Federal University of São Paulo

About: Federal University of São Paulo is a education organization based out in São Paulo, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 27971 authors who have published 49365 publications receiving 935536 citations. The organization is also known as: Universidade Federal de São Paulo & Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo.

Psychosocial interventions for cocaine and psychostimulant amphetamines related disorders

Abstract: Objective: To conduct a systematic review of all RCTs on psychosocial interventions for treating psychostimulant use disorder. Psychostimulants such as amphetamines and cocaine are used, at least in part, because of their effects on mood, cognition and behaviour. People who abuse or are dependent on them often have a long history of repeated periods of intoxication and of withdrawal and after long-term use they can develop a stereotyped behaviour, paranoia, and aggressive behaviour. Substance use disorders are a major public health problem with high costs for society including related health and relationship problems, absenteeism, loss of productivity and the costs of treatment. Yet knowledge about treatment interventions that impact on maintenance of abstinence remains a challenge. Trials on drug treatments for psychostimulants dependence have high levels of dropouts from the trials and psychosocial interventions may be promising treatments as long as they can help to keep patients in treatment and reduce the use of the psychostimulants. In this review, several comparisons were made of psychosocial treatments but most of them did not show statistically significant differences between interventions, so that the evidence currently available does not have data supporting a single psychosocial treatment approach. The review authors identified 27 randomised controlled studies involving 3663 participants who were dependent on cocaine (crack or intravenous) in all but one Australian trial where oral amphetamine was the psychostimulant used. The other trials took place in the US. The trials lasted from 12 weeks to 9 months and the mean age of participants was 33 years old (range 18 to 65 years). Overall, cognitive behavioural interventions reduced dropouts from treatment and use of cocaine when compared with drug counseling. Behavioural interventions also clearly performed better than clinical management (psychotherapy sessions attended), usual care (lower rates of cocaine users at 1 and 3 months), information and referral (non-attendance). A multimodal intensive intervention was more effective than non-intensive delivery and cognitive behavioural treatments with some form of contingency management (involving the incentive of vouchers that are exchangeable for retail items) also showed benefits. Many of the results come from single studies, which limits their generalizability. The interventions used were variable and different types of cognitive behavioural treatments had overlapping but distinct therapeutic approaches. Simple reduction in the amount of drug used or retention in treatment is not a measure of meaningful changes in lifestyle

Mitochondria in Ca2+ signaling and apoptosis.

Abstract: Cellular Ca2+ signals are crucial in the control of most physiological processes, cell injuryand programmed cell death; mitochondria play a pivotal role in the regulation of such cytosolicCa2+ ([Ca2+]c) signals Mitochondria are endowed with multiple Ca2+ transport mechanismsby which they take up and release Ca2+ across their inner membrane These transport processesfunction to regulate local and global [Ca2+]c, thereby regulating a number of Ca2+-sensitivecellular mechanisms The permeability transition pore (PTP) forms the major Ca2+ effluxpathway from mitochondria In addition, Ca2+ efflux from the mitochondrial matrix occursby the reversal of the uniporter and through the inner membrane Na+/Ca2+ exchanger Duringcellular Ca2+ overload, mitochondria take up [Ca2+]c, which, in turn, induces opening of PTP,disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) and cell death In apoptosis signaling,collapse of ΔΨ;m and cytochrome c release from mitochondria occur followed by activationof caspases, DNA fragmentation, and cell death Translocation of Bax, an apoptotic signalingprotein from the cytosol to the mitochondrial membrane, is another step during thisapoptosis-signaling pathway The role of permeability transition in the context of cell death in relationto Bcl-2 family of proteins is discussed

CD4+CD25+ T Cells in Skin Lesions of Patients with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Exhibit Phenotypic and Functional Characteristics of Natural Regulatory T Cells

Abstract: Endogenous regulatory T (Treg) cells are involved in the control of infections, including Leishmania infection in mice. Leishmania viannia braziliensis is the main etiologic agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Brazil, and it is also responsible for the more severe mucocutaneous form. Here, we investigated the possible involvement of Treg cells in the control of the immune response in human skin lesions caused by L. viannia braziliensis infection. We show that functional Treg cells can be found in skin lesions of patients with CL. These cells express phenotypic markers of Treg cells—such as CD25, cytotoxic T lymphocyte–associated antigen 4, Foxp3, and glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor—and are able to produce large amounts of interleukin-10 and transforming growth factor–b. Furthermore, CD4+CD25+ T cells derived from the skin lesions of 4 of 6 patients with CL significantly suppressed in vitro the phytohemagglutinin-inducedproliferative T cell responses of allogeneic peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy control subjects at a ratio of 1 Treg cell to 10 allogeneic PBMCs. These findings suggest that functional Treg cells accumulate at sites of Leishmania infection in humans and possibly contribute to the local control of effector T cell functions

Selection of suitable housekeeping genes for expression analysis in glioblastoma using quantitative RT-PCR.

Abstract: Considering the broad variation in the expression of housekeeping genes among tissues and experimental situations, studies using quantitative RT-PCR require strict definition of adequate endogenous controls. For glioblastoma, the most common type of tumor in the central nervous system, there was no previous report regarding this issue.