Optimization of frying process in food safety

The mechanics of frying are fairly simple. Hot oil serves as a heat exchange medium in which heat is transferred to the food being fried. As a result, the heat converts water within the food to steam and melts the fat within the food. The steam and fat then migrate from the interior of the food through the exterior and into the oil. Conversely, some of the frying oil is absorbed into the food being fried. The chemistry occurring in the frying oil and in the food being fried includes a myriad of thermal and oxidative reactions involving lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and minor food constituents. Decomposition products by autoxidation above 100°C, polimerization without oxigen between 200-300°C and thermal oxidation at 200°C, can be produced in frying oil and their amounts are related to different chemical and physical parameters such as temperature, heating time, type of oil used and food being fried, oil turnover rate, management of the oil and finally type of equipment used. Different studies have remarked as the toxicity of these by-products, is due to their chemistry and concentration. Since the prime requirement in food quality is the safety of the products, attainable through preventive analysis of the risks and total control through all frying processes, in this work the critical points of particular importance are identify and showed: Oil composition, and in particular its antioxidant capacity. Proper fryer design. Food/oil ratio. Good manufactured practice. Beside the quality screening has to be direct towards the chemical quality evaluation by easy and rapid analysis of oil (colour, polar compounds, free fatty acids and antioxidant capacity) and food fried (panel test and/or consumer test). Conclusion, to maintain high quality in the frying medium, choose efficient equipment, select a fat with desirable flavour and good antioxidant capacity, eliminate crackling as soon and often as possible, choose better components with minimal but desirable browning tendencies, and monitor the quality of the fat being used

Child Neurology: A Case Series of Heterogeneous Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Outcome in Very Early-Onset Narcolepsy Type 1

Narcolepsy type 1 is a central disorder of hypersomnolence characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy (i.e., sudden loss of muscle tone during wakefulness triggered by emotions), and REM sleep-related manifestations that can present with a peculiar phenotype when arising at a pediatric age. Several features of childhood-onset narcolepsy type 1 are also common in neuropsychiatric conditions; discrete neuropsychiatric comorbidity has also been demonstrated. Here, we report on 3 children with very early narcolepsy type 1. All 3 patients had psychiatric features at the time of symptom onset coupled with peculiar motor disturbances. The course of narcolepsy symptoms also paralleled neuropsychiatric symptoms, suggesting a possible intrinsic link between sleep and psychological features. Multidisciplinary management is mandatory for pediatric narcolepsy type 1 since prompt disease management addressing neuropsychiatric symptoms could lead to better clinical outcomes and quality of life

Efficient Delivery of MicroRNA and AntimiRNA Molecules Using an Argininocalix[4]arene Macrocycle

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNA molecules acting as gene regulators by repressing translation or by inducing degradation of the target RNA transcripts. Altered expression of miRNAs may be involved in the pathogenesis of many severe human diseases, opening new avenues in the field of therapeutic strategies, i.e., miRNA targeting or miRNA mimicking. In this context, the efficient and non-toxic delivery of premiRNA and antimiRNA molecules might be of great interest. The aim of the present paper is to determine whether an argininocalix[4]arene is able to efficiently deliver miRNA, premiRNA, and antimiRNA molecules to target cells, preserving their biological activity. This study points out that (1) the toxicity of argininocalix[4]arene 1 is low, and it can be proposed for long-term treatment of target cells, being that this feature is a pre-requisite for the development of therapeutic protocols; (2) the delivery of premiRNA and antimiRNA molecules is efficient, being higher when compared with reference gold standards available; and (3) the biological activity of the premiRNAs and antimiRNAs is maintained. This was demonstrated using the argininocalix[4]arene 1 in miRNA therapeutic approaches performed on three well-described experimental model systems: (1) the induction of apoptosis by antimiR-221 in glioma U251 cells; (2) the induction of apoptosis by premiR-124 in U251 cells; and (3) the inhibition of pro-inflammatory IL-8 and IL-6 genes in cystic fibrosis IB3-1 cells. Our results demonstrate that the argininocalix[4]arene 1 should be considered a very useful delivery system for efficient transfer to target cells of both premiRNA and antimiRNA molecules, preserving their biological activity

Emergency Surgery in the Elderly: Could Laparoscopy Be Useful in Frailty? A Single-Center Prospective 2-Year Follow-Up in 120 Consecutive Patients

Background: the general population is aging across the world. Therefore, even surgical interventions in the elderly—in particular those involving emergency surgical admissions—are becoming more frequent. The elderly population is often frail (in multiple physiological systems, this is often defined as age-related cumulative decline). This study involved a 2-year follow-up evaluation of frail elderly patients treated with urgent surgical intervention at Santa Maria Regina della Misericordia Hospital, General Surgery Department, in Adria (Italy). Method: a prospective, single-center, 2-year follow-up study of 120 patients >65 years old, treated at our department for surgical abdominal emergencies. We considered co-morbidities (ASA—American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification System—score), type of surgery (laparoscopy, laparotomy or converted), frailty score, mortality, and complications at 30 days and at 2 years. Conclusions: 70 (58.4%) patients had laparoscopy, 49 (40.8) had laparotomy, and in 1 (0.8%) case, surgery was converted from laparoscopy to laparotomy. Mortality strictly depends on the type of surgery (laparotomy vs. laparoscopy), complications during recovery, and a lower Fried frailty criteria score, on average. The long-term follow-up can be a useful tool to highlight a safer surgical approach, such as laparoscopy, in frail elderly patients. We consider the laparoscopic approach feasible in emergency situations, with similar or better outcomes than laparotomy, especially in frail elderly patients

Corilagin Induces High Levels of Apoptosis in the Temozolomide-Resistant T98G Glioma Cell Line

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a malignant tumor of the central nervous system, has a high mortality rate; no curativetreatment is presently available and the most commonly used chemiotherapeutic drug, the alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ), is only able to increase life expectancy and is often associated with drugresistance. Therefore, an urgent need does exist for novel drugs aimed at treating gliomas. In the present study we obtained three major results using corliagin: (a) demonstrate that it inhibits the growth of U251 glioma cells through activation of the apoptotic pathway; (b) demonstrate that it is also active on temozolomideresistant T98G glioma cells; (c) demonstrate that when used in combination with temozolomide on T98G glioma cells a higher level of pro-apototic and antiproliferative effects are observed. Our study indicates that corilagin should be investigated in more detail in order to determine if it can be developed as a potential therapeutic agent. In addition, our results suggest that corilagin could be used in combination with low dosages of other standard anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs against gliomas (such as temozolomide) with the aim of obtaining enhanced anticancer effects

A peptide-nucleic acid targeting miR-335-5p enhances expression of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene with the possible involvement of the CFTR scaffolding protein NHERF1

(1) Background: Up-regulation of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator gene (CFTR) might be of great relevance for the development of therapeutic protocols for cystic fibrosis (CF). MicroRNAs are deeply involved in the regulation of CFTR and scaffolding proteins (such as NHERF1, NHERF2 and Ezrin). (2) Methods: Content of miRNAs and mRNAs was analyzed by RT-qPCR, while the CFTR and NHERF1 production was analyzed by Western blotting. (3) Results: The results here described show that the CFTR scaffolding protein NHERF1 can be upregulated in bronchial epithelial Calu-3 cells by a peptide-nucleic acid (PNA) targeting miR-335-5p, predicted to bind to the 3′-UTR sequence of the NHERF1 mRNA. Treatment of Calu-3 cells with this PNA (R8-PNA-a335) causes also up-regulation of CFTR. (4) Conclusions: We propose miR-335-5p targeting as a strategy to increase CFTR. While the efficiency of PNA-based targeting of miR-3355p should be verified as a therapeutic strategy in CF caused by stop-codon mutation of the CFTR gene, this approach might give appreciable results in CF cells carrying other mutations impairing the processing or stability of CFTR protein, supporting its application in personalized therapy for precision medicine

Verificación Sobre la Estabilidad de Electrogramas Fragmentados para la Caracterización del Sustrato Auricular en Pacientes con Fibrilación Auricular

[ES] Para caracterizar el sustrato auricular en fibrilacion auricular (FA) se ha investigado un amplio numero de indices aplicados a electrogramas auriculares fragmentados complejos (CFAE). Sin embargo, se ha obviado la evaluacion de su calidad, asi como de su estabilidad interna (intra-canal) e intra-paciente. Este trabajo evalua la estabilidad intracanal e intra-paciente de 204 CFAEs bipolares de FA registrados en pacientes con FA paroxistica (n = 15) y persistente (n = 19) aplicando indices no lineales. Para estimar las diferencias entre los CFAEs se ha utilizado el coeficiente de variacion (CV) de la entropia muestral (SE) y el determinismo (DET) del analisis de cuantificacion de recurrencias (RQA) de los datos. Ademas, tambien se analizaron las variaciones introducidas al descartar los segmentos de CFAEs ruidosos y con artefactos. El analisis intra-canal reporto una variacion significativa del CV( %) para cualquier longitud de segmento analizado tanto para DET como para SE al descartar segmentos ruidosos, habiendo mayores disminuciones para segmentos mas largos. Ademas, se observaron grandes variaciones de CV( %) para DET y SE en cualquier longitud de segmento en el analisis intra-paciente, pero en este caso, el descarte de segmentos ruidosos no mejoro resultados. La prueba de Kruskal-Wallis reporto diferencias estadisticamente significativas para DET y SE entre canales, independientemente del proceso de descarte. Por tanto, la alta variabilidad observada de los CFAEs ha demostrado que promediar los datos en un canal o entre diferentes canales puede conducir a una simplificacion excesiva de la caracterizacion del sustrato auricular basada en CFAEs.El presente trabajo ha sido cofinanciado por los proyectos de investigacion competitiva DPI2017-83952-C3 de MINECO-AEI-FEDER-UE, SBPLY/17/180501/000411 de la JCCLM y AICO/2019/036 de la GVA.Finotti, E.; Hornero Sos, F.; Bertomeu-González, V.; Osca Asensi, J.; Alcaraz Martínez, R.; Rieta, JJ. (2020). Verificación Sobre la Estabilidad de Electrogramas Fragmentados para la Caracterización del Sustrato Auricular en Pacientes con Fibrilación Auricular. Sociedad Española de Ingeniería Biomédica. 422-425. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/178257S42242

Distinción Entre Electrogramas de Fibrilación Auricular Paroxística Frente a Persistente para Evaluación del Sustrato Auricular en Procedimientos de Ablación por Catéter

[ES] Para contribuir a un abordaje optimizado de la ablacion por cateter (AC) de fibrilacion auricular (FA), durante los ultimos anos se han introducido complicados indices destinados a discriminar FA paroxistica de persistente (FApar vs. FAper) aplicados sobre electrogramas auriculares fraccionados complejos(CFAE). Sin embargo, los electrofisiologos exigen el uso de metodos de clasificacion simples y de comprension directa. Por ello, el presente trabajo explota la longitud de ciclo de FA (AFCL), la frecuencia dominante (DF), la entropia muestral (SE) y el determinismo (DET) del analisis de cuantificacion recurrente, aplicado a registros de FA con CFAEs, para crear modelos sencillos de discriminacion entre FApar y FAper. El AFCL y la DF se calcularon sobre los registros enteros, mientras que SE y DET secalcularon utilizando segmentos de 1, 2 y 4 s. La informacion redundante se elimino umbralizando sucesivamente matrices de correlacion y el algoritmo de Random Forests ordeno las variables por relevancia. A continuacion, un arbol de clasificacion combino de manera optima los indices con alto nivel clasificatorio y se probaron con validacion cruzada dejando uno fuera. Despues de analizar todas las combinaciones posibles, el mejor resultado obtuvo una Precision (Acc) del 88,2 % para discriminar FApar de FAper, mientras que DET proporciono la mejor Acc individual de 82,4 %. Como conclusion, una seleccion cuidada y reducida de caracteristicas puede facilitar un modelo de clasificacion sencillo capaz de discriminar con precision entre CFAEs de FApar y FAper para mejorar el abordaje terapeutico de la FA.El presente trabajo ha sido cofinanciado por los proyectos de investigacion competitiva DPI2017-83952-C3 de MINECO-AEI-FEDER-UE, SBPLY/17/180501/000411 de la JCCLM y AICO/2019/036 de la GVA.Finotti, E.; Bertomeu González, V.; Hornero Sos, F.; Quesada Dorador, A.; Alcaraz Martínez, R.; Rieta, JJ. (2020). Distinción Entre Electrogramas de Fibrilación Auricular Paroxística Frente a Persistente para Evaluación del Sustrato Auricular en Procedimientos de Ablación por Catéter. Sociedad Española de Ingeniería Biomédica. 109-112. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/17826210911

Enzymatic spermine metabolites induce apoptosis associated with increase of p53, caspase-3 and mir-34a in both neuroblastoma cells, SJNKP and the N-Myc-amplified form IMR5

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a common malignant solid tumor in children and accounts for 15% of childhood cancer mortality. Amplification of the N-Myc oncogene is a well-established poor prognostic marker in NB patients and strongly correlates with higher tumor aggression and resistance to treatment. New therapies for patients with N-Myc-amplified NB need to be developed. After treating NB cells with BSAO/SPM, the detection of apoptosis was determined after annexin V-FITC labeling and DNA staining with propidium iodide. The mitochondrial membrane potential activity was checked, labeling cells with the probe JC-1 dye. We analyzed, by real-time RT-PCR, the transcript of genes involved in the apoptotic process, to determine possible down-or upregulation of mRNAs after the treatment on SJNKP and the N-Myc-amplified IMR5 cell lines with BSAO/SPM. The experiments were carried out considering the proapoptotic genes Tp53 and caspase-3. After treatment with BSAO/SPM, both cell lines displayed increased mRNA levels for all these proapoptotic genes. Western blotting analysis with PARP and caspase-3 antibody support that BSAO/SPM treatment induces high levels of apoptosis in cells. The major conclusion is that BSAO/SPM treatment leads to antiproliferative and cytotoxic activity of both NB cell lines, associated with activation of apoptosis