Background. Mycoplasmas are known to cause various infections in humans, mainly in the respiratory and urogenital tracts. The different species are usually host-specific and cause diseases in well-defined sites. New species have been isolated, including those from HIV-infected persons. Summary. Its in vitro properties, combined with clinical findings, have led to the hypothesis that these microorganisms may act as cofactors of HIV in AIDS development. Even today this point of view is quite polemic among infectious disease specialists and many aspects remain to be clarified, in contrast to what happens, for instance, with HIV/Mycobacterium tuberculosis coinfection. Dozens of papers have been published covering aspects of Mollicutes/HIV coinfection, but they add little to no information about the putative contribution of Mollicutes to the evolution of AIDS. Very few researchers have devoted their efforts to trying to answer this question, which remains open. In this review, we discuss the evidences that may support this statement in the light of current knowledge in the field of mycoplasmology.

A simple equation established by Cordova & Cordova (LDL-COR) was developed to provide an improved estimation of LDL-cholesterol in a large Brazilian laboratory database. We evaluated this new equation in a general population cohort in Pomerania, north-eastern Germany (SHIP Study) compared to other existing formulas (Anandaraja, Teerakanchana, Chen, Hattori, Martin, Friedewald and Ahmadi), and its power in the prediction of death by atherosclerosis related events as the primary outcome. Analysis was conducted on a cohort of 4075 individuals considering age, gender, use of lipid lowering therapy and associated co-morbidities such as diabetes, hepatic, kidney and thyroid disease. LDL-COR values had a lower standard deviation compared to the previously published equations: 0.92 versus 1.02, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04, 1.09, 1.10 and 1.74 mmol/L, respectively. All of the factors known to affect the results obtained by the Friedewald's equation (LDL-FW), except fibrate use, were associated with the difference between LDL-COR and LDL-FW (p < .01), with TSH being borderline (p = .06). LDL-COR determined a higher hazard ratio (1.23 versus 1.12, 1.19, 1.21, 1.19, 1.21 and 1.19) for cardiovascular disease related mortality, incident stroke or myocardial infarction compared to the other evaluated formulas, except for Ahmadi's (1.24), and the same adjusted predictive power considering all confounding factors. The proposed simple equation was demonstrated to be suitable for a more precise LDL-c estimation in the studied population. Since LDL-c is a parameter frequently requested by medical laboratories in clinical routine, and will probably remain so, precise methods for its estimation are needed when direct measurement is not available.

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Potencial Antioxidante da Própolis de Melipona Quadrifasciata como Conservante de Cerveja Artesanal Resumo: Propolis é uma mistura complexa estudada devido à suas propriedades biológicas, mas frequentemente aquela produzida pela abelha Apis melifera. Poucos estudos foram realizados, proporcionalmente, com própolis de abelhas nativas brasileiras, uma vez que se sabe que a composição química da própolis varia de acordo com a espécie de abelha que a produz. O potencial antioxidante do extrato de própolis da abelha Melipona quadripasciata já foi demonstrado. Apesar do seu relativamente baixo teor de compostos fenólicos e flavonóides, tem a capacidade de redução do potencial e inibição do radical livre DPPH e inibição da peroxidação lipídica. Assim, buscou-se avaliar o potencial de diferentes frações do extrato hidroalcoólico dessa própolis de abelha nativa incorporada em amostras de cerveja de baixa fermentação, para determinar se poderia eventualmente aumentar a vida de prateleira da bebida, melhorando sua qualidade. Os compostos da própolis foram extraídos com solventes de diferentes polaridades, secos e adicionados às amostras de cerveja em diferentes concentrações. Todas as amostras adicionadas de própolis inibiram a oxidação sem alterar as características organolépticas da cerveja. O uso de própolis como conservante de cervejas artesanais brasileiras, uma vez bem fundamentada, pode agregar valor significativo à cadeia produtiva da apicultura no país. Notavelmente, os compostos extraídos na fração diclorometano deste tipo de própolis parecem ser promissores, uma vez que até melhoram a percepção da cerveja. As interações químicas e compostos resultantes da adição de própolis à cerveja merecem ser melhor estudados.

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