Caracterização funcional da BaltMTx, uma miotoxina isolada da peçonha de Bothrops alternatus

CHAPTER II: Snake venoms are a complex mixture of organic and inorganic compounds, proteins and peptides such as aminotransferases, acetylcholinesterase, hyaluronidases, L-amino acid oxidase, phospholipase A2, metalloproteases, serine proteases, lectins, disintegrins, and others. Phospholipase A2 directly or indirectly influence the pathophysiological effect on envenomation, as well as their participation in the digestion of the prey. They have several other activities such as hemolytic indirect action, cardiotoxicity, aggregating of platelets, anticoagulant, edema, myotoxic and inflammatory activities. In this work, we describe the functional characterization of BaltMTx, a PLA2 from Bothrops alternatus that inhibits platelet aggregation and present bactericidal effect. The purification of BaltMTx was carried out through three chromatographic steps (ion-exchange on a DEAE-Sephacel column, followed by hydrophobic chromatography on Phenyl–Sepharose and affinity chromatography on HiTrap™ Heparin HP). The protein was purified to homogeneity as judged by its migration profile in SDS–PAGE stained with coomassie blue, and showed a molecular mass of about 15 kDa under reducing conditions and approximately 25 kDa in non-reducing conditions. BaltMTx showed a rather specific inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation induced by epinephrine in human platelet-rich plasma in a dose-dependent manner, whereas it had little or no effect on platelet aggregation induced by collagen or adenosine diphosphate. BaltMTx also showed antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. High concentrations of BatlMTx stimulated the proliferation of Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum and Leishmania (Viania) braziliensis. BaltMTx induced production of inflammatory mediators such as IL-10, IL-12, TNF-α and NO. BaltMTx could be of medical interest as a new tool for the development of novel therapeutic agents for the prevention and treatment of thrombotic disorders as well as bactericidal agent.

A escola do urbano no campo do município de Catalão/GO : ensino de geografia nas especificidades do lugar

This study makes an approach to the Morro Agudo Community (Cisterna) located in Catalão city(GO) rural area where stands the Maria Bárbara Sucena Municipal School. This school center is a result of getting together several small and isolated schools, which worked, scattered in many rural communities in the region. After this centralization in a single school, many students had to move along inconvenient distance to get their classes. Morro Agudo Community (Cisterna) was outstanding at garlic cultivation throughout the 1990`s when eventually this activity came to a decline. The region is constituted by properties of small tract of land. The landowners come from a Portuguese background and there are, in addit ion, migrant workers from the northeast region of Brazil. These northeasterners work for these local landowners, and that brings an additional meaning to the social relations in the region and to the rural schooling. The social and cultural diversity of the region has a feedback at the school arising tensions in many ways. In the teaching and learning process the school deals with this diversity, combined with rules and goals that, in the end, delivers a geography teaching not able to value the local knowledge accumulated in the region by its own inhabitants. New methodological approaches to rural school communities emerged out of the analysis of these unmet expectations. Furthermore, this study takes into consideration some “residues”, that means not all events are fit into programs; there are unintended consequences in an open process. All these are object of deep review in this doctoral dissertation. In this community, an analysis of the public policies implemented by Federal and municipal governments to rural schools communities in Brazil was conducted. The way in which public policies toward rural communities are implemented at the schools was reviewed; the goals they pursue and the role played by textbooks are also object of analysis. This study questions the relevance of this tools, mainly if they meet the real needs of the local people. The social representations of teachers and students are considered carefully based on their everyday lives and experiences.