Evaluation of Polyphenols Synthesized in Mature Seeds of Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Advanced Mutant Lines.

This study aimed to investigate the availability of flavonoids, anthocyanins, and phenolic acids in mutant bean seeds, focusing on M7 mutant lines, and their corresponding initial and local cultivars. HPLC-DAD-MS/MS and HPLC-MS/MS were used to analyze twenty-eight genotypes of common bean. The obtained results suggest that the mutations resulted in four newly synthesized anthocyanins in the mutant bean seeds, namely, delphinidin 3-O-glucoside, cyanidin 3-O-glucoside, pelargonidin 3-O-glucoside, and petunidin 3-O-glucoside, in 20 accessions with colored seed shapes out of the total of 28. Importantly, the initial cultivar with white seeds, as well as the mutant white seeds, did not contain anthocyanins. The mutant lines were classified into groups based on their colors as novel qualitative characteristics. Five phenolic acids were further quantified: ferulic, p-coumaric, caffeic, sinapic, and traces of chlorogenic acids. Flavonoids were represented by epicatechin, quercetin, and luteolin, and their concentrations in the mutant genotypes were several-fold superior compared to those of the initial cultivar. All mutant lines exhibited higher concentrations of phenolic acids and flavonoids. These findings contribute to the understanding of the genetics and biochemistry of phenolic accumulation and anthocyanin production in common bean seeds, which is relevant to health benefits and might have implications for common bean breeding programs and food security efforts.

Gender-Specific Effect of CYP2C8*3 on the Risk of Essential Hypertension in Bulgarian Patients.

We conducted a case-control study to determine the contribution of polymorphisms in CYP2C8 (CYP2C8*3) and CYP2J2 (CYP2J2*7) to increased risk of coronary artery disease and essential hypertension in Bulgarians. The current analysis included 192 unrelated hypertensive patients, 261 patients with angiographically documented CAD (153 with myocardial infarction and 108 without myocardial infarction), and 496 population controls. The CYP2C8*3 and CYP2J2*7 polymorphisms were genotyped by TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assay. PLINK version 1.07 was used for the statistical analysis. No overall association was observed for the studied polymorphisms with coronary artery disease and essential hypertension. The frequency of -50T mutant allele of CYP2J2*7 was significantly higher in male with coronary artery disease without history of myocardial infarction (OR 2.16 95% CI 1.04-4.48 p = 0.035) compared to population control group, but this association did not survive after Bonferroni correction (p adj = 0.07). A significant association of CYP2C8*3 allele with increased risk of essential hypertension has found in men (OR 2.12 95% CI 1.18-3.81 p = 0.015) and this relationship remained significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons (p adj = 0.03). This is the first study showing significant gene-sex interaction for CYP2C8*3 with twofold increase in the relative risk of essential hypertension and a similar tendency for CYP2J2*7 associated with coronary artery disease without myocardial infarction in Bulgarian males. The association is not seen in females and in the whole group of patients. This result could be partly explained by the effect of estrogens on the vascular tone of coronary arteries and CYP2C8 gene expression.

IL-27 increases the proliferation and effector functions of human naïve CD8+ T lymphocytes and promotes their development into Tc1 cells.

IL-27 has been shown to exhibit both pro- and anti-inflammatory properties; it favors mouse naïve CD4(+) T-cell differentiation into Th1 cells to the detriment of Th17 and Th2 skewing and regulates IL-10 and IL-17 production by human CD4(+) T cells. Moreover, IL-27 promotes proliferation and cytotoxic functions of mouse CD8(+) T lymphocytes, but no data are available on human CD8(+) T cells. We investigated the impact of IL-27 on human CD8(+) T cells. In contrast to mouse T cells, the IL-27 receptor (IL-27R), composed of T cell cytokine receptor (TCCR) and gp130, was detected on a greater percentage of human CD8(+) than CD4(+) T cells and these proportions increased upon polyclonal activation. IL-27 induced rapid STAT1 and STAT3 signaling, enhanced STAT1 protein levels, and induced SOCS1 and SOCS3 expression in a STAT1-dependent manner by human CD8(+) T cells. Addition of IL-27 to α-CD3-activated naïve CD8(+) T cells significantly increased T-box transcription factor expression levels, cell proliferation, and IFN-γ and granzyme B production leading to increased CD8(+) T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity. These results demonstrate that IL-27, a rapidly produced cytokine by activated APC, has a profound impact on human naïve CD8(+) T cells, driving them to become highly efficient Tc1 cells.