Novel Perspective on the Regulation of Offspring Food Allergy by Maternal Diet and Nutrients.

There has been a dramatic surge in the prevalence of food allergy (FA) that cannot be explained solely by genetics, identifying mechanisms of sensitization that are driven by environmental factors has become increasingly important. Diet, gut microbiota, and their metabolites have been shown to play an important role in the development of FA. In this review, we discuss the latest epidemiological evidence on the impact of two major dietary patterns and key nutrients in early life on the risk of offspring developing FA. The Western diet typically includes high sugar and high fat, which may affect the immune system of offspring and increase susceptibility to FA. In contrast, the Mediterranean diet is rich in fiber, which may reduce the risk of FA in offspring. Furthermore, we explore the potential mechanisms by which maternal dietary nutrients during a window of opportunity (pregnancy, birth, and lactation) influences the susceptibility of offspring to FA through multi-interface crosstalk. Finally, we discuss the limitations and gaps in the available evidence regarding the relationship between maternal dietary nutrients and the risk of FA in offspring. This review provides novel perspective on the regulation of offspring FA by maternal diet and nutrients.

A Dual-Cascade Activatable Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe for Precise Intraoperative Imaging of Tumor.

Accurate intraoperative tumor delineation is critical to achieving successful surgical outcomes. However, conventional techniques typically suffer from poor specificity and low sensitivity and are time-consuming, which greatly affects intraoperative decision-making. Here, we report a cascade activatable near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) probe IR780SS@CaP that can sequentially respond to tumor acidity and elevated glutathione levels for accurate intraoperative tumor localization. Compared with nonactivatable and single-factor activatable probes, IR780SS@CaP with a cascade strategy can minimize nonspecific activation and false positive signals in a complicated biological environment, affording a superior tumor-to-normal tissue ratio to facilitate the delineation of abdominal metastases. Small metastatic lesions that were less than 1 mm in diameter can be precisely identified by IR780SS@CaP and completely excised under NIRF imaging guidance. This study could benefit tumor diagnosis and image-guided tumor surgery by providing real-time information and reliable decision support, thus reducing the risk of both recurrence and complications to improve patient outcomes.

A Reconfigurable DNA Framework Nanotube-Assisted Antiangiogenic Therapy.

A major limitation of tumor antiangiogenic therapy is the pronounced off-target effect, which can lead to unavoidable injury in multiple organs. Ensuring sufficient delivery and controlled release of these antiangiogenic agents at tumor sites is crucial for realizing their clinical application. Here, we develop a smart DNA-based nanodrug, termed Endo-rDFN, by precisely assembling the antiangiogenic agent, endostar (Endo), into a reconfigurable DNA framework nanotube (rDFN) that could recognize tumor-overexpressed nucleolin to achieve the targeted delivery and controllable release of Endo. Endo-rDFN can not only effectively enhance the tumor-targeting capability of Endo and maintain its efficient accumulation in tumor tissues but also achieve on-demand release of Endo at tumor sites via the specific DNA aptamer for tumor-overexpressed nucleolin, named AS1411. We also found that Endo-rDFN exhibited significant inhibition of angiogenesis and tumor growth, while also providing effective protection against multiorgan injury (heart, liver, spleen, kidney, lung, etc.) to some extent, without compromising the function of these organs. Our study demonstrates that rDFN represents a promising vector for reducing antiangiogenic therapy-induced multiorgan injury, highlighting its potential for promoting the clinical application of antiangiogenic agents.

Oral administration of egg ovalbumin allergen induces dysregulation of tryptophan metabolism in sensitized BALB/c mice.

Food allergy (FA), triggered by specific dietary allergens, has emerged as a substantial global concern for food safety and public health. While studies have elucidated changes in immune cells and cytokines associated with allergen exposure, a comprehensive analysis of the host's metabolic features and the interaction between metabolites and the gut microbiota has not been conducted. In this study, egg allergen ovalbumin (OVA) was administered by the oral route to sensitized BALB/c mice to faithfully replicate key aspects of human FA, including severe allergic diarrhea, mast cell infiltration, and elevated levels of serum IgE, mMCPT-1, and Th2 cell hallmark cytokines (such as IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13). Furthermore, the untargeted and targeted metabolomic analyses indicated that FA in mice precipitated a substantial decrease in the tryptophan metabolites indole-3-acrylic acid (IA) and indole-3-lactic acid (ILA). The integration of shotgun metagenome and metabolome data further unveiled that the dysregulation of indole metabolism is related to a decline in the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Additionally, disruption of the tryptophan indole derivative pathway compromises the maintenance of intestinal mucosal function through the AHR signaling pathway, manifested by decreased expression of Reg3g and IL22. Taken together, this study demonstrated that the anaphylaxis triggered by oral ingestion of food allergens can lead to disruptions in tryptophan metabolism, consequently impairing intestinal immune homeostasis.

Boosting Luminescence Efficiency of Near-Infrared-II Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens via a Mash-Up Strategy of π-Extension and Deuteration for Dual-Model Image-Guided Surgery.

The simultaneous pursuit of accelerative radiative and restricted nonradiative decay is of tremendous significance to construct high-luminescence-efficiency fluorophores in the second near-infrared wavelength window (NIR-II), which is seriously hindered by the energy gap laws. Herein, a mash-up strategy of π-extension and deuteration is proposed to efficaciously ameliorate the knotty problem. By extending the π-conjugation of the aromatic fragment and introducing an isotope effect to the aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen), an improved oscillator strength (f), coupled with suppressed deformation and high-frequency oscillation in the excited state, are successively implemented. In this case, a faster rate of radiative decay (kr) and restricted nonradiative decay (knr) are simultaneously achieved. Moreover, the preeminent emissive property of AIEgen in the molecular state could be commendably inherited by the aggregates. The corresponding NIR-II emissive AIEgen-based nanoparticles display high brightness, large Stokes shift, and superior photostability simultaneously, which can be applied for image-guided cancer and sentinel lymph node (SLN) surgery. This work thus provides a rational roadmap to improve the luminescence efficiency of NIR-II fluorophores for biomedical applications.

Genetically engineered macrophages as living cell drug carriers for targeted cancer therapy.

Precise targeting is a major prerequisite for effective cancer therapy because it ensures a sufficient therapeutic dosage in tumors while minimizing off-target side effects. Herein, we report a live-macrophage-based therapeutic system for high-efficiency tumor therapy. As a proof of concept, anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) affibodies were genetically engineered onto the extracellular membrane of macrophages (AE-Mφ), which further internalized doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (NPs) to produce a macrophage-based therapeutic system armed with anti-HER2 affibodies. NPs(DOX)@AE-Mφ were able to target HER2+ cancer cells and specifically elicit affibody-mediated cell therapy. Most importantly, the superior HER2 + -targeting capability of NPs(DOX)@AE-Mφ greatly guaranteed high accumulation at the tumor site for improved chemotherapy, which acted synergistically with cell therapy to significantly enhance anti-tumor efficacy. This study suggests that NPs(DOX)@AE-Mφ could be utilized as an innovative 'living targeted drug' platform for combining both macrophage-mediated cell therapy and targeted chemotherapy for the individualized treatment of solid tumors.

Nanomedicines for an Enhanced Immunogenic Cell Death-Based In Situ Cancer Vaccination Response.

ConspectusCancer vaccines have shown tremendous potential in preventing and treating cancer by providing immunogenic antigens to initiate specific tumor immune responses. An in situ vaccine prepared from an autologous tumor can mobilize a patient's own tumor cell lysate as a reservoir of specific antigens, thus triggering a broad immune response and diverse antitumor immunity in an individually tailored manner. Its efficacy is much better than that of conventional vaccines with a limited number of epitopes. Several conventional therapies, including radiotherapy (RT), chemotherapeutics, photodynamic therapy (PDT), and photothermal therapy (PTT) can activate an anticancer in situ vaccine response by inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD), triggering the exposure of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), cancerous testis antigens, neoantigens, and danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) with low cost. However, the immunogenicity of dying tumor cells is low, making released antigens and DAMPs insufficient to initiate a robust immune response against malignant cancer. Moreover, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) severely hinders the infiltration and sensitization of effector immune cells, causing tolerogenic immunological effects.Herein, we mainly focus on the research in developing nanoplatforms to surmount the major challenges met by ICD-based in situ vaccines. We first summarized a variety of nanotechnologies that enable enhanced immunogenicity of dying cancer cells by enhancing antigenicity and adjuvanticity. The robust antigenicity was obtained via regulating the tumor cells death mode or the dying state to amplify the recognition of tumor debris by professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs). The adjuvanticity was potentiated by raising the level or intensifying the activity of endogenous adjuvants or promoting the intelligent delivery of exogenous immunostimulants to activate immune cell recruitment and promote antigen presentation. Additionally, versatile approaches to reverse immunosuppressive TME to boost the in situ tumor vaccination response are also highlighted in detail. On one hand, by modulating the cell metabolism in TME, the expansion and activity of effector versus immunosuppressive cells can be optimized to improve the efficiency of in situ vaccines. On the other hand, regulating cellular components in TME, such as reversing adverse immune cell phenotypes or inhibiting the activity of interstitial cells, can also significantly enhance the ICD-based antitumor immunotherapy effect. Finally, our viewpoint on the future challenges and opportunities in this hopeful area is presented. We expect that this Account can offer much more insight into the design, planning, and development of cutting-edge in situ tumor vaccine platforms, promoting more attention and academic-industry collaborations, accelerating the advanced progress of in situ tumor vaccine-based immunotherapy in the clinic.

Identification of mapk genes, and their expression profiles in response to low salinity stress, in cobia (Rachycentron canadum).

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are a class of protein kinases that regulate various physiological processes, and play a crucial role in maintaining the osmotic equilibrium of fish. The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the mapk family genes in cobia (Rachycentron canadum) and examine their expression profiles under different low salinity stress regimes (acute: from 30‰ to 10‰ in 1 h, sub-chronic: from 30‰ to 10‰ over 4 d). A total of 12 cobia mapk genes (Rcmapks) were identified and cloned, including six erk subfamily genes (Rcmapk1/3/4/6/7/15), three jnk subfamily genes (Rcmapk8/9/10) and three p38 mapk subfamily genes (Rcmapk 11/13/14). Domain analysis indicated that the RcMAPKs possessed the typical domains including S_TKc and PKc_like domain. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Rcmapks were most closely related to those of the turbot (Scophthalmus maximus). The tissue distribution of mapk genes in adult cobia and the expression patterns of Rcmapks under different low salinity stress regimes were investigated using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The results revealed that Rcmapk3/9/10/11/13/14 exhibited a relatively broad expression distribution across 14 different tissues. For all these genes the highest expression level was in the brain, except for Rcmapk14 (highly expressed in the stomach, gill, and skin). The genes Rcmapk1/6/15 showed significantly higher expression in the testis. Under acute low salinity stress, expression of Rcmapk1/3/6/7/9/11/13/14 was significantly altered in the gill, intestine, and trunk kidney, however, the aforementioned genes exhibited very different expression patterns among the three tissues. In the gill, most of the genes from the erk (Rcmapk3/6/7) and p38 mapk subfamily (Rcmapk11/13/14) were significantly up-regulated at almost all the time points (P < 0.05); Similarly, the expression of Rcmapk3/9/11/13/14 genes were significantly increased in the trunk kidney; while in the intestine, most of the altered genes (Rcmapk6/7/9/11/13/14) were significantly down-regulated at 1 h. Following the sub-chronic low salinity stress, expression of Rcmapk1/3/6/7/9/11/13/14 genes were significantly altered in all three tissues. These findings provide important reference data for elucidating the roles of cobia mapk family genes in response to low salinity stress.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of the Vanin-1 gene in the Leghorn Male Hepatoma cell line and its effects on lipid metabolism.

OBJECTIVE: Vanin-1 (VNN1) is a pantetheinase that catalyses the hydrolysis of pantetheine to produce pantothenic acid and cysteamine. Our previous studies have shown that the VNN1 is specifically expressed in chicken liver which negatively regulated by microRNA-122. However, the functions of the VNN1 in lipid metabolism in chicken liver haven't been elucidated. METHODS: First, we detected the VNN1 mRNA expression in 4-week chickens which were fasted 24 hours. Next, knocked out VNN1 via CRISPR/Cas9 system in the chicken Leghorn Male Hepatoma cell line. Detected the lipid deposition via oil red staining and analysis the content of triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein-C (LDL-C), and highdensity lipoprotein-C (HDL-C) after VNN1 knockout in Leghorn Male Hepatoma cell line. Then we captured various differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between VNN1-modified LMH cells and original LMH cells by RNA-seq. RESULTS: Firstly, fasting-induced expression of VNN1. Meanwhile, we successfully used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to achieve targeted mutations of the VNN1 in the chicken LMH cell line. Moreover, the expression level of VNN1 mRNA in LMH-KO-VNN1 cells decreased compared with that in the wild-type LMH cells (p<0.0001). Compared with control, lipid deposition was decreased after knockout VNN1 via oil red staining, meanwhile, the contents of TG and LDL-C were significantly reduced, and the content of HDL-C was increased in LMH-KO-VNN1 cells. Transcriptome sequencing showed that there were 1,335 DEGs between LMH-KO-VNN1 cells and original LMH cells. Of these DEGs, 431 were upregulated, and 904 were downregulated. Gene ontology analyses of all DEGs showed that the lipid metabolism-related pathways, such as fatty acid biosynthesis and long-chain fatty acid biosynthesis, were enriched. KEGG pathway analyses showed that "lipid metabolism pathway", "energy metabolism", and "carbohydrate metabolism" were enriched. A total of 76 DEGs were involved in these pathways, of which 29 genes were upregulated (such as cytochrome P450 family 7 subfamily A member 1, ELOVL fatty acid elongase 2, and apolipoprotein A4) and 47 genes were downregulated (such as phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1) by VNN1 knockout in the LMH cells. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that VNN1 plays an important role in coordinating lipid metabolism in the chicken liver.

Oxyhaemoglobin saturation NIR-IIb imaging for assessing cancer metabolism and predicting the response to immunotherapy.

In vivo quantitative assessment of oxyhaemoglobin saturation (sO2) status in tumour-associated vessels could provide insights into cancer metabolism and behaviour. Here we develop a non-invasive in vivo sO2 imaging technique to visualize the sO2 levels of healthy and tumour tissue based on photoluminescence bioimaging in the near-infrared IIb (NIR-IIb; 1,500-1,700 nm) window. Real-time dynamic sO2 imaging with a high frame rate (33 Hz) reveals the cerebral arteries and veins through intact mouse scalp/skull, and this imaging is consistent with the haemodynamic analysis results. Utilizing our non-invasive sO2 imaging, the tumour-associated-vessel sO2 levels of various cancer models are evaluated. A positive correlation between the tumour-associated-vessel sO2 levels and the basal oxygen consumption rate of corresponding cancer cells at the early stages of tumorigenesis suggests that cancer cells modulate the tumour metabolic microenvironment. We also find that a positive therapeutic response to the checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapy could lead to a dramatic decrease of the tumour-associated-vessel sO2 levels. Two-plex dynamic NIR-IIb imaging can be used to simultaneously observe tumour-vessel sO2 and PD-L1, allowing a more accurate prediction of immunotherapy response.

Filamentous-Actin-Mimicking Nanoplatform for Enhanced Cytosolic Protein Delivery.

Despite the potential of protein therapeutics, the cytosolic delivery of proteins with high efficiency and bioactivity remains a significant challenge owing to exocytosis and lysosomal degradation after endocytosis. Therefore, it is important to develop a safe and efficient strategy to bypass endocytosis. Inspired by the extraordinary capability of filamentous-actin (F-actin) to promote cell membrane fusion, a cyanine dye assembly-containing nanoplatform mimicking the structure of natural F-actin is developed. The nanoplatform exhibits fast membrane fusion to cell membrane mimics and thus enters live cells through membrane fusion and bypasses endocytosis. Moreover, it is found to efficiently deliver protein cargos into live cells and quickly release them into the cytosol, leading to high protein cargo transfection efficiency and bioactivity. The nanoplatform also results in the superior inhibition of tumor cells when loaded with anti-tumor proteins. These results demonstrate that this fusogenic nanoplatform can be valuable for cytosolic protein delivery and tumor treatment.

An Activatable Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe for Precise Detection of the Pulmonary Metastatic Tumors: A Traditional Molecule Having a Stunning Turn.

An accurate detection of lung metastasis is of great significance for making better treatment choices and improving cancer prognosis, but remains a big challenge in clinical practice. In this study, we propose a reinventing strategy to develop a pH-activatable near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent nanoprobe, pulmonary metastasis tracer (denoted as PMT), based on assembly of NIR dye IR780 and calcium phosphate (CaP). By delicately tuning the intermolecular interactions during the assembly process and dye doping content, as well as the synthetic condition of probe, the fluorescence of PMT could be finely adjusted via the tumor acidity-triggered disassembly. Notably, the selected PMT9 could sharply convert subtle pH variations into a distinct fluorescence signal to generate high fluorescence ON/OFF contrast, dramatically reducing the background signals. Benefiting from such preferable features, PMT9 is able to precisely identify not only the tumor sites in orthotopic lung cancer models but also the pulmonary metastases in mice with remarkable signal-to-background ratio (SBR). This study provides a unique strategy to turn shortcomings of traditional dye IR780 during in vivo imaging into advantages and further expand the application of fluorescent probe to image lung associated tumor lesions.

Innovative Approaches to Fungal Food Production: Mycelial Pellet Morphology Insights.

Mycelia products enhance edible mushrooms in alignment with future sustainability trends. To meet forthcoming market demands, the morphology of mycelial pellets was optimized for direct consumption. Among ten commercial edible mushrooms in Taiwan, Pleurotus sp. was selected for its rapid growth and was identified via an internal transcribed spacer sequence. A combination of Plackett-Burman design and Taguchi's L9(34) orthogonal table revealed the optimal formula as potato dextrose broth (2.4%), olive oil (2%), calcium carbonate (0.5%), yeast extract (0.75%), and soy flour (0.5%). This led to a biomass increase to 19.9 ± 1.1 g/L, resulting in a 2.17-fold yield increase. To refine morphology, image processing by ImageJ quantified spherical characteristics. The addition of 0.2 to 1.0% Tween 80 enhanced pellet compaction by over 50%. Dilution of the medium improved uniformity (0.85) and conversion rate (42%), yielding mycelial pellets with 2.10 ± 0.52 mm diameters and a yield of 15.1 ± 0.6 g/L. These findings provide an alternative evaluation and application of edible mycelial pellets as future food.

Staphylococcus aureus Enterotoxin B Is a Cofactor of Food Allergy beyond a Superantigen.

Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB), one of the most common bacterial toxins in food contamination, has been poorly understood in relationship to food allergy outcomes. To investigate whether the ingestion of enterotoxins in food allergens could affect the development of food allergy, OVA-sensitized female BALB/c mice were challenged with OVA added with different doses of SEB or LPS. Allergic symptoms, such as diarrhea rate and hypothermia, could be aggravated in mice challenged with OVA and a low dose of SEB. The increased differentiation of Th2 and reduced expression of CD103 in dendritic cells was found in mice coexposed to SEB and OVA. Additionally, there was an increasing differentiation of Th1 induced by a high dose of SEB. The expression of ST2+ in intestinal mast cells was also increased in mice sensitized with a low dose of SEB and OVA. Employing several in vitro cell culture models showed that the secretion of IL-33 from intestinal epithelial cells and IL-4 from group 2 innate lymphoid cells, activation of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells, and differentiation of naive T cells were induced by SEB and OVA. Our work proved that challenge with low-dose SEB and OVA partly aggravated the food allergy, suggesting a (to our knowledge) new finding of the potential cofactor of food allergy and that the contamination of SEB in food allergens deserves attention for allergic and normal individuals.

Iron-based metal-organic framework co-loaded with buthionine sulfoximine and oxaliplatin for enhanced cancer chemo-ferrotherapy via sustainable glutathione elimination.

BACKGROUND: Emerging ferroptosis-driven therapies based on nanotechnology function either by increasing intracellular iron level or suppressing glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) activity. Nevertheless, the therapeutic strategy of simultaneous iron delivery and GPX4 inhibition remains challenging and has significant scope for improvement. Moreover, current nanomedicine studies mainly use disulfide-thiol exchange to deplete glutathione (GSH) for GPX4 inactivation, which is unsatisfactory because of the compensatory effect of continuous GSH synthesis. METHODS: In this study, we design a two-in-one ferroptosis-inducing nanoplatform using iron-based metal-organic framework (MOF) that combines iron supply and GPX4 deactivation by loading the small molecule buthionine sulfoxide amine (BSO) to block de novo GSH biosynthesis, which can achieve sustainable GSH elimination and dual ferroptosis amplification. A coated lipid bilayer (L) can increase the stability of the nanoparticles and a modified tumor-homing peptide comprising arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD/R) can achieve tumor-specific therapies. Moreover, as a decrease in GSH can alleviate resistance of cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs, oxaliplatin (OXA) was also loaded to obtain BSO&OXA@MOF-LR for enhanced cancer chemo-ferrotherapy in vivo. RESULTS: BSO&OXA@MOF-LR shows a robust tumor suppression effect and significantly improved the survival rate in 4T1 tumor xenograft mice, indicating a combined effect of dual amplified ferroptosis and GSH elimination sensitized apoptosis. CONCLUSION: BSO&OXA@MOF-LR is proven to be an efficient ferroptosis/apoptosis hybrid anti-cancer agent. This study is of great significance for the clinical development of novel drugs based on ferroptosis and apoptosis for enhanced cancer chemo-ferrotherapy.

Indocyanine green-based fluorescence imaging improved by deep learning.

Intraoperative identification of malignancies using indocyanine green (ICG)-based fluorescence imaging could provide real-time guidance for surgeons. Existing ICG-based fluorescence imaging mostly operates in the near-infrared (NIR)-I (700-1000 nm) or the NIR-IIa' windows (1000-1300 nm), which is not optimal in terms of spatial resolution and contrast as their light scattering is higher than the NIR-IIb window (1500-1700 nm). It is highly desired to achieve ICG-based fluorescence imaging in the NIR-IIb window, but it is hindered by its ultra-low NIR-IIb emission tail of ICG. Herein, we employ a generative adversarial network to generate NIR-IIb ICG images directly from the acquired NIR-I ICG images. This approach was investigated by in vivo imaging of sub-surface vascular, intestine structure, and tumors, and their results demonstrated significant improvement in spatial resolution and contrast for ICG-based fluorescence imaging. It is potential for deep learning to improve ICG-based fluorescence imaging in clinical diagnostics and image-guided surgery in clinics.

A Higher Dose of Staphylococcus aureus Enterotoxin B Led to More Th1 and Lower Th2/Th1 Ratio in Th Cells.

Exposure to Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB) is one of the causes of food poisoning and is associated with several immune diseases due to its superantigen capability. This study aimed to characterize the differentiations of naïve Th cells stimulated with different doses of SEB. The expression of T-bet, GATA-3, and Foxp3 or secretion of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and IL-10 were evaluated in wild-type (WT) or DO11.10 CD4 T cells co-cultured with bone marrow dendritic cells (BMDCs). We found that the balance of Th1/Th2 could be dominated by the doses of SEB stimulation. A higher SEB dose could induce more Th1 and a lower Th2/Th1 ratio in Th cells co-cultured with BMDCs. This different tendency of Th cell differentiation induced by the SEB complements the existing knowledge about SEB acting as a superantigen to activate Th cells. Additionally, it is also helpful in managing the colonization of S. aureus and food contamination of SEB.

Specific and nonspecific nutritional interventions enhance the development of oral tolerance in food allergy.

The goal of food allergy (FA) prevention and treatment is to induce oral tolerance (OT). Appropriate nutritional interventions are essential to induce OT to food allergens. This review introduces the mechanism of OT and the importance of early nutritional interventions, and then firstly summarizes specific nutritional factors to induce the development of OT of FA, including proteins, vitamins, fatty acids, saccharides and probiotics. The regulatory mechanism mainly induces the development of tolerance by increasing local or systemic protective regulatory T cells (Tregs) to suppress FA, while the gut microbiota may also be changed to maintain intestinal homeostasis. For allergens-specific OT, the disruption to the structure of proteins and epitopes is critical for the induction of tolerance by hydrolyzed and heated proteins. Vitamins (vitamin A, D), fatty acids, saccharides and probiotics as allergens nonspecific OT also induce the development of OT through immunomodulatory effects. This review contributes to our understanding of OT in FA through nutritional interventions. Nutritional interventions play an important role in the induction of OT, and offer promising approaches to reduce allergy risk and alleviate FA. Moreover, due to the importance and diversity of nutrition, it must be the future trend of induction of OT in FA.

Two-stage cultivation strategies for optimal production of Ganoderma pellets with potential application in the vegan food industry.

The vegan food industry is gaining popularity nowadays. Ganoderma sp. is mainly used in the health and food industries as a medicinal, edible mushroom with high nutritional potential. Through two-stage cultivation methods, the study optimized the production of mycelial pellets for vegetarian food. When soybean powder was used as an alternative to egg yolk powder to meet vegetarian requirements, the number of pellets increased from 1100 to 1800 particles/dL, however, the pellet diameter reduced up to 22% (3.2-2.6 mm). The culture was expanded to the second stage using the Taguchi method coupled with Plackett-Burman Design and quantification by ImageJ software for enlarging pellets size. The optimal conditions were 10 mL of the first-stage broth inoculum, yeast powder (0.5 g/dL), glucose (0.5 g/dL), and MgSO4 (0.2 g/dL) at 100 rpm in the dark for 7 days. In 500 mL pilot scale production, the biomass yield was 0.31 g/dL and 3400 mycelium pellets/dL with a 5.2 mm diameter with appearance characteristics suitable for direct development as food. The study may help to develop a novel pellet food of filamentous fungi for the vegetarian market. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-023-05719-x.

Real-time risk ranking of emerging epidemics based on optimized moving average prediction limit-taking the COVID-19 pandemic as an example.

BACKGROUND: Mathematical models to forecast the risk trend of the COVID-19 pandemic timely are of great significance to control the pandemic, but the requirement of manual operation and many parameters hinders their efficiency and value for application. This study aimed to establish a convenient and prompt one for monitoring emerging infectious diseases online and achieving risk assessment in real time. METHODS: The Optimized Moving Average Prediction Limit (Op-MAPL) algorithm model analysed real-time COVID-19 data online and was validated using the data of the Delta variant in India and the Omicron in the United States. Then, the model was utilized to determine the infection risk level of the Omicron in Shanghai and Beijing. RESULTS: The Op-MAPL model can predict the epidemic peak accurately. The daily risk ranking was stable and predictive, with an average accuracy of 87.85% within next 7 days. Early warning signals were issued for Shanghai and Beijing on February 28 and April 23, 2022, respectively. The two cities were rated as medium-high risk or above from March 27 to April 20 and from April 24 to May 5, indicating that the pandemic had entered a period of rapid increase. After April 21 and May 26, the risk level was downgraded to medium and became stable by the algorithm, indicating that the pandemic had been controlled well and mitigated gradually. CONCLUSIONS: The Op-MAPL relies on nothing but an indicator to assess the risk level of the COVID-19 pandemic with different data sources and granularities. This forward-looking method realizes real-time monitoring and early warning effectively to provide a valuable reference to prevent and control infectious diseases.