Classical scoring functions may exhibit low accuracy in determining ligand binding affinity for proteins. The availability of both protein-ligand structures and affinity data make it possible to develop machine-learning models focused on specific protein systems with superior predictive performance. Here, we report a new methodology named SAnDReS that combines AutoDock Vina 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLight chain multiple myeloma presenting as secondary cutaneous amyloidosis is an uncommon systemic manifestation, posing diagnostic challenges. We present a case of an elderly woman with a history of hemorrhoidal disease, who sought medical attention for what she thought was rectal bleeding. Initial examination revealed an ulcerative vulvar lesion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTicks Tick Borne Dis
July 2023
Ticks are vectors for several pathogens, including bacteria belonging to the Rickettsia genus, such as Rickettsia rickettsii and Rickettsia parkeri, the causative agents of spotted fever. The aim of the present study was to investigate the tick species richness and rickettsial agents associated with wild birds captured in the Humaita Forest Reserve, Acre, in the Western Amazon region. Wild birds were captured with ornithological nets for visual inspection with the purpose of collecting ticks, which were identified through morphological analyses and molecular tests for several genes (12S rDNA, 16S rDNA, gltA, ompA, and sca4).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrosc Res Tech
May 2022
Studies seeking control methods for infestation of Riphicephalus sanguineus sensu lato (s.l.) ticks (dog ticks) have been carried out in order to minimize damage to both the tick's hosts and the environment, the latter due to the misuse of acaricide products.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose A wealth of studies has assessed the diagnostic value of the nonword repetition task (NWRT) for the detection of developmental language disorder (DLD) in the clinical context of speech and language therapy, first in monolingual children and, more recently, in bilingual children. This review article reviews this literature systematically and conducts a meta-analysis on the discriminative power of this type of task in both populations. Method Three databases were used to select articles based on keyword combinations, which were then reviewed for relevance and methodological rigor based on internationally recognized checklists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe outbreak of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) causing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread globally. As of June 18, 2020, a high maternal mortality rate due to SARS-CoV-2 infections was identified in Brazil, representing most of the world cases at that time. An observational, cross-sectional study was performed with pregnant women admitted in two maternity hospitals located in Salvador/Bahia and their newborns, from May 24 up to July 17 of 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTicks Tick Borne Dis
July 2021
The present study analyzed the efficacy of hexane extract of Acmella oleracea against Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato. After exposure of R. sanguineus s.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince the emergence of the new severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at the end of December 2019 in China, and with the urge of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there have been huge efforts of many research teams and governmental institutions worldwide to mitigate the current scenario. Reaching more than 1,377,000 deaths in the world and still with a growing number of infections, SARS-CoV-2 remains a critical issue for global health and economic systems, with an urgency for available therapeutic options. In this scenario, as drug repurposing and discovery remains a challenge, computer-aided drug design (CADD) approaches, including machine learning (ML) techniques, can be useful tools to the design and discovery of novel potential antiviral inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComputational methods have been widely used in drug design. The recent developments in machine learning techniques and the ever-growing chemical and biological databases are fertile ground for discoveries in this area. In this study, we evaluated the performance of Deep Learning models in comparison to Random Forest, and Support Vector Regression for predicting the biological activity (pIC50) of ALK-5 inhibitors as candidates to treat cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: human growth is the result of an interaction between genetic, hormonal, nutritional, and environmental factors. It is not yet fully understood what is predominant and decisive in determining an individual's weight and height. Objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the cardiometabolic profile of exclusively breastfed children born small for gestational age (SGA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: After the initial wave of antibiotic discovery, few novel classes of antibiotics have emerged, with the latest dating back to the 1980's. Furthermore, the pace of antibiotic drug discovery is unable to keep up with the increasing prevalence of antibiotic drug resistance. However, the increasing amount of available data promotes the use of machine learning techniques (MLT) in drug discovery projects (.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiscovering (or planning) a new drug candidate involves many parameters, which makes this process slow, costly, and leading to failures at the end in some cases. In the last decades, we have witnessed a revolution in the computational area (hardware, software, large-scale computing, etc.), as well as an explosion in data generation (big data), which raises the need for more sophisticated algorithms to analyze this myriad of data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThymol is a monoterpene with proven acaricidal activity on different tick species and life stages. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of thymol on the reproductive biology of engorged females of Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato and the morphological changes caused in the cells of the tubular and accessory glands of Gené's organ. The females were exposed to thymol by immersion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study investigated the effects of different concentrations of extract on the germinative cells and digestive processes of semi-engorged females. For this experiment, 150 ticks were divided into five groups (30 individuals each). The animals were immersed for 5 min in different concentrations of the extract, distilled water, or ethanol 50%/DMSO 1%, dried, and kept in biological oxygen demand incubator for 7 days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNovel drug discovery remains an enormous challenge, with various computer-aided drug design (CADD) approaches having been widely employed for this purpose. CADD, specifically the commonly used support vector machines (SVMs), can employ machine learning techniques. SVMs and their variations offer numerous drug discovery applications, which range from the classification of substances (as active or inactive) to the construction of regression models and the ranking/virtual screening of databased compounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurrently, the most commonly used method to control ticks is the use of synthetic acaricides. However, these compounds are potentially harmful to hosts and the environment, in addition to causing the selection of resistant individuals. Therefore, several studies have been conducted to find sustainable methods to control ticks, such as Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato, the most important vectors of pathogens for dogs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMucositis is one of the commonest side effects in cancer patients undergoing treatment with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, and it currently lacks appropriate and effective treatment. , a species of flowering herb from South America, contains spilanthol, an alkylamide that has several pharmacological properties, including anesthetic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory activities. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to evaluate the effect of spilanthol in intestinal mucositis in Swiss mice induced by 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), an antineoplastic agent administered systemically for the treatment of many different cancers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Pediatr (Rio J)
October 2019
Objective: To systematically review evidence related to nutritional and cardiometabolic outcomes in children born at term and small for gestational age and the association with breastfeeding.
Source Of Data: Two independent reviewers searched the MEDLINE, LILACS, SciELO, and Embase databases without time or language restrictions. The PRISMA tool was used, and studies that evaluated infants born at term and small for gestational age, breastfed, and with an evaluation of cardiometabolic outcomes were included.
Medicinal chemistry projects involve some steps aiming to develop a new drug, such as the analysis of biological targets related to a given disease, the discovery and the development of drug candidates for these targets, performing parallel biological tests to validate the drug effectiveness and side effects. Approaches as quantitative study of activity-structure relationships (QSAR) involve the construction of predictive models that relate a set of descriptors of a chemical compound series and its biological activities with respect to one or more targets in the human body. Datasets used to perform QSAR analyses are generally characterized by a small number of samples and this makes them more complex to build accurate predictive models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe treatment of neuropathic pain is very complex and there are few drugs approved for this purpose. Among the studied compounds in the literature, sigma-1 receptor antagonists have shown to be promising. In order to develop QSAR studies applied to the compounds of 1-arylpyrazole derivatives, multivariate analyses have been performed in this work using partial least square (PLS) and artificial neural network (ANN) methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExp Appl Acarol
June 2017
The cosmopolitan species Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l. is one of the most widely distributed ticks all over the world.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvid Based Complement Alternat Med
September 2016
The Brazilian forests have one of the world's biggest biodiversities. (macela) and (jambu) are native species from Brazil with a huge therapeutic potential, with proved anti-inflammatory and anesthetic action, respectively. The jambu's crude extract after depigmentation with activated charcoal and macela's essential oil were incorporated in a film made with hydroxyethyl cellulose.
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