Publications by authors named "Maria S Soares"

Measuring cortisol levels as a stress biomarker is essential in many medical conditions associated with a high risk of metabolic syndromes such as anxiety and cardiovascular diseases, among others. One technology that has a growing interest in recent years is fiber optic biosensors that enable ultrasensitive cortisol detection. Such interest is allied with progress being achieved in basic interrogation, accuracy improvements, and novel applications.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose of this article is to propose an optical fiber sensor probe based on the localized surface plasma resonance (LSPR) technique for the detection of creatinine in aquaculture. The sensing probe is functionalized through the use of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), niobium carbide (NbCTx) MXene, and creatinase (CA) enzyme. The intrinsic total internal reflection (TIR) mechanism is modified to increase the evanescent field intensity using a heterogeneous core mismatch and tapering probe structure (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Optical fiber technology, particularly tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs), offers advancements in biosensing, enabling smaller sensors and real-time monitoring of substances like heart failure biomarkers.
  • - A study focused on various analysis methods for detecting N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) found that tracking the lower envelope of spectral data provided the best sensitivity for bare (0.75 ng/mL) and plasmonic (0.19 ng/mL) TFBGs.
  • - The findings emphasize how the choice of analysis method affects detection limits and results, underscoring the importance of consistency when comparing biosensor performance across studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The evolution of optical fiber technology has revolutionized a variety of fields, from optical transmission to environmental monitoring and biomedicine, given their unique properties and versatility. For biosensing purposes, the light guided in the fiber core is exposed to the surrounding media where the analytes of interest are detected by different techniques, according to the optical fiber configuration and biofunctionalization strategy employed. These configurations differ in manufacturing complexity, cost and overall performance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lovastatin, composed of secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi, is the most frequently used drug for hypercholesterolemia treatment due to the fact that lovastatin is a competitive inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase. Moreover, recent studies have shown several important applications for lovastatin including antimicrobial agents and treatments for cancers and bone diseases. Studies regarding the lovastatin biosynthetic pathway have also demonstrated that lovastatin is synthesized from two-chain reactions using acetate and malonyl-CoA as a substrate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a relatively common chronic inflammatory disease whose etiopathogenesis is not completely understood. Several factors have been proposed in an attempt to explain the variety of clinical manifestations and periods of exacerbation and remission of symptoms of these lesions. The objective of this study was to associate local factors, systemic diseases, and level of anxiety with clinical characteristics of OLP.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The present study describes the development of a green synthesis of silver nanoparticles reduced and stabilized by exuded gum from Anacardium occidentale L. and evaluates in vitro their antibacterial and cytotoxic activities. Characterization of cashew gum-based silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was carried out based on UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering analysis which revealed that the synthesized silver nanoparticles were spherical in shape, measuring about 4 nm in size with a uniform dispersal.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objective of the present study was to comparatively evaluate the concentrations of blood and salivary glucose as well as salivary flow and xerostomia in type 2 diabetic and non-diabetic patients. The mean salivary glucose level in diabetic patients was 14.03 +/-16.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The impact of ageing on oral health and salivary flow is usually over-estimated possibly because of the high frequency of polypharmacy observed in this subset of patients. Understanding the physiological changes and treatment-related oral complications of older patients is essential to promote accurate management of symptoms and improve their quality of life. The current paper reviews age-related physiological chances in salivary glands and the effect of polypharmacy on oral health, focusing on xerostomia and hyposalivation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: A case control study to identify risk factors for burning mouth syndrome (BMS).

Material And Methods: Quantitative analysis was carried out on the total salivary flow at rest and stimulated; subjective xerostomia, ingestion of medicines and the psychological states of anxiety and depression in 40 patients with BMS and 40 controls.

Results: The ANOVA analysis showed significant differences in the means of the number of medicines/day, number of xerostomising agents/day, subjective xerostomia, anxiety and depression, between the groups studied.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF