Selection of a new peptide homing SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells

Breast cancer diagnosis remains a challenge, mostly due to its heterogeneity. This reality translates in delayed treatments, increasing treatment aggressiveness and lower chances of overall survival. The conventional detection techniques, although becoming increasingly sophisticated each year, still lack the ability to provide reliable conclusions without being time consuming, expensive and uncomfortable for the patients. The identification of novel biomarkers for breast cancer research is therefore of utmost relevance for an early diagnosis. Moreover, breast cancer specific peptide moieties can be used to develop novel targeted drug delivery systems. In this work we used phage display to identify a novel peptide with specificity to the SK-BR-3 breast cancer cell line. Cytometry assays confirmed its specificity, while bioinformatics and docking studies predicted the potential biomarkers at the SK-BR-3 cells surface. These findings can be potentially useful in the clinical context, contributing to more specific and targeted therapeutic solutions against HER2-positive breast cancer subtypes.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2020 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Débora Ferreira and Ana Cláudia Pereira are recipient of fellowships supported by a doctoral advanced training (call NORTE-69-2015-15) funded by the European Social Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Cátia Santos-Pereira acknowledges the PhD fellowship PD/BD/128032/2016 funded by FCT under the scope of the doctoral programme in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (DP_AEM). The authors also acknowledge César Pimenta from NOVA Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology António Xavier (NOVA ITQB) for the docking insights.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Escala de Competências de Estudo (ECE-SUP): fundamentos e construção

Num projecto de investigação entre a Universidade do Minho (Portugal), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (Espanha), Universidade Pedagógica (Moçambique) e a Universidade São Francisco (Brasil), procedeu-se à construção de uma “Escala de Competências de Estudo” (ECE-Sup), para alunos do Ensino Superior. O ponto de partida foi a leitura da investigação na área e a consulta de outras escalas disponíveis, definindo-se que a ECE-sup (designação ainda provisória) avaliaria quatro grandes áreas ou dimensões em termos do comportamento auto-regulado dos estudantes na sua aprendizagem: (i) as atitudes e os comportamentos em relação ao estudo e à sua organização pelos alunos, (ii) os aspectos motivacionais do estudo, (iii) as competências cognitivas envolvidas na aquisição de conhecimento, e (iv) a realização nas situações de avaliação. Estas quatro áreas foram representadas através de itens retirados do quotidiano dos alunos, privilegiando-se um enfoque autoregulatório na aprendizagem. Professores e alunos foram chamados a analisar os itens na sua relevância e compreensão, havendo a preocupação de buscar uma formulação dos itens comum aos quatro países (apenas diferença na componente ortográfica nas palavras usadas). Uma análise qualitativa dos itens através do método da “reflexão falada” foi conduzida junto de alguns alunos das Universidades envolvidas, eliminando-se ambiguidades e reformulando-se vários itens na base das sugestões dos próprios alunos. A versão experimental composta por 55 itens foi então aplicada a uma amostra de alunos de três das quatro Universidades, considerando estudantes de ciências/tecnologias e de humanidades, repartidos pelo 1º e 3º anos da graduação, para efeitos da apreciação dos itens através de métodos quantitativos.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Formation and stability of oil-in-water nanoemulsions containing rice bran oil: in vitro and in vivo assessments

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Nanoemulsions have practical application in a multitude of commercial areas, such as the chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Cosmetic industries use rice bran oil in sunscreen formulations, anti ageing products and in treatments for skin diseases. The aim of this study was to create rice bran oil nanoemulsions using low energy emulsification methods and to evaluate their physical stability, irritation potential and moisturising activity on volunteers with normal and diseased skin types.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The nanoemulsion developed by this phase diagram method was composed of 10% rice bran oil, 10% surfactants sorbitan oleate/PEG-30 castor oil, 0.05% antioxidant and 0.50% preservatives formulated in distilled water. The nanoemulsion was stable over the time course of this study. <it>In vitro </it>assays showed that this formulation has a low irritation potential, and when applied to human skin during <it>in vivo </it>studies, the nanoemulsion improved the skin's moisture and maintained normal skin pH values.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of irritation potential studies and <it>in vivo </it>assessments indicate that this nanoemulsion has potential to be a useful tool to treat skin diseases, such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.</p

An experimental and theoretical investigation on the optical and photocatalytic properties of ZnS nanoparticles

From the viewpoints of materials chemistry and physical chemistry, crystal structure directly determines the electronic structure and furthermore their optical and photocatalytic properties. Zinc sulfide (ZnS) nanoparticles (NPs) with tunable photoluminescence (PL) emission and high photocatalytic activity have been obtained by means of a microwave-assisted solvothermal (MAS) method using different precursors (i.e., zinc nitrate (ZN), zinc chloride (ZC), or zinc acetate (ZA)). The morphologies, optical properties, and electronic structures of the as-synthesized ZnS NPs were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) isotherms for N2 adsorption/desorption processes, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), PL measurements and theoretical calculations. Density functional theory calculations were used to determine the geometries and electronic properties of bulk wurtzite (WZ) ZnS NPs and their (0001), (101 ̅0), (112 ̅0), (101 ̅1), and (101 ̅2) surfaces. The dependence of the PL emission behavior of ZnS NPs on the precursor was elucidated by examining the energy band structure and density of states. The method for degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was used as a probe reaction to investigate the photocatalytic activity of the as-Synthesised ZnS NPs under UV light irradiation. The PL behavior as well as photocatalytic activities of ZnS NPs were attributed to specific features of the structural and electronic structures. Increased photocatalytic degradation was observed for samples synthesized using different precursors in the following order: ZA<ZC<ZN. These results indicated that samples synthesized with ZN present a greater percentage of exposed (0001) surface than those synthesized with the ZC and ZA. Furthermore, the possible photodegradation mechanism of the as-prepared ZnS NPs were also briefly discussed.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the Brazillian agencies FAPESP(2013/07296-2; 2015/11917-8), CNPq (573636/2008-7) and CAPES (process A104/2013). J.A. and L.G acknowledge Prometeo II/2014/022 and ACOMP/2014/270 projects (Generalitat Valenciana), Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain), CTQ2012-36253-C03-02 and the Spanish Brazilian program (PHB2009-0065-PC, PHBP14/00020) for financially supporting this research. We thank Prof. Dr. P. Hammer (LEFE-IQ/UNESP) for their help with the XPS analysis. We also acknowledge the Servei Informática, Universitat Jaume I for the generous allotment of computer time

Liposomal formulations loaded with a eugenol derivative for application as insecticides: encapsulation studies and In silico identification of protein targets

Supplementary Materials can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/nano12203583/s1,A recently synthesized new eugenol derivative, ethyl 4-(2-methoxy-4-(oxiran-2-ylmethyl)phenoxy)butanoate, with a high insecticidal activity against Sf9 (Spodoptera frugiperda) insect cells, was encapsulated in the liposomal formulations of egg-phosphatidylcholine/cholesterol (Egg-PC:Ch) 70:30 and 100% dioleoylphosphatidylglycerol (DOPG), aiming at the future application as insecticides. Compound-loaded DOPG liposomes have sizes of 274 ± 12 nm, while Egg-PC:Ch liposomes exhibit smaller hydrodynamic diameters (69.5 ± 7 nm), high encapsulation efficiency (88.8% ± 2.7%), higher stability, and a more efficient compound release, thus, they were chosen for assays in Sf9 insect cells. The compound elicited a loss of cell viability up to 80% after 72 h of incubation. Relevantly, nanoencapsulation maintained the toxicity of the compound toward insect cells while lowering the toxicity toward human cells, thus showing the selectivity of the system. Structure-based inverted virtual screening was used to predict the most likely targets and molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations were used to demonstrate that this molecule can form a stable complex with insect odorant binding proteins and/or acetylcholinesterase. The results are promising for the future application of compound-loaded nanoliposome formulations as crop insecticides.This research was funded by project PTDC/ASP-AGR/30154/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER 030154) of the COMPETE2020 program, co-financed by the FEDER and the European Union. The authors also acknowledge the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDERCOMPETE QREN-EU for financial support to the research centers CQUM (UID/QUI/00686/2021), CF-UM-UP (UIDB/04650/2020) and REQUIMTE (UIDB/50006/2020). Renato B. Pereira acknowledges PRIMA Foundation (H2020-PRIMA 2018—Section 2, Project MILKQUA) and FCT (PTDC/QUI-QFI/2870/2020) for additional funding. The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance III 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased within the framework of the National Program for Scientific Re-equipment, contract REDE/1517/RMN/2005, with funds from POCI 2010 (FEDER) and FCT

Synthesis, computational and nanoencapsulation studies on eugenol-derived insecticides

A new set of alkoxy alcohols were synthesised by reaction of eugenol oxirane with aliphatic and aromatic alcohols. These eugenol derivatives were evaluated against their effect upon the viability of the insect cell line Sf9 (Spodoptera frugiperda). The most promising compounds, 4-(3-(tert-butoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl)-2-methoxyphenol and 4-(2-((4-fluorobenzyl)oxy)-3-hydroxypropyl)-2-methoxyphenol were submitted to in silico assays to predict possible targets. Throught an Inverted Virtual Screening approach, 23 common pesticide targets were screened and the top 2 targets predicted were further analyzed through molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations. In addition, these eugenol derivatives were subjected to encapsulation and release assays using liposome-based nanosystems of egg phosphatidylcholine/cholesterol (7:3), with encapsulation efficiencies higher than 90% and release profiles well described by both Korsmeyer-Peppas and Weibull models.This research was funded by the project PTDC/ASP-AGR/30154/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030154) of the COMPETE 2020 program, co-financed by the FEDER and the European Union. The authors also acknowledge the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDERCOMPETE-QREN-EU for financial support to the research centers CQ-UM (UID/QUI/00686/2021), CF-UM-UP (UIDB/04650/2021) and REQUIMTE (UIDB/50006/2020). Renato B. Pereira acknowledges the PRIMA Foundation (H2020-PRIMA 2018-Section 2, Project MILKQUA) and FCT (PTDC/QUI-QFI/2870/2020) for the funding. The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance III 400 was a part of the National NMR Network and was purchased within the framework of the National Program for Scientific Re-equipment, contract REDE/1517/RMN/2005 with funds from POCI 2010 (FEDER) and FCT

Hiperplasia angiolinfoide como causa de eosinofilia

A hiperplasia angiolinfoide (Hale e doença de Kimura são duas entidades que podem se manifestar como nódulos, placas ou pápulas, de localização predominante em face, região retroauricular e cervical. São causas raras de eosinofilia e ainda há muita discussão em torno de suas etiopatogenias. Para alguns autores trata-se de duas patologias distintas enquanto para outros são manifestações diferentes da mesma doença. O presente artigo relata o caso de um paciente asiático que apresentava história de prurido generalizado há um ano, acompanhado de pápulas em membros e nódulo de aproximadamente 5 cm de diâmetro em região retroauricular direita com aumento progressivo. O hemograma apresentava leucocitose às custas de eosinofilia. Os achados sugerem uma superposição entre as duas patologias, pois clinicamente são sugestivos de doença de Kimura, mas a histopatologia e imuno-histoquímica confirmaram a origem endotelial da lesão, sendo compatível com Hale. Os autores destacam a raridade do caso como causa de eosinofilia, assim como alertam para a dificuldade do diagnóstico e da diferenciação entre as duas patologias