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Background The effectiveness of ustekinumab (UST) in the treatment of Crohn’s disease (CD) has been demonstrated in the pivotal Phase 3 UNITI 1 and 2 and IM-UNITI studies in both anti-TNF-naïve and anti-TNF-exposed patients. Given the selective nature of pivotal trial designs, real-world effectiveness and safety studies are warranted. We report our experience with UST treatment in a large, real-world multicenter cohort of Brazilian patients with CD. Methods We performed a retrospective multicenter study including patients with CD, predominantly biologically refractory CD, who received UST. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients in clinical remission at weeks 8, 24 and 56. Possible predictors of clinical and biological response/remission and safety outcomes were also assessed. Results Overall, 245 CD (mean age 39.9 [15–87]) patients were enrolled. Most patients (86.5%) had been previously exposed to biologics. According to nonresponder imputation analysis, the proportions of patients in clinical remission at weeks 8, 24 and 56 were 41.0% (n = 98/239), 64.0% (n = 153/239) and 39.3% (n = 94/239), respectively. A biological response was achieved in 55.4% of patients at week 8, and 59.3% were in steroid-free remission at the end of follow-up. No significant differences in either clinical or biological remission were noted between bio-naïve and bio-experienced patients. Forty-eight patients (19.6%) presented 60 adverse events during the follow-up, of which 8 (13.3%) were considered serious adverse events (3.2% of 245 patients). Overall, a proximal disease location, younger age, perianal involvement, and smoking were associated with lower rates of clinical remission over time. Conclusions UST therapy was effective and safe in the long term in this large real-life cohort of Brazilian patients with refractory CD, regardless of previous exposure to other biological agents.

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Neotropical frugivorous bats are common seed dispersers of several pioneer plant species, conferring to the bats an important role for conservation purposes. However, the effects of bats on seed germination have been scarcely addressed. Here, we evaluate effects of passage of seeds through guts of Artibeus lituratus bats on the germination of the pioneer tree Cecropia pachystachya, accounting for seed storage time and fruit maturity as covariates. To control for seed sources, we collected infructescences and offered them partially to captive bats in order to obtain seeds passed through bats and seeds unpassed from the same infructescences. We then stored in glycerol subsets of seeds of both treatments through time until the beginning of the germination experiment. Germination success responded to storage time and fruit maturation stage. Among seeds from unripe fruits, those passed through the bat guts showed higher percentage of germination than seeds unpassed, but no difference occurred between treatments for seeds from mature fruits. In addition, passage through bats positively affected germination speed, irrespective of fruit maturity. Overall results support that bats can promote germination of C. pachystachya seeds, in addition to seed dispersal.

The objective this study was to evaluated the influence of silica modified with protic ionic liquid (PIL) on an immobilized biocatalyst by covalent binding of Burkholderia cepacia lipase (BCL) in a PBR and in the transesterification reaction, by characterization and mass transfer of the system studied. The results showed that maximum conversion of ethyl esters was 39 ± 1.73% at 96 h (IB on control silica) and 47 ± 2.0% in 72 h (IB on modified silica). The PIL also influenced the analysis of residence time distribution (RTD) with the mean time ranging from 14.94 (control silica) to 25 min (modified silica). Variation of the reaction parameters (temperature, flow rate and molar ratio) positively influenced the mass transfer coefficient (kc) which varied from 0.95 × 10 −4 to 2.39 × 10 −4 m s −1 (IB on control silica) and from 1.22 × 10 −4 to 3.06 × 10 −4 m s −1 (IB on modified silica).