Gold (Au) compounds have been utilized as effective therapeutic agents for the treatment of some inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. However, Au compound use has become limited due to ...associated high incidence of side effects. Recent development of nanomaterials for therapeutic use with Au-containing drugs is improving the beneficial actions and reducing toxic properties of these agents. Lower toxicity in conjunction with anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic effects was reported to occur with gold nanoparticles (AuNP) treatment. However, despite this therapeutic potential, safety of AuNP remains to be determined, since the balance between therapeutic properties and development of adverse effects is not well established. Several variables that drive this benefit-risk balance, including physicochemical characteristics of nanoparticles such as size, shape, surface area, and chemistry, are poorly described in the scientific literature. Moreover, therapeutic and toxicological data were obtained employing nonstandardized or poorly described protocols with different experimental settings (animal species/cell type, route and time of exposure). In contrast, effective and safe application of AuNP may be established only after elucidation of various physicochemical properties of each specific AuNP, and determination of respective kinetics and interaction of compound with target tissue. This critical review conveys the state of the art, the therapeutic use, and adverse effects mediated by AuNP, with primary emphasis on anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic potential, highlighting the limitations/gaps in the scientific literature concerning important points: (i) selection of experimental designs (in vitro and in vivo models) and (ii) consideration of different physicochemical properties of AuNP that are often disregarded in many scientific publications. In addition, prospects and future needs for research in this area are provided.
•We used data mining with ICP-MS to classify grape juice.•An accuracy above 89% was obtained with SVM.•Our method can be used for authentication purposes of other foods.
Authenticity is a substantial ...matter and a current concern of the organic food industry. Organic foods are appreciated by customers because of their benefits to health and friendliness to the environment. However, currently, the most common way for customers to confirm that the organic food they are buying are organic is by certificates and label information, which can be fraudulent. Furthermore, it is interesting to gain insight into organic food composition and visualize which mineral components are fundamental in the differentiation of organic from conventional food. This work addresses these problems using data mining concepts and techniques in a comparative study of organic and conventional food focusing on grape juice, but the proposed methodology can be adapted and employed for analysis of other types of organic food. This article presents a data mining analysis of the elemental composition of 37 grape juice samples collected from different locations in Brazil. The elemental composition of grape juice samples was determined by inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Forty-four elements were determined in the two types of samples, namely organic and conventional grape juice. Special effort was devoted to selecting the variables (elements) that best described each type of grape juice. Predictive models based on support vector machines, neural networks and decision trees were developed to successfully differentiate organic from conventional grape juice samples. We found that, according to the F-score, Chi-square and Random Forest Importance variable selection measures, the components Na, Sn, P, K, Sm and Nd are among the most important variables in the differentiation of organic and conventional grape juice samples. Particularly, the components Na, Sn and K received first, second or third position according to at least two methods. On the other hand, all variable selection methods considered indicated that Ag, Zn, Cr, Be and Pd were among the least important variables for the differentiation of organic and conventional grape juices. SVM yielded an accuracy of 89.18%, both CART and MLP achieved an accuracy of 86.48%.
On November 5th, 2015, Samarco's iron mine dam – called Fundão – spilled 50–60 million m3 of mud into Gualaxo do Norte, a river that belongs to Rio Doce Basin. Approximately 15 km2 were flooded along ...the rivers Gualaxo do Norte, Carmo and Doce, reaching the Atlantic Ocean on November 22nd, 2015. Six days after, our group collected mud, soil and water samples in Bento Rodrigues (Minas Gerais, Brazil), which was the first impacted area. Overall, the results, water samples – potable and surface water from river – presented chemical elements concentration according to Brazilian environmental legislations, except silver concentration in surface water that ranged from 1.5 to 1087 μg L−1. In addition, water mud-containing presented Fe and Mn concentrations approximately 4-fold higher than the maximum limit for water bodies quality assessment, according to Brazilian laws. Mud particle size ranged from 1 to 200 μm. SEM-EDS spot provided us some semi quantitative data. Leaching/extraction tests suggested that Ba, Pb, As, Sr, Fe, Mn and Al have high potential mobilization from mud to water. Low microbial diversity in mud samples compared to background soil samples. Toxicological bioassays (HepG2 and Allium cepa) indicated potential risks of cytotoxicity and DNA damage in mud and soil samples used in both assays. The present study provides preliminary information aiming to collaborate to the development of future works for monitoring and risk assessment.
•Mud presented particle size ranging from 1 to 200 μm.•Low levels of chemical elements in spilled iron ore waste.•High potential mobility for Ba, Sr, Fe, Mn and Al from mud.•Potential cytotoxicity risk for some water and mud samples (HepG2).•Potential DNA damage risk for some mud samples (comet assay).
Mud, soil and water from Bento Rodrigues, the first impacted area of the Samarco's dam burst, were investigated for chemical elements which showed potential mobility and toxic risks.
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Six varieties of rice were exposed to low and high levels of arsenic in the same soil. Their individual responses of expressing phytochelatins have been correlated to inorganic arsenic uptake, ...transport, and accumulation in the rice grain.
The function and behavior of chemical elements in ecosystems and in human health probably comprise one of the most studied issues and a theme of great interest and fascination in science. Hot topics ...are emerging on an annual basis in this field. Bearing this in mind, some promising themes to explore in the field of metals and metalloids in the environment and in toxicology are highlighted and briefly discussed herein.
In this study, a novel method combining dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) and fast liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed and validated for the ...extraction and determination of bisphenol A (BPA) and six bisphenol analogues, namely bisphenol S (BPS), bisphenol F (BPF), bisphenol P (BPP), bisphenol Z (BPZ), bisphenol AP (BPAP) and bisphenol AF (BPAF) in human urine samples. Type and volume of extraction and disperser solvents, pH sample, ionic strength, and agitation were evaluated. The matrix-matched calibration curves of all analytes were linear with correlation coefficients higher than 0.99 in the range level of 0.5–20.0ngmL−1. The relative standard deviation (RSD), precision, at three concentrations (1.0, 8.0 and 15.0ngmL−1) was lower than 15% with accuracy ranging from 90 to 112%. The biomonitoring capability of the new method was confirmed with the analysis of 50 human urine samples randomly collected from Brazilians. BPA was detected in 92% of the analyzed samples at concentrations ranging <LOQ to 10.4ngmL−1. The detection rates of BPS (10%), BPAF (4%) and BPF (2%) were much lower than 92%.
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•A fast method for bisphenol A and six analogues determination in urine is proposed.•Method is based on DLLME sample preparation and LC-MS/MS.•The proposed method was applied for the analysis of urine samples of Brazilians.
•We used data mining with ICP-MS to evaluate origin of rice.•An accuracy above 93% was obtained with SVM and RF algorithms.•Our method can be used for authentication purposes of other food.
Rice is ...one of the most consumed cereals in the world and the main food product in the diet of the Brazilian population. Brazil itself is among the ten largest producers of rice, and most of the harvest comes from the South and Midwest regions. This paper presents a data mining study of samples of rice obtained from producers in Goiás (Midwest region) and Rio Grande do Sul (South region), and builds classification models capable of predicting the geographical origin of a rice sample based on its chemical components. We use three popular classification techniques, support vector machines, random forests and neural networks, along with the F-score formula which measures the relative importance of the input variables. We achieved very good performances for the SVM, RF and MLP models with 93.66%, 93.83% and 90% prediction accuracy, respectively, on the 10-fold cross validation. The F-score shows that Cd(cadmium), Rb(rubidium), Mg(magnesium) and K(potassium) are the four most relevant components for prediction.
The Toca das Onças cave is one of the most important Quaternary mammal deposits of Brazil. Two different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the preservation mode of its skeletal remains: either ...the animals climbed down into the cave, or it could have functioned as a natural trap. Evaluation of pathological modifications on three articulated vertebrae of a single adult giant ground sloth Eremotherium laurillardi reveals a particular type of bone fracture caused by compressive force on the vertebral column, which split the vertebral bodies in the sagittal plane. This diagnosis suggests that the animal accidentally fell into the cave, in accordance with the second hypothesis proposed to the incorporation mode of skeletal remains into the cave.
Lead concentration in whole blood (BPb) is the primary biomarker used to monitor exposure to this metallic element. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health ...Organization define a BPb of 10 μg/dL (0.48 μmol/L) as the threshold of concern in young children. However, recent studies have reported the possibility of adverse health effects, including intellectual impairment in young children, at BPb levels < 10 μg/dL, suggesting that there is no safe level of exposure. It appears impossible to differentiate between low-level chronic Pb exposure and a high-level short Pb exposure based on a single BPb measurement; therefore, serial BPb measurements offer a better estimation of possible health outcomes. The difficulty in assessing the exact nature of Pb exposure is dependent not so much on problems with current analytical methodologies, but rather on the complex toxicokinetics of Pb within various body compartments (i.e., cycling of Pb between bone, blood, and soft tissues). If we are to differentiate more effectively between Pb stored in the body for years and Pb from recent exposure, information on other biomarkers of exposure may be needed. None of the current biomarkers of internal Pb dose have yet been accepted by the scientific community as a reliable substitute for a BPb measurement. This review focuses on the limitations of biomarkers of Pb exposure and the need to improve the accuracy of their measurement. We present here only the traditional analytical protocols in current use, and we attempt to assess the influence of confounding variables on BPb levels. Finally, we discuss the interpretation of BPb data with respect to both external and endogenous Pb exposure, past or recent exposure, as well as the significance of Pb determinations in human specimens including hair, nails, saliva, bone, blood (plasma, whole blood), urine, feces, and exfoliated teeth.
Due to the relatively high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in oil samples, oil spills in aquatic ecosystems release significant amounts of PAHs. Although remediation efforts ...often take place during or immediately after an oil spill incident, a portion of the released PAHs remains in the body of water. A natural phenomenon resulting from the direct exposure of PAHs to sunlight is photodegradation. This article investigates the effect of dioctyl sulfosuccinate (DOSS) on the photodegradation of benzoapyrene (BaP), the most toxic PAH in the priority pollutants list of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). DOSS is a surfactant typically used in the remediation of oil spills. Three lamps with maximum emission wavelengths at 350 nm, 419 nm, and 575 nm were individually and simultaneously used to irradiate aqueous solutions of BaP in the absence and the presence of DOSS. When irradiated with the 419 nm lamp or the 575 lamp, BaP showed no photodegradation. Upon irradiation with the 350 nm lamp and with the simultaneous use of the three lamps, the photodegradation of BaP followed first-order kinetics. Independent of the irradiation wavelength, the presence of DOSS increased the half-life of BaP in the aqueous solution. In the case of the 350 nm lamp, the rate constant of photodegradation in the absence and the presence of DOSS varied from (3.79 ± 0.97) × 10
min
to (1.10 ± 0.13) × 10
min
, respectively. Under simultaneous irradiation with the lamps, the rate constant of photodegradation varied from (1.12 ± 0.35) × 10
min (no DOSS) to (3.30 ± 0.87) × 10
(with DOSS). Since the largest rate constants of photodegradation were observed in the absence of DOSS, the longer half-lives of BaP in the presence of surfactant were attributed to the incorporation of PAH molecules into the DOSS micelles.
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