National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge
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Integrated Use of Bioaccumulation, Genotoxic, and Haematological Endpoints to Assess the Effect of Water Remediation Strategies on Fish Health: A Complementary Study
Get PDF(This article belongs to the Section Water Quality and Contamination)Biosorption successfully remediates saline water contaminated with legacy contaminants, but its effects on the health of marine organisms remain unclear. Therefore, our aim was to address this knowledge gap with data on the accumulation ability, as well as the cytogenetic and biochemical effects in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus). To this end, we exposed turbot for seven days to a mixture of remediated metals (Rem treatments: Cd, Hg, and Pb), with and without the presence of nanoparticles (NP), and compared them with the maximum allowable concentrations (MAC treatment) for effluent discharges. We determined the metal accumulation in the blood and kidney and evaluated haematological changes (red blood cell count, haemoglobin, and mean cell haemoglobin (MCH)) and genotoxicity (erythrocytic nuclear abnormalities assay) in the blood. The results showed that remediation with non-living macroalgae significantly reduced the metallic blood and kidney burdens in the Rem treatments. Furthermore, no genotoxic potential occurred in the Rem and MAC treatments in parallel with the reduction in MCH levels in the Rem treatments, which would reflect hematopoietic disturbances in the MAC. Our results validate biosorption remediation as we achieved a considerable reduction in metal loads while maintaining the health status of fish, highlighting the importance of testing water remediation methods in the biota.This research was funded by RemAS—Magnetic nanoparticle and biowaste-based strategies for remediation of salt water under multi-stressor conditions (inorganic and emerging pollutants): evaluation of ecological and human risk PTDC/MAR-BIO/3533/2012 -FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029345, supported by FCT/MEC through national funds, and co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, I.P.) also funded individual grants/contracts and institutional strategic projects as follows: P. Figueira (SFRH/BD/139077/2018), A.T. Reis (SFRH/BPD/122112/2016), C.B. Lopes (CEECIND/03739/2021), J.P. Coelho (CEECIND/01778/2020), C.L. Mieiro and F. Martinho (DL57/2016), CESAM Strategic Project UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020+LA/P/0094/2020, CFE Strategic Project UIDB/04004/2020 and project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020, UIDP/50011/2020 and LA/P/0006/2020, financed by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
ReporTree: a surveillance-oriented tool to strengthen the linkage between pathogen genetic clusters and epidemiological data
Get PDFBackground: Genomics-informed pathogen surveillance strengthens public health decision-making, playing an important role in infectious diseases' prevention and control. A pivotal outcome of genomics surveillance is the identification of pathogen genetic clusters and their characterization in terms of geotemporal spread or linkage to clinical and demographic data. This task often consists of the visual exploration of (large) phylogenetic trees and associated metadata, being time-consuming and difficult to reproduce.
Results: We developed ReporTree, a flexible bioinformatics pipeline that allows diving into the complexity of pathogen diversity to rapidly identify genetic clusters at any (or all) distance threshold(s) or cluster stability regions and to generate surveillance-oriented reports based on the available metadata, such as timespan, geography, or vaccination/clinical status. ReporTree is able to maintain cluster nomenclature in subsequent analyses and to generate a nomenclature code combining cluster information at different hierarchical levels, thus facilitating the active surveillance of clusters of interest. By handling several input formats and clustering methods, ReporTree is applicable to multiple pathogens, constituting a flexible resource that can be smoothly deployed in routine surveillance bioinformatics workflows with negligible computational and time costs. This is demonstrated through a comprehensive benchmarking of (i) the cg/wgMLST workflow with large datasets of four foodborne bacterial pathogens and (ii) the alignment-based SNP workflow with a large dataset of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. To further validate this tool, we reproduced a previous large-scale study on Neisseria gonorrhoeae, demonstrating how ReporTree is able to rapidly identify the main species genogroups and characterize them with key surveillance metadata, such as antibiotic resistance data. By providing examples for SARS-CoV-2 and the foodborne bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, we show how this tool is currently a useful asset in genomics-informed routine surveillance and outbreak detection of a wide variety of species.
Conclusions: In summary, ReporTree is a pan-pathogen tool for automated and reproducible identification and characterization of genetic clusters that contributes to a sustainable and efficient public health genomics-informed pathogen surveillance. ReporTree is implemented in python 3.8 and is freely available at https://github.com/insapathogenomics/ReporTree .Funding: This work was supported by funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under grant agreement No 773830: One Health European Joint Programme (2020–2022) and by national funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., in the frame of Individual CEEC 2022.00851.CEECIND/CP1748/CT0001 (2023 onwards).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Efetividade das Vacinas contra COVID-19 nos Militares da Marinha Portuguesa
Get PDFAutores: Equipa do Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge: Ausenda Machado, Irina Kislaya, Verónica Gómez. Equipa da Marinha Portuguesa: CFR EN-AEL Pedro Luís Araújo Costa; CTEN MN Sílvia Silva; CTEN TSN-EIO Rui Gonçalves Deus; 2TEN TS Luís Miguel Nunes Ramos; 2TEN MN Ludovico Emanuel Ferreira e Ferreira; STEN TSN (EIO) Laura Pinguicha Ferreira; ASPOF TN (EIO) Inês Coelho.Enquadramento e objetivos: No âmbito da campanha de vacinação para controlar a pandemia da COVID-19, importou medir o efeito da vacinação contra a COVID-19, em condições reais. Os Militares da Marinha Portuguesa, devido às suas funções de defesa e apoio à população no âmbito da pandemia, foram considerados população em elevado risco de exposição, tendo sido elegíveis para vacinação a partir de dezembro de 2020. A toma da dose de reforço teve início em novembro de 2021.
Através de dados de registos eletrónicos de saúde da Marinha Portuguesa, este estudo pretendeu estimar a efetividade da vacina contra a infeção por SARS-CoV-2 confirmada laboratorialmente, globalmente e por tempo desde conclusão do esquema primário de vacinação e dose de reforço, nos Militares da Marinha Portuguesa.
Métodos: Foi estabelecida uma coorte retrospetiva com a duração de 20 meses (dezembro de 2020 a junho de 2022), de militares no ativo e da reserva da Marinha Portuguesa, elegíveis para vacinação contra COVID-19 que consentiram participar neste estudo. O convite foi feito por e-mail e o consentimento foi obtido para ligar dados eletrónicos de saúde e de vacinação dos registos da Marinha Portuguesa.
O estado vacinal foi definido como parâmetro variável no tempo e os participantes foram considerados como vacinados com vacinação primária completa se receberam uma dose de Janssen ou duas doses de qualquer combinação de Comirnaty, Moderna ou Astrazeneca, há pelo menos 14 dias. A toma de dose de reforço foi, também, considerada.
Foi utilizada a regressão de Cox com dependência temporal para cada outcome e grupo em análise. A efetividade foi estimada através de 100%*(1-hazard ratio), ajustada para idade, sexo e presença de doença crónica.
Resultados: Um total de 860 militares da Marinha Portuguesa aceitou participar no estudo. Destes, 83,6% eram do sexo masculino, com idade compreendida entre os 21 e os 63 anos de idade, sendo que 31,6% tinham pelo menos uma doença crónica.
De entre os militares vacinados, 38,7% foram inoculados com a vacina Comirnaty, 33,0% com AstraZeneca, 24,5% com Janssen e 3,8% com Moderna.
A efetividade geral do esquema de vacinação primária completo foi de 54,0% (-5,7 a 79,9) após 14 dias da toma da última dose. Esta estimativa foi de 73% (16,5 a 90,1), 14 a 97 dias após a conclusão do esquema de vacinação primário e um efeito decrescente foi observado entre 98 a 181 dias e 182+ dias após conclusão de esquema de vacinação primária: 47,6% (-43,5 a 80,9) e 37,8% (-60,4 a 75,9), respetivamente. A efetividade geral, 14 dias após esquema primário completo e dose de reforço foi de 21,4% (-84,7 a 66,5).
Conclusão: Em relação às estimativas globais da efetividade da vacina contra SARS-CoV-2 confirmado laboratorialmente, de acordo com o tempo desde a vacinação completa, observamos um efeito decrescente, semelhante à população em geral. Esses resultados devem ser interpretados com cautela dada a alta incerteza das estimativas.info:eu-repo/semantics/draf
Infográfico - COSI/COVID-19 Portugal 2022
Get PDFO INSA, coordena desde 2008 o sistema de vigilância nutricional infantil – COSI Portugal. Este sistema,
integrado na rede europeia da OMS, efetua a vigilância e monitorização do estado nutricional infantil
a cada 3 anos. O COSI Portugal 2022 incluiu, excecionalmente, o estudo COSI/COVID-19 para avaliar o
impacto da pandemia nos comportamentos associados ao estilo de vida de crianças em idade escolarinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Synergistic, additive or antagonistic effects evaluation for vitamin C content of mixtures of fruits and vegetables
No full textFruits and vegetables are considered healthy foods because they are a good source of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. These groups of foods are the major sources of vitamin C in the diet, especially when they are consumed fresh. Low consumption of fruits and vegetables is among the top ten risk factors that contribute to global mortality.
In this study 5 ingredients (spinach, carrot, apple, orange and kiwi) and 19 mixtures, were evaluated concerning vitamin C content, to estimate the potential additive, synergistic or antagonistic effects of their mixture.
In 2022, the ingredients were collected from the major supermarket chains in Lisbon. Then, Design Expert software was used to define the composition of the mixtures. Total vitamin C, dehydroascorbic and ascorbic acids contents of the 5 ingredients, plus 19 mixtures, were determined by liquid chromatography coupled to photodiode array detection.
Kiwi and orange were the ingredients with the highest vitamin C content, with 51.3 and 24.5 mg/100 g, respectively. These samples were also the ones with the highest ascorbic acid content, representing more than 90% of their vitamin C. For mixtures, total vitamin C ranged from 2.21 and 27.4 mg/100 g. However, 47% of the mixtures only have dehydroascorbic acid. For 79% of the mixtures, antagonistic effects were observed, meaning that the determined value was lower than the predicted value.
Our findings suggest that the mixture of the ingredients decreases the ascorbic acid availability in comparison with the ingredients. A portion (160 g) of kiwi can contribute with
91% and 103% of the daily reference intake for vitamin C for adult men and women, respectively. Regarding the mixtures, it would be necessary to ingest more than 300 g to meet the recommended needs, indicating that the mixture of these ingredients should be rethought.This work was financially supported by INSA, I.P., under the project TradFRUIT (2012DAN668) and by European Union (FEDER funds through COMPETE), under the Partnership Agreement PT2020, and National Funds (FCT, Foundation for Science and Technology) through projects UIDB/50006/2020 and by AgriFood XXI I&D&I project (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000041) co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional Regional do Norte 2014/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Thermal Contaminants in Coffee Induced by Roasting: A Review
Get PDFReview(This article belongs to the Special Issue Processed Food: Nutrition, Safety and Public Health)Roasting is responsible for imparting the main characteristics to coffee, but the high temperatures used in the process can lead to the formation of several potentially toxic substances. Among them, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, acrylamide, furan and its derivative compounds, α-dicarbonyls and advanced glycation end products, 4-methylimidazole, and chloropropanols stand out. The objective of this review is to present a current and comprehensive overview of the chemical contaminants formed during coffee roasting, including a discussion of mitigation strategies reported in the literature to decrease the concentration of these toxicants. Although the formation of the contaminants occurs during the roasting step, knowledge of the coffee production chain as a whole is important to understand the main variables that will impact their concentrations in the different coffee products. The precursors and routes of formation are generally different for each contaminant, and the formed concentrations can be quite high for some substances. In addition, the study highlights several mitigation strategies related to decreasing the concentration of precursors, modifying process conditions and eliminating/degrading the formed contaminant. Many of these strategies show promising results, but there are still challenges to be overcome, since little information is available about advantages and disadvantages in relation to aspects such as costs, potential for application on an industrial scale and impacts on sensory properties.This research was funded by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) (Finance code 0010).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Develop methodology for quality evaluation data from national FCDBs – Task 1.2, update D1.2
No full textAbout TASK 1.2 - To develop an approach to evaluate quality of national FCDBs.European Food Safety Authority (EFSA): NP/EFSA/IDATA/2022/01info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Generation and validation of a classification model to diagnose familial hypercholesterolaemia in adults
No full textBackground and aims: The early diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia is associated with a significant
reduction in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. While the recent use of statistical and machine learning algorithms
has shown promising results in comparison with traditional clinical criteria, when applied to screening of
potential FH cases in large cohorts, most studies in this field are developed using a single cohort of patients,
which may hamper the application of such algorithms to other populations. In the current study, a logistic
regression (LR) based algorithm was developed combining observations from three different national FH cohorts,
from Portugal, Brazil and Sweden. Independent samples from these cohorts were then used to test the model, as
well as an external dataset from Italy.
Methods: The area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) and precision-recall (AUPRC) curves
was used to assess the discriminatory ability among the different samples. Comparisons between the LR model
and Dutch Lipid Clinic Network (DLCN) clinical criteria were performed by means of McNemar tests, and by the
calculation of several operating characteristics.
Results: AUROC and AUPRC values were generally higher for all testing sets when compared to the training set.
Compared with DLCN criteria, a significantly higher number of correctly classified observations were identified
for the Brazilian (p < 0.01), Swedish (p < 0.01), and Italian testing sets (p < 0.01). Higher accuracy (Acc), G
mean and F1 score values were also observed for all testing sets.
Conclusions: Compared to DLCN criteria, the LR model revealed improved ability to correctly classify observations,
and was able to retain a similar number of FH cases, with less false positive retention. Generalization of the
LR model was very good across all testing samples, suggesting it can be an effective screening tool if applied to
different populations.Highlights: Early diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia is associated with a significant reduction in cardiovascular disease risk; The development of a multi-cohort classification model can allow for better generalization of results; Compared to traditional clinical criteria, accuracy was higher with the developed classification model; Furthermore, sensitivity is not compromised with this model.The current work was supported by the programme Norte2020
(operação NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000018) and by Fundação para a
Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), under the projects UID/MAT/00006/2019 and PTDC/SAU-SER/29180/2017.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Vigilância do vírus sincicial respiratório em Portugal - VigiRSV
Get PDFEste trabalho descreve os principais resultados da vigilância das infeções por VSR em Portugal na época 2022/23.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Effects of aflatoxin B1 on intestinal cell integrity and morphology
Get PDFOs autores agradecem à FCT/MCTES pelo financiamento com fundos
nacionais relativos ao projeto earlyMYCO (PTDC/MED-TOX/28762/2017) e
ao CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 +UIDB/50017/2020+LA/P/0094/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio