ESS - LRP - Posters apresentados em eventos científicos
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- ViruScopeDB: a comprehensive multi-omics database for highly infectious virusesPublication . Lima, Ana; Carneiro, João; Sousa, Sérgio; Sá, Vítor; Pratas, Diogo; Sá, Vítor J.Highly infectious viruses such as HIV, Ebola, and SARS-CoV-2 have presented ongoing challenges to global health. Consequently, the optimization of rapid detection tests, including PCR, and the identification of new therapeutic targets remain of paramount importance. The development of genomic and proteomic databases like the HIV Oligonucleotide Database (HIVoligoDB) [1], EbolaID [2], and CoV2ID [3] has facilitated the accumulation and accessibility of knowledge through comprehensive, user-friendly, open-access platforms. This study aims to update, expand, and integrate these databases into a single resource, ViruScopeDB, while conducting thorough analyses of informative genomic regions with the goal of enhancing viral detection methods and treatment strategies. Complete genomic sequence variants for each virus were compiled using NCBI Virus, followed by multiple sequence alignment via MAFFT within the Galaxy platform. The alignments were consequently uploaded to Geneious Prime for complete genome visualization and calculation of parameters such as percentage of pairwise identity. Primer data was extracted from open-access research articles available on PubMed using a newly-built custom pipeline for PDF to plain text conversion followed by data mining of oligonucleotide sequences. A fully automated script for primer validation, parameter scoring and calculation of best primer pairs for PCR is being constructed for subsequent upload into the database. A total of 658 sequences with a mean length of 18,910 base pairs (bp) were collected for Ebolavirus, with percentage of pairwise identity (PPI) of 91.7%. 7,261 sequences with a mean length of 8,883 bp, with a PPI of 80.8% were identified for HIV-1. For HIV-2, 43 sequences with an average of 10,108 bp and PPI of 80.9% were analyzed. For Ebola, a total of 709 primers were scraped from 257 articles, and for HIV articles this number rises to 10,290 primers collected from 2,579 articles. Using a combination of preexistent and novel custom-built bioinformatics tools, it was possible to data mine key information related to each virus and their variants, as well as collect primer information for possible PCR optimizations. Further analysis will be conducted on the data collected, branching out into the realm of phylogenetics and 3D modelling/viral protein docking, in order to construct a database that is transversal to various omics.
- Neurophysiological markers of cardiac interoceptive processing in expectant parents: a study with heartbeat-evoked potentialsPublication . Braga, Patrícia Vilela; Marshall, Amanda; Lamela, Diogo; Jongenelen, Inês; Rocha, Nuno Barbosa; Costa, Raquel; Pasion, Rita; Schütz-Bosbach, Simone; Pinto, Tiago Miguel; Feldman, Ruth; Campos, Carlos; Campos, Carlos; Rocha, NunoPregnancy and parenthood are associated with functional and morphological brain changes. Specifically, the parental caregiving network encompasses key structures implicated in interoception, that is, the ability to perceive and subjectively experience inner bodily states. Interoceptive processing may be critical for successful caregiving, allowing parents to integrate perceived changes in their own bodily states with information stemming from their child. Thus, it is feasible to hypothesize that pregnancy-related neurophysiological changes can modify interoception in expectant parents. Objective: To compare neural markers of cortical interoceptive processing (heartbeat-evoked potentials; HEP) between first-time expectant parents (mothers and fathers) and matched non-parents. First-time expectant heterosexual couples at 26-34 weeks gestational age (n = 70) and matched non-parents (n = 140, 70 female) will complete a multilevel interoception assessment protocol. Neural markers of interoception will be indexed by HEP, that is, neurophysiological responses to cardiac afferent inputs which are obtained through electroencephalography recordings (EEG) time-locked to electrocardiography events (ECG). HEP will be recorded while participants complete the Baby Face Repetition Suppression Paradigm in which sad or neutral infant facial expressions are either repeated or alternated in a 500 ms interstimulus interval. This manipulation induces an emotion-specific repetition modulation on HEP amplitude (differential effects for sad vs. neutral facial expressions). A condition with adult facial expressions will be employed to examine domain-general vs. infant-specific effects. Expectant parents will display increased allocation of neural resources to interoceptive inputs (larger repetition-induced HEP modulation) in contrast to non-parents, particularly when considering infant facial expressions. Effect sizes will be larger when contrasting sad vs. neutral infant facial expressions. Findings from this pioneering study will provide further understanding of the parental brain and the role of interoception during pregnancy, contributing to the comprehension of complex processes involved in caregiving and the development of the parent-infant bond.
- Cardiac interoceptive processing across psychopathy dimensions: evidence from the heartbeat tapping task and the attentional modulation of heartbeat-evoked potentialsPublication . Campos, Carlos; Sá, Catarina; Mazer, Prune; Pasion, Rita; Garcez, Helena; Paiva, Tiago O.; Braga, Patrícia Vilela; Rocha, Nuno Barbosa; Barbosa, Fernando; Rocha, Nuno; Campos, CarlosPsychopathy is a multidimensional personality structure encompassing interpersonal, affective, and behavioral traits. Interoception (ability to perceive and subjectively experience inner bodily states) may be a putative mechanism underlying the etiological pathways of psychopathy. Individual differences in interoceptive processing across psychopathy dimensions may interfere with the ability to perceive somatic sensations that signal the emotional valence of everyday events. To examine the association between psychopathy dimensions (triarchic phenotypes - boldness, meanness, and disinhibition; classical 4-facets - interpersonal, affective, impulsive, antisocial) and cardiac interoceptive processing, namely objectively measured cardiac interoceptive attention and accuracy. Fifty community-dwelling participants (25 women) were recruited and completed: (a) self-report measures indexing psychopathy, trait-based interoceptive attention and accuracy, and alexithymia; (b) modified Heartbeat Tapping Task to index cardiac interoceptive accuracy, where subjects were required to tap after each heartbeat under rest and breath hold conditions (the latter enhanced the magnitude of cardiac signals); (c) modified Heartbeat Attention Task for producing an attentional modulation of heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEP) - neuronal markers of cardiac interoceptive processing - where subjects were required to allocate their attention on their heart vs. an exteroceptive stimulus (objective measure of interoceptive attention). Cardiac interoception was only significantly related to boldness traits. Boldness was positively associated with cardiac interoceptive accuracy after the breath hold manipulation (non-significant after controlling for heart rate), despite no significant effects being observed at rest. Boldness was also negatively correlated with the attentional modulation of HEP due to atypical neuronal responses when allocating attentional resources to the heart. The current findings implicate cardiac interoception in the boldness phenotype, as this psychopathy dimension was associated with enhanced interoceptive-specific perceptual sensitivity and atypical neuronal responses to cardiac afferent inputs when attending to heart-related sensations. Future studies should examine how other interoceptive modalities (e.g., respiratory, gastric) are implicated in psychopathy.
- Comprehensive multi-omics database for highly infectious viruses: a focus on HIV, Ebola and SARS-CoV-2Publication . Lima, A. S.; Carneiro, J.; Sousa, S.; Sá, Vítor Júlio; Pratas, D.Highly infectious viruses, such as HIV, Ebola, and SARS-CoV-2, continue to pose significant threats to global health, underlining the urgent need for new therapeutic approaches. Recent advancements in genomic and proteomic databases, along with 3D homology modelling, have enabled detailed simulations of virus-host interactions, providing insights into infection mechanisms and helping identify potential therapeutic targets. This study aimed to create a unified database of highly infectious viruses and to conduct structural analyses of key viral proteins to explore potential therapeutic strategies. Structural information for proteins involved in the infection process was sourced from the Protein Data Bank and UniProt, while 3D homology models for significant viral variants were generated using AlphaFold. The quality of these models was assessed using AlphaFold-specific metrics, including pLDDT (per-residue confidence scores) and PAE (predicted aligned error), ensuring the structural reliability for further analyses. Identification of the most relevant structural changes was done through alanine scanning in Schrödinger’s Biologic Suite, with posterior studies on how those changes affected the infection process. Simulations of virus-host interactions were conducted using docking algorithms, namely HADDOCK, with visualizations performed using PyMOL. This integrative approach highlights high-confidence therapeutic targets and provides a foundation for developing novel effective treatments for highly infectious diseases.
- A multi-omics and primer database for virus identification: Focus on HIV, Ebola, and SARS-CoV-2Publication . Lima, A. S.; Carneiro, J.; Sousa, S.; Sá, Vítor Júlio; Pratas, D.; Sá, Vítor J.Highly infectious viruses such as HIV, Ebola, and SARS-CoV-2 have presented ongoing challenges to global health. Consequently, the optimization of rapid detection tests, including PCR, and the identification of new therapeutic targets remain of paramount importance. The development of genomic and proteomic databases like the HIV Oligonucleotide Database (HIVoligoDB), EbolaID, and CoV2ID has facilitated the accumulation and accessibility of knowledge through comprehensive, user-friendly, open-access platforms. This study aims to update, expand, and integrate these databases into a single resource, while conducting thorough analyses of informative genomic regions with the goal of enhancing viral detection methods and treatment strategies. Complete genomic sequence variants for each virus were compiled using Geneious Prime and NCBI Virus, followed by multiple sequence alignment via MAFFT within the Galaxy platform. The extraction of primers and probes from research articles was attempted using two approaches: Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically NotebookLM and DonutAI/OpenLLaMa-7b, and a classic method combining the Python package PyMuPDF4LLM for PDF data extraction with regular expressions (RegEx) for oligonucleotide identification. Preliminary testing revealed that DonutAI/OpenLLaMa-7b had the lowest accuracy, failing to correctly identify any primers. NotebookLM achieved an accuracy of 39%, while the PyMuPDF4LLM + RegEx method attained the highest accuracy at 71%, successfully identifying 85 out of 121 primers in the test batch of articles. Due to its superior performance and execution speed, the PyMuPDF4LLM + RegEx approach was selected for further refinement. This methodology improves upon previous RegEx-based techniques by eliminating the need for PDF preprocessing and refining the capture of relevant information while minimizing non-relevant captures. Future steps include cross-validation of the extracted primers against the reference genome to eliminate primers intended for other viruses and to accurately identify the binding regions of the identified oligonucleotides. Additionally, parameters such as percentage of identical sites and pairwise identity will be calculated to determine the optimal primer pairs for PCR optimization. Further structural analysis of the collected sequences will form the foundation for 3D modelling and molecular dynamics simulations.
- Mobile applications for self-management in psychotic disordersPublication . Almeida, Raquel Simões de; Marques, António; Queirós, Cristina; Sousa, Tiago; Martins, Constantino; Benevides, Daniel; Almeida, Alexandre; Pereira da Silva Marques, António José; Simões de Almeida, RaquelMental illnesses, such as psychotic disorders, have a great impact on individuals affected and on society, being one of the leading causes of disability [1]. In addition, 60% of people with such problems remain without access to mental health care and, in particular, rehabilitation programs, impairing their functionality, quality of life and social inclusion [2]. This is mainly due to the lack of resources to allow access to a comprehensive and early intervention, dedicated to not only to control symptoms, but also to enable people to live satisfactorily in the contexts they choose to live, work and socialize, enhancing their life project. With the increased economic pressure on mental health services, mHealth could reduce treatment gaps, reduce waiting time for patients and deliver interventions at lower costs. Technology advocates altering how health care is delivered in general, and in particular for chronic diseases like mental illnesses.
- Internet severity and activities questionnaire (ISAAQ): tradução e adaptação para português europeuPublication . Dores, Artemisa R.; Antunes, Cátia; Ioannidis, Konstantinos; Lochner, Christine; Geraldo, Andreia,; Carvalho, Irene P.; Marques, AntónioA internet, ao potenciar comportamentos que se podem configurar como adições comportamentais, pode ter efeitos particularmente negativos em grupos vulneráveis que importa compreender melhor (Fineberg et al., 2018; Dores et al., 2021). Por se tratar de uma área recente, o reduzido número de instrumentos padronizados disponíveis para o seu estudo tem sido uma limitação, designadamente em Portugal. Este trabalho tem como objetivo traduzir, adaptar para Português Europeu o Internet Severity and Activities Questionnaire (ISAAQ; Ioannidis et al., 2023; Omrawo et al., 2023) e estudar as propriedades psicométricas da nova versão. Participaram neste estudo 590 estudantes do Ensino Superior (ES), sendo 502 do género feminino (85.1%). Responderam a um inquérito online, constituído por questões sociodemográficas, e pelos instrumentos ISAAQ, Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) e Internet Gaming Disorder Scale –Short-Form (IGDS9-SF). Procedeu-se à tradução, retroversão e adaptação do instrumento original, parte A – Escala de Severidade e Parte B – Escala de Atividades Online. Foi analisada a consistência interna, a fiabilidade teste-reteste, efetuada a análise fatorial exploratória (AFE), e calculadas a validade convergente e a validade de critério. Foi efetuada a correlação entre as características sociodemográficas e o ISAAQ, e uma análise de frequências da secção B do instrumento. Resultados: A consistência interna revlou-se quase excelente (α = .892). A validade convergente do ISAAQ foi estabelecida através de uma correlação alta com o IAT e a validade do critério foi estabelecida através de uma correlação moderada com o número de horas diárias despendidas nas redes sociais. Os participantes do género feminino e os participantes com doença mental obtiveram pontuações mais altas na secção A do ISAAQ. O mesmo sucedeu com os utilizadores das redes sociais Instagram, Twitter e TikTok. Foi estabelecida uma correlação significativa positiva baixa entre as pontuações do BSMAS e do IGDS-9. O instrumento apresentou boas propriedades psicométricas, revelando-se um instrumento válido e fiável para o contexto português. Em trabalhos futuros espera-se a tradução deste instrumento para outros países da Lusofonia.
- Sociodrama e e-learning na diminuição do auto-estigma em doentes psicóticosPublication . Sousa, Sara de; Fontoura, Mariana; Marques, António; Queirós, CristinaA aprendizagem com base na acção vivida no Sociodrama é marcada pela relação dos elementos do grupo, tendo como contexto a formação da competência humana, cuja ideia central é a formação de sujeitos capazes de história própria, individual e colectiva (Marra, 2004). Para Moreno a doença mental é algo que restringe a espontaneidade, que contém a pessoa doente e lhe impede a energia espontânea (Abreu, 1992). O auto-estigma conceptualizado sobretudo a partir de um conjunto de crenças negativas da pessoa diagnosticada com doença mental acerca de si própria, organizadas em torno de representações de incompetência, fragilidade (estereótipo), sentimentos de baixa auto-estima e de auto-eficácia (preconceito), impõe frequentemente graves barreiras ao processo de recuperação e consequentemente à espontaneidade, ao funcionamento e efectiva inserção social destas pessoas (Corrigan et al, 2003). No âmbito de um Projecto de Doutoramento em Psicologia na FPCEUP sobre estes temas, surge o Curso de Educação e Formação para a Vida Activa, assente numa metodologia de b-learning (sessões interactivas online realizadas à distância e sessões formativas presenciais com recurso ao Sociodrama). Este poster propõem-se apresentar um resumo dos resultados preliminares da abordagem sociodramática utilizada
- A literacia em saúde mental e o bem-estar do cuidador informal de pessoas com doença mentalPublication . Galustyan, Anna-Mariya; Gomes, Paulo Veloso; Marques, AntónioAs doenças mentais são patologias complexas e, em alguns casos, graves, sendo consideradas como a principal causa de incapacidade dos indivíduos e uma das principais causas de morbilidade a nível mundial. O cuidador informal é o indivíduo da rede social do doente que não é remunerado pelas suas funções e que tem uma relação significativa com o doente. As dificuldades como obter informação sobre a doença e os tratamentos, compreender essa informação, comunicar com o profissional de saúde/família/doente, gerir o stress e as emoções, estão relacionadas com um nível baixo de literacia em saúde mental, podendo comprometer o bem-estar e saúde do doente como também o bem-estar do próprio cuidador informal.
- Influência da vitamina B12 no sistema auditivoPublication . Lopes, Paula; Rocha, Catarina; Araújo, BeatrizDeficiência de vitamina B12 pode ocorrer em qualquer faixa etária. Um dos impactos negativos pode-se verificar, por exemplo, na audição, onde pode conduzir ao comprometimento da mielinização e de qualquer parte do sistema retrococlear. Investigar a associação entre o défice da vitamina B12 e o desenvolvimento de problemas auditivos e investigar a eficácia do tratamento através da suplementação da vitamina B12, relativamente aos problemas auditivos desenvolvidos a partir do défice deste micronutriente.