Alexandre Bosco de Oliveira

Redox biology offers valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying environmental toxicity. Under physiological conditions, reactive oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur species (ROS, RNS, RSS, respectively) play essential roles in cellular signaling and homeostasis. However, when their production exceeds antioxidant defenses, oxidative distress ensues – an imbalance linked to inflammation, genotoxicity, and chronic diseases. Redox toxicology explores how pollutants – including metals, pesticides, hydrocarbons, microplastics, and nanomaterials – disrupt these pathways by modulating transcription factors such as NRF2 and nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB), thereby triggering inflammatory and epigenetic responses. In this context, redox biomarkers – both enzymatic and non-enzymatic – have emerged as sensitive tools for the early detection of sublethal toxic effects. These biomarkers have been successfully applied in a wide range of organisms, from invertebrates and corals to fish, amphibians, and mammals. Despite their promise, redox biomarkers may exhibit species-specific, organ-specific, and dose-dependent variability, requiring integrative approaches for robust interpretation. The increasing complexity of pollutant mixtures and interspecies variation in redox responses underscores the need for multiparametric and cross-disciplinary strategies. This chapter addresses the fundamentals of redox biology in ecotoxicology, explores the practical applications and limitations of redox biomarkers, and emphasizes the importance of integrated biomonitoring for accurate environmental risk assessment and biodiversity conservation.

With the intensification of agricultural activities, there has been a persistent release of pollutants into the environment such as metals, hydrocarbons, and pesticides, resulting in the degradation of natural cycles and the imposition of multiple abiotic stresses on plants. These conditions significantly compromise plant growth, productivity, and overall balance. In this context, microbial biosurfactants emerge as promising multifunctional agents, acting both in the bioremediation of contaminated environments and in promoting plant tolerance to adverse conditions. Produced by a wide variety of microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, these amphiphilic molecules reduce surface and interfacial tension, enhancing the solubilization, mobilization, and bioavailability of contaminants and nutrients in complex ecosystems. These physicochemical properties confer a strategic role to biosurfactants in mitigating the phytotoxic effects caused by excessive levels of metals, persistent organic compounds, and high salinity, promoting a more favorable rhizospheric environment for plant development. Furthermore, recent evidence shows that biosurfactants can alter the structure and activity of plant-associated microbiota, stimulating colonization by plant growth-promoting microorganisms and participating in cellular signaling with the induction of defense responses. Such responses include the regulation of metabolic pathways associated with osmotic balance, antioxidant activity, and the expression of stress-responsive genes. Thus, the application of microbial biosurfactants represents an innovative, sustainable, and biologically integrated strategy to enhance plant resilience against abiotic stress conditions, while contributing to the rehabilitation of degraded environments. Advances in microbial biotechnology have enabled the optimization of production and structural characterization of these compounds, consolidating their applicability in sustainable agricultural and environmental systems, which will be explored in this chapter.

Marine-derived natural compounds play a major role in treating several human-related diseases due to their unique chemical diversity, biocompatibility, and excellent medicinal properties. Recent studies have explored the potential of marine organisms, especially microorganisms, as sources for novel bioactive substances that possess fibrinolytic activity. For the past decades, our team has been exploring marine-derived secondary metabolites as novel compounds for thrombolysis and fibrinolysis. Our recent studies investigated the fibrinolytic properties of Fungi fibrinolytic compound(R)-2,5-bis(2R,3R)-2-((E)-4,8-dimethylnona-3,7-dien-1-yl)-3,5-dihydroxy-2-methyl-7-oxo-3,4,7,9-tetrahydropyrano[2,3-e]isoindol-8(2H)-yl)pentanoic acid (Fungi fibrinolytic compound-1 (FGFC1), staplabin) with a molecular weight of 869 Da from a rare marine microorganism Stachbotrys longispora FG216. Accordingly, this chapter highlights the source of bioactive compounds, especially FGFCs from different marine organisms. We review the extraction methods and characteristics of these bioactive compounds and their molecular signaling mechanisms and examine their role in fibrinolysis and related disorders.

This article analyzes Brazilian climate change policies from a multilevel and multi-actor perspective, seeking to understand the roles of the different actors in this process, both at the national and local levels. Since human activities are largely responsible for exacerbating global environmental change, especially climate change, understanding the social and political dimensions of these changes is essential in order to undertake effective strategies against the resulting impacts, emphasizing the issues of adaptation and mitigation. In this chapter, we map the emergence of specific municipal policies, institutional mechanisms, and their proposed mitigation and adaptation strategies. We found that the inclusion of different interested parties from society at different levels has contributed significantly to the resilience of advancing the climate change agenda in Brazil, as there have been major setbacks in the last decade due to the increasingly politically polarized environment. We propose public policies for urban development in favor of climate adaptation and mitigation and a call for inclusive and open policies that engage the population. We also recommend strengthening land use and occupation in Brazil, effectively coordinated with national and international climate governance.

Brosimum acutifolium is a large tree with high medicinal and pharmacological value, widely used in folk medicine by some communities in South America and northern Brazil, as a potent antirheumatic, antiarthritic and anti-inflammatory, so this work aims to address the chemical composition and biological activities of the bark of the species, reported in the scientific literature in the last 30 years. Information was collected from the databases such as the Google Scholar, Scientific Electronic library online (Scielo), National Library of Medicine (PubMed), Elsevier, institutional repositories and government websites. The bark of the plant species has a variability of compounds in its composition, such as flavonoids, coumarins, phytosterols, alkaloids and lignoids, representing an important source of phenolic bioactives, which makes it a natural antioxidant. In this research, biological activities, such as antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and anticancer activities, were found. The biological properties observed are related to the promotion of human health, and when added to the vast diversity in secondary metabolites present in the bark, it transforms the species into a strong candidate to act as an auxiliary therapeutic alternative in the control and treatment of certain diseases and as an input for the development of bioproducts.

The chapter presents the outcomes of an extensive investigation of nanosafety concerning various nanocomposites incorporating doped nanoparticles. These findings unveil a diverse range of properties these materials exhibit, including enhanced biocompatibility, unique optical and electronic features, and targeted therapeutic capabilities. Nonetheless, the study underscores the necessity for a cautious approach due to the intricate interactions between doped nanomaterials and biological systems. Optimizing these beneficial properties and mitigating potential risks associated with their utilization necessitate meticulous synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of hybrid nanocomposites. Depending on the dopant used, it has bactericidal advantages but toxic effects, so studying which doping element is essential for developing new efficient and safe products. Therefore, the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers from diverse fields such as materials science, biology, medicine, and toxicology is emphasized for a comprehensive assessment of the safety and efficacy of these nanomaterials across various applications.

The aim of this research is to understand the general context of higher education students in both rural and urban areas of Oaxaca. The theoretical basis is constructivism, because it takes into account the individual’s environment for the development of learning. It is a research work whose method consists of a bibliographic review and descriptive statistics on socio-demographic and educational variables. Its value lies in the visualization of the difficulties that persist among young people just entering university and the lack of physical and technological school infrastructure as well as the socio-economic conditions in which the students live. The results provide evidence of the gap in access to higher education between the rural and urban population as a result of the lack of public government investment in the educational, social and digital areas. Less than half of the households have access to information and communication technologies, which significantly hinder their university education. These aspects invite urgent and necessary international reflection on the forms of governance in higher education, which is not limited to the Mexican context.

Open access peer-reviewed chapter

Transgenic maize expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin produces a crystal (Cry) protein toxic to caterpillars that is non-toxic to stink bugs. The objectives of this study were to identify the number of plants attacked and not by Dichelops melacanthus, to evaluate foliar damage through the number of punctures, to evaluate plant height, weight of grain production by corn plants attacked and not and economic loss. The research was carried out on a commercial production agricultural farm in an area of 700 m2. Eight areas were evaluated (10 m × 1.8 m) randomly distributed and in V6 physiological stage. Data were recorded, tabulated in Excel spreadsheet and statistically analysed by T Student test with 5% of significance for comparison of two independent groups. The results indicate that 80.7% of corn plants were attacked by D. melacanthus presenting punctures in their leaves. The average height for attacked plants was 41.2 ± 2.2 cm and 41.5 ± 3.3 cm for not attacked. A significant reduction in production of 23% was verified. The weight of grains of attacked plant was in average 3048 ± 319 g and 3956 ± 269 g in not-attacked plant, demonstrating that the damage caused by D. melhacantus reduces Bt corn productivity and loss of income of 98.93 US dollars per hectare.