Alberto C P Dias

University of Minho · Department of Biology

Osteoarthritis (OA) persistently activates nociceptors, leading to chronic pain, which is often accompanied by the comorbid development of emotional impairments (anxiety and depression), an effect associated with microgliosis. Baccharis dracunculifolia DC (Asteraceae), a Brazilian edible plant, is an important source of active compounds with anti-i...

Chicken single-chain fragment variable (IgY-scFv) is a functional fragment and an emerging development in genetically engineered antibodies with a wide range of biomedical applications. However, scFvs have considerably shorter serum half-life due to the absence of antibody Fc region compared with the full-length antibody, and usually requires conti...

Main conclusion After bud burst, a transcriptional reprogramming of the shikimate and phenylpropanoid pathways occurs in grapevine canes resulting in the accumulation of stilbenoids like resveratrol and viniferin. Abstract Stilbenoids are phenylpropanoid compounds with important biological properties and biotechnological applications that are synt...

Simple Summary This study systematically reviewed the literature on the bioactivities and phytochemical profile of Genista tridentata (L.) Willk, which is an edible plant used in folk medicine. Four databases (PubMed, GoogleScholar, Repositórios Cientificos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP), and ScienceDirect) were searched from inception up to...

Our current work involves developing a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that utilizes biotinylated long-chain o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride (Bio-lc-OPD·2 HCl) as a bifunctional ligand for highly selective and ultra-sensitive quantitative analysis of selenium (Se) in food samples. The approach has successfully achieved a remar...

Oilseed cakes (OC) are natural sources of lignocellulosic biomass, produced every year in large amounts. In addition to their main applications as animal feed, plant or soil fertilizer, and compost, they present enormous potential for being used in biotechnological processes for the obtainment and extraction of valuable bioactive compounds. This wo...

Pterospartum tridendatum is an important source of active compounds with anti-inflammatory properties. The ability of P. tridentatum leaves methanolic extract in preventing/reversing inflammation was studied in adult rats using a model of experimental osteoarthritis (OA) and ear edema. Control animals (SHAM) were administered phosphate buffer solut...

Oilseed cakes (OC) present high potential as feedstock for the biobased industry. Biotechnological processes allow OC valorization by the production of diverse value-added products and simultaneously altering OC structure, improving their nutritional value, and boosting OC utilization in animal feed. This work explored the use of fungi consortium o...

The use of Opuntia ficus-indica fruits in the agro-food sector is increasing for a multiplicity of players. This renewed interest is, in part, due to its organoleptic characteristics, nutritional value and health benefits. Furthermore, industries from different sectors intend to make use of its vast array of metabolites to be used in different fiel...

The investigation on plants that are both medicinal and edible is rooted in different ethno-medicinal systems (Yao et al.) Emerging diseases and health issues, lifestyle and diet changes urge us in seeking novel bioactive substances and formulations from plant sources (Sofowora et al., 2013; Xia et al., 2021). Related study requires interdisciplina...

This study aimed to investigate the changes in chemical composition content, and biological activity of Cornus officinalis before and after simulated digestion in vitro. The results showed that the iridoid glycosides in C. officinalis were less stable than phenols in the gastrointestinal digestion stage. After colonic fermentation simulation, irido...

Environmental concerns about human health encouraged increasing methodological interest in selenium (Se), which is an essential non-metal trace element and varies within a narrow concentration range between essential and toxic. In this study, two types of long-armed Se haptens (Se-hapten-lc-NHS) were synthesized for the first time using active este...

Background: Hypericum perforatum (HP) is currently one of the most consumed medicinal plants in the world. In traditional Chinese medicine, the herb hypericum (Guan Ye Lian Qiao) belongs to the group of plants that clarify heat. It is also used to treat various types of infection and inflammation. In contrast to the extensive literature on the ant...

The link between oxidative stress and environmental factors plays an important role in chronic degenerative diseases; therefore, exogenous antioxidants could be an effective alternative to combat disease progression and/or most significant symptoms. Curcuma longa L. (CL), commonly known as turmeric, is mostly composed of curcumin, a multivalent mol...

Sunflower (SFC), rapeseed (RSC), and soybean cakes (SBC) are examples of oilseed cakes (OC) used in animal feed. Bioprocessing of these OC by solid‐state fermentation (SSF) aims to boost OC applications in feed and other industries by reducing antinutritional factors and releasing enzymes and antioxidants. A simplex centroid design was performed to...

Depression and anxiety are common symptoms during and after adjuvant chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer (BC), with implications on quality of life (QoL). The present study evaluates the temporal relationship between anxiety, depression, and QoL (primary outcomes), as well as the impact of hedonic aroma (essential oils) on this relationship. T...

Goji berries have several bioactivities and are consumed as food or used in folk medicine. In this study, the methanolic extracts from red and black goji berries were compared regarding their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. Black goji berries extract has revealed significantly higher anti-inflammatory activity, in either biochemical a...

Sunset yellow (SY) is widely used as food colorant. Excess and illegal use of SY could pose potential health risk. Quantum dots have been successfully used in biological research due to the high photoluminescence and high resistance to photobleaching. To analyze SY efficiently, quantum dot-linked immunosorbent assay (QLISA) and enzyme-linked immuno...

Syzygium malaccense is popularly used to treat inflammation and pain-related ailments. The species was assessed regarding its antioxidant, antiglycant, anti-inflammatory, including anti-neuroinflammatory, and antinociceptive activities. Different models were employed to measure S. malaccense extract (ESM) antioxidant activity. The antiglycant activ...

The growth location and plant variety may influence the active components and biological activities of plants used in phytomedicine. In this study, nine sets of different Epimedii Folium, from different representative cultivation locations and Epimedium species, were collected for comparison, using HPLC-DAD combined with multivariate analysis. The...

BACKGROUND Vegetable oils are yearly produced in large amounts generating solid by‐products, the oilseed cake (OC). OCs are lignocellulosic materials that have been used for animal feed with some limitations due to high fibre content from the plant cell walls. Biotechnological processes can help to overcome these limitations and contribute to up‐gr...

Hypericum perforatum L. (St. John's wort) is a well-known medicinal plant that possesses secondary metabolites with beneficial pharmacological properties. However, improvement in the production of secondary metabolites via genetic manipulation is a challenging task as H. perforatum remains recalcitrant to Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transfor...

Crocetin and crocin are two important carotenoids isolated from saffron (Crocus sativus L.), which have been used as natural biomedicines with beneficial effects for improving the suboptimal health status associated with abnormal angiogenesis. However, the anti-angiogenic effects and underlying mechanisms of the effects of crocetin and crocin have...

Background: Our studies demonstrated that the space environment has an impact on the brain function of astronauts. Numerous ground-based microgravity and social isolation showed that the space environment can induce brain function damages in humans and animals. Dammarane sapogenins (DS), an active fraction from oriental ginseng, possesses neuropsyc...

Search for efficient therapeutic agents for central nervous system (CNS) disorders has been extensive. Nevertheless, blood–brain barrier (BBB) is an obstacle that prevents the majority of compounds to act in these diseases. It is, thus, of extreme relevance the BBB overcome, in order to deliver a drugs therapeutically active concentration to the ac...

This Research Topic will focus on several research aspects of edible and medicinal plant and it is an initiative linked to the International Conference on Medicinal and Food Plant Research & 3rd Sino-CPLP Symposium on Natural Products and Biodiversity Resources happening in April 2021. --- There is an increasing awareness for the understanding of p...

Histamine poisoning from seafood is a significant public health and safety concern. To detect histamine sensitively and accurately, a novel competitive sandwich immunoassay using a modified biotin-streptavidin system coupling with polylysine was developed. Using this strategy, a sandwich ELISA with an IC50 value of 112.8 ng mL⁻¹ and a broad linear...

Here, we present the data on the biological effects of Hyptis spp. and Lycium spp. plant extracts in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) models of neurodegenerative diseases, which is related to the work presented in the article “Neurotherapeutic effect of Hyptis spp. leaf extracts in C. elegans models of tauopathy and polyglutamine disease: role o...

The inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), the key enzyme in the breakdown of acetylcholine, may be considered as one of the treatment approaches against several neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s. The purpose of this study is to evaluate, compare, and discuss the anti-acetylcholinesterase activity of three methanolics extracts from H...

Microalgae are a potential renewable and sustainable source of biologically active compounds. Several biological activities have been attributed to different compounds such as phycobilins, fatty acids, vitamins, polysaccharides and sterols, namely phenolic compounds have been triggered special attention. The polyphenolic matrix obtained from marine...

Hyptis suaveolens (HS), Hyptis pectinata (HP) and Hyptis marrubioides (HM) are plants used in folk medicine for treatment of several diseases. Here, we tested the in vivo antioxidant and neuroprotective potential of methanolic extracts from these plants, containing several rosmarinic acid derivatives and isoquercetin. In C. elegans, HS, HP and HM l...

Bisphenol S (BPS) is a major alternative to Bisphenol A (BPA) newly applied in food packing material and disrupts reproductive and developmental endpoints through endocrine pathways. This study aimed to develop a rapid, sensitive, and accurate chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) for the detection of BPS in canned beverage. Anti-BPS monoclonal anti...

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), an endogenous steroid hormone, is available in dietary supplements and pharmaceutical products. However, the contents of DHEA in many products are inconsistent with label claims. Excess consumption of DHEA may cause extensive adverse reactions. This study aimed to establish a rapid immuno-assay for the determination o...

This present study was designed to investigate the different effects of ginsenosides Rb1 and Rg1 on improving cognitive deficits in 4-month-old SAMP8 mice. Mice were divided into six groups, including the SAMP8 group, the SAMP8 + Donepezil (1.6 mg/kg) group, the SAMP8 + Rb1 (30 and 60 µmol/kg), and SAMP8 + Rg1 (30 and 60 µmol/kg) groups. SAMR1 mice...

Histamine (HA) is a biogenic amine associated with allergies and food poisoning. It is an important indicator of food freshness and quality. In recent years, a series of medical negligence cases have been reported to be related to the intravenous injection of antibiotics produced via fermentation with fish peptone due to HA contamination. To detect...

Medicinal plants are the richest bioresource of drugs on traditional systems of medicine and their use in treating diseases by ancestral societies has caught the attention of the scientific community. Application of these plants in daily diet, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries is widely implemented for many years. However, with the increasing...

Objective To investigate the ameliorating effect of ginsenoside Rg1 on the depression-like behaviors induced by chronic restraint stress (CRS) in rats and the underlying mechanisms. Methods Forty male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups according to their baseline sucrose preference: control group, model group, and Rg1-treated groups (5 and 10...

Main conclusion Phenolic oxidative coupling protein (Hyp-1) isolated from Hypericum perforatum L. was characterized as a defense gene involved in H. perforatum recalcitrance to Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation Abstract Hypericum perforatum L. is a reservoir of high-value secondary metabolites of increasing interest to researchers...

Edible and medicinal fungi are one of the major sources for extraction and identification of polysaccharides, which are important biological response modifiers with notable antitumor, hepatoprotective effect and other pharmacological activities. This study aimed to evaluate the hepatoprotective effect of isolated Phellinus linteus polysaccharide (P...

Polymyxin B (PMB), a member of polypeptide antibiotics, is widely used for the treatment of infection in animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens. However, it is toxic on the kidneys and nervous system, and polymyxin resistance is increasingly reported, which leaves a serious threat to human health. Therefore, it is essential to establish...

Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill, vulgarmente conhecida como Figueira da Índia ou nopal, pertence à família das Cactaceae, plantas com metabolismo CAM. Apesar de ser originária do México, encontra-se dispersa pela América do Sul e Central, Austrália, África do Sul e Mediterrâneo. As diferentes partes da planta. como as flores, frutas e os cladódios,...

We studied the effect of explant pretreatment with 2,4-D on Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation of Lactuca sativa. Cotyledonary leaves of seedlings germinated on half strength MS medium augmented with different con- centrations of 2,4-D (0.2, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/l) were co-cul- tivated with A. tumefaciens strain EHA105 harboring the b...

Oxidative stress is known to be one of the major causes of the development of several diseases. Since the genus Hyptis has been reported to possesses a diverse range of biological activities, this study aimed the evaluation of the antioxidative potential of extracts of Hyptis marrubioides (Hm) and Hyptis pectinata (Hp) in HepG2 cell line using t-BH...

Age related neurodegenerative disorders (ARND) are presented as the most debilitating and challenging diseases associated with the central nervous system. Despite the advent of active molecules with a positive role on neurodegenerative mechanisms, many of the current therapeutic strategies remain ineffective in treating or preventing ARND. Lipid na...

Quercetin and biapigenin are antioxidant and neuroprotective compounds present in Hypericum perforatum, with potential application in neurodegenerative diseases. Quercetin has shown to have excellent antioxidant activities. Biapigenin possesses a distinctive mechanism of action, preventing the onset of calcium deregulation and mitochondrial dysfunc...

Curcumin, the golden powder with weak bioavailability, also known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, has been a target of great heed in various medical fields, namely in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases [1]. In this particular field, multiple pharmacological targets, capable of promoting a decrease in peptidic aggregat...

Esca is a destructive disease of complex etiology affecting grapevines worldwide. A major constraint to the study and control of esca is that the disease is not diagnosed until external leaf and/or fruit symptoms are visible; however external symptoms usually appear several years after infection onset. We studied the phenolic content of V. vinifera...

Background: In Chinese folk medicine, Corni fructus (C. fructus) has traditionally been used to improve liver function, although the mechanism underlying its activity remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the protective effects of wild C. fructus methanolic extract against acute alcoholic liver injury. Methods: Alcohol wa...

Curcumin is a natural polyphenolic compound isolated from turmeric (Curcuma longa) with well-demonstrated neuroprotective and anticancer activities. Although curcumin is safe even at high doses in humans, it exhibits poor bioavailability, mainly due to poor absorption, fast metabolism, and rapid systemic elimination. To overcome these issues, sever...

Hypericum perforatum is a perennial plant, with worldwide distribution, commonly known as St. John’s wort. It has been used for centuries in traditional medicine for the treatment of several disorders, such as minor burns, anxiety, and mild to moderate depression. In the past years, its antidepressant properties have been extensively studied. Despi...

The composition and the evaluation of the antifungal activity and the mechanisms of action of the essential oils (EO) of Cupressus arizonica leaves of two varieties, glabra and arizonica, were studied. EOs were extracted by hydrodistillation and the chemical composition was determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Both var. arizo...

We report on the antimicrobial activity of a cream formulation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), biosynthesized using Withania somnifera extract. Aqueous extracts of leaves promoted efficient green synthesis of AgNPs compared to fruits and root extracts of W. somnifera. Biosynthesized AgNPs were characterized for their size and shape by physical-che...

Promoting environmental and health education is crucial to allow students to make conscious decisions based on scientific criteria. The study is based on the outcomes of an Educational Project implemented with Portuguese students and consisted of several activities, exploring pre-existent Scientific Gardens at the School, aiming to investigate the...

Hypericum perforatum (HP), an important medicinal plant that possesses several pharmacological properties, remains recalcitrant to Agrobacterium tumefaciens (AT) mediated transformation. Upon co-cultivation, AT viability was reduced completely HP cells defense response [1]. Further, we reported that the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of H...

Withania somnifera (L) Dunal, (Solanaceae), commonly known as ashwagandha, winter cherry or Indian ginseng, is one of the distinguished medicinal plants in Indian Ayurvedic medicine [1]. Although W. somnifera was known for its medicinal uses since ancient times, it received much more attention in the recent years from pharmaceutical companies and l...

Hypericum perforatum (HP), a high value medicinal plant used to produce several phytopharmaceuticals, remains recalcitrant to Agrobacterium tumefaciens (AT) mediated transformation. HP recognizes AT as a potential pathogen and activates its defense response [1]. Although elicitation of HP cells with AT is known to increase its xanthone content, fla...

The increased interest and knowledge on the beneficial activity of plants and their compounds in human health have contributed to the development of several drugs, widely used in clinical practice worldwide. Over the last years the incorporation of natural products, particularly plant based products, in cosmeceuticals has also increased, leading th...

Solidago microglossa DC, popularly known as Brazilian arnica, is a native plant from South America where is used in a similar way as Arnica montana, to treat inflammation and to accelerate wound healing. In this work we studied some pharmacological activities of the phenolic extract of S. microglossa (SME), using the model eukaryotic organism Sacch...

1125 Records 707 Records Screened by title 235 Records Screened by abstract 215 Records Screened by full text 115 Records included 11 433 530 187 535 Duplicates 432 Records excluded 20 Records excluded 100 Records excluded 7,2% 2,6% Fig 2. Percentage of categorizedinformation in Ocimum sanctum data Introduction Ocimum sanctum L. or Holy Basil has b...

Hypericum perforatum extracts have been used for their antidepressive effects. Recently, a selected fraction (HP) isolated from these extracts and containing compounds like quercetin and biapigenin proved to be neuroprotective [1,2]. The present work aims to i- develop a method to isolate HP in a pure and large scale, ii- characterize the cellular...

Congress Abstract Ocimum sanctum L. (Os), popularly named as holy basil (tulsi), is considered a sacred plant in India. It has been reported in Ayurveda and Siddha medicine that different parts of Os help to prevent and cure several illnesses such as headache, flu, colic pain, skin diseases and others [1]. The phytochemicals present in Os are very...

Hypericum perforatum L. (HP) is widely used in traditional medicine to treat several medical conditions since ancient times. In our group, this plant has been used for biotechnological production of bioactive phytochemicals. In the present study, the ability of a methanolic extract of HP cells elicited with Agrobacterium tumefaciens (AT) to induce...