Salivary glands adenoid cystic carcinoma: a molecular profile update and potential implications

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is an aggressive tumor with a high propensity for distant metastasis and perineural invasion. This tumor is more commonly found in regions of the head and neck, mainly the salivary glands. In general, the primary treatment modality for ACC is surgical resection and, in some cases, postoperative radiotherapy. However, no effective systemic treatment is available for patients with advanced disease. Furthermore, this tumor type is characterized by recurrent molecular alterations, especially rearrangements involving the MYB, MYBL1, and NFIB genes. In addition, they also reported copy number alterations (CNAs) that impact genes. One of them is C-KIT, mutations that affect signaling pathways such as NOTCH, PI3KCA, and PTEN, as well as alterations in chromatin remodeling genes. The identification of new molecular targets enables the development of specific therapies. Despite ongoing investigations into immunotherapy, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and anti-angiogenics, no systemic therapy is approved by the FDA for ACC. In this review, we report the genetic and cytogenetic findings on head and neck ACC, highlighting possible targets for therapeutic interventions.

Parasitic contamination in the soil of public parks from northern Brazil

Public parks are an important source of contamination by parasites due to the high flow of people and animals. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of intestinal parasites in the soil of public parks from Belém, northern Brazil, as well as compare the degrees of parasitism in squares analyzed, the frequency of parasites found according to parasitological methods and verify the conditions of squares on collection day. This was a cross-sectional analytical study carried out during October 2020. The forty samples from four squares were analyzed by Hoffman, Faust and Baermman modified methods. The results showed that 72.5% of samples were parasitized and 100% of squares were contaminated with intestinal parasites. Moreover, polyparasitism was predominant in contaminated samples and Baermann-Moraes method was the most sensitive in the detection of helminths. Blastocystis hominis (47.2%) and hookworms (52.5%) were the most found species. Thus, this study showed parasitic contamination in all of the squares analyzed, which may be associated with poor sanitary from the city of Belém and reinforce the adoption of preventive measures to reduce the parasitic contamination on squares.