Use of grape pomace phenolics to counteract endogenous and exogenous formation of advanced glycation end-products

The increase in consumption of \u201cultra-processed\u201d foods has raised attention because of the possible adverse effects deriving from the Maillard reaction leading to the formation of toxic advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) during food processing. Additionally, the increasing trend and consumption of sugar-added foods and sweetened beverages is related to the endogenous formation of the same toxic compounds. However, ultra-processing in the context of food technology can bring challenges as well as a wealth of opportunities. Indeed, re-processing of grape pomace, a by-product of winemaking, can yield phenolic-rich fractions that efficiently counteract the effects of AGEs. In this review, the process of endogenous and exogenous AGE formation is illustrated. Then, the ability of grape phenolics to act as inhibitors of AGE formation is presented, including the efficacy ranking of various individual compounds measured in vitro and the outcome of in vivo double-blinded randomized crossover trials designed to prove the efficacy of grape phenolics as inhibitors of protein carbonylation. Finally, a survey of model functional foods added with grape phenolics, either to lower the dietary load of AGEs or to deliver antiglycation agents in vivo is listed in order to highlight the opportunity to develop safe and tailor-made \u201canti-AGEs\u201d food applications

Beacon Light: October 1983

Children learn about hospital Parents learn to cope with the death of a child Apnea monitor may help prevent SIDS Infant car seats rented at hospital New equipment evaluates nervous system functions Colorectal surgeon touts high-fiber, low-fat diet 75 year anniversary of the School of Nursing Hospital receives praise from the U of

Gravitational Anomalies in string-inspired Cosmologies: from Inflation to Axion Dark Matter?

In this talk, I review briefly a scenario for the evolution of a string-inspired cosmological model, in which condensates of primordial gravitational waves (GW), formed at the very early eras after the Big Bang, are considered responsible for inducing inflation and then a smooth exit to a radiation dominated epoch. Primordial axion fields, that exist in the fundamental massless gravitational (bosonic) string multiplet, couple to the non-trivial GW-induced anomalies. As a result of this coupling, there exist axion background configurations which violate (spontaneously) Lorentz symmetry, and remain undiluted at the end of inflation. In models with heavy sterile right-handed neutrinos (RHN), such backgrounds are linked to novel (Lorentz and CPT Violating) mechanisms for the generation of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Cosmos, via the asymmetric decays of the RHN to standard model particles and antiparticles. During the QCD epoch, the axions develop an instanton-induced mass and can, thus, play the r\^ole of Dark Matter (DM). The energy density of such a Universe, throughout its evolution, has the form of that of a "running vacuum model", that is, it can be expanded in power series of even powers of the Hubble parameter $H(t)$. The coefficients of those terms, though, are different for the various cosmological epochs. For the phenomenology of our model, which is consistent with the current cosmological data, and could also help in alleviating (some of) the tensions, it suffices to consider up to and including quartic powers of $H(t)$. In the early Universe phase, it is the $H^4(t)$ term, induced by the GW condensate of the gravitational anomaly, that drives inflation without the need for external inflaton fields.Comment: 16 pages latex, uses special macros. Invited talk in Corfu Summer Institute 2019 "School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity" (CORFU2019), based on arXiv:1905.04685 [hep-th], arXiv:1907.04890 [hep-ph] and arXiv:2001.03465 [gr-qc], with which there may be partial text overla

Redox-Sensing Iron–Sulfur Cluster Regulators

Significance: Iron–sulfur cluster proteins carry out multiple functions, including as regulators of gene transcription/translation in response to environmental stimuli. In all known cases, the cluster acts as the sensory module, where the inherent reactivity/fragility of iron–sulfur clusters with small/redox-active molecules is exploited to effect conformational changes that modulate binding to DNA regulatory sequences. This promotes an often substantial reprogramming of the cellular proteome that enables the organism or cell to adapt to, or counteract, its changing circumstances. Recent Advances: Significant progress has been made recently in the structural and mechanistic characterization of iron–sulfur cluster regulators and, in particular, the O2 and NO sensor FNR, the NO sensor NsrR, and WhiB-like proteins of Actinobacteria. These are the main focus of this review. Critical Issues: Striking examples of how the local environment controls the cluster sensitivity and reactivity are now emerging, but the basis for this is not yet fully understood for any regulatory family. Future Directions: Characterization of iron–sulfur cluster regulators has long been hampered by a lack of high-resolution structural data. Although this still presents a major future challenge, recent advances now provide a firm foundation for detailed understanding of how a signal is transduced to effect gene regulation. This requires the identification of often unstable intermediate species, which are difficult to detect and may be hard to distinguish using traditional techniques. Novel approaches will be required to solve these problems

Characterization of CAXCK31, a Bacterial Calcium/Proton Antiporter

To better understand a class of transporters known as Calcium/Cation Antiporters (CaCAs), the bacterial calcium/proton antiporter CAXCK31 was purified and characterized. New methods were developed for its heterologous overexpression and purification. These methods help to define stress responses to toxic membrane overproduction in E. coli and may be broadly applicable to studies of membrane proteins. The results from a variety of biochemical and biophysical experiments demonstrated that CAXCK31 exists as a dimer in the membrane and can be purified in the dimeric state. The methods used include chemical cross-linking, FRET, and SEC-MALS. In addition, various transport properties of CAXCK31, including substrate selectivity, pH dependence, and transport rates, have been characterized for the first time

Mindfulness as a vigilance intervention: Examining its impact on stress and mental demand

Occupations involving vigilance performance (i.e., sustained attention in monitoring for rare environmental threats) are known to experience vigilance decrement, a decline in performance over time. These occupations are known to be cognitively and emotionally challenging, giving rise to harmful effects for employees in them and presenting safety implications for the welfare of others. The current study investigated mindfulness as a potentially viable intervention to alleviate outcomes of vigilance demands: stress and mental demand. A mindfulness induction was compared to an unfocused control condition in which both were administered during a break from a vigilance task, specifically, a baggage screening task. Ultimately, findings did not reveal positive effects for the mindfulness intervention, leading to reservations about its viability in a vigilance context. Moderation analyses revealed that baseline levels of stress and mental demand may have impacted one’s ability to derive benefits from the mindfulness intervention. Finally, though the intervention failed to take effect, promising findings emerged for general levels of trait and state mindfulness across participants, independent of condition. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

The Role of CD98 in Dysregulation of MiRNA and Protein Expression Along the Villus-Crypt Axis in Intestinal Epithelium

IEC-specific overexpression of CD98 mediates intestinal inflammation and intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction in experimental colitis and increase the susceptibility to colitis-asociated cancer. Here we demonstrated homeostatic gene profile dysregulation in the villus-crypt axis via CD98 overexpression. Using miRNA-target gene prediction module, we observed differentially expressed miRNAs to target proteins of villus and crypt profoundly affected by CD98 overexpression. We have utilized online bioinformatics as methods to further scrutinize the biological meanings of miRNA-target data. We identified significant interactions among the differentially regulated proteins targeted by altered miRNAs in Tg mice. The biological processes affected by the predicted targets of miRNAs deviate from the homeostatic functions of the miRNA-gene-protein axis of the wildtype mice. Our results emphasize a dynamic perturbation of miRNA and protein expression in villus-crypt axis contributing to potential biological consequences of altering CD98 expression. Such mechanism of endogenous miRNA gene-protein network dysregulation via host gene modification as modeled in our animal study has great implication in the translational understanding of the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in human population. It is hypothesized that diet-derived miRNAs, or exogenous miRNAs, can also potentially modify host gene expression profile. Various miRNAs have been detected in both plant and animial-derived foods. Furthermore, diet has been implicated as a potential facilitator of microbiota activities in gut health. We found evidence of consumption of foods typically known as junk food in US adult population with IBD. The idea that miRNAs from the exogenous source such as food can be another co-factor as a potential underlying mechanism behind the differential effect of food and diet on IBD risk and pathogenesis is quite feasible. The concept adds another layer of complexity in the interplay between the host, genetics, immune system, microbiota, and food and environment in the pathogenesis of IBD

Resistance to Ionizing Radiation and Oxidative Stress in Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1

Oxidative stress results from environmental challenges that cause unchecked production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). We analyzed the cellular damage and stress response of the extremophile Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1 exposed to chemical oxidants and to ionizing radiation (IR). In contrast to IR, cellular damage from H2O2 and superoxide suggested that cell death resulted from interference with major metabolic pathways rather than generalized oxidative lesions. We found that essential ROS scavenging enzymes were not necessary for H. salinarum NRC-1 survival to IR. Protection assays using enzyme-free cellular extracts from H. salinarum NRC-1 demonstrated high level of protection for protein activity but not for DNA integrity against IR. Biochemical analysis of the extracts underlined an essential role in ROS scavenging for specific nucleosides and MnPO4 complexes. These studies contributed novel findings on the critical role played by non-enzymatic systems in IR resistance in H. salinarum NRC-1

The Courier, December 1953

https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/courier/1010/thumbnail.jp