Publications by authors named "Claudia Nunes"

Generic expiration dates continue to serve as freshness indicators for highly perishable foods such as fish. In fact, "best before" dates are a prediction of the estimated limit of safe quality. Therefore, they do not provide real-time information of the fish freshness, resulting in an inaccurate assessment of its quality.

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Nanoparticle-embedded hydrogels are promising delivery systems for cutaneous applications. This study aimed to enhance skin delivery and bioavailability of quercetin, a biologically active flavonoid using nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) embedded within sodium alginate/ poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels. Pomegranate oil, selected for its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-apoptotic properties, served as a natural liquid lipid for NLCs production.

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Cyanobacterial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) mainly composed of heteropolysaccharides can be attached to the cell wall as capsular polysaccharides (CPS) or released to the environment as released polysaccharides (RPS). These polymers have an unusually high diversified monosaccharidic composition, making them attractive for biotechnological/biomedical applications. However, their production is still poorly understood, hindering their optimization for industrial needs.

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Context: Cancer therapy remains a challenge in healthcare, particularly in the context of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), where targeted therapies are still scarce.

Objective: Addressing this issue, our study explores a novel targeting approach using small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) isolated from cow milk, functionalized with hyaluronic acid (HA) to target the overexpressed cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44) cell surface receptor in TNBC cells.

Materials & Methods: A method for isolating sEVs from cow milk was optimized, and the obtained sEVs were fully characterized in terms of size, morphology, and protein markers.

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Platinum(II) N-heterocyclic carbene complexes based on 2-chloroadenosine are synthesized. The reaction of 2-chloro-2',3',5'-tri-O-acetyladenosine 1 with Pt(PPh) by C-Cl oxidative addition yields complex 2, with a Pt center bond to the C-2 of the purine ring. Complex 2 reacts with methyl iodide to yield N-heterocyclic carbene 3, which is subsequently deprotected under basic conditions to provide N-heterocyclic carbene 4, bearing a fully deprotected ribose.

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Pediatric kidney transplant is performed globally, although unevenly, with specific challenges in low-income countries with limited resources. We aimed to describe pediatric kidney transplantation in Bahia, a state located in one of the poorest regions in Brazil, and explore possible predictors of survival. This was a single-center retrospective cohort, and we included 101 pediatric kidney transplants performed between 2013 and 2022.

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Marine environments are the warehouse of a variety of novel bioactive compounds prone to be explored by food and feed industry. The growing interest in sulphated polysaccharides has led to the search for new sustainable sources, such as seawater. These compounds are naturally concentrated in salt pan brine water due to their evaporation by wind and sunlight.

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The growing demand for sustainable and nutrient-rich food sources has positioned macroalgae as a promising alternative for food product development. This study investigates the extraction and characterization of hydrocolloids from three red macroalgae species (, , and ) using water bath (WB), ultrasound (US), and hybrid ultrasound-water bath (USWB) treatments for 45 and 60 min. The physicochemical properties of the extracts, including rheological behavior, particle size distribution, antioxidant activity, and texture, were assessed.

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Biomimetic-based drug delivery systems (DDS) attempt to recreate the complex interactions that occur naturally between cells. Cell membrane-coated nanoparticles (CMCNPs) have been one of the main strategies in this area to prevent opsonization and clearance. Moreover, coating nanoparticles with cell membranes allows them to acquire functions and properties inherent to the mother cells.

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Rice husks are a low value byproduct, even though it possesses molecules with great potential, such as arabinoxylans, proteins, and silica. These molecules can be used to improve mechanical and physicochemical properties of materials for food packaging. In this work, hydrothermal treatment was used for a sustainable extraction of the valuable molecules present in rice husks.

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Tuning the 8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonic acid (ANS) structure usually requires harsh conditions and long reaction times, which can result in low yields. Herein, ANS was modified to form an ANS group of uniform materials based on organic salts (GUMBOS), prepared with simple metathesis reactions and distinct cations, namely tetrabutylammonium (N), tetrahexylammonium (N), and tetrabutylphosphonium (P). These ANS-based GUMBOS were investigated as fluorescent probes for membrane binding studies with four proteins having distinct physicochemical properties.

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Carbon nanotubes are promising materials for biomedical applications like delivery systems and tissue scaffolds. In this paper, magnetic carbon nanotubes (M-CNTs) covered with bovine serum albumin (M-CNTs-BSA) or functionalized with hydrophilic monomers (M-CNTs-HL) were synthesized, characterized, and evaluated concerning their interaction with Caco-2 cells. There is no comparison between these two types of functionalization, and this study aimed to verify their influence on the material's interaction with the cells.

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Abundant in citrus fruits, naringin (NAR) is a flavonoid that has a wide spectrum of beneficial health effects, including its anti-inflammatory activity. However, its use in the clinic is limited due to extensive phase I and II first-pass metabolism, which limits its bioavailability. Thus, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) were used to protect and concentrate NAR in inflamed issues, to enhance its anti-inflammatory effects.

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Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and deadly primary malignant brain tumor. Current therapies are insufficient, and survival for individuals diagnosed with GBM is limited to a few months. New GBM treatments are urgent.

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Glioblastoma (GBM) is a primary malignant tumor of the central nervous system responsible for the most deaths among patients with primary brain tumors. Current therapies for GBM are not effective, with the average survival of GBM patients after diagnosis being limited to a few months. Chemotherapy is difficult in this case due to the heterogeneity of GBM and the high efficacy of the blood-brain barrier, which makes drug absorption into the brain extremely difficult.

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Responsive magnetic nanomaterials offer significant advantages for innovative therapies, for instance, in cancer treatments that exploit on-demand delivery on alternating magnetic field (AMF) stimulus. In this work, biocompatible magnetic bionanocomposite films are fabricated from chitosan by film casting with incorporation of magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) produced by facile one pot synthesis. The influence of synthesis conditions and MNP concentration on the films' heating efficiency and heat dissipation are evaluated through spatio-temporal mapping of the surface temperature changes by video-thermography.

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Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacterial complex . Despite the decline in the incidence and mortality of this disease over the years, the emergence of new strains of tuberculosis resistant to existing tuberculostatic drugs is currently one of the largest public health problems. The engineering and development of new drugs is a complex process; therefore, the modification and enhancement of the drugs already marked is a better and faster solution.

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In this study, the chemical composition and antioxidant profile of five edible macroalgae, , , , , and , cultivated in fully controlled closed systems, were determined. Protein, carbohydrates, and fat contents ranged between 12.4% and 41.

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Staphylococcus aureus is considered a high priority pathogen by the World Health Organization due to its high prevalence and the potential to form biofilms. Currently, the available treatments for S. aureus biofilm-associated infections do not target the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) matrix.

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Fucoidan has been reported to present diverse bioactivities, but each extract has specific features from which a particular biological activity, such as immunomodulation, must be confirmed. In this study a commercially available pharmaceutical-grade fucoidan extracted from , FE, was characterized and its anti-inflammatory potential was investigated. Fucose was the main monosaccharide (90 mol%) present in the studied FE, followed by uronic acids, galactose, and xylose that were present at similar values (3.

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Chitooligosaccharides have been suggested as cholesterol reducing ingredients mostly due to their ability to sequestrate bile salts. The nature of the chitooligosaccharides-bile salts binding is usually linked with the ionic interaction. However, at physiological intestinal pH range (6.

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Photothermal therapy has emerged as a new promising strategy for the management of cancer, either alone or combined with other therapeutics, such as chemotherapy. The use of nanoparticles for multimodal therapy can improve treatment performance and reduce drug doses and associated side effects. Here we propose the development of a novel multifunctional nanosystem based on solid lipid nanoparticles co-loaded with gold nanorods and mitoxantrone and functionalized with folic acid for dual photothermal therapy and chemotherapy of breast cancer.

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is a brown seaweed with applications in the food, pharmaceutic, and cosmetic industries. Among its most valuable bioactive compounds are the pigment fucoxanthin and polysaccharides (e.g.

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Article Synopsis
  • * This study aimed to analyze the chemical structure of these polysaccharides and assess their effects on immune activity and cholesterol levels, focusing on how their structure relates to these functions.
  • * Two FCSP fractions (F2 and F3) were found to stimulate immune response and improve cholesterol levels, with their bioactive properties linked to specific sugar compositions and sulphate groups.
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Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) offer a promising strategy to counteract bacterial resistance, mostly due to their membrane-targeting activity. W-BP100 is a potent broad-spectrum cecropin-melittin CAMP bearing a single N-terminal Trp, which was previously found to improve its antibacterial activity. W-BP100 has high affinity toward anionic membranes, inducing membrane saturation at low peptide-to-lipid (P/L) ratios and membrane permeabilization, with the unique property of promoting the aggregation of anionic vesicles only at specific P/L ratios.

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