Publications by authors named "Martha Medina"

Introduction: is the most common non-falciparum species in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this, data on its genetic diversity is scarce. Therefore, we aimed to establish a genotyping approach based on size polymorphic regions that can be easily applied in molecular epidemiological studies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

An estimated 20-30% of adult women who experience an initial urinary tract infection (UTI) will have recurrent infection. In these patients, prophylaxis may be considered to improve their quality of life and control overuse of antibiotics. Despite this need, there is currently no Latin American consensus on the treatment and prophylaxis of recurrent UTIs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common outpatient infections, with a lifetime incidence of 50-60% in adult women. This is a narrative review aimed at acting as an introduction to the epidemiology and burden of UTIs. This review is based on relevant literature according to the experience and expertise of the authors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Men who have sex with men (MSM) who use websites and smartphone applications to meet sexual partners ("hookup sites") may be at increased HIV risk. Many sites provide profile options to disclose HIV status and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use. Little is known about the acceptability of disclosure options which may guide sexual decision-making.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Patterns of HIV transmission vary widely across demographic groups. Identifying and engaging these groups are necessary to prevent new infections and diagnose disease among people who are unaware of their infection. The objective of this study was to determine characteristics of newly diagnosed individuals across an entire state to determine patterns of HIV transmission.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Partner notification services (PNS) are highly effective in reducing transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). We assessed outcomes of PNS before and after integration of an on-site disease intervention specialist (DIS) at a publicly-funded STD clinic.

Methods: From August 2014 to December 2015, patients testing positive for infectious syphilis or gonorrhea at the Rhode Island STD Clinic were referred to on-site DIS for partner notification.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The 17β-aminoestrogens (AEs) prolame, butolame and pentolame are weakly oestrogenic in rodents and display anticoagulant properties in contrast to oestradiol (E ) which presents pro-coagulant effects, potentially thrombogenic. They possess anti-anxiety and antidepressive properties, being good candidates for menopausal hormone therapy (MHT). Their capability to induce proliferation of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells, in which proliferative rate depends on oestrogens, has not been explored; thus, the aim of this work was to characterize it.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Injuries result in nearly 6 million deaths and incur 52 million disability-adjusted life-years annually, making up 15% of the global disease burden. More than 90% of this burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries. Given this burden, it is not unexpected that injuries are the leading cause of death among travelers to low- and middle-income countries, namely, from road traffic crashes and drowning.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

17β-amino-1,3,5(10)estratrien-3-ol (17βAE2), is the 17β-aminoestrogens prototype possessing anticoagulant activity, contrasting with the procoagulant effects of 17β-estradiol (17βE2). Its estrogenicity profile has not been reported, and it was evaluated by uterotrophic assay, estrogen receptor binding affinity and its ability to induce gene transcription of the human estrogen receptor (hER)α mediated in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast expression system. Additionally, 17βAE2 and 17αAE2 were compared with 17βE2 in HeLa cells co-transfected with expression vectors for hERα or hERβ subtypes and for an estrogen-responsive reporter gene.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rodent ovariectomy is an experimental method to eliminate the main source of sexual steroids. This work explored for the first time the ovariectomy temporal changes induced in the hemostatic coagulation markers: prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), thrombin time (TT), and fibrinogen concentration (FIB) along with uterine weight on adult female CD1 mice and Wistar rats. Uterine weight (Uw) was assessed before ovariectomy (control), and 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 16, and 21 days after surgery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The anticoagulant activity of 17ß-amino-1,3,5(10)estratrien-3-ol (AE(2)) was established for the first time. Experiment 1: mice groups were treated with a single subcutaneous (s.c.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Buame [17β-(butylamino)-1,3,5(10)-estratrien-3-ol] possesses anticoagulant and antiplatelet activities that are potentially antithrombotic. Since its estrogenicity is unknown, it was evaluated by established methods.

Methods: Buame (10, 100, 500, and 1,000 μg/kg), 17β-estradiol (E(2)) (100 μg/kg), or propylene glycol (10 ml/kg) were subcutaneously (sc) administered for three days to immature Wistar female rats (21 days old).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Filamentous fungi have been recognized as extraordinary producers of secreted proteins and are known to produce novel proteins and enzymes through dispensable metabolic pathways. Here, methods are described for the isolation and enrichment of samples of secreted proteins from cultures of filamentous fungi for analysis by gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry techniques. These methods can be readily applied to the study of differential protein expression and secretion and metabolic pathways in filamentous fungi by proteomic approaches.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A 36-year-old African-American woman presented with an extensive stomatitis and pigmented cutaneous macules on the neck, axillae and hands. Subsequently she developed violaceus papules on the dorsa of the hands, histologically consistent with an interface dermatitis. After 18 months of progressive disease, paraneoplastic pemphigus was suspected and a search for an underlying neoplasm was initiated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

MS/MS techniques in proteomics make possible the identification of proteins from organisms with little or no genome sequence information available. Peptide sequences are obtained from tandem mass spectra by matching peptide mass and fragmentation information to protein sequence information from related organisms, including unannotated genome sequence data. This peptide identification data can then be grouped and reconstructed into protein data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Few studies have been conducted to identify the extracellular proteins and enzymes secreted by filamentous fungi, particularly with respect to dispensable metabolic pathways. Proteomic analysis has proven to be the most powerful method for identification of proteins in complex mixtures and is suitable for the study of the alteration of protein expression under different environmental conditions. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus flavus can degrade the flavonoid rutin as the only source of carbon via an extracellular enzyme system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The relation between inhibition of semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase (SSAO) and vasodilation by hydralazine (HYD) was evaluated in chloralose/urethane-anesthetized rats pretreated with various substrates of the enzyme and subsequently administered a threshold hypotensive dose of the vasodilator. The SSAO substrates benzylamine, phenethylamine, and methylamine potentiate the hypotensive response to HYD. Methylamine, which was studied in greater detail because of its status as a possible endogenous SSAO substrate, does not influence the response to the reference vasodilator pinacidil; it does enhance HYD relaxation in aortic rings obtained from pretreated rats.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hydralazine is a hydrazine derivative used clinically as a vasodilator and antihypertensive agent. Despite numerous studies with the drug, its mechanism of action has remained unknown; guanylate cyclase activation and release of endothelial relaxing factors are thought to be involved in its vasodilator effect. Other hydrazine derivatives are known to stimulate guanylate cyclase and could therefore share the vasodilator activity of hydralazine, although such possibility has not been assessed systematically.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF