A novel approach has been developed to produce pure plant-based gel soy yogurt by combining soy proteins (7S/11S), high pressure homogenization, and glycation reaction.

This research sought to examine how the physicochemical characteristics of soy globulins and different processing techniques influence the gel properties of soy yogurt. The goal was to improve these gel properties and rectify any texture issues in soy yogurt, ultimately aiming to produce premium-quality plant-based soy yogurt. In this research study, the investigation focused on examining the impact of 7S/11S, homogenization pressure, and glycation modified with glucose on the gel properties of soy yogurt. A plant-based soy yogurt with superior gel and texture properties was successfully developed using a 7S/11S globulin-glucose conjugate at a 1:3 ratio and a homogenization pressure of 110 MPa. Compared to soy yogurt supplemented with pectin or gelatin, this yogurt demonstrated enhanced characteristics. These findings provide valuable insights into advancing plant protein gels and serve as a reference for cultivating new soybean varieties by soybean breeding experts.

GHS-R1a activity suppresses synaptic function of primary cultured hippocampal neurons.

Ghrelin is an orexigenic gastric hormone that promotes feeding behaviors and regulates energy homeostasis in both humans and rodents. Studies have reported intriguing yet conflicting roles that ghrelin and its receptor growth hormone secretagogue receptor 1a (GHS-R1a) play in regulating multiple brain functions, such as learning and memory; however, the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of ghrelin incubation and virus-mediated GHS-R1a overexpression on synaptic functions of primary cultured hippocampal neurons. Our results demonstrated that ghrelin pre-treatment for 24 h, with a concentration of either 4 nM or 200 nM, suppressed the frequency of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs), the frequency and the amplitude of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs). Similarly, GHS-R1a overexpression inhibited both the frequency and the amplitude of mEPSCs, and mIPSCs frequency. Moreover, our in vitro Ca2+-image study with Rhod-3AM reveals that ghrelin pre-treatment for either 3 h or 24 h suppressed glutamate-induced elevation of cytoplasmic [Ca2+]. Our findings thus suggest that GHS-R1a signaling inhibits synaptic function of hippocampal neurons, which may contribute to the blocking effect of ghrelin on memory formation.

Development and evaluation of a holographic method for analysis of infant formula humanization based on the milk nutrient molecular dataset.

A comprehensive understanding of the qualitative and quantitative similarities and distinctions between the nutrient system of human milk and infant formula is critical in developing infant formulas. However, a holographic comparison method has not been intensively developed to measure the degree of humanization of infant formulas. Consequently, discriminative biomarkers affecting the degree of humanization of infant formulas have not been extensively investigated. This study compiled a milk nutrient molecular dataset, and then presented a new method to identify the degree of humanization of infant formula. The molecular information was converted into a matrix, and then the degree of humanization was elucidated according to the matrix correlation, PCA and OPLS-DA. Compared with infant formulas 2 and 3, infant formula 1 showed the highest degree of humanization at 0.9563. Furthermore, we reported many discriminative biomarkers, such as His, Leu, and Thr, which have not been found in other studies.

Magnetic hierarchical porous SiO2 microparticles from droplet microfluidics for water decontamination.

A simple and flexible strategy based on droplet microfluidics is developed for controllable fabrication of uniform magnetic SiO2 microparticles with highly-interconnected hierarchical porous structures for enhanced water decontamination. Uniform precursor water droplets containing surfactants and homogenized fine oil droplets with a relatively high volume ratio are generated from microfluidics as templates for microparticle synthesis via hydrolysis/condensation reaction. The SiO2 microparticles possess hierarchical porous structures, containing both mesopores with size of several nanometers, and well-controlled and highly-interconnected macropores with size of hundreds of nanometers. The SiO2 microparticles synergistically integrate fast mass transfer and large functional surface area for enhanced adsorption. To demonstrate the enhanced adsorption performances for organic dyes and toxic heavy metal ions, the microparticles are respectively used for removal of methylene blue in water, and modified with thiol-groups for removal of Pb2+ ions in water. Meanwhile, the microparticles can be easily recycled by magnetic field for reuse.

Trojan-Horse-Like Stimuli-Responsive Microcapsules.

Multicompartment microcapsules, with each compartment protected by a distinct stimuli-responsive shell for versatile controlled release, are highly desired for developing new-generation microcarriers. Although many multicompartmental microcapsules have been created, most cannot combine different release styles to achieve flexible programmed sequential release. Here, one-step template synthesis of controllable Trojan-horse-like stimuli-responsive microcapsules is reported with capsule-in-capsule structures from microfluidic quadruple emulsions for diverse programmed sequential release. The nested inner and outer capsule compartments can separately encapsulate different contents, while their two stimuli-responsive hydrogel shells can individually control the content release from each capsule compartment for versatile sequential release. This is demonstrated by using three types of Trojan-horse-like stimuli-responsive microcapsules, with different combinations of release styles for flexible programmed sequential release. The proposed microcapsules provide novel advanced candidates for developing new-generation microcarriers for diverse, efficient applications.

Gamma secretase inhibitor enhances sensitivity to doxorubicin in MDA-MB-231 cells.

Deregulated expression of molecular of the Notch signaling pathway is observed in malignant tumor. Notch signaling pathway is activated by a series of catalytic cleavage of the Notch receptor by gamma secretase. Gamma secretase inhibitor (GSI) have demonstrated clinical activity in patients with solid tumor. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is related to poor prognosis and a high probability of lung and brain metastases. As first line therapy for TNBC, doxorubicin is partially effective in TNBC control. An understanding of the mechanisms for enhancing sensitivity to doxorubicin would be significant for future drug development. We hypothesized that a combination of cytotoxic chemotherapy doxorubicin to inhibit cell proliferation, together with GSI, would result in more effective outcome than either monotherapy alone. We treated MDA-MB-231 cell lines with doxorubicin and evaluated the monotherapy efficacy and in combination with GSI in both vitro and vivo. GSI-induced proliferation inhibition and apoptosis was achieved with an induction of PTEN and pro-apoptotic protein Bax expression and suppression of Notch-1, HES-1, CyclinD1 and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. These results indicate that MDA-MB-231 cells are susceptible to a GSI, whether alone or in combination with doxorubicin, are correlated with changing of some surrogate marker. This study demonstrates practicability of combined use of GSI and doxorubicin, and together these results encourage new therapeutic method in triple negative breast cancer.

Microarray expression profiling of dysregulated long non-coding RNAs in triple-negative breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents a collection of malignant breast tumors that are often aggressive and have an increased risk of metastasis and relapse. Long non-coding RNAs are generally defined as RNA transcripts measuring 200 nucleotides or longer that do not encode for any protein. During the past decade, increasing evidence has shown that lncRNAs play important roles in oncogenesis and tumor suppression; however, the roles of lncRNAs in TNBC are poorly understood. To address this issue, we used Agilent human lncRNA microarray chips and bioinformatics tools, including Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), to assess lncRNA expression in 3 pairs of TNBC tissues. A dysregulated lncRNA expression profile was identified by microarray and verified by qRT-PCR in 48 pairs of breast cancer subtype tissues. Metastasis is the major cause of cancer-related deaths, including those in TNBC, and the presence of dormant residual disseminated tumor cells (DTC) may be a key factor leading to metastasis. ANKRD30A, a potential target for breast cancer immunotherapy, is currently one of the most used DTC markers. Notably, we found the expression levels of the novel intergenic lncRNA LINC00993 to be associated with the expression levels of ANKRD30A. Furthermore, our qRT-PCR data indicated that the expression of LINC00993 was also associated with the expression of the estrogen receptor. In conclusion, our study identified a set of lncRNAs that were consistently aberrantly expressed in TNBC, and these dysregulated lncRNAs may be involved in the development and/or progression of TNBC.

Diagnostic value of circulating chromogranin a for neuroendocrine tumors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: In previous decades, chromogranin A (CgA) has been demonstrated to be the most promising biomarker for the diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), but its diagnostic value is still controversial. This meta-analysis aimed to estimate the potential diagnostic value of circulating CgA for NETs. METHODS: We collected relevant studies from several electronic databases as well as from reference lists. Diagnostic indices of CgA were pooled with random effects models. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves for the diagnosis of NETs were used to estimate the overall diagnostic efficiency. RESULTS: Through a search strategy, 13 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included. These studies contained 1260 patients with NETs and 967 healthy controls in the total sample. As a result, the overall sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were 0.73 (95% CI: 0.71 to 0.76), 0.95 (95% CI: 0.93 to 0.96) and 56.29 (95% CI: 25.27 to 125.38), respectively, while the summary positive likelihood ratio (PLR) and negative likelihood ratio (NLR) were 14.56 (95% CI: 6.62 to 32.02) and 0.26 (95% CI: 0.18 to 0.38), respectively. In addition, the area under the curve (AUC) of the circulating CgA in the diagnosis of NETs was 0.8962. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that circulating CgA is an efficient biomarker for the diagnosis of NETs with high sensitivity and specificity, which indicates that it may be helpful for the clinical management of NETs. However, further studies are needed to clarify this issue.