Food Science and Human Wellness最新文献

Histamine in food has attracted widespread attention due to the potential toxicity and associated health risk. However, its influences on immunological components, especially the function of key immune cells, are still poorly known. In this work, we explored the effects of exogenous histamine on the function of key immune cells such as intestinal epithelial cells, dendritic cells, and T cells. The results showed that histamine could affect the expression of allergy-related genes in CMT93 cells at a high dose of histamine. Moreover, it’s found that histamine could cause an imbalance in the levels of relevant immune factors secreted by dendritic cells and T cells, especially those related to allergy. At the same time, the proportion of MHC class II-positive dendritic cells and the proportion of T helper 2 (Th2) cells in CD4⁺ T cells increased after histamine stimulation. We concluded that the presence of a certain level of histamine in food may affect the expression of allergy-related cytokines, disrupt the balance of the immune homeostasis, and potentially lead to adverse immune reactions. This work demonstrated the importance of including the estimation of histamine's immune safety in aquatic products rather than merely considering the potential risk of food poisoning.

Two selenium (Se)-containing peptides from Se-enriched rice, TSeMMM and SeMDPGQQ, possess neuroprotective potency against lead (Pb²⁺)-induced cytotoxicity. However, the crosstalk between mRNA and microRNAs (miRNA) involved in the neuroprotection mechanism remains to be elucidated. In this study, RNA-sequencing and miRNA-sequencing were used to independently identify differentially expressed mRNAs and small RNAs profiles in Pb²⁺-treated primary fetal rat cortical neurons and then the correlated miRNA‑mRNA target pairs were obtained. It was found that 34 mRNAs related to oxidative phosphorylation could be reversed by pretreatment of TSeMMM and SeMDPGQQ. The protective effect of TSeMMM and SeMDPGQQ was mediated by upregulation of miR-107-3p, which downregulates the ATPase H+ transporting V0 subunit e1 (Atp6v0e1) mRNA level. A zebrafish model was applied to verify the relevance between the targeted mRNA and miRNA by real-time quantitative PCR. The results indicated that miR-107-3p was a potential therapeutic target to achieve neuroprotection of Se-containing peptides via stimulation of Atp6v0e1.

In this study, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress inducer tunicamycin (TM) and inhibitor 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA) were used to treat postmortem chicken breast muscle to investigate changes in tenderness and effects on apoptosis and autophagy during 5 days ageing. TM-induced ER stress reduced shear force, enhanced myofibril fragmentation index (MFI), disrupted myofibril structure, increased desmin degradation, and activated μ-calpain and caspase-12. In addition, TM-induced ER stress increased the expression of Bax, Bim, and cytochrome c, and decreased the expression of Bcl-xL. Furthermore, TM-induced ER stress improved the conversion of LC3I to LC3II, raised the expression of Beclin-1, and decreased the expression of p62, PI3K, and mTOR. The opposite results were observed after 4-PBA treatment. These results suggested that ER stress could improve chicken tenderness, promote apoptosis and autophagy during chicken postmortem ageing.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the major form of neurodegenerative diseases that can severely impede normal cognitive function, makes it one of the most common fatal diseases. There are currently over 50 million AD patients worldwide. The neuropathology of AD is perplexing and there is a scarcity of disease-modifying treatments. Currently, early diagnosis of AD has been made possible with the discovery of biological markers associated with pathology, providing strong support for the improvement of the disease status. The search for inhibitors of AD markers from dietary supplements (DSs) has become a major hot topic. Especially with the widespread use of DSs, DSs containing polyphenols, alkaloids, terpenes, polysaccharides and other bioactive components can prevent AD by reducing Aβ deposition, inhibiting tau protein hyperphosphorylation, reconstructing synaptic dysfunction, weakening cholinesterase activity, regulating mitochondrial oxidative stress, neuronal inflammation and apoptosis. This review summarizes the anti-AD effects of the main DSs and their bioactive constituents, as well as the potential molecular mechanisms covers from 2017 to 2023. Additionally, we discussed the opportunities and challenges faced by DSs in the process of AD prevention and treatment, aiming to further provide new perspectives for functional food development.

Hyperuricemia is a high-risk factor for the development of gout and renal fibrosis, but the adverse effects of hyperuricemia on the liver have been seriously neglected. This research investigated the ameliorating effect of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus Fmb14 on hyperuricemia induced liver dysfunction both in vitro and in vivo. Cell free extracts of high dose L. rhamnosus Fmb14 treatment reduced the death rate of HepG2 cell lines from 24.1 % to 14.9 % by inhibiting NLRP3 recruitment, which was mainly activated by reactive oxygen species release and mitochondrial membrane potential disorder. In purine dietary induced hyperuricemia (PDIH) mice model, liver oedema and pyroptosis were ameliorated after L. rhamnosus Fmb14 administration through downregulating the expression levels of NLRP3, caspase-1 and gasdermin-D from 1.61 to 0.86, 3.15 to 1.01 and 5.63 to 2.02, respectively. L. rhamnosus Fmb14 administration restored mitochondrial inner membrane protein (MPV17) and connexin 43 from 2.83 and 0.73 to 0.80 and 0.98 respectively in PDIH mice, indicating that dysbiosis of mitochondrial membrane potential was restored in liver. Intriguingly, PDIH pyroptosis stimulates the process of apoptosis, which leads to severe leakage of hepatocytes, and both of pyroptosis and apoptosis were decreased after L. rhamnosus Fmb14 treatment. Therefore, L. rhamnosus Fmb14 is a promising biological resource to maintain homeostasis of the liver in hyperuricemia and the prevention of subsequent complications.

Oxidative stress is one of the main ways to cause alcohol-induced liver injury, and alcoholic liver disease (ALD) has been a common health problem worldwide. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is also considered as a potential treatment to alleviate alcohol-induced liver injury. Lactobacillus plantarum J26 is a LAB isolated from Chinese traditional fermented dairy products with excellent probiotic effects. This study aimed to establish a mice model of alcoholic liver injury through acute-on-chronic alcohol feeding and to study the alleviating effect of pre-intake of L. plantarum J26 on alcohol-induced oxidative liver injury and focus on its potential mechanism of alleviating effect. The results showed that pre-intake of L. plantarum J26 could improve liver pathological changes, reduce lipid accumulation, increase mitochondrial ATP and mitochondrial (mtDNA) levels, and alleviate liver injury. In addition, pre-intake L. plantarum J26 can improve the level of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the intestines in mice, short chain fatty acids can be used as a signaling molecule activation of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway to alleviate liver oxidative stress, and maintain mitochondrial homeostasis by regulating the expression of genes related to mitochondrial dynamics and autophagy, thereby reducing cell apoptosis to alleviate alcohol-induced oxidative liver injury.

Loss of susceptibility to anoikis signals is a crucial step in metastasis. Anoikis resistance therefore represents a promising adjuvant therapeutic target for cancer management. In this study, we have conducted a rationalized screening to search for novel leading anoikis sensitizer from daily foods. Among 19 tested dietary phytochemicals, the best results were obtained with apigenin, a natural component of celery. Phenotypically, apigenin sensitized breast cancer cells to anoikis, lowered the number of circulating tumor cells, and protected against breast cancer metastasis to lung in mice. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that the thromboxane A₂ (TXA₂)-TXA₂ receptor (TP) axis has a critical role in acquired anoikis resistance by activating PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Blockage of TXA₂ signaling up-regulated p53 as well as its target gene p21, caused a G1 phase arrest, and finally led to apoptosis in breast cancer cells. TXA₂ level was positively correlated with breast cancer cell anoikis rate, and apigenin significantly inhibited TXA₂ biosynthesis in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, we identified apigenin as a potent anoikis sensitizer with anti-metastatic properties in a mouse model of breast cancer, and these findings might provide a rationale for introducing apigenin supplementation to breast cancer patients.

Bitterness, one of the 5 “basic tastes”, is usually undesired by humans. However, abundant literature reported that bitter fruits and vegetables have beneficial health effects due to their bitter contributors. This review provided an updated overview of the main bitter contributors of typical bitter fruits and vegetables and their health benefits. The main bitter contributors, including phenolics, terpenoids, alkaloids, amino acids, nucleosides and purines, were summarized. The bioactivities and wide range of beneficial effects of them on anti-cancers, anti-inflammations, anti-microbes, neuroprotection, inhibiting chronic and acute injury in organs, as well as regulating behavior performance and metabolism were reported. Furthermore, not only did the bitter taste receptors (taste receptor type 2 family, T2Rs) show taste effects, but extra-oral T2Rs could also be activated by binding with bitter components, regulating physiological activities via modulating hormone secretion, immunity, metabolism, and cell proliferation. This review provided a new perspective on exploring and explaining the nutrition of bitter foods, revealing the relationship between the functions of bitter contributors from food and T2Rs. Future trends may focus on revealing the possibility of T2Rs being targets for the treatment of diseases, exploring the mechanism of T2Rs mediating the bioactivities, and making bitter foods more acceptable without getting rid of bitter contributors.

Mental disorders seriously affect people's health and social stability. This Mendelian randomization (MR) study was designed to investigate the causal relationship between circulating vitamin C (VC) or 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and mental disorders. The data used for the MR analysis were derived from the summary genome-wide association studies (GWAS) database for VC and 25(OH)D and from the FinnGen consortium for fourteen mental disorders. Based on the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method, we found a potential causal association between circulating VC and anxiety disorders (IVW: OR=1.139, 95 %CI: 1.0231.269, P = 0.018). However, no causal association was found between VC or 25(OH)D and other mental disorders (P > 0.05). In the reverse MR analysis, individuals with Alzheimer's disease was causally associated with higher concentrations of circulating VC(P = 0.012), while individuals with anxiety disorders had a negative association between the concentrations of 25(OH)D (P = 0.012). However, the current evidence does not support a causal relationship between VC or 25(OH)D and other mental disorders. In addition, there was no causal association between circulating VC and 25(OH)D (P > 0.05). Future studies are needed to confirm these findings and to elucidate the mechanisms of potential causality.

The application of microorganisms as probiotics is limited due to lack of safety evaluation. Here, a novel multi-stress-tolerant yeast Meyerozyma guilliermondii GXDK6 with aroma-producing properties was identified from marine mangrove microorganisms. Its safety and probiotic properties were assessed in accordance with phenotype and whole-genome sequencing analysis. Results showed that the genes and phenotypic expression of related virulence, antibiotic resistance and retroelement were rarely found. Hyphal morphogenesis genes (SIT4, HOG1, SPA2, ERK1, ICL1, CST20, HSP104, TPS1, and RHO1) and phospholipase secretion gene (VPS4) were annotated. True hyphae and phospholipase were absent. Only one retroelement (Tad1-65_BG) was found. Major biogenic amines (BAs) encoding genes were absent, except for spermidine synthase (JA9_002594), spermine synthase (JA9_004690), and tyrosine decarboxylase (inx). The production of single BAs and total BAs was far below the food-defined thresholds. GXDK6 had no resistance to common antifungal drugs. Virulence enzymes, such as gelatinase, DNase, hemolytic, lecithinase, and thrombin were absent. Acute toxicity test with mice demonstrated that GXDK6 is safe. GXDK6 has a good reproduction ability in the simulation gastrointestinal tract. GXDK6 also has a strong antioxidant ability, β-glucosidase, and inulinase activity. To sum up, GXDK6 is considered as a safe probiotic for human consumption and food fermentation.