Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2016-08"
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- Overview on gastroretentive drug delivery systems for improving drug bioavailabilityPublication . Lopes, Carla Martins; Bettencourt, Catarina; Rossi, Alessandra; Buttini, Francesca; Barata, PedroIn recent decades, many efforts have been made in order to improve drug bioavailability after oral administration. Gastroretentive drug delivery systems are a good example; they emerged to enhance the bioavailability and effectiveness of drugs with a narrow absorption window in the upper gastrointestinal tract and/or to promote local activity in the stomach and duodenum. Several strategies are used to increase the gastric residence time, namely bioadhesive or mucoadhesive systems, expandable systems, high-density systems, floating systems, superporous hydrogels and magnetic systems. The present review highlights some of the drugs that can benefit from gastroretentive strategies, such as the factors that influence gastric retention time and the mechanism of action of gastroretentive systems, as well as their classification into single and multiple unit systems.
- A new age for Quercus spp. fruits: review on nutritional and phytochemical composition and related biological activities of acornsPublication . Ferreira da Vinha, Ana; Barreira, João C. M.; Costa, Anabela S.G.; Oliveira, M. Beatriz P. P.The current global food system must adapt to the expected growth of world population (about 9 billion individuals by 2050). This adaptation will probably include an increased consumption of edible wild foods, due to their richness in micronutrients and bioactive compounds, besides providing a cost-effective and sustainable way of improving caloric food security. A striking example of such natural matrices is the Quercus genus, which has the additional advantage of being widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In a traditional sense, Quercus fruits (acorns) were mainly used in animal feeding, despite their potentially important role on the rural economy. But this preconception is changing. In fact, their nutritional value, high contents in phytochemical compounds, biological activity (such as antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, and cardioprotective properties) and use in the treatment of specific diseases (such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, or Alzheimer's disease) have raised the interest in integrating acorns into the human diet. Accordingly, this comprehensive overview was designed to provide an evidence-based review of the literature, with the objective to achieve useful conclusions regarding the nutritional properties, methodologies of extraction, identification, and characterization of a wide variety of bioactive compounds and scientifically validated bioactivities in Quercus species worldwide. The industrial by-products from acorn oil extraction or flour production are also included. Data regarding the analytical techniques, individual compounds, and their bioactivities, are organized in tables. The reported data are discussed and directions for further investigations are suggested, highlighting the use of acorns in food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical applications.
- Biomarker discovery in human prostate cancer: an update in metabolomics studiesPublication . Lima, Ana Rita; Bastos, Maria de Lourdes; Carvalho, Márcia; Guedes de Pinho, PaulaProstate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in Western countries. Current screening techniques are based on the measurement of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels and digital rectal examination. A decisive diagnosis of PCa is based on prostate biopsies; however, this approach can lead to false-positive and false-negative results. Therefore, it is important to discover new biomarkers for the diagnosis of PCa, preferably noninvasive ones. Metabolomics is an approach that allows the analysis of the entire metabolic profile of a biological system. As neoplastic cells have a unique metabolic phenotype related to cancer development and progression, the identification of dysfunctional metabolic pathways using metabolomics can be used to discover cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets. In this study, we review several metabolomics studies performed in prostatic fluid, blood plasma/serum, urine, tissues and immortalized cultured cell lines with the objective of discovering alterations in the metabolic phenotype of PCa and thus discovering new biomarkers for the diagnosis of PCa. Encouraging results using metabolomics have been reported for PCa, with sarcosine being one of the most promising biomarkers identified to date. However, the use of sarcosine as a PCa biomarker in the clinic remains a controversial issue within the scientific community. Beyond sarcosine, other metabolites are considered to be biomarkers for PCa, but they still need clinical validation. Despite the lack of metabolomics biomarkers reaching clinical practice, metabolomics proved to be a powerful tool in the discovery of new biomarkers for PCa detection.