Physical properties and antioxidant activity of curcumin­zinc metal-organic frameworks.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) offer diverse applications in the food industry, facilitating loading, protection, and controlled release of functional ingredients despite encountering loading capacity and functional activity limitations. This study focuses on curcumin­zinc MOFs, harnessing curcumin's renowned health benefits and zinc to enhance pharmacological properties. We evaluated their synthesis efficiency, stability under varying conditions (pH, salt concentration, temperature), loading and antioxidant capacity. The results showed that microwave synthesis yielded MOFs with a 23.2 ± 4.5% yield, stable within pH 4-10, gradually decomposing in PBS. DPPH, ABTS, and H2O2 assays revealed varying free radical scavenging abilities. MOFs disintegrate in either acidic environments or contain H2O2 (at a concentration threshold of 10 µM). Post-disintegration, these MOFs significantly inhibiting the secretion of TNF-α by RAW264.7 cells induced by LPS. These findings highlight the potential of novel curcumin­zinc MOF materials for nutrient delivery, addressing challenges in effectively delivering functional ingredients.

Construction of diallyltrisulfide nanoparticles for alleviation of ethanol-induced acute gastric injury.

Gastric ulcer, a significant health issue characterized by the degradation of the gastric mucosa, often arises from excessive gastric acid secretion and poses a challenge in current medical treatments due to the limited efficacy and side effects of first-line drugs. Addressing this, our study develops a novel therapeutic strategy leveraging gas therapy, specifically targeting the release of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the treatment of gastric ulcers. We successfully developed a composite nanoparticle, named BSA·SH-DATS, through a two-step process. Initially, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was sulfhydrated to generate BSA·SH nanoparticles via a mercaptosylation method. Subsequently, these nanoparticles were further functionalized by incorporating diallyltrisulfide (DATS) through a precise Michael addition reaction. This sequential modification resulted in the creation of BSA·SH-DATS nanoparticles. Our comprehensive in vitro and in vivo investigations demonstrate that these nanoparticles possess an exceptional ability for site-specific action on gastric mucosal cells under the controlled release of H2S in response to endogenous glutathione (GSH), markedly diminishing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, thereby alleviating inflammation and apoptosis. Moreover, the BSA·SH-DATS nanoparticles effectively regulate critical inflammatory proteins, including NF-κB and Caspase-3. Our study underscores their potential as a transformative approach for gastric ulcer treatment.

Unleashing the power of chlorogenic acid: exploring its potential in nutrition delivery and the food industry.

In the contemporary era, heightened emphasis on health and safety has emerged as a paramount concern among individuals with food. The concepts of "natural" and "green" have progressively asserted dominance in the food consumption market. Consequently, through continuous exploration and development, an escalating array of natural bioactive ingredients is finding application in both nutrition delivery and the broader food industry. Chlorogenic acid (CGA), a polyphenolic compound widely distributed in various plants in nature, has garnered significant attention. Abundant research underscores CGA's robust biological activity, showcasing notable preventive and therapeutic efficacy across diverse diseases. This article commences with a comprehensive overview, summarizing the dietary sources and primary biological activities of CGA. These encompass antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-cancer, and neuroprotective activities. Next, a comprehensive overview of the current research on nutrient delivery systems incorporating CGA is provided. This exploration encompasses nanoparticle, liposome, hydrogel, and emulsion delivery systems. Additionally, the article explores the latest applications of CGA in the food industry. Serving as a cutting-edge theoretical foundation, this paper contributes to the design and development of CGA in the realms of nutrition delivery and the food industry. Finally, the article presents informed speculations and considerations for the future development of CGA.

Huge uterine abscess after myomectomy: A case report.

RATIONALE: Uterine abscess is a rare gynecologic entity and only a few cases have been reported so far. This study aimed to describe our clinical experience in this case. Initially, hematoma was diagnosed without detail previous medical record. Finally, laparotomy was performed due to refractory fever and highly possible diagnosis of uterine abscess. We successfully performed a hysterectomy and the patient had an uneventful recovery. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 44-year-old nulliparous woman underwent myomectomy in the local hospital, 45 days ago. She complained of irregular fever (up to 40 °C) without abdominal pain since the surgery. DIAGNOSES: Due to lack of her detail medical record, equivocal images and her strong intention to preserve uterus, she was misdiagnosed with hematoma and treated with antibiotic treatment. Finally, intraoperative findings revealed that the huge myometrial abscess contained a mass of pus. INTERVENTIONS: Laparotomy was performed due to refractory high-grade fever and highly possible diagnosis of uterine abscess. Total hysterectomy was performed to avoid the possibility of life-threatening sepsis. OUTCOMES: The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged 10 days after surgery. LESSONS: Complete imaging examinations are recommended prior myomectomy to facilitate the differential diagnosis of postoperative complications. In addition, several measures, such as maintaining aseptic conditions during surgery and postoperative drainage, play a critical role in preventing nosocomial infections. Rare uterine abscess is often mistaken for hematoma with fever. If the patient develops high fever after myomectomy, accompanied by a mass in the myometrium, the possibility of infection or even abscess formation should not be excluded. For women who need to preserve their fertility, the early diagnosis and timely administration of appropriate medication is crucial for preventing uterine loss.

Effect of the Home to Hospital to Home nutrition management program on postoperative liver cancer patients: A single-center randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is the most common complication in postoperative liver cancer patients. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the Home to Hospital to Home nutrition management program on postoperative liver cancer patients. METHODS: A total of 184 liver cancer patients were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (treated under the Home to Hospital to Home nutrition management program) or a control group (treated with the general nutritional method). Nutrition-related indicators, such as prealbumin (PA) and albumin, were assessed before and after treatment in both groups. The incidence of complications (e.g., nausea or vomiting, bloating, difficulty defecating, ascites), length of hospital stay, first time to anal exhaust and out-of-bed activity, and patient satisfaction were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 184 liver cancer patients were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (treated under the Home to Hospital to Home nutrition management program) or a control group (treated with the general nutritional method). Nutrition-related indicators, such as prealbumin (PA) and albumin, were assessed before and after treatment in both groups. The incidence of complications (e.g., nausea or vomiting, bloating, difficulty defecating, ascites), length of hospital stay, first time to anal exhaust and out-of-bed activity, and patient satisfaction were recorded. CONCLUSION: The Home to Hospital to Home nutrition management program improves the nutritional status of postoperative liver cancer patients, lowers the incidence of complications, shortens hospital stays, increases patient satisfaction, and promotes the early recovery of patients.

Douchi Peptides VY and SFLLR Improve Glucose Homeostasis and Gut Dysbacteriosis in High-Fat Diet-Induced Insulin Resistant Mice.

SCOPE: Two peptides VY (Val-Tyr) and SFLLR (Ser-Phe-Leu-Leu-Arg) are recently identified from soy-fermented douchi with hypoglycemic activity in cells. The study aims to understand their potential effects on glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity as well as their mechanisms of action in a high-fat diet (HFD) induced insulin resistant model. METHODS AND RESULTS: C57BL/6 mice are fed HFD for 8 weeks, followed by peptide supplementation (doses: 10 and 50 mg kg-1 body weight) for 8 weeks. Peptides supplementation, especially SFLLR, reduces body weight gain, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, inflammation, liver injury, and lipid accumulation. In both muscle and liver, both peptides activate glycogen synthase (GS), the key enzyme for glycogen synthesis, and also inhibit phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and glucose 6-phosphatase (G6PC), two rate-limiting enzymes for gluconeogenesis, via insulin and AMPK (5'-adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase) signaling pathways. Furthermore, VY and SFLLR supplementation reverse HFD-induced gut dysbacteriosis by decreasing the abundance of Enterococcus, Oscillibacter, and Deferribacter, and also increase the abundances of Alistipes, Lactobacillus, Faecalibaculum, Akkermansia, and Bifidobacterium (usually beneficial in the intestine). CONCLUSION: The study reveals the potential applications of peptides VY and SFLLR as a diet-based strategy for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Digestion, absorption, and transport properties of soy-fermented douchi hypoglycemic peptides VY and SFLLR under simulated gastrointestinal digestion and Caco-2 cell monolayers.

Two novel hypoglycemic peptides VY and SFLLR were identified from douchi as the major peptides responsible for the glucose uptake activity. The present work aimed to elucidate their digestion, absorption and transport properties using simulated digestion and Caco-2 cell monolayers transport models. Besides, the effects of digestion and absorption on the structure and activity were also studied. The results showed that VY was resistant to gastrointestinal tract digestion and could cross Caco-2 cell monolayers intactly via both TJs-mediated passive paracellular pathway and PepT1-mediated active route. In comparison, SFLLR was partially degraded into small fragments of SFLL, SFL, and SF by the digestive system, leading to increased glucose uptake activity. Notably, SFLLR, SFLL, and SFL were partly hydrolyzed by aminopeptidase N or dipeptidyl peptidase IV during transport, but they were transported intact. SFL was transported via both paracellular diffusion and PepT1-mediated routes, while SFLLR and SFLL were via paracellular route only.

Fabrication of multifunctional materials based on chitosan/gelatin incorporating curcumin-clove oil emulsion for meat freshness monitoring and shelf-life extension.

A new multifunctional film with active and intelligent effects was developed by incorporating curcumin-clove oil emulsion into natural materials. The basic properties, functional characteristics, and pH/NH3-sensitivity of films were investigated, and then these films were applied to extend shelf-life and monitor freshness of meat. Curcumin solution and emulsion illustrated significant color variations at different pH values. The incorporation of emulsion improved the UV-vis barrier and water resistance properties of films, which blocked most of UV-light and its water contact angle reached 100.03°. Meanwhile, the films had stronger mechanical strength and higher thermal stability, with elongation at break reaching 79.18 % and the maximum degradation temperature rising to 316 °C. Moreover, emulsion made films have a slow-release effect on clove oil, which not only enhanced the antioxidant property but also significantly improved their antibacterial activity. Additionally, the multifunctional films presented a significant color response to acidic/alkaline environments over a short time interval and could be easily identified by naked eyes. Finally, the films effectively extended the shelf-life of fresh meat by 3 days at 4 °C and visually monitored freshness through color changes in real-time. This knowledge provides insights and ideas for the development of novel food packaging with both active and intelligent functions.

Increased expression of the RNA-binding protein Musashi-2 is associated with immune infiltration and predicts better outcomes in ccRCC patients.

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) mainly contribute to abnormalities in posttranscriptional gene regulation. The RBP Musashi-2, an evolutionarily conserved protein, has been characterized as an oncoprotein in various tumors. However, the prognostic value and potential roles of Musashi-2 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) have not yet been elucidated. In this study, we found that Musashi-2 was mainly expressed in the normal distal tubular cells and collecting duct cells of the kidneys, while its expression was significantly decreased in ccRCC. And higher expression levels of Musashi-2 indicated better overall survival (OS) in ccRCC. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry demonstrated that PD-L1 expression was negatively correlated with Musashi-2 expression, and Musashi-2 was found to be remarkably correlated with multiple immune cells and immune inhibitors, including CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, regulatory T (Treg) cells, PDCD1, CTLA4, Foxp3, and LAG3. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that Musashi-2 might be involved in ccRCC metabolic reprogramming and immune infiltration and further predicted the therapeutic sensitivity of ccRCC. Taken together, Musashi-2 is a prognostic biomarker for ccRCC patients that may provide novel insights into individualized treatment strategies and guide effective immunotherapy.

[Analysis of Clinicopathologic Features of 9 Cases of 
SMARCA4-deficient Non-small Cell Lung Cancer].

BACKGROUND: SMARCA4-deficient non-small cell lung cancer (SMARCA4-dNSCLC) is a rare primary lung malignancy. These diseases are not listed separately in the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) classification of lung neoplasms, but they have special morphological, immunophenotypic and molecular genetic characteristics. This study aims to improve understanding of SMARCA4-dNSCLC by discussing the clinicopathological features, diagonosis and differential diagnosis of the disease. METHODS: The clinical and imaging data of 9 cases of SMARCA4-dNSCLC diagnosed in Shanghai Changhai Hospital from January 2020 to March 2022 were collected. The clinicopathological features were analyzed by histological and immunohistochemical staining, and the literature was reviewed. RESULTS: The median age of 9 patients was 65 years old. Six men were smokers. The average maximum diameter of tumor was 3.3 cm. Six cases had been metastasized. The imaging showed that it was an infiltrating mass with unclear boundary and 3 cases invaded the pleura. Nine cases were diagnosed as SMARCA4-dNSCLC, which mainly showed three pathological forms including classic lung adenocarcinoma, mucinous adenocarcinoma and poorly differentiated carcinoma. Poorly differentiated tumor cells are epithelioid, syncytial or rhabdomyoid, the cytoplasm was rich, the cytoplasm could be completely transparent to eosinophilic, eosinophilic globules or small abscesses could be seen, showing solid flakes, with more inflammatory cells and flake necrosis in the stroma. Immunohistochemistry showed that SMARCA4 was negative in all cases and eight cases demonstrated cytokeratin 5.2 (CAM5.2) and cytokeratin 7 (CK7) was diffusely strongly positive, p40 was negative, thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) was negative in 6 cases, partially positive in 2 cases and diffusely positive in 1 case. CONCLUSIONS: SMARCA4-dNSCLC is a rare subtype of lung cancer with complex and diverse pathological morphology. The characteristic of immunohistochemical phenotype can assist in the diagnosis.

Screening of genes related to breast cancer prognosis based on the DO-UniBIC method.

BACKGROUND: Early screening is the most effective way to control breast cancer. Due to the lack of accurate biomarkers, early diagnosis of breast cancer is still very difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to discover new candidate genes of breast cancer and improve the early diagnosis and prognosis. METHODS: A DO-UniBIC gene screening method was proposed. First, Disease Ontology (DO) analysis was used to screen out breast cancer related genes from differentially expressed genes, and then the UniBIC algorithm was used to find all gene clusters with the same changing trend based on the longest common subsequence. In addition, an eight-gene prognostic model was constructed to assess the prognostic risk of breast cancer patients. RESULTS: The prognostic analysis of the candidate genomes based on multivariate Cox proportional regression model revealed eight genes that were significantly related to prognosis. The eight genes were ACSL1, CD24, EMP1, JPH3, CAMK4, JUN, S100B and TP53AIP1. Among them, ACSL1 was a new potential breast cancer related gene screened by the DO-UniBIC method. CONCLUSIONS: More comprehensive cancer-related genes can be screened based on the DO-UniBIC method, which can be used as the candidate gene set for prognostic analysis.

The Drosophila F-box protein Slimb controls dSmurf protein turnover to regulate the Hippo pathway.

SMAD ubiquitination regulatory factors 1 and 2 (Smurf1/2) are members of the HECT domain E3 ligase family which play crucial roles in the regulation of cell cycle progression, planar cell polarity, cancer metastasis and cell apoptosis. We recently showed that the Drosophila homolog dSmurf controls the stability of Warts kinase to regulate the Hippo pathway. In the current study, we found that the F-box protein Slimb controls dSmurf protein level to regulate the Hippo pathway. Slimb physically associates with dSmurf as revealed by co-immunoprecipitation assay in S2 cells. The C-terminal WD40 repeats of Slimb (188-510 amino acid) and the C-terminal HECT domain of dSmurf (723-1061 amino acid) are necessary for their binding. Interaction with Slimb leads to the ubiquitination and degradation of dSmurf, resulting in negative regulation of dSmurf-mediated Yki phosphorylation and activity in the Hippo pathway. Thus our study revealed a new regulatory mechanism of the Hippo pathway which may provide implications for developing tumor treatment.