New Nutraceuticals from natural matrices by product to prevent diabetes

The control of glucose homeostasis is the main goal for both the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes (TD2) and pre-diabetes. While T2D is an irreversible condition, pre-diabetes is not. The objective of this research thesis has been to approach the pre-diabetes conditionand and develop from natural sources a successful preventive and therapeutic strategy by increasing in the diet the levels of active compounds capable to control the glycemia. Currently, a great interest has been focused on the valorization of agro-food byproducts, since these matrices could be a source of essential bioactive substance useful to the nutraceuticaland food supplements industry. Supporting the perspective of food as medicine, the aim of the thesis has been to provide an innovative alternative tool through the determination of various phytochemical compounds (e.g. carotenoids, polyphenols, terpenoids,abscisic acid)capable to prevent and/or to control the diabetes. The effect of different Lactobacillus strains has been evaluated as a suitable alternative of biocontrol to protect crops, in particular tomatoes, and a case study is presented. The possibility to use Lactobacillus to avoid/prevent the presence of secondary metabolites has been assessed. The following steps of this Thesis regarded the characterization, analysis, purification, formulation, andin vitro and in vivo tests of phytocomplexes from differet vegetal matrices. For this purpose, two double blind, randomized, clinical trials have been realized to verify the efficacy of novel nutraceutical formulations from: i)nectarines (NecP); ii)tomato peels (TP); iii) olive leaves (EOL), on glycaemic and insulinemic responses, in postprandial glycaemia (PPG), impaired fasting glucose (IFG), and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) conditions. All the three formulations significantly lowered the 30 min glucose plasma peak (p <0.05). NecP and TP also significantly lowered the 30 min insulin plasma peak (p<0.05). As a part of this Thesis, lacto-fermented tomatoes pomace puree enriched with two strains of probiotics has been formulated to evaluate, after the fermentation, the in vitroandin vivopotential through the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) to verify the beneficial effect in glucose metabolism.The data obtained by HPLC-DAD/Spectrometric-UV showed how the fermentation may impact positively on bioactive compound content, enzymatic response, and decrease the glucose concentration. All these results are promising for further investigation in the clinical research area

Abelmoschus esculentus (L.): Bioactive Components Beneficial PropertiesFocused on Antidiabetic RoleFor Sustainable Health Applications

The main features of the okra, Abelmoschus esculentus (L.), are highlighted. The evaluation of interactions between biologically active compounds and other components of the food matrix can be considered as the first action in the investigation of potential benefits of this annual herb. Moreover, updated examples of current and innovative directions in an integrated and multidisciplinary approach are discussed, with particular attention to chemometrics. Among the main effects attributed to okra, its antidiabetic property is the focus. Finally, the use of okra in different fields will be discussed.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Case Report: Sequential Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Produce Sustained Response in Osteosarcoma With High Tumor Mutational Burden

BackgroundImmunotherapy has provided an effective method for the treatment of many cancers. However, its efficacy in osteosarcoma is not satisfactory so far.Case PresentationHere, we presented a case of osteosarcoma treated with sequential chemotherapy and immunotherapy and showed promising therapeutic potential. The 29-year-old female patient presented 9th rib osteosarcoma with suspected right lung lower lobe metastasis. Surgery was performed to remove the primary lesion, and a series of chemotherapies were given afterward in consideration of the response and tolerance. The right lung lower lobe metastasis was under control first but progressed (PD) 9 months after the initiation of therapy. The lesion was surgically removed and subsequent chemotherapy was implemented. The patient had good tolerance with chemotherapy and maintained well for approximately 11 months before the discovery of 11th rib and right lung upper lobe metastases. Surgery was then performed on both lesions and achieved complete response. Post-surgical brief chemotherapy and subsequent long-term immunotherapy (pembrolizumab) maintained continuous remission for 33 months. The patient survived for 60 months with well-controlled disease from the time of confirmed diagnosis. Genetic alterations of all primary and metastatic lesions were investigated by whole-exome sequencing (WES). Substantial similarity in mutational landscape between the primary lesion and 11th rib metastasis and between the two lung metastases were revealed, while substantial heterogeneity was found between the rib lesions and lung metastases. The tumor mutational burden (TMB) for the 9th rib primary lesion, the metastatic 11th rib lesion, and the metastatic right upper and lower lobe nodule tissues was 8.02, 2.38, 4.61, and 0.14 mutations/Mb, respectively. The primary lesion exhibited the most diverse copy number variation (CNV) changes among all lesions. Furthermore, pathway enrichment analysis also suggested significant heterogeneity among the lesions.ConclusionsSurgery with sequential chemotherapy and maintenance immunotherapy was shown to have good response for the first time on osteosarcoma patient who had high TMB tumor lesions and good tolerance for chemotherapy and immunotherapy

Big impact of nanoparticles: analysis of the most cited nanopharmaceuticals and nanonutraceuticals research

Nanopharmaceuticals and nanonutraceuticals research has been lately receiving a lot of scientific attention. We aimed to identify the top 100 most cited original articles of the scientific area, analyze their research themes, major contributors regarding authors, institutions, countries and journals. The bibliometric data was extracted from the Web of Science electronic database. Data was further processed by a bibliometric software, VOSviewer, to generate bubble maps to visualize the results. Inter-institutional and international collaboration networks were constructed to further understand the cooperation between different study centers. Results revealed that over 60% of the articles were published in the 2000s. As of November 2019, the articles were cited 5763665 times, with 20.1261.8 citations per year. The majority of the most prolific institutions were based in the United States. Besides the United States, China, South Korea, Canada and Germany contributed heavily to the 100 articles. Some popular themes included drug delivery, tumor, toxicity / biocompatibility and biodistribution. Regarding composition materials, gold, silver and polymeric nanoparticles were the most commonly used.Atanas G. Atanasov acknowledges the support by the Polish KNOW (Leading National Research Centre) Scientific Consortium “Healthy Animal-Safe Food,” decision of Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. 05-1/KNOW2/2015. The support of the research project: Nutraceutica come supporto nutrizionale nel paziente oncologico, CUP: B83D18000140007, Italy is acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lignans: quantitative analysis of the research literature

The current study provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the lignan literature. Data for the current study were extracted from the electronic Web of Science Core Collection database via the search string TOPIC = (lignan*) and processed by the VOSviewer software. The search yielded 10,742 publications. The ratio of original articles to reviews was 14.6:1. Over 80% of the analyzed papers have been published since the year 2000 and nearly 50% since the year 2010. Many of the publications were focused on pharmacology, chemistry, and plant sciences. The United States and Asian countries, such as China, Japan, South Korea, and India, were the most productive producers of lignan publications. Among the 5 most productive institutions was the University of Helsinki in Finland, the country that ranked 9th. Nineteen journals collectively published 3,607 lignan publications and were considered as core journals. Their impact factor did not correlate with the proportion of uncited papers. Highly cited publications usually mentioned phytoestrogen, isoflavone, daidzein, enterodiol, enterolactone, equol, genistein, and isoflavonoid. Cancer (e.g., breast cancer), cardiovascular disease, and antioxidation were the major themes. Clinical trials were estimated to contribute to 0.21.1% of the analyzed body of literature, so more of them should be conducted in the future to substantiate the beneficial effects and optimal dose of lignan intake in humans. Moreover, researchers can refer to these findings for future research directions and collaborations.AA acknowledges the support by the Polish KNOW (Leading National Research Centre) Scientific Consortium “Healthy Animal—Safe Food,” decision of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. 05-1/KNOW2/2015. EN and AS acknowledge the support of the research project Nutraceutica come supporto nutrizionale nel paziente oncologico, CUP: B83D18000140007.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) Derived Abscisic Acid and Use in Diabetes

Plenty of plants from different regions of the world have been investigated for antidiabetic effects. In the past few years, some of the new bioactive drugs isolated from plants showed antidiabetic activity with more efficacy than oral hypoglycemic agents used in clinical therapy. Researchers are exploring the possibilities offered by complementary and alternative medicine, such as traditional herbal medicine. This chapter was designed to report in particular the hypoglycemic properties of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.)) according to traditional medicine and reliable clinical and laboratory evidence. Different parts of the okra fruit (mucilage, seed, and pods) contain certain important bioactive components, in particular abscisic acid, which confer its medicinal properties

From pharmaceuticals to nutraceuticals: bridging disease prevention and management

Nutraceuticals, up today, do not have a specific definition distinct from those of other food-derived categories, e.g. food supplements, herbal products, pre and probiotics, functional foods, etc. They have, however, a pharmacological beneficial effect on health. Many studies have been recently addressed to assess their safety, efficacy, and regulation since they are getting growing attention by market and research, with the aim to clear the difference between them and other market available food-derived products that claim beneficial effect on health. Areas covered: The understanding of the potential mechanisms of action of pharmaceutically active substances contained in nutraceuticals that may improve health and reduce the risk of pathological conditions while enhancing overall well-being is the challenge for nutraceuticals to be considered as a preventive and therapeutic efficient tool in facing some diseases. Expert commentary: It is of utmost importance to have a proper and unequivocal definition of nutraceuticals and a shared regulation. Nevertheless, there is a lack of clear information and, often, the claimed health benefits may not be properly substantiated by safety and by efficacy in vivo data, which can induce false expectations and miss the target for a product to be effective, as claimed

A decade of nutraceutical patents: Where are we now in 2018?

Introduction: In the last 10 years, nutraceuticals have grown in interest to researchers, industry, and consumers and are now familiar in the collective imagination as a tool for preventing the onset of a disease. Often nutraceuticals are confused with biologically active phytochemicals/botanicals which can have health benefits. This is a misunderstanding however as the term nutraceutical refers to a product that must have a beneficial effect on health proven by clinical testing. Areas covered: A search has been performed on both recent patents and the literature regarding nutraceuticals focusing on the beneficial and proven health effects on pathological conditions to give an overview of the state-of-the-art developments in this area. Patents and literature data addressing specific pathological conditions are discussed. Expert opinion: Nutraceuticals represent a challenge for the future of drug-based pharmacotherapy, and, at the same time, are a powerful tool for the prevention of chronic disease. They are not proposed as an alternative to drugs, but instead, can be helpful to complement a pharmacological therapy and prevent the onset of chronic diseases in subjects who do not qualify for conventional pharmacological treatment

Abscisic acid identification in Okra, Abelmoschus esculentus L. (Moench): perspective nutraceutical use for the treatment of diabetes

Okra, Abelmoschus esculentus L. (Moench), also known as Lady's Fingers, gombo, or bamje, is an annual plant belonging to the Malvaceae family. Traditional olistic medicine since centuries directly associates this plant and its parts to a beneficial health hypoglycemic effect. Since the abscisic acid (ABA) has been associated to an interesting hypoglycemic effect, this triggered us to verify and quantify the presence of the abscisic acid in the okra phytocomplex. In particular, ABA, a plant derived hormone, has been proven by recent studies to be effective on mammals. To determine and quantify the ABA content, different parts of the Okra plant extracts have been evaluated, and HPLC-DAD analysis has been used allowing us to report for the first time the presence of this isoprenoid compound. Bioaccessibility has been also investigated using a simulated gastro intestinal (GI) digestion protocol with the aim of explore the possibility of okra extract as nutraceutical

Elevated expression of serine/threonine phosphatase type 5 correlates with malignant proliferation in human osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor in adolescents and young adults. However, the involvement of serine/threonine phosphatase type 5 (PP5) in osteosarcoma remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional role of PP5 in osteosarcoma cells. Firstly, we found that PP5 is widely expressed in several human osteosarcoma cell lines. Then we used lentivirus-delivered siRNA to silence PP5 expression in Saos-2 and U2OS cell lines. Knockdown of endogenous PP5 expression by shRNA-expressing lentivirus significantly decreased the viability and proliferation of the osteosarcoma cells. Moreover, FACS analysis showed that knockdown of PP5 expression induced a significant arrest in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle, which was associated with the inhibition of cell proliferation. Therefore, knockdown of PP5 is likely to provide a novel alternative to targeted therapy of osteosarcoma and deserves further investigation