Topical application of ozonated sunflower oil accelerates the healing of lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis in mice under meglumine antimoniate treatment.

Besides being scarce, the drugs available for treating cutaneous leishmaniasis have many adverse effects. Ozone is an option to enhance the standard treatment due to the wound-healing activity reported in the literature. In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of ozonated sunflower oil as an adjuvant in treating cutaneous lesions caused by Leishmania amazonensis. BALB/c mice were infected with L. amazonensis, and after the lesions appeared, they were treated in four different schedules using the drug treatment with meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime®), with or without ozonated oil. After thirty days of treatment, the lesions' thickness and their parasitic burden, blood leukocytes, production of NO and cytokines from peritoneal macrophages and lymph node cells were analyzed. The group treated with ozonated oil plus meglumine antimoniate showed the best performance, improving the lesion significantly. The parasitic burden showed that ozonated oil enhanced the leishmanicidal activity of the treatment, eliminating the parasites in the lesion. Besides, a decrease in the TNF levels from peritoneal macrophages and blood leukocytes demonstrated an immunomodulatory action of ozone in the ozonated oil-treated animals compared to the untreated group. Thus, ozonated sunflower oil therapy has been shown as an adjuvant in treating Leishmania lesions since this treatment enhanced the leishmanicidal and wound healing effects of meglumine antimoniate.

Ursolic acid-rich extract presents trypanocidal action in vitro but worsens mice under experimental acute Chagas disease.

Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease with only two drugs available for treatment and the plant Cecropia pachystachya has several compounds with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities. This study aimed to evaluate a supercritical extract from C. pachystachya leaves in vitro and in vivo against Trypanosoma cruzi. A supercritical CO2 extraction was used to obtain the extract (CPE). Cytotoxicity and immunostimulation ability were evaluated in macrophages, and the in vitro trypanocidal activity was evaluated against epimastigotes and trypomastigotes forms. In vivo tests were done by infecting BALB/c mice with blood trypomastigotes forms and treating animals orally with CPE for 10 days. The parasitemia, survival rate, weight, cytokines and nitric oxide dosage were evaluated. CPE demonstrated an effect on the epi and trypomastigotes forms of the parasite (IC50 17.90 ± 1.2 µg/mL; LC50 26.73 ± 1.2 µg/mL) and no changes in macrophages viability, resulting in a selectivity index similar to the reference drug. CPE-treated animals had a worsening compared to non-treated, demonstrated by higher parasitemia and lower survival rate. This result was attributed to the anti-inflammatory effect of CPE, demonstrated by the higher IL-10 and IL-4 values observed in the treated mice compared to the control ones. CPE demonstrated a trypanocidal effect in vitro and a worsening in the in vivo infection due to its anti-inflammatory activity.

Comparação de resultados de exames sorológicos para sífilis realizados em um hospital público da região oeste do Paraná / Comparison of results from syphilis serological tests performed in a public hospital from the western region of Paraná

Objetivo: O objetivo desta pesquisa foi estimar a prevalência da positividade de testes sorológicos para sífilis nos pacientes atendidos pelo Hospital Universitário do Oeste do Paraná (HUOP) e descrever parte de suas características socioepidemiológicas. Métodos: Estudo transversal que utilizou como fonte de dados informações do prontuário eletrônico Tasy®, referentes aos resultados de exames de VDRL e FTA-Abs realizados no HUOP, entre janeiro de 2015 e dezembro de 2019. Resultados: Durante este período foram liberados laudos de 26.968 testes de VDRL, realizados no Laboratório do HUOP e o nú- mero de resultados reagentes foi de 1.014. Em relação ao FTA-Abs, foram liberados 383 resultados e destes 116 foram reagentes. O estudo evidenciou um aumento de resultados reagentes do teste não treponêmico VDRL de 2017 a 2019. Conclusão: Neste estudo foi observado um aumento progressivo no diagnóstico de sífilis, e isto reflete a situação da doença em todo o Brasil que, mesmo com protocolos de diagnóstico e tratamento, persiste numa posição de grande destaque na saúde pública. Os dados apresentados demonstram a importância do serviço do HUOP para o diagnóstico desta doença para grande parte do oeste paranaense.

Objective: The objective of this research was to estimate the positivity prevalence of syphilis serological tests, in the patients attended in the State Universitary Hospital from Western of Paraná (HUOP), and to describe part of their socioepidemiological characteristics. Methods: Transversal study, which made use of the informations contained in the electronic medical reports software Tasy®, regarding the results of exams of VDRL and FTA-Abs, performed in the HUOP between january of 2015 and december of 2019. Results: During the studied period, reports on 26,968 VDRL tests were performed in the HUOP laboratory and the number of reagent results is 1,104. Towards the FTA-Abs test, 383 tests were performed and 116 of these were positive. The study showed an increasing number of reagent results for VDRL between 2017 and 2019. Conclusion: In this study, a progressive increase in the diagnosis of syphilis was observed, this reflects the situation of the disease all around the brazillian country, in which, even with well defined diagnostic and treating protocols, the infection persists in a prominent position for the public health. The presented data shows the importance of the HUOP's service to the population, in regards to the syphilis diagnose.