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Salmonella genus is a leading cause of food-borne infections with strong public health impact and economic ramifications. The development of antimicrobial resistance added complexity to this scenario and turned the antibiotic drug discovery into a highly important challenge. The screening of peptides has served as a successful discovery platform to design new antibiotic candidates. Motivated by this, the antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties of three cruzioseptins against Salmonella Typhimurium and RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cells, respectively, were investigated. [K4K15]CZS-1 was the most potent antimicrobial peptide identified in the screening step with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 16  μg/mL (7.26  μM) and moderate cytotoxicity. From a structural point of view, in vitro and in silico techniques evidenced that [K4K15]CZS-1 is a α-helical cationic antimicrobial peptide. In order to capture mechanistic details and fully decipher their antibacterial action, we adopted a multidimensional approach, including spectroscopy, electron microscopy and omics analysis. In general lines, [K4K15] CZS-1 caused membrane damage, intracellular alterations in Salmonella and modulated metabolic pathways, such as the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, fatty acid biosynthesis, and lipid metabolism. Overall, these findings provide deeper insights into the antibacterial properties and multidimensional mode of action of [K4K15]CZS-1 against Salmonella Typhimurium. In summary, this study represents a first step toward the screening of membrane-acting and intracellular-targeting peptides as potential bio-preservatives to prevent foodborne outbreaks caused by Salmonella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The case teaching "The Petri dishes of Samuel" mentions a real situation occurred in a small business Medical Laboratory located in the city of Natal-RN. The dilemma of the case comes to a decision-making situation involving João, Director of the Laboratory Tércio Rosado and responsible for the human resources sector of the organization. The case is narrated from his point of view which faces a situation where one employee who works at the company for 25 years can not get adapted to the new technologies of the Medical Laboratory area, although the employee possesses behavioral and attitudinal competences which sets it apart from other professionals. After several attempts of training processes, trying to make Samuel adapt his behavior to the new technological requirements of the position, none of them were successful. Facing the situation the Director had a dilemma to solve: keep him in the company or not? If the company remains the employee, it might discourage the learning development of the other ones? On the other hand, the company would have other alternatives of training him in order to develop the required skills? What could be done? The case was constructed from observational data and informal conversations with employees and with the former owners of the company. Fictitious names were used to preserve the identity of the involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a comparison was established from the clinical, neurological, psychological, and laboratory viewpoints, between the effects on the central nervous system of a vasodilating medication, cinnarizine, currently accepted as effective, and buflomedil, a medicine recently introduced, which has shown good promise in the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases. During a 180-day period, 37 patients suffering from vascular cerebral insufficiency, aged between 43 and 86 years, were treated. The patients were randomized into two groups, each group receiving one of the treatments in a double-blind study. All patients were periodically administered clinical and neurological tests, and the Benton Test for visuo retention through which the intellectual level, recent memory, and visuo-motor coordination were examined. In addition, the patients were given a series of laboratory toxicity tests to ascertain the safety of the treatment. On completion of the study all data were submitted to a statistical analysis. After studying the results, the authors reached the conclusion that both treatments were beneficial; when corresponding doses were used, buflomedil showed better results by improving the reasoning and the remote memory, and in the Benton test, better results in improving visuo-motor coordination were demonstrated by statistical analysis. Laboratory tests did not reveal any changes except in the serum cholesterol level, which decreased significantly in those patients who took buflomedil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morphology of the oral cavity of mammals relates to diet, habitat, and function. The palate is an important region with adaptations for oral somatosensation and mechanical loads due to the pressure of the tongue with food. The research aimed to describe the structural and ultrastructural characteristics of the epithelium and the connective tissue cores of the guinea pig palate using macroscopic, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy analysis. The hard palate had conical and filiform papillae, and the soft palate had open salivary ducts. After the removal of the epithelium, the connective tissue cores revealed thin filaments and laminar projections in the hard palate, and opening ducts were evidenced in the soft palate. The palatine epithelium was keratinized and organized by layers, lamellated corpuscles were found in lamina propria of the hard palate. In contrast, the soft palate had glands clusters associated with nerve fibers, and in both regions were identified telocytes. We concluded that the hard palate presented conical and filiform papillae that differ from other mammals. Besides, it is a new description of the connective tissue cores morphology and the first record of the telocytes in this anatomical region for mammals., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The myotendinous junction (MTJ) is a major area for transmitting force from the skeletal muscle system and acts in joint position and stabilization. This study aimed to use transmission electron microscopy to describe the ultrastructural features of the MTJ of the sternomastoid muscle in Wistar rats from newborn to formation during adulthood and possible changes with aging. Ultrastructural features of the MTJ from the newborn group revealed pattern during development with interactions between muscle cells and extracellular matrix elements with thin folds in the sarcolemma and high cellular activity evidenced through numerous oval mitochondria groupings. The adult group had classical morphological features of the MTJ, with folds in the sarcolemma forming long projections called "finger-like processes" and sarcoplasmic invaginations. Sarcomeres were aligned in series, showing mitochondria near the Z line in groupings between collagen fiber bundles. The old group had altered "finger-like processes," thickened in both levels of sarcoplasmic invaginations and in central connections with the lateral junctions. We conclude that the MTJ undergoes intense activity from newborn to its formation during adulthood. With increasing age, changes to the MTJ were observed in the shapes of the invaginations and "finger-like processes" due to hypoactivity, potentially compromising force transmission and joint stability., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The identification of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) and their prompt investigation are important to allow a timely and scientifically based response to the users of immunization services. This article presents an analysis of notified AEFI cases between 1999 and 2005 and their temporal association with 2001 yellow fever vaccination campaign, AEFI notification attributed to yellow fever vaccination rose from 0.06 to 1.32 per 100,000 vaccinees in Brazil, between 1998 and 2000. During the 2001 yellow fever mass vaccination campaign held in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, 12 cases of aseptic meningitis were temporally associated to yellow fever vaccination, but clinical and laboratory data were not available to confirm nor deny causality. Epidemiological studies associated to enhanced surveillance and standardized protocols should take advantage of public health interventions like mass vaccination campaigns and implementation of new vaccination strategies in order to assess and investigate vaccine safety.