Explorative investigation of the anti-glycative effect of a rapeseed by-product extract

Formation of Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs) in biological systems are increased during hyperglycaemia due to higher levels of circulating glucose, as well as carbonyl reactive species. AGEs are causative factors of common chronic diseases. Since synthetic AGE-inhibitors exert unwanted side effects and polyphenols act as potent antiglycative agents, vegetables (fruits, seeds and related by-products) are good candidates for searching natural inhibitors. The aim of this research is to explore the suitability of a polyphenol-rich rapeseed cake extract (RCext) to decrease the formation of AGEs in an in vitro model. Total Phenolic Content, antioxidant, anti-glycative activity, specific inhibition of AGEs (pentosidine and argypyrimidine), and methylglyoxal trapping capacity of the RCext were evaluated. The metabolomic profile of the extract was also analysed through GC-MS. Different phenols, amino acids, carbohydrates, organic acids and fatty acids are identified in the RCE by GC-MS. Results confirm the high concentration of polyphenols correlated with the antioxidant capacity and anti-glycative activity in a dose dependent manner. Rapeseed cake extract (3.7 mg mL−1) significantly reduced the formation of free fluorescent AGEs and pentosidine up to 34.85%. The anti-glycative activity of the extract is likely to be due to the high concentration of sinapinic acid in its metabolic profile, and the mechanism of action is mediated by methylglyoxal trapping. Results show a promising potential for using rapeseed cake extract as a food supplement to ameliorate the formation of AGEs. Rapeseed cake extract should therefore be considered a potential candidate for the prevention of glycation-associated complications of age-related pathologie

Analysis of Research Topics and Scientific Collaborations in Energy Saving Using Bibliometric Techniques and Community Detection

Concern about everything related to energy is increasingly latent in the world and therefore the use of energy saving concepts has been increasing over the past several years. The interest in the subject has allowed a conceptual evolution in the scientific community regarding the understanding of the adequate use of energy. The objective of this work is to determine the contribution made by international institutions to the specialized publications in the area of energy-saving from 1939 to 2018, using Scopus Database API Interface. The methodology followed in this research was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the whole scientific production indexed in Scopus. The world’s scientific production has been analysed in the following domains: First the trend over time, types of publications and countries, second, the main subjects and keywords, third, main institutions and their main topics, and fourth, the main journals and proceedings that publish on this topic. Then, these data are presented using community detection algorithms and graph visualization software. With these techniques, it is possible to determine the main areas of research activity as well as to identify the structures of the collaboration network in the field of renewable energy. The results of the work show that the literature in this field have substantially increased during the last 10 years

Matrix valued orthogonal polynomials arising from group representation theory and a family of quasi-birth-and-death processes

We consider a family of matrix valued orthogonal polynomials obtained by Pacharoni and Tirao in connection with spherical functions for the pair (SU(N + 1), U(N)); see [I. Pacharoni and J. A. Tirao, Constr. Approx., 25 (2007), pp. 177–192]. After an appropriate conjugation, we obtain a new family of matrix valued orthogonal polynomials where the corresponding block Jacobi matrix is stochastic and has special probabilistic properties. This gives a highly nontrivial example of a nonhomogeneous quasi-birth-and-death process for which we can explicitly compute its “nstep transition probability matrix” and its invariant distribution. The richness of the mathematical structures involved here allows us to give these explicit results for a several parameter family of quasi-birth-and-death processes with an arbitrary (finite) number of phases. Some of these results are plotted to show the effect that choices of the parameter values have on the invariant distribution.Dirección General de Enseñanza SuperiorJunta de Andalucí

Biochemical regulation of arginine biosynthesis in plants

Arginine plays a relevant role in plant metabolism due to its importance as building block of proteins but also as precursor of multiple secondary metabolites, polyamines and nitric oxide. Importantly, arginine frequently plays an essential role as a major nitrogen storage form in seeds and other vegetative tissues and its mobilization provides an efficient flux of nitrogen for different physiological processes [1][2][3]. Despite its importance, the biochemical regulation and kinetics of the enzymes involved in arginine biosynthesis remains poorly characterized in plants. In this work, we provide new knowledge about the biochemical regulation of the three enzymes involved in the last steps of the arginine pathway: ornithine transcarbamoylase (OTC), argininosuccinate synthetase (ASSY), and argininosuccinate lyase (ASL). Our results indicate that these enzymes are regulated by the concentration of different amino acids and metabolites, including arginine, suggesting that feedback regulatory loops could play and important role in the homeostasis of this amino acid. Besides, these regulatory mechanisms seem to have been subjected to a progressive refinement during the evolution of land plants, pointing towards a coevolution with the higher requirements of arginine in seed plants.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech