Publications by authors named "M A Joao"
Article Synopsis
- Free-living amoebas, like Acanthamoeba castellanii, prey on fungi such as the Cryptococcus genus, which includes human pathogens that need nutrients to thrive inside immune cells.
- The ACA1_271600 gene in A. castellanii codes for a metal transporter that affects zinc availability, crucial for the virulence of cryptococcal cells, particularly in the presence of phagocytes.
- Silencing the ACA1_271600 gene in amoebas led to increased survival of cryptococcal strains, especially the zip1 mutant, suggesting that this gene helps regulate nutrient availability and may impact other biological functions that inhibit cryptococcal growth.
Background: The role of environmental factors in neurological disorders constitutes a topic of increasing importance. Teaching in European universities should expand and update this field gaining future health professionals including adjacent disciplines.
Aim: To describe recent efforts to create courses that cover crucial interdisciplinary content that we believe should be included in modern education, and to adapt modern pedagogic strategies.
Introduction: Current guidelines suggest adding oral simethicone to bowel preparation for colonoscopy. However, its effect on key quality indicators for screening colonoscopy remains unclear. The primary aim was to assess the rate of adequate bowel preparation in split-dose high-volume polyethylene glycol (PEG), with or without simethicone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTherapeutic response to four artemisinin-based combination therapies in Angola, 2021.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother
April 2024
Article Synopsis
- Monitoring the effectiveness of antimalarial treatments in Angola is crucial for identifying potential drug resistance, with studies conducted biennially in specific provinces.
- In a recent study involving 622 children treated with various antimalarial drugs, the majority achieved positive outcomes by day 3, while overall efficacy rates varied across treatments and locations.
- The findings indicated that, while some drugs exhibited high efficacy, artemether-lumefantrine (AL) showed concerning lower effectiveness (below 90%) in Zaire, reinforcing the need for alternative therapies like ASAQ, DP, and ASPY.
The problem of aligning multiple biological sequences has fascinated scientists for a long time. Over the last four decades, tens of heuristic-based Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) tools have been proposed, the vast majority being built on the concept of Progressive Alignment. It is known, however, that this approach suffers from an inherent drawback regarding the inadvertent insertion of gaps when aligning sequences.
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