Using Molinspiration as a didactic complement into teaching subjects of Medicinal Chemistry

Medicinal Chemistry has high rates of failure and abandonment at the beginning of the courses where this disciplines are taught, as occurs in pharmaceutical sciences. In University of Algarve (UAlg), there has been an effort to avoid school failure in these topics by increasing student motivation, a very important issue for the students get success. For this has been used in teaching Medicinal Chemistry, the web application called Molinspiration. This website/tool allows one to input a chemical structure and then after, view predicted properties of structure and its bioactivity against six different common drug targets. Using this application, students are transported to a virtual laboratory which making easier to understand and practice the basic scientific knowledge that has been previously explained in theoretical classes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Education today: 12 + 5 < 4 - lessons of education reforms in Portugal and beyond

Since the adoption of the ‘Lei de Bases…’ of 1984, the quality of education in Portugal is declining, undermined by ‘critical, creative and independent thinking’, implemented by neglecting memorization as a learning tool, as supposedly students should understand things without knowing them. As a consequence, vast majority of students can’t retain any abstract knowledge. They prepare from scratch for their tests and forget everything afterwards. The students never acquire essential primary-school skills such as capacity to do mental calculations, hence the title of this report, comparing contemporary school + university education to pre-1984 primary school of 4 years. The quality of education is further degraded by ‘evaluation’ of teachers at school and university, judged by academic success and degree of satisfaction of their students. With the students objectively incapable to learn, understand or remember, the teachers have a dilemma of either letting such students pass without retained knowledge, skills and competences, or else have their own ‘evaluation’ suffer. As the generations change, students who were ‘passed’ become teachers themselves, still with no retained knowledge and thus no moral authority to fail their own students. Thus, the level of requirements monotonously degrades, with the educational fraud perpetuated in the new generations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Knowledge-based economy

The European Union is resorting to long-term multi-annual political and economical plans. The current set of plans, “Horizons 2020”, also involves restructuring the educational system, as in the Bologna system. The idea behind it is that education should help industry to win the competitive battle with other major economical blocks. The idea is best described by the adage of the European Union of developing a so-called “knowledge-based economy”. It implies that education is a form of investment. We should educate people – the society should spend effort on educating people – in order for society to make profit on it. Contrasting this is the idea of education as a consumption good. In the latter, people study to become knowledgeable, since knowledge makes a person happy. We discuss here the dissident view why an educational system that is for investment-only will at the end not bear fruit and will destroy science, creativity and eventually any form of competitiveness in the economy. It will lead to moral as well as financial bankruptcy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biological activity of gold compounds against viruses and parasitosis: a systematic review

In this contribution, we provide an overview of gold compound applications against viruses or parasites during recent years. The special properties of gold have been the subject of intense investigation in recent years, which has led to the development of its chemistry with the synthesis of new compounds and the study of its applicability in various areas such as catalysis, materials, nanotechnology and medicine. Herein, thirteen gold articles with applications in several viruses, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV), influenza A virus (H1N1), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), coronavirus (SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2), Dengue virus, and several parasites such as Plasmodium sp., Leishmania sp., Tripanossoma sp., Brugia sp., Schistosoma sp., Onchocerca sp., Acanthamoeba sp., and Trichomonas sp. are described. Gold compounds with anti-viral activity include gold nanoparticles with the ligands mercaptoundecanosulfonate, 1-octanethiol and aldoses and gold complexes with phosphine and carbene ligands. All of the gold compounds with anti-parasitic activity reported are gold complexes of the carbene type. Auranofin is a gold drug already used against rheumatoid arthritis, and it has also been tested against virus and parasites.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Ca2+-ATPase inhibition potential of gold (I, III) compounds

The therapeutic applications of gold are well-known for many centuries. The most used gold compounds contain Au(I). Herein, we report, for the first time, the ability of four Au(I) and Au(III) complexes, namely dichloro (2-pyridinecarboxylate) Au(III) (abbreviated as1), chlorotrimethylphosphine Au(I) (2), 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl) imidazole-2-ylidene Au(I) chloride (3), and chlorotriphenylphosphine Au(I) (4), to affect the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+-ATPase activity. The tested gold compounds strongly inhibit the Ca2+-ATPase activity with different effects, being Au(I) compounds2and4the strongest, with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 0.8 and 0.9 mu M, respectively. For Au(III) compound1and Au(I) compound3, higher IC(50)values are found (4.5 mu M and 16.3 mu M, respectively). The type of enzymatic inhibition is also different, with gold compounds1and2showing a non-competitive inhibition regarding the native substrate MgATP, whereas for Au compounds3and4, a mixed type of inhibition is observed. Our data reveal, for the first time, Au(I) compounds with powerful inhibitory capacity towards SR Ca(2+)ATPase function. These results also show, unprecedently, that Au (III) and Au(I) compounds can act as P-type ATPase inhibitors, unveiling a potential application of these complexes.FCT: UIDB/04326/2020/ UIDB/50006/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Efficacy of the pasteur oven as sterilization equipment in dental offices

Este estudo objetivou avaliar a eficácia do uso da estufa de Pasteur, como equipamento esterilizante, em consultórios odontológicos, por meio de monitoramento biológico. Para esta avaliação foram consideradas: adequação no carregamento dos materiais no equipamento, tempo/temperatura utilizados e manutenção preventiva da estufa. Os dados foram coletados em 101 consultórios odontológicos, no Distrito Central de Goiânia-GO, Brasil, por meio de observação, entrevista e realização de teste com indicador biológico. Os resultados demonstraram não-padronização de algumas condutas preconizadas pelo Ministério da Saúde (MS), para esterilização dos artigos em estufa, e positividade do teste biológico em 46 (45,5%) dos ciclos testados. Os fatores intervenientes, com maior significância, relativos às falhas da esterilização foram: ausência do termômetro acessório para o controle da temperatura dos ciclos e a inobservância das relações tempo/temperatura recomendados para o ciclo de esterilização, por calor seco.Este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar la eficacia de la estufa de Pasteur, como equipamiento esterilizante, en consultorios odontológicos, por medio del monitoreo biológico. Para esta evaluación se consideraron: adecuación en el cargamento de los materiales en el equipamiento, tiempo/temperatura utilizados y mantenimiento preventivo de la estufa. Los datos fueron obtenidos en 101 consultorios de odontología, en el Distrito Central de Goiânia-Goiás-Brasil, por medio de la observación y la entrevista, así como la realización de un test con indicador biológico. Los resultados demostraron la no patronización de algunas conductas preconizadas por el Ministerio de Salud (MS), para la esterilización de los artículos en estufa, y la prueba biológica positiva en 46 (45,5%) de los ciclos probados. Los factores de mayor intervención significativa, relativos a las fallas de la esterilización fueron: ausencia del termómetro accesorio para el control de la temperatura de los ciclos y la no observación de las relaciones tiempo/temperatura recomendadas para el ciclo de esterilización, por el calor seco.This study was aimed at assessing the efficacy of the use of the Pasteur oven as sterilization equipment in dental offices through biological monitoring. For this assessment were taken into account how adequately the material is loaded into the equipment; time/temperature used; and preventive maintenance of the oven. The data were collected in 101 dental offices in the Central District of Goiânia, in the State of Goiás, through observation, interviews and performance of tests with biological indicator. The results showed a lack of standardization of some of the procedures recommended by the Ministry of Health for sterilization of items in the oven, and positive results of the biological test in 46 (45.5%) of the tested cycles. The intervening factors with most significance regarding sterilization problems were: absence of an accessory thermometer to control the cycles' temperature and non-observance of the time/temperature relations recommended for the sterilization cycle through dry heat

Reply to "Pericyclic or Pseudopericyclic? The Case of an Allylic Transposition in the Synthesis of a Saccharin Derivative"

Sigmatropic rearrangement is one of the main classes of pericyclic reactions, which does not necessarily mean that these rearrangements have a pericyclic mechanism. The allylic saccharin derivative O-cinnamylsaccharin can isomerize into N-cinnamylsaccharin in the polar solvent system toluene/triethylamine in a reaction time of 2 h at 110 degrees C. The mechanism of this reaction is pseudopericyclic and may be elucidated using theoretical calculations. However, this is not an easy topic, and therefore, it should be taught in phases and using the three main resources: theoretical classes, laboratory experiments and computer experiments. Here I aim to explain this perspective.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Desenvolvimento de uma metodologia passo-a-passo na Química Orgânica

A Química Orgânica é uma unidade curricular presente nos curricula de cursos superiores na área de química, biologia e farmácia, registando-se um elevado nível de insucesso em termos de aproveitamento. Embora várias podem ser as causas, certamente uma delas é a dificuldade que os alunos demonstram na aprendizagem do raciocínio logico da matéria teórica o que dificulta, impedindo mesmo, a resolução de exercícios. Neste trabalho pretende-se desenvolver uma metodologia de ensino que permita ao aluno aprender a “pensar em química orgânica” tendo como consequência a resolução de problemas. Trata-se de um método simple baseado na resolução progressiva e personalizada de quizzes implementados com recurso a ferramenta Google Forms.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Relationship between education in pharmaceutical sciences and profession: an interdisciplinary perspective" Book of Proceedings II International Congress on Interdisciplinarity in Social and Human Sciences

The first modern-era pharmacy schools began to be established in the nineteenth century, with some universities offering degrees or similar-level courses. However, the traditional pharmaceutical education continued in parallel, in the form of apprenticeships and “on the job” experience. The decline of manufacturing in pharmacies, caused by the development of pharmaceutical industry, and the ensuing advisory role of pharmacists led to additional educational reforms in the last 50 or so years. Subjects such as anatomyphysiology, physiopathology and pharmacotherapy were incorporated into the pharmacy courses, which became longer. This reflected the growing body of relevant knowledge and the perceived need to increase the capacity of pharmacists to act as pharmacy-therapeutic advisors to both health professionals and general public. The degrees offered now include Doctorates in Pharmaceutical Sciences as well as Masters and Integrated Masters (IM). The typical duration of an undergraduate degree in Portugal (IM) is now five years. Pharmacists may now receive instruction in social disciplines, such as health psychology, economics and public health. Students should be prepared for lifelong learning, since their formal training cannot provide them with all that they will need in future, thus each individual pharmacist is personally responsible for ‘the maintenance, development and broadening of knowledge, skills and attitudes, to ensure competence as a professional, throughout their career’. The present communication describes the structure of the Pharmaceutical Sciences degree in Portugal, satisfying the needs of the labour market in such health professionals.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio