Terpenoids, also named terpenes or isoprenoids, are a family of natural products found in all living organisms. Many plants produce terpenoids as secondary metabolites, and these make up a large part ...of essential oils. One of most important characteristic is that the compounds are volatile, have odor and can be used in a variety of applications in different industrial segments and traditional medicine. Brazil has a rich and diverse flora that can be used as a source of research for obtaining new molecules. Within the Brazilian flora, it is worth mentioning the Caatinga as an exclusively Brazilian biome where plants adapt to a specific series of weather conditions and therefore become a great storehouse of the terpenoid compounds to be described herein. Fungal infections have become increasingly common, and a great demand for new agents with low toxicity and side effects has thus emerged. Scientists must search for new molecules exhibiting antifungal activity to develop new drugs. This review aims to analyze scientific data from the principal published studies describing the use of terpenes and their biological applications as antifungals.
Reproduction and fertility are regulated via hormones of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐gonadal (HPG) axis. Control of this reproductive axis occurs at all levels, including the brain and pituitary, and ...allows for the promotion or inhibition of gonadal sex steroid secretion and function. In addition to guiding proper gonadal development and function, gonadal sex steroids also act in negative‐ and positive‐feedback loops to regulate reproductive circuitry in the brain, including kisspeptin neurones, thereby modulating overall HPG axis status. Additional regulation is also provided by sex steroids made within the brain, including neuroprogestins. Furthermore, because reproduction and survival need to be coordinated and balanced, the HPG axis is able to modulate (and be modulated by) stress hormone signalling, including cortiscosterone, from the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis. This review covers recent data related to the neural, hormonal and stress regulation of the HPG axis and emerging interactions between the HPG and HPA axes, focusing on actions at the level of the brain and pituitary.
This paper proposes a gesture recognition method using convolutional neural networks. The procedure involves the application of morphological filters, contour generation, polygonal approximation, and ...segmentation during preprocessing, in which they contribute to a better feature extraction. Training and testing are performed with different convolutional neural networks, compared with architectures known in the literature and with other known methodologies. All calculated metrics and convergence graphs obtained during training are analyzed and discussed to validate the robustness of the proposed method.
The Musa x paradisiaca L. inflorescence, known as banana blossom or banana heart, is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.
Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to ...investigate the antidiabetic activity of aqueous extracts and fractions prepared from the bracts and flowers of Musa x paradisiaca in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats and to chemically characterize the extracts.
Standard aqueous extracts of the flowers, bracts, and their fractions were prepared and their chemical composition was determined tentatively by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode-array detection and mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-MS). Changes in fasting glycemia and oral glucose tolerance were evaluated in STZ-induced diabetic rats (n = 8) treated with aqueous extracts of Musa x paradisiaca (200 mg/kg) for 20 days.
Chemical analyses detected 21 compounds and 17 metabolites were identified, among which were glycosylated and acetylated phenylpropanoids of p-coumaric acid and caffeic acid, as well as a glycosylated flavonol and anthocyanins. Following 15 days of treatment, the bract aqueous extracts and the methanolic fraction of the flower had significant effects on the glycemic profile after glucose load in diabetic rats as compared with the untreated diabetic group.
The results of the present study show the antidiabetic potential of extracts of the flowers and bracts of M. x paradisiaca.
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Highlights • Refeeding after fasting increases plasma osmolality and AVP levels. • Refeeding after fasting increases the activity of AVP neurons in the PVN and SON. • Estrogen modulates the activity ...of a subpopulation of AVP neurons directly in the lateral PVN. • Estrogen modulates the activity of AVP neurons indirectly through vMnPO. • Estrogen modulation on AVP neurons through vMnPO is at least in part via ERα.
Why are measles and rubella returning in Brazil? Borges, Lysandro P; Barreto, Marina Dos S; Santos, Ronaldy S ...
Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências,
01/2023, Letnik:
95, Številka:
suppl 2
Journal Article
Aim
The increase in the number of fungal infections worldwide, coupled with the limitations of current antifungal chemotherapy, demand the development of safe and effective new antifungals. Here, we ...presented the synthesis of a novel acridone (M14) and its antifungal properties against Candida and dermatophytes species.
Methods and Results
A series of 17 acridones was designed, synthesized and tested for its antifungal activity. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by the broth microdilution method. Only the acridone M14 showed growth‐inhibitory activity against reference strains and clinical isolates of Candida and dermatophytes, with MIC range of 7·81–31·25 µg ml−1. Moreover, M14 exhibited fungicidal activity and prevented biofilm formation by C. albicans as well as reduced the viability of preformed biofilms, even at sub‐MICs. The confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis revealed that C. albicans hyphal growth was completely inhibited in the presence of M14. Similarly, there was a severe inhibition on hyphal growth of Trichophyton rubrum. We also found that M14 has relatively low toxicity to human fibroblasts.
Conclusions
The new acridone M14 has antifungal properties against Candida spp. and dermatophytes, and antibiofilm activity against C. albicans. In addition, M14 is relatively selective to fungal cells compared to human normal cells.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Because of its in vitro antifungal activity, anti‐Candida biofilm effect and moderate cytotoxicity towards normal human cell, M14 may serve as a valuable lead compound to develop a new antifungal agent.
Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) gene polymorphism has been associated with an increased risk for breast cancer. IGF-1 is a key regulator of proliferation, cell differentiation and apoptosis. It ...has important mitogenic and anti-apoptotic activities in normal cells and in breast cancer cells, acting synergistically with estrogen to increase neoplastic cell proliferation. This review aims to present the recent finds of IGF-1 gene polymorphism and its relationship with the risk of breast cancer through following the polymorphic dinucleotide repeat cytosine-adenine (CA) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by searching in the PubMed database publications focused studies published from 2010 to 2015 related to IGF-1 gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk. A growing number of studies support an association between IGF-1 gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk with conflicting results, nevertheless elucidation of the patterns of IGF-1 gene expression may permit characterization of women at high-risk for breast cancer, as well as the development of strategies for early diagnosis and efficient treatment against the disease.
Among the various forms of human lung cancer, small cell lung cancer (SCLC) exhibits a characteristic neuroendocrine (NE) phenotype. Neural and NE differentiation in SCLC depend, in part, on the ...action of the basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor human achaete-scute homologue-1 (hASH1). In nervous system development, the Notch signaling pathway is a critical negative regulator of bHLH factors, including hASH1, controlling cell fate commitment and differentiation. To characterize Notch pathway function in SCLC, we explored the consequences of constitutively active Notch signaling in cultured SCLC cells. Recombinant adenoviruses were used to overexpress active forms of Notch1, Notch2, or the Notch effector protein human hairy enhancer of split-1 (HES1) in DMS53 and NCI-H209 SCLC cells. Notch proteins, but not HES1 or control adenoviruses, caused a profound growth arrest, associated with a G1 cell cycle block. We found up-regulation of p21(waf1/cip1) and p27kip1 in concert with the cell cycle changes. Active Notch proteins also led to dramatic reduction in hASH1 expression, as well as marked activation of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1 and ERK2, findings that have been shown to be associated with cell cycle arrest in SCLC cells. These data suggest that the previously described function of Notch proteins as proto-oncogenes is highly context-dependent. Notch activation, in the setting of a highly proliferative hASH1-dependent NE neoplasm, can be associated with growth arrest and apparent reduction in neoplastic potential.
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