The aim of this study was to develop a phytocosmetic sunscreen emulsion with antioxidant effect, containing a blend of flavonoid-enriched plant extracts. In vitro sun protection factor, antioxidant ...activity, skin irritation, photostability, cutaneous permeation, and retention of flavonoids were evaluated. Thermodynamically stable emulsions were obtained and tested for sensorial analysis after loading the blend of extracts. The selected emulsion was stable when stored at low temperatures (5 °C), for which after 120 days the concentration of quercetin and rutin were above their limit of quantification, i.e., 2.8 ± 0.39 μg/mL and 30.39 ± 0.39 μg/mL, respectively. Spreadability, low rupture strength and adhesiveness were shown to be similar to a conventional topical product. Higher brittleness, pseudo-plastic, and viscoelastic behaviors were also recorded for the developed phytocosmetic sunscreen. The product presented a critical wavelength of 387.0 nm and ultraviolet rays A and B (UVA/UVB) rate of 0.78, confirming that the developed formulation shows capacity for UVA/UVB protection, protecting skin against damages caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Rutin was shown to permeate the skin barrier and was also quantified in the stratum corneum (3.27 ± 1.92 μg/mL) by tape stripping and retention test (114.68 ± 8.70 μg/mL). The developed flavonoid-enriched phytocosmetic was shown to be non-irritant to skin by an in vitro assay. Our results confirm the antioxidant activity, sun protection, and physical properties of the developed phytocosmetic for topical application.
Ovarian clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas (type I) are thought to develop from endometriosis. ARID1A loss of expression is known to be related to the promotion of the endometriosis ...carcinogenesis. Despite the diverse origins and prognosis of type I and type II carcinomas, surgery followed by platinum-based chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for both. Limited knowledge about the expression of targeted therapies' biomarkers prevents the use of such markers as potential guides for tailored treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the expression of ARID1A gene and target therapies biomarkers (VEGF, PD-L1, and PARP-1) in ovarian clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas and endometriosis, and its relationship with prognosis. Forty-six ovarian clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas, and 24 endometriosis foci samples retrieved from the same surgical specimens were studied. ARID1A, VEGF, PD-L1, and PARP-1 immunohistochemistry expression was compared in carcinomas and endometriosis with regard to the clinicopathological features and prognosis. We found that endometriosis was associated with increased rates of diagnosis of cancer in the initial stages (P = .008). Different levels of expression of all biomarkers were detected in clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas and endometriosis. However, only the VEGF expression level showed a significant increase in the carcinoma group when compared with endometriosis (P = .0002). PARP-1 overexpression correlated with worse progression-free survival (P = .03) and overall survival (P = .01). In conclusion, endometriosis and ovarian clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas exhibited ARID1A loss of expression, and VEGF, PD-L1, and PARP-1 expression. PARP-1 overexpression in clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas was associated with early recurrence and worse overall survival.
•Endometriosis and associated ovarian carcinomas exhibit ARID1A loss of expression.•Endometriosis and associated ovarian carcinomas express VEGF, PD-L1, and PARP.•VEGF expression increases in ovarian carcinomas compared with endometriosis.•PARP overexpression is associated with early recurrence and worst overall survival.
For centuries, bromelain has been used to treat a range of ailments, even though its mechanism of action is not fully understood. Its therapeutic benefits include enzymatic debridement of the ...necrotic tissues of ulcers and burn wounds, besides anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and antioxidant properties. However, the protease is unstable and susceptible to self-hydrolysis over time. To overcome the stability issues of bromelain, a previous study formulated chitosan-bromelain nanoparticles (C-B-NP). We evaluated the optimized nanoformulation for in vitro antioxidant, cell antiproliferative activities and cell migration/proliferation in the scratch assay, comparing it with free bromelain. The antioxidant activity of free bromelain was concentration and time-dependent; after encapsulation, the activity level dropped, probably due to the slow release of protein from the nanoparticles. In vitro antiproliferative activity was observed in six tumor cell lines for free protein after 48 h of treatment (glioma, breast, ovarian, prostate, colon adenocarcinoma and chronic myeloid leukemia), but not for keratinocyte cells, enabling its use as an active topical treatment. In turn, C-B-NP only inhibited one cell line (chronic myeloid leukemia) and required higher concentrations for inhibition. After 144 h treatment of glioma cells with C-B-NP, growth inhibition was equivalent to that promoted by the free protein. This last result confirmed the delayed-release kinetics of the optimized formulation and bromelain integrity. Finally, a scratch assay with keratinocyte cells showed that C-B-NP achieved more than 90% wound retraction after 24 h, compared to no retraction with the free bromelain. Therefore, nanoencapsulation of bromelain with chitosan conferred physical protection, delayed release, and wound retraction activity to the formulation, properties that favor topical formulations with a modified release. In addition, the promising results with the glioma cell line point to further studies of C-B-NP for anti-tumor treatments.
Rosmarinus officinalis belongs to the Lamiaceae family, and its constituents show antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antinociceptive, and antibacterial properties. The aim of this study ...was to develop a topical formulation with R. officinalis extract that had antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. Maceration, infusion, Soxhlet, and ultrasound were used to produce rosemary extracts, which were submitted to antioxidant, compound quantification, cell viability, and antimicrobial assays. Infusion and Soxhlet showed better results in the DPPH assay. During compound quantification, infusion showed promising metabolite extraction in phenolic compounds and tannins, although maceration was able to extract more flavonoids. The infusion and ultrasound extracts affected more strains of skin bacteria in the disk diffusion assays. In the minimum inhibitory concentration assay, the infusion extract showed results against S. aureus, S. oralis, and P. aeruginosa, while ultrasound showed effects against those three bacteria and E. coli. The infusion extract was chosen to be incorporated into a green emulsion. The infusion extract promoted lower spreadability and appropriated the texture, and the blank formulation showed high levels of acceptance among the volunteers. According to the results, the rosemary extract showed promising antioxidant and antimicrobial activity, and the developed formulations containing this extract were stable for over 90 days and had acceptable characteristics, suggesting its potential use as a phytocosmetic. This paper reports the first attempt to produce an oil-in-water emulsion using only natural excipients and rosemary extract, which is a promising novelty, as similar products cannot be found on the market or in the scientific literature.
Purpose
To evaluate adherence to oral hormone therapy (HT) and which factors impact in incomplete adherence and quality of life.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study. Setting: Women’s Hospital ...Prof. Dr. José Aristodemo Pinotti. Participants: women with breast cancer under treatment with oral HT. Main outcome measures: interview and performed an adherence questionnaire (Morisky–Green) and two questionnaires of quality of life (EORTC-QLQ30/BR23). The interviews were done once in a 5-month period.
Results
Fifty-eight women were interviewed: 42 under treatment with tamoxifen (TX) and 16 under treatment with aromatase inhibitor (AI). Twenty-six women (44%) showed high adherence to the treatment, 31 (54%) medium adherence, and 1 (2%) low adherence. Statistical analysis showed a relation between incomplete adherence and systemic therapy side effects as well as higher stages of disease, with no difference between the two drugs. When treatments were compared, this study showed treatment with AI presented less breast symptoms and better role functioning. Quality of life score was high, compared to the reference value.
Conclusions
A low percentage of women with breast cancer were highly adherent to HT treatment. Low/medium adherence was associated with higher stages of disease and systemic side effects. Quality of life had high scores, with better role function and less breast symptoms in women being treated with an AI.
The pregnancy period, with its peculiarities and specific symptoms that may or may not be physiological, can lead to medication use through prescription or even self-medication. This study aimed to ...assess self-medication practices among pregnant women, the most used medications, symptoms reported, and factors associated with this practice.
This was a cross-sectional study conducted with pregnant women with an antenatal care (ANC) appointment in a tertiary teaching hospital referral in women's health. From April 2019 to February 2020, 297 pregnant women were interviewed. Self-medication was considered as the use of any medicine (including medicinal plants (MPs), herbal products, and vitamins) without a medical or dental prescription. The period considered to assess self-medication practice was the last 60 days prior to the study interview.
Among the 297 women interviewed, 107 (36.0%) had practiced self-medication in the previous 60 days. Acetaminophen was the most used medication, and headache was the most frequent symptom reported by self-medicated pregnant women. Pregnant women with high-school (73 (68.2%) (OR = 2.52; 95% CI 1.17-5.43; p = 0.018)) or university-level (23 (21.5%) (OR = 2.82; 95% CI 1.15-6.94; p = 0.024)) education had a higher risk of practicing self-medication when compared to women with lower education. Women in the first gestational trimester (35 (32.7%) (OR = 3.61; 95% CI 1.64-7.96; p = 0.002)) and with two or more pregnancies (87 (81.2%) (OR = 1.96; 95% CI 1.07-3.60; p = 0.029)) were more likely to practice self-medication than pregnant women in the second or third gestational trimester and in the first pregnancy, respectively.
Self-medication was practiced by a considerable proportion of our sample, with the majority being OTC drugs. The factors associated with self-medication can help to improve prevention strategies regarding self-medication during pregnancy.
Many plants are used by the population through popular knowledge passed from generation to generation for the treatment of various diseases. However, there is not always any scientific content ...supporting these uses, which is very important for safety. One of these plants is the fruit of the
genus, which during its processing generates various residues that are discarded, but which also have pharmacological properties. The focus of this review is to survey the pharmacological activities that
genus shows, as well as which part of the plant is used, since there is a lot of richness in its by-products, such as leaf, bark, resin, seed, and peel, which are discarded and could be reused. The main activities of this genus are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antifungal, and antiviral, among others. These properties indicate that this genus could be used in the treatment of several diseases, but there are still not many products available on the market that use this genus as an active ingredient.
Display omitted
•Marine algae are valuable sources of structurally diverse bioactive compounds.•Few studies focus on structural analysis and biological activities of sulfated ...polysaccharides.•Microorganisms are potential producers of enzymes with biotechnological interests.•Microbial enzymes could be used in sulfated polysaccharides modification.
Marine algae are valuable sources of structurally diverse bioactive compounds, among them, the group of sulfated polysaccharides (SPs). As an example of SPs, it could be cited the fucoidans in brown algae, carrageenans in red algae and ulvans in green algae. Since the past decades, SPs have been extracted from algae and evaluated in respect to their beneficial biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antimicrobial, anticoagulant, antithrombotic, immunological and anticancer. This review deals with the presentation of natively bioactive SPs structural features in addition to already employed approaches of SPs structure modifications, such as chemical and physical methods. Moreover, this article presents the advantages and the importance of using enzymatic methods during SPs modification, and particularly, the use of microorganisms as enzymes sources. Enzymes such as hydrolases/glycosidases (e.g. fucoidanase, fucosidase, agarase and carrageenase), lyases, sulfotransferases and sulfatases could be used for this purpose. It has been shown that more studies are necessary to obtain/identify opportunities to create novel, or to intensify, SPs biological properties. Considering the advantages in the use of microbial enzymes in biotransformation processes, studies related to the modification of SPs by microorganisms should be stimulated.
Abstract Microalgae are aquatic unicellular microorganisms that can be found both in freshwater and marine systems; are capable of photosynthesis; and can grow as individual cells or associated in ...chains or small colonies. Microalgae cultivation has gained large momentum among researchers in the past decades due to their ability to produce value metabolites, remarkable photosynthetic efficiency, and versatile nature. The wide technological potential, and thus increasing amount of scattered knowledge, may become the very first barrier that a post graduating student, or any non-specialist reader, will face when introduced to the subject. In this review paper, we access the core aspects of microalgae technology, covering their main characteristics, and comprehensively presenting the main features of their various cultivation modes and biological activity from metabolites.
Based on the previous study, in which nisin and bacterial cellulose were utilized, this new experiment loads nisin into bacterial cellulose (N–BC) and evaluates the morphological characteristics, ...cytotoxicity, antimicrobial activity and stability of the developed system. The load efficiency of nisin in BC was evaluated by an agar diffusion assay, utilizing Lactobacillus sakei, and total proteins. After having found the ideal time and concentration for the loading process, the system stability was evaluated for 100 days at 4, 25 and 37 °C against Staphylococcus aureus and L. sakei. Thus, in this study, there is a system that proves to be efficient, once BC has enhanced the antimicrobial activity of nisin, acting as a selective barrier for other compounds present in the standard solution and protecting the peptide. After 4 h, with 45% of proteins, this activity was almost 2 log10 higher than that of the initial solution. Once the nisin solution was not pure, it is possible to suggest that the BC may have acted as a filter. This barrier enhanced the nisin activity and, as a consequence of the nisin loading, a stable N–BC system formed. The N–BC could create meaningful material for pharmaceutical and food applications.
PDF
