Mikaelly Batista da Silva

Drought-tolerant cactus Opuntia stricta sustains livestock in Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast but suffers yield losses from the armored scale insect Diaspis echinocacti. Symbiotic bacteria are thought to underpin scale fitness; however, their response to pest pressure remains unexplored. We characterized the bacterial communities of D. echinocacti collected from cladodes displaying low, intermediate, and high infestation (n = 3 replicates per level) using 16S-rRNA amplicon sequencing, processed with nf-core/ampliseq. Shannon diversity declined from low to high density, and Bray–Curtis ordination suggested compositional shifts, although group differences were not significant (Kruskal–Wallis and PERMANOVA, p > 0.05). The obligate endosymbiont “Candidatus Uzinura” dominated all samples (>85% relative abundance) irrespective of density, indicating a resilient core microbiome. PICRUSt2 predicted a contraction of metabolic breadth at higher infestations, with convergence on energy- and amino acid biosynthesis pathways. Taken together, increasing pest density was associated with modest loss of diversity and functional streamlining, rather than wholesale turnover. These baseline data can guide future work on microbiome-based strategies to complement existing scale-insect control in dryland cactus systems.

This bibliometric review aims to explore and discuss the scope and limitations of the literature addressing the consequences of Zika virus infection and its impact on child development. The objective is to comprehensively demonstrate the collaboration network among countries and institutions and track emerging trends. A systematic literature review was conducted using the Web of Science database, covering publications from 2016 to June 2022. The VOSviewer tool was employed for bibliometric analysis, examining co-authorship, keyword co-occurrence, and co-citation of journals, authors, and references in the literature. Data were obtained from 161 studies published across 44 categories, with pediatrics and clinical neurology as primary fields. Three main research trends were identified: one focusing on congenital Zika syndrome and its association with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and the other trend examining the relationship between infection during pregnancy, geographic location, and the neurodevelopmental characteristics of affected children. Our study provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of Zika virus research, specifically regarding its effects on child development. The findings highlight global collaboration patterns and research institution affinities, with Brazil emerging as a leading contributor to the literature.

Introduction: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum, it is considered one of the most common public health problems in Brazil and the world, and affects around 12 million adults and more than 1 million newborns throughout the world. Objective: To describe the epidemiological profile of acquired syphilis in Brazil from 2013 to 2021. Methods: This is an exploratory, nonprobability, descriptive study. Data were collected from the SINAN database and subsequently tabulated and treated by ANOVA analysis of variance. Results: It was found that between the years 2013 to 2021, there was a significant increase in the number of reported cases of acquired syphilis in Brazil, increasing from 39,315 cases in 2013 to 152,915 cases in 2019. To this end, the average annual number of notified cases was over 6,9307 ± 4,5571, with the Southeast region having the highest incidence of the disease (427,615 cases). Conclusion: It is concluded that syphilis is a public health problem of great importance, of which there must be better and more effective prophylactic measures to combat the spread and elimination of the disease.

This review article covers the therapeutic potential of the plants Harpagophytum procumbens and Turnera subulata in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Despite the recognition of their beneficial properties, there is notable shortage of specific clinical and in vitro studies on these species regarding neurodegenerative diseases. Compounds such as harpagosides and vite-xin-2-O-rhamnoside, found in Harpagophytum procumbens and Turnera subulata, respectively, as well as other antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, are associated with mechanisms of action that involve reducing oxidative stress and modulating the inflammatory response, indicating their therapeutic potential in these pathologies. Additionally, the use of nutraceuticals derived from medicinal plants has emerged as a promising approach, offering natural therapeutic alternatives. However, the pressing need for studies focusing on the pharmacokinetics, safety, and pharmacological interactions of these extracts for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases is emphasized. This review also evaluated advances in nutraceutical delivery systems, highlighting technological innovations that can optimize the precise delivery of these compounds to patients. Such findings highlight the gaps in the study of these plants for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and, at the same time, the potential for opening new perspectives in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, providing expectations for innovative solutions in this critical domain of medicine.

Enteroparasitosis are diseases caused by parasitic agents present in the environment and in the gastrointestinal tract of living beings. In addition, they are still considered neglected diseases, but of great importance for public health, especially when they are related to secondary infections and currently their co-infection profile with COVID-19. The interaction of protozoa and/or helminths with the SARS-CoV-2 virus is timely and its signs and symptoms are confused with other pathogen relationships. In this way, this study aims to correlate the incidence of enteroparasitosis and COVID-19, in the pandemic period from 2020 to April 2022. This is a documentary and exploratory study of secondary data from laboratory tests of patients who were treated and diagnosed with COVID-19 and enteroparasitosis at Hospital Doutor Cloves Bezerra Cavalcante, Municipal Hospital of Bananeiras, Paraíba, Brazil. In the analysis of the database, a significant increase of approximately 48.85% in the incidence of COVID-19 cases from 2020 to 2021 stands out, remaining high until 2022. In contrast, cases of enteroparasites peaked at 48.74% in 2021, followed by an average reduction of 23.12%, with a deviation of 1.49%, in relation to the years 2020 and 2022. It was concluded that COVID-19 is predominantly associated with an increase in secondary infections, highlighting the crucial need to promote health education, improve basic sanitation and guarantee access to health services as essential components in combating the increase in parasitic infections, especially those related to viral pathologies.

The emergence of open ocean global-scale studies provided important information about the genomics of oceanic microbial communities. Metagenomic analyses shed light on the structure of marine habitats, unraveling the biodiversity of different water masses. Many biological and environmental factors can contribute to marine organism composition, such as depth. However, much remains unknown about microbial communities’ taxonomic and functional features in different water layer depths. Here, we performed a metagenomic analysis of 76 publicly available samples from the Tara Ocean Project, distributed in 8 collection stations located in tropical or subtropical regions, and sampled from three layers of depth (surface water layer—SRF, deep chlorophyll maximum layer—DCM, and mesopelagic zone—MES). The SRF and DCM depth layers are similar in abundance and diversity, while the MES layer presents greater diversity than the other layers. Diversity clustering analysis shows differences regarding the taxonomic content of samples. At the domain level, bacteria prevail in most samples, and the MES layer presents the highest proportion of archaea among all samples. Taken together, our results indicate that the depth layer influences microbial sample composition and diversity.