Erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp after aplasia cutis congenita in a 9‐year‐old patient: A 5‐year follow‐up

Erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp (EPDS) is a rare inflammatory skin disease that occurs mainly in elderly adults with a history of trauma to the scalp, but a few cases of EPDS in children have been reported. We report a rare case of EPDS after aplasia cutis congenita in a child.     

Sustainable production of biodiesel from microalgae by direct transesterification

This study addresses the question of the sustainable production of biodiesel (fatty acid ethyl esters) by direct transesterification from Chlorella sp. The lipid fractions from Chlorella sp. using chloroform: methanol, methanol, and ethanol were obtained and the acid value measurements were 39.4, 58.2, and 82.5 mg KOH/g, respectively. Following this, transesterification of algal lipid extraction and direct transesterification was undertaken in the presence of ethanol and the results were compared with those for methanol. Apart from the lower yield in extracted lipids obtained with ethanol, when ethanol was used for transesterification of the algal lipid extraction, surprisingly, similar yields of fatty acid ethyl esters and fatty acid methyl esters were obtained. Furthermore, direct transesterification from Chlorella sp. provided higher ethyl and methyl esters yields than was the case with the extraction–transesterification process. Ethanol, a renewable feedstock, is the most sustainable alternative, which, compared to methanol in direct transesterification, resulted in similar fatty acid methyl and ethyl ester yields (11.6% and 11.0%, respectively, in the same experimental conditions).     

Prognostic relationship of metabolic profile obtained of melanoma B16F10

Melanoma is a type of cancer that reaches more people in the world, characterized by genetic mutations that trigger the growth of disorganized cells. The diagnosis of skin tumors by invasive techniques has become a risk to the patients, so the search for new non-invasive techniques has been the subject of research in recent years. The objective of this work is to propose a non-invasive method prognosis based on the identification of specific biomarkers of the cancer, known as metabolomics analysis. For this study, we used B16F10 melanoma tumor cells and metabolic profiles were obtained at three time-periods by ¹H NMR and comparison with the cell cycle, apoptosis pathways and proliferation index. The metabolic profiles show the relationship between the metabolites found with energy metabolism, pathways of apoptosis and proliferation, which showed increases in proportion during growth and progression. Were found 29 metabolites, of which the differentially expressed are: lactate, aspartate, glycerol, lipids, alanine, myo-inositol, phosphocholine, choline, acetate, creatine and taurine. Choline and creatine are closely related with tumor progression, and are inversely expressed in later stages of tumor growth, which demonstrates the ability to be markers of tumor progression or monitoring the pharmacological efficacy when combined with other therapies. We conclude that the metabolome appeared as effective non-invasive technique predicts, besides providing possible biomarkers of melanoma.     

Preliminary assessment of the nutritional composition of underexploited wild legumes from semi-arid Caatinga and moist forest environments of northeastern Brazil

The seeds of 14 wild legume species from Brazil were analyzed to assess their potential as food. The seeds showed high levels of crude protein (10.9–50.0%), dietary fiber (0.8–52.3%) and energy (905–1804 kJ 100 g^?1), and the amino acid composition (mg g^?1 N) was comparable to that of soybeans, but with higher amounts of lysine (456–10,884) and histidine (199–918). The seeds showed lectin activity (20–2560 and 60–2560 HU g^?1 flour for untreated or treated erythrocytes, respectively) as well as trypsin inhibitory activity (4.06–27.35 μg TI mg^?1 flour), urease (225–23,895 U kg^?1 flour) and toxic activities (LD₅₀ 0.22–0.12 g kg^?1 body weight). Most of the minerals, as with edible legume seeds, were present in high levels when considering reference daily intake (RDI) and the nutrient content claims of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thus, these wild legume seeds can be promising alternatives sources of food to overcome malnutrition problems.