Lignans and gut microbiota: An interplay revealing potential health implications

Plant polyphenols are a broad group of bioactive compounds characterized by different chemical and structural properties, low bioavailability, and several in vitro biological activities. Among these compounds, lignans (a non-flavonoid polyphenolic class found in plant foods for human nutrition) have been recently studied as potential modulators of the gut–brain axis. In particular, gut bacterial metabolism is able to convert dietary lignans into therapeutically relevant polyphenols (i.e., enterolignans), such as enterolactone and enterodiol. Enterolignans are characterized by various biologic activities, including tissue-specific estrogen receptor activation, together with anti-inflammatory and apoptotic effects. However, variation in enterolignans production by the gut microbiota is strictly related to both bioaccessibility and bioavailability of lignans through the entire gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, in this review, we summarized the most important dietary source of lignans, exploring the interesting interplay between gut metabolites, gut microbiota, and the so-called gut–brain axis.Fil: Senizza, Alice. Catholic University Of The Sacred Heart, Piacenza, ; ItaliaFil: Rocchetti, Gabriele. Catholic University Of The Sacred Heart, Piacenza, ; ItaliaFil: Mosse, Juana Inés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad Medicina. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Patrone, Vania. Catholic University Of The Sacred Heart, Piacenza; ItaliaFil: Callegari, Maria Luisa. Catholic University Of The Sacred Heart, Piacenza, ; ItaliaFil: Morelli, Lorenzo. Catholic University Of The Sacred Heart, Piacenza, ; ItaliaFil: Lucini, Luigi. Catholic University Of The Sacred Heart, Piacenza, ; Itali

Identification and Characterization of Cancer Stem Cells from Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines

Background/Aims: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) ranks sixth worldwide for tumor-related mortality. A subpopulation of tumor cells, termed cancer stem cells (CSCs), has the ability to support cancer growth. Therefore, profiling CSC-enriched populations could be a reliable tool to study cancer biology. Methods: We performed phenotypic characterization of 7 HNSCC cell lines and evaluated the presence of CSCs. CSCs from Hep-2 cell line and HNSCC primary cultures were enriched through sphere formation and sphere-forming cells have been characterized both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, we investigated the expression levels of Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), an enzyme overexpressed in several malignancies. Results: CSC markers were markedly expressed in Hep-2 cell line, which was found to be highly tumorigenic. CSC-enriched populations displayed increased expression of CSC markers and a strong capability to form tumors in vivo. We also found an overexpression of CSC markers in tumor formed by CSC-enriched populations. Interestingly, NNMT levels were significantly higher in CSC-enriched populations compared with parental cells. Conclusion: Our study provides an useful procedure for CSC identification and enrichment in HNSCC. Moreover, results obtained seem to suggest that CSCs may represent a promising target for an anticancer therapy

Functional implications of bound phenolic compounds and phenolics-food interaction: A review

Sizeable scientific evidence indicates the health benefits related to phenolic compounds and dietary fiber. Various phenolic compounds-rich foods or ingredients are also rich in dietary fiber, and these two health components may interrelate via noncovalent (reversible) and covalent (mostly irreversible) interactions. Notwithstanding, these interactions are responsible for the carrier effect ascribed to fiber toward the digestive systemand canmodulate the bioaccessibility of phenolics, thus shaping health-promoting effects in vivo. On this basis, the present review focuses on the nature, occurrence, and implications of the interactions between phenolics and food components. Covalent and noncovalent interactions are presented, their occurrence discussed, and the effect of food processing introduced. Once reaching the large intestine, fiber-bound phenolics undergo an intense transformation by the microbial community therein, encompassing reactions such as deglycosylation, dehydroxylation, ¿- and ß-oxidation, dehydrogenation, demethylation, decarboxylation, C-ring fission, and cleavage to lower molecular weight phenolics. Comparatively less information is still available on the consequences on gut microbiota. So far, the very most of the information on the ability of bound phenolics tomodulate gut microbiota relates to in vitro models and single strains in culture medium.Despite offering promising information, such models provide limited information about the effect on gut microbes, and future research is deemed in this field.This work was partially supported by PTDC/SAU-NUT/30448/2017 with funding from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) through national funds. Perez-Gregorio acknowledges her FCT research contract (SFRH/BPD/85293/2012) and LAQV-REQUIMTE as the host institution. Open Access Funding provided by Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore within the CRUI-CARE Agreement

Functional implications of bound phenolic compounds and phenolics–food interaction: A review

Sizeable scientific evidence indicates the health benefits related to phenolic compounds and dietary fiber. Various phenolic compounds-rich foods or ingredients are also rich in dietary fiber, and these two health components may interrelate via noncovalent (reversible) and covalent (mostly irreversible) interactions. Notwithstanding, these interactions are responsible for the carrier effect ascribed to fiber toward the digestive system and can modulate the bioaccessibility of phenolics, thus shaping health-promoting effects in vivo. On this basis, the present review focuses on the nature, occurrence, and implications of the interactions between phenolics and food components. Covalent and noncovalent interactions are presented, their occurrence discussed, and the effect of food processing introduced. Once reaching the large intestine, fiber-bound phenolics undergo an intense transformation by the microbial community therein, encompassing reactions such as deglycosylation, dehydroxylation, α- and β-oxidation, dehydrogenation, demethylation, decarboxylation, C-ring fission, and cleavage to lower molecular weight phenolics. Comparatively less information is still available on the consequences on gut microbiota. So far, the very most of the information on the ability of bound phenolics to modulate gut microbiota relates to in vitro models and single strains in culture medium. Despite offering promising information, such models provide limited information about the effect on gut microbes, and future research is deemed in this field

Shedding light on typical species : implications for habitat monitoring

Habitat monitoring in Europe is regulated by Article 17 of the Habitats Directive, which suggests the use of typical species to assess habitat conservation status. Yet, the Directive uses the term “typical” species but does not provide a definition, either for its use in reporting or for its use in impact assessments. To address the issue, an online workshop was organized by the Italian Society for Vegetation Science (SISV) to shed light on the diversity of perspectives regarding the different concepts of typical species, and to discuss the possible implications for habitat monitoring. To this aim, we inquired 73 people with a very different degree of expertise in the field of vegetation science by means of a tailored survey composed of six questions. We analysed the data using Pearson's Chi-squared test to verify that the answers diverged from a random distribution and checked the effect of the degree of experience of the surveyees on the results. We found that most of the surveyees agreed on the use of the phytosociological method for habitat monitoring and of the diagnostic and characteristic species to evaluate the structural and functional conservation status of habitats. With this contribution, we shed light on the meaning of “typical” species in the context of habitat monitoring

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genetic diversity and adaptation to guide crop improvement in the European and Mediterranean environment

Le leguminose alimentari sono riconosciute come importanti colture per far fronte ai cambiamenti climatici, garantendo la sicurezza alimentare e qualità nutrizionale attraverso una transizione alimentare a base vegetale. Il cece (Cicer arietinum L.) è un’importante leguminosa alimentare legata alla tradizione europea e mediterranea, dove un gran numero di varietà locali sono ancora coltivate e mantenute da piccoli agricoltori. Tuttavia, nonostante l’aumento della domanda da parte di consumatori europei, la coltivazione di ceci in Europa è inibita da un mancato investimento nel miglioramento colturale e genetico al fine di creare varietà adatte ai diversi agro ambienti europei e mediterranei. In questo lavoro di tesi è stata studiata la variazione naturale presente nel cece domesticato, sviluppando un’ampia collezione specificatamente creata per gli ambienti europei e del mediterraneo. La collezione è stata caratterizzata a livello genotipico con l’obiettivo di studiare la diversità genetica e relativa struttura del germoplasma di cece domesticato. Accoppiando questi dati con variabili ambientali, disponibili da ecotipi georeferenziati, abbiamo applicato approcci di Landscape genetics per rilevare specifiche associazioni genotipo-ambiente. Inoltre, combinando i dati genomici con la caratterizzazione fenotipica derivante da prove in campo condotte in Italia centrale, è stata eseguita l’analisi di genome wide association GWA, identificando regioni genomiche associate a diversi tratti agronomici. I risultati mostrano come integrando la caratterizzazione genomica, climatica e fenotipica della diversità del germoplasma di cece, si riescono a fornire strumenti molecolari di alta qualità in grado di promuovere programmi europei di miglioramento genetico del cece.Food Legumes are recognized as important crops to cope with climate changes and to promote food security and nutritional quality as we move toward a plant-based diet transition. Chickpea is an important food legume linked to the European food tradition, where a large number of landraces are still cultivated and maintained by smallholder farmers. However, despite the increase in consumers demand chickpea cultivation in Europe, is hindered by a lack of breeding efforts to create varieties adapted to European and Mediterranean agro- environments. In this thesis, we investigated the domesticated chickpea's natural variation by developing a large collection specifically designed to target the European and Mediterranean environment. The collection was characterized at genotypic level to infer the genetic diversity and population structure of domesticated chickpea germplasm. By coupling these data with environmental variables, available from georeferenced landraces, we applied landscape genomic approaches to detect genotype-environment associations. Moreover, combining the genomic data with the phenotypic characterization from field trials conducted in Central Italy, we performed genome-wide association GWA analysis identifying candidate genomic regions associated with agronomic traits. The results show an integrated genomic, climatic, and phenotypic characterization of chickpea diversity, providing high-quality molecular tools to support European chickpea breeding programs

Impact of Pasture-Based Diets on the Untargeted Metabolomics Profile of Sarda Sheep Milk

In this work, untargeted metabolomics was used to shed light on the impact of different pasture-based diets on the chemical profile of Sarda sheep milk. The study considered 11 dairy sheep farms located in Sardinia, and milk samples were collected in 4 different periods, namely January, March, May, and July 2019, when all sheep had 58, 98, 138, and 178 days in milk, respectively. The animal diet composition was based on the intake of grazed herbage in natural pasture, hay, and concentrate. Overall, the combination of two comprehensive databases on food, namely the Milk Composition Database and Phenol-Explorer, allowed the putative identification of 406 metabolites, with a significant (p < 0.01) enrichment of several metabolite classes, namely amino acids and peptides, monosaccharides, fatty acids, phenylacetic acids, benzoic acids, cinnamic acids, and flavonoids. The multivariate statistical approach based on supervised orthogonal projections to latent structures (OPLS-DA) allowed us to predict the chemical profile of sheep milk samples as a function of the high vs no fresh herbage intake, while the prediction model was not significant when considering both hay and concentrate intake. Among the discriminant markers of the herbage intake, we found five phenolic metabolites (such as hippuric and coumaric acids), together with lutein and cresol (belonging to carotenoids and their metabolites). Additionally, a high discriminant power was outlined for lipid derivatives followed by sugars, amino acids, and peptides. Finally, a pathway analysis revealed that the herbage intake affected mainly five biochemical pathways in milk, namely galactose metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, and aromatic amino acids involved in protein synthesis (namely tyrosine, phenylalanine, and tryptophan)