MEMBRO FANTASMA EM AMPUTADOS DE GUERRA

O membro fantasma é a experiência de possuir um membro ausente que se comporta similarmente ao membro real, englobando a sensação e dor. Os objectivos deste trabalho foi avaliar a prevalência da dor pós-amputação em amputados de guerra, em Portugal, e a sua caracterização. A prevalência da sensação fantasma e dor no coto e as suas implicações na dor fantasma constituem objectivos secundários, assim como o impacto da dor no quotidiano destes doentes e seu bem-estar físico e social

From sea monsters to charismatic megafauna: changes in perception and use of large marine animals

Marine megafauna has always elicited contrasting feelings. In the past, large marine animals were often depicted as fantastic mythological creatures and dangerous monsters, while also arousing human curiosity. Marine megafauna has been a valuable resource to exploit, leading to the collapse of populations and local extinctions. In addition, some species have been perceived as competitors of fishers for marine resources and were often actively culled. Since the 1970s, there has been a change in the perception and use of megafauna. The growth of marine tourism, increasingly oriented towards the observation of wildlife, has driven a shift from extractive to non-extractive use, supporting the conservation of at least some species of marine megafauna. In this paper, we review and compare the changes in the perception and use of three megafaunal groups, cetaceans, elasmobranchs and groupers, with a special focus on European cultures. We highlight the main drivers and the timing of these changes, compare different taxonomic groups and species, and highlight the implications for management and conservation. One of the main drivers of the shift in perception, shared by all the three groups of megafauna, has been a general increase in curiosity towards wildlife, stimulated inter alia by documentaries (from the early 1970s onwards), and also promoted by easy access to scuba diving. At the same time, environmental campaigns have been developed to raise public awareness regarding marine wildlife, especially cetaceans, a process greatly facilitated by the rise of Internet and the World Wide Web. Currently, all the three groups (cetaceans, elasmobranchs and groupers) may represent valuable resources for ecotourism. Strikingly, the economic value of live specimens may exceed their value for human consumption. A further change in perception involving all the three groups is related to a growing understanding and appreciation of their key ecological role. The shift from extractive to non-extractive use has the potential for promoting species conservation and local economic growth. However, the change in use may not benefit the original stakeholders (e.g. fishers or whalers) and there may therefore be a case for providing compensation for disadvantaged stakeholders. Moreover, it is increasingly clear that even non-extractive use may have a negative impact on marine megafauna, therefore regulations are needed.SFRH/BPD/102494/2014, UID/MAR/04292/2019, IS1403info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quinolin-(1H)-imines as a new chemotype against leishmaniasis: biological evaluation and mechanistic studies

Leishmaniasis is one of the most challenging neglected tropical diseases and remains a global threat to public health. Currently available therapies for leishmaniases present significant drawbacks and are rendered increasingly inefficient due to parasite resistance, urging the need for more effective, safer, and cheaper drugs. In our efforts to identify novel chemical scaffolds for the development of antileishmanial agents, we have screened in house antiplasmodial libraries against axenic and intracellular forms of Leishmania infantum, L. amazonensis and L. major. Several of the screened compounds showed IC50 values against intracellular L. infantum parasites in the submicromolar range (1h: IC50 0.9 M and 1n: IC50 0.7 M) and selectivity indexes of 11 and 9.7, respectively. Compounds also displayed activity against L. amazonensis and L. major, albeit in the low micromolar range. Mechanistic studies revealed that 1n efficiently inhibits oxygen consumption and significantly decreases the mitochondrial membrane potential in L. infantum axenic amastigotes, suggesting that this chemotype acts, at least in part, by interfering with mitochondrial function. Structure-activity analysis suggests that 1n is a promising antileishmanial lead and emphasize the potential of the quinoline-(1H)-imine chemotype for the future development of new antileishmanial agents.This work was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit, by the BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte 2020 Programa Operacional Regional do Norte, and by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through project grants number UID/DTP/04138/2019, PTDC/QEQ-MED/7097/2014, PTDC/MED-FAR/30266/2017, and PTDC/MED-QUI/30021/2017. It also received support from NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000012 Structured Program on Bioengineered Therapies for Infectious Diseases and Tissue Regeneration, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). FCT provided additional support to H.C. and A.S.R. (Investigator FCT contracts number IF/01244/2015 and IF/01034/2014, respectively) and to A.G.G.A. (contract number 373 SFRH/BD/93766/2013). We acknowledge the support of the i3S Scientific Platform BioSciences Screening, member of the national infrastructure PPBI—Portuguese Platform of Bioimaging (PPBI-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022122) and PT-OPENSCREEN.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Synthesis of amphiphilic sulfonamide halogenated porphyrins: MALDI-TOFMS characterization and evaluation of 1-octanol/water partition coefficients

Porphyrins are key precursors for development of photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy. A new series of ortho-halogenated tetraarylporphyrins with sulfonamide substituents have been synthesized via chlorosulfonation reaction and characterized by MALDI-TOFMS. To predict their partition properties, log KOW of a selected range of the synthesized halogenated amphiphilic porphyrins is described. A significant effect of the number and type of halogen group as well as on the number of sulfonamide side chain was observed. The determined 1-octanol/water partition coefficients showed that it is possible to obtain compounds with a wide range of lipophilicities, from log KOW=-2.71 till log KOW>4, which are suitable to optimize the biological efficacy of this class of sensitizers.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6THR-4S3S2CR-3/1/354752ab2cc5e753ede41d0a4595c5a