Evaluation of the effects and mechanisms of bioactive components present in hypoglycemic plants

Diabetes mellitus is a disease that is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. In many cases, people do not have access to synthetic drugs and make use of teas of different plants present in different countries, in order to reduce the symptoms. The plant extracts may contain bioactive compounds and may also contain toxic substances harmful to the human body. Much has been published about plants with antidiabetic activity, identifying their bioactive compounds, but there is no work in the literature that identifies the mechanisms of action of the extracts or isolated compounds of the extracts for a better understanding of the chemical reactions that occur in patients with diabetes. Therefore, this study aims to review published works that have tried to show some active mechanism of the different compounds (flavonoids, saponins, polyphenols, vitamins, etc.), to explore these mechanisms through mathematical models that can predict the benefits of these extracts to, in the future, facilitate the application of these natural products into less expensive drugs. It can be concluded that many of the extracts and isolated compounds from different hypoglycemic plants have as main mechanisms the induction of the insulin secretion, the enhancement of the number of beta cells of pancreatic islets, and have antioxidant properties

Could Public Restrooms Be an Environment for Bacterial Resistomes?

PMCID: PMC3547874This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

The Mitochondrial Ca(2+) Uniporter: Structure, Function, and Pharmacology.

Mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake is crucial for an array of cellular functions while an imbalance can elicit cell death. In this chapter, we briefly reviewed the various modes of mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake and our current understanding of mitochondrial Ca(2+) homeostasis in regards to cell physiology and pathophysiology. Further, this chapter focuses on the molecular identities, intracellular regulators as well as the pharmacology of mitochondrial Ca(2+) uniporter complex

Relationship between functional fitness, medication costs and mood in elderly people

Objective: to verify if functional fitness (FF) is associated with the annual cost of medication consumption and mood states (MSt) in elderly people. Methods: a cross-sectional study with 229 elderly people aged 65 years or more at Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Coimbra, Portugal. Seniors with physical and psychological limitations were excluded, as well as those using medication that limits performance on the tests. The Senior Fitness Test was used to evaluate FF, and the Profile of Mood States - Short Form to evaluate the MSt. The statistical analysis was based on Mancova, with adjustment for age, for comparison between men and women, and adjustment for sex, for comparison between cardiorespiratory fitness quintiles. The association between the variables under study was made with partial correlation, controlling for the effects of age, sex and body mass index. Results: an inverse correlation between cardiorespiratory fitness and the annual cost of medication consumption was found (p < 0.01). FF is also inversely associated with MSt (p < 0.05). Comparisons between cardiorespiratory fitness quintiles showed higher medication consumption costs in seniors with lower aerobic endurance, as well as higher deterioration in MSt (p < 0.01). Conclusion: elderly people with better FF and, specifically, better cardiorespiratory fitness present lower medication consumption costs and a more positive MSt

Perivascular Epithelioid Cell Tumor: A Case Report of a Rare Entity

Perivascular epithelioid cell tumor is a rare mesenchymal tumor with myomelanocytic differentiation. It mainly occurs in middle-aged females and can be found at any location. The differential diagnosis is broad but the immunohistochemical biomarkers establish the diagnosis. A 4-year-old girl was referred to a pediatric gastroenterology clinic due to recurrent umbilical pain and the workup revealed biliary lithiasis. She remained in follow-up, asymptomatic, no physical findings, and stable ultrasound. Six years later, a supra-umbilical mass was detected by ultrasound, and the magnetic resonance imaging revealed a highly vascularized intraperitoneal tumor with well-defined limits. Surgical mass resection was performed, and the histology revealed morphological and immunohistochemical aspects of a perivascular epithelioid cell tumor of the abdominal wall. Given the size of the lesion (> 5 cm) and admitting uncertain malignant potential, she was submitted to margin enlargement. Four years later, she remains asymptomatic without clinical or imagiological evidence of relapse.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ACL injuries identifiable for pre-participation imagiological analysis: Risk factors

Identification of pre-participation risk factors for noncontact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries has been attracting a great deal of interest in the sports medicine and traumatology communities. Appropriate methods that enable predicting which patients could benefit from pre- ventive strategies are most welcome. This would enable athlete-specific training and conditioning or tailored equipment in order to develop appropriate strategies to reduce incidence of injury. In order to accomplish these goals, the ideal system should be able to assess both anatomic and functional features. Complementarily, the screening method must be cost-effective and suited for widespread application. Anatomic study protocol requiring only standard X rays could answer some of such demands. Dynamic MRI/CT evaluation and electronically assisted pivot-shift evaluation can be powerful tools providing complementary information. These upcoming insights, when validated and properly combined, envision changing pre-participation knee examination in the near future. Herein different methods (validated or under research) aiming to improve the capacity to identify persons/athletes with higher risk for ACL injury are overviewed.

Genome of the Avirulent Human-Infective Trypanosome—Trypanosoma rangeli

Background: Trypanosoma rangeli is a hemoflagellate protozoan parasite infecting humans and other wild and domestic mammals across Central and South America. It does not cause human disease, but it can be mistaken for the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi. We have sequenced the T. rangeli genome to provide new tools for elucidating the distinct and intriguing biology of this species and the key pathways related to interaction with its arthropod and mammalian hosts.  Methodology/Principal Findings: The T. rangeli haploid genome is ,24 Mb in length, and is the smallest and least repetitive trypanosomatid genome sequenced thus far. This parasite genome has shorter subtelomeric sequences compared to those of T. cruzi and T. brucei; displays intraspecific karyotype variability and lacks minichromosomes. Of the predicted 7,613 protein coding sequences, functional annotations could be determined for 2,415, while 5,043 are hypothetical proteins, some with evidence of protein expression. 7,101 genes (93%) are shared with other trypanosomatids that infect humans. An ortholog of the dcl2 gene involved in the T. brucei RNAi pathway was found in T. rangeli, but the RNAi machinery is non-functional since the other genes in this pathway are pseudogenized. T. rangeli is highly susceptible to oxidative stress, a phenotype that may be explained by a smaller number of anti-oxidant defense enzymes and heatshock proteins.  Conclusions/Significance: Phylogenetic comparison of nuclear and mitochondrial genes indicates that T. rangeli and T. cruzi are equidistant from T. brucei. In addition to revealing new aspects of trypanosome co-evolution within the vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, comparative genomic analysis with pathogenic trypanosomatids provides valuable new information that can be further explored with the aim of developing better diagnostic tools and/or therapeutic targets

The Association of Systemic Microvascular Changes with Lung Function and Lung Density: A Cross-Sectional Study

10.1371/journal.pone.0050224PLoS ONE712