Screening Amazon rainforest plant extracts for antimicrobial activity: a 15-year commitment to the Brazilian biodiversity.

Introduction: The need for new tools to treat infections is constantly growing due to the possibilities of emerging diseases related to environmental changes, climatic catastrophes, microorganism resistance, and human and animal aging, leading to an evident unbalance in the planet's health. Brazil contains the most significant portion of world biodiversity, a potential source of new antimicrobial natural products. Nonetheless, its environment, particularly its forests, and rainforests, is under threat, meaning that rapidly conducted, comprehensive research into the potential of antimicrobial activity to address this threat is urgently needed.

The impact of modern preoperative high-dose-rate brachytherapy in early-stage cervical cancer.

Purpose: To analyze the clinical outcomes and the safety of preoperative high-dose-rate (HDR) image-guided adaptive brachytherapy (IGABT) followed by minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in the multidisciplinary management of early-stage cervical cancer.

Methods And Materials: Medical records of all consecutive patients with early-stage cervical cancer treated at our institution between 2012 and 2018 with preoperative IGABT in a multidisciplinary approach were reviewed. Treatment schedule was pelvic node dissection, preoperative IGABT followed 6-8 week later by MIS hysterectomy.

Susceptibility of virulent and resistant strains to non-polar and polar compounds identified in .

Background And Aim: is one of the main pathogens responsible for veterinary and human infections, and it is associated with significant economic losses in the livestock, as it causes severe diseases to humans, particularly in children. For that reason, there is a need for introducing new drugs to treat diseases. The Brazilian species richness is a source of potential new antibacterial natural products.

Amazon climatic factors driving terpene composition of Iryanthera polyneura Ducke in terra-firme forest: A statistical approach.

Iryanthera polyneura (Myristicaceae) is popularly known as cumala-colorada, and can be found in the Amazon rain forest. The present study aimed the evaluation of the chemical composition of the essential oils (EOs) obtained from the leaves of I. polyneura throughout a two-year period in order to correlate chemical findings with seasonality and climatic variation.

Interference of Seasonal Variation on the Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Activities of the Essential Oils from the Leaves of Iryanthera polyneura in the Amazon Rain Forest.

The essential oils (EOs) obtained from the leaves of Iryanthera polyneura Ducke trees was chemically Assessed and tested for the ability of inhibiting the growth of Candida albicans, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans and S. sanguinis. The oil was also tested against breast (MCF-7) and prostate (PC-3) cancer cell lines.

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest.

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts.

Nivolumab in routine practice for older patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Nivolumab is approved worldwide as second-line treatment for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Despite the fact that most of these cancers are being diagnosed in the older patients, few of the patients were included in pivotal trials. We aimed to describe efficacy and safety in a "real-world" older population.

Mice Behavioral Phenotype Changes after Administration of (, Clusiaceae), an Alternative Latin American and African Medicine.

Background: , (, Clusiaceae), known as chewstick, is a traditional plant occurring in Africa and in Central and South Americas that is used against parasites and microorganisms. Although its use is popular in some of these countries, there is a lack of information related to its influence over behavioral phenotype (BP).

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of the administration of the extract obtained from the aerial organs of (EB1257) to male Balb-c mice over BP.

Targeted NGS, array-CGH, and patient-derived tumor xenografts for precision medicine in advanced breast cancer: a single-center prospective study.

Background: Routine feasibility and clinical impact of genomics-based tumor profiling in advanced breast cancer (aBC) remains to be determined. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate whether precision medicine could be prospectively implemented for aBC patients in a single center and to examine whether patient-derived tumor xenografts (PDX) could be obtained in this population.

Results: Thirty-four aBC patients were included.

In vitro activity of Amazon plant extracts against Enterococcus faecalis.

Previous studies analyzing 2,200 plant extracts indicated anti-enterococcal activity in 25 extracts obtained from Brazilian forests' plants. In the present study, these extracts were subjected to microdilution broth assay (MDBA) and disk diffusion assay (DDA) using planktonic Enterococcus faecalis ATCC(®) 29212™ and were submitted to phytochemical analysis in TLC and HPLC. Three extracts obtained from Ipomoea alba (MIC < 40 μg/mL), Diclinanona calycina (MIC ≤ 40 μg/mL) and Moronobea coccinea (40 < MIC < 80 μg/mL; MBC = 80 μg/mL) showed significant bactericidal activity in the MDBA and four extracts obtained from I.

First chemical evaluation and toxicity of Casinga-cheirosa to Balb-c male mice.

Laetia suaveolens, known as "casinga-cheirosa", crude extract EB719 has previously shown cytotoxic activity against prostate cancer and squamous cell carcinoma. For the first time, seven molecules were isolated from its apolar-α-tocopherol (1) and sitosterol (2)-and polar-3-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3), 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid (4), 5-O-feruloylquinic acid (5), hyperoside (6), and isoquercitrin (7)-fractions. Acute toxicity was determined in a two-stage experiment: (1) a reduced number of Balb-c male mice received 5000 mg/kg of EB719 to allow evaluation of general activity and other 27 parameters, plus death, up to the establishment of non-lethal dose (NLD), as well as lethal dose 50% (LD50); (2) NLD was administered and diazepam introduced as reference drug.

Anti-Streptococcal activity of Brazilian Amazon Rain Forest plant extracts presents potential for preventive strategies against dental caries.

Unlabelled: Caries is a global public health problem, whose control requires the introduction of low-cost treatments, such as strong prevention strategies, minimally invasive techniques and chemical prevention agents. Nature plays an important role as a source of new antibacterial substances that can be used in the prevention of caries, and Brazil is the richest country in terms of biodiversity.

Objective: In this study, the disk diffusion method (DDM) was used to screen over 2,000 Brazilian Amazon plant extracts against Streptococcus mutans.

Impact of delay to cryopreservation on RNA integrity and genome-wide expression profiles in resected tumor samples.

The quality of tissue samples and extracted mRNA is a major source of variability in tumor transcriptome analysis using genome-wide expression microarrays. During and immediately after surgical tumor resection, tissues are exposed to metabolic, biochemical and physical stresses characterized as "warm ischemia". Current practice advocates cryopreservation of biosamples within 30 minutes of resection, but this recommendation has not been systematically validated by measurements of mRNA decay over time.

New trends in dentistry: plant extracts against Enterococcus faecalis. The efficacy compared to chlorhexidine.

Enterococcus faecalis is an important pathogen associated with endodontic diseases, and its elimination and control are of paramount importance, as it represents one of the major causes of failure in the treatment of endodontic disease. Twenty-five plant extracts obtained from Brazilian forests were found to be effective against planktonic E. faecalis and were subjected to two traditional antibacterial assays, the microdilution broth assay (MDBA) and the disk diffusion assay (DDA), using chlorhexidine (CHX) as a control.

Impact of point spread function reconstruction on thoracic lymph node staging with 18F-FDG PET/CT in non-small cell lung cancer.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of point spread function (PSF) reconstruction on quantitative values and diagnostic accuracy of FDG PET/CT for nodal staging in non-small cell lung cancer.

Patients And Methods: Fifty-eight consecutive PET/CT examinations were reconstructed with both ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) and PSF algorithms. Two readers independently performed a randomized blinded review of PET/CT examinations and gave a nodal status (N0, N1, N2, or N3) to each PET data set.

In vitro cytotoxic effects of Brazilian plant extracts on squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most prevalent cancer of the oral cavity and the fifth most prevalent of all malignancies in males. Many researchers have attempted to develop new treatments that will improve the prognosis of SCC patients. Over 20% of the world's biodiversity is located within the Brazilian forests, but little is known about the chemical and/or pharmacological potential of these plants.

[Acute-placental dysfunction by villous-maturation defect and late-fetal mortality].

Introduction: The placental histological examination is essential in the assessment of stillbirths, especially those of third trimester, which are often of placental origin by chronic placental dysfunction and sometimes by acute dysfunction. The physiopathogenesis of the latter remains obscure.

Material And Method: Three stillbirths, one per partum and two after 38 and 39 weeks gestation, caused by acute-placental dysfunction by villous maturation defect were studied.

Usefulness of automatic quantification of immunochemical staining on whole tumor sections for correlation with oncological small animal PET studies: an example with cell proliferation, glucose transporter 1 and FDG.

Aim: To highlight the use of automatic quantification of immunochemical staining on digitized images of whole tumor sections in preclinical positron emission tomography (PET) studies.

Materials And Methods: Xenografted human testicular tumors (36) were imaged with 2-deoxy-2[F-18]fluoro-D: -glucose (FDG) small animal PET (SA-PET). Tumor cell proliferation and glucose transportation were assessed with cyclin A and Glut-1 immunostaining.

In vitro breast cancer cell lethality of Brazilian plant extracts.

In this study we screened the cytotoxicity of 1220 plant extracts obtained from 351 plants belonging to 74 families occurring in the Amazon and Atlantic rain forests against MCF-7 human breast adenocarcinoma cell lines. All extracts were tested at a dose of 100 microg/mL. Only 11 aqueous or organic extracts belonging to the Annonaceae, Apocynaceae, Araceae, Clusiaceae, Flacourtiaceae, Leguminosae, Olacaceae and Violaceae showed marked lethal activity.

[Purely cutaneous Rosai-Dorfman disease present for 19 years].

Background: Rosai-Dorfman disease is a non-Langerhans histiocytosis chiefly affecting lymph nodes sites. In rare cases, it presents in the form of isolated skin lesions, without adenopathy, in which case it is a benign disease that regresses spontaneously within our number of months and years.

Patients And Methods: An 83 year-old man presented with multiple red-brown nodular lesions on the upper part of the body that had been progressing over a period of 19 years.