REGINA MAIA DE SOUZA
Projetos de Pesquisa
Unidades Organizacionais
LIM/46 - Laboratório de Parasitologia Médica, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina
2 resultados
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- Performance of a qualitative rapid chromatographic immunoassay to diagnose COVID-19 in patients in a middle-income country(2020) COSTA, Silvia Figueiredo; BUSS, Lewis; ESPINOZA, Evelyn Patricia Sanchez; JR, Jose Mauro Vieira; SILVA, Lea Campos de Oliveira da; SOUZA, Regina Maia de; NETO, Lauro Perdigao; PORTO, Ana Paula Matos; LAZARI, Carolina; SANTOS, Vera Aparecida dos; DUARTE, Alberto da Silva; NASTRI, Ana Catharina; LEITE, Gabriel Fialkovitz da Costa; MANULI, Erika; OLIVEIRA, Maura Salaroli de; ZAMPELLI, Daniella Bosco; PASTORE JUNIOR, Laerte; SEGURADO, Aluisio Cotrim; LEVIN, Anna S.; SABINO, EsterObjectives: We evaluated a rapid chromatographic immunoassay (IgG/IgM antibodies) and an ELISA assay to diagnose COVID-19 in patient sat two Brazilian hospitals. Methods: A total of 122 subjects with COVID-19 were included: 106 SARS-COV-2 RT-PCR-positive patients and 16 RT-PCR-negative patients with symptoms and chest computed tomography (CT) consistent with COVID-19. Ninety-six historical blood donation samples were used as controls. Demographic and clinical characteristics were retrieved from electronic records. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated, as were their 95% binomial confidence intervals using the Clopper-Pearson method. All analyses were performed in R version 3.6.3. Results: The sensitivity of the chromatographic immunoassay in all RT-PCR-positive patients, irrespective of the timing of symptom onset, was 85.8% (95% binomial CI 77.7% to 91.9%). This increased with time after symptom onset, and at >14 days was 94.9% (85.9% to 98.9%). The specificity was 100% (96.4% to 100%). 15/16 (94%) RT- PCR-negative cases tested positive. The most frequent comorbidities were hypertension and diabetes mellitus and the most frequent symptoms were fever, cough, and dyspnea. All RT-PCR-negative patients had pneumonia. The most frequent thoracic CT findings were ground glass changes (n = 11, 68%), which were bilateral in 9 (56%) patients, and diffuse reticulonodular infiltrates (n = 5, 31%). Conclusions: The COVID-19 rapid chromatographic immunoassay evaluated in this study had a high sensitivity and specificity using plasma, particularly after 14 days from symptom onset. ELISA and qualitative rapid chromatographic immunoassays can be used for the diagnosis of RT-PCR-negative patients.
- Lipid nanoparticles for amphotericin delivery in the treatment of American tegumentary leishmaniasis(2020) SOUZA, Regina Maia de; MARANHAO, Raul Cavalcante; TAVARES, Elaine Rufo; FILIPPIN-MONTEIRO, Fabiola Branco; NICODEMO, Antonio Carlos; MORIKAWA, Aleksandra Tiemi; KANASHIRO, Edite Hatsumi Yamashiro; AMATO, Valdir SabbagaLeishmaniasis occurs in the five continents and represents a serious public health challenge, but is still a neglected disease, and the current pharmacological weaponry is far from satisfactory. Triglyceride-rich nanoparticles mimicking chylomicrons (TGNP) behave metabolically like native chylomicrons when injected into the bloodstream. Previously we have shown that TGNP as vehicle to amphothericin B (AB) for treatment of fungi infection showed reduced renal toxicity and lower animal death rates compared to conventional AB. The aim of the current study was to test the tolerability and effectiveness of the TGNP-AB preparation in a murine model of Leishmania amazonensis infection. The in vitro assays determined the cytotoxicity of TGNP-AB, AB, and TGNP in macrophages and promastigote forms and the leishmanicidal activity in infected macrophages. The in vivo toxicity tests were performed in healthy mice with increasing doses of TGPN-AB and AB. Then, animals were treated with 2.5 mg/kg/day of AB, 17.5 mg/kg/day of TGNP-AB, or TGNP three times a week for 4 weeks. TGNP-AB formulation was less cytotoxic for macrophages than AB. TGNP-AB was more effective than AB against the promastigotes forms of the parasite and more effective in reducing the number of infected macrophages and the number of amastigotes forms per cell. TGNP-AB-treated animals showed lower hepatotoxicity. In addition, TGNP-AB group showed a marked reduction in lesion size on the paws and parasitic load. The TGNP-AB preparation attained excellent leishmanicidal activity with remarkable lower drug toxicity at very high doses that, due to the toxicity-buffering properties of the nanocarrier, become fully tolerable.