Synergistic effects of carvacrol, α-terpinene, γ-terpinene, ρ-cymene and linalool against Gardnerella species.

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal infection affecting women worldwide. This infection is characterized by the loss of the dominant Lactobacillus community in the vaginal microbiota and an increase of anaerobic bacteria, that leads to the formation of a polymicrobial biofilm, mostly composed of Gardnerella spp. Treatment of BV is normally performed using broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as metronidazole and clindamycin. However, the high levels of recurrence of infection after treatment cessation have led to a demand for new therapeutic alternatives. Thymbra capitata essential oils (EOs) are known to have a wide spectrum of biological properties, including antibacterial activity. Thus, herein, we characterized two EOs of T. capitata and tested their antimicrobial activity as well as some of their main components, aiming to assess possible synergistic effects. Our findings showed that carvacrol and ρ-cymene established a strong synergistic antimicrobial effect against planktonic cultures of Gardnerella spp. On biofilm, carvacrol and linalool at sub-MIC concentrations proved more efficient in eliminating biofilm cells, while showing no cytotoxicity observed in a reconstituted human vaginal epithelium. The antibiofilm potential of the EOs and compounds was highlighted by the fact cells were not able to recover culturability after exposure to fresh medium.

[Cervical smear, viral load and t cell counting in seropositive HIV women]. / Alterações citológicas em mulheres seropositivas para o VIH. Relação com Carga Vírica e Linfócitos T CD4+

The aim of this study was to compare the T cell counting and viral load in seropositive women for HIV with normal cervical smear and intraepithelial lesions. 87 women were studied, 26 with normal smear, 46 with low grade intraepithelial lesions and 15 with high grade intraepithelial lesions. Women with normal smears showed the lowest viral load and high grade lesions the highest. There were no differences between cervical smear result and T cell counting.

Effect of estrogen, progesterone and prolactin on cell proliferation in three brest cancer cell lines

Os hormônios esteróides e peptídicos desempenham papel fundamental na proliferaçäo do parênquima mamário. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a influência de hormônios em linhas celulares estabelecidas a partir de neoplasias mamárias humanas. De acordo com o descrito na literatura, escolheram-se linhas celulares consoante a expressäo de receptores de estrogêneo e progesterona, tendo sido cultivadas em meio adequado, suplementado com 10 por cento FBS. Os hormônios testados foram: estrógeno (2µl/5ml), progesterona (5µl/5ml) e prolactina (1µl/5ml), tendo sido fornecidos quer isoladamente, quer nas diferentes combinaçöes entre si. No 30§ dia do tratamento hormonal, as células foram colhidas e fixadas em álcool. Por proliferaçäo celular foi avaliada pelo índice de MIB-1. O perfil imunocitoquímico das linhas celulares näo se alterou com os diversos tratamentos hormonais, mas se observaram alteraçöes consistentes no índice proliferativo: quando tratadas somente com prolactina, observaram-se reduçöes de 70,4 por cento, 70,7 por cento e de 25,2 por cento no índice de MIB-1 nas linhas T47D (RE-/RP+), Hs578T (RE-/RP-) e ZR-75-1 (RE+/RP+), respectivaente. Todos os tratamentos levaram à diminuiçäo da proliferaçäo nas linhas celulares ZR-75-1 e T47D. De acordo com nossos achados, o uso de prolactina pode representar uma estratégia de modulaçäo da proliferaçäo das células neoplásticas, mas säo necessários estudos in vivo para fundamentar esta hipótese