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The relationship between salivary proteome and dietary habits was studied in previous works, where a relationship between salivary proteins like cystatins and polyphenol/tannin levels in diet was observed. However, it remains to be elucidated if this association results from an effect of polyphenol-rich food ingestion on saliva composition. The aim of this work was to test the effects of apple intake on the saliva proteome, both in the short and medium term (after 4 days of continuous intake). By incubating saliva samples with apple phenolic-rich extract, protein bands containing α-amylase, S-type cystatins, and proline-rich proteins (PRPs) appeared in the fraction that precipitated, showing the potential of these (poly)phenols to precipitate salivary proteins. Among these, it was salivary cystatins that presented changes in their levels both in the saliva samples collected immediately after apple intake and in the ones collected after 4 days of intake of an extra amount of apple. These results support the thought that intake is reflected in the salivary proteome. The effect of a polyphenol-rich food, like the apple, on salivary cystatin levels is in line with results observed in animal models and, due to the involvement of these proteins in oral food perception, it would be interesting to explore in future studies the effect of these changes on sensory perception and acceptance of polyphenol-rich food.

Background and Objectives: The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to search individual, sociodemographic and environmental predictors of COVID-19 outcomes. Materials and Methods: A convenience sample of 1036 COVID-19 confirmed patients (3–99 years, mean 59 years, 482 females) who sought treatment at the emergency units of the public health system of Diadema (Brazil, March–October 2020) was included. Primary data were collected from medical records: sex, age, occupation/education, onset of symptoms, presence of chronic diseases/treatment and outcome (death and non-death). Secondary socioeconomic and environmental data were provided by the Department of Health. Results: The mean time spent between COVID-19 symptom onset and admission to the health system was 7.4 days. Principal component analysis summarized secondary sociodemographic data, and a Poisson regression model showed that the time between symptom onset and health system admission was higher for younger people and those from the least advantaged regions (availability of electricity, a sewage network, a water supply and garbage collection). A multiple logistic regression model showed an association of age (OR = 1.08, 1.05–1.1), diabetes (OR = 1.9, 1.1–3.4) and obesity (OR = 2.9, 1.1–7.6) with death outcome, while hypertension and sex showed no significant association. Conclusion: The identification of vulnerable groups may help the development of health strategies for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

Background: Oral food perception plays a major role in food acceptance, although the way it relates with food preferences and final choices in adults is still debatable. The objective of the present study was to assess the relationship between gustatory function, dietary habits and fruit and vegetable preferences. Methods: Recognition thresholds, suprathreshold and hedonics were accessed for sweet, bitter, sour, salty and astringency in 291 adult participants. A Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and a questionnaire for assessment of preferences for individual fruit and vegetables were filled by the participants. Results: Three clusters were obtained: “most sensitive”, “less sensitive” and “less sensitive only for sour”. The less sensitive cluster showed lower preferences for fruit and vegetables and higher intake of sweets and fast foods, whereas higher preferences for sweet veggies were observed in the “most sensitive” cluster. Basic tastes and astringency hedonics did not associate with fruit and vegetable preferences, but the sensitivity for these oral sensations did. Conclusions: Taste and astringency sensitivities are related with the preference for fruit and vegetables, being also associated with some dietary habits. The effectiveness of the strategies to promote plant-based healthy food consumption may benefit from the knowledge of individuals’ gustatory function. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

In this report, updated information and future perspectives about the use of saliva as a sample for laboratory analysis of the Covid-19 are highlighted. Saliva can be used for the direct detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the quantification of the specific immunoglobulins produced against it, and for the evaluation of the non-specific, innate immune response of the patient. Moreover, a deeper knowledge of potential changes in the saliva proteome in this disease may allow the identification of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, or even help our understanding of the mechanisms associated with the disease. With the development of appropriate sample collection and processing methods and the use of adequate assays, saliva can provide useful clinical information about the disease and could be potentially included in guidelines for sample collection for the diagnosis, disease management, and control of Covid-19.

Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder, caused by deficiency or absence of the alpha-galactosidase A activity, with a consequent glycosphingolipid accumulation. Biomarkers and imaging findings may be useful for diagnosis, identification of an organ involvement, therapy monitoring and prognosis. The aim of this article is to review the current available literature on biomarkers and imaging findings of AFD patients. An extensive bibliographic review from PubMed, Medline and Clinical Key databases was performed by a group of experts from nephrology, neurology, genetics, cardiology and internal medicine, aiming for consensus. Lyso-GB3 is a valuable biomarker to establish the diagnosis. Proteinuria and creatinine are the most valuable to detect renal damage. Troponin I and high-sensitivity assays for cardiac troponin T can identify patients with cardiac lesions, but new techniques of cardiac imaging are essential to detect incipient damage. Specific cerebrovascular imaging findings are present in AFD patients. Techniques as metabolomics and proteomics have been developed in order to find an AFD fingerprint. Lyso-GB3 is important for evaluating the pathogenic mutations and monitoring the response to treatment. Many biomarkers can detect renal, cardiac and cerebrovascular involvement, but none of these have proved to be important to monitoring the response to treatment. Imaging features are preferred in order to find cardiac and cerebrovascular compromise in AFD patients. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This Research Communication describes, for the first time, the detection of HSP70 in saliva of dairy cows. Thermal stress is a major environmental stress that limits animal growth, metabolism, and productivity. The cellular response to heat stress involves the synthesis of heat shock proteins (HSPs), presumably to protect the functional stability of cells at increasing temperatures. HSP70 has been found to be present in cattle blood serum and may also be present in other secretory fluids, such as saliva, as already observed in humans. The aim of this study was to detect heat shock protein HSP70 in bovine saliva. Saliva samples were taken from higher- (n = 5) and lower milk producing (n = 5) Holstein-Friesian cows in summer and in winter for the detection of HSP70. HSP70 concentrations were assayed using the ELISA technique. Salivary HSP70 concentrations ranged from 0·524 to 12·174 ng/ml in cows. Higher salivary HSP70 concentrations were significantly associated with higher milk production and higher environmental temperature, but not with rectal temperature.

Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (HOA) is a bone pathology that can be associated with a number of focal or systemic diseases, particularly those affecting the respiratory system. HOA is characterized by proliferative periostosis of the long bones, especially in their distal and periarticular regions. This report presents a probable case of HOA in the skeleton of an elderly Portuguese male from Évora, Portugal, who died in 1970. The skeleton was evaluated by morphological, radiological, and histological methods. We found bilateral periosteal proliferation of the tubular bones, remodeling of the phalanges of the feet, and new bone formation on rib visceral surfaces. Bone alterations are more severe on the left tibia and fibula, where lesions display a ‘tree bark’ appearance, leading to severe thickening of the diaphysis. Microscopically, we observed deposition of porous woven bone. Our evaluation also considers a differential diagnosis of the lesions, which includes melorheostosis, hypervitaminosis A, fluorosis, thyroid acropachy, tuberculosis, and treponematosis. AcknowledgmentsThis chapter is funded by FEDER Funds through the Opera-tional Programme for Competitiveness Factors – COMPETE andNational Funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Tech-nology under the Strategic Projects PEst-C/AGR/UI0115/2011,PEst-OE/AGR/UI0115/2014 and through the Programa OperacionalRegional do Alentejo (InAlentejo) Operation ALENT-07-0262-FEDER-001871/Laboratório de Biotecnologia Aplicada e Tecnolo-gias Agro-Ambientais. The funding source played no role in thedevelopment of the present work or upon its submission for pub-lication.

Sheep, cattle and goat are domestic ruminants of significant economic interest in the Mediterranean region. Although sharing the same pasture ranges, they ingest different plants and plant parts and, consequently different levels of tannins. This suggests an ability to detect and adapt ingestion according to animal physiological limits of tolerance for plant secondary metabolites. This review will detail the effects of dietary tannins on feeding behavior, and the role of the oral cavity in this process, with focus on such ruminant species. The role of salivary protein profile in tannin perception in the oral cavity, and as a defense mechanism, will be discussed.

Whole saliva contains a wide variety of proteins with diverse functions, namely proteins which participate in teeth and oral tissues protection, as well as proteins related to ingestive and digestive processes. Several studies, in animals and humans, present evidences that saliva is involved in ingestive behavior. The link between saliva composition and oral perception is increasingly reported. Several studies report that oral sensations, such as astringency, result from interaction between food constituents (e.g. polyphenols) and salivary proteins. Moreover, the involvement of saliva in taste sensitivity has been also considered and an example was the correlation established between taste dysfunction and reduced levels of salivary carbonic anhydrase VI. More recently, studies presented evidences that protein saliva composition is also associated to fat perception and liking, as well as to sensitivity for the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) and caffeine. Besides the involvement of saliva in oral perception, which can greatly influence food choices, the influence of this fluid in ingestive behavior can also be considered by the role of certain salivary proteins in digestive processes or even in the regulation of energy intake: for example, leptin and ghrelin, which are respectively involved in satiety and appetite, are present in salivary secretion. Electrophoresis has been applied for salivary protein separation for years and progresses have been made until now. Several studies report salivary protein separation according to their mass, isoelectric point and both parameters (two-dimensional electrophoresis – 2D), both for human and animal saliva. The application of electrophoresis technique to saliva samples, together with advances in mass spectrometry, for protein identification, resulted in an increased interest in this biological fluid as a source of biomarkers. In fact, saliva collection has the great advantage of being relatively easy, cheap and noninvasive to perform, presenting proteins also existent in other body fluids such as blood. Electrophoresis has also the potential of being used in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue samples. This possibility has the great advantage of allowing access to already acquired tissue samples which can be readily correlated with histological parameters. Moreover, it provides access to tissue that would be either difficult to collect prospectively in a timely manner or are unlikely to be available as fresh samples. For salivary composition analysis it may have the potential of allowing the study of individual salivary glands composition, even in situations where no individualized glandular saliva collection was possible. As such, this may have the potential of aiding in the comprehension of salivary gland regulation and different contribution for total salivary composition. This chapter gives an overview of the use of electrophoresis in studies about the involvement of saliva in ingestive behavior. Studies about salivary protein composition in oral sensations and taste sensitivity will be reviewed. The particularities in the use of electrophoresis in saliva samples will be discussed, as well as the advantages and limitations of the technique for the analysis of this body fluid. Moreover, the promising use of electrophoresis of paraffin-embeded tissues for the study of saliva will be proposed. Finally, the major limitations in the electrophoretic study of salivary proteins, such as the presence of high abundant proteins (impairing the study of scarce ones), the high content of mucins, the high proteolitic activity, among others, will be critically revised based on our experience.

Montados are agro-silvo-pastoral ecosystems, typical of the Southwest Iberian Peninsula, of high socio-economic and conservation importance, where grazing is a dominant activity. Montados are characterized by an open tree canopy of Quercus sp. and a diverse undercover of shrubs and grasslands that constitute the plant food resources for grazing animals. Plant food resources of Montados are highly variable, both spatially and seasonally, in quantity and quality. Reliable and easy to use methods to monitor grazing are necessary to allow proper understanding of foraging strategies of grazing animals and to set sustainable grazing management. We describe the main characteristics of the plant food resources available for grazing animals, striking its variability, and revise the potential of using N-alkanes and saliva proteome methods to assess foraging strategies in Montados. In a scenario of dynamic multiple choices, we discuss the use of n-alkane methodology for the simultaneous estimation of diet composition and voluntary intake and saliva proteome as a mean of increasing the knowledge on diet adjustments.

CESAM As interest in using carbon nanotubes for developing biologically compatible systems continues to grow, biological inspiration is stimulating new directions for in vivo approaches. The ability to integrate nanotechnology-based systems in the body will provide greater successes if the implanted material is made to mimic elements of the biological milieu especially through tuning physical and chemical characteristics. Here, we demonstrate the highly successful capacity for in vivo implantation of a new carbon nanotube-based composite that is, itself, integrated with a hydroxyapatite-polymethyl methacrylate to create a nanocomposite. The success of this approach is grounded in finely tailoring the physical and chemical properties of this composite for the critical demands of biological integration. This is accomplished through controlling the surface modification scheme, which affects the interactions between carbon nanotubes and the hydroxyapatite-polymethyl methacrylate. Furthermore, we carefully examine cellular response with respect to adhesion and proliferation to examine in vitro compatibility capacity. Our results indicate that this new composite accelerates cell maturation through providing a mechanically competent bone matrix; this likely facilitates osteointegration in vivo. We believe that these results will have applications in a diversity of areas including carbon nanotube, regeneration, chemistry, and engineering research. NANO/NMed-AT/0115/2007 SFRH/BPD/14677/2003 FCT

Several grading systems have been developed in the bone marrow transplantation setting in attempts to predict survival in patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). In this study, we evaluated the prognostic value of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) scoring system and investigated for any additional prognostic factors in a series of 171 patients undergoing peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) from matched related donors. The cumulative incidence of cGVHD was 70%; cumulative incidences of mild, moderate, and severe cGVHD were 29%, 42% and 28%, respectively. Overall, 68% of patients were free from immunosuppression 5 years after transplantation. Absence of previous acute GVHD (aGVHD; hazard ratio [HR] = 2; P = .004) and mild cGVHD (HR = 4.2; P = .007) increased the probability of being off immunosuppressive treatment by the last follow-up. Overall survival (OS) at 5 years was 52%. Severe cGVHD, according to the NIH scoring system (HR = 13.27; P = .001) adversely influenced outcome, whereas de novo onset (HR = 0.094; P = .003) had a more favorable impact on survival. The combination of both variables allowed us to identify 4 different subgroups of patients with OS of 82%, 70%, 50%, and 25%. Our findings indicate that the NIH scoring system has some prognostic value in patients undergoing PBSCT and, together with the type of onset, must be considered to predict the possible outcome of patients who develop cGVHD. © 2008 American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.