The cost of feeding represents the largest item in the production of animals of zootechnical interest, in this sense, recent research has focused on the use of alternative foods that can compete with conventional raw materials in quantity, quality and price. The objective of this work was to analyze scientific information on the current situation of the use of hydroponic green forage for feeding animals of zootechnical interest on a small and medium scale. The present investigation was exploratory and was based on an updated bibliographic compilation. The introduction of hydroponic green forage of sorghum, corn, wheat and barley in the diet of pigs, poultry, rabbits, guinea pigs, allows to reduce the cost of feeding, it is easy to produce, it is grown all year round, it requires little space, it presents high nutrient utilization coefficients. In addition, it allows to achieve a significant increase in the increase of weight, consumption, weight gain and feed conversion of the animals. The production of hydroponic green forage is an easy technique to apply and does not require a high initial investment for its implementation in the feeding systems for animals in small and medium scale farms.

Despite improvements in diagnosis and chemotherapy, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains one of the most common cancer and has the largest proportion of all cancer death rates today. Computational approaches have been widely applied for early detection of novel treatment for NSCLC. Herein we developed a multi-objective approach or the screening of chemical compounds simultaneously active against three NSCLC cell lines: A549, NCI-H1299 and NCI-H1975. The first step consisted of developing ensemble models based on cytotoxicity data against three NSCLC cell lines curated from ChEMBL database. A desirable-based algorithm was then applied to incorporate these models into a multi-objective optimization system that can be used for virtual screening protocol. This system showed suitable screening performance with the Boltzmann-Enhanced Discrimination of ROC BEDROC = 0.62, the Enrichment Factor (EF)_1% = 30 and the Area Under the Accumulation Curve (AUAC) = 0.69

Predicting genes which may associate with disease is one of the important goals of biomedical research. There have been many computational methods developed to rank genes involved in a particular disease. However, due to the complex relationship between genes and the diseases, many genes that cause genetic diseases have not yet been discovered. The problem of ranking genes to identify the disease-associated gene has drawn attention of many researchers. The Genomic Data Commons (GDC) Data Portal is a platform that contains different cancer genomic studies. Such platforms have often the primary focus on the data storage and they do not provide a comprehensive toolkit for analyses. In this study, we used the new functions of the R/Bioconductor TCGAbiolinks package to search and analyze differentially expressed genes between breast cancer samples with primary solid tumors (TP) and solid tissue normal (NT) samples to retrieve list of 100 high-ranking genes associated with breast cancer.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of gefitinib plus chemotherapy (GCP) versus gefitinib alone for advanced non–small-cell lung (NSCLC) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in China.

Methods: A decision-analytic Markov model was conducted to simulate the disease process of advanced NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations. Three distinct health states: progression-free survival (PFS), progressive disease (PD) and death were included. Clinical data were derived from the NEJ009 Study. The cost was evaluated from the perspective of the Chinese society. Quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) were calculated over a 10-year lifetime horizon. One-way sensitivity analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were also performed to explore the uncertainty of parameters in the study.

Results: The base case analysis demonstrated that gefitinib plus chemotherapy gained 2.44 QALYs at an average cost of $59,571.34, while the effectiveness and cost of gefitinib group were 1.82 QALYs and $52,492.75, respectively. The ICER for gefitinib plus chemotherapy was $11,499.98 per QALY gained. The ICER was lower than the accepted willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold, which was three times gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of China ($31,498.70 per QALY). Variation of parameters did not reversal the cost-effectiveness of gefitinib plus chemotherapy through univariable and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.

Conclusion: Our results showed that gefitinib plus chemotherapy is a cost-effective treatment option compared with gefitinib for advanced NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations in China.

^Background

Newer antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), such as Levetiracetam (LEV), Lacosamide(LCM), Topiramate(TPM), Gabapentin(GBP), Oxcarbazepine(OXA), Lamotrigine(LTG) and Zonisamide(ZNS), are prescribed frequently for epilepsy by physicians. Simultaneously, they are known to be associated with a series of eye disorders. But very few studies have systemically compared eye disorders of newer AEDs in a large sample of patients diagnosed with epilepsy.

^Objective

The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between eye disorders and several newer antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), including LEV, LTG, TPM, GBP, OXA, LCM, ZNS, as well as to look for differences in the frequency of AEs across individual AEDs, by data-mining a self-reporting database, the FDA Adverse Event Report System (FAERS).

^Methods

The definition relied on system organ class (SOCs) and preferred terms (PTs) by the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA). Disproportionality analysis was used to detect the risk signals from the data in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adverse event reporting system database (FAERS). The reporting odds ratio (ROR), the proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and χ2 (chi-square) were calculated to assess the association between adverse events (AEs) and AEDs use.

^Results

FAERS reports of 158095 cases from January 1, 2015 to September 30, 2020 were included in this study. AEDs were associated with a series of eye related adverse events (AEs) defined by 106 Preferred Terms, which could be classified into ten aspects：Anterior eye structural change, deposit and degeneration, Glaucoma and ocular hypertension, Ocular haemorrhages and vascular disorders NEC (Not Elsewhere Classified), Ocular infections, irritations and inflammations, Ocular neuromuscular disorders, Ocular sensory symptoms NEC, Ocular structural change, deposit and degeneration NEC, Retina, choroid and vitreous haemorrhages and vascular disorders, Vision disorders, Eye disorders NEC.

^Conclusion

Eye disorders occupy a certain proportion compared with other AEs associated with AEDs. There is variation in the types and severity of eye related AEs across individual AEDs. Generally, TPM and LTG are more likely to cause either mild or serious eye-related AEs. Patients with ophthalmic diseases should avoid using TPM and LTG. By contrast, LCM rarely has any severe eye related AEs, only diplopia and metamorphopsia are significant. LEV tend to produce ocular neuromuscular disorders related AEs. The adverse effects to macula induced by GBP should be taken into consideration during the clinic practice. ZNS appears to be heavily associated with choroidal effusion and angle closure glaucoma. OXA is mainly associated with lid lag and several cornea-related AEs.

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 responsible for COVID-19, for which there is no vaccine or any known effective treatment created a sense of urgency for novel drug discovery approaches. One of the most important COVID-19 protein targets is the 3C-like (main) protease for which the crystal structure is known. In this study, we used QSAR methodology to identify compounds with potential inhibition activity for 3C-like protease. First we collect a large dataset of compounds, with experimental report of inhibition against SARS-CoV main protease, to develop a model using QSARIN software, with appropriate parameters for its fitting. The model is extensively validated according to OECD standards, so that its robustness, stability, low correlation of descriptors and good predictive power are proven. This model is employed for the virtual screening of the Drug Bank database and several compounds were identified as potential 3C-like protease inhibitors.

Some flowering plants biosynthesize peptides known as cyclotides. These peptides present a peculiar cyclic structure with a molecular weight range of 2.8 to 3.7 kDa. They are characterized by a head-to-tail cyclized backbone, which is stabilized by three disulfide bonds forming a cyclic cystine knot (CCK) motif. This structural topology allows remarkable stability, with exceptional resistance to thermal, chemical, or enzymatic degradation. The structural features confer to these "mini-proteins" several biological properties, which have attracted attention from both the scientific community and the pharmaceutical industry. In Brazil, the research focus on this class of natural products is under-exploited. Although this country gathers one of the largest biodiversity in the world, being an ideal ‘playground’ for phytochemists to discover peptides from plants, there are only a few studies reporting cyclotides from Brazilian plants. The relative lack of study of cyclotides in Brazilian plants probably reflects an earlier focus among Brazilian researchers on nonpeptidic natural products. It is estimated that Violaceae and Rubiaceae plants could exhibit >150,000 individual cyclotides.Thus, this work aims to present an overview of Brazilian studies focusing on cyclotides, their sequence diversities and reported activities.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTD) are a group of parasitic and bacterial diseases that affect thousands of people, mainly the population living in poverty, being neglected by pharmaceutical companies. Among these, Chagas disease affects approximately 6 million to 7 million people worldwide, with 75 million at risk of infection, which is considered a serious public health question. Despite alarming estimates, only the drugs nifurtimox and benznidazole are approved for the treatment, although they have severe side effects, justifying the efforts of medicinal chemistry to discover new analogs. Thus, this work aimed to perform a virtual screening using a covalent docking and MM-PBSA protocol in an FDA-approved drugs library dataset to search for new compounds useful against this disease. Initially, 1615 FDA-approved compounds were visually inspected for the presence of chemical groups reactive against cruzain reactive cysteine ​​(Cys²⁵), followed by the choice of the most suitable 3D structure for the virtual protocols. Thus, 241 compounds were selected and the covalent docking assays were performed using the GOLD^® software with the most appropriate 3D structure, and the compounds with a fit score covalent greater than 100, were selected to the MM-PBSA calculations, aiming to validate the screening results. Finally, the drugs neratinib, sacubitril, alprostadil, trandolapril, and florbetapir showed a covalent fit score between 102.14 and 116.59; ΔG_binding values ​​between -72.851 and -148,811 Kcal/mol calculated by MM-PBSA; and interactions with the key residues of the cruzain (Cys²⁵, His¹⁵⁹, Gly²³, and Gly⁶⁵), showing best values than other cruzain inhibitors experimentally assayed. Our findings suggest that these drugs may be possible cruzain inhibitors, and biological assays should be performed to confirm their potential.

Dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika are diseases caused by the species Aedes aegypti belonging to the Culicidae family, also popularly known as the dengue mosquito and which are of great importance due to their impact on the world and in particular in Brazil, which presents annual epidemics. Over the years, ways to eliminate the vector have been sought, in order to prevent its dissemination, but these ended up causing several problems over the years, such as environmental pollution and resistance due to the incorrect use of chemical and biological insecticides. There is an evident need for other substances that have insecticidal characteristics, but that do not harm biodiversity. Due to this, insecticidal effects of the extract of Humulus lupulus and its main components, such as xanthohumol, obtained through dilution in ethyl and methanolic acetate and the beer residue extracted through methanol were investigated as potential larvicides against the mosquito Ae. aegypti. The evaluation of larvicidal effect against Ae. aegypti was made here at concentrations 1.0 mg/mL, 0.8 mg/mL, 0.6 mg/mL, 0.4 mg/mL, 0.2 mg/mL and 0.1 mg/mL and evaluated for during 24 hours after the beginning of the experiment. Regarding the extract obtained from beer residue diluted in methanol and ethyl acetate, it was observed that there was no relevant mortality in Ae. aegypti. The methanol and ethyl acetate extract of H. lupulus and the beer residue showing larvicidal activity against the species Ae. aegypti. In the second part of this communication we are going to evaluate the environmental safety/toxicity.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito belongs to the order Diptera and is one of the main vectors of transmission of etiological agents that cause several diseases. This mosquito can transmit diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, Zika, chikungunya, among others. The aim of this study was combining structure-based and ligand-based virtual screening (VS) techniques to select potentially larvicidal active molecules against Ae. aegypti from in-house secondary metabolite dataset (SistematX). From the ChEMBL database, we selected a set of 161 chemical structures with larvicidal activity against Ae. aegypti to create random forest models with an accuracy value higher than 82% for cross-validation and test sets. Afterward, the ligand-based virtual screen selected 38 secondary metabolites . In addition, a structure-based virtual screening was also performed for the 38 molecules selected. Finally, using consensus analyzes approach combining ligand-based and structure-based VS, five molecules were selected as potential larvicidal against Ae. aegypti.