Impact of a Purified Blueberry Extract on In Vitro Probiotic Mucin-Adhesion and Its Effect on Probiotic/Intestinal Pathogen Systems.

Several arguments have been made to substantiate the need for natural antimicrobials for the food industry. With blueberry extracts, the most compelling are both their healthy connotation and the possibility of obtaining a multipurpose solution that can be an antioxidant, colorant, and antimicrobial. From an antimicrobial perspective, as blueberry/anthocyanin-rich extracts have been associated with a capacity to inhibit harmful bacteria while causing little to no inhibition on potential probiotic microorganisms, the study of potential benefits that come from synergies between the extract and probiotics may be of particular interest. Therefore, the present work aimed to evaluate the effect of an anthocyanin-rich extract on the adhesion of five different probiotics as well as their effect on the probiotics' capacity to compete with or block pathogen adhesion to a mucin/BSA-treated surface. The results showed that, despite some loss of probiotic adhesion, the combined presence of extract and probiotic is more effective in reducing the overall amount of adhered viable pathogen cells than the PROBIOTIC alone, regardless of the probiotic/pathogen system considered. Furthermore, in some instances, the combination of the extract with Bifidobacterium animalis Bo allowed for almost complete inhibition of pathogen adhesion.

Structural characterization, acute toxicity assessment and protective effects of selenylated apple pectin on dextran sulfate sodium-induced ulcerative colitis.

This study was aimed at investigating the structural characterization, acute toxicity and protective effect of selenylated apple pectin on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) in mice. Selenylated apple pectin was characterized by ion chromatography, NMR and SEC-RI-MALLS. The acute toxicity and protective effect of selenylated apple pectin against UC were investigated by gavage administration in mice. The organ state and coefficients, inflammatory cytokine (IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α) contents in serum, GSH-Px activity and MPO content in colon tissues were also evaluated. The results indicated that selenylated apple pectin was non-toxic and contained 244.28 µgselenium per g. The monosaccharide composition with different molar ratios, different relative molecular weights and a weakened signal peak (CH2-O group) at 3-4 ppm were observed after selenylation. The selenylated apple pectin showed the protective effect against UC by down-regulating IL-6 and TNF-α contents and up-regulating the IL-10 content in serum, as well as increasing the GSH-Px activity and decreasing the MPO content in colon tissues. Moreover, DSS-induced alterations were effectively recovered by a high-dose sample. These findings provide evidence in support of selenylated apple pectin as a novel dietary selenium supplement for UC protection.

The Impact of Interstitial Diseases Patterns on Lung CT Segmentation.

Lung segmentation represents a fundamental step in the development of computer-aided decision systems for the investigation of interstitial lung diseases. In a holistic lung analysis, eliminating background areas from Computed Tomography (CT) images is essential to avoid the inclusion of noise information and spend unnecessary computational resources on non-relevant data. However, the major challenge in this segmentation task relies on the ability of the models to deal with imaging manifestations associated with severe disease. Based on U-net, a general biomedical image segmentation architecture, we proposed a light-weight and faster architecture. In this 2D approach, experiments were conducted with a combination of two publicly available databases to improve the heterogeneity of the training data. Results showed that, when compared to the original U-net, the proposed architecture maintained performance levels, achieving 0.894 ± 0.060, 4.493 ± 0.633 and 4.457 ± 0.628 for DSC, HD and HD-95 metrics, respectively, when using all patients from the ILD database for testing only, while allowing a more effficient computational usage. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations on the ability to cope with high-density lung patterns associated with severe disease were conducted, supporting the idea that more representative and diverse data is necessary to build robust and reliable segmentation tools.

Lipid stability of egg and laying performance of Japanese quail feed with extract of guava (Psidium guajava L.).

Two experiments were conducted in order to evaluate the effect of dietary inclusion of guava extract on laying performance and lipid stability of egg of Japanese quails. For the first experiment, 384 Japanese quails with 42 days old were distributed in a completely randomized design with four treatments (0.0; 3.0; 6.0; 9.0 g.kg-1 guava extract), 6 replicates, and 16 birds/replicate. The experimental period lasted 84 days, divided into 4 cycles of 21 days. The parameters evaluated were: feed consumption, egg production, egg mass, feed conversion ratio, egg weight, and egg internal and external qualities. On the second experiment, 400 eggs from Japanese quails fed with diets containing four levels of guava extract were distributed in a completely randomized design with a 4x4 factorial arrangement (guava extract levels and storage time: 0, 9, 18, 27 days) with 5 replicates. Analysis of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances was performed on egg yolks. Data were submitted to regression analysis, using α=0.05. On the first experiment, the laying performance parameters were not influenced by the inclusion of guava extract in the feed, and eggshell thickness decreased linearly. On the second experiment an interaction was observed between the studied factors, affecting lipid oxidation in egg yolks. At nine days of storage, there was a quadratic effect of levels of dietary guava extract on lipid oxidation of yolk, being observed that using 4.8 g.kg-1 of guava extract on feed results in less lipid oxidation.

Antitumor Activity of Fucus vesiculosus-Derived Phlorotannins through Activation of Apoptotic Signals in Gastric and Colorectal Tumor Cell Lines.

Seaweeds are one of the largest producers of biomass in the marine environment and a source of multiple bioactive metabolites with valuable health benefits. Among these, phlorotannins have been widely recognized for their promising bioactive properties. The potential antitumor capacity of Fucus vesiculosus-derived phlorotannins remains, however, poorly explored, especially in gastrointestinal tract-related tumors. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic properties and possible mechanisms by which F. vesiculosus crude extract (CRD), phlorotannin-rich extract (EtOAc), and further phlorotannin-purified fractions (F1-F9) trigger cell death on different tumor cell lines of the gastrointestinal tract, using flow cytometry. The results indicate that F. vesiculosus samples exert specific cytotoxicity against tumor cell lines without affecting the viability of normal cells. Moreover, it was found that, among the nine different phlorotannin fractions tested, F5 was the most active against both Caco-2 colorectal and MKN-28 gastric cancer cells, inducing death via activation of both apoptosis and necrosis. The UHPLC-MS analysis of this fraction revealed, among others, the presence of a compound tentatively identified as eckstolonol and another as fucofurodiphlorethol, which could be mainly responsible for the promising cytotoxic effects observed in this sample. Overall, the results herein reported contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the antitumor properties of F. vesiculosus phlorotannin-rich extracts.

Comprehensive Perspective for Lung Cancer Characterisation Based on AI Solutions Using CT Images.

Lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death in the world. For this reason, novel approaches for early and more accurate diagnosis are needed. Computer-aided decision (CAD) can be an interesting option for a noninvasive tumour characterisation based on thoracic computed tomography (CT) image analysis. Until now, radiomics have been focused on tumour features analysis, and have not considered the information on other lung structures that can have relevant features for tumour genotype classification, especially for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is the mutation with the most successful targeted therapies. With this perspective paper, we aim to explore a comprehensive analysis of the need to combine the information from tumours with other lung structures for the next generation of CADs, which could create a high impact on targeted therapies and personalised medicine. The forthcoming artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches for lung cancer assessment should be able to make a holistic analysis, capturing information from pathological processes involved in cancer development. The powerful and interpretable AI models allow us to identify novel biomarkers of cancer development, contributing to new insights about the pathological processes, and making a more accurate diagnosis to help in the treatment plan selection.

Purple-fleshed sweet potato acylated anthocyanins: Equilibrium network and photophysical properties.

Two anthocyanins from purple-fleshed sweet potato were isolated and characterized by LC-MS and NMR analysis. They were identified as peonidin-3-(6'-hydroxybenzoyl)-sophoroside-5-glucoside and peonidin-3-(6'-hydroxybenzoyl-6″-caffeoyl)-sophoroside-5-glucoside. The acid-base dynamics of these acylated anthocyanins was evaluated by means of pH jump techniques. Equilibrium and kinetic constants were determined and, in general, these anthocyanins demonstrated a higher capacity in retaining the red and blue colors at acidic and basic pH values, suggesting a higher resistance to pH variations compared to the parent anthocyanin, peonidin-3-O-glucoside. The presence of acyl groups and additional glucoside moieties seems to determine this particular characteristic. The fluorescence properties of these anthocyanins were evaluated. Overall, the species present at higher pH values (7-9) showed higher fluorescence intensity for both anthocyanins, with an optimum λex/λem pair at λex 610 nm/λem 640 nm. The fluorescence characteristics of these anthocyanins were used to evaluate their location in gastric and intestinal cells by fluorescence microscopy.

Gastrointestinal absorption, antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory effect of the major carotenoids of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis on cancer cells.

The gastrointestinal absorption of the main carotenoids present in Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, crocetin, crocin-1 and crocin-2, was assayed through transport studies on MKN-28 and Caco-2 cell lines. Overall, crocetin was the compound that presented the highest gastrointestinal transport efficiency. Additionally, and since after absorption crocins are metabolized into crocetin, the antiproliferative capacity of crocetin was assayed in MKN-28 (stomach), MCF-7 (breast) and Caco-2 (colon) cancer cell lines. The results point to an antiproliferative effect of crocetin on the three cell lines tested. Anti-inflammatory properties were also assayed. Overall, crocetin showed a potential involvement in the downregulation of IL-1ß and TNF-α but not IL-6. Altogether, these results suggest that these compounds can have an important role against cancer proliferation, highlighting the importance of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis as a nutraceutical food source.

Antidiabetic activity of Vatairea macrocarpa extract in rats.

In the present paper the anti-diabetic effects of stem-bark extract (ethanol 70%) of Vatairea macrocarpa, a traditional diabetes mellitus treatment widely used in Brazil, are reported. The extract was administered orally at a dose of 250 or 500 mg/kg, for 22 days, to normal and streptozotocin-diabetic rats. In extract treated (500 mg/kg) diabetic rats serum and urinary glucose, urinary urea, food and fluid intake were decreased, while body weight gain was increased, all of which indicate an improvement in diabetic state (p<0.05). No effects of the extract were observed in non-diabetic rats. In extract treated (500 mg/kg) diabetic group HOMA-R (homeostasis model for assessment of insulin resistance) was lower at the end of 22 days, as compared to diabetic non treated control group. Insulin was the reference substance used in the experiments. In an oral glucose tolerance test, the time to reach maximal glycemia was greater in diabetic 500 mg/kg treated group than in control group. These anti-diabetic effects could be related to an improved insulin resistance, although a possible effect on pancreatic B-cell function cannot be excluded. Thus, our data of sub-chronic experiments suggest that long-term use of V. macrocarpa stem-bark extract may be helpful in treating diabetic conditions.