Search

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan that has great genetic diversity and is prevalent worldwide. In 2018, an outbreak of toxoplasmosis occurred in Santa Maria, Brazil, which was considered the largest outbreak ever described in the world. This paper describes the isolation and molecular characterization of Toxoplasma gondii from the placenta of two pregnant women with acute toxoplasmosis who had live births and were receiving treatment for toxoplasmosis during the outbreak. For this, placental tissue samples from two patients underwent isolation by mice bioassay, conventional PCR and genotyping using PCR-RFLP with twelve markers. Both samples were positive in isolation in mice. The isolate was lethal to mice, suggesting high virulence. In addition, the samples were positive in conventional PCR and isolates submitted to PCR-RFLP genotyping presented an atypical genotype, which had never been described before. This research contributes to the elucidation of this great outbreak in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnopharmacological studies, a lot of plants, as well as its compounds, have been investigated for the potential use as wound healing agents. In Brazil, Curatella americana is traditionally used by local people to treat wounds, ulcers and inflammations. However, to the best of our knowledge, its traditional use in the treatment of wounds has not been validated by a scientific study. Here, some compounds, many of them flavonoids, were identified in the hydroethanolic extract from the leaves of C. americana (HECA) by LC-HRMS and LC-MS/MS. Besides that, solutions containing different concentrations of HECA and a gel produced with this extract were evaluated for its antimicrobial, coagulant and wound healing activities on an excision mouse wound model as well as its acute dermal safety. A total of thirteen compounds were identified in HECA, mainly quercetin, kaempferol and glucoside derivatives of both, besides catechin and epicatechin known as wound healing agents. The group treated with 1% of HECA exhibited highest wound healing activity and best rate of wound contraction confirmed by histopathology results. The present study provides scientific evidence of, this extract (HECA) possess remarkable wound healing activity, thereby, supporting the traditional use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]