Leishmanicidal activity of fractions rich in aporphine alkaloids from amazonian unonopsis species

In vitro evaluation of alkaloidal fractions of twigs, barks and leaves from two Unonopsis species, Unonopsis guatterioides R.E. Fr. and Unonopsis duckei R.E. Fr., Annonaceae, against promastigote forms of Leishmania amazonensis revealed these species as sources of substances with promising leishmanicidal potential. All alkaloidal fractions from twigs, barks and leaves of U. guatterioides were classified as highly active, with IC50 1.07, 1.90, and 2.79 mg/mL, respectively. Only the alkaloidal fraction from the twigs of U. duckei was classified as inactive2261368137

Leishmanicidal activity of fractions rich in aporphine alkaloids from Amazonian Unonopsis species

In vitro evaluation of alkaloidal fractions of twigs, barks and leaves from two Unonopsis species, Unonopsis guatterioides R.E. Fr. and Unonopsis duckei R.E. Fr., Annonaceae, against promastigote forms of Leishmania amazonensis revealed these species as sources of substances with promising leishmanicidal potential. All alkaloidal fractions from twigs, barks and leaves of U. guatterioides were classified as highly active, with IC50 1.07, 1.90, and 2.79 mg/mL, respectively. Only the alkaloidal fraction from the twigs of U. duckei was classified as inactive.2261368137

Intramuscular Hemangioma in Lip Treated with Sclerotherapy and Surgery

Intramuscular hemangioma is a relatively rare, benign tumor of vascular origin, accounting for less than 1% of all hemangiomas. This paper reports a case of a 48-year-old female patient with intramuscular hemangioma in the upper lip, treated with sclerotherapy and subsequent complementary surgery

Cardiovascular abnormalities in patients with oral cleft: a clinical-electrocardiographic-echocardiographic study

OBJECTIVES: The present study aims to describe the clinical, electrocardiographic, and echocardiographic cardiological findings in a group of patients with oral clefts. METHODS: This is a prospective cross-sectional study on 70 children (age range from 13 days to 19 years) with oral clefts who attended the multidisciplinary program of a university hospital from March 2013 to September 2014. The patients were evaluated by a pediatric cardiologist and underwent detailed anamnesis, physical examination, electrocardiogram, and echocardiogram. RESULTS: Sixty percent of the patients were male; 55.7% presented with cleft lip and palate, and 40.0% presented with health complaints. Comorbidities were found in 44.3%. Relevant pregnancy, neonatal, family and personal antecedents were present in 55.7%, 27.1%, 67.2%, and 24.3% of the patients, respectively. Regarding the antecedents, 15.2% of the patients presented with a cardiac murmur, 49.0% with a familial risk of developing plurimetabolic syndrome, and 6% with family antecedents of rheumatic fever. Electrocardiographic evaluation showed one case of atrioventricular block. Echocardiograms were abnormal in 35.7% of the exams, including 5 cases of mitral valve prolapse — one of which was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease. CONCLUSION: The finding of a family risk of developing plurimetabolic syndrome and a diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease indicates that patients with oral clefts may be more prone to developing acquired heart disease. Thus, our findings highlight the importance of anamnesis and methodological triangulation (clinical-electrocardiographic-echocardiographic) in the investigation of patients with oral clefts and emphasize that cardiological follow-up to evaluate acquired and/or rhythm heart diseases is necessary. This strategy permits comorbidity prevention and individualized planned treatment

Synthesis, Cytotoxic and Antimicrobial activities of 5-benzylidene-2- [(pyridine-2-ylmethylene)hydrazono]-thiazolidin-4-one Derivatives

A novel series of 5-benzylidene-2-[(pyridine-2-ylmethylene)hydrazono]-thiazolidin-4-ones 3a-i has been synthesized. 2-[(Pyridine-2-ylmethylene)hydrazono]-thiazolidin-4-ones 2a-c were also obtained and used as intermediates to give the target compounds. The in vitro cytotoxic activity was evaluated for both series. The findings obtained showed that the compounds 2a, 2b, 3b and 3c were effective against the HEp-2 cell lines with IC50 in the 1.6 - 0.5 μg/mL range, whereas the compounds 2a (IC50 = 3.6 μg/mL), 2b (IC50 = 2.4 μg/mL) and 3f (IC50 = 3.5 μg/mL) showed good inhibitory effects against HT-29 cell lines. As complementary biological test, all 4-thiazolidinones were evaluated for antimicrobial activity against various bacterial and fungal species.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Neuroprotective effects on microglia and insights into the structure–activity relationship of an antioxidant peptide isolated from Pelophylax perezi

© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedTryptophyllins constitute a heterogeneous group of peptides that are one of the first classes of peptides identified from amphibian's skin secretions. Here, we report the structural characterization and antioxidant properties of a novel tryptophyllin-like peptide, named PpT-2, isolated from the Iberian green frog Pelophylax perezi. The skin secretion of P. perezi was obtained by electrical stimulation and fractionated using RP-HPLC. De novo peptide sequencing was conducted using MALDI MS/MS. The primary structure of PpT-2 (FPWLLS-NH2 ) was confirmed by Edman degradation and subsequently investigated using in silico tools. PpT-2 shared physicochemical properties with other well-known antioxidants. To test PpT-2 for antioxidant activity in vitro, the peptide was synthesized by solid phase and assessed in the chemical-based ABTS and DPPH scavenging assays. Then, a flow cytometry experiment was conducted to assess PpT-2 antioxidant activity in oxidatively challenged murine microglial cells. As predicted by the in silico analyses, PpT-2 scavenged free radicals in vitro and suppressed the generation of reactive species in PMA-stimulated BV-2 microglia cells. We further explored possible bioactivities of PpT-2 against prostate cancer cells and bacteria, against which the peptide exerted a moderate antiproliferative effect and negligible antimicrobial activity. The biocompatibility of PpT-2 was evaluated in cytotoxicity assays and in vivo toxicity with Galleria mellonella. No toxicity was detected in cells treated with up to 512 µg/ml and in G. mellonella treated with up to 40 mg/kg PpT-2. This novel peptide, PpT-2, stands as a promising peptide with potential therapeutic and biotechnological applications, mainly for the treatment/prevention of neurodegenerative disorders.This work was financed by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI), and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the framework of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031158 – PTDC/BII-BIO/31158/2017. The authors would like to thank the participation and scientific support of the Unit projects UIDB/50006/2020 | UIDP/50006/2020, and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Universal Faixa ‘B’ (grant number 32103/2018-0). A.P. is a recipient of a post-doctoral grant from the project PTDC/BII-BIO/31158/2017. The authors would like to thank the researcher Roberto Resendes (CiBio, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores, Portugal) for the logistical support in the collection of samples. C.P.A acknowledges FCT-MCTES fellowship PD/BD/136860/2018. A.B.-N. and F.C.D.A.L. acknowledge CNPq (grants 420449/2018-3 and 428211/2018-6) for financial support.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Agricultura e biodiversidade nas ciências sociais brasileiras: alimentando a comunicação entre ciência e políticas públicas.

O presente artigo decorre de uma reflexão sustentada em dois pressupostos: a) que as ciências e, em particular, as sociais, podem contribuir para informar as tomadas de decisão e a formulação de políticas públicas visando a melhoria da vida das pessoas no planeta e b) que o papel da agricultura na conservação da biodiversidade é uma questão atual de extrema relevância e que merece ser aprofundada. A relação entre a agricultura e a biodiversidade tem sido objeto de questionamentos recentes na sociedade e no campo das políticas públicas. Contudo, se os estudos relacionados à biodiversidade e à agricultura, separadamente, têm observado um considerável crescimento no Brasil, poucos são os investimentos de pesquisa sobre a relação entre esses dois grandes temas. A partir dessas considerações, seguimos dois objetivos principais: 1) investigar como o papel da agricultura familiar na preservação da biodiversidade tem sido abordado pelas Ciências Sociais no Brasil, particularmente nos artigos publicados em periódicos brasileiros nos últimos 20 anos; 2) testar uma metodologia de revisão bibliográfica, criteriosa, que possa ser útil aos tomadores de decisão em políticas públicas e demais interessados

Poultry offal meal in broiler chicken feed

An outstanding feature of poultry production that provides animal protein yield for human feeding is its short production cycle. This characteristic has a linear relationship with waste production. Increasing the inclusion of this residue in diets in the near future is desirable in step with the growth of poultry production since it offers a better environmental and nutritional alternative to current methods. We evaluated the effects on the performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens produced by the inclusion of poultry offal meal (POM) in their feed. Treatments consisted of a control diet (corn, Zea mays and soybean, Glycine max) and four diets with inclusion of 30, 60, 90 and 120 g kg-1 of POM. The diets were formulated based on the level of digestible amino acid once categorized as isocalcic, isophosphoric, isosodic, isoenergetic and isonutritive for protein, methionine+cystine, lysine and threonine. The feed's electrolytes were corrected so that each diet had the same electrolytic balance. The variables analyzed were feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, body weight, carcass yield, chicken cut yield and abdominal fat. Feed intake was not affected by the quantities of POM added. The weight gain, feed conversion, carcass yield and noble cuts presented quadratic responses to the treatments. Abdominal fat increased linearly. The performance of the poultry, and carcass characteristics were maximized by the inclusion of 53 and 65 g kg-1, respectively, of POM in the diet, and the inclusion of 120 g kg-1 of POM provided greater disposition of abdominal fat