Mucus-Penetrating Nanoassembly as Potential Oral Phototherapeutic Formulation against Multi-Drug Resistant Helicobacter pylori Infection.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection presents increasing challenges to antibiotic therapies in limited penetration through gastric mucus, multi-drug resistance (MDR), biofilm formation, and intestinal microflora dysbiosis. To address these problems, herein, a mucus-penetrating phototherapeutic nanomedicine (RLs@T780TG) against MDR H. pylori infection is engineered. The RLs@T780TG is assembled with a near-infrared photosensitizer T780T-Gu and an anionic component rhamnolipids (RLs) for deep mucus penetration and light-induced anti-H. pylori performances. With optimized suitable size, hydrophilicity and weak negative surface, the RLs@T780TG can effectively penetrate through the gastric mucus layer and target the inflammatory site. Subsequently, under irradiation, the structure of RLs@T780TG is disrupted and facilitates the T780T-Gu releasing to target the H. pylori surface and ablate multi-drug resistant (MDR) H. pylori. In vivo, RLs@T780TG phototherapy exhibits impressive eradication against H. pylori. The gastric lesions are significantly alleviated and intestinal bacteria balance is less affected than antibiotic treatment. Summarily, this work provides a potential nanomedicine design to facilitate in vivo phototherapy in treatment of H. pylori infection.

Effects of heating rates on the self-assembly behavior and gelling properties of beef myosin.

BACKGROUND: Myosin is the most important component of myofibrillar protein, with excellent gelling properties. To date, heating treatment remains the mainstream method for forming gel in meat products, and it has the most extensive application in the field of meat industry. However, at present, there are few reports on the effects of heating rates on myosin self-assembly and aggregation behavior during heating treatment. RESULTS: The present study aimed to investigate the effects of different heating rates (1, 2, 3 and 5 °C min-1 ) on the self-assembly behavior, physicochemical, structural and gelling properties of myosin. At the lowest heating rate of 1 °C min-1 , the myosin gel had a dense microstructure, the highest elastic modulus (G') and water holding capacity compared to higher heating rates (2, 3 and 5 °C min-1 ). At higher temperatures (40, 45 °C), the surface hydrophobicity, turbidity, particle size distribution and self-assembly behavior of myosin in pre-gelling solutions showed that myosin had sufficient time to denature, underwent full structure unfolding before aggregation at the heating rate of 1°C min-1 , and formed regular and homogeneous spherical aggregates. Therefore, the myosin gel also had a better three-dimensional network. CONCLUSION: The heating rates had an important effect on the quality of myosin gels, and had theoretical implications for improving the quality of meat gel products. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

A visual diagnostic detection of Helicobacter pylori and the gastric carcinoma-related virulence genes (cagA and vacA) by a fluorescent loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP).

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection has increasingly been a serious problem worldwide. The H. pylori infection can result in a series of stomach diseases including gastric carcinoma. There are two specific virulence genes (cagA and vacA) of H. pylori that are closely related to the occurrence of gastric cancer, and the common molecular detection methods (PCR, qPCR) are not suitable for high-screening test due to the requirement of expensive instruments and well-trained personals. Herein, we develop a rapid visual assay based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) for detecting H. pylori and its major virulence genes (cagA, vacAs1 and vacAm1) to guide clinical treatment for H. pylori infection. In this research, a fluorescent LAMP assay was established by optimizing the indicator of MnCl2-Calcein, so that the resulted color and fluorescence changes could be utilized to perform the visual detection for H. pylori and its virulence genes with high sensitivity (10-3 ng/µL). The proposed LAMP assay is simple, fast (30 min) and capable in providing more sensitive results than traditional methods in the test of 46 clinical biopsy samples. By detecting the three virulence genes together, we can profile the infection risk of the patients, and discuss the correlation among the genes. Moreover, the method could be used to diagnose virulently infected individuals and benefit the eradication of H. pylori in early warning for gastric cancer.

Knockdown of miR-372-3p Inhibits the Development of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy by Accelerating Angiogenesis via Activating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR/HIF-1α Signaling Pathway and Suppressing Oxidative Stress.

Background: DCM is the most common and malignant complication of diabetes. It is characterized by myocardial dilatation, hypertrophy, fibrosis, ventricular remodeling, and contractile dysfunction. Although many studies have demonstrated the function of miRNAs in the progression of DCM, but the specific role of miR-372-3p in DCM remains unknown. Methods: C57/BL6J mice were used to construct mouse models of DCM by intraperitoneal injection of STZ (50 mg/kg/d) for 5 consecutive days. Then the mice were randomly divided into model group (intramyocardial injection of empty lentivirus) and miR-372-3p KD group (intramyocardial injection of miR-372-3p KD lentivirus at 109/mouse). Besides, the control group (injection of 0.9% normal saline) was also set up. LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, was employed in the current study. Western blotting, immunofluorescence staining, quantitative ultrasound method, Masson's trichrome staining, and bioinformatics analysis were performed. Results: It was found that miR-372-3p KD significantly improved left ventricular dysfunction and cardiac hypertrophy in DCM mice. Furthermore, it also improved myocardial interstitial fibrosis and remodeling in DCM mice. Immunofluorescence staining and RT-qPCR revealed that miR-372-3p KD might accelerate cardiac remodeling by increasing angiogenesis in DCM mice. Western blotting results revealed that miR-372-3p was an upstream target of the PI3K/AKT-mTOR and HIF-1α signals, as well as NOX2, NOX4, which were responsible for angiogenesis in DCM mice. Besides, the in vitro experiment showed that LY294002 markedly diminished the increased expression levels of p-PI3K, AKT, p-mTOR, p-P70S6K, HIF-1α, NOX2, and NOX4 in the model group and the miR-372-3p KD group, suggesting that PI3K signaling pathway and oxidative stress are involved in miR-372-3p KD-induced angiogenesis in HG-stimulated C166 cells. Conclusions: MiR-372-3p KD inhibits the development of DCM via activating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR/HIF-1α signaling pathway or suppressing oxidative stress. This offers an applicable biomarker for DCM treatment.

Synthesis and characterization of osmotic pump capsules containing polyoxyethylene and pH modifier to control the release of nifedipine.

The aim of this study was to formulate osmotic pump capsules (OPCs) to control the release of nifedipine (NP). NP solid dispersion was prepared by solvent evaporation method. The prepared mixture of NP solid dispersion and various excipients were filled into the commercial HPMC hard capsule shells and then coated with cellulose acetate (CA) solution to form NP-OPC. The CA coating solution consisted of CA as semi-permeable membrane, and Poloxamer 188 as pore formers. The impact of addition agents, citric acid and pore formers on in vitro drug release were investigated. Furthermore, the study has highlighted the impact of paddle speed and the pH value of release media, on the release and compared the release with the commercial controlled release tablets. The in vitro drug release study indicated that drug release could reach 95% in 24 h with optimal formulation, and interestingly model fitting showed that the drug release behavior was closely followed to zero-order release kinetics. The pharmacokinetic studies were performed in rabbits with commercial controlled release tablets as reference, both preparations showed a sustained release effect. Compared with traditional preparation methods of OPCs, the new preparation process was simplified without the operation of laser drilling and the sealing process of capsule body and cap, which improved the feasibility of industrial production.

Applications of water blanching, surface contacting ultrasound-assisted air drying, and their combination for dehydration of white cabbage: Drying mechanism, bioactive profile, color and rehydration property.

This work studied the influences of water blanching pretreatment (30 s), surface contacting ultrasound (492.3 and 1131.1 W/m2) assisted air drying, and their combination on drying kinetics and quality of white cabbage. Contacting sonication was performed by placing samples on an ultrasonic vibration plate, and the drying temperature was 60 °C. Through drying kinetic analysis and numerical simulation considering internal and external resistances and shrinkage, it was found that both blanching pretreatment and contacting sonication during drying intensified internal water diffusion and external water exchange to shorten cabbage drying time. Meanwhile, blanching pretreatment was more effective to enhance the drying process. The largest reduction of drying time (from 145 min to 24 min) was obtained when sequential blanching and contacting sonication at 1131.1 W/m2 were conducted. Dehydrated cabbages with blanching pretreatment were characterized by green color and high retention of vitamin C, while a severe loss of vitamin C was found in dried cabbages without blanching pretreatment. Moreover, although both blanching and contacting sonication shortened the drying time, the losses of phenolics, glucosinolates and resulting breakdown products were not alleviated. Contents of total phenolics, one glucosinolates (sinigrin) and one glucobrassicin breakdown product (indole-3-acetoritrile) in only air dried cabbages were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that in samples dried by sequential blanching and contacting ultrasound-assisted drying. The changes of glucosinolate profile and resulting degradation products under different treatments were irregular, due to complex bioconversion pathways included.