A pandemia causada pelo novo coronavírus adquiriu grandes proporções e seu impacto na sociedade tem se tornado cada vez mais significativo. No que diz respeito ao ensino, as instituições buscaram nas estratégias de atividades educacionais remotas, uma alternativa para manter seus alunos em atividade, minimizando as consequências que as políticas de isolamento social poderiam acarretar nas atividades acadêmicas. Este estudo, de caráter descritivo, qualitativo e quantitativo, do tipo relato de experiência, foi elaborado a partir da necessidade de adequação repentina das estratégias pedagógicas na Disciplina de Histologia e Embriologia do Curso de Odontologia de uma universidade pública brasileira. Objetivou-se expor as diferentes possibilidades de estratégias e ferramentas pedagógicas que têm sido utilizadas, bem como analisar o desempenho acadêmico e engajamento dos estudantes. Os docentes da Disciplina buscaram não apenas soluções emergenciais temporárias para dar continuidade à Disciplina, mas se esforçaram em recriar um novo modelo educacional, considerando o uso de metodologias ativas de ensino para uma aprendizagem significativa, mediante o emprego virtual de estratégias pedagógicas e ferramentas digitais, oportunizando o desenvolvimento da autonomia e a auto responsabilidade dos estudantes. Os resultados mostraram engajamento e desempenho promissores dos estudantes, porém este estudo é limitado aos dados em um curto período, tornando necessário o desenvolvimento de estudos longitudinais para avaliar efetivamente os impactos desse modelo educacional não apenas no engajamento e desempenho dos estudantes, mas na sua aprendizagem e na qualidade da educação.

The activation of water by non-thermal plasma creates a liquid with active constituents referred to as plasma-activated water (PAW). Due to its active constituents, PAW may play an important role in different fields, such as agriculture, the food industry and healthcare. Plasma liquid technology has received attention in recent years due to its versatility and good potential, mainly focused on different health care purposes. This interest has extended to dentistry, since the use of a plasma–liquid technology could bring clinical advantages, compared to direct application of non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasmas (NTAPPs). The aim of this paper is to discuss the applicability of PAW in different areas of dentistry, according to the published literature about NTAPPs and plasma–liquid technology. The direct and indirect application of NTAPPs are presented in the introduction. Posteriorly, the main reactors for generating PAW and its active constituents with a role in biomedical applications are specified, followed by a section that discusses, in detail, the use of PAW as a tool for different oral diseases.

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Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the antibiofilm activity and toxicity of the glycolic extract of Persea americana “P. americana” over multidrug-resistant strains of Acinetobacter baumannii “A. baumannii” as alternative therapy to be investigated. Methods A bacterial inoculum of each bacterial strain (4a, 5a, 9a, 12a, ATCC 19606) of A. baumannii was prepared and adjusted by the spectrophotometer. The microdilution broth method was performed to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). P. americana glycolic extracts were obtained of the tree stalk and leaves. The biofilm viability was tested by MTT assay after 5 min exposure. The toxicity of the extracts was tested by invertebrate model Galleria mellonella. The data were analyzed by ANOVA, Tukey test and log-rank method (α=0.05). Results The extract showed an inhibitory and bactericidal action over all the tested strains with the lowest MIC value observed for the reference strain (3.12 mg/mL). The extract did not demonstrate toxicity in any of the tested concentrations (12.5, 25 and 50 mg/mL) in Galleria mellonella larvae, with a survival percentage above 80% after 168 h. Conclusions The glycolic extract of P. americana has microbicidal and antibiofilm activity on multidrug-resistant clinical strains of A. baumannii and showed low toxicity for the invertebrate model G. mellonella.

The increasing incidence of antifungal resistance represents a great challenge in the medical area and, for this reason, new therapeutic alternatives for the treatment of fungal infections are urgently required. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has been proposed as a promising alternative technique for the treatment of superficial candidiasis, with inhibitory effect both in vitro and in vivo. However, little is known on the association of CAP with conventional antifungals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the association between CAP and conventional polyene antifungals on Candida albicans biofilms. C. albicans SC 5314 and a clinical isolate were used to grow 24 or 48 h biofilms, under standardized conditions. After that, the biofilms were exposed to nystatin, amphotericin B and CAP, separately or in combination. Different concentrations of the antifungals and sequences of treatment were evaluated to establish the most effective protocol. Biofilms viability after the treatments was compared to negative control. Data were compared by One-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey (5%). The results demonstrate that 5 min exposure to CAP showed more effective antifungal effect on biofilms when compared to nystatin and amphotericin B. Additionally, it was detected that CAP showed similar (but smaller in magnitude) effects when applied in association with nystatin and amphotericin B at 40 µg/mL and 60 µg/mL. Therefore, it can be concluded that the application of CAP alone was more effective against C. albicans biofilms than in combination with conventional polyene antifungal agents.