Non-formal education for schistosomiasis prevention: the experience of the Museu Arqueológico de Central, Bahia, Brazil

The activities described here form part of an extensive programme in place in the Regi?o Arqueológica de Central, state of Bahia, Brazil. After malacological and socio-environmental surveys in the area, a strategy comprising formal and non-formal education with an emphasis on schistosomiasis prevention was developed, introduced, and evaluated. Interviews were conducted of 142 students and 11 teachers, totalling 11 classes at six primary schools. On the basis of those interviews, four display cases and seven panels were prepared. In addition a table was set up where students could participate directly on the subject, drawing and recognising the factors involved in the schistosomiasis cycle. The exhibition was held at the Museu Arqueológico de Central. The endeavours of this paper underline the importance of health education as well as exhibitions to disease prevention activities.     

A new genus and species of opisthogonimid (Digenea) of Liophis anomalus (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Uruguay

During a study on the helminth fauna of Liophis anomalus specimens deposited in the Reptile Collection of the Secci6n Zoología Vertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias, Uruguay, a new genus of Opisthogoniminae was found. Paracotyletrema n. gen. is described from the buccal cavity and esophagus of specimens from Departamento de Flores, Uruguay. This new genus differs from the other 2 Opisthogoniminae, Opisthogonimus and Westella, by having much smaller body size; maximum width at level of posterior end of oral sucker; oral sucker length more than one-fourth of body length; oral sucker and acetabulum separated by a distance of about the diameter of pharynx; cirrus pouch length more than half of body length; and testes in completely coincident zones. The type and only species, Paracotyletrema poncedeleoni n. gen., n. sp., is defined by the following diagnostic characters: mean oral sucker length one-third to one-half of body length; cirrus pouch of about body length, contorted, mainly acetabular; large, round testes in nearly adjacent fields, and an ovary nearly adjacent to right testis. Besides the type locality, Paracotyletrema poncedeleoni has been found in L. anomalus specimens from the Departamentos of Artigas and Treinta y Tres; therefore, it has a widespread distribution in Uruguay.     

Effect of indole acetic acid administration on the neutrophil functions and oxidative stress from neutrophil, mesenteric lymph node and liver

This study was done to investigate the effect of the in vivo administration of indole acetic acid (IAA) on the neutrophil function, the activities of antioxidants enzymes in neutrophils, the mesenteric lymph node and on the oxidative stress in liver and plasma. The animals received subcutaneous administration of IAA in a phosphate-buffered saline (the control group received only the phosphate-buffered saline). The other groups received IAA at concentrations of 1 mg (T1), 2 mg (T2) and 18 mg (T3) per kg of body mass per day. Administration of IAA in both treatments T2 and T3 promoted a significant rise in the phagocytic capacity of neutrophils (by 51%), in comparison with the control. Another alteration was observed in antioxidant enzyme activities of the neutrophil and lymph node. But in the liver, the treatments imposed a significant decrease in the activity of catalase of 19% and 30% for T2 and T3, respectively, in comparison with the control. A similar effect was observed in the activity of hepatic glutathione peroxidase for T3 where a significant decrease of 31%, compared with the control, was obtained. The IAA did not show another significant alteration of the activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione reductase activities in liver. The hepatic lipid peroxidation level, available by reactive products with thiobarbituric acid, has shown a significant decrease of 27% and 29% with T1 and T3 respectively, in comparison with the control. IAA treatment did not show a significant alteration in reduced glutathione contents in comparison with the liver and plasma controls. In conclusion, the IAA administration has a good potential animal utilization for increasing the phagocytic capacity with no prooxidant effect.     

A mathematical model of iron chelation with desferrioxamine

Removal of body iron is a severe clinical problem in patients affected by hemochromatosis or iron-loading anemias. Desferrioxamine (DFO) is the most potent artificial iron-chelating agent. This work deals with the problem of describing DFO action in man by means of a mathematical model, formulated on the basis of the current knowledge about DFO and iron metabolism. Since most clinical data are concerned with DFO-induced urinary iron excretion, only this process, which involves iron stored in reticuloendothelial (RE) cells, was described in detail. Most of the parameters of the model were estimated from data obtained by studying the single processes involved in iron chelation with DFO. A computer simulation study then allowed us to assign meaningful values to the remaining parameters. Different DFO treatments were simulated, and the results obtained seem to show us that the model can reproduce the main experimental findings and the relationship between the amount of chelated iron and the iron status of the patient.     

Spectroscopic Determination of Lysozyme Conformational Changes in the Presence of Trehalose and Guanidine

The bioprotective action of the disaccharide trehalose has been studied against the well-known denaturating agent, guanidine hydrochloride. The results indicated a direct influence of trehalose on both enzymatic activity and conformational changes of lysozyme, as shown by the decrease of the inactivation rate constant of about 1.48-fold and the loss of α-helix structure of lysozyme. In addition, ESI–MS hydrogen–deuterium (H/D) exchange experiments allowed us to correlate the structural and dynamic features of the protein in the presence of the two additives, highlighting as trehalose remarkably influenced this exchange by decreasing local protein environment changes and solvent accessibility to the amide peptide backbone, as further evidenced by circular dichroism and ¹H NMR measurements.     

Breakpoint determination of 15 large deletions in Peutz–Jeghers subjects

The Peutz–Jeghers Syndrome (PJS) is an autosomal dominant polyposis disorder with increased risk of multiple cancers. STK11/LKB1 (hereafter named STK11) germline mutations account for the large majority of PJS cases whereas large deletions account for about 30% of the cases. We report here the first thorough molecular characterization of 15 large deletions identified in a cohort of 51 clinically well-characterized PJS patients. The deletions were identified by MLPA analysis and characterized by custom CGH-array and quantitative PCR to define their boundaries. The deletions, ranging from 2.9 to 180 kb, removed one or more loci contiguous to the STK11 gene in six patients, while partial STK11 gene deletions were present in the remaining nine cases. By means of DNA sequencing, we were able to precisely characterize the breakpoints in each case. Of the 30 breakpoints, 16 were located in Alu elements, revealing non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) as the putative mechanism for the deletions of the STK11 gene, which lays in a region with high Alu density. In the remaining cases, other mechanisms could be hypothesized, such as microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ) or non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ). In conclusion we here demonstrated the non-random occurrence of large deletions associated with PJS. All our patients had a classical PJS phenotype, which shows that haploinsufficiency for SBNO2, C19orf26, ATP5D, MIDN, C19orf23, CIRBP, C19orf24,and EFNA2, does not apparently affect their clinical phenotype.     

Metabolite of tryptophan promoting changes in EEG signal and the oxidative status of the brain

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid precursor of neurotransmitter serotonin and triptamine. During its metabolism, indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA) is generated; this substance presents both antioxidant and prooxidant effects in different biological systems in addition to hipoglicemic effects. To date, electroencephalography (EEG) has been used to evaluate the temporal effect of several substances in neurotransmission. The goal of this study was to characterize the effect of IAA in the brain by analysing the EEG signal and evaluate the oxidative status by means of biochemical parameters. The EEG was acquired by using a noninvasive method, and the brain electric signal was analysed by advanced digital signal processing techniques to determinate the energy signal filtered in different band frequencies. Furthermore, the oxidative status of the brain was investigated by measuring the activity of antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxidation as well as blood glucose rates of the animals treated with different doses of IAA. Our results showed the relationship of IAA administration with changes in EEG signals. The oxidative status of the brain was modified by IAA after 14 days of treatment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.