Natural dietary agents have attracted considerable attention due to their role in promoting health and reducing the risk of diseases including cancer. Ginger, one of the most ancient known spices, ...contains bioactive compounds with several health benefits. 6‐Gingerol constitutes the most pharmacologically active among such compounds. The aim of the present work was to review the literature pertaining to the use of ginger extract and 6‐gingerol against tumorigenic and oxidative and inflammatory processes associated with cancer, along with the underlying mechanisms of action involved in signaling pathways. This will shed some light on the protective or therapeutic role of ginger derivatives in oxidative and inflammatory regulations during metabolic disturbance and on the antiproliferative and anticancer properties. Data collected from experimental (in vitro or in vivo) and clinical studies discussed in this review indicate that ginger extract and 6‐gingerol exert their action through important mediators and pathways of cell signaling, including Bax/Bcl2, p38/MAPK, Nrf2, p65/NF‐κB, TNF‐α, ERK1/2, SAPK/JNK, ROS/NF‐κB/COX‐2, caspases‐3, ‐9, and p53. This suggests that ginger derivatives, in the form of an extract or isolated compounds, exhibit relevant antiproliferative, antitumor, invasive, and anti‐inflammatory activities.
Citrinin against breast cancer: A cytogenotoxicological study Oliveira Filho, José Williams Gomes; Andrade, Teresinha de Jesus Aguiar dos Santos; Lima, Rosália Maria Tôrres ...
Phytotherapy research,
January 2021, 2021-Jan, 2021-01-00, 20210101, Letnik:
35, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Breast cancer is one of the most lethal types of cancer and a leading cause of mortality among Women worldwide. Citrinin (CIT), a polyketide extracted from the fungus Penicillium citrinum, exhibits a ...wide range of biological activities such as antibacterial, antifungal, and cytotoxic effects. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the antitumoral effects of CIT against 7,12‐dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA)‐induced mammary carcinoma in Swiss mice For this, CIT, DMBA and the standard cyclophosphamide (CPA) induced behavioral changes in experimental animals, and these changes were screened by using the rota rod and open field tests. Additionally, hematological, biochemical, immuno‐histochemical, and histopathological analyses were carried out. Results suggest that CIT did not alter behavioral, hematological, and biochemical parameters in mice. DMBA induced invasive mammary carcinoma and showed genotoxic effects in the breasts, bone marrow, lymphocytes, and hepatic cells. It also caused mutagenic effects in the formation of micronuclei, bridges, shoots, and binucleate cells in bone marrow and liver. CIT and CPA genotoxic effects were observed after 3 weeks of therapy, where CIT exhibited a repair capacity and induced significant apoptotic damage in mouse lymphocytes. In conclusion, CIT showed antitumoral effects in Swiss mice, possibly through induction of apoptosis.
We investigated the impact of socioeconomic inequalities on chronic pain of older adults according to sex.
This population-based cross-sectional study used survey data from the 2015 cohort of the ...SABE Study (Saúde, Bem-estar e Envelhecimento), Brazil. Socioeconomic status was examined at individual level (educational attainment, financial independence, and race/skin color) and contextual level (Human Development Index). We analyzed the association between variables using the chi-square test and the Rao & Scott correction. Logistic regression models were adjusted for risk factors.
The study comprised 1,207 older adults representing 1,365,514 residents 60≥ years of age in the city of São Paulo. Chronic pain was more frequent in females (27.2%) than in males (14.5%) (p<0.001). Females evidenced the worst self-perception of pain, especially those of the most vulnerable socioeconomic strata. Social inequalities impacted chronic pain in different ways between sexes. Among females, unfavorable living conditions (OR = 1.59; 95%CI 1.07; 2,37) and Blacks/Browns females were most likely to have chronic pain (OR = 1.32; 95%CI 1.01; 1.74). Among males, only the individual aspects were significant for the occurrence of chronic pain, such as low educational attainment (OR = 1.88; 95%CI 1.16; 3.04) and insufficient income (OR = 1.63; 95%CI 1.01; 2.62).
The potential for inequality was greater for females than for males reflecting structural factors inherent in a highly unequal society. Conclusions: Equity-oriented health policies are critical to preventing pain in human aging.
Serological tests are preferentially used for the diagnosis of Chagas’ disease (CD) during the chronic phase because of the low parasitemia and high anti-
Trypanosoma cruzi
antibody titers. However, ...the current methods showed several disadvantages, as contradictory or inconclusive results, mainly related to the characteristics of the antigens used, in general, crude or whole parasites, but also due to antigen production protocol and the experimental conditions used in serological tests. Thus, better-quality serological assays are urgently needed. Here, we performed a wide immunogenomic screen strategy to identify conserved linear B-cell epitopes in the predicted proteome based on genome sequence from
T
.
cruzi
strains to will be applied as synthetic peptides in the serodiagnosis of the chronic CD. Three B-cell epitopes derived from mucin-associated surface protein (MASP) family, expressed in both infective parasite stages, trypomastigote and amastigotes, conserved in
T
.
cruzi
strains, and highly divergent as compared with
Leishmania
spp. proteome, were selected for this study. The results demonstrated that synthetic peptide 2 and a mixture of peptides (Mix II: peptides 2 and 3) were able to identify all chronic CD cases, indeterminate or Chagas cardiomyopathy clinical presentation, and simultaneously able to discriminate infections caused by
Leishmania
parasites, with high accuracy (98.37 and 100.00%, respectively) and agreement (kappa index = 0.967 and 1.000, respectively) with direct methods as compared to current diagnostic pipeline performed by reference laboratories in Brazil. This study represents an interesting strategy for the discovery of new antigens applied to serologic diagnosis of infectious diseases and for the technological development of platforms for large-scale production of diagnostic tests.
Intrahost genetic diversity is thought to facilitate arbovirus adaptation to changing environments and hosts, and it might also be linked to viral pathogenesis. Dengue virus serotype 2 (DENV-2) has ...circulated in Brazil since 1990 and is associated with severe disease and explosive outbreaks. Intending to shed light on the viral determinants for severe dengue pathogenesis, we sought to analyze the DENV-2 intrahost genetic diversity in 68 patient cases clinically classified as dengue fever (
= 31), dengue with warning signs (
= 19), and severe dengue (
= 18). Unlike previous DENV intrahost diversity studies whose approaches employed PCR, here we performed viral whole-genome deep sequencing from clinical samples with an amplicon-free approach, representing the real intrahost diversity scenario. Striking differences were detected in the viral population structure between the three clinical categories, which appear to be driven mainly by different infection times and selection pressures, rather than being linked with the clinical outcome itself. Diversity in the NS2B gene, however, showed to be constrained, irrespective of clinical outcome and infection time. Finally, 385 non-synonymous intrahost single-nucleotide variants located along the viral polyprotein, plus variants located in the untranslated regions, were consistently identified among the samples. Of them, 124 were exclusively or highly detected among cases with warning signs and among severe cases. However, there was no variant that by itself appeared to characterize the cases of greater severity, either due to its low intrahost frequency or the conservative effect on amino acid substitution. Although further studies are necessary to determine their real effect on viral proteins, this heightens the possibility of epistatic interactions. The present analysis represents an initial effort to correlate DENV-2 genetic diversity to its pathogenic potential and thus contribute to understanding the virus's dynamics within its human host.
Background
The objective of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of plasma‐based liquid biopsy for the detection of the BRAF V600E mutation in circulating cell‐free DNA from patients ...with ameloblastoma.
Methods
This is a prospective diagnostic accuracy study conducted based on the Standards for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy recommendations. The index test was the plasma‐based liquid biopsy, whereas the reference standard was the conventional tissue biopsy. The target condition was the detection of BRAF V600E mutation. The study population consisted of individuals with ameloblastoma recruited from three tertiary hospitals from Brazil. A negative control group composed of three individuals with confirmed wild‐type BRAF lesions were included. The participants underwent plasma circulating cell‐free DNA and tumor tissue DNA isolation, and both were submitted to using competitive allele‐specific TaqMan™ real‐time polymerase chain reaction technology mutation detection assays. Sensitivity and specificity measures and positive and negative predictive values were calculated.
Results
Twelve patients with conventional ameloblastoma were included. BRAF V600E mutation was detected in 11/12 (91.66%) ameloblastoma tissue samples. However, the mutation was not detected in any of the plasma‐based liquid biopsy circulating cell‐free DNA samples in both ameloblastomas and negative control group. The sensitivity and specificity of plasma‐based liquid biopsy for the detection of the BRAF V600E mutation in circulating cell‐free DNA was 0.0 and 1.0, respectively. The agreement between index test and reference standard results was 26.66%.
Conclusion
Plasma‐based liquid biopsy does not seem to be an accurate method for the detection of the BRAF V600E mutation in circulating circulating cell‐free DNA from patients with ameloblastoma, regardless of tumor size, anatomic location, recurrence status, and other clinicopathological features.
In this work, multivariate optimization techniques were applied to develop an acid digestion procedure in digester block using “cold finger” as reflux system to determine minerals in almond pulp ...samples by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Two-level full factorial design and Box-Behnken design were applied to evaluate and optimize the factors involved in the acid digestion process. In both experimental designs, Function D and Function MR multiple responses were used to establish the method condition for all analytes and with greater digestion efficiency. Two apple and spinach leaves certified reference materials were analyzed to confirm the proposed method accuracy. The digestion efficiency was evaluated by residual carbon content which showed 1.32-1.77% range. The concentration values found for each element in almond pulp collected in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in mg 100 g-1 were: 3.08 (Ca), 0.209 (Cu), 0.407 (Fe), 356 (K), 21.5 (Mg), 0.096 (Mn), 34.4 (P) and 0.289 (Zn). The developed method was simple and efficient for almond pulp mineral composition evaluation. This unconventional fruit has nutritional relevance with future application for new food recipes and pharmaceutical products formulation.
Immunosuppressive therapy used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is known to reduce vaccine immunogenicity.
This study aimed to 1) predict the humoral response elicited by ...SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in IBD patients based on their ongoing treatment and other relevant patient and vaccine characteristics and 2) assess the humoral response to a booster dose of mRNA vaccine.
We conducted a prospective study in adult IBD patients. Anti-spike (S) IgG antibodies were measured after initial vaccination and again after one booster dose. A multiple linear regression model was created to predict anti-S antibody titer following initial complete vaccination in different therapeutic groups (no immunosuppression, anti-TNF, immunomodulators and combination therapy). A two-tailed Wilcoxon test for two dependent groups was performed to compare anti-S values before and after the booster dose.
Our study included 198 IBD patients. The multiple linear regression identified anti-TNF and combination therapy (versus no immunosuppression), current smoking, viral vector (versus mRNA) vaccine and interval between vaccination and anti-S measurement as statistically significant predictors of the log anti-S antibody levels (p < 0.001). No statistically significant differences were found between no immunosuppression and immunomodulators (p = 0.349) and between anti-TNF and combination therapy (p = 0.997). Statistically significant differences for anti-S antibody titer before and after the booster dose of mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine were found, both for non-anti-TNF and anti-TNF groups.
Anti-TNF treatment (either alone or in combination therapy) is associated with lower anti-S antibody levels. Booster mRNA doses seem to increase anti-S both in non-anti-TNF and anti-TNF treated patients. Special attention should be paid to this group of patients when planning vaccination schemes.
Equine parvovirus‐hepatitis is detected in South America, Brazil Moraes, Maria Vitória dos Santos; Salgado, Caroline Roberta Soares; Godoi, Tatianne Leme Oliveira Santos ...
Transboundary and emerging diseases,
September 2022, 2022-09-00, 20220901, Letnik:
69, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The equine parvovirus‐hepatitis (EqPV‐H), recently identified in association with serum hepatitis in horses (also known as Theiler's disease), has been so far described in horses from North America, ...Asia and Europe. There is no information regarding its circulation in South America. Our retrospective study (2013–2016) screened by EqPV‐H nested‐PCR a total of 96 Brazilian horses grouped according to previous status of infection: Known to be positive for one or more horse “hepatitis viruses” (equine hepacivirus, equine pegivirus—EPgV and Theiler's disease‐associated virus) and known to be negative. Serum biochemical parameters (aspartate aminotransferase, gamma‐glutamyl transferase and glutamate dehydrogenase) were evaluated in EqPV‐H positive horses. Molecular characteristics of the isolates were analyzed by DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. EqPV‐H DNA was detected in 12.5% (12/96) of horses from 46.6% (7/15) of the farms evaluated. Similar results were obtained between coinfected group (12.3%, 7/57) and non‐coinfected group (12.8%, 5/39). Coinfection with EPgV was the most frequent (5/7). Altered serum biochemical parameters suggested a subclinical hepatopathy in some animals (3/12), but the majority presented no clinical or laboratory signs of infection. Nucleotide identity was higher than 94% in comparison with previous isolates. In conclusion, we demonstrated, for the first time in South America, the circulation of EqPV‐H. The Brazilian isolates presented a low genetic variability, thus corroborating previous evidence.
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