A new molecule known as DF2593A has been shown in animal testing to relieve up to 80% of the pain resulting from acute and chronic inflammatory conditions. In models of neuropathic pain caused by injury to nerves, pain reduction reached 60%.

A group of researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Mathematics & Statistics Institute (IME-USP) are developing statistical and computational techniques to analyze large volumes of data, such as magnetic resonance images of the brain, for use in identifying biological markers of neurological dysfunctions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Kinases are enzymes that act as a type of protein ‘on/off switch’ and, in this way, regulate important processes in the body such as cell division, proliferation and differentiation. Any problems in this signaling event may result in pathologies such as cancer, inflammation or cardiovascular disease. For this reason, nearly 25% of efforts by the pharmaceutical industry target the development of compounds that are capable of modulating the activity of these enzymes.

Science has discovered different compounds in sponges that help battle against diseases such as cancer and other types of tumors. This was the goal of a research project carried out by UNal Biotechnology master’s Lina Marcela Blandón, who analyzed the antiproliferative, cytotoxic and genotoxic activity of a fraction obtained from Topsentia ophiraphidites sponge from the Colombian Caribbean.

After more than 20 years of caring for and monitoring individuals infected by the protozoan Leishmania (L.) infantum chagasi –the agent that causes American Visceral leishmaniasis (AVL)– in areas of the Amazon region that are endemic to the disease, researchers at the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases Pathology of the School of Medicine at the University of São Paulo (FMUSP) and the “Prof. Dr. Ralph Lainson” Leishmaniasis Laboratory of the Evandro Chagas Institute of Belém, Pará State, contemplated some intriguing data.