FACULDADE DE
VETERINÁRIA
Curso de Pós-Graduação em Medicina Veterinária
Área de Concentração de Higiene Veterinária e Processamento Tecnológico de
Produtos de Origem Animal
EXAME DE PROFICIÊNCIA NA LÍNGUA INGLESA PARA
INGRESSO NA PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO (2002)
NOME:____________________________________________
NOTA:_____
Instruções:
(a) Responda em português, nesta folha, as questões abaixo, com base tão-somente no texto
em anexo. Responda cada item constante das questões, separadamente.
(b) Uso de dicionário inglês-inglês será permitido durante a prova.
(c) O objetivo desta prova é avaliar a capacidade de compreensão de textos. EVITE,
portanto, traduzir literalmente frases e apresentá-las como respostas às questões, a não ser
que isso lhe tenha sido solicitado.
QUESTÕES
1. Qual é o tema central do artigo?
2. De acordo com o texto, basta uma boa alimentação para a prevenção de
quaisquer tipo de doenças. Concorde ou discorde da assertiva.
3. Qual seria a versão mais adequada para as seguintes palavras:
(a) straightforward
(b) hallmarks
(c) exert
(d) low rate
4. O autor refere que observações epidemiológicas vêem associando a presença
de estilbenos e polifenóis, na dieta humana, às baixas taxas de ocorrência de
doenças crônicas. O que o levou a esta conclusão?
5. O autor faz referência a algum tipo de estratégia que o próprio consumidor
possa tomar para se defender de doenças degenerativas tema central do texto?
6. De acordo com o texto, as doenças degenerativas são agudas e, portanto,
nenhum tipo de alimento poderia controlar-lhes o surto. Concorde ou discorde
da assertiva.
7. Hipócrates discordava de que a aquisição da saúde estaria atrelada a uma boa
alimentação. Concorde ou discorde da assertiva.
8. O autor relata a necessidade de pesquisas futuras, visando estabelecer
dosagens, interações sinergéticas ou antagonísticas com outros componentes
do alimento. Você acha que procede esta idéia, tendo como base a leitura do
texto?
9. Traduza a seguinte frase retirada do texto (2 pontos):
“Anti-angiogenic functional foods are foods or food ingredients that exert their
disease-preventive activity, at least in part, by inhibiting angiogenesis (growth of
new blood cells). Epidemiologic observations have associated the presence of
stilbenes and polyphenols in the diet to low rate of chronic diseases. The beneficial
properties of polyphenols and stilbenes are well documented and include inhibition
of mutagenesis and tumor growth”.
FACULDADE DE
VETERINÁRIA
Curso de Pós-Graduação em Medicina Veterinária
Área de Concentração de Higiene Veterinária e Processamento Tecnológico de
Produtos de Origem Animal
EXAME DE PROFICIÊNCIA NA LÍNGUA INGLESA PARA
INGRESSO NA PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO (2002)
Preventing Degenerative Diseases by Anti-Angiogenic
Functional Foods
The concept that “food is medicine” is common to many cultures. Minora Shirota,
the founder of Yakult Honsha, in Japan, had a straightforward philosophy: “ Prevent
disease rather than treat disease; a healthy intestine leads to a long life; and deliver
health benefits to as many people as possible at an affordable price”. This philosophy,
elaborated almost half a century ago, is becoming more valid now than ever before. At the
present level of scientific knowledge, the best strategy to cure chronic degenerative
diseases is to prevent them.
Inflammation, basement membrane degradation, endothelial cell proliferation and
migration, angiogenesis or neovascularization, metastasis, huge healthcare costs, and
painful death are the hallmarks of degenerative diseases such as arthritis, coronary
heart disease, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis, age-related macular degeneration, and
cancer. Most chronic diseases are the result of disrupted homeostatic balance between
enzymes and their inhibitors, developing over a period of many years, with different
enzymes being associated at different steps of disease onset and/or progression.
Our current understanding of the mechanism of degenerative disease progression
has developed to a stage where the process of angiogenesis – the formation of new blood
vessels from preexisting vascular ones – is fast becoming a target for prevention and
possibly for therapy. This article presents an overview of the anti-angiogenic properties of
naturally occurring physiologically active compounds in foods – phenolics, carotenoids,
proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, saponins, acids, and amino acids – and the prospect of
their use in anti-angiogenic functional foods.
Anti-angiogenic functional foods are foods or food ingredients that exert their
disease-preventive activity, at least in part, by inhibiting angiogenesis (growth of new
blood cells). Epidemiologic observations have associated the presence of stilbenes and
polyphenols in the diet to low rate of chronic diseases. The beneficial properties of
polyphenols and stilbenes are well documented and include inhibition of mutagenesis and
tumor growth. Saponins induce apoptosis (cell death) of premalignant and malignant
human cells. Most well-studied saponins that possess anti-angiogenic, anti-inflammatory,
and anti-apoptosis activities include ginseng and soybean saponins, oleanolic acid, and
ursolic acid (Shibata, 2001); orally administered deglycosylated ginseng saponins reached
the tumor site and were more effective than intraperitoneally injected saponin. Vitamins B3, D, and E have been reported as anti-angiogenic. Vitamin B-3 (nicotinamide and nicotinic
acid) is the principal vitamin necessary for the prevention of esophageal cancer (Troll,
1993). A number of bioactive lipids or lipophilic compounds endogenous to foods are antiangiogenic as a result of their inhibitory effects on both the migration of endothelial cells
(ECs) and the integrity of EC monolayers. Omega-3-rich fish oils can down-regulate
hormonal activation of protein kinase C. Protein kinase C induces collagenase, which in
turn plays an important role in angiogenesis and metastasis. Ingested arginine has the
ability to reduce endothelial cell dysfunction in hypercholesterolemic patients, smokers,
hypertensive individuals, diabetics, obese people, the elderly, coronary artery disease,
ischemia/reperfusion, and congestive heart failure.
Once the safety of functional foods has been established, it will be easy for the
industry to legally introduce products. It is important to establish dose-response
relationships in the context of the food matrix being consumed, since most of these
compounds have potentially beneficial as well as potentially toxic effects, depending on
the dose and synergistic or antagonistic interactions with other food components. Then
the industry may move into using knowledge from ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, and
Quantitative-Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) to offer designer foods to specific
groups according to needs. It will be imperative that future food and nutrition scientists be
trained in proteomics, genomics, and nutrigenomics.
An opportunity really exists for the food industry to lead and help prolong healthy
life expectancy for all of us. Hippocrates was right when he said, Let food be thy medicine.
(Jack N. Losso. Assistant Professor, Dept. Food Science, Louisiana State University
Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. Food Technology, v.56, n.6, p. 78-88, 2002).