L., also known as haskap or honeysuckle berry, is a fruit commonly planted in eastern Europe, Canada and Asia. The fruit was registered as a traditional food from a third country under European Union ...regulations only on December 2018. It is resistant to cold, pests, various soil acidities and diseases. However, its attractiveness is associated mostly with its health properties. The fruit shows anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activity-important factors in improving health. These features result from the diverse content of phytochemicals in honeysuckle berries with high concentrations of phytocompounds, mainly hydroxycinnamic acids, hydroxybenzoic acids, flavanols, flavones, isoflavones, flavonols, flavanones and anthocyanins but also iridoids, present in the fruit in exceptional amounts. The content and health properties of the fruit were identified to be dependent on cultivar, genotype and the place of harvesting. Great potential benefits of this nutritious food are its ability to minimize the negative effects of UV radiation, diabetes mellitus and neurodegenerative diseases, and to exert hepato- and cardioprotective activity.
Two decades ago, halogen bonding attracted considerable attention as a new type of non-covalent interaction and has now emerged as an important supramolecular tool for crystal engineering, ...demonstrating its ability to self-assemble low affinity entities. Specific features of halogen bonds have been subsequently harnessed in biological and material sciences to give rise to elegant functional systems with a wide range of applications. In this highlight, we focused on new concepts in polymer science, electrochemistry, electronic and sensing materials. Recent findings on the use of halogenated compounds for transmembrane transport are also discussed, together with a short summary of the current understanding of the nature of the halogen bond, in the light of modern computational tools and energy decomposition.
This review highlights recent developments of halogen bonding in materials and biological sciences with a short discussion on the nature of the interaction.
Marine natural products Blunt, John W; Copp, Brent R; Keyzers, Robert A ...
Natural product reports,
03/2017, Letnik:
34, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Covering: 2015. Previous review: Nat. Prod. Rep., 2016, 33, 382-431This review covers the literature published in 2015 for marine natural products (MNPs), with 1220 citations (792 for the period ...January to December 2015) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green, brown and red algae, sponges, cnidarians, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates, echinoderms, mangroves and other intertidal plants and microorganisms. The emphasis is on new compounds (1340 in 429 papers for 2015), together with the relevant biological activities, source organisms and country of origin. Reviews, biosynthetic studies, first syntheses, and syntheses that lead to the revision of structures or stereochemistries, have been included.
Multivalent interactions frequently occur in biological systems and typically provide higher binding affinity and selectivity in target recognition than when only monovalent interactions are ...operative. Thus, taking inspiration by nature, bivalent or multivalent nucleic acid aptamers recognizing a specific biological target have been extensively studied in the last decades. Indeed, oligonucleotide-based aptamers are suitable building blocks for the development of highly efficient multivalent systems since they can be easily modified and assembled exploiting proper connecting linkers of different nature. Thus, substantial research efforts have been put in the construction of dimeric/multimeric versions of effective aptamers with various degrees of success in target binding affinity or therapeutic activity enhancement. The present review summarizes recent advances in the design and development of dimeric and multimeric DNA-based aptamers, including those forming G-quadruplex (G4) structures, recognizing different key proteins in relevant pathological processes. Most of the designed constructs have shown improved performance in terms of binding affinity or therapeutic activity as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticoagulant, and anticancer agents and their number is certainly bound to grow in the next future.
The adsorption of proteins and their layering onto nanoparticle surfaces has been called the “protein corona”. This dynamic process of protein adsorption has been extensively studied following in ...vitro incubation of many different nanoparticles with plasma proteins. However, the formation of protein corona under dynamic, in vivo conditions remains largely unexplored. Extrapolation of in vitro formed protein coronas to predict the fate and possible toxicological burden from nanoparticles in vivo is of great interest. However, complete lack of such direct comparisons for clinically used nanoparticles makes the study of in vitro and in vivo formed protein coronas of great importance. Our aim was to study the in vivo protein corona formed onto intravenously injected, clinically used liposomes, based on the composition of the PEGylated liposomal formulation that constitutes the anticancer agent Doxil. The formation of in vivo protein corona was determined after the recovery of the liposomes from the blood circulation of CD-1 mice 10 min postinjection. In comparison, in vitro protein corona was formed by the incubation of liposomes in CD-1 mouse plasma. In vivo and in vitro formed protein coronas were compared in terms of morphology, composition and cellular internalization. The protein coronas on bare (non-PEGylated) and monoclonal antibody (IgG) targeted liposomes of the same lipid composition were also comparatively investigated. A network of linear fibrillary structures constituted the in vitro formed protein corona, whereas the in vivo corona had a different morphology but did not appear to coat the liposome surface entirely. Even though the total amount of protein attached on circulating liposomes correlated with that observed from in vitro incubations, the variety of molecular species in the in vivo corona were considerably wider. Both in vitro and in vivo formed protein coronas were found to significantly reduce receptor binding and cellular internalization of antibody-conjugated liposomes; however, the in vivo corona formation did not lead to complete ablation of their targeting capability.
In the current study, changes in secondary metabolite synthesis and the pharmaceutical quality of sabah snake grass leaves and buds were considered in relation to plant age (1 month, 6 months, and 1 ...year old). The activity of the enzyme chalcone synthase (CHS, EC 2.3.1.74) was measured, as it is a key enzyme for flavonoid production. Significant differences in total flavonoid (TF) production were observed between the three plant growth periods and the different plant parts. The highest contents of TF (6.32 mg/g dry weight DW) and total phenolic (TP) (18.21 mg/g DW) were recorded in 6-month-old buds. Among the flavonoids isolated in this study the most important ones based on concentration were from high to low as follows: catechin > quercetin > kaempferol > luteolin. Production of phenolic acids increased from 1 to 6 months, but after 6 months up to 1 year of age, they decreased significantly. The highest contents of caffeic acid (0.307 mg/g DW) and gallic acid (5.96 mg/g DW) were recorded in 1-year and 6-month-old buds, respectively. The lowest and highest activity of CHS was recorded in 1-month and 6-month-old buds with values of 3.6 and 9.5 nkat/mg protein, respectively. These results indicate that the increment in flavonoids and phenolic acids in 6-month-old buds can be attributed to an increase in CHS activity. The highest 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) activity was observed in the extract of 1-year-old buds followed by 6-month-old buds, with 50% of free radical scavenging (IC50) values of 64.6 and 73.5 µg/mL, respectively. Interestingly, a ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay showed a higher activity in 6-month-old buds (488 μM of Fe(II)/g) than in 1-year-old buds (453 μM of Fe(II)/g), in contrast to the DPPH result. Significant correlations (p < 0.05) were observed between CHS enzyme activity and FRAP activity, TF, catechin, and kaempferol content. Extracts of 6-month-old bud exhibited a significant in vitro anticancer activity against HeLa cancer cells with IC50 value of 56.8 µg/mL. These results indicate that early harvesting of snake grass (6-month-old) may yield increased concentrations of secondary metabolites, which are potent antioxidant compounds.
•Two water-soluble polysaccharides were extracted from the Tunisian brown alga C. compressa.•The sulfated fucoidan was a galactofucan with a backbone of α-(1,3) and α-(1,4)-l-Fucp, highly ...substituted.•The sodium alginate showed a M/G ratio closed to 0.77 and the ability to form solid and rigid gel.•The polysaccharides displayed antioxidant activities with IC50 values under 560 μg/mL.
A fucoidan (CCF) and a sodium alginate (CCSA) were extracted and purified from the Tunisian brown seaweed Cystoseira compressa. CCF was a highly sulfated heterogalactofucan composed of α-(1→3), α-(1→4)-linked l-Fucp as main backbone which could be highly branched (31.84%) at O-3 and O-4 positions of α-(1→4)-l-Fucp and α-(1→3)-l-Fucp by terminal monosaccharides and side chains such as terminal α-l-Fucp, terminal β-d-Galp, β-d-Galp-(1→3)-α-l-Fucp and β-d-Galp-(1→4)-α-l-Fucp. The ratio of α-(1→3)/α-(1→4) linkages was estimated at 3.86:1. CCSA was characterized by HPAEC-PAD, GC/MS-EI, ATR-FTIR, and 1H-NMR. The M/G ratio was M/G = 0.77, indicating that CCSA respectively contained 44% and 56% of mannuronic and guluronic acids. The values of FGG, FMM, FGM (or FMG) blocks as well as the parameter η were estimated. The two polysaccharides exhibited effective antioxidant activities by ferrous ion chelation, ferric ion reduction and DPPH radical-scavenging, outlining their potentials as natural additives.
L'Hér methanol extract was studied by NMR and two different LC-DAD-MS
using electrospray (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) sources to obtain a quali-quantitative fingerprint. ...Forty different phytochemicals were identified, and twenty of them were quantified, whereas the main constituents were dihydro α ionol-
-arabinosil(1-6) glucoside (133 mg/g), dihydro β ionol-
-arabinosil(1-6) glucoside (80 mg/g), β-sitosterol (49 mg/g), and isorhamnetin-3-
-rutinoside (26 mg/g).
was extracted with different solvents-namely, water, methanol, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate-and the extracts were assayed using different in vitro tests. The methanolic extracts presented the highest 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) values. All the tested extracts exhibited inhibitory effects on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), with a higher activity observed for dichloromethane (AChE: 5.03 and BChE: 16.41 mgGALAE/g), while the methanolic extract showed highest impact against tyrosinase (49.83 mgKAE/g). Taken together, these findings suggest
as a novel source of bioactive phytochemicals with potential for commercial development.
In this study, the phenolic profiles and bioactivities of five representative cultivars of okra collected in China were investigated. Noticeable variations of phenolic compounds and their ...bioactivities were observed among these different cultivars of okra. The contents of total flavonoids (TFC) in "Shuiguo", "Kalong 8", "Kalong 3", "Wufu", and "Royal red" ranged from 1.75 to 3.39 mg RE/g DW, of which "Shuiguo" showed the highest TFC. Moreover, five individual phenolic compounds were found in okra by high performance liquid chromatography analysis, including isoquercitrin, protocatechuic acid, quercetin-3-O-gentiobioside, quercetin, and rutin, while isoquercitrin and quercetin-3-O-gentiobioside were detected as the main phenolic compounds in okra. Moreover, all tested okra exhibited significant antioxidant activities (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging capacity, 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical scavenging capacity, and ferric reducing antioxidant power) and inhibitory effects on digestive enzymes (lipase, α-glucosidase, and α-amylase). Indeed, "Shuiguo" exhibited much better antioxidant activities and inhibitory activities on digestive enzymes, which might be attributed to its high TFC. Results suggested that okra, especially "Shuiguo", could be developed as natural antioxidants and inhibitors against hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia in the fields of functional foods and pharmaceuticals, which could meet the increasing demand for high-quality okra with health-promoting properties in China.
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