It comes from the sea: macroalgae-derived bioactive compounds with anti-cancer potential

Nature derived compounds represent a valuable source of bioactive molecules with enormous potential. The sea is one of the richest environments, full of skilled organisms, where algae stand out due to their unique characteristics. Marine macroalgae adapt their phenotypic characteristics, such as chemical composition, depending on the environmental conditions where they live. The compounds produced by these organisms show tremendous potential to be used in the biomedical field, due to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and anti-cancer properties. Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases in the world, and the lack of effective treatments highlights the urgent need for the development of new therapeutic strategies. This review provides an overview of the current advances regarding the anti-cancer activity of the three major groups of marine macroalgae, i.e., red algae (Rhodophyta), brown algae (Phaeophyceae), and green algae (Chlorophyta) on pancreatic, lung, breast, cervical, colorectal, liver, and gastric cancers as well as leukemia and melanoma. In addition, future perspectives, and limitations regarding this field of work are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Plasma membrane-specific interactome analysis reveals calpain 1 as a druggable modulator of rescued Phe508del-CFTR cell surface stability

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), a chloride channel normally expressed at the surface of epithelial cells. The most frequent mutation, resulting in Phe-508 deletion, causes CFTR misfolding and its premature degradation. Low temperature or pharmacological correctors can partly rescue the Phe508del-CFTR processing defect and enhance trafficking of this channel variant to the plasma membrane (PM). Nevertheless, the rescued channels have an increased endocytosis rate, being quickly removed from the PM by the peripheral protein quality-control pathway. We previously reported that rescued Phe508del-CFTR (rPhe508del) can be retained at the cell surface by stimulating signaling pathways that coax the adaptor molecule ezrin (EZR) to tether rPhe508del–Na+/H+-exchange regulatory factor-1 (NHERF1) complexes to the actin cytoskeleton, thereby averting the rapid internalization of this channel variant. However, the molecular basis for why rPhe508del fails to recruit active EZR to the PM remains elusive. Here, using a proteomics approach, we characterized and compared the core components of wt-CFTR– or rPhe508del–containing macromolecular complexes at the surface of human bronchial epithelial cells. We identified calpain 1 (CAPN1) as an exclusive rPhe508del interactor that prevents active EZR recruitment, impairs rPhe508del anchoring to actin, and reduces its stability in the PM. We show that either CAPN1 downregulation or its chemical inhibition dramatically improves the functional rescue of Phe508del-CFTR in airway cells. These observations suggest that CAPN1 constitutes an attractive target for pharmacological intervention, as part of CF combination therapies restoring Phe508del-CFTR function.This work was supported by a center grant UID/MULTI/04046/2019 to BioISI and project PTDC/BIA-CEL/28408/2017 and IF2012 to PM, both from FCT, Portugal. AMM was recipient of fellowship SFRH/BD/52490/2014 from BioSYS PhD programme PD65-2012, and PB of fellowship SFRH/BPD/94322/2013.N/

Educação para a liberdade

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A comparison between a manual and automatic method to characterize red blood cell trajectories

The current study proposes an automatic method for the segmentation and tracking of red blood cells (RBCs) flowing through a 100 u m glass capillary. The measurements obtained with the proposed automatic method are compared with a manual tracking method using nonlinear optimization techniques.The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by: PTDC/SAUBEB/108728/2008, PTDC/SAU-BEB/105650/2008 and PTDC/EME-MFE/ 099109/2008 from the FCT (Science and Technology Foundation) and COMPETE, Portugal

Fibrosing Alopecia in a Pattern Distribution: Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Treatment

Fibrosing alopecia in a pattern distribution is a recently recognized type of scarring alopecia, with hair loss in androgens- dependent area. Loss of follicular openings, perifollicular erythema, perifollicular hyperkeratosis and anisotriquia are the trichoscopic clues and follicular lichenoid inflammatory infiltrate the important finding in histopathology. It shares features of androgenetic alopecia and lichen planopilaris. Dermatologists should be familiarized with this entity in order to optimize the diagnosis and provide early treatment to prevent irreversible follicular damage.Alopecia fibrosante em padrão de distribuição androgenética é uma forma clínica de alopecia cicatricial recentemente reconhecida, manifestando-se por rarefacção de cabelo na área dependente de androgénios. Ausência de orifícios foliculares, eritema e hiperqueratose peri-pilar, e anisotriquia são as pistas em tricoscopia e o infiltrado inflamatório liquenóide folicular achado importante em histopatologia. Partilha características de alopecia androgenética e líquen plano pilar. Os dermatologistas devem estar familiarizados com esta entidade, a fim de otimizar o diagnóstico e tratar precocemente, evitando dano folicular irreversível

Mitochondrial SNP markers to monitor evolutionary lineage ancestry in Apis mellifera mellifera conservation programs

The European dark honey bee, Apis mellifera mellifera , is threatened inmost of its native range, in part, due to introgressive hybridization with bees from the highly divergent C-lineage, mainly Apis mellifera carnica and Apis mellifera ligustica (De la Rúa et al. 2009; Pinto et al. 2014). Yet, the maintenance of locally adapted genetic diversity is critical for the population long-term survival and sustainability (De la Rúa et al. 2009; Meixner 2010). The growing awareness that genetic diversity is important for sustainable beekeeping led to implementation of different conservation and breeding programs throughout Europe, which are in need of reliable and costefficient molecular tools to accurately monitor Clineage introgression into A. m. mellifera (De la Rúa et al. 2009; Henriques et al. 2018a, b; Meixner 2010). The large mating flight distances and the polyandrous mating system make it challenging to preserve honey bee subspecies in an open conservation area where intruders can fly in (Neumann et al. 1999). It is therefore necessary to regularly control the genetic ancestry of new or superseded colonies.This work was financed by FEDER (Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional) through the program COMPETE 2020–POCI (Programa Operacional para a Competitividade e Internacionalização) and by Portuguese funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) in the framework of the project BeeHappy (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029871). Melanie Parejo was supported by a mobility fellowship awarded from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fluorescence of a benzothienopyridopyrimidone in solution and in lipid vesicles

Fluorescence properties of a biologically active benzothienopyridopyrimidone in solution and in lipid vesicles are reported. Assays at different pH values (0.5–10) allowed the determination of pKa = 2.0, showing that this compound may be useful as a pH indicator for pH ≤ 4. In lipid vesicles, benzothienopyridopyrimidone locates in a water-rich environment, indicating that it can be carried in the hydrophilic region of liposomes for drug delivery applications.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Aspects of reproduction in pink dentex Dentex gibbosus (Rafinesque, 1810) from the Archipelago of Madeira in the northeast Atlantic

This work describes and identifies the macroscopic, and corresponding microscopic, changes of gonads through the annual reproductive cycle of pink dentex, Dentex gibbosus, from the Madeira Archipelago. This new contribution focused on validating a macroscopic maturity scale for this species using a histological technique. A total of 906 individuals were collected from waters around the Madeira Archipelago between September 1997 and December 2008. A six-stage maturity scale based on macroscopic characteristics was used to classify the gonads. The overall ratio of males to females was 1:1.12. The annual gonad development, together with the analysis of monthly indices (gonadosomatic and hepatoso-matic) and complementary histological observations allowed us to conclude that spawning takes place during the summer months, with a peak in May-June

Chitosan and codfish hydroxyapatite formulation to be used as coating material to circumvent periprosthetic joint infections

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Users satisfaction regarding the service provided in community pharmacies

During the last century, the pharmacy professionals have significantly being professionalized, the user is a high priority and not just limited to the sale of pharmaceuticals. As such, it is necessary to know the users, their needs and expectations, their opinions and preferences. This transversal study, observational, correlational, aimed to: determine the degree of satisfaction with the attendance in community pharmacies, if there is a relationship between factors of a personal nature (age and gender) and satisfaction, trying to identify which aspects improve in order to increase satisfaction levels. The sample consisted of 525 respondents. Data collection was conducted in the period from October 2012 to January 2013 in four locations in northern Portugal. It was used a questionnaire consisting of three parts: the first contained items of personal characterization, the second consisted of the scale "Pharmacy Services Questionnaire" (FSQ) validated for the Portuguese language, developed by Larson et al. (2002) and the last had questions about the respondents' opinion. The results showed that the degree of satisfaction with the services of community pharmacies was in majority an average to 39 % and good for 46,1% . Having in mind the factor by gender, females showed a higher degree of satisfaction. Regarding the age group, older users had the highest degree of satisfaction. It was concluded that, generally, community pharmacies bring a higher degree of satisfaction in the older and the female users. "How the pharmacy professionals explain possible side effects" and "how the pharmacy professional answers your questions.", are the two aspects that must be improved to achieve a higher degree of satisfaction. KEYWORDS Satisfaction, Users, Customer Service, Pharmacotherapy Monitoring, Community Pharmacie