Anti-dermatophyte activity of Leguminosae plants from Southern Brazil with emphasis on Mimosa pigra (Leguminosae).

BACKGROUND: Intensive prophylactic use of antifungals leads to the increase of drug resistance and the need for new and more effective treatments are real. Plants from Leguminosae family are rich in flavonoids, for which numerous biological activities have been described, including antifungal effects. PURPOSE: To screen methanolic extracts from Leguminosae species looking for alternative sources for antifungal agents (anti-dermatophyte and anti-Candida) and their innocuity. METHODS: Antifungal activity was evaluated using the strains Candida albicans, C. krusei, C. glabrata, C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, Epidermophyton floccosum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. rubrum and, Microsporum gypseum in the broth microdilution method. Later, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for Mimosa pigra, Eriosema heterophyllum, and Chamaecrista nictitans was determined. The most promising extract was fractionated and cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of the most active fraction were also assayed. RESULTS: Fungicide and/or fungistatic activity against dermatophyte strains were presented by 60% of the methanolic extracts assayed. M. pigra, E. heterophyllum, and C. nictitans methanolic extracts could inhibit dermatophyte strains at concentrations ranging from 1.9 to 1000µg/mL. M. pigra showed the lowest MIC values for a dichloromethane fraction (1.9µg/mL) without DNA damage at 10 and 50µg/mL and 100% of cell viability of human leukocytes. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that methanolic extracts from Leguminosae plants are potential sources of antifungal compounds, mainly the extract and fractions from M. pigra. The dichloromethane fraction from M. pigra did not showed in vitro toxicity according to the applied assays.

[Improving vaccination social marketing by monitoring the web]. / Migliorare il marketing sociale in tema di vaccinazioni "presidiando" il Web.

Immunisation is one of the most important and cost- effective interventions in Public Health because of their significant positive impact on population health.However, since Jenner's discovery there always been a lively debate between supporters and opponents of vaccination; Today the antivaccination movement spreads its message mostly on the web, disseminating inaccurate data through blogs and forums, increasing vaccine rejection.In this context, the Società Italiana di Igiene (SItI) created a web project in order to fight the misinformation on the web regarding vaccinations, through a series of information tools, including scientific articles, educational information, video and multimedia presentations The web portal (http://www.vaccinarsi.org) was published in May 2013 and now is already available over one hundred web pages related to vaccinations Recently a Forum, a periodic newsletter and a Twitter page have been created. There has been an average of 10,000 hits per month. Currently our users are mostly healthcare professionals. The visibility of the site is very good and it currently ranks first in the Google's search engine, taping the word "vaccinarsi" The results of the first four months of activity are extremely encouraging and show the importance of this project; furthermore the application for quality certification by independent international Organizations has been submitted.