Symposium 6: Mutualistic Networks Bascompte, Jordi; Aizen, Marcelo; Fontaine, Colin ...
Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America,
2010-JULY, 20100701, July 2010, 2010-07-00, Letnik:
91, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Trophic interactions, as many other relevant ecological processes, are spatially extended. Previous work has pointed out the importance of the spatial domain for understanding food webs. This chapter ...builds on this body of work by considering how space shapes food web structure. It considers two case studies. First, it studies whether the global structure of Doñana's food web (south-eastern Spain) is homogeneous on each habitat type, or whether different habitat types have subwebs with different structure. Second, it considers in several geographic locations in southern Spain the food web formed by the genera Turdus and the plants whose fruits they consume. It looks at how food web structure at each spatial location is related to structure at other locations.
mosquitoes are important vectors for emerging diseases caused by arboviruses, such as chikungunya (CHIKV). These viruses' main transmitting species are
and
, which are present in tropical and ...temperate climatic areas all over the globe. Knowledge of vector characteristics is fundamentally important to the understanding of virus transmission. Only female mosquitoes are able to transmit CHIKV to the vertebrate host since they are hematophagous. In addition, mosquito microbiota is fundamentally important to virus infection in the mosquito. Microorganisms are able to modulate viral transmission in the mosquito, such as bacteria of the
genus, which are capable of preventing viral infection, or protozoans of the
species, which are capable of facilitating virus transmission between mosquitoes and larvae. The competence of the mosquito is also important in the transmission of the virus to the vertebrate host, since their saliva has several substances with biological effects, such as immunomodulators and anticoagulants, which are able to modulate the host's response to the virus, interfering in its pathogenicity and virulence. Understanding the
vector-chikungunya interaction is fundamentally important since it can enable the search for new methods of combating the virus' transmission.
Malaria is nowadays one of the most serious health concerns in a global scale and, although there is an evident increase in research studies in this area, pointed by the vast number of hits and ...leads, it still appears as a recurrent topic every year due to the drug resistance shown by the parasite exposing the urgent need to develop new antimalarial medications. In this work, 38 molecules were synthesized via copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) or “click” chemistry, following different routes to produce 2 different organic azides, obtained from a 4,7 dicholoquinoline, reacted with 19 different commercially available terminal alkynes. All those new compounds were evaluated for their in vitro activity against the chloroquine resistant malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum (W2). The cytotoxicity evaluation was accomplished using Hep G2 cells and SI index was calculated for every molecule. Some of the quinoline derivatives have shown high antimalarial activity, with IC50 values in the range of 1.72-8.66 µM, low cytotoxicity, with CC50>1000 µM and selectivity index (SI) in the range of 20-100, with some compounds showing SI>800. Therefore, the quinolinotriazole hybrids could be considered a very important step on the development of new antimalarial drugs.
Sepsis is characterized by the host's dysregulated immune response to an infection followed by a potentially fatal organ dysfunction. Although there have been some advances in the treatment of ...sepsis, mainly focused on broad-spectrum antibiotics, mortality rates remain high, urging for the search of new therapies. Oxidative stress is one of the main features of septic patients, so antioxidants can be a good alternative treatment.
is a nutraceutical rich in bioactive compounds such as polyphenols and polysaccharides, exhibiting antioxidant, antitumor, and immunomodulatory activities. Here, we investigated the immunomodulatory and antioxidant effects of
aqueous extract in the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) sepsis model. Our data showed that aqueous extract of
reduced systemic inflammatory response and improved bacteria clearance and mice survival. In addition,
decreased the oxidative stress markers in serum, peritoneal cavity, heart and liver of septic animals, as well as ROS production (
and
) and
-Butyl hydroperoxide-induced DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors
. In conclusion, the aqueous extract of
was able to increase the survival of septic animals by a mechanism involving immunomodulatory and antioxidant protective effects.
Sepsis is a systemic disease with life-threatening potential and is characterized by a dysregulated immune response from the host to an infection. The organic dysfunction in sepsis is associated with ...the production of inflammatory cascades and oxidative stress. Previous studies showed that
saliva has anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and antioxidant properties. Considering inflammation and the role of oxidative stress in sepsis, we investigated the effect of pretreatment with salivary gland extract (SGE) from
in the induction of inflammatory and oxidative processes in a murine cecum ligation and puncture (CLP) model. Here, we evaluated animal survival for 16 days, as well as bacterial load, leukocyte migration, and oxidative parameters. We found that the SGE pretreatment improved the survival of septic mice, reduced bacterial load and neutrophil influx, and increased nitric oxide (NO) production in the peritoneal cavity. With regard to oxidative status, SGE increased antioxidant defenses as measured by Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and glutathione (GSH), while reducing levels of the oxidative stress marker malondialdehyde (MDA). Altogether, these data suggest that SGE plays a protective role in septic animals, contributing to oxidative and inflammatory balance during sepsis. Therefore,
SGE is a potential source for new therapeutic molecule(s) in polymicrobial sepsis, and this effect seems to be mediated by the control of inflammation and oxidative damage.
Objective: Differences in efficacy between deoxycholate amphotericin B (d-AmB) and escalating doses of liposomal amphotericin B (L-AmB) were evaluated in a model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis ...in persistently steroid-immunosuppressed rats. Methods: Animals were infected intratracheally with a conidial suspension of a clinical isolate of Aspergillus fumigatus and randomized to receive intravenously 5% dextrose, 1 mg/kg/day of d-AmB or 3, 5 or 10 mg/kg/day of L-AmB. Results: All the antifungal treatments improved survival, although no differences were found among the groups, perhaps because of treatment-related toxicity. In animals surviving long enough to receive at least five doses of antifungal treatment, there were significant reductions in paired lung weight in the 5 and 10 mg/kg/day L-AmB groups as compared with the controls (P = 0.004 and 0.001, respectively) and with the 3 mg/kg/day L-AmB group (P = 0.007 and 0.002, respectively). Significant decreases in fungal biomass, measured indirectly by chitin quantification, were found only in the 10 mg/kg/day L-AmB group as compared with controls (P = 0.003), d-AmB (P = 0.007) and 3 mg/kg/day L-AmB (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Infusion of L-AmB doses as high as 10 mg/kg/day may be a good therapeutic option for the management of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis developing in the context of steroid immunosuppression, although further studies are needed to assess this approach.
O presente trabalho teve como objetivo a aplicação de avaliação diferenciada a partir de uma UEPS, no qual o assunto base foi o estudo da Cinemática Escalar para o ensino de Física no 9º ano. Para ...tanto, criou-se um plano de estudos a ser desenvolvido durante uma viagem realizada até a cidade de Porto Alegre. Neste plano, os alunos deveriam observar aspectos importantes da Cinemática como deslocamento, velocidade média, aceleração e tempo. Por fim, observou-se que os alunos realizaram as relações corretas entre os conceitos da Cinemática durante a avaliação desenvolvida.
PDF
