Extracellular Vesicles in Osteosarcoma: Antagonists or Therapeutic Agents?

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a skeletal tumor affecting mainly children and adolescents. The presence of distance metastasis is frequent and it is localized preferentially to the lung, representing the main reason for death among patients. The therapeutic approaches are based on surgery and chemotherapeutics. However, the drug resistance and the side effects associated with the chemotherapy require the identification of new therapeutic approaches. The understanding of the complex biological scenario of the osteosarcoma will open the way for the identification of new targets for its treatment. Recently, a great interest of scientific community is for extracellular vesicles (EVs), that are released in the tumor microenvironment and are important regulators of tumor proliferation and the metastatic process. At the same time, circulating extracellular vesicles can be exploited as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, and they can be loaded with drugs as a new therapeutic approach for osteosarcoma patients. Thus, the characterization of OS-related EVs could represent a way to convert these vesicles from antagonists for human health into therapeutic and/or diagnostic agents.     

Home visits by neighborhood Mentor Mothers provide timely recovery from childhood malnutrition in South Africa: results from a randomized controlled trial

Background  

Child and infant malnourishment is a significant and growing problem in the developing world. Malnourished children are at high risk for negative health outcomes over their lifespans. Philani, a paraprofessional home visiting program, was developed to improve childhood nourishment. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether the Philani program can rehabilitate malnourished children in a timely manner.     

Usefulness of a set of simple in vitro tests for the screening and identification of probiotic candidate strains for dairy use

A set of simple in vitro tests (identification by species-specific PCR, genetic diversity, phage sensitivity, growth and viability in milk, resistance to salts and flavor compounds, bacterial interactions, tolerance to simulated gastric juice and bile, bile salts deconjugation, hydrophobicity and β-galactosidase and antibacterial activities), that can be carried out in almost every laboratory of microbiology, mainly in developing countries where there is often limited access to sophisticated techniques, allowed us to identify, among 19 intestinal human isolates, a potential candidate for new probiotic dairy foods for the local market. Lactobacillus gasseri LgF_37/1 performed well in the culture media used for the enumeration of probiotic bacteria in argentinian dairy products. This strain showed also high tolerance to the technological challenges assessed, bile salts resistance, the capacity to produce bacteriocin-like metabolites, to inhibit pathogenic bacteria, to deconjugate bile salts and high hydrophobicity. Further in vivo research should be carried out with this strain before claiming probiotic properties for it. However, the use of a set of simple in vitro techniques proved to be important to determine which strains should undergo future and more complex studies.     

Mass transfer during the osmotic dehydration of West Indian cherry

The main purpose of this work was to study water loss, solids gain, and weight and moisture reduction during the osmotic dehydration process of the West Indian cherry (Malpighia punicifolia). The diffusion coefficient of West Indian cherry was estimated by the inverse method using average moisture contents. Osmotic dehydration was examined for 12 h in a 65°Brix solution at temperature of 27 °C, without agitation, using a fruit:solution mass ratio of 1:4, 1:10, and 1:15. The kinetics and internal changes occurring during the osmotic dehydration of West Indian cherry are reported. The product’s drying kinetics was simulated using the diffusion model, and two optimization methods, Levenberg–Marquardt and Differential Evolution algorithm, were used to predict the diffusion coefficient. The results indicated that the two optimization methods performed similarly in estimating the diffusion coefficient adequately. The average calculated diffusion coefficient was 1.663 × 10^?10 m²s^?1, which is consistent with values reported in the literature.     

Model-based multi-objective optimization of beef roasting

A validated mathematical model has been used to perform multi-objective optimization of beef roasting, considering the minimization of both cooking time and weight loss. Simulations were performed using irregular geometrics models of beef semitendinosus muscle and constant oven temperature. Minimum temperature of 72 °C at the coldest point was imposed as a constraint. From model results a compromise situation was encountered, since no operative condition lead simultaneously to optimal values of both objectives, i.e., an increase in oven temperature leads to a decrease in cooking time, between −0.25 and −0.325 min/°C, and an increase in weight loss, between 0.175 and 0.275%/°C. In this sense, not one, but a set of optimal solutions was found in the Pareto sense. Experimental cooking tests were performed, which are in good agreement with model simulations. Furthermore, energy consumption for each optimal solution obtained in the optimization problem was estimated, being lower using low oven temperatures.     

Effectiveness of thermal treatments and biocides in the inactivation of Argentinian Lactococcus lactis phages

The thermal and chemical resistance levels of four autochthonal bacteriophages of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, isolated from cheese processes, was investigated. The times required to obtain 99% inactivation of phages (T99) at 63 and 72 degrees C in three suspension media (M17 broth, reconstituted commercial nonfat skim milk, and Tris magnesium gelatin buffer) were determined. Thermal resistance was dependent on the phage studied, and the results of this study demonstrate that pasteurization treatments used in dairy industries may leave viable viral particles in milk. It was possible to determine that M17 broth was generally the least protective medium, while phosphate buffer was the most protective one. Peracetic acid (0.15%, vol/vol) was the most effective viricidal agent, with exposures of 5 min being sufficient to inactivate high-titer phage suspensions (>10(6) PFU/ml). To achieve total inactivation (<10 PFU/ml) of viral suspensions, sodium hypochlorite was effective at 100 ppm for only two phages, while the other two phages needed concentrations of 200 and 300 ppm. Ethanol at concentrations of 100 and 75% proved to be very efficient in inactivating phages, but isopropanol was not effective against them.     

Interaction between low-profile agents and glass fibres in polyester-based composites

Scanning electron microscope and differential scanning calorimetry studies were used to study the morphology and thermal properties of cured systems constituted of different unsaturated polyester formulations, two conventional low-shrink additives and one suitably synthetized additive. The aim was to clarify the influence of these low-profile agents on the resulting phase structure and on the thermal behaviour of the systems. Moreover, the influence was investigated of low-profile agents on the fibre/matrix adhesion in composite materials reinforced with glass fibres coated by silane coupling agents.