Publications by authors named "Elaine Maria Souza-Fagundes"

Article Synopsis
  • Visceral leishmaniasis is a serious and potentially fatal disease in New World countries, with limited treatment options and no effective preventative measures.
  • Researchers investigated the use of letrozole, a breast cancer drug known as an aromatase inhibitor, for its potential to treat leishmaniasis by targeting both the parasite and the immune response.
  • In their studies, letrozole showed effectiveness in reducing parasite load and improving immune responses in both human cell models and murine infection models, suggesting it could be a promising treatment for visceral leishmaniasis in humans.*
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Article Synopsis
  • Immunobiography examines how different stimuli influence immune cell biology throughout life, focusing on memory T and B-cells.
  • A study with 812 healthy volunteers explored changes in these immune cells during childhood and adolescence, identifying two key phases: an initial shift around age 2 and a more significant shift between 8-10 years.
  • Results showed males had more consistent correlations in immune cell changes than females, shedding light on the immune system's development during important growth periods.
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The glutamatergic hypothesis of schizophrenia suggests a correlation between NMDA receptor hypofunction and negative psychotic symptoms. It has been observed that the expression of the proline transporter (PROT) in the central nervous system (CNS) is associated with glutamatergic neurotransmission, as L-proline has the capacity to activate and modulate AMPA and NMDA receptors. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether inhibition of proline transporters could enhance glutamatergic neurotransmission and potentially exhibit antipsychotic effects in an experimental schizophrenia model.

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Glioblastoma remains the most lethal form of brain cancer, where hybrid nanomaterials biofunctionalized with polysaccharide peptides offer disruptive strategies relying on passive/active targeting and multimodal therapy for killing cancer cells. Thus, in this research, we report for the first time the rational design and synthesis of novel hybrid colloidal nanostructures composed of gold nanoparticles stabilized by trisodium citrate (AuNP@TSC) as the oxidase-like nanozyme, coupled with cobalt-doped superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles stabilized by carboxymethylcellulose ligands (Co-MION@CMC) as the peroxidase-like nanozyme. They formed inorganic-inorganic dual-nanozyme systems functionalized by a carboxymethylcellulose biopolymer organic shell, which can trigger a biocatalytic cascade reaction in the cancer tumor microenvironment for the combination of magnetothermal-chemodynamic therapy.

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Breast cancer is the most common cancer that affects women globally and is among the leading cause of women's death. Triple-negative breast cancer is more difficult to treat because hormone therapy is not available for this subset of cancer. The well-established therapy against triple-negative breast cancer is mainly based on surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.

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Thiosemicarbazones are well known for their broad spectrum of action, including antitumoral and antiparasitic activities. Thiosemicarbazones work as chelating binders, reacting with metal ions. The objective of this work was to investigate the , , and toxicity and oxidative stress of 2-acetylpyridine-(4)-orthochlorophenyl thiosemicarbazone (TSC01).

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has been warning about the importance of developing new drugs against superbugs. Antimicrobial peptides are an alternative in this context, most of them being involved in innate immunity, acting in various ways, and some even showing synergism with commercial antimicrobial agents. LyeTx I-b is a synthetic peptide derived from native LyeTx I, originally isolated from Lycosa erythrognatha spider venom.

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Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) is a rare congenital intractable disease associated with a mutation in gene, characterized by skeleton malformations. Ascorbic acid (AA) and propranolol (PP) in combination is reported to minimize flare-ups in patients. FOP leukocyte phenotype may possibly be modulated by AA and PP treatment.

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In the continuing search for novel antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides are promising molecules, due to different mechanisms of action compared to classic antibiotics and to their selectivity for interaction with microorganism cells rather than with mammalian cells. Previously, our research group has isolated the antimicrobial peptide LyeTx I from the venom of the spider . Here, we proposed to synthesize three novel shortened derivatives from LyeTx I (LyeTx I mn; LyeTx I mnΔK; LyeTx I mnΔKAc) and to evaluate their toxicity and biological activity as potential antimicrobial agents.

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Differentiation between hypoxic and normoxic tissues have been exploited for the development of selective chemotherapeutic agents. In this context, cobalt(III)-based coordination compounds have been designed and investigated as prospective hypoxia-responsive drug delivery systems. Three cobalt(III) complexes, namely [Co(esc)(pyen)]ClO·(CHOH) (1) [Co(esc)(TPA)]ClO·3HO (2) and [Co(bipy)(esc)]ClO·2.

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All- retinoic acid (ATRA) shows erratic oral bioavailability when administered orally against leukemia, which can be solved through its incorporation in self-nanoemulsifying drug-delivery systems (SEDDS). The SEDDS developed contained a hydrophobic ion pair between benzathine (BZT) and ATRA and was enriched with tocotrienols by the input of a palm oil tocotrienol rich fraction (TRF) in its composition. SEDDS-TRF-ATRA-BZT allowed the formation of emulsions with nanometric size that retained ATRA within their core after dispersion.

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Lapachol is a plant-derived naphthoquinone that kills several types of cancer cells. Derivatives of this molecule may therefore prove to be useful chemotherapeutic agents. In this study, we explored whether glycosylation increases the cytotoxic potency of lapachol towards HL-60 human leukemia cells.

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Background: Stem bark of Luehea ochrophylla (L. ochrophylla) is used by the traditional Brazilian medicine for treatment of rheumatic diseases and tumors. This study aimed to investigate inhibition of acute and chronic inflammations and cytotoxic activity of extracts, fractions, and isolated compounds from L.

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The Yellow Fever (YF) vaccination is recommended for people living in endemic areas and represents the most effective strategy to reduce the risk of infection. Previous studies have warned that booster regimens should be considered to guarantee the long-term persistence of 17DD-YF-specific memory components in adults living in areas with YF-virus circulation. Considering the lower seroconversion rates observed in children (9-12 months of age) as compared to adults, this study was designed in order to access the duration of immunity in single-dose vaccinated children in a 10-years cross-sectional time-span.

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Three novel PyNcobalt(III) complexes with the 5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone nuclei (NQ) were evaluated as potential hypoxia-activated anticancer prodrugs. The complexes were synthesized and fully characterized by IR and UV-Visible spectroscopies, ESI mass spectrometry and CHN elemental analysis. Structural information was obtained from density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

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Atrazine (ATZ) is an herbicide that has been considered an environmental pollutant worldwide. ATZ contaminates groundwaters and can persist in soils for up to a year causing several environmental and health problems. This study aimed to investigate ATZ degradation catalyzed by manganese porphyrins as biomimetic cytochrome P450 models.

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Several biological activities have been reported for leaf extracts of species, including antioxidant and wound healing activities. This study aims to report, for the first time, the antiaging potential of the hydroethanolic (HE) and the ethanolic (EE) extracts obtained from the leaves of using different assays. Both HE and EE presented relevant antioxidant capacity in different models, including phosphomolybdenum, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH), carotene/linoleic acid bleaching, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assays.

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Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare, intractable and devastating genetic connective tissue disorder characterized by progressive ectopic ossification in the soft tissues and skeleton. Three patients, one teenage girl (P1), one male adult (P2) and one male child (P3), were studied and treated with FOPCON (combined formulation of 14 mg of propranolol and 250 mg of ascorbic acid), given three times per day. P1 started treatment in March 2012, P2 in October 2012 and P3 in July 2015.

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Antimicrobial peptides present a broad spectrum of therapeutic applications, including their use as anticancer peptides. These peptides have as target microbial, normal, and cancerous cells. The oncological properties of these peptides may occur by membranolytic mechanisms or non-membranolytics.

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A range of hydrophobic first-, second-, and third-generation manganese porphyrins (MnPs) was investigated as cytochrome P450 models for degradation of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP). The experiments were carried out under mild conditions; oxidants such as iodosylbenzene (PhIO), HO, and meta-chloroperbenzoic acid were employed. The PhIO system yielded the best results: CIP degradation ranged between 56% and 76%.

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Triazoles are interesting templates for novel chemotherapeutic drugs. We synthesized here 17 1,3,4-substituted-1,2,3-triazoles that differed in their 1'-substituent (variable alkyl chain lengths C3-C12), the 3'-substituent (no substituent, -methyl or -propyl) or the salt form obtained. Several of the compounds were cytotoxic (μM range) for tumor cells (HL-60, Jurkat, MCF-7, HCT-116), and when the effect was compared to non-transformed cells (Vero), selectivity ratios of up to 23-fold were obtained.

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Objectives: Candida albicans is a commensal organism and opportunistic pathogen associated both with superficial (mucosal and cutaneous) and systemic infections. Extensive use of antifungal agents has led to reduced susceptibility to the few existing drugs, which has encouraged the search for novel antifungal agents. Therefore, the present study investigated the antifungal activity of 2,6-bis[(E)-(4-pyridyl)methylidene]cyclohexanone (PMC) against C.

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In seeking substitutions for the current Chagas disease treatment, which has several relevant side effects, new therapeutic candidates have been extensively investigated. In this context, a balanced interaction between mediators of the host immune response seems to be a key element for therapeutic success, as a proinflammatory microenvironment modulated by interleukin-10 (IL-10) is shown to be relevant to potentiate anti- drug activity. This study aimed to identify the potential immunomodulatory activities of the anti- K777, pyronaridine (PYR), and furazolidone (FUR) compounds in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from noninfected (NI) subjects and chronic Chagas disease (CD) patients.

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BACKGROUND In a screen of extracts from plants and fungi to detect antileishmanial activity, we found that the ethyl acetate extract of the fungus Nectria pseudotrichia, isolated from the tree Caesalpinia echinata (Brazilwood), is a promising source of bioactive compounds. OBJECTIVES The aims of this study were to isolate and determine the chemical structures of the compounds responsible for the antileishmanial activity of the organic extract from N. pseudotrichia.

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N-(2-butanoyloxyethyl)-4-(chloromethyl)-3-nitrobenzamide (NBCN) is a nitroaromatic bioreducible compound with cytotoxic effects in cancer cell lines. The aim of this work was to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in cell death promoted by NBCN in HL60 cells. We observed that NBCN treatment increased intracellular ROS and reduced mitochondria membrane potential (ΔΨm).

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