The Potential Use of Mushrooms β-Glucans in the Food Industry

Many edible mushrooms are considered as “functional” foods having immunomodulatory and anticancer properties. The ability of mushrooms to exert biological effects and modulate immune functions is due to the presence of bioactive compounds with most important the polysaccharides β-glucans. B-glucans are found in bacteria, fungi and plants and act on several immune cell receptors resulting in both innate and adaptive response. The incorporation of β-glucans in various foods and animal feed has the potential of creating novel “functional” food products, with many health benefits to human and animal nutrition

Evaluation of the Possible Transmission of BSE and Scrapie to Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata)

In transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), a group of fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting many species, the key event in disease pathogenesis is the accumulation of an abnormal conformational isoform (PrPSc) of the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC). While the precise mechanism of the PrPC to PrPSc conversion is not understood, it is clear that host PrPC expression is a prerequisite for effective infectious prion propagation. Although there have been many studies on TSEs in mammalian species, little is known about TSE pathogenesis in fish. Here we show that while gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) orally challenged with brain homogenates prepared either from a BSE infected cow or from scrapie infected sheep developed no clinical prion disease, the brains of TSE-fed fish sampled two years after challenge did show signs of neurodegeneration and accumulation of deposits that reacted positively with antibodies raised against sea bream PrP. The control groups, fed with brains from uninfected animals, showed no such signs. Remarkably, the deposits developed much more rapidly and extensively in fish inoculated with BSE-infected material than in the ones challenged with the scrapie-infected brain homogenate, with numerous deposits being proteinase K-resistant. These plaque-like aggregates exhibited congophilia and birefringence in polarized light, consistent with an amyloid-like component. The neurodegeneration and abnormal deposition in the brains of fish challenged with prion, especially BSE, raises concerns about the potential risk to public health. As fish aquaculture is an economically important industry providing high protein nutrition for humans and other mammalian species, the prospect of farmed fish being contaminated with infectious mammalian PrPSc, or of a prion disease developing in farmed fish is alarming and requires further evaluation

Functional extra-adrenal paraganglioma of the retroperitoneum giving thoracolumbar spine metastases after a five-year disease-free follow-up: a rare malignant condition with challenging management

Paragangliomas are benign neoplasms that arise from the autonomic nervous system and the associated paraganglia. Although benign, they have been shown to possess metastatic potential. Extra-adrenal retroperitoneal paraganglioma with vertebral metastasis is considered very uncommon. Here, we present a case of a functional extra-adrenal paraganglioma of the retroperitoneum giving metastasis to T4 vertebra after five years of follow-up in a 48-year-old man who had been initially treated with complete resection of the primary tumor. The condition of the patient improved significantly after radiosurgery and somatostatin analogs treatment, until lumbar spine lesions appeared six months later. Our case demonstrates that retroperitoneal paraganglioma is a rare condition which should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a retroperitoneal mass combined with vertebral lesions. Additionally, increased physician awareness and long-term follow-up is mandatory for all patients with history of retroperitoneal paraganglioma since metastases may occur after long latent intervals from the initial diagnosis

Development and Characterization of Inkjet Printed Edible Films for Buccal Delivery of B-Complex Vitamins

Buccal films containing two vitamins, i.e., thiamine hydrochloride (THCl) and nicotinic acid (NA), were fabricated via two-dimensional (2D) inkjet printing. For the preparation of buccal films, solubility studies and rheological evaluations were conducted in distilled water and propylene-glycol (PG) as main solvent and viscosity/surface tension modifier, respectively. The increased solubility in the solvents’ mixture indicated that manufacturing of several doses of the THCl and NA is achievable. Various doses were deposited onto sugar-sheet substrates, by increasing the number of printing passes. The physiochemical characterization (SEM, DSC, FTIR) revealed that inkjet printing does not affect the solid state of the matrix. Water uptake studies were conducted, to compare the different vitamin-loaded formulations. The in vitro release studies indicated the burst release of both vitamins within 10 min, a preferable feature for buccal administration. The in vitro permeation studies indicated that higher concentrations of the vitamins onto the sugar sheet improved the in vitro permeation performance of printed formulations

Optical to Planar X-ray Mouse Image Mapping in Preclinical Nuclear Medicine Using Conditional Adversarial Networks

In the current work, a pix2pix conditional generative adversarial network has been evaluated as a potential solution for generating adequately accurate synthesized morphological X-ray images by translating standard photographic images of mice. Such an approach will benefit 2D functional molecular imaging techniques, such as planar radioisotope and/or fluorescence/bioluminescence imaging, by providing high-resolution information for anatomical mapping, but not for diagnosis, using conventional photographic sensors. Planar functional imaging offers an efficient alternative to biodistribution ex vivo studies and/or 3D high-end molecular imaging systems since it can be effectively used to track new tracers and study the accumulation from zero point in time post-injection. The superimposition of functional information with an artificially produced X-ray image may enhance overall image information in such systems without added complexity and cost. The network has been trained in 700 input (photography)/ground truth (X-ray) paired mouse images and evaluated using a test dataset composed of 80 photographic images and 80 ground truth X-ray images. Performance metrics such as peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM) and Fréchet inception distance (FID) were used to quantitatively evaluate the proposed approach in the acquired dataset

Fabrication and Preliminary In Vitro Evaluation of 3D-Printed Alginate Films with Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) Nanoparticles for Potential Wound-Healing Applications

In this study, drug carrier nanoparticles comprised of Pluronic-F127 and cannabidiol (CBD) or cannabigerol (CBG) were developed, and their wound healing action was studied. They were further incorporated in 3D printed films based on sodium alginate. The prepared films were characterized morphologically and physicochemically and used to evaluate the drug release profiles of the nanoparticles. Additional studies on their water loss rate, water retention capacity, and 3D-printing shape fidelity were performed. Nanoparticles were characterized physicochemically and for their drug loading performance. They were further assessed for their cytotoxicity (MTT Assay) and wound healing action (Cell Scratch Assay). The in vitro wound-healing study showed that the nanoparticles successfully enhanced wound healing in the first 6 h of application, but in the following 6 h they had an adverse effect. MTT assay studies revealed that in the first 24 h, a concentration of 0.1 mg/mL nanoparticles resulted in satisfactory cell viability, whereas CBG nanoparticles were safe even at 48 h. However, in higher concentrations and after a threshold of 24 h, the cell viability was significantly decreased. The results also presented mono-disperse nano-sized particles with diameters smaller than 200 nm with excellent release profiles and enhanced thermal stability. Their entrapment efficiency and drug loading properties were higher than 97%. The release profiles of the active pharmaceutical ingredients from the films revealed a complete release within 24 h. The fabricated 3D-printed films hold promise for wound healing applications; however, more studies are needed to further elucidate their mechanism of action