Numerous studies have provided evidence that diets rich in anthocyanins show a broad spectrum of health benefits. Anthocyanins in nature are usually found in the form of glycosides. Their aglycone forms are called anthocyanidins. The chemical structure of anthocyanins is based on the flavylium cation, but they differ in the position and number of substituents. However, the bioactives and foods that contain them are frequently treated as a uniform group of compounds exhibiting the same biological activity, without paying attention to the structural differences between individual anthocyanidins. The aim of this study was to find out how structural differences impact the biological activity of the six most common dietary anthocyanidins, i.e., delphinidin (Dp), petunidin (Pt), cyanidin (Cd), malvidin (Mv), pelargonidin (Pg) and peonidin (Po). The study concentrated on redox-related phenomena and compared the following parameters: antioxidant activity (measured using various methods: spectrophotometric tests (ABTS, DPPH), ORAC assay and CAA test (cellular antioxidant activity)), the ability to inhibit growth of human colon cancer cells (HT29; determined using MTT assay), and the ability of studied compounds to protect DNA from oxidative damage (comet assay). Based on the obtained results, the relationship between the structure of studied anthocyanidins and their biological activity was assessed. The obtained results revealed that the number and position of the hydroxyl and methoxy groups in the anthocyanidin structure strongly influenced not only the color of anthocyanidins but most of all their antioxidant and biological activities.

The Mediterranean basin is one of the regions heavily affected by jellyfish bloom phenomena, mainly due to the presence of scyphozoans, such as Rhizostoma pulmo. The jellyfish have few natural predators, and their bodies represent an organic-rich substrate that can support rapid bacterial growth with great impact on the structure of marine food webs. In Asiatic countries, jellyfish are widely studied for their health benefits, but their nutritional and nutraceutical values still remain poorly characterized. In this study, the differences in the 1H NMR spectroscopy metabolic profiles of R. pulmo female gonads and body fractions (including umbrella and oral arms), in different sampling periods, were studied. For each body compartment both lipid and aqueous extracts were characterized and their 1H NMR metabolic profiles subjected to multivariate analysis. From a statistical analysis of the extracts, a higher contents of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), amino acid and osmolytes (homarine, betaine, taurine) with important roles in marine invertebrates were observed in female gonads, whereas umbrella and oral arms showed similar metabolic profiles. These results support a sustainable exploitation of the jellyfish for the extraction of bioactive compounds useful in nutraceutical, nutricosmetics, and functional food fields.

The article presents the results of spectroscopic studies focused on a selected compound from the 1,3,4-thiadiazole group-2-(4-fluorophenylamino)-5-(2,4-dihydroxybenzeno)-1,3,4-thia-diazole (FABT)-in a micellar system formed by Triton X-100, a non-ionic detergent. Fluorescence measurements revealed the phenomenon of dual fluorescence whose emergence is related to the particular molecular organisation of the compound, which depends both on the concentration of the detergent and, most of all, the concentration of the compound itself. Dual fluorescence of FABT in a micellar system was observed for the compound dissolved in a methanol aqueous system, i.e., an environment wherein the dual fluorescence of the compound had never been reported before. Based on the interpretation of UV-Vis electronic absorption, resonance light scattering (RLS), emission and excitation fluorescence spectra, as well as measurements of dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we were able to relate the occurrence of this effect to the process of molecular aggregation taking place between FABT molecules in the micellar system in question. Results of fluorescence spectra measurements and time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) indicate that dual fluorescence occurs at detergent concentrations necessary to form micellar systems, which in turn facilitate the process of aggregation of FABT molecules. The correlation between the observed fluorescence effects and the previous measurements performed for analogues from this group suggests the possibility of charge transfer (CT) within the range of detergent concentrations wherein the aforementioned fluorescence effects are observed. It ought to be emphasised that this type of fluorescence effects are relatively easy to induce, which predisposes this groups of fluorophores as ideal fluorescence probes in the context of biological samples.

Endothelial cell injury is an early event in systemic sclerosis (SSc) pathogenesis and several studies indicate oxidative stress as the trigger of SSc-associated vasculopathy. Here, we show that circulating factors present in sera of SSc patients increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and collagen synthesis in human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMECs). In addition, the possibility that iloprost, a drug commonly used in SSc therapy, might modulate the above-mentioned biological phenomena has been also investigated. In this regard, as compared to sera of SSc patients, sera of iloprost-treated SSc patients failed to increased ROS levels and collagen synthesis in HPMEC, suggesting a potential antioxidant mechanism of this drug.

In the natural environment, interactions between species are a common natural phenomena. The mechanisms of interaction between different species are mainly studied using genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic techniques. Metabolomics is a crucial part of system biology and is based on precision instrument analysis. In the last decade, the emerging field of metabolomics has received extensive attention. Metabolomics not only provides a qualitative and quantitative method for studying the mechanisms of interactions between different species, but also helps clarify the mechanisms of defense between the host and pathogen, and to explore new metabolites with various biological activities. This review focuses on the methods and progress of interspecies metabolomics. Additionally, the prospects and challenges of interspecies metabolomics are discussed.

Butyrophilins (BTNs) are a group of the moonlighting proteins, some members of which are secreted in milk. They constitute a large family of structurally similar type 1 transmembrane proteins from the immunoglobulin superfamily. Although the founding member of this family is related to lactation, participating in the secretion, formation and stabilization of milk fat globules, it may also have a cell surface receptor function. Generally, the BTN family members are known to modulate co-stimulatory responses, T cell selection, differentiation, and cell fate determination. Polymorphism of these genes was shown to be associated with the pathology of several human diseases. Despite their biological significance, structural information on human butyrophilins is rather limited. Based on their remarkable multifunctionality, butyrophilins seem to belong to the category of moonlighting proteins, which are known to contain intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDPRs). However, the disorder status of human BTNs was not systematically investigated as of yet. The goal of this study is to fill this gap and to evaluate peculiarities of intrinsic disorder predisposition of the members of human BTN family, and to find if they have IDPRs that can be attributed to the multifunctionality of these important proteins.

Memory deterioration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is thought to be underpinned by aberrant amyloid β (Aβ) accumulation, which contributes to synaptic plasticity impairment. Avenanthramide-C (Avn-C), a polyphenol compound found predominantly in oats, has a range of biological properties. Herein, we performed methanolic extraction of the Avns-rich fraction (Fr. 2) from germinated oats using column chromatography, and examined the effects of Avn-C on synaptic correlates of memory in a mouse model of AD. Avn-C was identified in Fr. 2 based on 1H-NMR analysis. Electrophysiological recordings were performed to examine the effects of Avn-C on the hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) in a Tg2576 mouse model of AD. Avn-C from germinated oats restored impaired LTP in Tg2576 mouse hippocampal slices. Furthermore, Avn-C-facilitated LTP was associated with changes in the protein levels of phospho-glycogen synthase kinase-3β (p-GSK3β-S9) and cleaved caspase 3, which are involved in Aβ-induced synaptic impairment. Our findings suggest that the Avn-C extract from germinated oats may be beneficial for AD-related synaptic plasticity impairment and memory decline.

Intrinsic hydrophobicity is the reason for efficient bacterial settlement and biofilm growth on silicone materials. Those unwelcomed phenomena may play an important role in pathogen transmission. We have proposed an approach towards the development of new anti-biofilm strategies that resulted in novel antimicrobial hydrophobic silicones. Those functionalized polysiloxanes grafted with side 2-(carboxymethylthioethyl)-, 2-(n-propylamidomethylthioethyl)- and 2-(mercaptoethylamidomethylthioethyl)- groups showed a wide range of antimicrobial properties towards selected strains of bacteria (reference strains Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and water-borne isolates Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Aeromonas hydrophila), fungi (Aureobasidium pullulans) and algae (Chlorella vulgaris), which makes them valuable antibacterial and antibiofilm agents. Tested microorganisms showed various levels of biofilm formation, but particularly effective antibiofilm activity was demonstrated for bacterial isolate A. hydrophila with high adhesion abilities. In the case of modified surfaces, the relative coefficient of adhesion for this strain was 18 times lower in comparison to the control glass sample.

The problem of antibiotic resistance among pathogens encourages searching for novel active molecules. The aim of the research was to assay the anti-quorum sensing (anti-QS) and antibiofilm potential of Melaleuca alternifolia essential oil and its main constituent, terpinen-4-ol, to prevent the infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains as an alternate to antibiotics. The tea tree oil (TTO) was evaluated for its potential in inhibiting QS-dependent phenomena such as violacein production in Chromobacterium violaceum, swarming motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, and biofilm formation in MRSA strains on glass. The results showed that terpinen-4-ol was able to inhibit MRSA strain biofilm formation on the glass strips by 73.70%. TTO inhibited the violacein production at a mean inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 0.048 mg/mL by 69.3%. At 100 µg/mL TTO and terpinen-4-ol exhibited inhibition in swarming motility of PAO1 by 33.33% and 25%, respectively. TTO revealed anti-QS and anti-biofilm activities at very low concentrations, but it could be further investigated for new molecules useful for the treatment of MRSA infections.

Melanin is a natural pigment produced by cells to prevent damage caused by ultraviolet radiation. Previously, resveratrol was shown to reduce melanin synthesis. As a natural polyphenol with various biological activities, resveratrol occurs in a variety of beverages and plant foods, such as grapes. Therefore, we investigated whether grape extracts containing resveratrol also had the ability to regulate melanin synthesis. In this study, we used mouse B16F10 melanoma cells as a model for melanin synthesis with the melanogenesis-inducing α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) as a positive control. Our results confirmed previous reports that resveratrol reduces melanin synthesis by reducing the activity of the rate-limiting enzyme tyrosinase. In contrast, the grape extract could not reduce melanin synthesis, and in fact promoted melanogenesis in the presence of α-MSH. The expression of genes related to melanin synthesis, such as tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein-1, tyrosinase-related protein-2, and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor, also supports these phenomena, which means that even in the presence of resveratrol, grape extract will strengthen the function of α-MSH in promoting melanin synthesis. Therefore, these results also provide a point of view for research on cosmetics.

The aim of the present study was to establish a standard methodology for the extraction of epoxy resin precursors from several types of food packages (cans, multi-layered composite material, and cups) with selected simulation media (distilled water, 5% ethanol, 3% dimethyl sulfoxide, 5% acetic acid, artificial saliva) at different extraction times and temperatures (factors). Biological analyses were conducted to determine the acute toxicity levels of the extracts (with Vibrio fischeri bacteria) and their endocrine potential (with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeasts). In parallel, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was performed to determine levels of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE), bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (mixture of isomers, BFDGE), ring novolac glycidyl ether (3-ring NOGE), and their derivatives. The variation induced by the different experimental factors was statistically evaluated with analysis of variance simultaneous component analysis (ASCA). Our findings demonstrate the value of using a holistic approach to best partition the effects contributing to the end points of these assessments, and offer further guidance for adopting such a methodology, thus being a broadly useful reference for understanding the phenomena related to the impacts of food packaging materials on quality for long- and short-term storage, while offering a general method for analysis.

Angelicae Pubescentis Radix (APR) is a widely-used traditional Chinese medicine. Pharmacological studies have begun to probe its biological activities on neurological disorders recently. To assess the brain penetration and distribution of APR, a validated ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was applied to the simultaneous determinations of the main coumarins from APR in the rat cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and brain after oral administration of APR extract, including psoralen, xanthotoxin, bergapten, isoimperatorin, columbianetin, columbianetin acetate, columbianadin, oxypeucedanin hydrate, angelol B, osthole, meranzin hydrate and nodakenetin. Most of the tested coumarins entered the rat CSF and brain quickly, and double-peak phenomena in concentration-time curves were similar to those of their plasma pharmacokinetics. Columbianetin had the highest concentration in the CSF and brain, while psoralen and columbianetin acetate had the largest percent of CSF/plasma and brain/plasma, indicating that these three coumarins may be worthy of further research on the possible nervous effects. Correlations between the in vivo brain distributions and plasma pharmacokinetics of these coumarins were well verified. These results provided valuable information for the overall in vivo brain distribution characteristics of APR and also for its further studies on the active substances for the central nervous system.

Aberrant metabolism is one of the main driving forces in the initiation and development of ESCC. Both genes and metabolites play important roles in metabolic pathways. Integrative pathway analysis of both genes and metabolites will thus help to interpret the underlying biological phenomena. Here, we performed integrative pathway analysis of gene and metabolite profiles by analyzing six gene expression profiles and seven metabolite profiles of ESCC. Multiple known and novel subpathways associated with ESCC, such as 'beta-Alanine metabolism', were identified via the cooperative use of differential genes, differential metabolites, and their positional importance information in pathways. Furthermore, a global ESCC-Related Metabolic (ERM) network was constructed and 31 modules were identified on the basis of clustering analysis in the ERM network. We found that the three modules located just to the center regions of the ERM network-especially the core region of Module_1-primarily consisted of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) superfamily members, which contributes to the development of ESCC. For Module_4, pyruvate and the genes and metabolites in its adjacent region were clustered together, and formed a core region within the module. Several prognostic genes, including GPT, ALDH1B1, ABAT, WBSCR22 and MDH1, appeared in the three center modules of the network, suggesting that they can become potentially prognostic markers in ESCC.

The aim of this study was to investigate and understand bacterial adhesion to different dental material surfaces like amalgam, Chromasit, an Co-Cr alloy, an IPS InLine ceramic, yttrium stabilized tetragonal polycrystalline zirconia (TPZ), a resin-based composite, an Au-Pt alloy, and a tooth. For all materials, the surface roughness was assessed by profilometry, the surface hydrophobicity was determined by tensiometry, and the zeta potential was measured by electrokinetic phenomena. The arithmetic average roughness was the lowest for the TPZ ceramic (Ra = 0.23 µm ± 0.02 µm), while the highest value was observed for the Au-Pt alloy (Ra = 0.356 µm ± 0.075 µm). The hydrophobicity was the lowest on the TPZ ceramic and the highest on the Co-Cr alloy. All measured streaming potentials were negative. The most important cause of tooth caries is the bacterium Streptococcus mutans, which was chosen for this study. The bacterial adhesion to all material surfaces was determined by scanning electron microscopy. We showed that the lowest bacterial extent was on the amalgam, whereas the greatest extent was on tooth surfaces. In general, measurements showed that surface properties like roughness, hydrophobicity and charge have a significant influence on bacterial adhesion extent. Therefore, dental material development should focus on improving surface characteristics to reduce the risk of secondary caries.

Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has been verified as a breakthrough with respect to the management of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) in recent decades but associated with some serious adverse phenomena, particularly cardiac functional abnormalities. Salvianolic acid A (Sal A) is a major effective component in treating ATO-induced cardiotoxicity. Therefore, the objective of our study was to assess whether Sal A had protective effects by the regulation of calcium homeostasis and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. For the in vivo study, BALB/c mice were treated with ATO and/or Sal A via daily tail vein injections for two weeks. For the in vitro study, we detected the effects of ATO and/or Sal A in real time using adult rat ventricular myocytes (ARVMs) and an IonOptix MyoCam system. Our results showed that Sal A pretreatment alleviated cardiac dysfunction and Ca2+ overload induced by ATO in vivo and vitro. Moreover, Sal A increased sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) activity and expression, alleviated [Ca2+]ER depletion, and decreased ER stress-related protein expression. Sal A protects the heart from ATO-induced injury and its administration correlates with the modulation of SERCA, the recovery of Ca2+ homeostasis, and the down-regulation of ER stress-mediated apoptosis.

Kimchi fermentation depends on diverse lactic acid bacteria, which convert raw materials into numerous metabolites that contribute to the taste of food. Amino acids and saccharides are important primary metabolites. Arginine is nearly exhausted during kimchi fermentation, whereas the concentrations of other amino acids are reported not to increase or decrease dramatically. These phenomena could imply that arginine is an important nutritional component among the amino acids during kimchi fermentation. In this study, we investigated the arginine-catabolism pathway of seven lactic acid bacteria isolated from kimchi and evaluated the products of arginine catabolism (citrulline and ornithine) associated with the bacteria. The arginine content dramatically decreased in cultures of Lactobacillus brevis and Weissella confusa from 300 μg/mL of arginine to 0.14 ± 0.19 and 1.3 ± 0.01 μg/mL, respectively, after 6 h of cultivation. Citrulline and ornithine production by L. brevis and W. confusa showed a pattern that was consistent with arginine catabolism. Interestingly, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, and Leuconostoc lactis did not show increased citrulline levels after arginine was added. The ornithine contents were higher in all bacteria except for L. lactis after adding arginine to the culture. These results were consistent with the absence of the arginine deiminase gene among the lactic acid bacteria. Arginine consumption and ornithine production were monitored and compared with lactic acid bacteria by metagenomics analysis, which showed that the increment of ornithine production correlated positively with lactic acid bacteria growth.

Codonopsis taxa, as a traditional Chinese medicinal and edible plant, has found expanding domestic and foreign applications in recent decades. However, the poor management in germplasm resources market has inevitably caused an unnecessary hybrid of the provenances. In order to clarify the hybrid characteristics of germplasm resources in the main production area, the Codonopsis cultivars collected from the provinces Gansu, Shannxi, Shanxi, and Hubei of China were researched, using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence technology. The confirmation of additive nucleotides based on the ITS sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) mixture was optimized and used to study the hybrid of Codonopsis cultivars. The results showed that when the ratio of PCR mixture increased up to 15 percent, the presence of a double peak in the sequencing electrophoresis map could be confirmed, suggesting the existence of additive nucleotides. According to the method above, 46 samples of Codonopsis cultivars collected during 2016 and 2017 were studied and compared with the samples collected from the year 2009 to 2010. All of the samples collected during 2016 and 2017 were hybridized and no genetic pure lines were found. In addition, the sites of variable base reduced greatly, concentrating at positions 122 and/or 226. These phenomena suggested that the genetic diversity of Codonopsis cultivars declined and the germplasm resources gradually converged. More attention should be paid to the reasonable exploitation and genetic breeding of Codonopsis taxa.

Recently synthetized iron complexes have achieved long-lived excited states and stabilities which are comparable, or even superior, to their ruthenium analogues, thus representing an eco-friendly and cheaper alternative to those materials based on rare metals. Most of computational tools which could help unravel the origin of this large efficiency rely on ab-initio methods which are not able, however, to capture the nanosecond time scale underlying these photophysical processes and the influence of their realistic environment. Therefore, it exists an urgent need of developing new low-cost, but still accurate enough, computational methodologies capable to deal with the steady-state and transient spectroscopy of transition metal complexes in solution. Following this idea, here we focus on the comparison between general-purpose transferable force-fields (FFs), directly available from existing databases, and specific quantum mechanical derived FFs (QMD-FFs), obtained in this work through the Joyce procedure. We have chosen a recently reported FeIII complex with nanosecond excited-state lifetime as a representative case. Our molecular dynamics (MD) simulations demonstrated that the QMD-FF nicely reproduces the structure and the dynamics of the complex and its chemical environment within the same precision as higher cost QM methods, whereas general-purpose FFs failed in this purpose. Although in this particular case the chemical environment plays a minor role on the photo physics of this system, these results highlight the potential of QMD-FFs to rationalize photophysical phenomena provided an accurate QM method to derive its parameters is chosen.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been described as a progressive eye disease characterized by irreversible impairment of central vision, and unfortunately, an effective treatment is still not available. It is well-known that amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide is one of the major culprits in causing neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The extracellular accumulation of this peptide has also been found in drusen which lies under the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and represents one of the early signs of AMD pathology. Aβ aggregates, especially in the form of oligomers, are able to induce pro-oxidant (oxidative stress) and pro-inflammatory phenomena in RPE cells. ARPE-19 is a spontaneously arising human RPE cell line validated for drug discovery processes in AMD. In the present study, we employed ARPE-19 treated with Aβ oligomers, representing an in vitro model of AMD. We used a combination of methods, including ATPlite, quantitative real-time PCR, immunocytochemistry, as well as a fluorescent probe for reactive oxygen species to investigate the molecular alterations induced by Aβ oligomers. In particular, we found that Aβ exposure decreased the cell viability of ARPE-19 cells which was paralleled by increased inflammation (increased expression of pro-inflammatory mediators) and oxidative stress (increased expression of NADPH oxidase and ROS production) along with the destruction of ZO-1 tight junction protein. Once the damage was clarified, we investigated the therapeutic potential of carnosine, an endogenous dipeptide that is known to be reduced in AMD patients. Our findings demonstrate that carnosine was able to counteract most of the molecular alterations induced by the challenge of ARPE-19 with Aβ oligomers. These new findings obtained with ARPE-19 cells challenged with Aβ1-42 oligomers, along with the well-demonstrated multimodal mechanism of action of carnosine both in vitro and in vivo, able to prevent and/or counteract the dysfunctions elicited by Aβ oligomers, substantiate the neuroprotective potential of this dipeptide in the context of AMD pathology.