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The chemotherapeutic all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) used in the treatment of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia has adverse effects on its oral administration, with which we incorporated a system of drugs, the nanocapsules, in order to have a possible improvement in solubility, photosensitivity, lower toxicity, generating pharmacological efficacy. The objective was to evaluate and compare the hemolytic and coagulation activity of the free drug (AL), nanoencapsulated (NA) and the white nanocapsules (NB) by analyzing the results of hemolysis, Prothrombin Time (PT) and Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT). We developed a prospective study of treatments at different concentrations of 0.25; 0.5; 1.0; 1.5; 2.0; 2.5 μg/mL. For the first test, all concentrations showed hemolytic activity, but when compared to NA with ATRA it is observed that these carriers induced lower hemolytic toxicity. In the PT test the nanoparticles at the two lowest concentrations remained in the physiological range (12 - 15 seconds). For the APTT test the three lowest concentrations remained within the control (25 - 35 seconds). Thus, we believe there is a promising benefit of using these nanoparticles developed and no doubt further studies will be performed to confirm the responses obtained here.

Hospital Infection is a major health problem and affects around 1.5 million people annually around the world. The Amazon region has a wide diversity of native palm trees that have fruits and oilseeds. Astrocaryum vulgare, commonly known as Tucumã in Brazil, belongs to the family Arecaceae. This palm has orange, fleshy, single-egg-shaped fruits that are used for therapeutic purposes in diseases of the eyes and skin due to the high content of carotenoids, oil is used in cooking, health treatment and massage. This study evaluated the antimicrobial activity of the Tucumã oil against 18 microorganisms. The antimicrobial activity of Tucumã was measured through the determination of the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), as well as the determination of the Minimum Microbicidal Concentration (CMM) aiming to contribute to the discovery of new antimicrobials against pathogenic microorganisms’ human health and may contribute to the treatment of nosocomial infections. The results showed that the oil of Tucumã presented antimicrobial activity against five important bacteria, four Gram - positive bacteria (Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus agalactiae) and one Gram - negative (Acinetobacter baumannii).

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a cancer pharmacologically treated with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), although well tolerated by most patients, some develop toxicity to ATRA, Differentiation Syndrome. The Amazon Biome has several fruits and oil plants rich in micronutrients, particularly carotenoids as the fruit tucumã (Astrocaryum aculeatum). This study analyzed the antitumor and cytoprotective activity of tucumã with and without concomitant exposure of ATRA in high concentration mimicking the toxicity of differentiation syndrome, as the potential cytotoxic effect of chemotherapeutic in an APL cell line. The cultured NB4 cells were exposed to ethanolic extracts of tucumã and to synergism with extracts and ATRA. Determination of proliferation, cell viability, caspases 1, 3, 8 and cell differentiation by nested RT-qPCR. The ATRA control had a strong inhibitory effect and toxicity as expected. The extracts also reduced cell proliferation by triggering apoptosis in concentration-dependent and reversing chromosome translocation, especially the lowest tested concentration of tucumã pulp extract. In the synergism, extracts act to maintain the levels of viability and apoptosis equal to the ATRA control but in contrast to drug that causes death and destruction of the genetic material, tucumã demonstrated a reduction of the gene expression indicating a possible protection against the toxicity of high concentrations of ATRA. These results suggest that fruits rich in retinoid molecules may have a cytotoxic effect against APL cells and reduced concentrations of carotenoids may act as cytoprotectors in APL cells treated with high concentrations of ATRA promoting cellular/molecular differentiation.