3,023 research outputs found
Metabolomics-Based Profiling, Antioxidant Power, and Uropathogenic Bacterial Anti-Adhesion Activity of SP4™, a Formulation with a High Content of Type-A Proanthocyanidins
Flavonoids and proanthocyanidins (PACs) have been the subject of intense scientific investigations, both for their antioxidant properties and anti-adhesion activity against uropathogenic bacteria. We investigated the metabolomics and antioxidant capacity of SP4(TM), a patent-pending formulation based on a mixture of plant extracts with a high content of bioactive PACs and other polyphenols. The total content of polyphenols (885.51 ± 14.19 mg/g), flavonoids (135.52 ± 8.98 mg/g), anthocyanins (54.84 ± 2.97 mg/g), and PACs (379.43 ± 12.44 mg/g) was quantified using UV-Vis assays. Use of HPLC-ESI-MS/MS revealed the presence of 5 flavanols (100.77 ± 3.90 mg g(−1) d.wt), 11 flavonols (59.96 ± 1.83 mg g(−1) d.wt), and 8 anthocyanins (46.96 ± 1.59 mg g(−1) d.wt), whereas MALDI-TOF MS showed that SP4(TM) contains PACs with one or more type-A interflavan bonds at each degree of polymerization. Regarding antioxidant properties, LUCS technology on HepG2 cells evidenced the ability of SP4(TM) to neutralize intracellular free radicals, inhibit membrane lipid peroxidation, quench H(2)O(2), and reduce free radicals mainly through chelating mechanism, as demonstrated by a higher FRAP value (2643.28 ± 39.86 mmol/g) compared with ABTS (139.92 ± 6.16 mmol/g) and DPPH (89.51 ± 3.91 mmol/g). Finally, the SP4(TM) type-A PAC content strongly prevented bacterial adhesion of P-fimbriated uropathogenic Escherichia coli (0.23 mg/mL). In conclusion, SP4(TM) has a strong antioxidant capacity involving multitarget mechanisms and is a potential supplement to fight urinary tract infections due to its ability to inhibit uropathogenic E. coli adhesion
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Towards a Multimodal Time-Based Empathy Prediction System
We describe our system for empathic emotion recognition. It is based on deep learning on multiple modalities in a late fusion architecture. We describe the modules of our system and discuss the evaluation results. Our code is also available for the research community
Probing neutrino masses with CMB lensing extraction
We evaluate the ability of future cosmic microwave background (CMB)
experiments to measure the power spectrum of large scale structure using
quadratic estimators of the weak lensing deflection field. We calculate the
sensitivity of upcoming CMB experiments such as BICEP, QUaD, BRAIN, ClOVER and
PLANCK to the non-zero total neutrino mass M_nu indicated by current neutrino
oscillation data. We find that these experiments greatly benefit from lensing
extraction techniques, improving their one-sigma sensitivity to M_nu by a
factor of order four. The combination of data from PLANCK and the SAMPAN
mini-satellite project would lead to sigma(M_nu) = 0.1 eV, while a value as
small as sigma(M_nu) = 0.035 eV is within the reach of a space mission based on
bolometers with a passively cooled 3-4 m aperture telescope, representative of
the most ambitious projects currently under investigation. We show that our
results are robust not only considering possible difficulties in subtracting
astrophysical foregrounds from the primary CMB signal but also when the minimal
cosmological model (Lambda Mixed Dark Matter) is generalized in order to
include a possible scalar tilt running, a constant equation of state parameter
for the dark energy and/or extra relativistic degrees of freedom.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. One new figure and references added. Version
accepted for publicatio
Recent advances in plant early signaling in response to herbivory
Plants are frequently attacked by herbivores and pathogens and therefore have acquired constitutive and induced defenses during the course of their evolution. Here we review recent progress in the study of the early signal transduction pathways in host plants in response to herbivory. The sophisticated signaling network for plant defense responses is elicited and driven by both herbivore-induced factors (e.g., elicitors, effectors, and wounding) and plant signaling (e.g., phytohormone and plant volatiles) in response to arthropod factors. We describe significant findings, illuminating the scenario by providing broad insights into plant signaling involved in several arthropod-host interactions
The antidepressant fluoxetine acts on energy balance and leptin sensitivity via BDNF
Leptin and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) pathways are critical players in body weight homeostasis. Noninvasive treatments like environmental stimulation are able to increase response to leptin and induce BDNF expression in the brain. Emerging evidences point to the antidepressant selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor Fluoxetine (FLX) as a drug with effects similar to environmental stimulation. FLX is known to impact on body weight, with mechanisms yet to be elucidated. We herein asked whether FLX affects energy balance, the leptin system and BDNF function. Adult lean male mice chronically treated with FLX showed reduced weight gain, higher energy expenditure, increased sensitivity to acute leptin, increased hypothalamic BDNF expression, associated to changes in white adipose tissue expression typical of "brownization". In the Ntrk2tm1Ddg/J model, carrying a mutation in the BDNF receptor Tyrosine kinase B (TrkB), these effects are partially or totally reversed. Wild type obese mice treated with FLX showed reduced weight gain, increased energy output, and differently from untreated obese mice, a preserved acute response to leptin in terms of activation of the intracellular leptin transducer STAT3. In conclusion, FLX impacts on energy balance and induces leptin sensitivity and an intact TrkB function is required for these effects to take place
Detection of Zak phases and topological invariants in a chiral quantum walk of twisted photons
Topological insulators are fascinating states of matter exhibiting protected
edge states and robust quantized features in their bulk. Here, we propose and
validate experimentally a method to detect topological properties in the bulk
of one-dimensional chiral systems. We first introduce the mean chiral
displacement, and we show that it rapidly approaches a multiple of the Zak
phase in the long time limit. Then we measure the Zak phase in a photonic
quantum walk, by direct observation of the mean chiral displacement in its
bulk. Next, we measure the Zak phase in an alternative, inequivalent timeframe,
and combine the two windings to characterize the full phase diagram of this
Floquet system. Finally, we prove the robustness of the measure by introducing
dynamical disorder in the system. This detection method is extremely general,
as it can be applied to all one-dimensional platforms simulating static or
Floquet chiral systems.Comment: 10 pages, 7 color figures (incl. appendices) Close to the published
versio
Observing CMB polarisation through ice
Ice crystal clouds in the upper troposphere can generate polarisation signals
at the uK level. This signal can seriously affect very sensitive ground based
searches for E- and B-mode of Cosmic Microwave Background polarisation. In this
paper we estimate this effect within the ClOVER experiment observing bands (97,
150 and 220 GHz) for the selected observing site (Llano de Chajnantor, Atacama
desert, Chile). The results show that the polarisation signal from the clouds
can be of the order of or even bigger than the CMB expected polarisation.
Climatological data suggest that this signal is fairly constant over the whole
year in Antarctica. On the other hand the stronger seasonal variability in
Atacama allows for a 50% of clean observations during the dry season.Comment: 7 Pages, 4 figure
Aplicação da dispersão da matriz em fase sólida (DMFS) na determinação residual de acaricidas em sangue bovino
A metodologia desenvolvida, DMFS-GC/MS, mostrou-se sensível, precisa e reprodutível, para analisar resíduos dos acaricidas cipermetrina, clorfenvinfos e fipronil em plasma bovino
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