Influence of drying temperature and ultrasound application in some quality properties of apple skin

[EN] The great amount of waste produced by the food industry can be an interesting source of bioactive compounds. To this end, convective drying is one of the most extended method to stabilize the industrial by-products. However, drying conditions can affect not only drying kinetics but also the bioactivy of some compounds. Apple skin constitutes one of the main by-product generated in apple juice or cider production. It contains important amounts of functional compounds such as polyphenols or vitamin C whose extraction can be interesting. The main aim of this work was to determine the influence of drying conditions, temperature and application of ultrasound, in some quality parameters of dried apple skin. For this purpose, apple skin samples were dried at different temperatures (-10, 30, 50 and 70 ºC) and with (20.5 kW/m3) or without application of ultrasound. Color, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and vitamin C was measured in fresh and dried samples. The increase of drying temperature and the ultrasound sligthly reduced the antioxidant properties of samples while no influence in sample color was observed.The authors acknowledge the financial support of INIA-ERDF throughout the project RTA2015-00060-C04-02Martins, M.; Cortés, E.; Simal, S.; Mulet Pons, A.; Pérez-Muelas Picón, MN.; Cárcel Carrión, JA. (2018). Influence of drying temperature and ultrasound application in some quality properties of apple skin. En IDS 2018. 21st International Drying Symposium Proceedings. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1155-1162. https://doi.org/10.4995/IDS2018.2018.78901155116

Muscle imaging in laminopathies: Synthesis study identifies meaningful muscles for follow-up

Introduction: Particular fibroadipose infiltration patterns have been recently described by muscle imaging in congenital and later onset forms of LMNA-related muscular dystrophies (LMNA-RD). Methods: Scores for fibroadipose infiltration of 23 lower limb muscles in 34 patients with LMNA-RD were collected from heat maps of 2 previous studies. Scoring systems were homogenized. Relationships between muscle infiltration and disease duration and age of onset were modeled with random forests. Results: The pattern of infiltration differs according to disease duration but not to age of disease onset. The muscles whose progression best predicts disease duration were semitendinosus, biceps femoris long head, gluteus medius, and semimembranosus. Discussion: In LMNA-RD, our synthetic analysis of lower limb muscle infiltration did not find major differences between forms with different ages of onset but allowed the identification of muscles with characteristic infiltration during disease progression. Monitoring of these specific muscles by quantitative MRI may provide useful imaging biomarkers in LMNA-RD. Muscle Nerve 58:812-817, 201

Biological characterization of a β-galactosidase expressing clone of Trypanosoma cruzi CL strain

Clone CL B5 of Trypanosoma cruzi   is a β-galactosidase expressing organism that was genetically transfected to be used for in vitro pharmacological screening. Biological parameters were determined, evaluating growth kinetics of epimastigotes, metacyclogenesis, infectivity to mammalian cell lines, parasitemia kinetics in mice and sensibility to nifurtimox and benznidazole. Differences in relation to other strains and CL parental strain were found, the most important being the incapability to produce death to mice in spite of the high inoculum used. However, it possesses the required features to be used for in vitro drug screening. Data obtained demonstrate that heterogeneity of T. cruzi appears even among clones of the same strain, and that these differences found do not prevent the use of clone CL B5 for the purpose that was engineered

In Vitro and in Vivo Assays of 3,5-Disubstituted-Tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-Thiadiazin-2-Thione Derivatives against Trypanosoma cruzi

Cytotoxicity assays of 24 new 3,5-disubstituted-tetrahydro-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazin-2-thione derivatives were performed. The 17 compounds with higher anti-epimastigote activity and lower cytotoxicity were, thereafter, screened against amastigote of Trypanosoma cruzi. Out of these 17 derivatives S-2d was selected to be assayed in vivo, because of its remarkable trypanocidal properties. To determine toxicity against J774 macrophages, a method based on quantification of cell damage, after 24 h, was used. Cell respiration, an indicator of cell viability, was assessed by the reduction of MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] to formazan. Anti-amastigote activity was estimated after 48 h by microscopic counts of May Grünwald-Giemsa-stained monolayers. Nifurtimox and benznidazole were used as reference drugs. For the in vivo experiences, mice were infected with 104 blood trypomastigotes and then treated during 15 days with S-2d or nifurtimox by oral route. All of the compounds were highly toxic at 100 μg/ml for macrophages and a few of them maintained this cytotoxicity even at 10 μg/ml. Of the derivatives assayed against amastigotes 3k and S-2d showed an interesting activity, that was held even at 1μg/ml. It is demonstrated that the high anti-epimastigote activity previously reported is mainly due to the non-specific toxicity of these compounds. In vivo assays assessed a reduction of parasitemia after administration of S-2d to infected mice

In vitro and in vivo anti- Trypanosoma cruzi activity of a novel nitro-derivative

Nitroarylidenemalononitriles and their cyanoacetamide derivatives with remarkable anti-epimastigote properties, were synthesized attempting to obtain new 3,5-diamino-4-(5'-nitroarylidene)-4H-thiadiazine 1,1-dioxide derivatives, which in previous reports had shown anti- Trypanosoma cruzi   activity. Tests to evaluate the cytotoxicity of compounds were performed on J774 macrophages. 5-nitro-2-thienyl-malononitrile (5NO 2 TM), was the only product which maintained a high anti-epimastigote activity at concentrations in which it was no longer cytotoxic, thus it was assayed against intracellular amastigotes. Its anti-amastigote activity was similar to that of nifurtimox. Afterwards in vivo toxicity and anti-chagasic activity were determined. A reduction in parasitemia was observed

Inglés

Enzyme scaffolding is an emerging approach for enhancing the catalytic efficiency of multi‐enzymatic cascades by controlling their spatial organization and stoichiometry. This study introduces a novel family of engineered SCAffolding Bricks, named SCABs, utilizing the consensus tetratricopeptide repeat (CTPR) domain for organized multi‐enzyme systems. Two SCAB systems are developed, one employing head‐to‐tail interactions with reversible covalent disulfide bonds, the other relying on non‐covalent metal‐driven assembly via engineered metal coordinating interfaces. Enzymes are directly fused to SCAB modules, triggering assembly in a non‐reducing environment or by metal presence. A proof‐of‐concept with formate dehydrogenase (FDH) and L‐alanine dehydrogenase (AlaDH) shows enhanced specific productivity by 3.6‐fold compared to free enzymes, with the covalent stapling outperforming the metal‐driven assembly. This enhancement likely stems from higher‐order supramolecular assembly and improved NADH cofactor regeneration, resulting in more efficient cascades. This study underscores the potential of protein engineering to tailor scaffolds, leveraging supramolecular spatial‐organizing tools, for more efficient enzymatic cascade reactions.European CommissionMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)Depto. de Genética, Fisiología y MicrobiologíaFac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEpu