Salmonella typhimurium em linfonodos mesentéricos de ovinos ao abate / Presence of Salmonella typhimurium in ovine mesenteric lymph nodes at slaughter

O rebanho de ovinos no Brasil está estimado em mais de 16 milhões de cabeças. Embora o consumo da carne desta espécie ainda seja pequeno, comparado ao de outros países, o consumo de carne, inclusive ovina, tem sido associado às doenças transmitidas por alimentos, em especial a salmonelose. No presente estudo, investigou-se a ocorrência de salmonelas em linfonodos mesentéricos e conteúdo intestinal de 175 ovinos ao abate. "Pools" constituído por cinco amostras de contéudo fecal ou 5 amostras de linfonodos de 25 g foram pre-enriquecidos em 250 mL de água peptonada tamponada e incubados a 37° C por 18-24 horas. Uma alíquota de 0,1 mL do préenriquecimento foi transferida para 9,9 mL de caldo de enriquecimento Rappaport-Vassiliadis e 1,0 mL do pré-enriquecimento foi transferido para 10 mL de caldo tetrationato Muller-Kaufmann, incubados a 42° C for 24h. 10 µL do caldo de enriquecimento foi semeado superfície de placas de ágar BPLS e ágar XLT4 incubadas a 37º C for 24-48h. Colônias suspeitas de salmonela foram testadas por provas bioquímicas e serologicas. Os testes bioquímicos utilizados para identificação de Salmonella foram TSI (triple sugar iron àgar), LIA (lysine iron àgar) e ágar ureia. Sorotipagem foi realizada no Laboratório de Enterobactérias do Instituto Osvaldo Cruz. Isolou-se Salmonella Tiphymurium de um pool de linfonodos mesentéricos, provenientes de cinco animais. O fato de se observar a ocorrência de salmonela em ovino portador sadio alerta para necessidade de monitorar este micro-organismo também nesta espécie, especialmente quando destinada ao abate, com vistas à produção de alimentos seguros.

The ovine flock in Brazil is estimated at over 16 million head. Despite that meat consumption of this species is still small when compared to other countries, general meat consumption, including mutton, has been associated to food borne diseases, especially salmonellosis. In the present study, the occurrence of salmonella in mesenteric lymph nodes and intestinal content of 175 ovines during slaughter was investigated. A pool of 5 feces samples or 5 lymph node samples of 25 grams was pre-enriched in 250 mL of buffered peptone water at 37° C for 18-24h. Following this, 0.1 mL of pre-enriched broth was transferred to 9.9 mL of Rappaport-Vassiliadis enrichment broth and 1.0 mL of pre-enriched broth was transferred to 10 mL of Muller-Kaufmann tetrationate broth, incubated at 42° C for 24h. Then, a 10 µL of the enrichment broth was spread on the surface of a BPLS and an XLT4 plate, both incubated at 37º C for 24-48h. Suspected Salmonella colonies were picked from the agar and tested with biochemical and serological methods. Biochemical testing was carried out for the identification of Salmonella, using the TSI (triple sugar iron agar), LIA (lysine iron agar) and urea agar tests. Serotyping was done at the Laboratory of Enterobactérias of the Instituto Osvaldo Cruz. Salmonella Tiphymurium was isolated from a pool of mesenteric lymph nodes from 5 animals. That Salmonella was observed in healthy carrier ovines points out the necessity of monitoring this microorganism in this species as well, especially when animals are destined to slaughter, so to assure safe food production.

Salvia divinorum Epling & Játiva (Maria Pastora) e Salvinorina A: crescente uso recreacional e potencial de abuso / Salvia divinorum Epling & Játiva (ska María Pastora) and Salvinorin A: increasing recreational use and abuse potential

A planta Salvia divinorum Epling & Játiva (SDI), da família Lamiaceae, tem sido usada por séculos pela cultura mazateca e vem ganhando popularidade como droga recreacional nos últimos anos. Seu princípio ativo - Salvinorina A (SA) - é agonista dos receptores opióides kappa, com potencial psicotrópico. A utilização da planta vem crescendo na Europa e na América do Norte, apesar de ainda não existirem provas concretas sobre abuso. A presente revisão da literatura contemporânea aborda as evidências sobre o potencial de abuso de SDI, bem como o crescente uso recreacional, ainda que seja alucinógeno permitido legalmente e de fácil compra em muitos países.

The plant Salvia divinorum Epling & Játiva (SDI), of the Lamiaceae family, has been used for centuries by the Mazateca culture and has gained popularity as a recreational drug in the last years. Its active principle, Salvinorin A (SA), is a potentially psychotropic agonist of the kappa opioid receptors. The use of SDI has increased in Europe and North America, although there are no concrete proofs about abuse. The present review discusses current evidence on potential SDI abuse, as well as its increasing recreational use, although it is considered a legalized hallucinogen easily acquired in many countries.

Terapia de reposição de testosterona: a polêmica / Testosterone replacement therapy

A terapia de reposição de testosterona (TRT) é uma opção de tratamento para a andropausa, porém é evitada por ser historicamente associada com o surgimento de câncer de próstata (PCa) clinicamente detectável. Esta crença, suportada por mais de meio século, tem sido muito contestada ultimamente por possuir lacunas científicas importantes. O presente trabalho faz uma revisão da literatura recente e aborda as evidências que sustentam a prática e aplicação clínica de TRT e os novos estudos que procuram esclarecer qual a verdadeira relação de dependência entre crescimento do PCa e hormônios andrógenos.

Development of SRS. php, a Simple Object Access Protocol-based library for data acquisition from integrated biological databases

Data integration has become an important task for biological database providers. The current model for data exchange among different sources simplifies the manner that distinct information is accessed by users. The evolution of data representation from HTML to XML enabled programs, instead of humans, to interact with biological databases. We present here SRS.php, a PHP library that can interact with the data integration Sequence Retrieval System (SRS). The library has been written using SOAP definitions, and permits the programmatic communication through webservices with the SRS. The interactions are possible by invoking the methods described in WSDL by exchanging XML messages. The current functions available in the library have been built to access specific data stored in any of the 90 different databases (such as UNIPROT, KEGG and GO) using the same query syntax format. The inclusion of the described functions in the source of scripts written in PHP enables them as webservice clients to the SRS server. The functions permit one to query the whole content of any SRS database, to list specific records in these databases, to get specific fields from the records, and to link any record among any pair of linked databases. The case study presented exemplifies the library usage to retrieve information regarding registries of a Plant Defense Mechanisms database. The Plant Defense Mechanisms database is currently being developed, and the proposal of SRS.php library usage is to enable the data acquisition for the further warehousing tasks related to its setup and maintenance.

The effect of dengue virus infection on the clinical sequelae of Japanese encephalitis: a one year follow-up study in Thailand.

In order to determine if prior dengue virus infection reduces the severity of Japanese encephalitis (JE), we examined 127 patients hospitalized during the 1970 JE epidemic in the Chiangmai and Lampang Valleys of northern Thailand. Patients were studied during the first 30 days after onset of JE; 120 of these patients were examined one year later for residual neurologic sequelae. About 21% of patients had serological evidence of a prior dengue virus infection. Morbidity and mortality in patients with and without prior dengue virus experience were compared. These comparisons were made within two age groups to exclude differences due to age alone;