Can multitrophic interactions shape morphometry, allometry, and fluctuating asymmetry of seed-feeding insects?

Body size is commonly associated with biological features such as reproductive capacity, competition, and resource acquisition. Many studies have tried to understand how these isolated factors can affect the body pattern of individuals. However, little is known about how interactions among species in multitrophic communities determine the body shape of individuals exploiting the same resource.

Dietary Antioxidants in Coffee Leaves: Impact of Botanical Origin and Maturity on Chlorogenic Acids and Xanthones.

Natural polyphenols are important dietary antioxidants that significantly benefit human health. Coffee and tea have been shown to largely contribute to the dietary intake of these antioxidants in several populations. More recently, the use of coffee leaves to produce tea has become a potential commercial target, therefore prompting studies on the quantification of polyphenols in coffee leaves.

Trade-offs between growth, reproduction and defense in response to resource availability manipulations.

The Brazilian Cerrado is one of the most endangered biomes in the world. We evaluated the sustainability of leaf harvest in one of the most important Cerrado tree species, Stryphnodendron adstringens. The bark of this tree is used as a source of medicinal tannin.

Matching consumer feeding behaviours and resource traits: a fourth-corner problem in food-web theory.

For decades, food web theory has proposed phenomenological models for the underlying structure of ecological networks. Generally, these models rely on latent niche variables that match the feeding behaviour of consumers with their resource traits. In this paper, we used a comprehensive database to evaluate different hypotheses on the best dependency structure of trait-matching patterns between consumers and resource traits.

In vitro targeting of colon cancer cells using spiropyrazoline oxindoles.

We report on the synthesis and biological evaluation of a library of twenty-three spiropyrazoline oxindoles. The antiproliferative activity of the chemical library was evaluated in HCT-116 p53 human colon cancer cell line with eight derivatives displaying good activities (IC<15 μM). To characterize the molecular mechanisms involved in compound antitumoral activity, two spiropyrazoline oxindoles were selected for further studies.

The interplay between population stability and food-web topology predicts the occurrence of motifs in complex food-webs.

In this paper, we analyzed the occurrence of motifs (modules) in empirical food-webs from different ecosystem types. Differently from previous studies, our analysis did not relied on randomized networks with specific a priori assumptions, which has been demonstrated to produce inconsistent patterns. We aimed to evaluate the interplay between population dynamics and food-web topology, and its consequences to module occurrences in complex food-webs.

Reactivation of wild-type and mutant p53 by tryptophanolderived oxazoloisoindolinone SLMP53-1, a novel anticancer small-molecule.

Restoration of the p53 pathway, namely by reactivation of mutant (mut) p53, represents a valuable anticancer strategy. Herein, we report the identification of the enantiopure tryptophanol-derived oxazoloisoindolinone SLMP53-1 as a novel reactivator of wild-type (wt) and mut p53, using a yeast-based screening strategy. SLMP53-1 has a p53-dependent anti-proliferative activity in human wt and mut p53R280K-expressing tumor cells.

Enantiopure Indolizinoindolones with in vitro Activity against Blood- and Liver-Stage Malaria Parasites.

Malaria continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality to this day, and resistance to drugs like chloroquine has led to an urgent need to discover novel chemical entities aimed at new targets. Here, we report the discovery of a novel class of potential antimalarial compounds containing an indolizinoindolone scaffold. These novel enantiopure indolizinoindolones were synthesized, in good-to-excellent yields and excellent diastereoselectivities, by cyclocondensation reaction of (S)- or (R)-tryptophanol and 2-acyl benzoic acids, followed by intramolecular α-amidoalkylation.

Oxazoloisoindolinones with in vitro antitumor activity selectively activate a p53-pathway through potential inhibition of the p53-MDM2 interaction.

One of the most appealing targets for anticancer treatment is the p53 tumor suppressor protein. In half of human cancers, this protein is inactivated due to endogenous negative regulators such as MDM2. Actually, restoring the p53 activity, particularly through the inhibition of its interaction with MDM2, is considered a valuable therapeutic strategy against cancers with a wild-type p53 status.

Synthesis of novel spiropyrazoline oxindoles and evaluation of cytotoxicity in cancer cell lines.

A series of novel spiropyrazoline oxindole derivatives was synthesized by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. The compounds were screened for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cell line (estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-)). Of the nineteen spiropyrazoline oxindoles tested, six compounds have a GI50 below 12 μM The most potent compounds in this series were also evaluated against MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line (ER- and HER2-).