Publications by authors named "Sergio Oliveira"

With the advent of the new diagnostic model for personality disorders in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), researchers and practitioners in World Health Organization signatory countries are urged to implement it. This study aims to develop a brief, reliable, and valid scale for assessing maladaptive personality traits according to the ICD-11 model, using the item pool of the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory (IDCP-2). Quantitative and qualitative criteria for item selection were applied to a sample of 251 Brazilian adults.

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Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) caused by Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis is associated with an inflammatory response. Granzyme (GzmB) and IL-1β play a key role in the pathology. Meglumine antimoniate (MA) is the first-choice drug for the treatment of CL, but therapy failure is observed in up to 50% of the cases.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The study evaluated the effects of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH)-based nanoparticles on antigen-presenting cells and found that they boosted important immune responses, increasing the expression of CD86 and MHCII and promoting the production of cytokines IL-1β and IL-18.
  • * Results indicated that systemic administration of Np-OVA led to a strong immune response in mice, characterized by increased specific antibodies and activation of T-helper cells, suggesting potential for new vaccine development against various diseases.
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Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the first line treatment for bladder cancer and it is also proposed for melanoma immunotherapy. BCG modulates the tumor microenvironment (TME) inducing an antitumor effective response, but the immune mechanisms involved still poorly understood. The immune profile of B16-F10 murine melanoma cells was assessed by infecting these cells with BCG or stimulating them with agonists for different innate immune pathways such as TLRs, inflammasome, cGAS-STING and type I IFN.

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Neutrophils can be beneficial or deleterious during tuberculosis (TB). Based on the expression of MHC-II and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), we distinguished two functionally and transcriptionally distinct neutrophil subsets in the lungs of mice infected with mycobacteria. Inflammatory [MHC-II, PD-L1] neutrophils produced inflammasome-dependent IL-1β in the lungs in response to virulent mycobacteria and "accelerated" deleterious inflammation, which was highly exacerbated in IFN-γR mice.

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Introduction: Guanylate-binding proteins (GBPs) are produced in response to pro-inflammatory signals, mainly interferons. The most studied cluster of GBPs in mice is on chromosome 3. It comprises the genes for GBP1-to-3, GBP5 and GBP7.

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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its complex form (C-PTSD) are psychopathological conditions that are related to several personality traits. In particular, the current study aims to investigate the associations of impairment of personality functioning (IPF) and positive outlook for the future (POF) with PTSD and C-PTSD. A sample of 304 Brazilian adults responded to an online survey.

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The bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is an attenuated bacterium derived from virulent . It is the only licensed vaccine used for preventing severe forms of tuberculosis in children. Besides its specific effects against tuberculosis, BCG administration is also associated with beneficial non-specific effects (NSEs) following heterologous stimuli in humans and mice.

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Exosomes, organelles measuring 30-200nm, are secreted by various cell types. exosomes consist of many proteins, including heat shock proteins, annexins, Glycoprotein 63, proteins exerting signaling activity and those containing mRNA and miRNA. Studies have demonstrated that exosomes downregulate IFN-γ and inhibit the expression of microbicidal molecules, such as TNF and nitric oxide, thus creating a microenvironment favoring parasite proliferation.

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The bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) can elicit enhanced innate immune responses against a wide range of infections, known as trained immunity. Brucella abortus is the causative agent of brucellosis, a debilitating disease that affects humans and animals. In this study, we demonstrate that C57BL/6 mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages under BCG training enhance inflammatory responses against B.

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The objective of this research was to produce an activated carbon (AC) from exhausted coffee grounds (ECG) and chemically activate it with natural lye from eucalyptus ash to subsequently evaluate the fluoride adsorption process in an aqueous medium. The thermal analysis of ECG was determined as well as solubilized extraction, alkalinity and calcium content of eucalyptus ashes. AC was characterized by elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), analysis of textural properties, pH and point of zero charge (PZC).

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Despite the importance of the respiratory route for transmission, the lung immune response to this pathogen is scarcely characterized. We investigated the role of the cGAS/STING pathway of microbial DNA recognition in the control of respiratory infection. After infection, CFU numbers were significantly higher in alveolar macrophages (AM) and lung explants from STING KO mice than in samples from wild type (WT) mice, but no difference was observed for cGAS KO samples.

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Background: The continuous proliferation of intestinal stem cells followed by their tightly regulated differentiation to epithelial cells is essential for the maintenance of the gut epithelial barrier and its functions. How these processes are tuned by diet and gut microbiome is an important, but poorly understood question. Dietary soluble fibers, such as inulin, are known for their ability to impact the gut bacterial community and gut epithelium, and their consumption has been usually associated with health improvement in mice and humans.

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COVID-19 has accounted for more than 6 million deaths worldwide. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the existing tuberculosis vaccine, is known to induce heterologous effects over other infections due to trained immunity and has been proposed to be a potential strategy against SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this report, we constructed a recombinant BCG (rBCG) expressing domains of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike proteins (termed rBCG-ChD6), recognized as major candidates for vaccine development.

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Production of nitric oxide (NO) by LPS-activated macrophages is due to a complex cellular signaling initiated by TLR4 that leads to the transcription of IFN-β, which activates IRF-1 and STAT-1, as well as to the activation of NF-κB, required for iNOS transcription. High concentrations of LPS can also be uptaken by scavenger receptors (SRs), which, in concert with TLR4, leads to inflammatory responses. The mechanisms by which TLR4 and SRs interact, and the pathways activated by this interaction in macrophages are not elucidated.

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In recent years the concern with emerging pollutants in water has become more prominent, especially pharmaceutical residues, such as antibiotics due to the influence to increase antibacterial resistance. Further, conventional wastewater treatment methods have not demonstrated efficiency for the complete degradation of these compounds, or they have limitations to treat a large volume of waste. In this sense, this study aims to investigate the degradation of amoxicillin, one of the most prescribed antibiotics, in wastewater via supercritical water gasification (SCWG) using a continuous flow reactor.

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Nearly half of the natural disasters in the world are due to hydro-geomorphological hazards. Therefore, rainfall forecast is a key parameter for the implementation of landslides and flash-floods early warning systems. In this work we developed a routine in R software that enables the validation of a 3-day rainfall forecast by comparison with the daily rainfall data recorded in 101 automatic meteorological stations available in mainland Portugal.

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Intracellular parasites from the Leishmania genus cause Leishmaniasis, a disease affecting millions of people worldwide. NLRP3 inflammasome is key for disease outcome, but the molecular mechanisms upstream of the inflammasome activation are still unclear. Here, we demonstrate that despite the absence of pyroptosis, Gasdermin-D (GSDMD) is active at the early stages of Leishmania infection in macrophages, allowing transient cell permeabilization, potassium efflux, and NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

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Background: Post-procedure residual ischemia is associated with worse prognosis in patients with coronary artery diasease (CAD).

Objective: We evaluated whether autologous bone marrow-derived cells (BMC) contribute to additional reduction in regional stress-induced myocardial ischemia (SIMI) in patients undergoing incomplete coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG).

Methods: In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we enrolled 143 patients (82% men, 58 ± 11 years) with stable CAD and not candidates for complete CABG.

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Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays a major role in several inflammatory disorders. ER stress induces the unfolded protein response (UPR), a conserved response broadly associated with innate immunity and cell metabolic function in various scenarios. , an intracellular pathogen, triggers the UPR Stimulator of interferon genes (STING), an important regulator of macrophage metabolism during infection.

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Programmed cell death (PCD) is an important mechanism of innate immunity against bacterial pathogens. The innate immune PCD pathway involves the molecules caspase-7 and caspase-8, among others. is a gram-negative bacterium that causes a zoonotic disease termed brucellosis.

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Although the baculovirus Autographa californica multiple nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV) infects lepidopteran invertebrates as natural hosts, represents an efficient vector for vaccine development. Baculovirus surface display induces strong humoral responses against viruses and parasites. A novel strategy based on capsid display carrying foreign antigens in the AcMNPV particle further improved the immune response by eliciting CD8 T cell activation.

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The Zero Trust concept is being adopted in information technology (IT) deployments, while human users remain to be the main risk for operational technology (OT) deployments. This article proposes to enhance the new Modbus/TCP Security protocol with authentication and authorization functions that guarantee security against intentional unauthorized access. It aims to comply with the principle of never trusting the person who is accessing the network before carrying out a security check.

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Situations of mistreatment in the academic environment are prevalent worldwide, but research in this area is scarce in middle-low-income countries. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of mistreatment inflicted against Brazilian medical students. In addition, characterize these situations and analyze their consequences.

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