Carotenoids in Thermal Adaptation of Plants and Animals

The support of carotenoids in photosynthesis is well documented. However, what is their role in parts of plants where there is no photosynthesis such as in fruits or stems or even in parts which are not exposed to the light at all, such as seeds or roots? Why are carotenoids essential for all animals and humans and present in almost every tissue in their body? The answer is that carotenoids can make complexes with lipids, which results in an increase of lipid thermal energy absorption and a reduction of viscosity. These changes help to expand the temperature range for the functionality of lipid structures, improve the capacity of thermal homeostasis and support adaptation and survival of living species to environmental stress and in particular to temperature variations. Working as “thermal antennas” carotenoids can increase lipid thermal energy conductivity, heat storage and heat retaining capacity. This, on the one hand, can reduce the freezing/melting points of plant and animal lipids and makes carotenoids work as antifreezers in microorganisms, plants or ectothermic animals. On the other hand, the thermal antennas can help absorb, transmit and accumulate external thermal energy essential to activate and support cellular metabolism. In addition, we describe how these properties of carotenoids can affect lipid parameters in nutrition, physiology and pathology

Cocobiota: Implications for Human Health

Manufacturing of dark chocolate and other cocoa-based products is a complex multistage process beginning with spontaneous cocoa bean fermentation driven in the postharvest period by different microorganisms derived from the environment. Cocobiota defined as the association of microbial species involved in cocoa bean fermentation may have considerable impact on the medicinal properties of cocoa products via various primary and secondary metabolites, whose presence in dark chocolate and other cocoa-derived products has to be taken into consideration when analyzing medicinal effects of cocoa. Metabolites of acetic acid and lactic acid bacteria, two major cocobiota members, are recently shown to have considerable antifungal and cholesterol-lowering activities and promote the formation of short chain fatty acids and mannitol, an important prebiotic capable of modifying gut microbiota. Penicillium citrinum, a major type of fungi identifiable in fermented cocoa beans, produces a thermostable alkaloid, Penicitrinine A, as well as lovastatin, compounds with antineoplastic and cholesterol-lowering abilities, respectively. Moreover, recent results suggest that bacterial and fungal metabolites produced by cocobiota have a significant anti-infective potential. Therefore, various metabolites produced by cocobiota can mimic some medicinal effects of dark chocolate and other cocoa-derived products previously attributed to cocoa flavonoids and methylxanthines and need to be thoroughly investigated in in vitro and in vivo systems

Reduction of cholesterol and markers of oxidation in serum of hypercholestrolemic patients treated with lycosome formulation of simvastatin

Background: Use of microencapsulated HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) might be extremely helpful in the prevention of their side effects.Methods: 24 volunteers with hypercholesterolemia were given once daily 20 mg of lycosome-formulated Simvastatin fused with 7 mg lycopene (Lyco-Simvastatin) or the same amount of unmodified Simvastatin with no lycopene. Control patients received 7 mg of lycopene alone. Plasma lipids and oxidative markers were measured after 4 weeks of treatment.Results: Both formulations of Simvastatin, but not lycopene, caused a reduction in serum total cholesterol and LDL at the intermediate (end of 2nd week) and final (end of 4th week) points of interventional period. Notably, reduction of total cholesterol and LDL in the 4th week of the trial was more profound in patients treated with Lyco-Simvastatin versus unmodified Simvastatin (P<0.05). Patients treated with Lyco-Simvastatin showed a reduction in serum Apo B level, which was not observed in other groups. Lycopene treatment caused a modest but statistically significant decrease in serum triglyceride. However, the triglyceride-lowering effect of Simvastatin was more profound in the case of Lyco-Simvastatin treatment. Lycopene as well as unmodified Simvastatin gave a marginal reduction of Inflammatory Oxidative Damage. Remarkably, the combined formulation of Simvastatin and lycopene gave a significant reduction in the values for oxidative damage (reduction of median by 112.5 µM, P<0.05). Similar synergistic effect was observed when levels of oxidized LDL were analyzed.Conclusions: Lycosome-formulated microencapsulated Simvastatin has a better cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant capacity presumably due to enhanced bioavailability of the drug and synergism with lycopene

The cientificWorldJOURNAL Clinical Study Whey Protein Lycosome Formulation Improves Vascular Functions and Plasma Lipids with Reduction of Markers of Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Prehypertension

Parameters reflecting cardiovascular health and inflammation were studied in a pilot clinical trial conducted on 40 patients with prehypertension. The patients were treated with a new proprietary formulation of a whey protein (WP) isolate embedded into lycopene micelles (WPL) during a 1-month period. Control groups received lycopene or WP as a singular formulation or placebo pills for the same period of time. Combined WPL formulation of whey protein and lycopene has caused multiple favorable changes in the cardiovascular function (including a tendency to the reduced systemic blood pressure), the plasma lipid profile, and the inflammatory status of patients with prehypertension, whereas singular formulations of the compounds and placebo did not have such an effect. The reduction of plasma triglycerides and cholesterol fractions and almost two-fold decline in C-reactive protein (CRP) and inflammatory oxidative damage (IOD) levels as well as an increase in nitric oxide (NO), tissue oxygenation (StO 2 ), and flow-mediated dilation values constitute the most significant benefit/outcome of the treatment with the combined formulation of whey protein and lycopene. The treatment did not affect the values of ankle-brachial index (ABI), body weight, and body mass index (BMI)

Roquefort Cheese Proteins Inhibit Chlamydia pneumoniae

Inflammation in atherosclerosis, which could be associated with some subclinical infections such as C. pneumoniae, is one of the key factors responsible for the development of clinical complications of this disease. We report that a proprietary protein extract isolated from Roquefort cheese inhibits the propagation of C. pneumoniae in a human HL cell line in a dose-dependent manner, as revealed by the immunofluorescence analysis. These changes were accompanied by a significant reduction in the infective progeny formation over the protein extract range of 0.12–0.5 μg/mL. Moreover, short term feeding of mice with Roquefort cheese (twice, 10 mg per mouse with an interval of 24 hours) led to the inhibition of the migration of peritoneal leukocytes caused by intraperitoneal injection of E. coli lipopolysaccharide. These changes were complemented by a reduction in neutrophil count and a relative increase in peritoneal macrophages, suggesting that ingestion of Roquefort could promote regenerative processes at the site of inflammation. The ability of this protein to inhibit propagation of Chlamydia infection, as well as the anti-inflammatory and proregenerative effects of Roquefort itself, may contribute to the low prevalence of cardiovascular mortality in France where consumption of fungal fermented cheeses is the highest in the world

Lycopene Deficiency in Ageing and Cardiovascular Disease

Lycopene is a hydrocarbon phytochemical belonging to the tetraterpene carotenoid family and is found in red fruit and vegetables. Eleven conjugated double bonds predetermine the antioxidant properties of lycopene and its ability to scavenge lipid peroxyl radicals, reactive oxygen species, and nitric oxide. Lycopene has a low bioavailability rate and appears in the blood circulation incorporated into chylomicrons and other apo-B containing lipoproteins. The recent body of evidence suggests that plasma concentration of lycopene is not only a function of intestinal absorption rate but also lycopene breakdown via enzymatic and oxidative pathways in blood and tissues. Oxidative stress and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide may represent a major cause of lycopene depletion in ageing, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. It has been shown recently that low carotenoid levels, and especially decreased serum lycopene levels, are strongly predictive of all-cause mortality and poor outcomes of cardiovascular disease. However, there is a poor statistical association between dietary and serum lycopene levels which occurs due to limited bioavailability of lycopene from dietary sources. Hence, it is very unlikely that nutritional intervention alone could be instrumental in the correction of lycopene and carotenoid deficiency. Therefore, new nutraceutical formulations of carotenoids with enhanced bioavailability are urgently needed

Dark Chocolate: Opportunity for an Alliance between Medical Science and the Food Industry?

Dark chocolate (DC) was originally introduced in human nutrition as a medicinal product consumable in a liquid form. Century-long efforts of food industry transformed this hardly appealing product into a valuable modern culinary delight with clear predominance of confectionery brands of DC on the market. However, current epidemiological data as well as multiple experimental and clinical observations reveal that DC consumption may have a profound effect on cardiovascular, central nervous systems, hemostasis, and lipid metabolism. However, despite of growing body of modern scientific evidence revealing medicinal properties of cocoa-based products, DC remains more gourmet culinary item than medicinal food product. Even today there are no clear dietary recommendations on consumption of cocoa flavonoids (flavanols) for health purpose. Clinical trials with DC rarely include monitoring of plasma flavanol concentration in volunteers. Moreover, there is no standardized assay or any quantitative requirements for flavanol content in the commercial brands of DC. High flavanol content is often sacrificed during manufacturing for a better taste of DC due to bitterness of cocoa flavonoids. All these problems including subsequently arising ethical issues need to be addressed by joint efforts of food industry and medical science. Moreover, application of microencapsulation technology in DC manufacturing, as well as molecular selection of best flavanol producers may drastically change bioavailability of DC bioactive ingredients and DC production technology. Nevertheless, only strict causative approach, linking possible health effect of DC to its bioactive ingredients considered as nutraceuticals, may change the current landscape in nutritional research related to cocoa-based products and create a trustworthy path for their medicinal use