Medicinal plants from open-air markets in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a potential source of new antimycobacterial agents

AbstractEthnopharmacological relevanceSeveral medicinal plants are traditionally traded in open-air markets in Rio de Janeiro State (Brazil) to treat tuberculosis (TB) and related symptoms.Aims of the studyConduct a survey in the open-air markets of 20 cities of Rio de Janeiro State to find medicinal plants that are popularly used to treat tuberculosis and other related diseases and assess their in vitro antimycobacterial activity.Materials and methodsWe used direct observation and semi-structured interviews and asked herbalists to list species (free listing) in order to gather data about the plant species most commonly used for lung problems. We calculated a Salience Index and acquired two species of “erva-de-passarinho” (mistletoe), Struthanthus marginatus and Struthanthus concinnus (Loranthaceae), commonly used to treat tuberculosis for a bioassay-guided isolation of the antimycobacterial active principles. Extracts, fractions and isolated compounds of both species were assayed in vitro against susceptible (H37Rv) and rifampicin-resistant (ATCC 35338) Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains.ResultsFrom the interviews, we generated a list of 36 plant species belonging to 12 families. The mistletoes Struthanthus marginatus and Struthanthus concinnus showed high Salience Index values among plants used to treat tuberculosis. Bioassay-guided fractionation of hexane extracts from both species led to the isolation and/or identification of steroids and terpenoids. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of the extracts and isolated compounds ranged from 25 to 200μg/mL. Some of the isolated compounds have been previously assayed against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, others are reported here for the first time (obtusifoliol: MIC H37Rv 50μg/mL, MIC ATCC 35338 12.5μg/mL; 3-O-n-acil-lup-20(29)-en-3β,7β,15α-triol: MIC H37Rv 200μg/mL, MIC ATCC 35338 100μg/mL).ConclusionsThis study demonstrated the importance of ethnobotanical surveys in markets as a source for new drugs and also for scientific validation of folk medicine

Produtividade do setor agrícola brasileiro (1991-2003): uma análise espacial

Agricultural productivity is characterized by location patterns, represented by the so-called spatial effects, namely, spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence. This paper analyzes the spatial effects which exert influence on agricultural land productivity at three points in time – 1991, 1997 and 2003 – at the microregional level, using exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). The main finding shows that agricultural productivity is increasingly self-correlated in space, over time. Two high-high (HH) clusters are identified consistently: one of them is located in the State of São Paulo and parts of the Center-West region, while the other cluster (HH) lies in the Northeastern Coast.A produtividade agrícola é marcada por padrões de localização representados pelos chamados efeitos espaciais, a saber: a heterogeneidade espacial e a dependência espacial. Assim, este trabalho analisa os efeitos espaciais que exercem influência sobre a produtividade agrícola da terra para três momentos do tempo – 1991, 1997 e 2003 – em nível microrregional. Para isso, implementa-se a análise exploratória de dados espaciais. O principal resultado mostra que a produtividade agrícola está crescentemente autocorrelacionada no espaço ao longo do tempo. Dois clusters alto-alto (AA) são identificados consistentemente: um deles localiza-se no Estado de São Paulo e partes do Centro-Oeste, enquanto o outro cluster AA situa-se no litoral nordestino

Dual target strategy: a proposal to mitigate the risk of overtreatment and enhance patient satisfaction in rheumatoid arthritis

Commentary - abstract not available

Whole-genome sequencing of 1,171 elderly admixed individuals from Brazil

As whole-genome sequencing (WGS) becomes the gold standard tool for studying population genomics and medical applications, data on diverse non-European and admixed individuals are still scarce. Here, we present a high-coverage WGS dataset of 1,171 highly admixed elderly Brazilians from a census-based cohort, providing over 76 million variants, of which ~2 million are absent from large public databases. WGS enables identification of ~2,000 previously undescribed mobile element insertions without previous description, nearly 5 Mb of genomic segments absent from the human genome reference, and over 140 alleles from HLA genes absent from public resources. We reclassify and curate pathogenicity assertions for nearly four hundred variants in genes associated with dominantly-inherited Mendelian disorders and calculate the incidence for selected recessive disorders, demonstrating the clinical usefulness of the present study. Finally, we observe that whole-genome and HLA imputation could be significantly improved compared to available datasets since rare variation represents the largest proportion of input from WGS. These results demonstrate that even smaller sample sizes of underrepresented populations bring relevant data for genomic studies, especially when exploring analyses allowed only by WGS