Compound A398, a novel podophyllotoxin analogue: cytotoxicity and induction of apoptosis in human leukemia cells.

Despite advances in oncology research, cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Thus, there is a demand for the development of more selective and effective antitumor agents. This study showed that A398, a novel podophyllotoxin analogue, was cytotoxic to the HT-29, MCF-7, MOLT-4 and HL-60 tumor cell lines, being less active in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and normal cell lines FGH and IEC-6.

Acylhydrazone derivatives: a patent review.

Introduction: The N-acylhydrazone (NAH) moiety has been characterized as a privileged structure, capable of providing ligands points for more than one type of bioreceptor. Modifications of the subunits bonded to its acyl and imine functions resulted in several derivatives, which modulate a great diversity of molecular targets. In this context, this patent review reflects the use of the NAH moiety in different compounds.

The pterocarpanquinone LQB-118 induces apoptosis in acute myeloid leukemia cells of distinct molecular subtypes and targets FoxO3a and FoxM1 transcription factors.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients' outcome is usually poor, mainly because of drug resistance phenotype. The identification of new drugs able to overcome mechanisms of chemoresistance is essential. The pterocarpanquinone LQB-118 compound has been shown to have a potent cytotoxic activity in myeloid leukemia cell lines and patient cells.

[Brazilian Portuguese cross-cultural adaptation of the Vulnerability to Abuse Screening Scale (VASS) for screening of violence against the elderly].

The literature indicates a lack of available tools in Portuguese for detecting violence against the elderly. It thus seems appropriate to provide Portuguese-language versions of tools originating from other cultures. The Vulnerability to Abuse Screening Scale (VASS) contains 12 items that identify the risk of violence against the elderly.

Vocal output predicts territory quality in a Neotropical songbird.

Females who choose highly ornamented mates may gain resources that improve offspring production and survival. Studies have focused on the relationship between male quality and the complexity of sexual ornaments; however, less is known of the communicative content of courtship displays, and whether they indicate the quality of resources males can provide to mates. Here, we used blue-black grassquits (Volatinia jacarina) to test the relationship between male display attributes and territory quality, measured as food availability.

Color stability and polymerization behavior of direct esthetic restorations.

Objectives: The current study evaluated the effect of accelerated artificial aging (AAA) on the color stability (CS) and degree of conversion (DC) of nanofilled and nanohybrid resin composites associated to different adhesive systems in direct esthetic restorations.

Material And Methods: Eighty bovine incisors were used to obtained dentin blocks (4 × 4 × 1 mm). The restorative systems were bonded to the blocks and photoactivated according to the manufacturer's instructions.

[Have you eaten any DNA today? Science communication during Science and Technology Week in Brazil].

During the first National Science and Technology Week held in 2004, science centers and museums, universities and schools engaged in activities with the idea of divulging science to the people. Demonstrations of the extraction of DNA from fruits were conducted in supermarkets in 11 Brazilian cities by two institutions, DNA Vai à Escola and Conselho de Informação e Biotecnologia. This article describes the formation of a national network of people interested in communicating information about genetics to the lay public and the implementation of a low-cost science communication activity in different parts of the country simultaneously.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis: differences and similarities in long-term outcome of paediatric and adult patients at a single institutional centre.

Purpose: This study determined the frequency of clinical features, reactivations, sequelae, mortality, and overall survival (OS) and compared paediatric with adult Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) patients.

Materials And Methods: Ninety patients (60 paediatric and 30 adults) with LCH treated during 28 years were analysed retrospectively.

Results: Craniofacial lesion was the most frequent lesion at LCH presentation in children and adults.

An algorithm for noise correction of dual-energy computed tomography material density images.

Purpose: Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) images can undergo a two-material decomposition process which results in two images containing material density information. Material density images obtained by that process result in images with increased pixel noise. Noise reduction in those images is desirable in order to improve image quality.

Trophic ecology and bioindicator potential of the North Atlantic tope shark.

Sharks are top marine predators vital in maintaining ecosystem health and food web structure. In order to assess tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus) trophic ecology, stable isotope ratios and trace metal concentrations in muscle tissue were determined, according to size and gender, for 124 individuals caught within the Mid-Atlantic region. Data was complemented and analysed according to previous stomach content information and compared with studies performed in the North East Atlantic.

Infection and childhood leukemia: review of evidence.

Objective: To analyze studies that evaluated the role of infections as well as indirect measures of exposure to infection in the risk of childhood leukemia, particularly acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Methods: A search in Medline, Lilacs, and SciELO scientific publication databases initially using the descriptors "childhood leukemia" and "infection" and later searching for the words "childhood leukemia" and "maternal infection or disease" or "breastfeeding" or "daycare attendance" or "vaccination" resulted in 62 publications that met the following inclusion criteria: subject aged ≤ 15 years; specific analysis of cases diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia or total leukemia; exposure assessment of mothers' or infants' to infections (or proxy of infection), and risk of leukemia.

Results: Overall, 23 studies that assessed infections in children support the hypothesis that occurrence of infection during early childhood reduces the risk of leukemia, but there are disagreements within and between studies.

The adaptive value of primate color vision for predator detection.

The complex evolution of primate color vision has puzzled biologists for decades. Primates are the only eutherian mammals that evolved an enhanced capacity for discriminating colors in the green-red part of the spectrum (trichromatism). However, while Old World primates present three types of cone pigments and are routinely trichromatic, most New World primates exhibit a color vision polymorphism, characterized by the occurrence of trichromatic and dichromatic females and obligatory dichromatic males.

Genetic determination of mortality rate in Danish dairy cows: A multivariate competing risk analysis based on the number of survived lactations.

Dairy cow mortality has been steadily increasing during the last 2 decades in Denmark. This study aims to verify whether genetic mechanisms might be contributing to this increase. To do so, the records of 880,480 Holstein, 142,306 Jersey, and 85,206 Red Danish dairy cows calving from 1990 to 2006 were retrieved from the Danish Cattle register.

Effects of mepivacaine 2% with epinephrine in the cardiovascular activity of patients undergoing third molar surgery: a prospective clinical study.

Background: Cardiovascular effects of epinephrine, especially on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), have been well documented. When present in dental local anesthetic solutions, epinephrine concentration ranges from 5 to 20 µg/mL. Doses less than 200 µg are recommended to be clinically safe.

Incidence and transmission patterns of tuberculosis among indigenous populations in Brazil.

Approximately 10% of the Brazilian indigenous population lives in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), where a large number of new cases of tuberculosis (TB) are reported. This study was conducted to assess TB occurrence, transmission and the utility of TB diagnosis based on the Ogawa-Kudoh (O-K) culture method in this remote population. The incidence of TB was estimated by a retrospective review of the surveillance data maintained by the Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System for the study region.

N-acylhydrazone improves exercise intolerance in rats submitted to myocardial infarction by the recovery of calcium homeostasis in skeletal muscle.

Aims: This work investigated the effects of 3,4-methylenedioxybenzoyl-2-thienylhydrazone (LASSBio-294) treatment on the contractile response of soleus (SOL) muscle from rats submitted to myocardial infarction (MI).

Main Methods: Following coronary artery ligation, LASSBio-294 (2mg/kg, i.p.

Phosphorylated Crkl reduction levels are associated with the lowest P-glycoprotein activity levels in cells from chronic myeloid leukemia patients.

ABCB1/P-glycoprotein (Pgp) and ABCG2/BCRP overexpression have been described as related to imatinib resistance in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We showed in CML cells from 55 patients that Pgp activity was more frequently detected than BCRP activity (p=0.0074).

Listeriosis during Pregnancy: A Public Health Concern.

Listeria was first described in 1926 by Murray, Webb, and Swann, who discovered it while investigating an epidemic infection among laboratory rabbits and guinea pigs. The role of Listeria monocytogenes as a foodborne pathogen was definitively recognized during the 1980s. This recognition was the consequence of a number of epidemic human outbreaks due to the consumption of contaminated foods, in Canada, in the USA and in Europe.

Multidrug resistance in chronic myeloid leukaemia: how much can we learn from MDR-CML cell lines?

The hallmark of CML (chronic myeloid leukaemia) is the BCR (breakpoint cluster region)-ABL fusion gene. CML evolves through three phases, based on both clinical and pathological features: a chronic phase, an accelerated phase and blast crisis. TKI (tyrosine kinase inhibitors) are the treatment modality for patients with chronic phase CML.

Doxorubicin induces cell death in breast cancer cells regardless of Survivin and XIAP expression levels.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of deaths in women around the world. Resistance to therapy is the main cause of treatment failure and still little is known about predictive biomarkers for response to systemic therapy. Increasing evidence show that Survivin and XIAP overexpression is closely associated with chemoresistance and poor prognosis in breast cancer.

XIAP and P-glycoprotein co-expression is related to imatinib resistance in chronic myeloid leukemia cells.

P-glycoprotein (Pgp) and XIAP co-expression has been discussed in the process of the acquisition of multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer. Here, we evaluated XIAP and Pgp expression in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) samples, showing a positive correlation between them. Furthermore, we evaluated the effects of imatinib in XIAP and Pgp expression using CML cell lines K562 (Pgp(-)) and K562-Lucena (Pgp(+)).

Key ornamental innovations facilitate diversification in an avian radiation.

Patterns of biodiversity are often explained by ecological processes, where traits that promote novel ways of interacting with the environment (key innovations) play a fundamental role in promoting diversification. However, sexual selection and social competition can also promote diversification through rapid evolution of ornamental traits. Because selection can operate only on existing variation, the tendency of ornamental traits to constrain or enable the production of novel phenotypes is a crucial but often overlooked aspect of diversification.

Contribution of the Ogawa-Kudoh swab culture method to the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in Brazil.

Objective: To analyse the contribution of the Ogawa-Kudoh (O-K) swab culture method to the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in four different regions of Brazil.

Design: This study was carried out in two phases. Phase 1 was designed to compare the direct swab culture method (O-K) with the culture concentrated method (N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide [NALC-NaOH]); for this purpose, 569 sputum samples were cultured by both methods.

Aggressive ameloblastic fibro-odontoma assessment with CBCT and treatment.

Background: Ameloblastic fibro-odontomas (AFO) are rare lesions and defined by the World Health Organisation as a tumour composed of a proliferation of odontogenic epithelium immersed in ectomesenchyme reminiscent of the interdental papilla. It also presents inductive processes leading to formation of enamel and dentine, confusing, histopathologically, with odontoma. Despite numerous efforts, there is still considerable confusion over its controversial aetiopathogenesis and treatment.

Cadmium tolerance and removal from Cunninghamella elegans related to the polyphosphate metabolism.

The aim of the present work was to study the cadmium effects on growth, ultrastructure and polyphosphate metabolism, as well as to evaluate the metal removal and accumulation by Cunninghamella elegans (IFM 46109) growing in culture medium. The presence of cadmium reduced growth, and a longer lag phase was observed. However, the phosphate uptake from the culture medium increased 15% when compared to the control.