Introduction: The International Health Regulations (IHR) were developed to prepare countries to deal with public health emergencies. The spread of SARS-CoV-2 underlined the need for international coordination, although few attempts were made to evaluate the integrated implementation of the IHR's core capacities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether IHR shortcomings stem from non-compliance or regulatory issues, using Portugal as a European case study due to its size, organization, and previous discrepancies between self-reporting and peer assessment of the IHR's core capacities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEducating about animals in zoos and aquariums poses daily challenges for education teams, who must not only master biological content but also possess communication skills to adapt information for diverse ages and cultures. This research consists of two sequential studies designed to investigate the impact of grammatical genders on animal stereotypes and elicited emotions. In Study 1, four animals were independently chosen based on a set of predefined conditions, which were then used in Study 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGastric cancer is a dominating cause of cancer-associated mortality with limited therapeutic options. Here, we show that syndecan-4 (SDC4), a transmembrane proteoglycan, is highly expressed in intestinal subtype gastric tumors and that this signature associates with patient poor survival. Further, we mechanistically demonstrate that SDC4 is a master regulator of gastric cancer cell motility and invasion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(1) Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is expected to be the second-leading cause of cancer deaths by 2030. Imaging techniques are the standard for monitoring the therapy response in PDAC, but these techniques have considerable limits, including delayed disease progression detection and difficulty in distinguishing benign from malignant lesions. Extracellular vesicle (EV) liquid biopsy is an emerging diagnosis modality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(1) Background: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as crucial players in the communication between cells in both physiological and pathological scenarios. The functions of EVs are strongly determined by their molecular content, which includes all bioactive molecules, such as proteins, lipids, RNA, and, as more recently described, double-stranded DNA. It has been shown that in oncological settings DNA associated with EVs (EV-DNA) is representative of the genome of parental cells and that it reflects the mutational status of the tumor, gaining much attention as a promising source of biomarker mutant DNA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic an international public health emergency in January 2020, and, soon thereafter, a worldwide adoption of quarantine and physical isolation measures restricted regular practitioners of indoor group physical exercise from many of their usual practices. Some, with exercise dependence (ED), may have experienced exercise withdrawal symptoms that triggered unhealthy anxiety levels. In February 2021, during Portugal's second COVID-19 lockdown, we characterized and compared ED and anxiety levels among different groups of indoor exercise practitioners (cross trainers [CG], bodybuilders [BG] and gym practitioners [GG]).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe widespread application of innovative thermal enhanced façade solutions requires an adequate durability evaluation. The present work intends to assess the durability of a new aerogel cement-based rendering system through the adaptation of different accelerated aging cycles, such as heating-freezing, freeze-thawing, and heat-cold. Several mechanical properties and also capillary and liquid water absorptions were tested for uncoated and coated specimens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTriple negative breast cancer presents higher mortality and poorer survival rates than other breast cancer (BC) types, due to the proneness to brain metastases formation, which are usually diagnosed at advanced stages. Therefore, the discovery of BC brain metastases (BCBM) biomarkers appears pivotal for a timely intervention. With this work, we aimed to disclose microRNAs (miRNAs) and extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the circulation as biomarkers of BCBM formation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPancreatic cancers (PC) are highly metastatic with poor prognosis, mainly due to delayed detection. We previously showed that PC-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) act on macrophages residing in the liver, eliciting extracellular matrix remodeling in this organ and marked hepatic accumulation of CD11b bone marrow (BM) cells, which support PC liver metastasis. We here show that PC-EVs also bind to CD11b BM cells and induce the expansion of this cell population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtracellular Vesicles (EVs), membrane vesicles released by all cells, are emerging mediators of cell-cell communication. By carrying biomolecules from tissues to biofluids, EVs have attracted attention as non-invasive sources of clinical biomarkers in liquid biopsies. EVs-based liquid biopsies usually require EVs isolation before content analysis, which frequently increases sample volume requirements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe tumor microenvironment has gained a lot of attention from the scientific community since it has a proven impact in the development of tumor progression and metastasis. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are now considered one of the key players of tumor microenvironment modulation. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most lethal urological neoplasia and presents a high metastatic potential, which reinforces the need for the development of more effective predictive biomarkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most aggressive subtype of kidney cancer and up to 40% of patients submitted to surgery with a curative intent will relapse. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the applicability of an Extracellular vesicle (EV) derived miRNA profile as potential prognosis biomarkers in ccRCC patients. We analyzed a nine-miRNA profile in plasma EVs from 32 ccRCC patients with localized disease (before and after surgery) and in 37 patients with metastatic disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNoninvasive characterization of lymph node involvement in cancer is an enduring onerous challenge. In rectal cancer, pathologic lymph node status constitutes the most important determinant of local recurrence and overall survival, and patients with involved lymph nodes may benefit from preoperative chemo and/or radiotherapy. However, knowledge of lymph node status before surgery is currently hampered by limited imaging accuracy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOncologic diseases do not behave as isolated entities. Instead, they are based on complex systemic networks involving cell-cell communication between cancerous and healthy cells of the host, which may either facilitate or prevent cancer progression. In addition to cell-cell contacts, cells communicate through secreted factors in a process modulated by ligand concentration, receptor availability and synergy amongst several signaling circuits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Cell Dev Biol
February 2018
Tumors are not isolated entities, but complex systemic networks involving cell-cell communication between transformed and non-transformed cells. The milieu created by tumor-associated cells may either support or halt tumor progression. In addition to cell-cell contact, cells communicate through secreted factors via a highly complex system involving characteristics such as ligand concentration, receptor expression and integration of diverse signaling pathways.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aims to evaluate the effect of different postures on the abdominal muscle activity during breathing in subjects "at risk" for the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and healthy. Twenty-nine volunteers, divided in "At Risk" for COPD (n=16; 47.38±5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The aim of the study was to analyze the knowledge, approaches, and practices of pediatricians participating in a regional pediatric conference regarding functional constipation (FC) to identify knowledge gaps.
Methods: Cross-sectional regional study based on a semistructured questionnaire related to the Rome III criteria and the participant profiles.
Results: Of 400 questionnaires distributed, 264 (66.
This study examined the antecedents of preschool age children's mental representations of attachment, assessed using the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT). Antecedent predictors were maternal attachment scripts, assessed using the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA), and the child's secure base behaviors, assessed using the Attachment Q-Set (AQS). Participants were 121 mothers and their preschool children assessed in three samples (Portuguese sample, n = 31; US Midwestern sample, n = 38; US Southeastern sample, n = 52).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present work analyses differences in the attachment representations of institutionalized children as compared with children from low and high educational level living with their natural families. Participants were 91 Portuguese children, 52% girls, aged 48-96 months. There were three different groups: 19 institutionalized children, 16 low educational level families' children and 56 from high educational level families'.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of once daily eslicarbazepine acetate (ESL) as adjunctive therapy for partial-onset seizures in adults with epilepsy.
Methods: One-year open-label treatment extension with ESL in patients who completed a placebo-controlled pivotal study (Epilepsia 2009; 50: 454-463). Starting dose was 800 mg once daily, for 4 weeks; thereafter, dose could be titrated up or down.
Objective: This study investigated the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) of nebicapone [BIA 3-202; 1-(3,4-dihydroxy-5-nitrophenyl)-2-phenyl-ethanone], a reversible catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor, in 4 healthy male subjects.
Methods: This was a single center, open, non-placebo-controlled, single-group, and a single 200 mg dose study of [(14)C]-nebicapone (2.5 MBq).
Objective: To investigate the chronopharmacology of nebicapone, a new catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor currently being developed for use as an adjunct to levodopa/carbidopa or levodopa/benserazide in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
Methods: This was a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study. Eighteen Caucasian subjects were randomly assigned to treatment with either nebicapone 100 mg (n = 6), nebicapone 200 mg (n = 6) or placebo (n = 6) at 4-h intervals for 7 days.
Background: The anticoagulant warfarin, which is administered as a racemic mixture of R- and S-enantiomers, has been reported to interact with other drugs, including some antiepileptics. Eslicarbazepine acetate (ESL) is a once-daily voltage-gated sodium channel blocker that has been developed for the treatment of partial epilepsy and other indications.
Objective: The aim of this work was to investigate whether multiple-dose administration of ESL had any effect on the steady-state pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of warfarin in healthy volunteers stabilized on warfarin at a subtherapeutic level.