CIMO - Resumos Indexados à WoS/Scopus
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
- Biological activity of 6,7-dehydroroyleanone derivatives from Plectranthus aliciaePublication . Filipe, Márcia Santos; Dominguez, Eva; Isca, Vera; Pereira, Raquel; Mandim, Filipa; Calhelha, Ricardo C.; Diaz-Lanza, Ana María; Barros, Lillian; Rijo, PatríciaPlectranthus genus (Lamiaceae) is known to be rich in bioactive abietane royleanone-type diterpenes, such as 6,7-dehydroxyroyleanone (1, Fig. 1), which have been previously found in P. madagascariensis (var. aliciae Codd). This abietane royleanone presents moderate to significant to cytoxic activity against several cancer cell lines. Moreover, 1 has one hydroxyl group suitable for deri- vatization that can be explored to enhance the cytotoxic activity of lead com- pound 1. Based on this, the aim of the present work is to explore the obtention of 1, from P. aliciae aliciae (Codd) van Jaarsv. & T.J.Edwards., a subspecies of P. madagascariensis to be further used in the preparation of new derivatives with enhanced biological activities.
- Medicinal centauri honey: a promising ingredient?Publication . Filipe, Márcia Santos; Pires, Tânia C.S.P.; Calhelha, Ricardo C.; Diaz-Lanza, Ana María; Vilas-Boas, Miguel; Falcão, Soraia; Rijo, PatríciaHoney is a natural product with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, has been used as a medicinal substance for centuries. Thisnatural product is main- ly composed of a supersaturated solution of sugars, containing low water con- tent and trace amounts of bioactive compounds. The flower source, climate, geographical origin, harvesting process and storage conditions are factors that influence the composition of the nectar, leading to significant changes in the chemical composition, physical properties, and bioactivity of honey1. Centau- ri Honey is harvested from bee colonies located in the wild Alps of Turkey ́s mountainous region, approximately 2,500 meters above the Black Sea. The bees live in caves far from human settlements and other bees, and they have access to medicinal endemic blooms throughout the year. The aim of this work was to investigate the quality, physicochemical, nutrition- al parameters, and bioactivity of honey. The quality and physiochemical pa- rameters was analysed by colour, moisture content, conductivity, pH and acidity, 5-HMF (5-Hydroxymethylfurfural), diastase index and proline. The nutritional values were determined assessing ash, protein content, sugars, carbohydrates and energy. The biological activity was evaluated through the antioxidant, antimicrobial activity (broth microdilution method) and cytotox- icity in cell lines (AGS, CaCo-2, MCF-7, NCI-H460, PLP2, HFF-2, and HaCat), and anti-inflammatory activity (using RAW 264.7 macrophages). Further studies are ongoing to scientifically validate the medicinal properties of Centauri Honey due to its exceptional chemical composition and thus to become an innovative Ingredient.
- Therapy adherence in elderly of Northern PortugalPublication . Pinto, Isabel C.; Pereira, Fernando A.; Mateos-Campos, R.The elderly population has been growing significantly, leading to an increased prevalence of chronic diseases and consequent taking medication. The complex therapies of elderly can lead to therapy non-adherence, increasing several health risks. Aim This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of therapy adherence and associated factors. Material and Methods This cross-sectional study was based on a questionnaire, with MAT scale (measure of adherence to therapy) validated for the Portuguese population (Lima, 2001) based on the Morisky scale, applied to 52 elderly (≥65 years) from northern Portugal. To assess therapy adherence, those whose average adherence levels were ≥5, were called adherent. It was used descriptive statistics. The level of association between categories of variables was studied through the adjusted residuals (AdR) and the relationship between adherence to the therapeutic and the number of medications taken per day was studied using the Mann-Whitney U test, with a significance level of 5%. The study was approved by Ethics Committee. Results The sample consisted mainly of males elderly (61.5% vs. 38.5%), aged between 67 and 98 years (mean 82.71), and while 48.1% was between 75–84 years old. The participants shows high therapy adherence (96.2%). The non-adherent elderly are related to self-medication (AdR=4.3), with the high level of cholesterol (AdR=2.9) and chronic pain (AdR=2.9). The non-adherent elderly seem tend to take more drugs per day, although not statistically significant (P = 0.063). Conclusions This study shows that a large prevalence of elderly adhered to the therapy prescribed. Self-medication, having high cholesterol and chronic pain and higher number of different drugs per day seem related to non-adherence.
- Adherence to therapeutic in outpatients: literature reviewPublication . Ribeiro, Maria Isabel; Nascimento, Luís; Roque, Fátima; Herdeiro, M.T.F.Non-adherence to therapeutic is a widespread problem that contributes to the worsening of chronic diseases and to increase the expenditure on health care [1-3]. Objective: To present a review of the literature on the subject "Adherence to therapy" in outpatients. Methods: A search was carried out in the Medline database and the combinations of words Medication, Adherence and Outpatients were used for the period from 2010 to 2017. including only articles that adopted the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) to measure adherence to medication and studies developed in hospital context. In addition, articles with non-conventional therapies were excluded, namely those that resorted to the use of medicinal plants. Information was collected on the place of the study, period, type of study, sample, pathology, adherence to therapy in terms of rate or score (mean) and factors identified as being associated with non-adherence to therapy. Results: The search retrieved 461 publications and 44 were included in the analysis. The included studies are from Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Most of the studies were observational (84.1%). The remaining studies were interventional studies (15.9%). There were, also, 4 multicenter studies. In most studies, the Morisky scale was used with 8 item and only 31.8% used the shorter scale with 4 items. The sample sizes ranged from 34 to 2595 chronic patients and were mostly non-probabilistic (convenience) (75%). The most common pathologies were: diabetes, hypertension, diabetic retinopathy and hypercholesterolemia (34.1%); psychiatric diseases (25%), cardiovascular diseases (18.2%), among others. Taking into account the variable "adherence to therapeutic", 84.5% of the studies used a dichotomous variable. The others determined the score (mean with associated standard deviation). In general, therapeutic adherence was low. Considering the adherence rates, the lowest were recorded in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia (7.4%) and the highest was recorded in the treatment of hypertension in patients with apnea (83%). It should be noted that the cut-off point did not remain the same in all studies. The factors most commonly referred to as being associated with non-adherence were age, forgetfulness, lack of social support, the complexity of intake and stopping medication when the patient feels better. Conclusion: Interventional studies show significant improvements in adherence, comparing the situation before and after the intervention. Therefore, it is a priority to implement measures that improve adherence to therapy. References 1. Conn VS, Ruppar TM, Chan KC, Dunbar-Jacob J, Pepper GA, Geest SD. Packaging interventions to increase medication adherence: systematic review and meta-analysis. Current Medical Research And Opinion 2015, 31(1):145-60. 2. Ababneh MA, Al-Azzam SI, Alzoubi KH, Rababa'h AM. Adherence in outpatients taking warfarin and its effect on anticoagulation control in Jordan. Int J Clin Pharm. 2016, 38(4):816-21. 3. Napolitano F, Napolitano P, Angelillo IF. Collaborative Working Group. Medication adherence among patients with chronic conditions in Italy. Eur J Public Health 2016 26(1):48-52.
- Thymus zygis and thymus pulegioides as a source of phenolic compoundsPublication . Pereira, Olívia R.; Afonso, Andrea Luísa Fernandes; Domingues, Vasco; Cardoso, Susana M.Thymus is an important genus in the West Mediterranean region, where many species are cultivated for confection of several dishes, including salads, soups, stews and sauces. Many Thymus, including T. zygis and T. pulegioides are also commonly used in traditional medicine. Whist phenolic compounds are commonly associated to health-beneficial properties of Thymus, the specific phenolic composition of T. zygis and T. pulegioides is presently unknown. The extracts of the aerial parts of T. zygis and T. pulegioides species were prepared with hot water as previously described. Total phenolic contents were determined according to the adapted Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method and the identification of the phenolic compounds was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-DAD). The extracts of T. zygis and T. pulegioides contained 319±44 and 391±3 μg GAE/mg, respectively. Likewise other Thymus species, both extracts were enriched in caffeic acid derivatives, showing characteristic UV spectra maxima at 290 and 328 nm. The two extracts also contained moderate amounts of the flavone luteolin-7-O-glucoside that has been previously described in others Thymus species. Yet, T. zygis and T. pulegioides phenolic profiles could be clearly distinguished: while the first had high levels of the phenolic acid salvianolic acid K the extract of T. pulegioides was enriched in eriodictyol derivatives. The phenolic compounds of T. zygis and T. pulegioides are here described for the first time.
- Influence of socio-demographic issues in body mass index (bmi) of drug addicts in methadone maintenance treatmentPublication . Ferro-Lebres, Vera; Costa, Ana Filipa; Alves, Daniela; Custódio, Daniela; Natário, Liliana; Andrade, FernandoThe purpose of this study was to investigate the infl uence of social factors on the nutritional status of drug addicts. 60 drug addicts in methadone maintenance treatment of Integrated Response Center (CRI)of Bragança were evaluated. Nutritional assessment was performed by measuring the weight and height and then calculated the body mass index. The socio-demographic data were collected through a questionnaire constructed for this purpose. PASW 19.0 for Windows. The average body mass index (BMI) was 22.46 ± 3.36 kg/m2 and based on this parameter 13.3% were underweight, 65% normal weight, 20.0% overweight and 1.7% obesity grade I. BMI was signifi cantly higher in addicts who live with a spouse in relation to other housing contexts (p< 0.005). In terms of marital status, unmarried addicts had a significantly lower BMI compared to other situations. Individuals have an average of 4.10 ± 4.47 years of treatment and 78.3% performed less than 3 meals/day. The socio-demographic conditions must be taken into consideration in the process of intervention with this population. More studies must be performed in other to clarify other food behaviour variables in drug users populations.
- Portuguese propolis enriched phenolic extract: reactive oxygen scavenging and cytoprotective activitiesPublication . Pereira, Olívia R.; Macias, Rócio I.R.; Perez, María J.; Marín, Jose J.G.; Cardoso, Susana M.Propolis, a resinous natural product produced by honeybees, is claimed to have a wide range of beneficial activities for human health which have been attributed to its phenolics. In general, phenolics account for approximately half of propolis weight, although its content and composition can greatly vary with propolis geographical origin. This study aims determining the antioxidant and cytoprotective properties of Northeast Portuguese propolis. The propolis hydroethanolic purified extract (PPE) was obtained by extraction at 70 °C/1 h and recovery onto SPE C18 cartridges. Total phenolic content and identification of the main phenolics in the PPE were assessed by the Folin Ciocalteu method and by HPLC-DAD analysis, respectively. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and cytoprotective properties of PPE were evaluated in dichromate potassium-stimulated (DK) HepG2 cells model. ROS scavenging ability was measured by flow cytometry, after DK incubation for 48 h and cytoprotective activity was estimated by the MTT assay, after DK exposure for 6 h or 72 h. The total amount of phenolics in the PPE accounted for 375.4±5.8 mg GAE/g of extract and this was enriched in chrysin, pinocembrin and pinobanksin-3-O-acetate. Bioactivity assays showed that the PPE decreased the rate of ROS production about 50% and exerted an effective protection against the reduction of cell viability of 9% and 22%, for HepG2 cells exposed to DK for 6 h and 72 h, respectively. Overall the results emphasize important activities of PPE that can be related to the high content of phenolic compounds.
- Cistus ladanifer as a source of phenolic compounds with antifungal activityPublication . Barros, Lillian; Dueñas, Montserrat; Alves, Carlos Tiago; Silva, Sónia; Henriques, Mariana; Santos-Buelga, Celestino; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.A screening of the antifungal potential of phenolic extract of Cistus ladanifer from Northeast Portugal, against Candida species was performed. The extract was characterized by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS. Phenolic acids and derivatives, ellagic acid derivatives and flavonoids, such as catechins, flavonols and flavones, were found in the sample. The most abundant group was ellagic acid derivatives in which punicalagin gallate, a derivative of punicalagin attached to gallic acid, was found in highest amount. These compounds could be related to the strong inhibition of C. albicans, C. glabrata and C. parapsilosis growth. Moreover, the best antifungal activity was against C. glabrata, where the studied extract was able to cause at least 3 Log of reduction at concentrations below 50 µg/mL and a total growth inhibition at concentrations above 625 µg/mL.
- Depressive symptoms and alcohol use among adolescentsPublication . Pinto, Isabel C.; Fraga, Sílvia; Ramos, ElisabeteAlcohol is the most consumed substance by young people, sometimes it’s associated with depressive symptoms. Objective: Assess the factors associated with alcohol use among 13-year-old teenagers, like depressive symptoms. Methods: Data of a population-based cohort of urban teenagers included cross-sectional information of 919 boys and 1016 girls collected by self-reported questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were evaluated using Beck Depressive Inventory II (BDI). The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare medians. Odds ratio (OR) and multiple linear regression (β) were performed to estimate the magnitude of associations with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). The final model was adjusted for parents’ education, sports, smoking, have friends who drink and parents’ history of depression. Results: Overall 515(50.0%) girls and 425(44.9%) boys have experimented alcoholic beverages and, 48(4.7%) girls and 62(6.6%) boys have drunk(one drink at least once time per month) at 13-year-old. For both genders, after adjustment, being experimenter was significantly associated with parents’ education, tobacco use and friends who drink. In girls, characteristics that was significantly associated to be drinker were tobacco use OR=6.9(3.1-15.2) and friends who drink OR=6.4(2.7-15.2). In boys, to be drinker was associated with tobacco use OR=5.9(2.7-13.0), friends who drink OR=7.3(3.5-15.4) and cohabiting with people who drink OR=5.1(1.4-17.6). Adolescents who have drunk presented a high score in BDI [median(25p-75p)] in girls[6.01(2.00-10.00)vs.6.38(3.00-11.99),p=0.002)] and in boys[3.00(1.01-6.01)vs.3.99(1.01-6.99),p=0.039]. After adjustment, the association was not significant in girls(β=0.583,95%CI[-0.483;1.648]) in boys(β=0.623,95%CI[-0.170;1.417]). Conclusions: Among 13-year-old adolescents parents’ education, smoking and friends who drink were associated with drinking behaviour. After adjustment, depressive symptoms did not show a significant association with alcohol use.
- Unusual flavones in cytisus desf.Publication . Pereira, Olívia R.; Domingues, Maria R.M.; Silva, Adrián; Cardoso, Susana M.Cytisus Desf. (Fabaceae) is a diversified genus enclosing approximately sixty species, which are particularly found around the Mediterranean Sea. Many plants of this genus exhibit bioactive properties such as diuretic, hypnotic, anxiolytic, antiparasitic, antidiabetic and antioxidant [1] and, in particular the latter, has been closely associated to the high content in flavonoids [2]. The present work aims to contribute to the knowledge of Cytisus Desf. chemical composition, through the identification of new flavonoids in that genus. The compounds in focus were detected in ethanolic extracts of Cytisus multiflorus flowers by means of HPLC-DAD, ESI-MS and MSn analyses. These included the two isomers 2′′-O-pentosyl-6-C-hexosyl-luteolin and 2′′-O-pentosyl-8-C-hexosyl-luteolin (MW 580 Da), the two isomers 2′′-O-pentosyl-6-C-hexosyl-apigenin and 2′′-O-pentosyl-8-C-hexosyl-apigenin (MW 564 Da), the 6′′-O-(3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaroyl)-2′′-O-pentosyl-C-hexosyl-luteolin (MW 724 Da) and the 6′′-O-(3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaroyl)-2′′-O-pentosyl-C-hexosyl-apigenin (MW 708 Da). Attending that half of the these compounds were herein described for first time in Fabaceae, overall, the present work is a valuable contribution for the phenolic elucidation of Cytisus genus as well as the Fabaceae family.