Kátia Da Silva Calabrese

By Isadora de Fátima Braga Magalhães, Carla Junqueira Moraga Tellis, Kátia da Silva Calabrese, Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva and Fernando Almeida-Souza

Essential oils are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry for their antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal, antiparasitic, and insecticidal properties. Their anticancer activity has been increasingly explored as the natural constituents of essential oils play an important role in cancer prevention and treatment. The chemical composition of essential oils includes monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, oxygenated monoterpenes, phenolic sesquiterpenes, and others. Several mechanisms of action such as antioxidant, antimutagenic, antiproliferative, enhancement of immune functions, modulation of multidrug resistance, and synergistic mechanism of volatile constituents are responsible for their chemotherapeutic properties. This review focuses on the activity of essential oils and their chemical composition in regard to breast cancer.

Part of the book: Essential Oils

By Isadora de Fátima Braga Magalhães, Kátia da Silva Calabrese, Ana Letícia Marinho Figueirêdo, Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva and Fernando Almeida-Souza

The importance of a new anticancer drug for breast cancer is well established. Natural compounds that can prevent this disease or be used as an adjuvant treatment associated with conventional drugs could be the solution for this. This chapter is an overview of agents extracted from plants with outstand results in the last six years. Green tea, berberine, thymoquinone and cannabidiol are compounds isolated from medicinal plants. These agents showed action through induction of apoptosis, down regulation of inflammation, epigenetics, hormonal modulation, among other. In vitro effect against cancer cells, in vivo experiments mainly with murine model and clinical trials reassured their efficacy against breast cancer. A protective effect against recurrence cases and chemosensitization to standard drugs was also successful. The use of nanotechnology provided a optimize delivery of these therapeutical molecules. Taken together this information led us to acknowledgement that we do probably have the natural agents for a future adjuvant treatment against breast cancer.

Part of the book: Breast Cancer

By Flávia de Oliveira Cardoso, Carolina Salles Domingues, Tânia Zaverucha do Valle and Kátia da Silva Calabrese

Chagas’ disease outcomes depend on several factors including parasite and host genetics, immune response, and route of infection. In this study, we investigate the influence of inoculation route and host genetic background on the establishment and development of Chagas disease in mice, using an isolate of Trypanosoma cruzi SC2005 strain (TcII), which was obtained from an oral Chagas’ disease outbreak in Santa Catarina, Brazil. Comparative analysis of the immunopathological, histopathological, and hematological profiles of mice was performed demonstrating the influence of the route of infection in disease severity. In outbred mice, intraperitoneal (IP) infection led to higher infection and mortality rates and more severe parasitaemia, when compared with intragastric (IG) infection. Nevertheless, tissue colonization was similar, showing severe damage in the heart, with intense lymphocytic inflammatory infiltrates, regardless of the route of infection. On the other hand, in mice IG-infected, the host genetic background influences the start timing of immune response against Trypanosoma cruzi. The susceptible BALB/c inbred mouse strain presented an earlier development of a cytotoxic cellular profile, when compared with A mice. We hypothesize that the cytotoxic response mounted before the parasitaemia increase allowed for a milder manifestation of Chagas’ disease in intragastrically infected mice.

Part of the book: Chagas Disease