MicroRNA expression profiles in human CD3+ T cells following stimulation with anti‑human CD3 antibodies

Background: Anti-CD3 therapy can induce immunosuppression by several non mutually exclusive mechanisms that have been proposed to explain the therapeutic effect the administration anti-CD3 mAb, but its immunoregulatory mechanism is still not completely clear. In T cells, microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate several pathways, including those associated with immune tolerance. Here, we report changes in miRNA expression in T cells following treatment with anti-human CD3 antibodies. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured in the presence of the monoclonal antibody OKT3 or a recombinant fragment of humanized anti-CD3. Following these treatments, the expression profiles of 31 miRNA species were assessed in T cells using TaqMan arrays. Results: Eight of the tested miRNAs (miR-155, miR-21, miR-146a, miR-210, miR-17, miR-590-5p, miR-106b and miR- 301a) were statistically significantly up- or down-regulated relative to untreated cells. Conclusions: Stimulation of T cells with anti-human CD3 antibodies alters miRNA expression patterns, including of miRNA species associated with immune regulatory pathways

Antiulcerogenic activity of the hydroalcoholic extract of leaves of Annona muricata Linnaeus in mice

AbstractAnnona muricata Linnaeus, popularly known as “graviola” and also called soursop, is a species typical of countries with a tropical climate, and it is used in folk medicine as an anticancer, analgesic and antispasmodic agent. The aim of the present study was to validate the gastroprotective activity of the hydroalcoholic extract of the leaves of A. muricata (HEAM) and to investigate the underlying mechanisms of action for this effect. Gastric lesions were induced in mice by absolute ethanol, acidified ethanol or indomethacin. Before, the animals were pretreated with saline, omeprazole or HEAM orally at doses of 50–400mg/kg. To determine the mechanism of action of the extract, we investigated, using specific inhibitors, the involvement of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandins (PGEs), ATP-dependent K+ channels and α2-noradrenergic receptors. HEAM showed significant antiulcer activity against lesions induced by absolute ethanol, acidified ethanol or indomethacin, which was mediated by endogenous gastric prostaglandins

EDUCAÇÃO EM SAÚDE EM UMA COMUNIDADE DA REGIÃO NORTE DE PALMAS-TO: um relato de experiência

O presente artigo trata-se de um relato de experiência, sobre ação social desenvolvida por docentes e discentes de enfermagem e nutrição da Universidade Federal do Tocantins em parceria com a igreja Santuário Nossa Senhora de Fátima. A ação foi realizada no dia 1 de outubro de 2017 na escola Municipal Luiz Gonzaga. Foram realizadas atividades de educação em saúde, tais como aferição de pressão arterial, teste de glicemia capilar, cálculo do índice de massa corpórea (IMC), além de atendimentos e orientações nutricionais.   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Educação em saúde; Ação social; Avaliação nutricional; Doenças crônicas não-transmissíveis; Educação Nutricional.       ABSTRACT This article is an experience report on a social action developed by professors and students of nursing and nutrition at the Federal University of Tocantins, in partnership with the Church Santuário Nossa Senhora de Fátima. The action was carried out on October 1, 2017 at Luiz Gonzaga School. Health education activities were carried out, such as blood pressure measurement, capillary glycemia test, body mass index (BMI), as well as attendance and nutritional guidelines.   KEYWORDS: Health education; Social action; Nutritional assessment; Chronic non-communicable diseases; Nutrition Education.       RESUMEN Este artículo es un informe de experiencia, sobre la acción social desarrollada por profesores y estudiantes de enfermería y nutrición en la Universidad Federal de Tocantins en colaboración con la iglesia Santuário Nossa Senhora de Fátima. La acción tuvo lugar el 1 de octubre de 2017 en la Escuela Municipal Luiz Gonzaga. Se llevaron a cabo actividades de educación sanitaria, como la medición de la presión arterial, la prueba de glucemia capilar, el cálculo del índice de masa corporal (IMC), además de consultas y pautas nutricionales.     PALABRAS CLAVE: Educación en salud; Acción Social; Evaluación nutricional; Enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles; Educación Nutricional.   &nbsp

Avaliação da citotoxicidade e atividade leishmanicida e tripanocida de extratos de Passiflora cincinnata Mast L.

A doença de Chagas e a leishmaniose são doenças que prevalecem em países pobres. Os fármacos disponíveis para o tratamento dessas doenças são altamente tóxicos, sendo este um dos motivos que dificulta à adesão terapêutica e, assim, levando à busca por novas drogas eficazes e seguras para seus tratamentos. A pesquisa utilizando produtos naturais tem se mostrado uma alternativa na procura de novos compostos com potencial clínico-terapêutico. O gênero Passiflora possui as seguintes atividades farmacológicas centrais como calmantes, sedativas, ansiolíticas e indutor do sono e atividades antiparasitarias. A Passiflora cincinnata possui ampla distribuição pelo Brasil sendo popularmente utilizada para distúrbios de sono. Neste estudo avaliamos sua atividade antiparasitária contra Leishmania brasiliensis, Leishmania infantum e Trypanosoma cruzi, bem como sua citotoxicidade em fibroblastos. Foram testados extratos hidroalcoólicos obtidos das folhas, casca, sementes e caule em diferentes concentrações. Os extratos das folhas, casca e sementes não foram eficazes contra L. brasiliensis e T. cruzi, porém, o extrato do caule promoveu uma inibição de 29,12 % contra T. cruzi numa concentração de 500 µg/mL, entretanto o extrato da casca de P. cincinnata foi o que apresentou a melhor atividade contra as formas parasitárias de L. infantum, causando um percentual de morte >20 % nas concentrações de 250 a 1000 µg/mL. Referente à toxicidade, o extrato das folhas foi o que apresentou maior citotoxicidade, quando comparado com os demais, causando a mortalidade de 68,63 % dos fibroblastos numa concentração de 1000 µg/mL. A baixa citotoxicidade revelada abre espaço para novos estudos biológicos

Manifestações psiquiátricas na reumatologia: uma revisão sistemática / Psychiatric manifestations in rheumatology: a systematic review

Doenças reumatológicas, são doenças crônicas que geralmente apresentam múltiplas causas. São representadas principalmente pela artrite reumatoide e lúpus eritematoso sistêmico. Sabe-se, no entanto, que existe uma ligação entre os processos autoimunes subjacentes às doenças reumáticas e aos transtornos mentais. O objetivo desta revisão foi avaliar as manifestações psiquiátricas em pacientes com condições reumatológicas. Uma busca sistemática na literatura foi realizada, nos portais BIREME e PubMed de estudos publicados nos últimos 10 anos. A busca foi realizada utilizando descritores em português e seus correspondentes em inglês: “artrite reumatoide”, “lúpus eritematoso sistêmico”, “esclerose sistêmica” e “síndrome de Sjögren” e “manifestações psiquiátricas”. Os artigos que foram incluídos após leitura na íntegra, tiveram seus dados coletados em instrumento padronizado e elaborado antes do início da busca. foram identificados e adicionados através da estratégia de busca 14 artigos. Ansiedade, depressão, incapacidade cognitiva e insônia estão entre as manifestações psiquiátricas mais prevalentes. A frequente presença de manifestações psiquiátricas na reumatologia acende um alerta entre os profissionais para priorizar a qualidade de vida de seus pacientes, reduzindo suas limitações

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries