Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2017-07-05"
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- Food additives intake assessment – a school population case studyPublication . Rodrigues, Joana; Calmeiro, Ana; Vasco, ElsaIntroduction/Aim: Food additives are safe, however consumption of some of them should not exceed the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). In this regard, European Commission requires member states to monitor the intake of these additives at national level. When there are no national food consumption data available, the evaluation can initially be performed in population subgroups of higher risk, such as young people. Additives intake assessment studies are carried out, in a first approach, by crossing the food consumption data with the maximum permitted levels of additives in food (LMU), to identify the additives which intake could constitute a health concern. OPEN Portugal is an online nutritional platform that allows the evaluation of food consumption. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of the OPEN Portugal tool in obtaining food consumption data by a school population, to identify most consumed food additives and those that need more detailed and refined studies
- Children exposure assessment to food additives: an exploratory studyPublication . Calmeiro, Ana; Alvito, Paula; Vasco, ElsaIntroduction: The increase of processed products in children s diet has been accompanied by an increase in the consumption of food additives, which are associated with the prevalence of overweight and childhood obesity constituting a health threat. Food additives are regulated by European directives requiring each additive to be subjected to toxicity tests in order to establish an Admissible Daily Intake (ADI) and Maximum Permitted Level (MPL) in different foodstuffs and the monitoring of the intake of these additives by member states.
- Targeting the serrated pathway of colorectal cancerPublication . Jordan, Peter
- Toxicity screening of a novel poly(methylmethacrylate)-Eudragit nanocarrier on L929 fibroblastsPublication . Graça, Diogo; Louro, Henriqueta; Santos, Joana; Dias, Kamila; Almeida, Antonio J; Gonçalves, Lídia; Silva, Maria João; Bettencourt, AnaTranslation of innovative drug delivery nanosystems into the market involves an early toxicity screening in the development phase. Previously, we showed that inclusion of the polymer Eudragit (EUD) into poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) nanoparticles (NP) resulted in a novel nanocarrier (PMMA-EUD) with an improved biomedical performance. The safety of this novel nanoparticulate system (PMMA-EUDNPs) was assessed in this work and compared to that of the original PMMANPs by using an integrated approach, comprising in vitro toxicity assessment and NPs physicochemical characterization in water and cell medium. For toxicity assessment several endpoints were analysed, including cell death, oxidative stress, and genotoxicity using L929 fibroblasts. PMMA-EUDNPs proved to be more hydrophobic than the original PMMANPs. Also, charge of both NPs was strongly affected by cell medium. On the other hand, the novel nanosystem was easily uptaken by L929 cells and did not display relevant in vitro cytotoxic or genotoxic effects. On the contrary, PMMANPs were less internalized in cells and proved to be genotoxic, as measured by the micronucleus assay. To conclude, our results provide initial evidence about the safety of the novel and promising PMMA-EUD nanoparticulate system, enabling its further development towards applications for drug delivery.