A review of phytic acid sources, obtention, and applications

Phytic acid (PA), extracted from oilseeds, legumes, cereals, nuts, and pollen by acid solutions under heating and/or stirring and then purified, has shown beneficial health and physiological effects due to its pronounced antioxidant activity and ability to chelate Fe3+ ions. Publications on PA have increased, especially the ones reporting its effect on disease prevention and treatment. Moreover, recent studies have suggested the PA efficacy as a foodborne pathogens inhibitor. Therefore, due to its countless proven properties, phytic acid has gained greater attention than its common classification as just an antinutrient. Past and current studies have been reviewed to provide an overview on PA structure, sources, biosynthesis, extraction, purification, and applications.The authors would like to thank the financial support of CNPq, CAPES (finance code 001) and Fundação Araucária (project code 3462014). Joana S. Amaral is thankful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for their financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020).This work was supported by the CNPq; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [001]; Fundação Araucária [3462014]; Foundation for Science and Technology [UIDB/00690/2020].info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Desempenho funcional de crianças com paralisiacerebral diparéticas e hemiparéicas

The definition ideal of cerebral palsy (PC) is to associate the functional performance with topographical characteristics and alterations of tonus. However, most of the bibliography describes this pathology and its consequences, when they evaluate the functional performance and doesn´t consider the existing differences in these types or uses only one type of PC. In literature, only one bibliography was differentiate the self-care between diplegic and hemiplegic. Evaluating the relation of the functional performance of children with diplegic and hemiplegic P.C. Transversal study with children of three to seven years old who have diplegic and hemiplegic spastics P.C., in both the sexes, and did under physitherapy. Children who didn’t walk and/or had any cognitive deficit were excluded from the research. Guardians were interviewed using part I (functional performance in the areas of self-care and mobility) of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), as well as questionnaire with personal datas of the children. The program BioEstat 4,0 was used, statistical test Mann-Whitney, to verification of the association purpose. α 0,05 was used as statistics inference. The sample was composed for 40 children, 22 diplegic and 18 hemiplegic. The feminine sex participation (53%) was the biggest and carried through treatment associated with the physitherapy (88%). The self-care area (p=0,16) didn´t present difference between the groups, however, mobility, (p=0,02) suggests that the hemiplegic group had a better functional performance. The hemiplegic had better mobility that the diplegic, while in the self-care it was not observed statistic difference between the groups.Na Paralisia Cerebral (PC), o ideal é associar o desempenho funcional com características topográficas e alterações de tônus. Entretanto, grande parte da bibliografia descreve apenas a doença e suas conseqüências, e, quando se avalia o desempenho funcional, não se consideram as diferenças existentes nos tipos de PC ou se utiliza apenas um tipo. Na literatura, foi encontrada apenas uma referência bibliográfica que diferencia diparéticos e hemiparéticos quanto ao seu autocuidado, e nenhuma que compare a mobilidade entre eles. Este trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar a relação do desempenho funcional de crianças com PC diparéticas e hemiparéticas. Para tanto, fez-se um estudo transversal com portadores de PC diparéticos e hemiparéticos espásticos, de ambos os sexos, de três a sete anos, que estavam realizando fisioterapia. Excluíram-se crianças que não andavam e (ou) com déficit cognitivo. Foram realizadas entrevistas com cuidadores, utilizando-se a parte 1 (desempenho funcional nas áreas de autocuidado e mobilidade) do Inventário de Avaliação Pediátrica de Incapacidade (PEDI), assim como um questionário com dados pessoais das crianças. Utilizou-se programa BioEstat 4.0, e o teste estatístico Mann-Whitney, para verificação da associação proposta. Aceitou-se α 0,05 como inferência estatística. A amostra foi composta de 40 crianças, 22 diparéticas e 18 hemiparéticas. A maioria era do sexo feminino (53%) e realizava tratamento associado à fisioterapia (88%). A área de autocuidado (p=0,16) não apresentou diferença entre os grupos. Todavia mobilidade, (p=0,02) sugere que o grupo hemiparético possui melhor desempenho funcional. Concluiu-se que os hemiparéticos possuem melhor mobilidade que os diparéticos, enquanto que, no autocuidado, não se observou diferença estatística entre os grupos

Phytic acid against clostridium perfringens type a: a food matrix study

This study evaluated the inhibitory effect of phytic acid (PA) on the spore germination and vegetative cells growth of Clostridium perfringens type A, as well as its effect in combination with maltodextrin (MD) in cooked sausages. The addition of 1% PA showed a satisfactory inhibition of spores’ germination and vegetative cells growth of C. perfringens in BHI media. The inhibitory effect of 1% PA on vegetative cells was similar to the additive sodium sorbate (SS) at 10%. Subsequently, a mixture of PA-MD (1:1; w/w) was evaluated for the inhibition of C. perfringens spores in cooked sausages. The PA-MD 1.5% and 2.5% had a similar performance to SS 10% and a similar or higher performance than 0.015% NO2 (p < 0.05). In an unprecedented way, the present study demonstrated that PA inhibited spore germination and vegetative cells growth of C. perfringens, highlighting its potential use as an alternative and natural preservative for the meat industry.This research was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-Brazil (CAPES)-Finance Code 001, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico-Brazil (CNPq), and Fundação Araucária-Brazil-Programa Universal Pesquisa Básica e Aplicada (Edital 05/2011, Agreement 346/2014). J.S. Amaral is grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

High levels of immunosuppression are related to unfavourable outcomes in hospitalised patients with rheumatic diseases and COVID-19 : first results of ReumaCoV Brasil registry

Objectives To evaluate risk factors associated with unfavourable outcomes: emergency care, hospitalisation, admission to intensive care unit (ICU), mechanical ventilation and death in patients with immune-mediated rheumatic disease (IMRD) and COVID-19. Methods Analysis of the first 8 weeks of observational multicentre prospective cohort study (ReumaCoV Brasil register). Patients with IMRD and COVID-19 according to the Ministry of Health criteria were classified as eligible for the study. Results 334 participants were enrolled, a majority of them women, with a median age of 45 years; systemic lupus erythematosus (32.9%) was the most frequent IMRD. Emergency care was required in 160 patients, 33.0% were hospitalised, 15.0% were admitted to the ICU and 10.5% underwent mechanical ventilation; 28 patients (8.4%) died. In the multivariate adjustment model for emergency care, diabetes (prevalence ratio, PR 1.38; 95% CI 1.11 to 1.73; p=0.004), kidney disease (PR 1.36; 95% CI 1.05 to 1.77; p=0.020), oral glucocorticoids (GC) (PR 1.49; 95% CI 1.21 to 1.85; p50 years (PR 1.89; 95% CI 1.26 to 2.85; p=0.002), no use of tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) (PR 2.51;95% CI 1.16 to 5.45; p=0.004) and methylprednisolone pulse therapy (PR 2.50; 95% CI 1.59 to 3.92; p<0.001); for ICU admission, oral GC (PR 2.24; 95% CI 1.36 to 3.71; p<0.001) and pulse therapy with methylprednisolone (PR 1.65; 95% CI 1.00 to 2.68; p<0.043); the two variables associated with death were pulse therapy with methylprednisolone or cyclophosphamide (PR 2.86; 95% CI 1.59 to 5.14; p<0.018). Conclusions Age >50 years and immunosuppression with GC and cyclophosphamide were associated with unfavourable outcomes of COVID-19. Treatment with TNFi may have been protective, perhaps leading to the COVID-19 inflammatory process

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

Riociguat treatment in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: Final safety data from the EXPERT registry

Objective: The soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator riociguat is approved for the treatment of adult patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and inoperable or persistent/recurrent chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) following Phase