Atividade anticoagulante, antioxidante e antitumoral de heterofucanas da alga Dictyopteris delicatula (Lamouroux, 1809)

In the present study, six families of sulfated polysaccharides were obtained from seaweed Dictyopteris delicatula (Lamouroux, 1809) and their anticoagulant, antioxidant and antitumor activities were evaluated. All fractions showed anticoagulant activity on aPTT assay, but not on PT assay. Fractions also exhibited total antioxidant activity, superoxide radical scavenging capacity and ferric chelating property. Thus, six fractions (F0.5v, F0.7v, F1.0v, F1.3v, F1.5v e F2.0v) we obtained by proteolytic digestion, followed by acetone fractionation and molecular sieving on Sephadex G-100. Chemical analyses demonstrated that all polysaccharides contain heterofucans composed mainly of fucose, xylose, glucose, galactose, uronic acid, and sulfate. Any fractions changed the PT. However, all fractions were able on double the aPPT on a dose-dependent manner. The heterofucans F0.7v and F1.0v showed low anticoagulant activity while F1.5v presented the most prominent anticoagulant activity .When compared to Clexane®, a low molecular weight heparin, at same concentration F1.5v presented similar anticoagulant activity. The fucans F0.5v and F0.7v at 1.0 mg/mL showed high ferric chelating activity (~45%), whereas fucans F1.3v (0.5 mg/mL) showed considerable reducing power, about 53.2% of the activity of vitamin C. The fucan F1.5v presented the most prominent anticoagulant activity. The best antiproliferative activity was found with fucans F1.3v and F0.7v. However, F1.3v activity was much higher than F0.7v inhibiting almost 100% of HeLa cell proliferation. These fucans have been selected for further studies on structural characterization as well as in vivo experiments, which are already in progress

Avaliação da usabilidade de Websites de hotéis segundo as heurísticas de Nielsen: pesquisa exploratória em hotéis da Região Rordeste do Brasil

This Thesis deals with the usability in some sites of hotels placed in a specific region of Brazil. Usability is the property of a site that shows how it allows the user get all information available without a large effort and in a clear and objective way. A questionnaire was used as a tool to value, by the common user perspective, navigation, on line reservation simulation, appreciation of the available content and, by this way, an easiness in the interaction site-users. As a result, it is possible to say that, considering all material analyzed, those sites that present usability criterion are more interactive and dynamic, demonstrating an easy navigation in a users view. By other side, it was possible to note that, about heuristics used in the search, the most of the websites demonstrated a deficiency in questions as firmness, user control and how to avoid mistakes. There was still valued as deficiency by the most of users in websites the general characters and the view of user. It was presented, seeing general characters, that a big part of the websites needs tools that can make user rapidly find what looks for. It was yet possible to see that users don't believe in secret when websites ask them some information. This is a point that needs to be appreciated because it causes some insecurity during navigation

Caracterização estrutural e atividades farmacológicas do alginato obtido da alga Dictyopteris delicatula (J.V. Lamouroux., 1809) e seu derivado sulfatado

Marine algae are rich sources of various structural compounds which recently has been increasingly studied as a new source of bioactive substances. The alginate, as come as fucans, are considered the main acidic polysaccharides found in brown seaweed. This molecule consists a linear natural polysaccharide, non-sulfated, and presents monosaccharides: acid β-D-mannuronic (M) and α-L-guluronic acid (G); in a vast amount compositions and threads. Alginate has been widely applied in food and pharmaceutical industries because of its ability to retain water, forming films and gels as well as thickening, stabilizing and form emulsions. In this work we aimed to extract, structurally characterize, compare and analyze the possible pharmacological activities of native alginate molecule obtained from brown seaweed Dyctiopteris delicatula (DYN), and its chemically sulfated derivative (DYS). The alginate structure and composition molecule can be proven through chemical dosing, that showed low protein contamination and high sugar level, existence and separation of M and G blocks in the descending paper chromatography, infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. Molecule sulfation was proven with sulphate dosage, resulting in 28.56% sulphate in molecule; electrophoresis, verify metachromasia with toluidine blue; and infrared spectroscopy, that showed a characteristic band at 1221cm-1 corresponding a sulfate group vibration. For the pharmacological activities the tests was: antioxidant activity, changes in cell function (MTT test) and anticoagulant test. In the antioxidant activity we observed that DYN showed better results in the kidnapping of hydroxyl radicals and ferric chelation compared to DYS, this had the best result in the total antioxidant capacity. Both showed similar activity in reducing power and the kidnapping radicals DPPH. In MTT test DYN and DYS had not proliferative and cytotoxic activity in fibroblast cells (3T3) and showed antiproliferative and cytotoxic activity in cancer cell lines HeLa and B16 melanoma. In anticoagulant assay DYN showed good activity in the intrinsic pathway of blood coagulation, and a small activity in the extrinsic pathway, in the other hand DYS showed only a very small activity in the extrinsic pathway, but cannot come to be regarded as an anticoagulant agent. From these results it can be concluded that the alginate was extracted and sulfated, revealing a potential compound to be used in the pharmaceutical industry as an anticoagulant agent, antioxidant and antitumor and the sulfation has not been conclusively important to performance in the tested pharmacological activities