PhD in Physiology
Master degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Pharmacyst and Nutritionist
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Pharmacy, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Science
40
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Yacon-kefir beverage: a symbiotic product with improved antioxidant properties and no toxic effects Flavia de Souza Andrade Moraes, Raiana Maria Prucoli Falsoni, Camila Ferreira Mariani, Maressa de Carvalho Fragoso, Ieda Carneiro Kalil, Tamires Cruz dos Santos, Silvestre Dalmaso Neto, Ewelyne Miranda de Lima, Girlandia Alexandre Brasil, Christiane Mileib Vasconcelos, Tadeu Uggere de Andrade Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2026 The aim of the present study was to obtain a symbiotic drink of a non-dairy matrix based on yacon juice fermented by kefir grains, biomonitored by antioxidant activity and pH value. A Box-Behnken experimental design was carried out to evaluate the effects of the concentrations of yacon juice and kefir grains, as well as of the fermentation temperature, on the antioxidant activity and pH. Thus, it was possible to define the optimal concentrations and temperature for the production of the drink with the best profile. Subsequently, in vitro analyses were performed to evaluate the physical-chemical and microbiological characteristics of the drink, in addition to the in vivo assay using the experimental model Caenorhabditis elegans to assess a possible degree of acute toxicity. The results showed that the drink made with 82.7% yacon juice, fermented with 2% kefir grains at a temperature of 35ºC presented antioxidant potential, increased phenolic compounds, adequate physical-chemical characteristics and chemical composition, and the presence of probiotic microorganisms, in addition to not presenting acute toxicity in vivo.
Anabolic-androgen steroids: A possible independent risk factor to Cardiovascular, Kidney and Metabolic Syndrome Antonio Ferreira de Melo Junior, Leonardo Escouto, António B. Pimpão, Pollyana Peixoto, Girlandia Brasil, Silas Nascimento Ronchi, Sofia Azeredo Pereira, Nazaré Souza Bissoli Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 2025 Millions of individuals make illicit use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), remaining a public health issue. It often leads to detrimental effects, including cardiovascular and renal diseases, besides hormonal and metabolic imbalances. The objective of this review is to emphasize the contribution of oxidative stress and inflammation to these effects and connect the findings of experimental animal studies with the alterations found in clinical contexts, in AAS users. The study's results showed that AAS promotes a redox disruption and a pro-inflammatory state on organs that are involved in important physiologic processes. These drugs increase inflammatory high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and cytokines that contribute to the progression of atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease risk or endpoints, including stroke, myocardial infarction and death. In the kidney, the AAS increase proteinuria and structural damage. Studies have linked AAS abuse with high BP, low HDL-C levels, high triglyceride levels and impaired fasting blood glucose that characterize Metabolic syndrome. Overall, the studies indicate that oxidative stress, apoptosis, and AAS-mediated inflammation play a significant role in tissue damage, regardless of the dose and duration of exposure, and we point it as a putative independent risk factor to Cardiovascular, Kidney and Metabolic syndrome.
A Somatotype Classification Approach Based on Generative AI and Frontal Images of Individuals Antonio R. A. Brasil, Fabian T. Amaral, Lícia Cristina de Lima Oliveira, Girlandia A. Brasil, Klaus F. Côco, Patrick Marques Ciarelli IEEE Access, 2025 Somatotype is a definition that classifies human bodies according to their shape, and its determination is crucial for evaluating and improving athletic performance. However, the traditional method used for its estimation has some limitations: measurements are directly collected from the human body, specialists are required, and it is time-consuming. In this paper, two approaches are evaluated: GPT-4’s performance in classifying the predominant somatotype using only human body frontal images, and a proposed multimodal architecture that combines the textual descriptions provided by GPT-4 with these images, using pre-trained MiniLM models for the textual information and pre-trained Vision Transformer (ViT) with transfer learning for images. Frontal images were collected from 50 volunteers aged between 18 and 65 years, with 10 anthropometric measurements following Heath and Carter protocol. The results show that GPT-4 achieved an average accuracy of 78% in somatotype classification for the first approach. By combining the textual descriptions with the frontal images in the multimodal model, the average accuracy was of 97%, with a precision of 94% and recall of 89%. These results indicate that combining multimodal language models with deep learning improved accuracy in automatic somatotype classification compared to GPT-4 classification. The results are promising and open up new possibilities in the classification of somatotypes using only digital images.
Liraglutide improves antioxidant defense in hearts of spontaneously hypertensive female rats independently of changes in blood pressure in a pre-clinical model of menopause W.C. dos Santos, S.N. Ronchi, L.A. Gonçalves, L.C.S.L. Oliveira, G.J. Sousa, A.F. Melo Junior, T.U. de Andrade, N.S. Bissoli, G.A. Brasil Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 2025 Liraglutide (LIRA) is an agonist of the GLP-1 receptor used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes with a cardioprotective effect, although little is known about the effects of LIRA in post-menopause. We aimed to evaluate the effects of LIRA in the cardiovascular system of ovariectomized spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). SHR rats were separated into two groups: ovariectomized (saline) and ovariectomized + liraglutide (0.6 and 1.2 mg/kg for 4+4 weeks, respectively). Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was indirectly evaluated at the beginning and end of treatment. Diastolic, systolic, and mean blood pressure were evaluated in the carotid artery of anesthetized animals, while left ventricle systolic blood pressure (LVSBP) and left ventricle derivatives (-dP/dt; +dP/dt) were evaluated in the left ventricle. An oral glucose tolerance test (GTT) was conducted. Antioxidant enzymes and calcium-handling proteins were analyzed in heart tissue by western blot. Treatment with LIRA increased the expression of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD2) and catalase). No changes were observed in the GTT, cardiac hemodynamics, blood pressure, and calcium-handling protein expression. A decrease in visceral fat depot was observed without changes in final body weight. LIRA induced an antioxidant subclinical effect in ovariectomized SHR female rats without changing glucose metabolism and cardiac blood pressure.
Reasons for vaccination hesitancy against covid-19 in children and young people: a qualitative‒quantitative study Maressa de Carvalho Fragoso, Roque Alves da Silva Junior, Juliana André Vindor, Lucas Andrade Campelo, Natália Cariello Brotas Corrêa, Bárbara Guimarães Oliveira, Lázaro Soares de Oliveira, Beatriz Astori, Maria de Fatima Araujo da Fonseca, João Oliveira Sampaio, Giovana Meriguete Brambati, Manuela Martins Cruz, Girlandia Alexandre Brasil, Tadeu Uggere de Andrade Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2025 The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating socioeconomic impact and reignited the debate on vaccination and the hesitancy to vaccinate children and young people. This study sought to understand the reasons related to the behaviour of parents in vaccinating their children aged 5 to 17 years against COVID-19 with currently available vaccines; this study was conducted from June 2022 to July 2022. This work was a cross-sectional, descriptive, and observational study with a qualitative‒quantitative approach. The individuals in the sample had a mean age of 12 years, were mostly public school students, did not have COVID-19, and had a complete vaccination card. Parents who had vaccinated their children reported understanding that vaccination supports immunity, whereas those who had not vaccinated their children did not trust the COVID-19 vaccine. The ability to recognize fake vaccinerelated information was greater among parents who vaccinated their children (72.4%) than among those who did not (38.0%; p<0.05). The behaviours involved in vaccinating against COVID-19 are multifactorial, and factors such as children’s age, lack of confidence in the efficiency and safety of vaccines, parents’ age, ability to use information appropriately for health decision-making and low ability to recognize fake vaccine-related information are involved in these behaviours.
Probiotics supplementation in the treatment of male infertility: A Systematic Review Licia Cristina Silva de Lima Oliveira, Elton Carvalho Costa, Fernanda Domingues Gomes Martins, Alcenir Sales da Rocha, Girlandia Alexandre Brasil Jornal Brasileiro De Reproducao Assistida, 2024 Infertility is a widespread global issue that affects approximately 15% of sexually active and active couples, which contributes to about 50% of cases. Currently, the condition remains prevalent and often inadequately treated. This systematic review aims to evaluate existing studies investigating the effects of probiotic supplementation in men. A comprehensive search was conducted across major databases, including PubMed, Cochrane, Science Direct, and Scielo, using relevant keywords such as 'probiotic' OR 'Lactobacillus' OR 'Bifidobacterium' AND 'Male infertility' OR 'male fertility' OR 'sperm quality' OR 'sperm motility' OR 'oligoasthenoteratozoospermia' and their Portuguese equivalents. Four randomized clinical studies met the inclusion criteria, focusing on men diagnosed with idiopathic male infertility (oligozoospermia, teratozoospermia, and asthenozoospermia). The findings revealed that probiotic administration exhibited promising antioxidant properties by combating reactive oxygen species (ROS), consequently protecting sperm DNA from damage that correlates with declining sperm quality. Significant improvements were observed across all sperm parameters, with notable enhancement in motility. Consequently, probiotic supplementation emerges as a potential therapeutic alternative for men diagnosed with idiopathic infertility, demonstrating positive effects on sperm quality.
Kombucha fermentation in blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) beverage and its in vivo gastroprotective effect: Preliminary study Erica Loredo Barbosa, Maritza Cerqueira Netto, Lauro Bendel Junior, Lorena Ferreira de Moura, Girlandia Alexandre Brasil, Amanda Azevedo Bertolazi, Ewelyne Miranda de Lima, Christiane Mileib Vasconcelos Future Foods, 2022 Kombucha is a fermented beverage, usually made from green tea and/or black tea, obtained through the symbiotic growth of yeasts and bacteria with beneficial effects to health. This preliminary study developed and evaluated the protective effect of blueberry fermented and unfermented Kombucha beverages after induction of gastric ulcer in mice. We performed a physicochemical characterization of the beverages and after 15 days of intervention with the beverages, the Swiss mice were euthanized and biochemical analysis, lipid peroxidation and advanced oxidation protein products determination, and evaluation of gastrointestinal wound were performed. The results were evaluated after checking normality, by parametric or nonparametric tests, at 5% probability. The use of blueberry as an alternative substrate for fermentation of kombucha beverage was favorable in relation to the physico-chemical aspects, due to the increased phenolic compounds, tannins and anthocyanins contents in the fermented beverage. However, the fermentation caused smaller antioxidant activity when compared to the unfermented beverage. In relation to the gastroprotective effect of the fermented kombucha beverage, the biochemical parameters remained at normal levels, however, some animals showed gastric lesions in an expressive area. Further studies are needed to better understand the antioxidant potential of the blueberry fermented kombucha beverage and its gastroprotective effects.
Pretreatment with water kefir reduces thdevelopment of acidified ethanol-inducegastric ulcers Raiana Maria Prucoli Falsoni, Flavia de Souza Andrade Moraes, Mahira Sabino de Rezende, Cristiane Lyrio da Silva, Tadeu Uggere de Andrade, Girlandia Alexandre Brasil, Ewelyne Miranda de Lima Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2022 To evaluate the gastroprotective and antioxidant effects of pretreatment with water kefir on ulcers induced with HCl/ethanol. All pretreatments lasted 14 days. Male mice were separated into five groups: the control (C) group received vehicle without ulcer induction; the ulcerated (U) group received vehicle; the lansoprazole (L) group received 30 mg/kg/day lansoprazole; the water kefir (WK15 and WK30) groups received WK at a dose of 0.15 or 0.30 ml/kg/day, respectively. Gastroprotection was measured by ulcer area, ulcer index and ulcer reduction percentage. Antioxidant effects were quantified by measuring advanced oxidized protein products (AOPPs), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase activity in the stomach. Pretreatment with WK at both doses promoted gastroprotection against HCl/ethanol-induced ulcers much like the pretreatment with lansoprazole. In addition, WK decreased protein oxidation while increasing SOD and catalase activity. We concluded that pretreatment with water kefir increases the activity of antioxidant enzymes, preventing gastric lesions induced by HCl/ethanol by maintaining the antioxidant performance in gastric tissue.
Pharmaceutical services in primary health care: dissatisfaction among users, managers and pharmacists Manuela Martins Cruz, Karla Oliveira dos Santos Cassaro Heringer, Cristiane Lyrio, Girlandia Alexandre Brasil, Ewelyne Miranda de Lima, Denise Coutinho Endringer, Dominik Lenz, Ana Maria Bartels Rezende, Tadeu Uggere de Andrade Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2022 To assess the performance indicators for pharmaceutical services (PS) in primary health care (PHC), the level of satisfaction with pharmacy services among users and managers / pharmacists’ impressions in relation to the findings were evaluated. The study used mixed methods, including a retrospective and descriptive study of the performance indicators for PS in PHC, an observational study on the level of satisfaction and a qualitative study of users’ perception of pharmacy services at Health Units. Managers and pharmacists’ impressions of the study results were also collected. Only 44.4% of pharmacies had a full-time pharmacist. From the establishments visited, 5.3% did not have an air-conditioned environment, and only 33.3% of the items essential to the Good Practices of Storage of Medicines and Supplies criteria were fulfilled. Although 77.9% of the prescribed medicines were dispensed, it did not reach the 80% standard. The satisfaction level of users was 3.2±0.6, indicating dissatisfaction with pharmacies’ services. By means of an evaluation of each item within the questionnaire, it was possible to observe that variables related to pharmaceutical care presented low scores in relation to other domains, thus evidencing the fragility of the pharmaceutical- patient relationship in users’ perception. Managers and pharmacists suggested that these results were related to the inadequate physical infrastructure of pharmacies, work overload, lack of recognition and undervaluation of pharmacists, lack of interaction within the PHC team, high turnover of pharmacists, and lack of PS prioritization by the administration. PS in PHC has structural and organizational weaknesses that require changes. In general, users are dissatisfied with pharmacies’ services, especially with pharmaceutical care.
Kefir improves blood parameters and reduces cardiovascular risks in patients with metabolic syndrome Angela Camila da Silva Ghizi, Mirian de Almeida Silva, Flávia Souza de Andrade Moraes, Cristiane Lyrio da Silva, Denise Coutinho Endringer, Rodrigo Scherer, Dominik Lenz, Ewelyne Miranda de Lima, Girlandia Alexandre Brasil, June Ferreira Maia, Nazaré Souza Bissoli, Tadeu Uggere de Andrade Pharmanutrition, 2021
Antihypertensive effects of brazilian fruits Augusto Alto� Puppin, Christiane Mileib Vasconcelos, Mirian de Almeida Silva, Ewelyne Miranda Lima, Tadeu Uggere de Andrade, Girlandia Alexandre Brasil Online Journal of Biological Sciences, 2020
