Publications by authors named "Breno Bittencourt de Brito"

Article Synopsis
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has raised significant health concerns globally, making it essential to understand its clinical and epidemiological traits to inform control strategies.
  • A study in northeastern Brazil analyzed 115 severely ill COVID-19 patients in an ICU, revealing common symptoms such as dyspnea and cough, with many patients having multiple comorbidities, particularly hypertension.
  • Notably, having two or more comorbidities and lower platelet counts were associated with higher mortality, while cough emerged as a surprising protective factor against death.
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Qualitative antibody tests are an easy, point-of-care diagnostic method that is useful in diagnosing coronavirus disease 2019, especially in situations where reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction is negative. However, some factors are able to affect its sensitivity and accuracy, which may contribute to these tests not being used as a first-line diagnostic tool.

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Article Synopsis
  • SARS-CoV-2 infection has significantly disrupted healthcare globally, particularly affecting cancer patients, leading to challenges in diagnosing and managing gastrointestinal cancers due to pandemic-related changes.
  • Health authorities have developed new guidelines to address the specific needs of oncology patients during COVID-19, as they are more prone to severe outcomes from the virus.
  • Vaccination remains the primary prevention strategy against severe COVID-19, with unique considerations for vaccinated cancer patients, including those with gastrointestinal malignancies, which are discussed in this minireview.
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Background: It is known that p53 suppression is an important marker of poor prognosis of cancers, especially in solid tumors of the breast, lung, stomach, and esophagus; liposarcomas, glioblastomas, and leukemias. Because p53 has mouse double minute 2 (MDM2) as its primary negative regulator, this molecular docking study seeks to answer the following hypotheses: Is the interaction between DS-3032B and MDM2 stable enough for this drug to be considered as a promising neoplastic inhibitor?

Aim: To analyze, , the chemical bonds between the antagonist DS-3032B and its binding site in MDM2

Methods: For molecular docking simulations, the file containing structures of MDM2 (receptor) and the drug DS-3032B (ligand) were selected. The three-dimensional structure of MDM2 was obtained from Protein Data Bank, and the one for DS-3032B was obtained from PubChem database.

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Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic, being a global health concern since December 2019 when the first cases were reported. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the COVID-19 causal agent, is a β-coronavirus that has on its surface the spike protein, which helps in its virulence and pathogenicity towards the host. Thus, effective and applicable diagnostic methods to this disease come as an important tool for the management of the patients.

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Functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) are an important and prevalent cause of functional gastrointestinal disorders among children, encompassing the diagnoses of functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome, abdominal migraine, and the one not previously present in Rome III, functional abdominal pain not otherwise specified. In the absence of sufficiently effective and safe pharmacological treatments for this public problem, non-pharmacological therapies emerge as a viable means of treating these patients, avoiding not only possible side effects, but also unnecessary prescription, since many of the pharmacological treatments prescribed do not have good efficacy when compared to placebo. Thus, the present study provides a review of current and relevant evidence on non-pharmacological management of FAPDs, covering the most commonly indicated treatments, from cognitive behavioral therapy to meditation, acupuncture, yoga, massage, spinal manipulation, moxibustion, and physical activities.

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Gastric cancer (GC) is the result of a multifactorial process whose main components are infection by (), bacterial virulence factors, host immune response and environmental factors. The development of the neoplastic microenvironment also depends on genetic and epigenetic changes in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, which results in deregulation of cell signaling pathways and apoptosis process. This review summarizes the main aspects of the pathogenesis of GC and the immune response involved in chronic inflammation generated by .

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Article Synopsis
  • * Recent studies highlight gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting, and suggest that SARS-CoV-2 can spread through fecal-oral routes and aerosol particles, raising concerns about contamination in public spaces, especially hospitals.
  • * The presence of the virus in human feces and its potential transmission through water sources and shared toilets necessitates further research to understand these transmission dynamics and enhance preventive measures.
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Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and epidemiological projections predict growing cancer mortality rates in the next decades. Cancer has a close relationship with the immune system and, although Th17 cells are known to play roles in the immune response against microorganisms and in autoimmunity, studies have emphasized their roles in cancer pathogenesis. The Th17 immune response profile is involved in several types of cancer including urogenital, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and skin cancers.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global emergency, is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The gold standard for its diagnosis is the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, but considering the high number of infected people, the low availability of this diagnostic tool in some contexts, and the limitations of the test, other tools that aid in the identification of the disease are necessary. In this scenario, imaging exams such as chest X-ray (CXR) and computed tomography (CT) have played important roles.

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: The interest of the world scientific community for an effective vaccine against infection arises from its high prevalence and association with many diseases. Moreover, with an immunological response that is not always effective for the eradication of the bacteria and an increasing antibiotic resistance in the treatment of this infection, the search for a vaccine and new therapeutic modalities to control this infection is urgent.: We bring an overview of the infection worldwide, discussing its prevalence, increasing resistance to antibiotics used in its therapy, in addition to the response of the immune system to the infection registered so far.

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Intra-abdominal infections can be classified into uncomplicated or complicated (peritonitis). Peritonitis is divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary. Tertiary peritonitis is the less common but the most severe among peritonitis stratifications, being defined as a recurrent intra-abdominal infection that occurs 48 h after a well-succeeded control of a secondary peritonitis.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is characterized by the Philadelphia chromosome, marking it as the first cancer linked to a specific genetic anomaly, which is crucial for its diagnosis and treatment.
  • - The development of targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has significantly improved survival rates for CML patients, despite potential side effects and issues with treatment discontinuation.
  • - Newer TKIs and immunotherapy are being explored as alternatives due to resistance problems with initial treatments, aiming to provide deeper molecular remission and possible cures for patients with CML.
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Background: Breast milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborns. Hospitalized babies frequently need nutritional support from Human Milk Banks. As bacterial species of the genus are part of the microbiota of healthy donors, they may contaminate samples of pumped breast milk.

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The outbreaks caused by the Aedes aegypti-transmitted dengue virus (DENV), zakat virus (ZIKV), and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) result in a significant impact to the health systems of tropical countries. Furthermore, the occurrence of patients coinfected by at least two of these arboviruses is an aggravating factor in that scenario. On this basis, surveillance tools such as the Rapid Index Survey for Aedes aegypti (LIRAa) are used to estimate vector infestation in order to improve the prediction of human outbreaks.

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Introduction: The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has greatly challenged public health worldwide. A growing number of studies have reported gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. We performed a systematic review of GI symptoms associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as well as of the serum levels of biomarkers related to liver function and lesion in SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals.

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Background: Group B (GBS) is a normal component of the gastrointestinal and genital microbiota in humans and can lead to important infections in newborns.

Aim: To compare GBS isolation and identification methods as well as to assess the antibiotic susceptibility and to identify resistance genes in GBS strains from pregnant women attended in healthcare services from the city of Vitória da Conquista, in Bahia State, Brazil.

Methods: From January 2017 to February 2018, vaginorectal swabs were obtained from 186 participants and the samples were seeded onto chromogenic agar for GBS before and after inoculation in selective broth.

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() is a bacterium that infects more than a half of world's population. Although it is mainly related to the development of gastroduodenal diseases, several studies have shown that such infection may also influence the development and severity of various extragastric diseases. According to the current evidence, whereas this bacterium is a risk factor for some of these manifestations, it might play a protective role in other pathological conditions.

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Lung carcinoma is associated with a high mortality worldwide, being the leading cause of cancer death. It is mainly classified into squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), non-squamous NSCLC, and small cell lung cancer. However, such malignancy has been increasingly subdivided into histological and molecular subtypes to guide treatment.

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Anticancer drug nephrotoxicity is an important and increasing adverse drug event that limits the efficacy of cancer treatment. The kidney is an important elimination pathway for many antineoplastic drugs and their metabolites, which occurs by glomerular filtration and tubular secretion. Chemotherapeutic agents, both conventional cytotoxic agents and molecularly targeted agents, can affect any segment of the nephron including its microvasculature, leading to many clinical manifestations such as proteinuria, hypertension, electrolyte disturbances, glomerulopathy, acute and chronic interstitial nephritis, acute kidney injury and at times chronic kidney disease.

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() is a gram-negative bacterium that infects approximately 4.4 billion individuals worldwide. However, its prevalence varies among different geographic areas, and is influenced by several factors.

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The () infection is a determinant factor in gastric cancer (GC) development. However, the infection outcomes are variable and depend on both host and bacterial characteristics. Some host cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-1Ra, IL-8, IL-10 and tumor necrosis factor-α play important roles in the host immune system response to the pathogen, in the development of gastric mucosal lesions and in cell malignant transformation.

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