Packaging performs a number of functions in the containment, protection, shipment and selling of goods. This book recognizes that food packaging is a fast-growing area that impacts upon the important ...areas of product shelf-life and food safety. Each chapter provides information on the scientific background, new material development and utilization, and case studies of the use of new systems for perishable food products. This book is intended for specialists in the food packaging industries, scientists involved in shelf-life and food safety, advanced food science students at universities.
Aims
In the preliminary study, kimchi, a traditional food fermented with Chinese cabbage, protected scopolamine‐induced mouse memory deficit in passive avoidance test. Therefore, we screened ...protective ingredients, particularly lactic acid bacteria, from Chinese cabbage kimchi against scopolamine‐induced memory deficit in mice.
Methods and Results
Lactic acid bacteria, isolated from Chinese cabbage kimchi, were identified by 16S rDNA sequence analysis, G+C content and cellular fatty acid composition and sugar fermentation test. Memory deficit was induced in mice by intraperitoneally injecting with scopolamine.
Kimchi, particularly its supernatant, protected scopolamine‐induced memory deficit in mice in passive avoidance test. Of kimchi ingredients, a lactic acid bacterium, strain C29, potently protected scopolamine‐induced memory deficit in mice. C29 was a gram‐positive, catalase‐negative, anaerobic and non‐motile rod. Its pylogenetic property was near to Lactobacillus pentosus (99%) and Lact. plantarum (99%). However, C29 fermented inulin and L‐rhamnose and grew in pH 3 and at 45°C in contrast with Lact. pentosus and Lact. plantarum. Therefore, it named to be Lact pentosus var. plantarum C29. The strain C29 protected scopolamine‐induced memory deficit in Y‐maze and Morris water maze tests. Furthermore, C29 increased hippocampal BDNF and p‐CREB expressions, which were reduced by scopolamine.
Conclusion
Lactobacillus pentosus var. plantarum C29 may protect memory deficit by inducing BDNF and p‐CREB expressions.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Lactic acid bacteria, such as Lact pentosus var. plantarum C29, may prevent memory deficit and its contained fermented foods may be beneficial for dementia.
We demonstrate efficient terahertz (THz) modulation by coupling graphene strongly with a broadband THz metasurface device. This THz metasurface, made of periodic gold slit arrays, shows near unity ...broadband transmission, which arises from coherent radiation of the enhanced local-field in the slits. Utilizing graphene as an active load with tunable conductivity, we can significantly modify the local-field enhancement and strongly modulate the THz wave transmission. This hybrid device also provides a new platform for future nonlinear THz spectroscopy study of graphene.
Objective
The NLRP3 inflammasome is closely linked to the pathophysiology of a wide range of inflammatory diseases. This study was undertaken to identify small molecules that directly bind to NLRP3 ...in order to develop pharmacologic interventions for NLRP3‐related diseases.
Methods
A structure‐based virtual screening analysis was performed with ~62,800 compounds to select efficient NLRP3 inhibitors. The production of caspase 1‐p10 and interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β) was measured by immunoblotting and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay to examine NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Two gouty arthritis models and an air pouch inflammation model induced by monosodium urate monohydrate (MSU) crystal injection were used for in vivo experiments. Primary synovial fluid cells from gout patients were used to determine the relevance of NLRP3 inflammasome inhibition in human gout.
Results
Beta‐carotene (provitamin A) suppressed the NLRP3 inflammasome activation induced by various activators, including MSU crystals, in mouse bone marrow–derived primary macrophages (P < 0.05). Surface plasmon resonance analysis demonstrated the direct binding of β‐carotene to the pyrin domain (PYD) of NLRP3 (KD = 3.41 × 10−6). Molecular modeling and mutation assays revealed the interaction mode between β‐carotene and the NLRP3 PYD. Inflammatory symptoms induced by MSU crystals were attenuated by oral administration of β‐carotene in gouty arthritis mouse models (P < 0.05), correlating with its suppressive effects on the NLRP3 inflammasome in inflamed tissues. Furthermore, β‐carotene reduced IL‐1β secretion from human synovial fluid cells isolated from gout patients (P < 0.05), showing its inhibitory efficacy in human gout.
Conclusion
Our results present β‐carotene as a selective and direct inhibitor of NLRP3, and the binding of β‐carotene to NLRP3 PYD as a novel pharmacologic strategy to combat NLRP3 inflammasome–driven diseases, including gouty arthritis.
Background and purpose
We investigated the effect of celecoxib, a selective inhibitor of cyclo‐oxygenase 2, in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH).
Methods
We conducted a multicenter, ...randomized, controlled, and open with blinded end‐point trial of 44 Korean patients 18 years or older with ICH within 24 h of onset. The intervention group (n = 20) received celecoxib (400 mg twice a day) for 14 days. The control group (n = 24) received the standard medical treatment for ICH. The primary end‐point was the number of patients with a change in the volume of perihematomal edema (PHE) from the 1st to the 7th ± 1 day (cut‐off value, 20%).
Results
The time from onset to computed tomography scan slightly differed between groups (177 ± 160 min for control vs. 297 ± 305 min for the celecoxib group; P = 0.10). In the primary end‐point analysis using cut‐off values, there was a significant shift to reduced expansion of PHE in the celecoxib group (P = 0.005). With respect to the secondary end‐points, there was also a significant shift to reduced expansion of ICH in the celecoxib group (P = 0.046). In addition, the expansion rate of PHE at follow‐up tended to be higher in the control group than in the celecoxib group (90.6 ± 91.7% vs. 44.4 ± 64.9%; P = 0.058).
Conclusions
In our small, pilot trial, administration of celecoxib in the acute stage of ICH was associated with a smaller expansion of PHE than that observed in controls.
Adding ovarian function suppression (OFS) after chemotherapy improves survival in young women with moderate- and high-risk breast cancer. Assessment of ovarian function restoration after chemotherapy ...becomes critical for subsequent endocrine treatment and addressing fertility issues.
In the adding OFS after chemotherapy trial, patients who resumed ovarian function up to 2 years after chemotherapy were randomised to receive either 5 years of tamoxifen or adding 2 years of OFS with tamoxifen. Ovarian function was evaluated from enrolment to randomisation, and patients who did not randomise because of amenorrhoea for 2 years received tamoxifen and were followed up for 5 years. Prospectively collected consecutive hormone levels (proportion of patients with premenopausal follicle-stimulating hormone FSH levels <30 mIU/mL and oestradiol E2 levels ≥40 pg/mL) and history of menstruation were available for 1067 patients with breast cancer.
Over 5 years of tamoxifen treatment, 69% of patients resumed menstruation and 98% and 74% of patients satisfied predefined ovarian function restoration as per serum FSH and E2 levels, respectively. Menstruation was restored in 91% of patients younger than 35 years at baseline, but in only 33% of 45-year-old patients over 5 years. Among these patients, 41% experienced menstruation restoration within 2 years after chemotherapy and 28% slowly restored menstruation after 2–5 years. Younger age (<35 years) at baseline, anthracycline without taxanes and ≤90 days of chemotherapy were predictors of menstruation restoration.
During 5 years of tamoxifen treatment after chemotherapy, two-thirds of the patients experienced menstruation restoration, especially patients younger than 35 years. Young age, Adriamycin without taxanes and short duration of chemotherapy appeared to have a positive effect on ovarian reserves in the long term.
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00912548.
•Over 5 years after chemotherapy, 69% resumed menstruation, especially under 35.•Two-thirds experienced menstruation restoration within 2 years after chemotherapy.•Young age, adriamycine without taxane had a positive effect on ovarian reserves.
Summary
Chemical analysis and antimicrobial nature of grape seed extracts (GSE) and their Reisling Vitis vinifera L. application as fortificants for edible starch films were investigated. GSE ...possessed an antioxidant activity of 17.18 ± 1.29 mmol TROLOX equivalents gextract−1 and total phenolic content of 327.58 ± 7.24 mmol gallic acid equivalents gextract−1 mainly attributed to their flavonoid and phenolic acid composition determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography accomplished to a diode array detector and a electrospray ionisation mass spectrometer in negative mode (HPLC‐DAD/ESI‐MS). GSE inhibited the growth of Gram‐positive food‐borne pathogens while Gram‐negatives were not inhibited. After GSE were incorporated into pea starch films, thickness of enriched films increased and the puncture and tensile strength decreased compared to control films. Furthermore, migration of phenolic compounds from the films to different food simulants, aqueous, acidic and alcoholic solution was determined according to 89\109\EEC directive. A higher particle migration in acidic simulants was found. Finally, the effect of GSE incorporated pea starch films was tested in vitro with pork loins infected with Brochothrix thermosphacta. GSE films reduced the bacterial growth in 1.3 log colony forming units mL−1 after 4 days incubation at 4 °C.
Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is a mammalian histone methyltransferase that contributes to the epigenetic silencing of target genes and regulates the survival and metastasis of cancer cells. ...EZH2 is overexpressed in aggressive solid tumors by mechanisms that remain unclear. Here we show that the expression and function of EZH2 in cancer cell lines are inhibited by microRNA-101 (miR-101). Analysis of human prostate tumors revealed that miR-101 expression decreases during cancer progression, paralleling an increase in EZH2 expression. One or both of the two genomic loci encoding miR-101 were somatically lost in 37.5% of clinically localized prostate cancer cells (6 of 16) and 66.7% of metastatic disease cells (22 of 33). We propose that the genomic loss of miR-101 in cancer leads to overexpression of EZH2 and concomitant dysregulation of epigenetic pathways, resulting in cancer progression.
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