Lactoferrin-Chitosan Composite Hydrogels Induced by Microbial Transglutaminase: Potential Delivery Systems for Thermosensitive Bioactive Substances.

In this work, lactoferrin (LF)-chitosan (CS) composite hydrogels with good loading capacity of thermosensitive bioactive substances were successfully obtained by microbial transglutaminase (MTG)-induced cross-linking. We evaluated the rheological, textural, and microstructural characteristics of the composite hydrogels under different conditions. The results demonstrated that the concentrations of LF and CS as well as the amount of MTG could regulate the textural properties, rheological properties, and water holding capability. The results of FTIR and fluorescence spectroscopy indicated that the main interactions within the composite gel were hydrogen and isopeptide bonds. Additionally, in vitro digestion simulation results verified that riboflavin kept stable in stomach due to the protection of LF-CS composite hydrogels and was released in small intestine. These results suggested that thermosensitive bioactive substance could be encapsulated and delivered by the LF-CS composite hydrogel, which could be applied in lots of potential applications in functional food as a new material.

Mechanism on microbial transglutaminase and Tremella fuciformis polysaccharide-mediated modification of lactoferrin: Development of functional food.

Lactoferrin (LF) with various biological functions demonstrates great application potential. However, its application was restricted by its poor gelation and instability. The aim of this work was to explore the effect of microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) and Tremella fuciformis polysaccharide (TP) on the functional properties of LF. The formation of a self-supporting LF gel could be induced by MTGase through generating covalent crosslinks between the LF protein molecules. Meanwhile, TP was introduced into the gel system to improve the strength of LF-TP composite gels by enhancing non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bond and electrostatic interactions during gel formation. Additionally, the LF-TP composite gel exhibited outstanding functional characteristics such as gastrointestinal digestive stability and antioxidant property. This work clarified the mechanism on MTGase and TP-mediated modification of lactoferrin, offered a novel strategy to increase the functional characteristics of LF, and enlarged the application range of LF and TP.

Synergistic effects of microbial transglutaminase and apple pectin on the gelation properties of pea protein isolate and its application to probiotic encapsulation.

The low gelation capacity of pea protein isolate (PPI) limits their use in food industry. Therefore, microbial transglutaminase (MTG) and apple pectin (AP) were combined to modify PPI to enhance its gelling characteristics, and the mechanism of MTG-induced PPI-AP composite gel generation was investigated. PPI (10 wt%) could not form a gel at 40 °C, while MTG-treated PPI (10 wt%) formed a self-supporting gel at 40 °C. Subsequently, the addition of AP further promoted the crosslinking of PPI and significantly improved the water holding capacity, rheology, and strength of PPI gels, which was attributed to both hydrogen and isopeptide bonds in the composite gel. Additionally, the PPI-AP composite gel showed excellent protection ability, and the survival rate of probiotics could reach over 90%, which could be used as an effective delivery system. This study verified that MTG and AP were efficient in enhancing the functional quality of PPI gels.

The Impact of Informational Intervention on HPV Vaccination Intention among Heterosexual Men.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs). However, despite widespread under-vaccination amongst men and the importance of vaccinating both sexes to curb the spread of HPV, research has focused on promoting HPV vaccination predominantly amongst women. Therefore, the current study examines the effectiveness of different informational interventions in promoting vaccination intentions amongst heterosexual men. In a preregistered study of 583 unvaccinated adult men, we randomly assigned participants to one of four informational interventions aimed at promoting awareness of HPV risks and vaccine uptake: (1) risks to oneself (n = 145), (2) risks to their female partner (n = 144), (3) risks to oneself and their female partner (n = 153), and (4) general vaccine information (n = 153). Amongst participants reporting a sexual history (67%), intentions to get vaccinated significantly increased by 10.75 points on a 100-point scale (p < 0.01) after they received information about the risks of HPV for both themselves and their female partner, compared to receiving information about only their own HPV risk. These findings provide valuable guidance for public health officials and policymakers into the effectiveness of different messaging strategies in promoting HPV vaccination amongst adult male populations to increase vaccination rates.

A randomized controlled trial of an information intervention to bolster COVID-19 vaccination intention among people with purity concerns.

OBJECTIVE: Previous literature has indicated a strong negative correlation between the moral foundation of purity/sanctity and vaccination rates. The current research investigated how purity concerns impact COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy and tested an information intervention to bolster vaccination intention among people with purity concerns. METHOD: Study 1 surveyed 566 Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents in the United States. Study 2 was a between-subject-designed survey experiment that investigated the impact of three statements on the COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and intentions of 637 Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents. Statement 1 argued that vaccines are not impure from a scientific perspective; Statement 2 made the same argument with quotes from the Bible; and Statement 3 was a control statement. RESULTS: Study 1 established a significant correlation between the existence of vaccination history and purity as a moral foundation. Study 2 found that among those with no COVID-19 vaccination history, statements arguing that vaccines are not impure from either a scientific perspective or a religious perspective improved attitudes toward vaccination and intention to get vaccinated. CONCLUSION: Purity concerns can be leveraged as a way to bolster vaccination rates, especially among conservatives. However, the impurity perception only mediated the causal relationship between the treatment and the attitude toward vaccines (but not the actual intention), suggesting that changes in the actual vaccination behavior are subject to factors other than purity concerns. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Probing the toxic effect of quinoline to catalase and superoxide dismutase by multispectral method.

Quinoline is a common nitrogen heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with high water solubility. Studies have shown that quinoline can be teratogenic, carcinogenic and mutagenic. And Hepatocytes are the target cell of quinoline, which contain a large number of mitochondria and are related to cell function and the balance of reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, the research on the effect of quinoline on hepatocyte damage and anti-oxidation system is still unclear. Through the means of multispectral experiments, it is concluded that quinoline can affect the catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), change their structure and affect their activity. The binding mode and binding site of quinoline to CAT/SOD were analyzed by isothermal calorimetric titration (ITC) and Molecular Operating Environment (MOE). In molecular docking simulation, the binding site of quinoline-CAT system is close to the active site, and affect the microenvironment of Tyr 357. This may be the reason why quinoline affects CAT activity and synchronous fluorescence (Δλ = 15 nm). This study demonstrated that quinoline has a great effect on CAT, which may affect the intracellular ROS balance and become a potential way to cause hepatocyte damage.

Response pathways of superoxide dismutase and catalase under the regulation of triclocarban-triggered oxidative stress in Eisenia foetida: Comprehensive mechanism analysis based on cytotoxicity and binding model.

Triclocarban (TCC) is an emerging environmental contaminant, posing potential ecological risks. Displaying a high accumulation effect and 120-day half-life in the soil environment, the toxic effects of TCC to soil organisms have been widely reported. Previous studies have confirmed that TCC can induce the oxidative stress and changes in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities in earthworms, but the underlying mechanisms of oxidative stress and disorder in antioxidant enzyme activities induced by TCC have not yet been elucidated. Here, we explored the multiple response mechanisms of SOD and CAT under the regulation of oxidative stress induced by TCC. Results indicated that higher-dose (0-2.0 mg/L) TCC exposure triggered the overproduction of ROS in Eisenia foetida coelomocytes, causing oxidative damage and a decrease in cell viability that was response to ROS accumulation. The TCC-induced inhibition of intracellular SOD/CAT activity was found under the regulation of oxidative stress (SOD: 29.2 %; CAT: 18.5 %), and this effect was blunted by antioxidant melatonin. At the same time, the interaction between antioxidative enzymes and TCC driven by various forces (SOD: electrostatic interactions; CAT: van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonding) led to inhibited SOD activity (9.84 %) and enhanced CAT activity (17.5 %). Then, to elucidate the binding mode of TCC, we explored the changes in SOD and CAT structure (protein backbone and secondary structure), the microenvironment of aromatic amino acids, and aggregation behavior through multispectral techniques. Molecular docking results showed that TCC inhibited SOD activity in a substrate competitive manner and enhanced CAT activity by the stabilizing effects of TCC on the heme groups. Collectively, this study reveals the response mechanisms of SOD/CAT under the regulation of TCC-triggered oxidative stress and shed a new light on revealing the toxic pathways of exogenous pollutants on antioxidant-related proteins function.

Safety Messaging Boosts Parental Vaccination Intention for Children Ages 5-11.

The COVID-19 vaccination rate among children ages 5-11 is low in the U.S., with parental vaccine hesitancy being the primary cause. Current work suggests that safety and side effect concerns are the primary reasons for such vaccine hesitancy. This study explores whether this hesitancy can be mitigated with information interventions. Based on theories of health decision making and persuasion, we designed four information interventions with varying contents and lengths. We wrote two messages on vaccine safety (a detailed safety-long message and a succinct safety-short message), explaining the vaccine's lower dosage, low rate of side effects, and the rigorous approval process. We also had two messages on protection effects (protect-family, protect-child). We combined these four messages with a vaccine-irrelevant control message and compared their effects on parental vaccine intention. We measured the parental vaccination intention using a 0-6 Likert scale question. Among the four intervention groups, we found that the short version of the safety message increased the average vaccination intention by over 1 point compared to the control arm, while the other three interventions failed to show significance. Specifically, these effects are particularly pronounced (around 2 points) for Republican parents who had a much lower initial intention to vaccinate their children. Our study highlights the importance of concise and to-the-point information rendering in promoting public health activities and therefore has important policy implications for raising vaccination intentions among parents, especially those leaning towards more conservative political affiliation.

Evaluation of fluorene-caused ecotoxicological responses and the mechanism underlying its toxicity in Eisenia fetida: Multi-level analysis of biological organization.

Fluorene is an important toxic chemical that exists ubiquitously in the environment, and it has also been suggested to exert potential deleterious effects on soil invertebrates. However, knowledge about the toxic effects of fluorene and its underlying mechanisms of the effects on key soil organism earthworms remains limited. From this view point, this study was undertaken to explore the potential effects of fluorene and its underlying mechanisms in Eisenia fetida at the level of experimental animals, tissue, cell, and molecule. It was concluded that fluorene exerted lethal activity to adult E. fetida on day 14 with the LC50 determined to be 88.61 mg/kg. Fluorene-induced ROS caused oxidative stress in E. fetida, resulting in DNA damage, protein carbonylation, and lipid peroxidation. Moreover, changed antioxidative enzymatic activities, non-enzymatic antioxidative activities, and total antioxidative capacity in E. fetida by fluorene stress are associated with antioxidative and protective effects. High-dose fluorene (> 2.5 mg/kg) exposure significantly caused histopathological lesions including the microstructure of body wall, intestine, and seminal vesicle of earthworms. Also, the reproductive system of E. fetida was clearly disrupted by fluorene stress, leading to poor reproduction ability (decreased cocoon and juvenile production) in earthworms. It is found that E. fetida growth was significantly inhibited when treated with high-dose fluorene, thereby causing normal growth disorders. Additionally, fluorene stress triggered the abnormal mRNA expression related to oxidative stress (e.g., metallothionein and heat shock protein 70), growth (translationally controlled tumour protein), reproduction (annetocin precursor) in E. fetida. Together, both high-dose and long-term exposure elicited more severe poisoning effects on earthworms using the Integrated Biological Response (IBR) index, and E. fetida coelomocyte DNA was the most negatively affected by fluorene stress. This study comprehensively evaluated fluorene-induced toxicity in E. fetida, and its underlying molecular mechanisms mediating the toxic responses have been elucidated. These findings provide valuable data for assessing potential ecological risks posed by fluorene-contaminated soil.

A noise-immune reinforcement learning method for early diagnosis of neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus.

The neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE), a severe disease that can damage the heart, liver, kidney, and other vital organs, often involves the central nervous system and even leads to death. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a brain functional imaging technology that can detect the concentration of metabolites in organs and tissues non-invasively. However, the performance of early diagnosis of NPSLE through conventional MRS analysis is still unsatisfactory. In this paper, we propose a novel method based on genetic algorithm (GA) and multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) to improve the performance of the NPSLE diagnosis model. Firstly, the proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) data from 23 NPSLE patients and 16 age-matched healthy controls (HC) were standardized before training. Secondly, we adopt MARL by assigning an agent to each feature to select the optimal feature subset. Thirdly, the parameter of SVM is optimized by GA. Our experiment shows that the SVM classifier optimized by feature selection and parameter optimization achieves 94.9% accuracy, 91.3% sensitivity, 100% specificity and 0.87 cross-validation score, which is the best score compared with other state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. Furthermore, our method is even better than other dimension reduction ones, such as SVM based on principal component analysis (PCA) and variational autoencoder (VAE). By analyzing the metabolites obtained by MRS, we believe that this method can provide a reliable classification result for doctors and can be effectively used for the early diagnosis of this disease.

Discrepancy of apoptotic events in mouse hepatocytes and catalase performance: Size-dependent cellular and molecular toxicity of ultrafine carbon black.

The diversification of the production process and application of ultrafine carbon black (UFCB), one of the nanomaterials, make the difference in particle sizes that exposed to environment. Currently, few size-dependent toxicity studies of UFCB pay attention to targeted effects on detoxification organs. And there is a research gap in the size-dependent molecular toxicity of UFCB. Based on this, mouse hepatocytes and catalase (CAT) were used as targeted receptors for UFCB size-dependent cellular and molecular toxicity studies. Results indicate that UFCB13 nm induced higher ROS and lipid peroxidation levels. And the cell viability decreased to 22.5%, which is sharp contrast to UFCB50 nm (45.3%) and UFCB95 nm (55.1%). Mitochondrial dysfunction and a 25.2% early apoptosis rate are the further manifestation of the stronger cytotoxicity of UFCB13 nm. At the molecular level, the exposure of UFCB with better dispersity resulted in more significant changes in the CAT backbone and secondary structure, fluorescence sensitization and enzyme function inhibition. The combined experiments show that the cellular uptake and dispersity of UFCB are the dominating factors for the discrepancy in size-dependent cellular and molecular toxicity, respectively. This study provides a theoretical basis for the necessary circumvention and substitution of UFCB in engineering applications.

The combination of ultrafine carbon black and lead provokes cytotoxicity and apoptosis in mice lung fibroblasts through oxidative stress-activated mitochondrial pathways.

Ultrafine particulates (UFPs) are considered one of the most hazardous of all air pollutants, which can be directly inhaled into the human body and cause direct damage to lung tissues. Lung fibroblasts (LF) play an important role in the structure and function of lung and there are few studies on primary cells at present. So, the article focuses on LF as the research objective and ultrafine carbon black (UFCB) and Pb-UFCB (loaded with lead) as a representative of UFPs to study the effect on LF. The results showed that UFCB and Pb-UFCB inhibited LF proliferation due to cell cycle arrested in the S phase, and induced apoptosis. Additionally, UFCB or Pb-UFCB could induce oxidative stress manifested as the increase of intracellular reactive oxygen species. The redox imbalance was further confirmed by measuring the changes of related enzymes, including the activity of superoxide dismutase and catalase and the level of reduced glutathione and malondialdehyde in cells. Moreover, the elevated lactate dehydrogenase in the culture medium indicated that cell membrane had been injured. And mitochondrial function was impaired by the imbalance of ATP synthesis and hydrolysis. In summary, both induced oxidative stress, which is the main driving force of LF early apoptosis, disruption of cell membrane integrity and mitochondrial function. Here, we provide a meaningful and challenging subject to explore the toxic effect and mechanism between UFPs and lung tissue at cellular levels, and theoretical basics for the possible changes of lung tissue function in vivo.