ICI - CICS | Documentos por Auto-Depósito
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Browsing ICI - CICS | Documentos por Auto-Depósito by Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) "03:Saúde de Qualidade"
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- ARIA-Italy managing allergic rhinitis and asthma in a changing world: The role of the PharmacistPublication . Paoletti, Giovanni; Giua, Corrado; Marti, Alessandro; Baio, Matteo Alberto; Valli, Nicolò; Ridolo, Erminia; Ventura, Maria Teresa; Passalacqua, Giovanni; Puggioni, Francesca; Lourenço, Olga ; Bousquet, Jean; Canonica, Giogio Walter; Heffler, Enrico; Lombardi, CarloAllergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma are common respiratory disorders that often occur together, affecting quality of life and increasing healthcare expenses of patients. These chronic illnesses are often managed without medical supervision, creating distinct challenges. A lack of resources can limit regular follow-up, which in turn promotes disease mismanagement and an increased reliance on self-medication, including the inappropriate use of corticosteroids and nasal decongestants. Community pharmacies could serve as critical primary healthcare providers, facilitating AR and asthma management by promoting therapy adherence, minimizing drug misuse, and improving symptom monitoring using digital tools. The evolving role of pharmacists as vital healthcare team members is highlighted by their involvement in screening, prevention, and patient education, particularly in underserved communities. Strengthening the partnerships between pharmacists, physicians, and patients may lead to more tailored and effective management strategies. This collaborative approach has demonstrated promise in enhancing disease outcomes and reducing healthcare costs.
- Injectable and implantable hydrogels for localized delivery of drugs and nanomaterials for cancer chemotherapy: A reviewPublication . Pouso, Manuel António do Rosário ; Melo, Bruna Daniela Lopes ; Gonçalves, Joaquim; Louro, Ricardo; Mendonça, António; Correia, Ilídio Joaquim Sobreira ; de Melo-Diogo, DuarteMultiple chemotherapeutic strategies have been developed to tackle the complexity of cancer. Still, the outcome of chemotherapeutic regimens remains impaired by the drugs’ weak solubility, unspecific biodistribution and poor tumor accumulation after systemic administration. Such constraints triggered the development of nanomaterials to encapsulate and deliver anticancer drugs. In fact, the loading of drugs into nanoparticles can overcome most of the solubility concerns. However, the ability of systemically administered drug-loaded nanomaterials to reach the tumor site has been vastly overestimated, limiting their clinical translation. The drugs’ and drug-loaded nanomaterials’ systemic administration issues have propelled the development of hydrogels capable of performing their direct/local delivery into the tumor site. The use of these macroscale systems to mediate a tumor-confined delivery of the drugs/drugs-loaded nanomaterials grants an improved therapeutic efficacy and, simultaneously, a reduction of the side effects. The manufacture of these hydrogels requires the careful selection and tailoring of specific polymers/materials as well as the choice of appropriate physical and/or chemical crosslinking interactions. Depending on their administration route and assembling process, these matrices can be classified as injectable in situ forming hydrogels, injectable shear-thinning/selfhealing hydrogels, and implantable hydrogels, each type bringing a plethora of advantages for the intended biomedical application. This review provides the reader with an insight into the application of injectable and implantable hydrogels for performing the tumor-confined delivery of drugs and drug-loaded nanomaterials.
- Insect-based chitin and chitosan from whole body sources and rearing by-products: extraction, physicochemical, structural and bioactivity characterisationPublication . Navarro, Pedro; Ribeiro, José Carlos Reis ; Luís, Ângelo Filipe Santos ; Domingues, Fernanda; Anjos, Ofélia; Cunha, LuisFractionation of edible insects and their rearing by-products can lead to expanded industrial applications and extraction of value-added products. The main goal of this study was to extract chitin and synthesise chitosan from three different insect sources – Tenebrio molitor larvae, adult Acheta domesticus and A. domesticus rearing by-products (legs and wings). Furthermore, the physicochemical, structural, and bioactive properties of insectderived chitin and chitosan were characterised and compared to commercial crustacean-based samples. Chitin was isolated from defatted sources through chemical hydrolysis followed by decolourisation and was deacetylated with a strong alkaline solution to synthesise chitosan. Notably, A. domesticus rearing by-products yielded the highest chitin and chitosan content. Chitin and chitosan derived from insects exhibited physicochemical and structural characteristics consistent with the α-polymorphic form, similar to the commercial samples. Differences were found in surface morphology, with insect-derived samples presenting large and irregular flakes and porosity, while the crustacean-derived samples presented irregularly arranged fibres and a more regular and smoother surface. As for antioxidant activity, although all chitosan samples demonstrated poor DPPH radical scavenging activity, this study showed for the first time that insect-derived chitosan presents lipid peroxidation inhibition ability. All chitosan samples presented antimicrobial activity against different pathogenic bacteria, with K. pneumoniae being the most susceptible strain. Nevertheless, there is potential for enhancement of the biological properties through modifications on the molecular weight and deacetylation degree. This research introduces the potential of cricketrearing by-products as sustainable sources of chitosan with functional bioactive properties.
- Quorum sensing inhibition evaluation method: An experiment-based microbiology laboratory coursePublication . Luís, Ângelo Filipe Santos ; Domingues, FernandaBacteria have developed a cell-to-cell communication system called quorum sensing (QS), allowing them to regulate group behavior and synchronize the expression of virulence factors, responsible for increasing their infection capacity and resistance to antimicrobials. Although the control of microbial infections through the inhibition of microbial growth has traditionally been the basis of antimicrobial chemotherapy, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance has led to the search for new microbial control strategies, namely through the inhibition of QS. Among the agents studied to inhibit this bacterial communication are essential oils (EO), which are considered very effective QS inhibitors. When searching for new QS inhibitor agents, it is essential to have a cheap and easy-to-perform method that allows the evaluation of this activity. Chromobacterium violaceum is a Gram-negative bacterium that has been widely used as a model organism in QS research laboratories because it produces the violet-colored pigment violacein, which is regulated by QS and is an easily observable and quantifiable characteristic marker. The objective of this work is to describe a method to evaluate the inhibition of the QS using Cymbopogon martinii EO as a potential inhibitory agent for violacein production by C. violaceum, which can be applied in the Microbiology laboratory course as a part of the programs of several science degrees. The proposed method is inexpensive and does not require specific equipment, enabling its easy implementation by the laboratory team and professors.
- Renewable Photo-Cross-Linkable Polyester-Based Biomaterials: Synthesis, Characterization, and Cytocompatibility AssessmentPublication . Cernadas, Maria Teresa; Pereira, João; Melo, Bruna Daniela Lopes ; de Melo-Diogo, Duarte; Correia, Ilídio Joaquim Sobreira ; Alves, Patrícia; Calvinho, Paula Cristina Nunes FerreiraTThe present work consist of the synthesis of photo-crosslinkable materials, based on unsaturated polyesters (UPs), synthesized from biobased monomers from renewable sources such as itaconic acid and 1,4- butanediol. The UPs were characterized to assess the influence of polycondensation reaction temperature and cross-linking time on their final properties. For this purpose, different UV irradiation exposure periods were tested. Homogeneous, uniform, and transparent films were obtained after 1, 3, and 5 min of UV exposure. These cross-linked films were then characterized. All materials presented high gel content, which was dependent on the reaction’s temperature. The thermal behaviors of the UPs were shown to be similar. In vitro hydrolytic degradation tests showed that the materials can undergo degradation in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) at pH 7.4 and 37 °C, ensuring their biodegradability over time. Finally, to assess the applicability of the polyesters as biomaterials, their cytocompatibility was determined by using human dermal fibroblasts.