High risk of cardiovascular episodes and low adherence to risk factors guidelines in a population with diabetes

Although recent guidelines cover therapeutic goals, effective lipid management of patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk is still largely unattained. In the present study, we explored the electronic health records (EHR) at a specialized diabetes outpatient clinic to assess, in a real world database, the prevalence of poor lipid management in people with diabetes, the associated characteristics of this population, and the patterns of medication.Amge

Cork : properties, capabilities and applications

Cork is a natural, renewable, sustainable raw material that has been used for many centuries. As a result of this very long term interest, the scientific literature on cork is extensive. The present review focuses on the chemical composition, physical and mechanical properties of cork and on its products and sub-products. The substantial efforts to fully characterise cork, as well as new developments and evolving research, are reviewed, beginning with its histology, growth and morphology (at macro- and microscales). The chemical structure is analysed in detail, covering both the materials that form the wall structure and the low molecular weight, extractable components. The unique properties of cork are discussed and correlated with current knowledge on morphology and chemical structure. Finally, the important industrial applications of cork are reviewed, in the context of research to provide cork with novel, high added-value applications

Psychological morbidity as a moderator of intention to quit smoking : a study of smokers and former smokers

Objective: To analyze psychological morbidity as a moderator of the relationship between smoking representations and quality of life in smokers and former smokers, as well as to determine which psychological variables discriminate between smokers with and without the intention to quit smoking. Methods: This was a quantitative, correlational cross-sectional study involving a convenience sample of 224 smokers and 169 former smokers. Results: In smokers and former smokers, psychological morbidity had a moderating effect on the relationship between mental/physical quality of life and smoking representations (cognitive representations, emotional representations, and comprehensibility). Smokers with the intention to quit smoking more often presented with low comprehensibility, threatening emotional representations, behavioral beliefs, and perceived behavioral control, as well as with normative/control beliefs, than did those without the intention to quit. Conclusions: The results of this study underscore the importance of the moderating effect exerted by psychological morbidity, as well as that of sociocognitive variables, among smokers who have the intention to quit smoking.ResumoObjetivo: Analisar a morbidade psicológica como um moderador na relação entre as representações do tabaco e a qualidade de vida em fumantes e ex-fumantes, assim como conhecer as variáveis psicológicas que discriminam os fumantes com e sem intenção para deixar de fumar. Métodos: Estudo quantitativo, correlacional e transversal com uma amostra de conveniência constituída por 224 fumantes e 169 ex-fumantes. Resultados: Verificou-se um efeito moderador da morbidade psicológica na relação entre a qualidade de vida (física e mental) e as representações do tabaco (representações cognitivas e emocionais e compreensão) nos fumantes e nos ex-fumantes. Os fumantes com intenção para deixar de fumar apresentavam menor compreensão, representações emocionais mais ameaçadoras, mais crenças de comportamento, maior controle comportamental percebido e mais crenças normativas/controle do que aqueles sem essa intenção. Conclusões: Os resultados deste estudo enfatizam a importância da morbidade psicológica como moderadora, bem como das variáveis sociocognitivas, junto dos fumantes que querem deixar de fumar

Identification of a cytokine network sustaining neutrophil and Th17 activation in untreated early rheumatoid arthritis

© 2010 Cascão et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by sustained synovitis. Recently, several studies have proposed neutrophils and Th17 cells as key players in the onset and perpetuation of this disease. The main goal of this work was to determine whether cytokines driving neutrophil and Th17 activation are dysregulated in very early rheumatoid arthritis patients with less than 6 weeks of disease duration and before treatment (VERA). Methods: Cytokines related to neutrophil and Th17 activation were quantified in the serum of VERA and established RA patients and compared with other very early arthritis (VEA) and healthy controls. Synovial fluid (SF) from RA and osteoarthritis (OA) patients was also analyzed. Results: VERA patients had increased serum levels of cytokines promoting Th17 polarization (IL-1b and IL-6), as well as IL-8 and Th17-derived cytokines (IL-17A and IL-22) known to induce neutrophil-mediated inflammation. In established RA this pattern is more evident within the SF. Early treatment with methotrexate or corticosteroids led to clinical improvement but without an impact on the cytokine pattern. Conclusions: VERA patients already display increased levels of cytokines related with Th17 polarization and neutrophil recruitment and activation, a dysregulation also found in SF of established RA. 0 Thus, our data suggest that a cytokine-milieu favoring Th17 and neutrophil activity is an early event in RA pathogenesis.This work was supported by a grant from Sociedade Portuguesa de Reumatologia/Schering-Plough 2005. RAM and RC were funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) SFRH/BD/30247/2006 and SFRH/BD/40513/2007, respectively. MMS-C was funded by Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship PERG-2008-239422 and a EULAR Young Investigator Award

Blood Meal-Derived Heme Decreases ROS Levels in the Midgut of Aedes aegypti and Allows Proliferation of Intestinal Microbiota

The presence of bacteria in the midgut of mosquitoes antagonizes infectious agents, such as Dengue and Plasmodium, acting as a negative factor in the vectorial competence of the mosquito. Therefore, knowledge of the molecular mechanisms involved in the control of midgut microbiota could help in the development of new tools to reduce transmission. We hypothesized that toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by epithelial cells control bacterial growth in the midgut of Aedes aegypti, the vector of Yellow fever and Dengue viruses. We show that ROS are continuously present in the midgut of sugar-fed (SF) mosquitoes and a blood-meal immediately decreased ROS through a mechanism involving heme-mediated activation of PKC. This event occurred in parallel with an expansion of gut bacteria. Treatment of sugar-fed mosquitoes with increased concentrations of heme led to a dose dependent decrease in ROS levels and a consequent increase in midgut endogenous bacteria. In addition, gene silencing of dual oxidase (Duox) reduced ROS levels and also increased gut flora. Using a model of bacterial oral infection in the gut, we show that the absence of ROS resulted in decreased mosquito resistance to infection, increased midgut epithelial damage, transcriptional modulation of immune-related genes and mortality. As heme is a pro-oxidant molecule released in large amounts upon hemoglobin degradation, oxidative killing of bacteria in the gut would represent a burden to the insect, thereby creating an extra oxidative challenge to the mosquito. We propose that a controlled decrease in ROS levels in the midgut of Aedes aegypti is an adaptation to compensate for the ingestion of heme

The Antioxidant Role of Xanthurenic Acid in the Aedes aegypti Midgut during Digestion of a Blood Meal

In the midgut of the mosquito Aedes aegypti, a vector of dengue and yellow fever, an intense release of heme and iron takes place during the digestion of a blood meal. Here, we demonstrated via chromatography, light absorption and mass spectrometry that xanthurenic acid (XA), a product of the oxidative metabolism of tryptophan, is produced in the digestive apparatus after the ingestion of a blood meal and reaches milimolar levels after 24 h, the period of maximal digestive activity. XA formation does not occur in the White Eye (WE) strain, which lacks kynurenine hydroxylase and accumulates kynurenic acid. The formation of XA can be diminished by feeding the insect with 3,4-dimethoxy-N-[4-(3-nitrophenyl)thiazol-2-yl] benzenesulfonamide (Ro-61-8048), an inhibitor of XA biosynthesis. Moreover, XA inhibits the phospholipid oxidation induced by heme or iron. A major fraction of this antioxidant activity is due to the capacity of XA to bind both heme and iron, which occurs at a slightly alkaline pH (7.5-8.0), a condition found in the insect midgut. The midgut epithelial cells of the WE mosquito has a marked increase in occurrence of cell death, which is reversed to levels similar to the wild type mosquitoes by feeding the insects with blood supplemented with XA, confirming the protective role of this molecule. Collectively, these results suggest a new role for XA as a heme and iron chelator that provides protection as an antioxidant and may help these animals adapt to a blood feeding habit

description of the methodological approach

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