No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

There is evidence that immune-inflammatory, stress of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (IO&NS) processes play a role in the neurodegenerative processes observed in Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of the present study was to investigate peripheral IO&NS biomarkers in PD. We included 56 healthy individuals and 56 PD patients divided in two groups: early PD stage and late PD stage. Plasma lipid hydroperoxides (LOOH), malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide metabolites (NOx), sulfhydryl (SH) groups, catalase (CAT) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, paraoxonase (PON)1 activity, total radical trapping antioxidant parameter (TRAP) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured. PD is characterized by increased LOOH, MDA and SOD activity and lowered CAT activity. A combination of five O&NS biomarkers highly significantly predicts PD with a sensitivity of 94.5% and a specificity of 86.8% (i.e., MDA, SOD activity, TRAP, SH-groups and CAT activity). The single best biomarker of PD is MDA, while LOOH and SOD activity are significantly associated with late PD stage, but not early PD stage. Antiparkinson drugs did not affect O&NS biomarkers, but levodopa+carbidopa significantly increased CRP. It is suggested that MDA may serve as a disease biomarker, while LOOH and SOD activity are associated with late PD stage characteristic. New treatments for PD should not only target dopamine but also lipid peroxidation.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. Due to its commercial importance, the detection of impurities and foreign matters has been a constant concern in fraud verification, especially because it is difficult to percept adulterations with the naked eye in samples of roasted and ground coffee. In Brazil, the most common additions are roasted materials, such as husks, sticks, corn, wheat middling, soybean, and more recently - acai palm seeds. The performance and correlation of two chromatographic methods, HPLC-HPAEC-PAD and post-column derivatization HPLC-UV-Vis, were compared for carbohydrate analysis in coffee samples. To verify the correlation between the two methods, the principal component analysis for the same mix of triticale and acai seeds in different proportions with coffee was employed. The performance for detecting adulterations in roasted and ground coffee of the two methods was compared.