Cell-free circulating DNA in plasma and serum may serve as a biomarker for malignant tumor detection and follow up in patients with a variety of solid tumors including prostate cancer. In healthy patients, DNA is normally released from an apoptotic source which generates small fragments of cell-free DNA, whereas cancer patients have cell-free circulating DNA that originated from necrosis, autophagy, or mitotic catastrophe. Cell-free circulating DNA levels were measured by a quantitative real-time PCR method with a set of primers targeted to amplify the consensus ALU apoptotic versus necrotic origin. Prostate cancer patients before and 3 months after diagnosis showed cell-free circulating DNA released at apoptotic and non-apoptotic cell death. Interestingly, all patients after 6 months demonstrated DNA released at non-apoptotic cell. The principal source of cell-free circulating DNA is of apoptotic and non-apoptotic cell death. However, during treatment, this feature could change. Therefore, the study of cell-free circulating DNA would be important to follow the evolution of the disease during the treatment.

Although the temperature does not statistically display an association with recorded cases of dengue, we were able to verify that temperature peaks coincide with dengue outbreak peaks. Future studies on environmental pollution and its influence on the development of Aedes aegypti mosquito during all stages of its life cycle, and the definition of strategies for better monitoring, including campaigns and surveillance, would be compelling.

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Objective: Zinc has been studied for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and also for its immune function in end stage renal disease patients. The aim of this review is to clarify whether there is a relationship between zinc levels and ESRD patients in hemodialysis. Methodology: A search through LILACS and MEDLINE database using the keywords "zinc", "chronic kidney disease" and "hemodialysis" was performed. Articles in English and Portuguese performed in humans with the previous words were selected. Studies with subjects younger than 18 years of age were excluded. Moreover, exclusion criteria included patients with absence of diagnosis of end stage renal disease and not in hemodialysis; patients treated with peritoneal dialysis, absence of abstract available, absence of clear association between zinc deficiency and worse prognosis. Results: The search found a total of 214 articles. A total of 44 publications were selected after appliance of exclusion criteria. Conclusion: Zinc deficiency is highly prevalent, and it not only showed influence on inflammatory and immunological processes, but also interfered with metabolism and other systems. Zinc supplementation was considered positive. In summary, lower zinc levels are related to end stage renal disease patients in hemodialysis and supplementation seems to be a promising approach in such cases.

SUMMARY Breast cancer (BC) is one of the primary health problems worldwide. As the most common cancer in women in the world and in Brasil, behind only non-melanoma skin cancer, this neoplasm corresponds to approximately 28% of new cases per year in the country. BC also affects men, although the incidence corresponds to only 1% of total cases. Currently, most of the chemotherapeutic agents used in BC treatment are extremely toxic and cause long-term side effects. There is also a need to obtain earlier diagnoses, more accurate prognoses and make new therapies available that are more selective and effective in order to improve the current scenario. Therefore, this work sought to evaluate the importance of the biomarker survivin (Sur) in relation to BC, through the detailing of the role of Sur as a biomarker, the correlation between this protein and the prognosis of BC patients, and a summary of therapeutic strategies that target Sur for the development of new anticancer therapies.