Publications by authors named "Echeverri F"

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease are neglected tropical diseases that affect millions worldwide. Despite the high morbidity associated with these infections, current treatments are often highly toxic and are showing diminishing efficacy. Thus, new therapeutic options are urgently needed.

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Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterial pathogen that causes bloodstream infections, pneumonia, and skin abscesses and is the primary pathogen responsible for medical devices associated with biofilm infections, accounting for approximately 70 % of cases. Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated this microorganism as a top priority due to its role in causing over 20,000 bacteremia-related deaths in the US each year. The issue of pathogen resistance to antibiotics, mainly by a biofilm, further complicates these infections since biofilms render the bacterial colony impervious to antibiotics.

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Background: According to the WHO, 12 bacteria cause numerous human infections, including Enterobacteriaceae Klebsiella pneumoniae, and thus represent a public health problem. Microbial resistance is associated with biofilm formation; therefore, it is critical to know the biofilm-inducing potential of various compounds of everyday life. Likewise, the reversibility of biofilms and the modulation of persister cells are important for controlling microbial pathogens.

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A promising strategy for developing novel therapies against tropical diseases, including malaria, leishmaniasis, and trypanosomiasis, is to detect biological targets such as trypanothione reductase, a vital parasite enzyme that regulates oxidative stress. This enzyme is highly selective and conserved in the Trypanosotidae family and has an ortholog in the Plasmodium genus. Previous studies have established that an isosteric replacement of naphthoquinone's carbonyl group with a sulfone group leads to compounds with high bioactivity and selectivity (half-maximal inhibitory concentration = 3 μM against intracellular amastigotes of , selectivity index = 153 over monocytes U-937).

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In the last decade, the World Health Organization has driven the development of drugs for topical use in patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), the most prevalent clinical form of leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease. The chemicals C I, TC1, and TC2 were reported as promising antileishmanial drugs. We aimed to develop a topical nanoformulation that enhances the advantageous effect of C I, TC1, and TC2, guaranteeing higher stability and bioavailability of the pharmacologically active components through the topical route.

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Canine cutaneous leishmaniasis (CCL) is an emerging zoonotic infection endemic in several countries of the world. Due to variable response to therapy and frequency of relapses, a more effective, safer, and inexpensive treatment is needed. Recently, it was reported that the hederagenin glucoside saponins (SS) and chromane-derived hydrazone (TC2) combined in a 1:1 ratio has high potential in antileishmanial therapy since both compounds alter the survival of Leishmania and the ability to infect adjacent macrophage.

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We report that intra-islet glucagon secreted from α-cells signals through β-cell glucagon and GLP-1 receptors (GcgR and GLP-1R), thereby conferring to rat islets their competence to exhibit first-phase glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). Thus, in islets not treated with exogenous glucagon or GLP-1, first-phase GSIS is abolished by a GcgR antagonist (LY2786890) or a GLP-1R antagonist (Ex[9-39]). Mechanistically, glucose competence in response to intra-islet glucagon is conditional on β-cell cAMP signaling because it is blocked by the cAMP antagonist prodrug Rp-8-Br-cAMPS-pAB.

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Isoflavonoid phytoalexins (isoflavones: genistein, 2'-hydroxygenistein, and daidzein; isoflavanones: dalbergioidin and kievitone; coumestrol; pterocarpans: phaseollidin and phaseollin; and the isoflavan: phaseollinisoflavan) production in response to the application of eleven 1-oxo-indane-4-carboxylic acid derivatives (indanoyl esters and indanoyl amino acids conjugates), in cotyledons and hypocotyl/root of two common bean ( L.) cultivars was evaluated. The content of isoflavonoids depended on the cultivar, the treated tissue, the time after induction, the structure and concentration of the elicitor.

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Through bioguided assays, the leishmanicidal and trypanocidal effects of an ethanol extract, seven fractions, and two pure substances obtained from Amshoff sawdust were established. The effectiveness of the two metabolites was confirmed in a hamster model of cutaneous Leishmaniasis by and in Balb/c mice infected by . , 3,5-dimethoxystilbene was the most active against amastigotes, with a median lethal concentration (LC) of 4.

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Chalcones are a group of natural products with many recognized biological activities, including antiparasitic activity. Although a lot of chalcones have been synthetized and assayed against parasites, the number of structural features known to be involved in this biological property is small. Thus, in the present study, 21 chalcones were synthesized to determine the effect of substituents in the A and B rings on the activity against Leishmania braziliensis, Trypanosoma cruzi, and Plasmodium falciparum.

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Etnopharmacological Relevance: Eucalyptus tereticornis Sm. (Eu) is a plant species used in traditional medicine to treat diabetes mellitus. Eu leaf extracts have been shown to regulate immuno-metabolic activities that are associated with obesity and insulin resistance.

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Toxicity and poor adherence to treatment that favors the generation of resistance in the Leishmania parasites highlight the need to develop better alternatives. Here, we evaluated the in vitro effectiveness of hydrazone derived from chromanes 2-(2,3-dihydro-4H-1-benzothiopyran-4-ylidene) hydrazide (TC1) and 2-(2,3-dihydro-4H-1-benzopyran-4-ylidene) hydrazide (TC2) and the mixture of triterpene saponin hederagenin-3-O-(3,4-O-diacetyl-ß-D-xylopyranosyl-(1à3)-a-L- rhamnopyranosyl-(1à2)-a-L-arabinofuranoside, hederagenin-3-O-(3,4-O-diacetyl-a-L- arabinopyranosyl-(1à3)-a-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1à2)-a-L-arabinofuranoside and, hederagenin-3-O-(4-O-acetyl-ß-D-xylopyranosyl-(1à3)-a-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1à2)-a-L-arabinofuranoside from Sapindus saponaria (SS) on L. braziliensis and L.

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In continuation of our efforts to identify promising antileishmanial agents based on the chroman scaffold, we synthesized several substituted -thiochroman derivatives, including thiochromenes, thichromanones and hydrazones substituted in C-2 or C-3 with carbonyl or carboxyl groups. Thirty-two compounds were thus obtained, characterized, and evaluated against intracellular amastigotes of . Twelve compounds were active, with EC values lower than 40 µM, but only four compounds displayed the highest antileishmanial activity, with EC values below 10 µM; these all compounds possess a good Selectivity Index > 2.

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is a phytopathogenic fungus that causes large crop and post-harvest losses. Therefore, new and effective strategies are needed to control the disease and to reduce resistance to fungicides. Modulating pathogenicity and virulence by manipulating microbial communication is a promising strategy.

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is the causal agent of gray mold disease and is responsible for the loss of millions of dollars in crops in worldwide. Currently, this pathogen exhibits increasing resistance to conventional fungicides; therefore, better control methods and novel compounds with a more specific mechanism of action but without biocidal effects, are required. In this work, several natural compounds to control were analyzed in vitro.

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Human nosocomial infections are common around the world. One of the main causes is the bacteria , which shows high rates of resistance to antibiotics. Thus, drugs with novel mechanisms of action are needed.

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Bacterial resistance is caused by several biochemical factors, the formation of biofilm being one of the main causes. This process is triggered by (), through the production of endogenous molecules, although other substances such as natural products can also do this. In this work, we aimed to determine whether some drugs are involved in the induction of biofilm formation in ATCC 13884, and thus, increase bacterial resistance.

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We describe the in vitro activity of two natural isomeric ent-beyerene diterpenes, several derivatives and synthetic intermediates. Beyerenols 1 and 2 showed EC of 4.6 ± 9.

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The presence of cyanobacterial blooms and cyanotoxins in water presents a global problem due to the deterioration of ecosystems and the possibility of poisoning in human and animals. Microcystin LR is the most widely distributed cyanotoxin and liver cells are its main target. In the present study, HepG2 cells were used to determine DNA damage of three crude extracts of cyanobacterial blooms containing MC-LR, through comet assay.

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Time-course and dose-response experiments were carried out to establish the ability for synthesizing isoflavonoids of soybean seedlings (cv. Soyica P34) treated with salicylic (SA) and isonicotinic acids (INA). Then, 25 structurally-related compounds were evaluated for their isoflavonoid-eliciting activity.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected tropical disease that causes severe skin lesions, and there is a pressing need for new treatment options due to the limitations of current drugs and vaccines.
  • Researchers synthesized 18 acyl hydrazone derivatives of thiochroman-4-ones and tested their effectiveness against the intracellular form of the parasite and their toxicity to human monocytes.
  • The study found that certain derivatives significantly improved antileishmanial activity, particularly semicarbazone and thiosemicarbazone derivatives, which exhibited high effectiveness with low toxicity, indicating promising selectivity for future treatments.
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The S-containing heterocyclic compounds benzothiopyrans or thiochromones stand out as having promising biological activities due to their structural relationship with chromones (benzopyrans), which are widely known as privileged scaffolds in medicinal chemistry. In this work, we report the synthesis of 35 thiochromone derivatives and the in vitro antileishmanial and cytotoxic activities. Compounds were tested against intracellular amastigotes of and cytotoxic activity against human monocytes (U-937 ATCC CRL-1593.

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Objective: The goal of our study was to report on the feasibility of outpatient laparoscopic radical hysterectomy in patients with early-stage cervical cancer.

Methods: We included all patients who underwent a laparoscopic radical hysterectomy at the Instituto de Cancerología - Las Americas in Medellin, Colombia, between January 2013 and July 2015. The control group was a similar cohort of patients who were admitted after their surgery.

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For isolated pancreatic islet cell preparations, it is important to be able to reliably assess their mass and quality, and for clinical applications, it is part of the regulatory requirement. Accurate assessment, however, is difficult because islets are spheroid-like cell aggregates of different sizes (<50 to 500 μm) resulting in possible thousandfold differences between the mass contribution of individual particles. The current standard manual counting method that uses size-based group classification is known to be error prone and operator dependent.

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