Paula Alexandra da Silva Jorge

University of Minho · Centre of Biological Engineering (CEB)

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have a broad spectrum of activity and unspecific mechanisms of action. Therefore, they are seen as valid alternatives to overcome clinically relevant biofilms and reduce the chance of acquired resistance. This paper reviews AMPs and anti-biofilm AMP-based strategies and discusses ongoing and future work. Recent studies...

Considerable research efforts are being invested in the development of novel antimicrobial therapies effective against the growing number of multi-drug resistant pathogens. Notably, the combination of different agents is increasingly explored as means to exploit and improve individual agent actions while minimizing microorganism resistance. Althoug...

Quorum sensing plays a pivotal role in Pseudomonas aeruginosa's virulence. This paper reviews experimental results on antimicrobial strategies based on quorum sensing inhibition and discusses current targets in the regulatory network that determines P. aeruginosa biofilm formation and virulence. A bioinformatics framework combining literature minin...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a silent pandemic that presents an urgent threat to human health. Recently, polymyxins have been revived as a last-line therapeutic option, despite their toxicity. As such, there is a need for fast and reliable approaches to devise novel polymyxin analogues. In this work, machine learning was employed to devise a s...

This work describes the preparation, characterization, and antimicrobial properties of bioactive silver(i) and copper(ii) coordination polymers (bioCPs) and derived biopolymer materials. Two bioCPs, [Ag2(μ6-sdba)]n (1) and [Cu(μ4-sdba)H2O]n·1.5nH2O (2), were assembled from metal salt precursors and 4,4′-sulfonyldibenzoic acid (H2sdba). Both compoun...

Degradable copper(II)-doped starch-based biopolymeric films with antibacterial activity.

The search for new bioactive molecules and sustainable materials to address antimicrobial resistance continues to be of significant attention in many research areas. In this work, new copper(ii) coordination polymers and complexes containing ammonia and aromatic carboxylate ligands were self-assembled, characterized, and applied as bioactive dopant...

This study describes the preparation, characterization, and antimicrobial properties of novel hybrid biopolymer materials doped with bioactive silver(I) coordination polymers (bioCPs). Two new bioCPs, [Ag2(μ6-hfa)]n (1) and [Ag2(μ4-nda)(H2O)2]n (2), were assembled from Ag2O and homophthalic (H2hfa) or 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic (H2nda) acids as un...

Gene therapy and DNA vaccination are among the most expected biotechnological and medical advances for the coming years. However, the lack of cost-effective large-scale production and purification of pharmaceutical-grade plasmid DNA (pDNA) still hampers their wide application. Downstream processing, which is mainly chromatography-based, of pDNA rem...

This study describes a template-mediated self-assembly synthesis, full characterization, and structural features of two new silver-based bioactive coordination polymers (CPs) and their immobilization into acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (ESOA) biopolymer films for antimicrobial applications. The 3D silver(I) CPs [Ag4(μ8-H2pma)2] n ·4nH2O (1) and [...

Antimicrobial therapy is facing a worrisome and underappreciated challenge, the phenomenon of heteroresistance (HR). HR has been gradually documented in clinically relevant pathogens (e.g. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Burkholderia spp., Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Candida spp.) towards several drugs and is beli...

Modern medicine is currently facing huge setbacks concerning infection therapeutics as microorganisms are consistently knocking down every antimicrobial wall set before them. The situation becomes more worrying when taking into account that, in both environmental and disease scenarios, microorganisms present themselves as biofilm communities that a...

The polymicrobial nature of most infections is often characterized by complex biofilm communities, where pathogen interactions promote infection progression and severity. Quorum-sensing, the major regulator of virulence and inter-species communication, is a promising target for new anti-infective strategies. This study aimed at collecting and analy...

Worldwide, infections are resuming their role as highly effective killing diseases, as current treatments are failing to respond to the growing problem that is antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The social and economical burden of AMR seems ever rising, with health- and research-related organizations rushing to collaborate on a worldwide scale to find...

Growing antimicrobial resistance and the resilience of biofilm infections have led researchers to study the potential of antimicrobial combinations, including those incorporating enzymes with biofilm-disrupting abilities. This work aimed to evaluate the journey of antimicrobial–enzyme combination research and to gain insights into its current statu...

The complex virulence attributes of Candida albicans are an attractive target to exploit in the development of new antifungals and anti-virulence strategies to combat C. albicans infections. Particularly, quorum-sensing (QS) has been reported as critical for virulence regulation in C. albicans. This work presents two knowledge networks with up-to-d...

Antimicrobial combinations involving antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) attract considerable attention within current antimicrobial and anti-resistance research. The objective of this study was to review the available scientific literature on the effects of antimicrobial combinations involving colistin (polymyxin E), polymyxin B and nisin, which are US...

Antimicrobial research is being pressured to look for more effective therapeutics for the ever-growing antibiotic-resistant infections, and antimicrobial peptides (AMP) and antimicrobial combinations are promising solutions. This work evaluates colistin-AMP combinations against two major pathogens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus,...

Background: The combination of antimicrobial products is a promising biomedical strategy against the ever growing number of resistant strains emerging in healthcare and community settings. Agents with alternative modes of action, such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), and the efficacy of combined actions are being evaluated. Despite the availabilit...

Biofilm research is growing more diverse and dependent on high-throughput technologies, and the large-scale production of results aggravates data substantiation. In particular, experimental protocols are often adapted to meet the needs of a particular laboratory, and no statistical validation of the modified method is provided. This paper discusses...

The exploration of new antimicrobial combinations is a pressing concern for Clinical Microbiology due to the growing number of resistant strains emerging in healthcare settings and in the general community. Researchers are screening agents with alternative modes of action and interest is rising for the potential of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Th...