In the early 2015, several cases of patients presenting symptoms of mild fever, rash, conjunctivitis and arthralgia were reported in the northeastern Brazil. Although all patients lived in a dengue endemic area, molecular and serological diagnosis for dengue resulted negative. Chikungunya virus infection was also discarded. Subsequently, Zika virus (ZIKV) was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction from the sera of eight patients and the result was confirmed by DNA sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the ZIKV identified belongs to the Asian clade. This is the first report of ZIKV infection in Brazil.

Ilex paraguariensis aqueous extract (mate) is an antioxidant-rich beverage widely consumed in South American countries. Here we questioned whether mate could reduce the progression of atherosclerosis in 1% cholesterol-fed rabbits. New Zealand White male rabbits (n = 32) were divided into four groups: control (C, n = 5), control-mate (CM, n = 5), hypercholesterolemic (HC, n = 11) and hypercholesterolemic-mate (HCM, n = 11). The daily water and mate extract consumption was approximately 400 ml. After 2 months of treatment, mate intake did not change the lipid profile or hepatic cholesterol content of control or hypercholesterolemic rabbits (p < 0.05). However, the atherosclerotic lesion area was considerably smaller in the hypercholesterolemic-mate group (HCM, 35.4% vs. HC, 60.1%; p < 0.05). In addition, the aortic cholesterol content was around half that of the HC group (HCM, 36.8 vs. HC, 73.9 microg/mg of protein, p < 0.05). In spite of this, the thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) in the atherosclerotic aorta, liver and serum, and the activity of the antioxidant enzymes in liver and aorta did not differ among groups (p > 0.05). The results showed that Ilex paraguariensis extract can inhibit the progression of atherosclerosis in cholesterol-fed rabbits, although it did not decrease the serum cholesterol or aortic TBARS and antioxidant enzymes.

. Strain DENV3/5532 was found to display significantly higher replicative ability than DENV3/ 290 in monocyte-derived dendritic cells (mdDCs). In addition, compared to DENV3/290 results, mdDCs exposed to DENV3/5532 showed increased production of proinflammatory cytokines associated with higher rates of programmed cell death, as shown by annexin V staining. The observed phenotype was due to viral replication, and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-␣) appears to exert a protective effect on virus-induced mdDC apoptosis. These results suggest that the DENV3/5532 strain isolated from the fatal case replicates within human dendritic cells, modulating cell survival and synthesis of inflammatory mediators.

Dengue virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that has a large impact in global health. It is considered as one of the medically important arboviruses, and developing a preventive or therapeutic solution remains a top priority in the medical and scientific community. Drug discovery programs for potential dengue antivirals have increased dramatically over the last decade, largely in part to the introduction of high-throughput assays. In this study, we have developed an image-based dengue high-throughput/high-content assay (HT/HCA) using an innovative computer vision approach to screen a kinase-focused library for anti-dengue compounds. Using this dengue HT/HCA, we identified a group of compounds with a 4-(1-aminoethyl)-N-methylthiazol-2-amine as a common core structure that inhibits dengue viral infection in a human liver-derived cell line (Huh-7.5 cells). Compounds CND1201, CND1203 and CND1243 exhibited strong antiviral activities against all four dengue serotypes. Plaque reduction and time-of-addition assays suggests that these compounds interfere with the late stage of viral infection cycle. These findings demonstrate that our image-based dengue HT/HCA is a reliable tool that can be used to screen various chemical libraries for potential dengue antiviral candidates.