Rice is a staple food and an important source of proteins in many regions worldwide. Its protein component is generally regarded as hypoallergenic, and a number of studies have highlighted the ...nutritional and health benefits associated with consumption of rice proteins. In recent years, the processing of plant proteins has drawn scientific and industrial interest, and rice protein-enriched ingredients have become commercially available.
The aim of this study was to provide a critical review of the state of the art regarding the composition, extraction methods, functional properties and applications of rice proteins.
Rice is composed of four protein fractions, namely albumin (water-soluble), globulin (salt-soluble), glutelin (alkali-soluble), which represents the dominant protein in brown and milled rice, and prolamin (alcohol-soluble), a minor protein in all rice milling fractions. Different methods to extract proteins from rice, including alkaline, enzymatic and physical methods, have been, and continue to be, evaluated for their efficacy, and some have been applied industrially. However, only a limited amount of studies have described the functional properties of rice proteins and how these can be improved by means of enzymatic hydrolysis. Applications of intact rice proteins are limited due to their poor solubility in water. However, hydrolysed rice proteins are used in the formulation of hypoallergenic infant formulas and may potentially be used in a variety of food systems due to their improved functionality. Despite the advances in the characterisation of rice proteins, a greater understanding of their physicochemical properties and how to modify their functionality is required in order to expand their range of food applications.
•Rice protein-enriched ingredients have recently become commercially available.•Distribution and composition of proteins in rice are presented.•Methods for extracting proteins from rice are discussed.•Functional properties and applications of rice proteins are reviewed.
A panel of national experts was convened by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) to update the 2005 guidelines for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). The panel's ...recommendations were developed to be concordant with the recently published IDSA guidelines for the treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections. The focus of this guideline is the diagnosis and appropriate treatment of diverse SSTIs ranging from minor superficial infections to life-threatening infections such as necrotizing fasciitis. In addition, because of an increasing number of immunocompromised hosts worldwide, the guideline addresses the wide array of SSTIs that occur in this population. These guidelines emphasize the importance of clinical skills in promptly diagnosing SSTIs, identifying the pathogen, and administering effective treatments in a timely fashion.
•The macronutrient composition of rice protein ingredients was characterised.•The mineral and amino acid composition of the ingredients was analysed.•The protein profile of the ingredients was ...investigated.•A reducing buffer was developed to solubilise rice proteins prior to SDS-PAGE.•Rice protein fractions were extracted from rice flour and characterised by SDS-PAGE.
The objective of this study was to investigate the nutrient composition and protein profile of a range of rice protein ingredients containing 32–78% total protein. Rice protein ingredients had significantly (P<0.05) lower levels of calcium and total essential amino acids compared to selected dairy protein ingredients, i.e., skim milk powder, whey protein isolate and whey protein hydrolysate. Protein profiles of the ingredients were determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and size exclusion-high pressure liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC). Since the dominant rice protein fraction (i.e., glutelin) is extensively aggregated and crosslinked through disulfide bonds, a strong reducing buffer was developed in order to solubilise the rice protein ingredients prior to analysis by SDS-PAGE. Intact rice protein ingredients (n=3) contained proteins with molecular weight (MW) ranging from ∼11 to >250kDa, while rice protein hydrolysates (n=4) were composed mainly of low MW peptides. In parallel, enriched protein fractions were extracted from defatted rice flour based on their solubility and characterised by SDS-PAGE to facilitate the identification of protein bands in the rice protein ingredients. The results of this study underpin the understanding, prediction and control of physicochemical functionality of rice protein ingredients.
For all its traditional successes, the current model of medical education in the United States and Canada is being challenged on issues of quality, throughput, and cost, a process that has exposed ...numerous shortcomings in its efforts to meet the needs of the nations' health care systems. A radical change in direction is required because the current path will not lead to a solution.The 2010 publication Educating Physicians: A Call for Reform of Medical School and Residency identifies several goals for improving the medical education system, and proposals have been made to reform medical education to meet these goals. Enacting these recommendations practically and efficiently, while training more health care providers at a lower cost, is challenging.To advance solutions, the authors review innovations that are disrupting higher education and describe a vision for using these to create a new model for competency-based, learner-centered medical education that can better meet the needs of the health care system while adhering to the spirit of the above proposals. These innovations include collaboration amongst medical schools to develop massive open online courses for didactic content; faculty working in small groups to leverage this online content in a "flipped-classroom" model; and digital badges for credentialing entrustable professional activities over the continuum of learning.
Chemical biology strategies for directly perturbing protein homeostasis including the degradation tag (dTAG) system provide temporal advantages over genetic approaches and improved selectivity over ...small molecule inhibitors. We describe dTAG
-1, an exclusively selective VHL-recruiting dTAG molecule, to rapidly degrade FKBP12
-tagged proteins. dTAG
-1 overcomes a limitation of previously reported CRBN-recruiting dTAG molecules to degrade recalcitrant oncogenes, supports combination degrader studies and facilitates investigations of protein function in cells and mice.
Background Asthma pathophysiology and treatment responsiveness are predicted by inflammatory phenotype. However, the relationship between airway microbiology and asthma phenotype is poorly ...understood. Objective We aimed to characterize the airway microbiota in patients with symptomatic stable asthma and relate composition to airway inflammatory phenotype and other phenotypic characteristics. Methods The microbial composition of induced sputum specimens collected from adult patients screened for a multicenter randomized controlled trial was determined by using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Inflammatory phenotypes were defined by sputum neutrophil and eosinophil cell proportions. Microbiota were defined by using α- and β-diversity measures, and interphenotype differences were identified by using similarity of percentages, network analysis, and taxon fold change. Phenotypic predictors of airway microbiology were identified by using multivariate linear regression. Results Microbiota composition was determined in 167 participants and classified as eosinophilic (n = 84), neutrophilic (n = 14), paucigranulocytic (n = 60), or mixed neutrophilic-eosinophilic (n = 9) asthma phenotypes. Airway microbiology was significantly less diverse ( P = .022) and more dissimilar ( P = .005) in neutrophilic compared with eosinophilic participants. Sputum neutrophil proportions, but not eosinophil proportions, correlated significantly with these diversity measures (α-diversity: Spearman r = −0.374, P < .001; β-diversity: r = 0.238, P = .002). Interphenotype differences were characterized by a greater frequency of pathogenic taxa at high relative abundance and reduced Streptococcus , Gemella , and Porphyromonas taxa relative abundance in patients with neutrophilic asthma. Multivariate regression confirmed that sputum neutrophil proportion was the strongest predictor of microbiota composition. Conclusions Neutrophilic asthma is associated with airway microbiology that is significantly different from that seen in patients with other inflammatory phenotypes, particularly eosinophilic asthma. Differences in microbiota composition might influence the response to antimicrobial and steroid therapies and the risk of lung infection.
We document changes in forest structure between historical (1930s) and contemporary (2000s) surveys of California vegetation through comparisons of tree abundance and size across the state and within ...several ecoregions. Across California, tree density in forested regions increased by 30% between the two time periods, whereas forest biomass in the same regions declined, as indicated by a 19% reduction in basal area. These changes reflect a demographic shift in forest structure: larger trees (>61 cm diameter at breast height) have declined, whereas smaller trees (<30 cm) have increased. Large tree declines were found in all surveyed regions of California, whereas small tree increases were found in every region except the south and central coast. Large tree declines were more severe in areas experiencing greater increases in climaticwater deficit since the 1930s, based on a hydrologic model of water balance for historical climates through the 20th century. Forest composition in California in the last century has also shifted toward increased dominance by oaks relative to pines, a pattern consistent with warming and increased water stress, and also with paleohistoric shifts in vegetation in California over the last 150,000 y.
The macrolide antibiotic azithromycin reduces exacerbations in adults with persistent symptomatic asthma. However, owing to the pleotropic properties of macrolides, unintended bacteriological ...consequences such as augmented pathogen colonization or dissemination of antibiotic-resistant organisms can occur, calling into question the long-term safety of azithromycin maintenance therapy.
To assess the effects of azithromycin on the airway microbiota, pathogen abundance, and carriage of antibiotic resistance genes.
16S rRNA sequencing and quantitative PCR were performed to assess the effect of azithromycin on sputum microbiology from participants of the AMAZES (Asthma and Macrolides: The Azithromycin Efficacy and Safety) trial: a 48-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of thrice-weekly 500 mg oral azithromycin in adults with persistent uncontrolled asthma. Pooled-template shotgun metagenomic sequencing, quantitative PCR, and isolate whole-genome sequencing were performed to assess antibiotic resistance.
Paired sputum samples were available from 61 patients (
= 34 placebo,
= 27 azithromycin). Azithromycin did not affect bacterial load (
= 0.37) but did significantly decrease Faith's phylogenetic diversity (
= 0.026) and
load (
< 0.0001). Azithromycin did not significantly affect levels of
,
,
, or
. Of the 89 antibiotic resistance genes detected, five macrolide resistance genes and two tetracycline resistance genes were increased significantly.
In patients with persistent uncontrolled asthma, azithromycin reduced airway
load compared with placebo but did not change total bacterial load. Macrolide resistance increased, reflecting previous studies. These results highlight the need for studies assessing the efficacy of nonantibiotic macrolides as a long-term therapy for patients with persistent uncontrolled asthma.
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