Stress Response During Rapid Maxillary Expansion in Children.

Purpose: To assess the effect of rapid maxillary expansion (RME) on the inflammatory and stress response of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment. Methods: Eighty salivary samples were collected from patients (n=16) during RME at five moments: before the expander placement (T1); 25 minutes after its first activa- tion (T2); seven days after placement, shortly after the patient arrived at the dental clinic (T3); 25 minutes after the appliance activation on day seven (T4) and one month after the last activation of the appliance (T5). Cortisol and nitric oxide levels were evaluated using an immunoassay kit and the Griess method, respectively. Friedman and Wilcoxon tests were used for statistical analysis (P <0.05). Results: Participants' mean age was 11.5 years. There was a significant change in cortisol levels over the study period in the total sample (P<0.01), for the Haas appliance (P=0.01), female sex (P=0.01), younger children (P=0.01), presence of large overbite (P=0.02), presence of posterior crossbite (P =0.006), Class I type occlusion (P=0.02) and mesofacial facial type (P =0.02). Regarding nitric oxide, there was a significant change over the study period in those who wore the Haas appliance (P =0.04). For nitric oxide levels, T1 was significantly higher than T3, T4 and T5 (P <0.05) for those who wore a Haas appliance. Conclusion: The period anticipating the consultation at the waiting reception area was more stressful than the dental procedure in patients undergoing RME. This procedure did not cause alterations in salivary biomarkers related to inflammation.

Identification of promiscuous T cell epitopes on Mayaro virus structural proteins using immunoinformatics, molecular modeling, and QM:MM approaches.

The Mayaro virus (MAYV) belongs to genus Alphavirus (family Togaviridae) and has been reported in several countries, especially in tropical regions of America. Due to its outbreaks and potential lack of medication, an effective vaccine formulation is strongly required. This study aimed to predict promiscuous T cell epitopes from structural polyproteins of MAYV using an immunoinformatics approach. For this purpose, consensus sequences were used to identify short protein sequences capable of binding to MHC class I and class II alleles. Our analysis pointed out 4 MHC-I/TCD8+ and 21 MHC-II/TCD4+ epitopes on capside (1;3), E1 (2;5), E2 (1;10), E3 (0;2), and 6 K (0;1) proteins. These predicted epitopes were characterized by high antigenicity, immunogenicity, conservancy, non-allergenic, non-toxic, and good population coverage rate values for North and South American geographical areas. Afterwards, we used the crystal structure of human toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) ectodomain as a template to predict, through docking essays, the placement of a vaccine prototype at the TLR3 receptor binding site. Finally, classical and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM:MM) computations were employed to improve the quality of docking calculations, with the QM part of the simulations being accomplished by using the density functional theory (DFT) formalism. These results provide important insights into the advancement of diagnostic platforms, the development of vaccines, and immunotherapeutic interventions.