Toxicology of Lapachol in rats: embryolethality

Lapachol is a naphtoquinone with therapeutic potential against enterovirus, Chagas disease and is also used as an antimalarial and antiinflamatory agent. In order to study teratogenic potential of Lapachol, pregnant Wistar rats were treated with 0.5 ml of distilled water (control group); 0.5 ml of hydroalcoholic solution (vehicle group) and 10 mg of Lapachol in 0.5 ml of hydroalcoholic solution (treated group) by oral gavage from the 8th to the 12th day of pregnancy. The following variables were observed: maternal body weight on days 1, 6, l5 and 21 and food intake on days 2, 6, 15 and 21 of pregnancy. The number of live and dead fetuses and the sites of resorptions were counted. The ovaries were weighed and the corpora lutea were counted. Data were analyzed by ANOVA-one way, Dunnett test and the chi square test. Significance level test a = 0.05. Results have shown that mothers were unaffected but there were a 99.2% of fetus mortality, indicative of a strong abortifacient effect of Lapachol in rats.O Lapachol é uma naftoquinona com potencial terapêutico contra enterovírus, doença de Chagas e como antimalárico. Para estudar o potencial embriotóxico do Lapachol, ratas originalmente Wistar, grávidas, foram tratadas com 0,5 ml de água destilada (grupo controle); 0,5 ml de solução hidroalcoólica (grupo veículo) e 10 mg de Lapachol em 0,5 ml de solução hidroalcoólica (grupo tratado) por gavage, do 8o ao 12o dia de gestação. As seguintes variáveis foram observadas: peso corporal materno nos dias 1, 6, 15 e 21, consumo de ração nos dias 2, 6, 15 e 21 de gestação. O número de fetos vivos e mortos e os locais de reabsorção foram contados. Os ovários foram pesados e os corpos lúteos, contados. Os dados foram analisados por ANOVA "one way", teste de Dunnet e Qui-quadrado. O nível de significância dos testes foi a = 0,05. Os resultados mostram que as mães não foram afetadas, mas ocorreram 99,2% de mortes fetais, o que indica um potente efeito embriotóxico do Lapachol para o rato

Identificando Pockets na superfície protéica usando o Java Protein Dossier - JPD.

bitstream/CNPTIA/10852/1/comtec67.pdfAcesso em: 28 maio 2008

Rotâmeros raros no Java Protein Dossier.

O objetivo do STING é oferecer uma plataforma para análise e visualização de estruturas proteicas.bitstream/CNPTIA/11391/1/ct76.pdfAcesso em: 28 maio 2008

The complete genome sequence of Chromobacterium violaceum reveals remarkable and exploitable bacterial adaptability

Chromobacterium violaceum is one of millions of species of free-living microorganisms that populate the soil and water in the extant areas of tropical biodiversity around the world. Its complete genome sequence reveals (i) extensive alternative pathways for energy generation, (ii) ≈500 ORFs for transport-related proteins, (iii) complex and extensive systems for stress adaptation and motility, and (iv) wide-spread utilization of quorum sensing for control of inducible systems, all of which underpin the versatility and adaptability of the organism. The genome also contains extensive but incomplete arrays of ORFs coding for proteins associated with mammalian pathogenicity, possibly involved in the occasional but often fatal cases of human C. violaceum infection. There is, in addition, a series of previously unknown but important enzymes and secondary metabolites including paraquat-inducible proteins, drug and heavy-metal-resistance proteins, multiple chitinases, and proteins for the detoxification of xenobiotics that may have biotechnological applications

Building multiple sequence alignments with a flavor of HSSP alignments.

The present study describes the processing used for building SH2QS as well as a comparison of the degree of residue conservation reported by SH2QS and HSSP. The comparison of the profiles from two alignments is also presented

Attention focus does not influence performance of sit-to-stand in young and older adults

An external focus of attention can improve performance, but there is little research on effects for the elderly in every day, well-learned mobility tasks. 57 older and 59 young adults performed the sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit while holding a cup, at three difficulty levels (cup empty or full, at normal or fast speed). Half were instructed to focus internally (on their movements) and half externally (on the cup). The effects of focus, age, and difficulty level were tested for movement time, mean inclination of the cup, inclination variability, and smoothness with 2 × 2 × 3 ANOVAs. Significant effects of difficulty were consistent across variables (p < 0.05). An effect of focus was present only for the inclination variability of the stand-to-sit (p < 0.03), favoring an internal focus (less variability). The age × focus interaction was significant for mean cup inclination, but post hoc tests failed to reveal any significant differences. The results of this study, together with the literature, suggest that an external focus may not benefit the performance of young or older adults in general mobility activities of daily living. The prevalent assumption that an external focus is always beneficial for performance needs further empirical testing1119CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE MINAS GERAIS - FAPEMIG402656/2016-4Não temAPQ-02261-1

PDB-Metrics: a web tool for exploring the PDB contents.

Abstract. PDB-Metrics (http://sms.cbi.cnptia.embrapa.br/SMS/pdb_metrics/index.html) is a component of the Diamond STING suite of programs for the analysis of protein sequence, structure and function. It summarizes the characteristics of the collection of protein structure descriptions deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and provides a Web interface to search and browse the PDB, using a variety of alternative criteria. PDB-Metrics is a powerful tool for bioinformaticians to examine the data span in the PDB from several perspectives. Although other Web sites offer some similar resources to explore the PDB contents, PDB-Metrics is among those with the most complete set of such facilities, integrated into a single Web site. This program has been developed using SQLite, a C library that provides all the query facilities of a database management system

Predicting enzyme class from protein structure using Bayesian classification.

ABSTRACT. Predicting enzyme class from protein structure parameters is a challenging problem in protein analysis. We developed a method to predict enzyme class that combines the strengths of statistical and data-mining methods. This method has a strong mathematical foundation and is simple to implement, achieving an accuracy of 45%. A comparison with the methods found in the literature designed to predict enzyme class showed that our method outperforms the existing methods

Building multiple sequence alignments with a flavor of HSSP alignments.

The present study describes the processing used for building SH2QS as well as a comparison of the degree of residue conservation reported by SH2QS and HSSP. The comparison of the profiles from two alignments is also presented.200

Renal complications and quality of life in postsurgical hypoparathyroidism: a case–control study

Purpose: Conventional therapy (calcium and activated vitamin D) does not restore calcium homeostasis in patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT) and is associated with renal complications and reduced quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to evaluate in a case–control, cross-sectional study, the rate of renal complications and QoL in two sex- and age-matched cohort of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer with (n = 89) and without (n = 89) chronic post-operative HypoPT (PoHypoPT) and their relationship with the biochemical control of the disease. Methods: Serum and urinary parameters, renal ultrasound and QoL were assessed by SF-36 and WHO-5 questionnaires. Results: Forty-three (48.3%) PoHypoPT patients reported symptoms of hypocalcemia. Twenty-six (29.2%) patients were at target for all 6 parameters, 46 (51.6%) for 5. The most frequently unmet targets were gender-specific 24-h urinary calcium (44.9%) and serum calcium (37.1%). Serum phosphate, magnesium and 25(OH)D were in the normal range in &gt; 90% of patients. Renal calcifications were found in 26 (29.2%) patients, with no correlation with 24-h urinary calcium. eGFR did not differ between patients and controls. Conversely, patients had a significant higher rate of renal calcifications and a lower SF-36, but not WHO-5, scores. SF-36 scores did not differ between PoHypoPT patients who were, or not, hypocalcemic. Conclusions: Our study shows that the rate of renal calcifications was higher in patients with PoHypoPT than in those without. This finding, together with the reduced QoL and the presence of hypocalcemic symptoms in about half patients, underscores that the treatment of chronic HypoPT with conventional therapy is suboptimal