Durante a pandemia, em que o mundo se viu preocupado com a disseminação de um microrganismo, trabalhamos com a disseminação de pesquisas em saúde pública no Núcleo de Disseminação Científica do PMA/VPPCB/Fiocruz. Objetivamos neste artigo discutir como sentidos distintos do termo disseminação se relacionam e impactam a saúde pública e refletir sobre como o contexto da pandemia influenciou nosso processo de trabalho em disseminação científica. Como estratégia metodológica, adotamos o relato de experiência pela análise documental dos relatórios dos autores, comparando atividades e reflexões que ilustram o percurso de transição entre o trabalho realizado pelos profissionais em 2019 em contraste a 2020, diante do contexto da pandemia. Nesse período, foi necessário adaptar o trabalho para ser feito remotamente. As etapas da disseminação, como a produção e a circulação, modificaram-se para seguir protocolos de segurança e incluir as devidas contextualizações.
Class A serine β-lactamases (SBLs) have a conserved non-active site structural domain called the omega loop (Ω-loop), in which a glutamic acid residue is believed to be directly involved in the hydrolysis of β-lactam antibiotics by providing a water molecule during catalysis. We aimed to design and characterise potential pentapeptides to mask the function of the Ω-loop of β-lactamases and reduce their efficacy, along with potentiating the β-lactam antibiotics and eventually decreasing β-lactam resistance. Considering the Ω-loop sequence as a template, a group of pentapeptide models were designed, validated through docking, and synthesised using solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). To check whether the β-lactamases (BLAs) were inhibited, we expressed specific BLAs (TEM-1 and SHV-14) and evaluated the trans-expression through a broth dilution method and an agar dilution method (HT-SPOTi). To further support our claim, we conducted a kinetic analysis of BLAs with the peptides and employed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of peptides. The individual presence of six histidine-based peptides (TSHLH, ETHIH, ESRLH, ESHIH, ESRIH, and TYHLH) reduced β-lactam resistance in the strains harbouring BLAs. Subsequently, we found that the combinational effect of these peptides and β-lactams sensitised the bacteria towards the β-lactam drugs. We hypothesize that the antimicrobial peptides obtained might be considered among the novel inhibitors that can be used specifically against the Ω-loop of the β-lactamases.
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