Filipa Pinto-Ribeiro

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Verified

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• MSc, PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Minho

Preclinical studies have enjoyed a comfortable freedom in recent decades, with continuous technological advancements fostering the uncovering of mechanisms and intricate path- ways that underlie the pathophysiology of many diseases. It is often claimed that they have the potential to translate findings effectively from the laboratory to real-world...

Fear-induced antinociception (FIA), an instinctive defensive response producing pain suppression in stressful and/or dangerous situations, has been the subject of extensive research to elucidate the mechanisms involved in triggering and controlling pain during emotional disorders. In this systematic review, we synthesized pre-clinical studies that...

Renal (RC) and bladder cancers (BC) are common urological malignancies prevalent in the male population. Incidence and mortality rates are expected to increase in the near future. Drug toxicity and development of drug resistance in both diseases are major obstacles to achieve successful treatments. Chromenes are heterocyclic compounds constituted b...

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Chronic pain is one of the most important public health concerns, greatly impacting the patients’ quality of life and with high societal and economical costs. Despite advances in the understanding of pain mechanisms and the establishment of several strategies to decrease pain severity in patients, there continues to be a substantial proportion of p...

Introduction: Asthma is a condition of airflow limitation, common throughout the world, with high mortality rates, especially as it still faces some obstacles in its management. As it constitutes a public health challenge, this study aimed to investigate the effect of copaiba oil (e.g., Copaifera langsdorffii), as a treatment resource, at doses of...

Background In March 2020, the outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus was declared a pandemic, resulting in numerous fatalities worldwide. To effectively combat the virus, it would be beneficial to involve professionals who specialize in symptom control for advanced illnesses, working closely with other specialties throughout the illness process. T...

Osteoarthritis (OA) persistently activates nociceptors, leading to chronic pain, which is often accompanied by the comorbid development of emotional impairments (anxiety and depression), an effect associated with microgliosis. Baccharis dracunculifolia DC (Asteraceae), a Brazilian edible plant, is an important source of active compounds with anti-i...

Genista tridentata (L.) Willk., known as “prickled broom”, is a Leguminosae (Fabaceae) species native to the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It is used in folk medicine as an anti-inflammatory, for gastrointestinal and respiratory disorders, rheumatism, and headaches, to lower blood pressure, against hypercholesterolemia and hyper...

Anhedonia is described as a decreased ability to experience rewarding and enjoyable activities, a core symptom of major depressive disorder. The sucrose preference test (SPT) is a widely used and reliable behavioural test to assess anhedonia in rodents, based on a two-bottle choice paradigm. To date, different protocols are in use, inducing variabi...

Background: The outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus was considered pandemic in March 2020, having already caused numerous deaths across the planet. Being able to cause diseases ranging from indolent to extremely symptomatic and life-threatening, it would be clearly beneficial to introduce professionals specialised in symptom control in advanced...

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common joint disorder worldwide, is characterized by progressive degeneration of articular and periarticular structures, leading to physical and emotional impairments that greatly affect the quality of life of patients. Unfortunately, no therapy has been able to halt the progression of the disease. Owing to the complex...

Intermittent fasting (IF) is an emerging dietetic intervention that has been associated with improved metabolic parameters. Nowadays, the most common IF protocols are Alternate-Day Fasting (ADF) and Time-Restricted Fasting (TRF), but in this review and meta-analysis we have also considered Religious Fasting (RF), which is similar to TRF but against...

This work investigated the effects of inorganic mercury (iHg) and methylmercury (MeHg) on the fish optic tectum morphology, viz. in relation to: (i) vulnerability of specific optic tectum layers; (ii) preferential targeting of Hg forms to neurons or glial cells; (iii) comparative toxicity of iHg and MeHg in this brain area that is in the maintenanc...

Pterospartum tridendatum is an important source of active compounds with anti-inflammatory properties. The ability of P. tridentatum leaves methanolic extract in preventing/reversing inflammation was studied in adult rats using a model of experimental osteoarthritis (OA) and ear edema. Control animals (SHAM) were administered phosphate buffer solut...

Energy production by cancer is driven by accelerated glycolysis, independently of oxygen levels, which results in increased lactate production. Lactate is shuttled to and from cancer cells via monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs). MCT1 works both as an importer and an extruder of lactate, being widely studied in recent years and generally associated...

Osteoarthritis (OA), a progressive degenerative disease of weight-bearing joints, is the second leading cause of disability in the world. Despite all the advances and research over the last years, none of the proposed strategies has been effective in generating functional and long-lasting tissue. Due to the high prevalence of OA and the urgent need...

Do total de óbitos por COVID-19 registados entre maio de 2020 e maio de 2021,1 65,8% ocorreram na faixa etária acima dos 80 anos e 21,3% entre os 70 e 79 anos. Sendo a idade um fator de risco para contrair COVID-19, e sabendo- -se que a mortalidade é maior em idosos e pacientes com doenças crónicas ou malignas,2 poder-se-á depreender o impacto da p...

Anhedonia is the decreased ability to experience pleasure from rewarding or enjoyable activities, a core symptom of depression. The sucrose preference test (SPT), based on a two-bottle choice paradigm, is a widely used behavioural paradigm for the evaluation of anhedonia in rodents. Up to now, different protocols have been reported regarding water/...

Galanin is a neuropeptide expressed in a small percentage of sensory neurons of the dorsal root ganglia and the superficial lamina of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. In this work, we systematically reviewed the literature regarding the role of galanin and its receptors in nociception at the spinal and supraspinal levels, as well as in chronic p...

Proliferating cancer cells have high energy demands, which is mainly obtained through glycolysis. The transmembrane trafficking of lactate, a major metabolite produced by glycolytic cancer cells, relies on monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs). MCT1 optimally imports lactate, although it can work bidirectionally, and its activity has been linked to c...

Aims Stem cell therapies emerged as treatment modalities with potential to cure neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). However, despite high expectations, their clinical use is still limited. Critical issues in treatment outcomes may be related to stem cells formulation and administration route. We develop a hydrogel as a cell carrier, consisting of com...

Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women worldwide. Adherence to breast cancer screening guidelines is frequently lower in racial, ethnic and cultural minority populations and is affected by potential inequities or barriers to screening that these minorities face. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to collect information fro...

Objectives: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative musculoskeletal disease that causes articular damage and chronic pain, with a prevalence of up to 50% in individuals >60 years of age. Patients suffering from chronic painful conditions, including OA, also frequently report anxiety or depression. A systematic review and meta-analysis were pe...

Objectives Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative musculoskeletal disease that causes articular damage and chronic pain, with a prevalence of up to 50% in individuals >60 years of age. Patients suffering from chronic painful conditions, including OA, also frequently report anxiety or depression. A systematic review and meta-analysis were per...

Chronic neuropathic pain affects 7–10 % of the population and is often accompanied by comorbid emotional disorders, which greatly reduce the quality of life of the patients, impairing physical, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning. Despite the higher prevalence and severity of chronic pain in women, the number of publications using female a...

Biological agents that neutralize the activity of pro-inflammatory cytokines are revolutionizing the treatment of inflammatory conditions. However, the antibodies (Abs) short half-life and off-target distribution critically limit their efficacy and safety. Therefore, this work proposes the immobilization of anti-TNF-α and anti-IL-6 Abs at the surfa...

Celiac disease (CD) is a multisystemic autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten, and the only known remedy available for this malady is a gluten-free diet (GFD). Therefore, we performed a systematic review to correlate the influence of different factors in compliance to a GFD. We searched PubMed database, from inception to April 2019. As inclusion c...

Background and objective: Emotional and cognitive impairments are common comorbidities of chronic neuropathic pain that significantly impact the quality of life of patients. While the nociceptive components of the peripheral nerve chronic constriction injury (CCI) animal model have been extensively analyzed, data related to the development of mood...

Background: the presence of liver metastasis in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the most significant prognostic factors. Objective: systematically review the results of studies evaluating the benefit of adding bevacizumab to a normal chemotherapy regime in the survival of patients with colorectal-cancer liver metastasis (CRLM). Search method...

Background: Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the world. A raised incidence and mortality parallel a low participation rate in screening, namely screening in poor countries and among specific populations of developed countries. Cervical or vaginal self-sampling may increase adherence to screening due to its low costs and elevated...

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women living in developing countries that account high HPV incidence and mortality rates. Vaccinating girls between 9 and 14 years old is supposed to be the most cost-effective public health approach against cervical cancer. This systematic review aims to assess the application and coverage of the...

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women living in developing countries that account high HPV incidence and mortality rates. Vaccinating girls between 9 and 14 years old is supposed to be the most cost-effective public health approach against cervical cancer. This systematic review aims to assess the application and coverage of the...

Osteoarthritis (OA), a progressive multifactorial degenerative joint disease, affects millions of people worldwide. [1] Pro-inflammatory cytokines, especially tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), play a crucial role in inflammation and cartilage destruction. Since human monoclonal antibodies (Abs) prevent cytokines role in infl...

Chronic neuropathic pain, affecting 7-10% of the population, is often accompanied by comorbid emotional impairments (depression/anxiety) that adversely affect pain by enhancing nociceptive symptomatology. This condition greatly reduces the quality of life of the patients, as it impairs physical, cognitive, emotional and social functioning, conseque...

This study examined the susceptibility of fish (Liza aurata) eyes and brain to metals(loids) contamination under realistic exposure conditions. A multidimensional approach was applied to fish caught at a chronically contaminated site (BAR) and at a reference site of the Tagus estuary (Portugal), which comprised metals(loids) accumulation in eyes an...

Mercury (Hg) is a potent neurotoxicant known to induce important adverse effects on fish, but a deeper understanding is lacking regarding how environmental exposure affects the brain morphology and neural plasticity of specific brain regions in wild specimens. In this work, it was evaluated the relative volume and cell density of the lateral palliu...

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The importance of the limbic-cognitive component of pain has recently been highlighted with increasing evidence showing the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in pain processing. Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) partly mediates mPFC output and regulates its activity in pain. mGluR5 are present not only in neurons but also in astr...

A common and devastating complication of diabetes mellitus is painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) that can be accompanied by emotional disorders such as depression. A few studies have suggested that minocycline that inhibits microglia may attenuate pain hypersensitivity in PDN. Moreover, a recent study reported that minocycline has an acute antidepre...

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) activation in the infralimbic cortex (IL) induces pronociceptive behavior in healthy and monoarthritic rats. Here we studied whether the medullary dorsal reticular nucleus (DRt) and the spinal TRPV1 are mediating the IL/mGluR5-induced spinal pronociception and whether the facilitation of pain behavior is c...

The current study aims to shed light on the neurotoxicity of MeHg in fish (white seabream − Diplodus sargus) by the combined assessment of: (i) MeHg toxicokinetics in the brain, (ii) brain morphometry (volume and number of neurons plus glial cells in specific brain regions) and (iii) fish swimming behavior (endpoints associated with the motor perfo...

The pathological study of the placenta is of upmost importance in cases of unexplained fetal/perinatal loss andoften these carry litigation implications. Integrating pathological findings and the underlying pathophysiologicalprocesses, leading to placental lesions, is fundamental for the evaluation of poor fetal and perinatal outcomes and todisting...

The pathological study of the placenta is of upmost importance in cases of unexplained fetal/perinatal loss and often these carry litigation implications. Integrating pathological findings and the underlying pathophysiological processes, leading to placental lesions, is fundamental for the evaluation of poor fetal and perinatal outcomes and to dist...

The pathological study of the placenta is of upmost importance in cases of unexplained fetal/perinatal loss and often these carry litigation implications. Integrating pathological findings and the underlying pathophysiological processes, leading to placental lesions, is fundamental for the evaluation of poor fetal and perinatal outcomes and to dist...

Activation of the dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (DMH) by galanin (GAL) induces behavioural hyperalgesia. Since DMH neurones do not project directly to the spinal cord, we hypothesized that the medullary dorsal reticular nucleus (DRt), a pronociceptive region projecting to the spinal dorsal horn (SDH) and/or the serotoninergic raphe-spinal...

The involvement of the prefrontal cortex in pain processing has been recently addressed. We studied the role of the infralimbic cortex (IL) and group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in descending modulation of nociception in control and monoarthritic (ARTH) conditions. Nociception was assessed using heat-induced paw withdrawal while dru...

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Animal models of chronic pain have provided valuable information on the mechanisms of initiation and maintenance of the disease. Much of the research effort has targeted sensory abnormalities like hyperalgesia and allodynia. However, in the past 15 years a significant number of research groups have focused their attention on comorbid anxiety, depre...

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), an area primarily involved in cognition, participates in the descending modulation of pain. It is also known that metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR) partly mediate the output activity of this area. Previous work from our group has highlighted the pronociceptive role of mGluR5 in the infralimbic area (IL) of the me...

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Promoting environmental and health education is crucial to allow students to make conscious decisions based on scientific criteria. The study is based on the outcomes of an Educational Project implemented with Portuguese students and consisted of several activities, exploring pre-existent Scientific Gardens at the School, aiming to investigate the...

Introduction In chronic pain disorders, galanin (GAL) is able to either facilitate or inhibit nociception in the spinal cord but the contribution of supraspinal galanin to pain signalling is mostly unknown. The dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (DMH) is rich in galanin receptors (GALR) and is involved in behavioural hyperalgesia. In this stud...

Background: Tau protein hyperphosphorylation and consequent malfunction is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease pathology; importantly, pain perception is diminished in these patients. In physiological conditions, Tau contributes to cytoskeletal dynamics and in this way, influences a number of cellular mechanisms including axonal trafficking, myelinat...

Introduction: Mitral valve repair is feasible for all patients with mitral regurgitation and its advantages are well documented; however, there is general agreement that it is technically demanding and that success rates are related to volume/ experience centers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and echocardiographic mid-term outc...

Aim of Investigation: Pain is a vital mechanism that aims at controlling damage by promoting evasive behaviors. Beside a sensitive component, nociceptive processing also includes an important emotional and cognitive component mediated by areas of the limbic system, such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC). In this work we analyzed electrophysiologically...

We characterized response properties of neurons in the caudal ventrolateral medulla (CVLM), a structure involved in pain modulation. Electrophysiological recordings were performed in pentobarbitone-anesthetized control and monoarthritic rats. Noxious pinch, heat, cold and colorectal distension were used for peripheral test stimulation. To study cen...

Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) is a late-onset neurodegenerative disorder caused by a polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion in the ataxin-3 protein. We generated two transgenic mouse lineages expressing the expanded human ataxin-3 under the control of the CMV promoter: CMVMJD83 and CMVMJD94, carrying Q83 and Q94 stretches, respectively. Behavioral analysis...

While acute effects of stress on pain are well described, those produced by chronic stress are still a matter of dispute. Previously we demonstrated that chronic unpredictable stress results in antinociception in the tail-flick test, an effect that is mediated by increased levels of corticosteroids. In the present study, we evaluated nociception in...

Painful diabetic neuropathy is associated to hyperexcitability and spontaneous hyperactivity of spinal cord neurons. The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms are not clear. Increases in excitatory neurotransmission at the spinal cord, involving glutamate and SP, seem to account for the abnormal neuronal activity, but inhibitory influences were...

Chronic pain is associated with the development of affective disorders but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Changes in brain centres implicated in both emotional and pain processing are likely to be critical in the interplay of pain control and affective emotional behaviour. In the present study, we assessed emotional behaviour a...

We studied the influence of arthritis on descending modulation of nociception from the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) in the rat. Spinal nociception was assessed by the heat-evoked limb withdrawal in awake animals while neuronal responses were recorded in a potential brainstem relay, the rostroventromedial medulla (RVM), under pentobarb...

Depression is commonly observed in patients with chronic pain. Pain can be divided into a sensitive and emotional component processed by different neural circuitries; the emotional component is largely modulated by the structures within the limbic system. The consolidation of pain-related aversive behaviours is attributed to the anterior cingulated...

Chronic stress elicits remarkable alterations to the structure and function of several areas of the central nervous system. Nociception is known to be affected by chronic stress and age, although the observations are contradictory. Herein we report that both young and old rats submitted to a chronic unpredictable stress paradigm have reduced nocice...