Publications by authors named "Fernanda Abreu"

Since prophages can play a multifaceted role in bacterial evolution, this study aims to characterize the virome of Rummeliibacillus stabekisii, a bacterium isolated from different environments, including Antarctic soil and NASA spacecraft floors. From the analyses, it was found that the Antarctic strain, PP9, had the largest number of prophages, including intact ones, indicating potential benefits for survival in adverse conditions. In contrast, other strains harbored predominantly degenerate prophages, suggesting a dynamic process of gene gain and loss during evolution.

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Introduction: Anaerobic digestion integrates waste treatment, energy generation, and nutrient recycling, producing methane mainly through acetoclastic (AM) and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis (HM). Methanogenic pathway management can improve biogas productivity and quality. The balance between pathways is influenced by environmental and physicochemical conditions, with conflicting results on the effect of different factors often reported.

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Aims: This study aimed to assess the antimicrobial potential of Bp1-AdE, produced by Bacillus pumilus 64-1, and to investigate its mode of action against Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA).

Methods And Results: Bp-1AdE, derived from sponge-associated B.

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Disposed plastics in oceans provide a substrate to which microbes can adhere and structure the biofilm, namely the plastisphere. In this study, we showed that the mesoplastic density-based separation, routinely used in quantification assays, is detrimental to studying the microbiome diversity and ecology as it underestimates the real microbial diversity within these samples. Based on SEM and microbiome observations, we propose that chemically fixing samples before density separation preserves cellular diversity (2.

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The detection of magnetic fields by animals is known as magnetoreception. The ferromagnetic hypothesis explains magnetoreception assuming that magnetic nanoparticles are used as magnetic field transducers. Magnetite nanoparticles in the abdomen of Apis mellifera honeybees have been proposed in the literature as the magnetic field transducer.

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Magnetotactic bacteria are microorganisms that produce intracellular magnetic nanoparticles organized in chains, conferring a magnetic moment to the bacterial body that allows it to swim following the geomagnetic field lines. Magnetotactic bacteria usually display two swimming polarities in environmental samples: the South-seeking (SS) polarity and the North-seeking (NS) polarity, characterized by the bacteria swimming antiparallel or parallel to the magnetic field lines, respectively. It has been observed that in the presence of inhomogeneous magnetic fields, NS magnetotactic bacteria can change their swimming polarity to SS or vice versa.

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Mucorales are a group of non-septated filamentous fungi widely distributed in nature, frequently associated with human infections, and are intrinsically resistant to many antifungal drugs. For these reasons, there is an urgent need to improve the clinical management of mucormycosis. Miltefosine, which is a phospholipid analogue of alkylphosphocholine, has been considered a promising repurposing drug to be used to treat fungal infections.

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A Gram-stain-positive rod, psychrotolerant, aerobic and bioemulsifier-producing strain, denoted as Val9, was isolated from soil sampled at Vale Ulman, King George Island, Antarctica. The strain grew at up to 30 °C (optimum, 15 °C), at pH 6-9 (optimum, pH 8) and with up to 5 % w/v NaCl (optimum, 3 %). The strain was motile and positive for catalase, oxidase and HS.

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An increasing number of systematic reviews (SR) has investigated the association between dental caries and nutritional status in children and adolescents, thus requiring an overview to compile the information in a single piece of evidence. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate and summarize evidence from published SR on the association between dental caries and nutritional status in children and adolescents. A wide search was conducted on May 29, 2023, in six databases (Medline via PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane library, Embase, and the Virtual Health Library - VHL).

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Echinocandins, used for the prevention and treatment of invasive fungal infections, have led to a rise in breakthrough infections caused by resistant species. Among these species, those belonging to the complex are rare multidrug-resistant (MDR) yeasts that are frequently misidentified but have emerged as significant healthcare-associated pathogens causing invasive infections. The objectives of this study were to investigate the evolutionary pathways of echinocandin resistance in by identifying mutations in the gene and evaluating the impact of resistance on fitness.

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Introduction: Leishmaniasis is an important disease caused by parasites of the Leishmania. Due to the urgent need for financial incentives and research and development of new anti-Leishmania, a point that stands out is the creation of patents that comprise drugs and nanoformulations in treating the disease.

Areas Covered: Information on individual patents and patent families containing potential drugs and nanoformulations were obtained by searching the Orbit software (QUESTEL SAS, France) using the following terms: Leishmania; treatment; nanoparticle*; drug×.

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Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), a diverse group of marine and freshwater microorganisms, have attracted the scientific community's attention since their discovery. These bacteria biomineralize ferrimagnetic nanocrystals, the magnetosomes, or biological magnetic nanoparticles (BMNs), in a single or multiple chain(s) within the cell. As a result, cells experience an optimized magnetic dipolar moment responsible for a passive alignment along the lines of the geomagnetic field.

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Approximately two-thirds of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) fail to respond to conventional antidepressants, suggesting that additional mechanisms are involved in the MDD pathophysiology. In this scenario, the glutamatergic system represents a promising therapeutic target for treatment-resistant depression. To our knowledge, this is the first study using semantic approach with systems biology to identify potential targets involved in the fast-acting antidepressant effects of ketamine and its enantiomers as well as identifying specific targets of (R)-ketamine.

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The detection of the geomagnetic field by animals to use as a cue in homing and migration is known as magnetoreception. The ferromagnetic hypothesis explains magnetoreception assuming that magnetic nanoparticles in cellular structures are used as magnetic field transducers. Considering magnetoreception in social insects, the most studied has been the honeybee Apis mellifera and only in two wasp species (Vespa orientalis and Polybia paulista) have been shown a magnetosensitive behavior.

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Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) produce magnetosomes, which are membrane-embedded magnetic nanoparticles. Despite their technological applicability, the production of magnetite magnetosomes depends on the cultivation of MTB, which results in low yields. Thus, strategies for the large-scale cultivation of MTB need to be improved.

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The genomes of two Penicillium strains were sequenced and studied in this study: strain 2HH was isolated from the digestive tract of Anobium punctatum beetle larva in 1979 and the cellulase hypersecretory strain S1M29, derived from strain 2HH by a long-term mutagenesis process. With these data, the strains were reclassified and insight is obtained on molecular features related to cellulase hyperproduction and the albino phenotype of the mutant. Both strains were previously identified as Penicillium echinulatum and this investigation indicated that these should be reclassified.

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Magnetotactic bacteria, which synthesize biological magnetite nanoparticles (BMs), are the main microbial source of magnetic nanomaterials. Although the use of BMs has been explored and for new anticancer formulations, targeted treatments of fungal and parasitic diseases would also benefit from biogenic magnetic nanoformulations. Due to the necessity of new formulations of amphotericin B, we developed a magnetic-nanoparticle based conjugate of this drug using bacterial magnetosomes.

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The amount of available data is continuously growing. This phenomenon promotes a new concept, named big data. The highlight technologies related to big data are cloud computing (infrastructure) and Not Only SQL (NoSQL; data storage).

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Introduction: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) is a rare inflammatory and demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) more frequent in women and Afro-descendants. No previous epidemiological or prognostic study has been conducted in the region of the state of Bahia, Brazilian Northeast.

Objective: To evaluate clinical and prognostic aspects in patients with NMOSD from a cohort in northeastern Brazil.

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Penicillium echinulatum 2HH is an ascomycete well known for its production of cellulolytic enzymes. Understanding lignocellulolytic and sugar uptake systems is essential to obtain efficient fungi strains for the production of bioethanol. In this study we performed a genome-wide functional annotation of carbohydrate-active enzymes and sugar transporters involved in the lignocellulolytic system of P.

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A Gram-positive, nitrogen-fixing and endospore-forming strain, designated P121, was isolated from the gut of the armored catfish (Parotocinclus maculicauda) and identified as a member of the genus Paenibacillus based on the sequences of the 16S rRNA encoding gene, rpoB, gyrB and nifH genes and phenotypic analyses. The most closely related species to strain P121 were Paenibacillus rhizoplanae DSM 103993, Paenibacillus silagei DSM 101953 and Paenibacillus borealis DSM 13188, with similarity values of 98.9, 98.

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Many magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) biomineralize magnetite crystals that nucleate and grow inside intracellular membranous vesicles originating from invaginations of the cytoplasmic membrane. The crystals together with their surrounding membranes are referred to as magnetosomes. Magnetosome magnetite crystals nucleate and grow using iron transported inside the vesicle by specific proteins.

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Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) response to the magnetic field can be classified into north-seeking (NS) and south-seeking (SS), which usually depends on their inhabiting site in the North and South Hemisphere, respectively. However, uncommon inverted polarity was observed on both hemispheres. Here, we studied magnetotactic multicellular prokaryotes (MMPs) from a coastal lagoon in Brazil collected in April and August 2014.

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Nanotechnological developments, including fabrication and use of magnetic nanomaterials, are growing at a fast pace. Magnetic nanoparticles are exciting tools for use in healthcare, biological sensors, and environmental remediation. Due to better control over final-product characteristics and cleaner production, biogenic nanomagnets are preferable over synthetic ones for technological use.

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Biofilm formation is a major virulence factor associated with infections. However, the influence of plasma proteins on biofilm formation of clinical isolates remains unclear. We hypothesized that coating surfaces with plasma proteins might induce biofilm formation by of different clonal lineages.

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