Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2022-06-21"
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- Development and In Vitro Validation of Antibacterial Paints Containing Chloroxylenol and TerpineolPublication . Querido, Micaela Machado; Paulo, Ivo; Hariharakrishnan, Sriram; Rocha, Daniel; Barbosa, Nuno; Gonçalves, Diogo; dos Santos, Rui Galhano; Bordado, João Moura; Teixeira, João Paulo; Pereira, Cristiana CostaThe establishment of self-disinfecting surfaces is an important method to avoid surface contamination. Recently, paints with antimicrobial properties have been developed to be applied on different surfaces, avoiding contamination with pathogens. In this work, self-disinfecting paints containing Chloroxylenol (CLX), Terpineol (TRP), and a mixture of both substances were developed. The goal was to evaluate and validate these paints using international standards for eventual commercialization and application in scenarios where surface contamination represents a problem. The paints were challenged with five different bacteria, Gram-positive and Gram- negative, before and after a scrub resistance test, where the long-term efficacy of the paints was evaluated. The antibacterial activity assessment was performed following ISO 22196 and JIS Z2801. In general, the paints showed very promising results, demonstrating their antibacterial activity, before and after scrub resistance test. The paint incorporating the mixture of CLX and TRP (CLX+TRP) stood out by revealing consistent results of antibacterial activity both before and after the scrub resistance test for most of the tested bacteria. The cytotoxicity of the developed paints was assessed in vitro by performing tests by direct contact with a human skin cell line, HaCaT, and testes on extracts with HaCaT and a pulmonary cell line, A549. The methodologies for cytotoxicity assessment were developed based in ISO 10993. For genotoxicity assessment, alkaline comet assay was conducted on both cell lines. The cytotoxicity assessment revealed promising results with the paints, demonstrating values of cellular viability above 70% and values of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage below 30%. The genotoxic assessment also revealed acceptable values of primary DNA damage for the developed antibacterial paints. In general, the selected methodologies presented good potential to be applied in the validation of both efficacy and safety of the antimicrobial paints, aiming to be applied in real scenarios.
- The modifying role of major cardiovascular risk factors in the association between retirement and cardiovascular disease: Results from SHARE PortugalPublication . Sousa Uva, Mafalda; Fonseca, António Manuel; Nunes, Baltazar; Sousa-Uva, Antonio; Rodrigues, Ana Paula; Matias Dias, CarlosBackground: Despite the actual demographic trends and the global burden of cardiovascular diseases, there is little knowledge concerning the effects of retirement on this health outcome. Objective: We aimed to quantify the associations between retirement, and retirement age, with cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) in the Portuguese population. Methods: We used data from the first Portuguese wave of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Logistic regression was applied to quantify the associations. The major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and several features of retirement were considered as possible confounders or effect modifiers. Analysis was restricted to retirees in retirement process (retired for 5 years or less) and not retired because of illness. Results: An opposite direction of the association between retirement and heart disease was observed according to hypertension status, although not significant. Early retirement increased the odds of having a stroke, merely in individuals without heart disease (OR = 8.87; 95% CI 1.63-48.26). On the contrary, in individuals with heart disease, decreased the odds of having a stroke (OR = 0.08; 95% CI 0.01-0.68). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that retirement and retirement age may be beneficial or harmful, respectively, in the presence or absence of major risk factors for heart disease and stroke. We suggest that work-related stress affecting differently workers with and without these risk factors may eventually explain these findings.