Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Lauraceae Plant Species and Prediction Models Based on Their Metabolomics Profiling Data.

The Lauraceae is a botanical family known for its anti-inflammatory potential. However, several species have not yet been studied. Thus, this work aimed to screen the anti-inflammatory activity of this plant family and to build statistical prediction models. The methodology was based on the statistical analysis of high-resolution liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry data and the ex vivo anti-inflammatory activity of plant extracts. The ex vivo results demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory activity for several of these plants for the first time. The sample data were applied to build anti-inflammatory activity prediction models, including the partial least square acquired, artificial neural network, and stochastic gradient descent, which showed adequate fitting and predictive performance. Key anti-inflammatory markers, such as aporphine and benzylisoquinoline alkaloids were annotated with confidence level 2. Additionally, the validated prediction models proved to be useful for predicting active extracts using metabolomics data and studying their most bioactive metabolites.

Prevalência de resultados positivos de VDRL (Venereal Disease Research Laboratory) e análise das variáveis epidemiológicas em pacientes atendidos no serviço de saúde pública / Prevalence of VDRL (Venereal Disease Research Laboratory) positive results and epidemiological variables analysis in patients assessed on a public health service

Syphilis is an infection caused by Treponema pallidum of sexual, blood and vertical transmission. Despite being easy to diagnose and treat, its incidence has been increasing in Brazil in recent years, and it is being considered a public health problem in the country and worldwide. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of positive results for VDRL (Venereal Diseases Research Laboratory) in the city of Juiz de Fora / MG between 2014 and 2016, as well its epidemiological characteristics. 25,735 VDRL results were analyzed from the database of the Central Laboratory (LACEN) of the city hall of Juiz de Fora. The results were then related to the variables year, gender, age, pregnant or not and the region of the city where the test was performed. The prevalence of positive results was 5.55%, with the highest number of cases recorded in 2015. Reactive cases were more prevalent in the central region, in men and a higher prevalence was obtained for the age group of 12 to 18 years. Among women, it was observed higher VDRL positivity in non-pregnant women from August 2015 to December 2016. The data obtained in this study indicates an increase in prevalence of syphilis from 2014 to 2015, followed by a reduction in the following year, among the population served by SUS, where young men represent the population at greater risk.