Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2025-02-01"
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- The senotherapeutic potential of phytochemicals for age-related intestinal diseasePublication . Costa, Célia Maria; Pedrosa, Sílvia Santos; Kirkland, James L; Reis, Flávio; Madureira, RaquelDuring the last few decades, life expectancy has increased worldwide along with the prevalence of several age-related diseases. Among aging pathways, cellular senescence and chronic inflammation (or “inflammaging”) appear to be connected to gut homeostasis and dysbiosis of the microbiome. Cellular senescence is a state of essentially irreversible cell cycle arrest that occurs in response to stress. Although senescent cells (SC) remain metabolically active, they do not proliferate and can secrete inflammatory and other factors comprising the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Accumulation of SCs has been linked to onset of several age-related diseases, in the brain, bones, the gastrointestinal tract, and other organs and tissues. The gut microbiome undergoes substantial changes with aging and is tightly interconnected with either successful (healthy) aging or disease. Senotherapeutic drugs are compounds that can clear senescent cells or modulate the release of SASP and hence attenuate the impact of the senescence-associated pro-inflammatory state. Phytochemicals, phenolic compounds and terpenes, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, could also be senotherapeutic given their ability to act upon senescence-linked cellular pathways. The aim of this review is to dissect links among the gut microbiome, cellular senescence, inflammaging, and disease, as well as to explore phytochemicals as potential senotherapeutics, focusing on their interactions with gut microbiota. Coordinated targeting of these inter-related processes might unveil new strategies for promoting healthy aging.
- Making sustainability tensions salient: changing information or people?Publication . Manzhynski, Siarhei; Figge, Frank; Thorpe, Andrea StevensonSustainability issues are associated with numerous tensions. These tensions are sometimes being referred to as wicked or even paradoxical. As long as tensions stay latent for organizational members, they will not be perceived and, thus, will not be adequately managed. The question of how tensions become salient is therefore of particular interest. Prior research suggests that contextual and cognitive factors render latent tensions salient and argues that advanced cognition is required to recognize sustainability tensions. In this paper, we show that developing cognition is only one possible strategy. We argue that information links a situation with actors' cognition and is therefore vital for rendering latent sustainability tensions salient. We show that simplifying information and making information more complex are two additional ways to recognize sustainability tensions. The situation–information–cognition (SIC) rule we develop in this article shows when and under which conditions the three strategies apply interchangeably or in combination.
- Recombinant bovine serum albumin domain II as bioreceptor for ochratoxin A capturePublication . Aguiar, Tatiana Q.; Leal, Tânia; Rodrigues, Diana G.; Abrunhosa, Luís; Oliveira, Carla; Domingues, LucíliaEstablished chromatographic techniques for mycotoxin control in foodstuffs require prior sample enrichment and clean-up, typically achieved using immunoaffinity columns (IACs). Bovine serum albumin (BSA) has recently emerged as a cost-effective alternative to antibodies used in IACs. This study aimed at exploring the BSA domain II (BDII), which houses the primary binding site for ochratoxin A (OTA), as a bioreceptor for OTA capture. Recombinant BDII (rBDII) was produced in soluble form by Escherichia coli Origami 2(DE3), fused to a His6 (HisBDII) or thioredoxin-His6 (TrxBDII) tag, with yields up to 19 ± 4.3 mg/Lculture in shake-flask. Fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy revealed interaction of OTA with both rBDII variants, with estimated binding constants for OTA-HisBDII/TrxBDII complexes in the range of 5.7–9.3 × 104 M−1. CD also showed an α/β structure of rBDII variants, in opposition to the predominant α-helical structure of whole BSA, and slight increase in their α-helical content upon binding to OTA. TrxBDII immobilized on Ni-NTA resin successfully captured OTA from spiked samples at the optimum pH range of 6.5–7.0, allowing OTA extraction, clean-up, and enrichment from spiked white grape juice, with up to 84 ± 7.4 % recovery.
- Are gritty leaders happier or unhappier? it depends on how prudent they arePublication . Rego, Arménio; Bluhm, Dustin J.; Valverde, Camilo; Cunha, Miguel Pina eGrit in leaders (and, in general, all employees) typically results in greater success and well-being but also has potential downsides. We propose that gritty leaders also need to be prudent or they may spend excessive time and resources at work, leading to greater work-to-family conflict and, as a result, lower well-being. Findings of two studies support this reasoning. Grittier and imprudent leaders experience greater work-to-family conflict and lower affective well-being, whereas grittier and prudent leaders experience lower work-to-family conflict and greater affective well-being. We therefore conclude that the agentic resource of grit in leaders may be either positively or negatively related to their affective well-being depending on their prudence. Considering that work-to-family conflict and affective well-being are important for the leader’s health and performance, which in turn may influence team/organizational performance, our study contributes to a better understanding of the routes leading to better leadership and team/organizational functioning.
- The power of a good word: enhancing the efficacy of analgesics in clinical settingsPublication . Treister, Roi; Cohen, Vered; Issa, Limor; Wiegler, Karine Beiruti; Izakson, Alexander; Agostinho, MarianaIntroduction: Communication between medical staff and patients about treatment efficacy elicits expectations of benefit and improves treatment outcomes. While demonstrated in multiple studies via different research methodologies, uniform communication protocols have not been adopted in clinical practice. Here, we summarize the results of two sister studies aimed at bridging this gap. Methods: Women undergoing C-section (study 1, randomized controlled trial) and patients undergoing general or otolaryngologic surgeries (study 2, control group design) were recruited and assigned to the “regular communication” (RC) or “enhanced communication” (EC) arms. The EC arm received positive information about treatment, while the RC arm received no such information. In both studies, the primary outcome was change in pain intensity; in study 2, an additional outcome was morphine consumption. Results: Eighty women successfully completed study 1, and 102 patients successfully completed study 2. In both studies, significant time*group interactions were observed (p < 0.001). The analgesic effect was virtually twice as large in the EC arm compared to the RC arm. In study 2, in the last two timepoints of assessment, participants in the EC arm also consumed fewer doses of opioids than participants in the RC arm (p < 0.001). No significant differences were found in vital signs. Conclusions: We provide ecological evidence that positive information about treatment significantly decreases pain and opioid consumption during routine clinical care. This study and others could encourage healthcare providers to harness the powerful effects of patients’ expectations of benefit to improve analgesics outcomes and, potentially, the outcomes of other symptoms.