Food Science and Human Wellness最新文献

Free amino acid (FAA) is the important component of vinegar that influences quality perception and consumer acceptance. FAA is one of the major metabolites produced by microorganisms; however, the microbial metabolic network on FAA biosynthesis remains unclear. Through metagenomic analysis, this work aimed to elucidate the roles of microbes in FAA biosynthesis during Monascus rice vinegar fermentation. Taxonomic profiles from functional analyses showed 14 dominant genera with high contributions to the metabolism pathways. The metabolic network for FAA biosynthesis was then constructed, and the microbial distribution in different metabolic pathways was illuminated. The results revealed that 5 functional genera were closely involved in FAA biosynthesis. This study illuminated the metabolic roles of microorganisms in FAA biosynthesis and provided crucial insights into the functional attributes of microbiota in vinegar fermentation.

Aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) is a naturally-occurring mycotoxin and recognized as the most toxic foodborne toxin, particularly causing damages to kidney. Glomerular podocytes are terminally differentiated epithelial cells. AFB₁ induces podocyte inflammation, proteinuria and renal dysfunction. Studying the mechanism of AFB₁-induced podocyte inflammation and murine kidney dysfunction, we detected that AFB1 increased ubiquitin-dependent degradation of the transcription factor RelA through enhanced interaction of RelA with E3 ubiquitin ligase tripartite motif containing 7 (TRIM7) in mouse podocyte clone-5 (MPC-5) and mouse glomeruli. Reduction of RelA resulted in decreasing microRNA-9 (miR-9) and activating the chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP), and NOD-like receptor pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) signaling axis (CXCR4/TXNIP/NLRP3 pathway), leading to podocyte inflammation. We also determined that downregulation of miR-9 led to CXCR4 expression and the downstream TXNIP/NLRP3 pathway activation. Overexpression of miR-9 or deletion of CXCR4 suppressed AFB₁-induced CXCR4/TXNIP/NLRP3 pathway, resulting in alleviating podocyte inflammation and kidney dysfunction. Our findings indicated that ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of RelA, downregulation of miR-9, and activation of CXCR4/TXNIP/NLRP3 pathway played an essential role in AFB1-induced glomerular podocyte inflammation. Our study revealed a novel mechanism, via RelA, for the control of AFB₁’s nephrotoxicity, leading to an effective protection of food safety and public health.

Simple but effective methods are required to incorporate multiple bioactive polyphenols into delivery systems to increase their dispersibility, stability and bioavailability. We developed and tested three pH-driven protocols for creating nanoemulsions loaded with multiple lipophilic polyphenols. These protocols differed in how the different polyphenols were incorporated into the nanoemulsions. The impact of these three methods on the formation, properties, and gastrointestinal fate of nanoemulsions loaded with curcumin, resveratrol, and quercetin was investigated. The three methods produced nanoemulsions with similar initial particle properties: droplet diameters (0.15, 0.16, and 0.15 μm) and zeta-potentials (–59, –58, and –58 mV), respectively. However, the average encapsulation efficiencies (82 %, 88 %, and 61 %), gastrointestinal stabilities (83 %, 97 %, and 29 %) and bioaccessibilities (77 %, 90 %, and 73 %) for curcumin, resveratrol, and quercetin were somewhat different. In particular, more quercetin degradation occurred using the approach that held it under alkaline conditions for extended periods. In general, the pH-driven method provides researchers with a versatile approach of incorporating multiple polyphenols with different characteristics into functional food and beverages using a simple and inexpensive method.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a common inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been used in Asia as a treatment for UC and Puerariae radix (PR) is a reliable anti-diarrheal therapy. The aims of this study were to investigate the protective effect of PR using the dextran sulfate sodium salt (DSS)-induced UC model in mice and identify molecular mechanisms of PR action. The chemical constituents of PR via ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry and identified potential PR and UC targets using a network pharmacology (NP) approach were obtained to guide mouse experiments. A total of 180 peaks were identified from PR including 48 flavonoids, 46 organic acids, 14 amino acids, 8 phenols, 8 carbohydrates, 7 alkaloids, 6 coumarins and 43 other constituents. NP results showed that caspase-1 was the most dysregulated of the core genes associated with UC. A PR dose of 0.136 mg/g administered to DSS treated mice reversed weight loss and decreased colon lengths found in UC mice. PR also alleviated intestinal mucosal shedding, inflammatory cell infiltration and mucin loss. PR treatment suppressed upregulation of NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteases-1 (caspase-1), apoptosis-associated speck-like (ASC) and gasdermin D (GSDMD) at both the protein and mRNA expression levels. The addition of a small molecule dual-specificity phosphatase inhibitor NSC 95397 inhibited the positive effects of PR. These results indicated that PR exerts a protective effect on DSS-induced colitis by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation in mice.

The effects of 5 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermentation on the pasting properties of glutinous rice flour were compared, and suitable fermentation strains were selected based on the changes of viscosity, setback value, and breakdown value to prepare LAB compound starter cultures. The results revealed that Latilactobacillus sakei HSD004 and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus HSD005 had apparent advantages in increasing the viscosity and reducing the setback and breakdown values of glutinous rice flour. In particular, the compound starter created using the two abovementioned LAB in the ratio of 3:1 had better performance than that using a single LAB in improving the pasting properties and increasing the water and oil absorption capacity of glutinous rice flour. Moreover, the gelatinization enthalpy of the fermented samples increased significantly. For frozen glutinous rice dough stored for 28 days, the viscoelasticity of frozen dough prepared by compound starter was better than that of control dough, and the freezable water content was lower than that of control dough. These results indicate that compound LAB fermentation is a promising technology in the glutinous rice-based food processing industry, which has significance for its application.

Bone collagen hydrolysates (peptides) derived from byproduct of animal product processing have been used to produce commercially valuable products due to their potential antioxidant activity. Maillard glycosylated reaction is considered as a promising method to enhance the antioxidant activity of peptides. Hence, this research aims at investigating the Maillard glycosylation activity and antioxidant activity of bone collagen hydrolysates from different sources. In this study, 3 glycosylated bone collagen hydrolysates were prepared and characterized, and cytotoxicity and antioxidant activity were analyzed and evaluated. The free amino groups loss, browning intensity, and fluorescence intensity of G-Cbcp (glycosylated chicken bone collagen hydrolysates (peptides)) were the heaviest, followed by G-Pbcp (glycosylated porcine bone collagen hydrolysates (peptides)) and G-Bbcp (glycosylated bovine bone collagen hydrolysates (peptides)). The results of amino acid analysis showed that amino acid composition of different bone collagen hydrolysates was significantly different and the amino acid decreased to different degrees after Maillard glycosylated reaction, which may lead to differences in Maillard glycosylated reaction activity. Furthermore, the 3 glycosylated hydrolysates showed no significant cytotoxicity. The results showed that glycosylation process significantly increased the antioxidant activity of bone collagen hydrolysates, and G-Cbcp showed the strongest antioxidant activity, followed by G-Pbcp and G-Bbcp. Therefore, compared with the bone collagen hydrolysates, 3 glycosylated hydrolysates showed significant characteristic and structural changes, and higher antioxidant activity.

Food allergy is a significant public health concern globally. Certain probiotics have been found to enhance food allergy by regulating immune-microbe interactions in animal models and patients. However, the effects of Bifidobacterium lactis Probio-M8 (Probio-M8) on food allergy have not been thoroughly investigated. The present study examined the anti-allergic properties of Probio-M8, particularly in relation to immune response and gut microbiota composition. Results demonstrate that oral administration of Probio-M8 effectively mitigated the allergy symptoms triggered by ovalbumin (OVA) by ameliorating the morphological damage in the jejunum, reducing OVA-specific IgE and histamine levels in the serum, and suppressing Th2 cytokines (interleukin (IL) 4 and IL-13) while increasing Th1 cytokines (interferon (IFN) γ) and regulatory T (Treg) cytokines (IL-10 and transforming growth factor (TGF) β1) in the culture supernatants of splenic cells. Furthermore, Probio-M8 effectively altered the diversity and composition of gut microbiota, particularly the relative abundances of Akkermansia_muciniphila in OVA-induced mice. Compared to the OVA group, the Probio-M8 group showed a decrease in the relative abundance of Akkermansia_muciniphila. In conclusion, Probio-M8 demonstrates the potential to alleviate food allergy by regulating the Th1/Th2 response and modulating gut microbiota, thereby offering a novel therapeutic strategy for patients with food allergy.

The internal microbial diversity and small molecular metabolites of Nuodeng ham in different processing years (the first, second and third year sample) were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing technology and gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrography (GC-TOF-MS) to study the effects of microorganisms and small molecular metabolites on the quality of ham in different processing years. The results showed that the dominant bacteria phyla of Nuodeng ham in different processing years were Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, the dominant fungi phyla were Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, while Staphylococcus and Aspergillus were the dominant bacteria and fungi of Nuodeng ham, respectively.Totally, 252 kinds of small molecular metabolites were identified from Nuodeng ham in different processing years, and 12 different metabolites were screened through multivariate statistical analysis. Further metabolic pathway analysis showed that 23 metabolic pathways were related to ham fermentation, of which 8 metabolic pathways had significant effects on ham fermentation (Impact > 0.01, P < 0.05). The content of L-proline, phenyllactic acid, L-lysine, carnosine, taurine, D-proline, betaine and creatine were significantly positively correlated with the relative abundance of Staphylococcus and Serratia, but negatively correlated with the relative abundance of Halomonas, Aspergillus and Yamadazyma.

Polygonatum sibiricum has been widely used due to its excellent biological activities. We prepared a novel polysaccharide from P. sibiricum (PSP) in this study. According a monosaccharide composition analysis, PSP was mainly composed of fructose and glucose with a molar percentage of 93.81:5.12. The main linkage types were identified as α-D-Glcp-1→ and →2-β-D-Fruf-1→. The molecular weight of PSP showed no significant change after simulated salivary and gastrointestinal digestion. However, PSP could be broken down by intestinal bacteria. Our findings revealed that PSP administration increased the abundance of probiotics such as Bifidobacterium. Furthermore, the results showed that gut microbes could utilize PSP to produce short-chain fatty acids including acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid. Also, the PSP fermentation broth displayed an excellent scavenging effect on free radicals, including 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical, superoxide radical, and hydroxyl radical. In summary, this study will help to promote the application of PSP as prebiotics in functional food and the medical industry.

Hyperuricemia (HUA) is a vital risk factor for chronic kidney diseases (CKD) and development of functional foods capable of protecting CKD is of importance. This paper aimed to explore the amelioration effects and mechanism of Andrias davidianus bone peptides (ADBP) on HUA-induced kidney damage. In the present study, we generated the standard ADBP which contained high hydrophobic amino acid and low molecular peptide contents. In vitro results found that ADBP protected uric acid (UA)-induced HK-2 cells from damage by modulating urate transporters and antioxidant defense. In vivo results indicated that ADBP effectively ameliorated renal injury in HUA-induced CKD mice, evidenced by a remarkable decrease in serum UA, creatinine and blood urea nitrogen, improving kidney UA excretion, antioxidant defense and histological kidney deterioration. Metabolomic analysis highlighted 14 metabolites that could be selected as potential biomarkers and attributed to the amelioration effects of ADBP on CKD mice kidney dysfunction. Intriguingly, ADBP restored the gut microbiome homeostasis in CKD mice, especially with respect to the elevated helpful microbial abundance, and the decreased harmful bacterial abundance. This study demonstrated that ADBP displayed great nephroprotective effects, and has great promise as a food or functional food ingredient for the prevention and treatment of HUA-induced CKD.