204 research outputs found

    Typical Mexican agroindustrial residues as supports for solid-state fermentation

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    Biological wastes contain several reusable substances of high value such as soluble sugars and fiber. Direct disposal of such wastes to soil or landfill causes serious environmental problems. Thus, the development of potential value-added processes for these wastes is highly attractive. These biological wastes can be used as support-substrates in Solid-State Fermentation (SSF) to produce industrially relevant metabolites with great economical advantage. In addition, it is an environment friendly method of waste management. In this study were analyzed six different Mexican agro industrial residues to evaluate their suitability as support-substrate in SSF, between physicochemical properties that have included Water Absorption Index (WAI), Critical Moisture Point (CHP) and Packing Density (PD). The selection of an appropriate solid substrate plays an important role in the development of an efficient SSF process. The results provided important knowledge about the characteristics of these materials revealing their potential for use in fermentation processes.(undefined

    Evaluation of multiple protein docking structures using correctly predicted pairwise subunits

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many functionally important proteins in a cell form complexes with multiple chains. Therefore, computational prediction of multiple protein complexes is an important task in bioinformatics. In the development of multiple protein docking methods, it is important to establish a metric for evaluating prediction results in a reasonable and practical fashion. However, since there are only few works done in developing methods for multiple protein docking, there is no study that investigates how accurate structural models of multiple protein complexes should be to allow scientists to gain biological insights.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We generated a series of predicted models (decoys) of various accuracies by our multiple protein docking pipeline, Multi-LZerD, for three multi-chain complexes with 3, 4, and 6 chains. We analyzed the decoys in terms of the number of correctly predicted pair conformations in the decoys.</p> <p>Results and conclusion</p> <p>We found that pairs of chains with the correct mutual orientation exist even in the decoys with a large overall root mean square deviation (RMSD) to the native. Therefore, in addition to a global structure similarity measure, such as the global RMSD, the quality of models for multiple chain complexes can be better evaluated by using the local measurement, the number of chain pairs with correct mutual orientation. We termed the fraction of correctly predicted pairs (RMSD at the interface of less than 4.0Å) as <it>fpair </it>and propose to use it for evaluation of the accuracy of multiple protein docking.</p

    Microencapsulation of ellagic acid from pomegranate husk and karaya gum by spray drying

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    Objective: The aim of this study was to obtain and characterize microcapsules with Ellagic Acid (EA) from pomegranate as core material and Karaya Gum (KG) as wall material. Methods: EA was obtained from dry pomegranate peel powder via methanolysis and quantified by HPLC. Microcapsules were obtained preparing a dispersion containing KG and EA in phosphate buffer pH 8. The dispersion was processed in a spray dryer under specific conditions (inlet temperature at 150 °C, feed flow at 30% and aspirator at 100 %) for obtaining of microcapsules. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for characterization. Results: Obtained material contains 98.03±2.82 mg EA/g of pomegranate peel. FTIR showed that there were changes in the molecular structure of microcapsules referred to raw materials. SEM confirmed that particles obtained had micron-size (1-5 µm). DSC analysis showed that raw materials had glass transition temperatures of 79.58 and 83.41 °C and for microcapsules the value was67.25 °C. Conclusion: Methanolysis is a viable technique for the obtaining of EA from the peel of pomegranate. KG shows good potential for be used as wall material for EA microencapsulation

    Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) production by fungal submerged culture using aguamiel as a low-cost by-product

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    Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2018.12.020.Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are important ingredients in the functional food industry because they have different biological properties such as decrease level of triglycerides, cholesterol and phospholipids and stimulate growth of probiotics for enhancement of microflora in large intestine. However, current strategies for the FOS production through simple and economical bioprocess has been necessary. The aim of this work was evaluated the capacity of three fungal strains (Aspergillus niger GH1, Aspergillus niger PSH and Aspergillus oryzae DIA-MF) to produce fructooligosaccharides (FOS) using aguamiel from Agave salmiana as an economical substrate. In addition, Czapek Dox medium supplemented with sucrose as carbon source was used as a control medium for the FOS production. A. oryzae DIA-MF was a fungi producer of FOS using aguamiel or Czapek Dox medium as substrate at 24?h of fermentation. However, the yield of FOS was increased two folds (20.30?g/L), with a productivity of 0.84?g FOS/l.h when aguamiel was used as substrate. On the other hand, A. niger GH1 and A. niger PSH showing only hydrolytic activity on sucrose under the studied conditions. In conclusion, this study shown excellent compatibility of A. oryzae DIA-MF using aguamiel as an economical substrate for the FOS production under a simple bioprocess.Authors thank all technical support and comments made by Dra. Adriana C. Flores-Gallegos and Dra. Abril Flores-Maltos. Authors thank National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) of Mexico by the financial support through the project No. CB-2011-C01-167764. Author D. B. Muñiz-Márquez also thank CONACYT for the financial support during her postgraduate program (Doctorate) in Food Science and Technology offered by the University Autonomous of Coahuila, Mexico.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Successive fermentation of aguamiel and molasses by Aspergillus oryzae and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to obtain high purity fructooligosaccharides

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    Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are usually synthesized with pure enzymes using highly concentrated sucrose solutions. In this work, low-cost aguamiel and molasses were explored as sucrose alternatives to produce FOS, via whole-cell fermentation, with an Aspergillus oryzae DIA-MF strain. FOS production process was optimized through a central composite experimental design, with two independent variables: initial sucrose concentration in a medium composed of aguamiel and molasses (AgMe), and inoculum concentration. The optimized process—165 g/L initial sucrose in AgMe (adjusted with concentrated molasses) and 1 × 107 spores/mL inoculum concentration—resulted in an FOS production of 119 ± 12 g/L and a yield of 0.64 ± 0.05 g FOS/g GFi. Among the FOSs produced were kestose, nystose, 1-fructofuranosyl-nystose, and potentially a novel trisaccharide produced by this strain. To reduce the content of mono- and disaccharides in the mixture, run a successive fermentation was run with two Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. Fermentations run with S. cerevisiae S227 improved FOS purity in the mixture from 39 ± 3% to 61.0 ± 0.6% (w/w) after 16 h of fermentation. This study showed that agro-industrial wastes such as molasses with aguamiel are excellent alternatives as substrate sources for the production of prebiotic FOS, resulting in a lower-cost process.Orlando de la Rosa acknowledges the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT-Mexico) for the financial support given through the PBM (Program Becas Mixtas) (CVU 860996) and the APC was funded by Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila (Mexico). The study was also supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit and the Project ColOsH PTDC/BTM-SAL/30071/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030071).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    ELR510444 Inhibits Tumor Growth and Angiogenesis by Abrogating HIF Activity and Disrupting Microtubules in Renal Cell Carcinoma

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    Background: Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is an attractive therapeutic target for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) as its high expression due to the loss of von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) promotes RCC progression. Considering this, we hypothesized that ELR510444, a novel orally available small molecule inhibitor of HIF activity, would reduce angiogenesis and possess significant activity in RCC. The mechanism of action and therapeutic efficacy of ELR510444 were investigated in in vitro and in vivo models of RCC. Principal Findings: ELR510444 decreased HIF-1a and HIF-2a levels, reduced RCC cell viability and clonogenic survival, and induced apoptosis. VHL-deficient RCC cells were more sensitive to ELR510444-mediated apoptosis and restoration of VHL promoted drug resistance. Higher concentrations of ELR51044 promoted apoptosis independently of VHL status, possibly due to the microtubule destabilizing properties of this agent. ELR510444 significantly reduced tumor burden in the 786-O and A498 RCC xenograft models. These effects were associated with increased necrosis and apoptosis and inhibition of angiogenesis. Conclusions: ELR510444 is a promising new HIF inhibitor that reduced RCC cell viability, induced apoptosis, and diminished tumor burden in RCC xenograft models. ELR510444 also destabilized microtubules suggesting that it possesses vascula
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