Momordica balsamina L. (Cucurbitaceae), frequently named balsam apple, southern balsam pear or African pumpkin, is a vegetable with high nutritional value, being mostly used as food in sub-Saharan Africa. It has also been largely used in traditional medicine to treat several diseases, such as malaria fevers and diabetes. As a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, the main constituents are cucurbitane-type triterpenoids, with different oxidation patterns, named cucurbitacins. This review aims at summarizing our contribution to the phytochemical study of M. balsamina and the evaluation of the isolated cucurbitacins and derivatives as multidrug resistance reversers in cancer cells and bacteria. In this way, the selective antiproliferative activity against multidrug resistant cancer cells of cucurbitacins obtained from M. balsamina, their ability as P-glycoprotein inhibitors in cancer cells overexpressing this ABC transporter, as well as efflux pump inhibitors in resistant bacteria strains are reviewed. Moreover, the in vitro antimalarial activity of cucurbitacins and acyl derivatives against the blood and liver-stages of Plasmodium strains, and the in vivo activity of selected compounds is also reviewed. Besides our work, edible and medicinal uses, and other studies mainly reporting the biological activities of M. balsamina extracts, such as antidiabetic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties are also addressed.
Anthropometry has been widely used in different fields, providing relevant information for medicine, ergonomics and biometric applications. However, the existent solutions present marked disadvantages, reducing the employment of this type of evaluation. Studies have been conducted in order to easily determine anthropometric measures considering data provided by low-cost sensors, such as the Microsoft Kinect. In this work, a methodology is proposed and implemented for estimating anthropometric measures considering the information acquired with this sensor. The measures obtained with this method were compared with the ones from a validation system, Qualisys. Comparing the relative errors determined with state-of-art references, for some of the estimated measures, lower errors were verified and a more complete characterization of the whole body structure was achieved.
In order to verify whether there is a considerable increase in body skin temperature during different swimming techniques (crawl and backstroke) and identifying the most affected regions. The athlete's thermal symmetry was also analyzed, as well as its modification after the swimming, according to the performed technique. The accuracy of thermography as a method to identify and distinguish these different styles was also evaluated. Ten male swimmers were recruited and two different swimming techniques were assessed, crawl and backstroke. After a 10 minute acclimatization period in the pool, the swimmers were quickly dried with microfiber towels. The thermograms were taken before and after the swimming task, which consisted in a 7x200m protocol in crawl or backstroke. Infrared thermography revealed an increase of temperature after exercise and no significant differences were found between both techniques. Thermal symmetry was not affected by exercise.
Graphical AbstractIn silico studies of bacterial efflux pump inhibition by thioxanthones and their synergistic antibacterial activity 2 Design of a virtual library of 1000 thioxanthones Good scores for bacterial efflux pumpsGood scores for human Pglycoprotein 30 thioxanthones Antibacterial activity Synergy with antimicrobials Abstract:Efflux pumps are transmembrane transporters, ubiquitous in bacteria, that can actively extrude several antimicrobial drugs from within cells into the external environment, allowing bacteria to develop multidrug resistance. Efforts have been put towards a selective, efficient efflux pump inhibitor (EPI), and although some progress has been achieved, no EPIs have been approved in the therapeutic scenario. This problem leads to the inefficacy of a large amount of antimicrobial drugs, with antimicrobial resistance posing one of the most urgent threats concerning health problems of our days. Thioxanthones are heterocyclic, privileged structures with a dibenzo-γ-thiopyrone scaffold. Previous work by our group has demonstrated the potential of these compounds as human efflux pump modulators. In this scope, a virtual library of approximately 1000 thioxanthones was designed, and in silico studies were performed. The compounds that displayed good docking scores were selected to be synthesized. The synthesis of thioxanthones was performed using a copper-catalysed Ullmann coupling. Antibacterial activity and synergism assays with antibacterial drugs were performed, with two compounds displaying promising results in combination with antibacterial drugs, although with no relevant antimicrobial activity. Future studies will involve insights into the mechanism of synergy of promising compounds. Synergy with antibiotics 12 CTX (10 mg/ml) + Compound MIC (µg/ml) CTX 512 1 (64 µg/ml) 512 2 (16 µg/ml) 512 3 (16 µg/ml) 512 4 (64 µg/ml) 512 5 (16 µg/ml) 512 6 (64 µg/ml) 512 7 (64 µg/ml) 512 8 (64 µg/ml) 32 9 (64 µg/ml) 512 10 (64 µg/ml) 128 11 (64 µg/ml) 128 12 (64 µg/ml) 512 OXA (5 mg/ml) + Compound MIC (µg/ml) OXA 128 1 (64 µg/ml) 128 2 (16 µg/ml) 128 3 (16 µg/ml) 128 4 (64 µg/ml) 128 5 (16 µg/ml) 128 6 (64 µg/ml) 128 7 (64 µg/ml) 128 8 (64 µg/ml) 128 9 (64 µg/ml) 128 10 (64 µg/ml) 128 11 (64 µg/ml) 128 12 (64 µg/ml) 128 VAN (10 mg/ml) + Compound MIC (µg/ml) VAN
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