Background: Describe characteristics of self-medication of the population, in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic. Material and Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional survey with students in a major public Peruvian university. We measured perception of self-medication of the population, as well as characteristics, consequences, and associated factors. Results: A total of 274 students of Pharmacy and biochemistry filled in the questionnaire, 80.3% of which reported to know someone that self-medicated during the COVID-19 pandemic. 98.9 % of surveyed participants considered that the current pandemic increased self-medication practices in the population and that it occurred more frequently when people have symptoms associated with COVID-19 (65.4%). The medicines most frequently used were ivermectin (79.2%), azithromycin (71.2%) and hydroxychloroquine (38.7%). Conclusion: According to the surveyed participants, self-medication has increased in the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategies to prevent these practices are needed, as they could delay adequate medical care.
It has been proposed that oxidative stress is a pathogenic mechanism to induce cytotoxicity and to cause cardiovascular and neuronal diseases. At present, natural compounds such as plant extracts have been used to reduce the cytotoxic effects produced by agents that induce oxidative stress. Our study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant and cytoprotective capacity of Desmodium tortuosum (D. tortuosum) extract in the co- and pre-treatment in EA.hy926 and SH-SY5Y cell lines subjected to oxidative stress induced by tert-butylhydroperoxide (t-BOOH). Cell viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitric oxide (NO), caspase 3/7 activity, reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), and molecular expression of oxidative stress biomarkers (SOD2, NRF2 and NFκB1) and cell death (APAF1, BAX, Caspase3) were all evaluated. It was observed that the D. tortuosum extract, in a dose-dependent manner, was able to reduce the oxidative and cytotoxicity effects induced by t-BOOH, even normalized to a dose of 200 µg/mL, which would be due to the high content of phenolic compounds mainly phenolic acids, flavonoids, carotenoids and other antioxidant compounds. Finally, these results are indicators that the extract of D. tortuosum could be a natural alternative against the cytotoxic exposure to stressful and cytotoxic chemical agents.
En la presente investigación se trata de una infección sistémica en pacientes con fungemia donde fueron aisladas cepas de C. albicans a partir de hemocultivos. El objetivo de esta investigación fue determinar la prevalencia de genes resistentes a fluconazol y voriconazol en cepas de Candida albicans aisladas de hemocultivos en pacientes del Complejo Hospitalario Policial Luis Nicasio Sáenz-2018. Se recolectaron 176 cepas de Candida spp. que fueron aisladas de hemocultivos y para la identificación de C. albicans, se realizó la prueba de tubo germinativo y se confirmó con la prueba de identificación MicroScan RAPID YEAST ID PANEL. Para la prueba de susceptibilidad se realizó el método de difusión en disco, luego se realizó un análisis por PCR para obtener el secuenciamiento con el ABI 3730xl (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, California, EE.UU.) del gen ERG11 y ser analizado por BLAST y MEGA 6.0, obteniendo como resultado que 39 (22 %) fueron C. albicans. Se determinó que la resistencia a fluconazol y voriconazol fue 3 (7,7 %) y 2 (5,1 %) respectivamente para C. albicans, de las cepas aisladas de C. albicans con resistencia a los azoles (fluconazol y voriconazol) fueron tres las cepas resistentes a más de un antifúngico. En las tres cepas (cepa_Ca1, cepa_Ca2 y cepa_Ca3), se determinó la presencia del gen ERG11. Para la caracterización genotípica del gen ERG11, se realizó el secuenciamiento y luego se compararon con la secuencia publicada en GenBank de C. albicans del gen ERG11 cuya secuencia genómica AY856352 de 1587 pb. Por lo tanto, en las tres cepas (cepa_Ca1, cepa_Ca2 y cepa_Ca3) aisladas, se encontró más de una mutación. La mutación en el T769C está relacionada en el cambio de aminoácidos Y257H que se encontraron en las tres cepas, concluyendo que el Y257H está relacionado con una susceptibilidad reducida para los azoles.
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