Emerging technology to develop novel red winemaking practices: An overview

Nowadays, making modifications to traditional practices and/or adopting novel processing technologies is of great interest in order to fulfill consumers expectations towards food products characterized by convenience, variety, adequate shelf-life and caloric content, healthy properties, reasonable cost, and environmental sustainability. In this perspective, the role of emerging technologies in winemaking is addressed towards reduced production time, optimized resources and spaces, extraction of high nutraceutic components through mechanical effects, high energy efficiency, extended shelf-life, lowering SO2 addition and its final concentration. This paper is the outcome of an extensive and comprehensive literature review describing, by an integrated approach, the main characteristics and applications of three emerging technologies (US, MW, and PEF) alternative to the traditional winemaking processes. Their advantages related to the safety aspects of wine, such as the ability to improve nutraceutic and sensorial features are also described. Industrial relevance The food industry is currently interested in a variety of novel production and emerging technologies that may result in economical and quality products. This review shows as numerous researches have strongly demonstrated the great benefits of new emerging technologies, such as PEF, US, and MW, into the oenological industry, either increasing compounds extraction during maceration of the must or accelerating stabilization stage in the wine. Emerging technologies could offer better products to consumers with added value in terms of nutritional or sensorial characteristics, and guarantee higher profit for the industry, even reducing process time and use of natural resources, such as energy, water, and chemicals

Increased sodium channel use-dependent inhibition by a new potent analogue of tocainide greatly enhances in vivo antimyotonic activity

Although the sodium channel blocker, mexiletine, is the first choice drug in myotonia, some myotonic patients remain unsatisfied due to contraindications, lack of tolerability, or incomplete response. More therapeutic options are thus needed for myotonic patients, which require clinical trials based on solid preclinical data. In previous structure-activity relationship studies, we identified two newly-synthesized derivatives of tocainide, To040 and To042, with greatly enhanced potency and use-dependent behavior in inhibiting sodium currents in frog skeletal muscle fibers. The current study was performed to verify their potential as antimyotonic agents. Patch-clamp experiments show that both compounds, especially To042, are greatly more potent and use-dependent blockers of human skeletal muscle hNav1.4 channels compared to tocainide and mexiletine. Reduced effects on F1586C hNav1.4 mutant suggest that the compounds bind to the local anesthetic receptor, but that the increased hindrance and lipophilia of the N-substituent may further strengthen drug-receptor interaction and use-dependence. Compared to mexiletine, To042 was 120 times more potent to block hNav1.4 channels in a myotonia-like cellular condition and 100 times more potent to improve muscle stiffness in vivo in a previously-validated rat model of myotonia. To explore toxicological profile, To042 was tested on hERG potassium currents, motor coordination using rotarod, and C2C12 cell line for cytotoxicity. All these experiments suggest a satisfactory therapeutic index for To042. This study shows that, owing to a huge use-dependent block of sodium channels, To042 is a promising candidate drug for myotonia and possibly other membrane excitability disorders, warranting further preclinical and human studies

Organofluorinecontaining anti-infective agents

Fluorine atom is a suitable bioisostere in diverse organofluorine compounds acting as anti-infective agents