Energy metabolism: gluconeogenesis and oxidative phosphorylation

Most animal cells are able to meet their energy needs from the oxidation of various types of compounds: sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, but some tissues and cells of our body depend exclusively on glucose and the brain is the largest consumer of all. That is why the body has mechanisms in order to keep glucose levels stable. As it decreases, the degradation of hepatic glycogen occurs, which maintains the appropriate levels of blood glucose allowing its capture continues by those tissues, even in times of absence of food intake. But this reserve is limited, so another metabolic pathway is triggered for glucose production, which occurs in the kidneys and liver and is called gluconeogenesis, which means the synthesis of glucose from non-glucose compounds such as amino acids, lactate, and glycerol. Most stages of glycolysis use the same enzymes as glycolysis, but it makes the opposite sense and differs in three stages or also called deviations: the first is the conversion of pyruvate to oxaloacetate and oxaloacetate to phosphoenolpyruvate. The second deviation is the conversion of fructose 1,6 biphosphate to fructose 6 phosphate and the third and last deviation is the conversion of glucose 6 phosphate to glucose

Socioeconomic and psychosocial predictors of dental healthcare use among Brazilian preschool children

Abstract\ud \ud \ud \ud Background\ud Disparities in utilization of oral healthcare services have been attributed to socioeconomic and individual behavioral factors. Parents’ socioeconomic status, demographics, schooling, and perceptions of oral health may influence their children’s use of dental services. This cross-sectional study assessed the relationships between socioeconomic and psychosocial factors and the utilization of dental health services by children aged 1–5 years.\ud \ud \ud \ud Methods\ud Data were collected through clinical exams and a structured questionnaire administered during the National Day of Children’s Vaccination. A Poisson regression model was used to estimate prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals.\ud \ud \ud \ud Results\ud Data were collected from a total of 478 children. Only 112 (23.68%) were found to have visited a dentist; 67.77% of those had seen the dentist for preventive care. Most (63.11%) used public rather than private services. The use of dental services varied according to parental socioeconomic status; children from low socioeconomic backgrounds and those whose parents rated their oral health as “poor” used dental services less frequently. The reason for visiting the dentist also varied with socioeconomic status, in that children of parents with poor socioeconomic status and who reported their child’s oral health as “fair/poor” were less likely to have visited the dentist for preventive care.\ud \ud \ud \ud Conclusion\ud This study demonstrated that psychosocial and socioeconomic factors are important predictors of the utilization of dental care services.The authors would like to thank all of the participating children and parents for their cooperation, and the Municipal Health Authorities of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, for the information and authorizations related to this study

An exploratory study of short-term camping in Antarctica: Hormonal and mood states changes

Long-term Antarctic expedition’s studies indicated harmful or positive behavioral and psychophysiological adaptive changes that arise from adversities in isolated, confined, and extreme environments. Whereas most of the published studies focused on overwintering situations, most Brazilian Antarctic Program summer expeditions consist of short-term stays. We evaluated the influence of a permanence in Antarctic short-term (13-day) summer camp on the hormonal responses and mood states in eight volunteers. Data collection was carried out at the beginning (initial measure, days 3 to 5) and the end (final measurement, days 10 to 12) of the camping. Morning and evening samples of saliva were obtained to measure the testosterone and cortisol concentrations. Morning blood drops were used to determine thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroxine (T4) concentration. The volunteers also answered a mood states questionnaire. During the short-term camp, T4 (3.92 ± 0.75 vs 2.21 ± 0.71 μg.dL-1) and T4/TSH (3.16 ± 0.97 vs 1.79 ± 0.74 AU) reduced, without concomitant changes in TSH (1.28 ± 0.17 vs 1.30 ± 0.09 μU.mL-1), and salivary cortisol increased (2,392 ± 1,153 vs 4,440 ± 1,941 pg.mL-1) resulting in greater cortisol amplitude (calculated from the difference between morning and evening measurement, 1,400 ± 1,442 vs 3,230 ± 2,046). In men, testosterone increased as well (26.2 ± 12.5 vs 67.8 ± 45.8, all differences with P<0.05). There was a moderate effect in mood states evidenced by increased anger and fatigue, and reduced vigor. At the end of the camp, the change in cortisol correlated with anger, and the final cortisol values with anger and tension. We concluded that staying in a short-term summer camp in Antarctica induced endocrine and mood state changes, indicators of stress reaction

Political, Historical and Social Features of the Human Right to Health: A Brief Interdisciplinary Review of the Literature

The consecration of the right to physical and mental integrity at the time of the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1946 and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN) in 1948 established the human right of access to health. Conversely, the practical guarantee of this right has gone through many nuances since then, so that today the process of its implementation is closely related to the political, historical and social aspects of each country, demanding from the administrative power an interdisciplinary look for this issue. The problem that involves this conjuncture drives the researchers of this field to question themselves: what is the role of the State in this right? What is the performance of health professionals in fact? Is it possible to achieve the universality of human rights in an economically and culturally globalized world? In the light of the above, this narrative review aimed to collect in the literature the scenarios that permeate this reality providing tacit examples of how the human right to health is shaped according to the conjunctures of insertion of each community that tries to implement i

Hidratação: Conceitos e Formas de Avaliação

Apesar da abundância da água no nosso corpo, devemos controlá-la dentro de limites estreitos, sendo que o corpo é muito menos capaz de lidar com a restrição da ingestão de água do que de alimentos. O consumo de líquidos é regulado pela sede e a ingestão de água, como resposta a um déficit de líquidos, é essencial para a sobrevivência. Devido à necessidade da manutenção do estado de hidratação, torna-se necessária sua avaliação antes, durante e depois dos exercícios físicos. A avaliação do conteúdo da água corporal e da osmolalidade plasmática são considerados como métodos “padrão-ouro” para avaliação do estado de hidratação, porém existem outros métodos de análise que são mais práticos e apresentam menor custo para realização. Assim, o objetivo desse estudo foi selecionar e apresentar resultados e conceitos presentes na literatura em relação à necessidade da hidratação durante o exercício e apresentar os principais métodos de análise do estado de hidratação. Os resultados mostraram não haver um consenso nas discussões sobre as melhores estratégias de hidratação durante o exercício e que as análises da osmolalidade do plasma e das diferenças na massa corporal provavelmente são ainda as melhores e mais precisas formas de avaliação do estado de hidratação, no caso da impossibilidade de avaliar o conteúdo total da água corporal

Genomic Analyses, Gene Expression and Antigenic Profile of the Trans-Sialidase Superfamily of Trypanosoma cruzi Reveal an Undetected Level of Complexity

The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, a highly debilitating human pathology that affects millions of people in the Americas. The sequencing of this parasite's genome reveals that trans-sialidase/trans-sialidase-like (TcS), a polymorphic protein family known to be involved in several aspects of T. cruzi biology, is the largest T. cruzi gene family, encoding more than 1,400 genes. Despite the fact that four TcS groups are well characterized and only one of the groups contains active trans-sialidases, all members of the family are annotated in the T. cruzi genome database as trans-sialidase. After performing sequence clustering analysis with all TcS complete genes, we identified four additional groups, demonstrating that the TcS family is even more heterogeneous than previously thought. Interestingly, members of distinct TcS groups show distinctive patterns of chromosome localization. Members of the TcSgroupII, which harbor proteins involved in host cell attachment/invasion, are preferentially located in subtelomeric regions, whereas members of the largest and new TcSgroupV have internal chromosomal locations. Real-time RT-PCR confirms the expression of genes derived from new groups and shows that the pattern of expression is not similar within and between groups. We also performed B-cell epitope prediction on the family and constructed a TcS specific peptide array, which was screened with sera from T. cruzi-infected mice. We demonstrated that all seven groups represented in the array are antigenic. A highly reactive peptide occurs in sixty TcS proteins including members of two new groups and may contribute to the known cross-reactivity of T. cruzi epitopes during infection. Taken together, our results contribute to a better understanding of the real complexity of the TcS family and open new avenues for investigating novel roles of this family during T. cruzi infection

Overview of University Actions Aimed at The Nutrition of Two Indigenous Communities In The Interior of The State of Mato Grosso Do Sul – Brazil: Report of Experience In Public Policies

The diet composed of adequate food is reported in the literature as one of the aspects of health promotion and maintenance, and it is the duty and obligation of the State to promote public policies that seek to meet these needs of the population. However, due to a number of factors, the minority or vulnerable populations end up not benefiting from a good part of the projects in force in Brazil. Thus, this work aimed to conduct a case study with two indigenous communities living in the interior of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, listing the main points related to food practices, evaluation of the state of health in force and measures that help adherence to good food practices. The largest target audience was children from 0 (zero) to 12 (twelve) years, totaling 190 (one hundred and ninety), followed by newborns and puerperals who totaled 14 (fourteen) family nuclei and the elderly population of the community, which totaled 15 (fifteen). The service team was composed of Nutritionist, Health Agent, Social Worker and Nutrition Intern professionals. Several activities were developed, occurring according to the public attended during the different days of visit in the villages, mainly home visits, community actions such as vaccination campaigns, lectures and collective guidance. It is concluded that the measures adopted in public policies related to feeding the indigenous community is a powerful tool to provide the benefits for a better quality of life, well-being and maintenance of the health of indigenous peoples

Food Science from the Perspective of the Nutrition Professional

This work had as thematic the study in analysis of foods from the perspective of the nutrition professional. The objective of the research was to seek the training of this professional for the then analysis of the performance in quality control and formulation of products, with the perspective of assistance to projects carried out on site. This research was conducted in a community cafeteria located in a university in the interior of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul - Brazil. As a data collection tool, preparation technical sheets were used in which costs were collected, the preparation order, and the nutritional value provided. Sensory observation was used as an analysis of the data in order to measure and analyze and interpret the reactions of food and material characteristics. It appears that with the identification, attributions and activities developed by a nutritionist in the area, it became possible to analyze the processing of raw material and industrialized food products, according to the needs presented by the site. As for the points not reached were not due to any other factors than those related to the specificities of the research site, which did not prevent the acquisition of theoretical, practical, scientific, social and environmental knowledge of the points concerning the area of action of the nutritionist professional within the field of food science