Antioxidant and hypoglycemic effects of watercress (Nasturtium officinale) extracts in diabetic rats

Background: Watercress is a semi-aquatic plant used in traditional medicine to treat various ailments, such as flu, cough, avitaminosis, and anorexia; it is also used as a diuretic and for hypoglycemia treatment in diabetes. In this study, we report the antioxidant and hypoglycemic activity of orally administered aqueous (WAQE), acetonic (WAE), and alcoholic (WOHE) watercress extracts. The effect of subchronic administration of watercress extracts on oxidative stress was also studied.Materials and Methods: WAQE, WAE, and WOHE were obtained and administered orally. Alloxan (200 mg/kg) and streptozotocin (60 mg/kg) were applied to induce hyperglycemia in male Wistar rats. Phenolic and flavonoid content, as well as antioxidant activity of the extracts were measured. The acute and subchronic effects (8 weeks) of WAQE were evaluated. The activity of antioxidant enzymes levels of malondialdehyde, hepatic enzyme markers in the serum, and renal function markers, were assessed. Histopathological evaluation of the pancreas, kidney, and liver was performed using hematoxylin-eosin staining.Results: Watercress extracts have high concentrations of phenols, polyphenols, and flavonoids, in addition to a very high antioxidant effect. The hypoglycemic effect of WAQE upon acute administration was 76.6% higher than that of insulin. When administered chronically, glucose levels were normalized on the third week up to the eighth week. Furthermore, the antioxidant enzymes and biochemical parameters improved.Conclusion: WAQE administration to diabetic rats reduced oxidative stress damage and decreased glucose levels. This study supports the use of this plant for the treatment of diabetes.Keywords: Antioxidant, Diabetes, Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), Oxidative stress, Pancrea

Molecular and functional characterisation of a putative elovl4 gene and its expression in response to dietary fatty acid profile in Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus)

Elongation of very long-chain fatty acid 4 (Elovl4) proteins are involved in the biosynthesis of very long-chain (> C24) fatty acids and in many teleost fish species they are key enzymes in the pathway for the production of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3) from eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5n-3). Therefore, Elovl4 may be particularly important in Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABT; Thunnus thynnus) characterised by having high DHA to EPA ratios. The present study cloned and characterised both the function and expression of an elovl4 cDNA from ABT. The Elovl4 had an open reading frame of 915 base pairs encoding a putative protein of 304 amino acids. Alignment and phylogenetic analyses indicated that the Elovl4 isoform identified in the present study was an Elovl4b. Functional characterisation demonstrated that the Elovl4b enzyme had elongase activity towards all the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) substrates assayed. The ABT Elovl4b contributed to DHA biosynthesis by elongation of EPA and DPA to 24:5n-3, the latter being desaturated to 24:6n-3 by the action of fads2 (Δ6 desaturase). Additionally, the ABT Elovl4b has a role in the biosynthesis of very long-chain PUFA up to C34, compounds of key structural roles in neural tissues such as eye and brain, which had high levels of elovl4b transcripts. Surprisingly, while the relative expression of fads2, required for the production of DHA from EPA, was increased in liver of ABT fed a diet with reduced levels of EPA and DHA, expression of elovl4b was reduced. Results indicated that ABT has enzymes necessary for endogenous production of DHA from EPA and demonstrate that Elovl4b can effectively compensate for absence of Elovl2.Versión del edito

Agronomic evaluation of Levante 20®, Levante 40® y Levante 45®, varieties of the peach breeding program (Prunus persica L.): IMIDA-NOVAMED

[SPA] El melocotón amarillo de carne dura o pavía ha disminuido su producción en los últimos años, pero a nivel nacional sigue teniendo un hueco de mercado interior para su consumo en fresco. El programa de mejora IMIDA-NOVAMED ha desarrollado tres variedades de esta tipología: Levante 20®, Levante 40® y Levante 45® con unas características muy similares y buenas calidades organolépticas, diferenciándose en fechas de maduración y porcentaje de sobrecoloración con las variedades de referencia de melocotón amarillo en el mercado. Pudiendo ofrecer así una serie de melocotones amarillos o pavías similares de forma continua en los lineales de venta, y así el consumidor poder disfrutar durante un largo periodo de tiempo el mismo tipo de melocotón. [ENG] The non-melting yellow peach or “pavia” has decreased its production in recent years, but at the national level it still has an internal market gap for fresh consumption. The breeding program IMIDA-NOVAMED has developed three varieties of this typology: Levante 20®, Levante 40® y Levante 45® with very similar characteristics and good organoleptic qualities, differing in ripening dates and percentage of over-coloring with the reference varieties of yellow peach in the market. Being able to offer a series of yellow peaches or similar peaches in a continuous way in the sale lines, and thus the consumer can enjoy the same type of peach for a long period

Peach breeding (Prunus persica L.): Agronomic evaluation of selections IMIDA – NOVAMED: Siroco 30®, Siroco 40® y Siroco 43®

[SPA] A día de hoy España es el segundo país productor de melocotón y primer país exportador a nivel mundial. El paraguayo o melocotón de forma plana ocupa el 25% del total de la superficie cultivada en España. El programa de mejora IMIDA-NOVAMED ha desarrollado tres selecciones de paraguayo, Siroco 30®, Siroco 40® y Siroco 43® que difieren en fechas de recolección y presentan una tipología muy similar aportando una sobrecoloración del fruto o chapa muy alta, destacando sus características organolépticas de baja acidez, elevados °Brix y alta consistencia, lo que hace a estas selecciones una fruta muy atractiva para el consumidor. Con el objetivo de desarrollar una serie de variedades con la misma tipología para poder ser suministradas en los lineales de venta de forma continua. [ENG] Nowadays, Spain is the second peach producing country and the first exporting country in the world. The flat peach occupies 25% of the total peach area cultivated in Spain. The IMIDA-NOVAMED breeding program has developed three new selections of flat peach, Siroco 30®, Siroco 40® and Siroco 43® that differ in harvest date and they show a very similar typology with a very high over color of skin, highlighting its organoleptic characteristic of low Acidity, high ° Brix and high firmness of the flesh, which make these selections very attractive for the consumer. With the aim of developing a varieties set with the same typology able to be supplied continuously in the sales line.Fondos Feder 1420-05

Identification and validation of common molecular targets of hydroxytyrosol

Hydroxytyrosol (HT) is involved in healthful activities and is beneficial to lipid metabolism. Many investigations focused on finding tissue-specific targets of HT through the use of different omics approaches such as transcriptomics and proteomics. However, it is not clear which (if any) of the potential molecular targets of HT reported in different studies are concurrently affected in various tissues. Following the bioinformatic analyses of publicly available data from a selection of in vivo studies involving HT-supplementation, we selected differentially expressed lipid metabolism-related genes and proteins common to more than one study, for validation in rodent liver samples from the entire selection. Four miRNAs (miR-802-5p, miR-423-3p, miR-30a-5p, and miR-146b-5p) responded to HT supplementation. Of note, miR-802-5p was commonly regulated in the liver and intestine. Our premise was that, in an organ crucial for lipid metabolism such as the liver, consistent modulation should be found for a specific target of HT even if different doses and duration of HT supplementation were used in vivo. Even though our results show inconsistency regarding differentially expressed lipid metabolism-related genes and proteins across studies, we found Fgf21 and Rora as potential novel targets of HT. Omics approaches should be fine-tuned to better exploit the available databases

The Supersymmetric Standard Models with Decay and Stable Dark Matters

We propose two supersymmetric Standard Models (SMs) with decaying and stable dark matter (DM) particles. To explain the SM fermion masses and mixings and have a heavy decay DM particle S, we consider the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism by introducing an anomalous U(1)_X gauge symmetry. Around the string scale, the U(1)_X gauge symmetry is broken down to a Z_2 symmetry under which S is odd while all the SM particles are even. S obtains a vacuum expectation value around the TeV scale, and then it can three-body decay dominantly to the second/third family of the SM leptons in Model I and to the first family of the SM leptons in Model II. Choosing a benchmark point in the constrained minimal supersymmetric SM with exact R parity, we show that the lightest neutralino DM is consistent with the CDMS II experiment. Considering S three-body decay and choosing suitable parameters, we show that the PAMELA and Fermi-LAT experiments and the PAMELA and ATIC experiments can be explained in Model I and Model II, respectively.Comment: RevTex4, 26 pages, 6 figures, references added, version to appear in EPJ

Quality of life in hidradenitis suppurativa : Validation of the hsqol-24

Altres ajuts: reports grants, personal fees, non-financial support and other from Abbvie, Almirall, Amgen, Boehringer, Celgene, Janssen-Cilag, Leo Pharma, Lilly, MSD-Schering-Plough, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB, outside the submitted work. TGC reports personal fees from Lilly and Novartis, outside the submitted work. LP reports grants and personal fees from AbbVie, Almirall, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Janssen, Leo-Pharma, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Regeneron, Roche, Sanofi, and UCB, personal fees from Baxalta, Biogen, Fresenius-Kabi, JS Biocad, Mylan, Sandoz, Samsung-Bioepis, and Bristol Myers Squibb, outside the submitted work. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.To date, there are no disease-specific instruments in Spanish to assess quality of life of patients with hidra-denitis suppurativa. A multicentre study was pre-viously carried out in Spain between 2016 and 2017 to develop the Hidradenitis Suppurativa Quality of Life-24 (HSQoL-24), a disease-specific questionnaire to assess quality of life in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa. The objectives of this study are to revali-date the HSQoL-24 in Spanish with a larger sample of patients, and to present the English version. In this multi centre study in Spain, patients with hidradenitis suppurativa completed the HSQoL-24, the Dermatology Life Quality Index and the Skindex-29. The Hurley staging system was used to assess the severity of the disease. Validation of the questionnaire was carried out in 130 patients, of whom 75 (57.7%) were women. This study demonstrates adequate values of reliability and validity of the HSQoL-24, confirming the previous test re-test validation and making this questionnaire one of wide clinical validity in terms of results perceiv-ed by patients

N-body simulations of gravitational dynamics

We describe the astrophysical and numerical basis of N-body simulations, both of collisional stellar systems (dense star clusters and galactic centres) and collisionless stellar dynamics (galaxies and large-scale structure). We explain and discuss the state-of-the-art algorithms used for these quite different regimes, attempt to give a fair critique, and point out possible directions of future improvement and development. We briefly touch upon the history of N-body simulations and their most important results.Comment: invited review (28 pages), to appear in European Physics Journal Plu

General and abdominal adiposity and risk of death in Europe

BACKGROUND Previous studies have relied predominantly on the body-mass index (BMI, the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) to assess the association of adiposity with the risk of death, but few have examined whether the distribution of body fat contributes to the prediction of death. METHODS We examined the association of BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio with the risk of death among 359,387 participants from nine countries in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). We used a Cox regression analysis, with age as the time variable, and stratified the models according to study center and age at recruitment, with further adjustment for educational level, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and height. RESULTS During a mean follow-up of 9.7 years, 14,723 participants died. The lowest risks of death related to BMI were observed at a BMI of 25.3 for men and 24.3 for women. After adjustment for BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were strongly associated with the risk of death. Relative risks among men and women in the highest quintile of waist circumference were 2.05 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.80 to 2.33) and 1.78 (95% CI, 1.56 to 2.04), respectively, and in the highest quintile of waist-to-hip ratio, the relative risks were 1.68 (95% CI, 1.53 to 1.84) and 1.51 (95% CI, 1.37 to 1.66), respectively. BMI remained significantly associated with the risk of death in models that included waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that both general adiposity and abdominal adiposity are associated with the risk of death and support the use of waist circumference or waist-tohip ratio in addition to BMI in assessing the risk of death