical assessment

: Substance P (SP) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) are neuropeptides involved in nociception. The study of biochemical markers of pain in communicating critically ill coronary patients may provide insight for pain assessment and management in critical care. Purpose of the study was to to explore potential associations between plasma neuropeptide levels and reported pain intensity in coronary critical care adults, in order to test the reliability of SP measurements for objective pain assessment in critical care