Evaluation of the effects and mechanisms of bioactive components present in hypoglycemic plants

Diabetes mellitus is a disease that is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. In many cases, people do not have access to synthetic drugs and make use of teas of different plants present in different countries, in order to reduce the symptoms. The plant extracts may contain bioactive compounds and may also contain toxic substances harmful to the human body. Much has been published about plants with antidiabetic activity, identifying their bioactive compounds, but there is no work in the literature that identifies the mechanisms of action of the extracts or isolated compounds of the extracts for a better understanding of the chemical reactions that occur in patients with diabetes. Therefore, this study aims to review published works that have tried to show some active mechanism of the different compounds (flavonoids, saponins, polyphenols, vitamins, etc.), to explore these mechanisms through mathematical models that can predict the benefits of these extracts to, in the future, facilitate the application of these natural products into less expensive drugs. It can be concluded that many of the extracts and isolated compounds from different hypoglycemic plants have as main mechanisms the induction of the insulin secretion, the enhancement of the number of beta cells of pancreatic islets, and have antioxidant properties

Perivascular Epithelioid Cell Tumor: A Case Report of a Rare Entity

Perivascular epithelioid cell tumor is a rare mesenchymal tumor with myomelanocytic differentiation. It mainly occurs in middle-aged females and can be found at any location. The differential diagnosis is broad but the immunohistochemical biomarkers establish the diagnosis. A 4-year-old girl was referred to a pediatric gastroenterology clinic due to recurrent umbilical pain and the workup revealed biliary lithiasis. She remained in follow-up, asymptomatic, no physical findings, and stable ultrasound. Six years later, a supra-umbilical mass was detected by ultrasound, and the magnetic resonance imaging revealed a highly vascularized intraperitoneal tumor with well-defined limits. Surgical mass resection was performed, and the histology revealed morphological and immunohistochemical aspects of a perivascular epithelioid cell tumor of the abdominal wall. Given the size of the lesion (> 5 cm) and admitting uncertain malignant potential, she was submitted to margin enlargement. Four years later, she remains asymptomatic without clinical or imagiological evidence of relapse.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effect of Ridge-lap Surface Treatments on the Bond of Resin Teeth to Denture Base

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Purpose: To test in vitro the shear bond strength of resin teeth to an acrylic resin denture base given different ridge-lap surface treatments. Materials and Methods: Ninety rectangular dies were made with wax and traditionally invested in metallic or plastic flasks. The stone molds were covered with silicone, in which were included an acrylic molar with a wax stick fixed on the ridge lap surface. After deflasking, the wax sticks were removed, the teeth were cleaned with detergent, the ridge lap surface was submitted to different treatments (unmodified, bur-cut grooves, aluminum oxide particle sandblasting, monomer swelling, and primer swelling), and the teeth were replaced in the silicone molds. Metallic flasks were placed in a thermopolymerizing unit to polymerize heat-curing denture-base polymer, and plastic flasks were placed in a domestic microwave oven at 900 W to polymerize microwaveable denture base polymer. After deflasking, the specimens were submitted to the shear bond test in an Instron machine at a cross-speed of 1 mm/min. Results were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey's test (5%). Results: Shear bond strength values were influenced by the ridge-lap surface treatments only in the microwaved polymer. Sandblasting + monomer swelling and sandblasting + primer swelling interactions yielded lower strengths for microwaved polymer. Only the unmodified surfaces presented a significant difference when the resins were compared, where the microwaved polymer showed a higher value. Conclusion: Different tooth ridge-lap surface treatments promoted different strengths of the tooth/resin bond.133287293Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Transcriptome changes in newborn goats' skeletal muscle as a result of maternal feed restriction at different stages of gestation

We investigated how feed restriction at 50% of maintenance requirements during different stages of gestation affects the transcriptome of newborn goats' skeletal muscle. Fourteen pregnant dams were randomly assigned into one of the following dietary treatments: animals fed at 50% of maintenance requirement from 8-84 d of gestation and then fed at 100% of maintenance requirement from day 85 of gestation to parturition (RM, n = 6), and animals fed at 100% of maintenance requirement from 8-84 d of gestation and then fed at 50% of maintenance requirement from day 85 of gestation to parturition (MR, n = 8). At birth, samples of offspring's Longissimus muscle were collected for total RNA extraction and sequencing. Our data showed 66 differentially expressed (DE) genes (FDR < 0.05). A total of 6 genes were upregulated and 60 downregulated (FDR < 0.05) in the skeletal muscle of the newborns resulting from treatment RM compared with MR. Our results suggest that the DE genes upregulated in newborn goats' skeletal muscle from the RM group compared to MR, included genes related to satellite cells, and genes that indicates impaired insulin sensitivity and changes in the composition of intramuscular fat. The DE genes upregulated in newborn goats' skeletal muscle from the MR group compared to RM, are also related to impaired insulin sensitivity, as well as a predominantly oxidative metabolism and cellular oxidative stress. However, protective mechanisms against insulin sensitivity and oxidative stress may have been augmented in the skeletal muscle of offspring from MR treatment compared to RM, in order to maintain cellular homeostasis

Lower prevalence of congenital cytomegalovirus infection in Portugal: possible impact of COVID-19 lockdown?

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most frequent cause of congenital infection all over the world. Its prevalence ranges from 0.2 to 2.2%. Transmission from children to their pregnant mothers is a well-known risk factor, particularly if they attend a childcare centre. This study aims to compare the prevalence of CMV congenital infection (CMV_CI) in Portugal (Lisbon) between two studies, performed respectively in 2019 and 2020. In the 2019 study, performed in two hospitals, we found a 0.67% CMV_CI prevalence, using a pool strategy previously tested with saliva samples. In the 2020 study, using the same pool approach in four hospitals (the previous and two additional), and based on 1277 samples, the prevalence was 0.078%.Conclusion: The close temporal coincidence with COVID-19 lockdown suggests that these measures may have had a significant impact on this reduction, although other explanations cannot be ruled-out. What is Known: • Cytomegalovirus is the leading cause of congenital infection. • Behavioural measures decrease cytomegalovirus seroconversion in pregnant women. What is New: • From 2019 to 2020 there was a significant reduction in the prevalence of congenital CMV infection.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Could Public Restrooms Be an Environment for Bacterial Resistomes?

PMCID: PMC3547874This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited