內容: Rhodiola crenulate is the edible medicinal herbal medicine widely used for altitude sickness in China. Interestingly, our previous work has found that R. crenulate extract (RCE) could significantly improve the pathology associated with dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis. Thus, the current research aims to reveal the pharmacodynamic material basis of RCE, as well as its mechanism against colitis. The chemical characterization of RCE was performed by UHPLC-HR-MS, through which a total of 88 constituents were identified. Meanwhile, our results also found 29 constituents absorbed into blood and 8 metabolized absorbable compounds. The decreased flavonoids prototype and the elevated sulfated products of phenols were observed under pathophysiological conditions of colitis. The metabolomics study revealed that colitis caused the alternation of fatty acid metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis and bile acid metabolism. Correspondingly, RCE could prevent colitis by improving fatty acid metabolism and secondary bile acid metabolism.

內容: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. However, information on stroke-related tongue coating microbiome (TCM) is limited, and whether TCM modulation could benefit for stroke prevention and rehabilitation is unknown. Here, TCM from stroke patients (SP) was characterized using molecular techniques. The occurrence of stroke resulted in TCM dysbiosis with significantly reduced species richness and diversity. The abundance of Prevotella, Leptotrichia, Actinomyces, Alloprevotella, Haemophilus, and TM7_[G-1] were greatly reduced, but common infection Streptococcus and Pseudomonas were remarkably increased. Furthermore, an antioxidative probiotic Lactiplantibacillus plantarum AR113 was used for TCM intervention in stroke rats with cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). AR113 partly restored I/R induced change of TCM and gut microbiota with significantly improved neurological deficit, relieved histopathologic change, increased activities of antioxidant enzymes, and decreased contents of oxidative stress biomarkers. Moreover, the gene expression of antioxidant-related proteins and apoptosis-related factors heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase-1 (NQO-1), and Bcl-2 was significantly increased, but cytochrome C, cleaved caspase-3, and Bax were markedly decreased in the brain by AR113 treatment. The results suggested that AR113 could ameliorate cerebral I/R injury through antioxidation and anti-apoptosis pathways, and AR113 intervention of TCM may have the application potential for stroke prevention and control.

內容: 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.

內容: Dry-cured meat products are considerably popular around the world due to unique flavor. Proteolysis is one of the enzymatic reactions from which flavor substances are derived, which is affected by endogenous proteases. The purpose aimed to reveal the potential relationship between endogenous proteases and key flavor substances in dry-cured pork coppa in this paper. The dynamic changes of endogenous proteases activity, free amino acids, and volatiles during dry-cured pork coppa processing were characterized. The results showed that 5 kinds of free amino acids, Glu, Lys, Val, Ala, and Leu, were identified as significant contributors to taste. Meanwhile, key volatiles, such as hexanal, nonanal, octanal, benzaldehyde, 3-methyl butanoic acid, 2-methyl propanoic acid, and ethyl octanoate, greatly contributed to the flavor characteristics of dry-cured pork coppa. Further partial correlation analysis was performed to better elucidate the relationship among parameters. The results revealed that close relationship between endogenous proteases and key substances. RAP not only significantly affected the accumulation of key active-amino acids, but also affected the accumulation of ethyl octanoate, 2,3-pentanedione, and 2,3-octanedione by regulating the accumulation of octanoic acid and Leu. In addition, cathepsin B and D, DPP II, DPP IV and RAP notably affected accumulation of hexanal.

內容: Two oligosaccharide fractions (MLO 2-1 and 2-2) were purified from enzymatic hydrolysate of mulberry leaf polysaccharide. The results of simulated digestion showed that MLO 2-2 was a digestible oligosaccharide, which could be degraded by human digestive juice; while MLO 2-1 possessed the non-digestible property in the upper gastrointestinal tract and performed the function by regulating the gut microbiota. Hence, MLO 2-1 was selected for the further analysis. The structure of MLO 2-1 was elucidated as follow: α-T-Glcp-(1→3)-β-Glcp-(1→5)-α-Araf-(1→5)-α-Araf-1→5)-α-Araf-(1→3)-α-(2-OAc)-Glcp-1. The in vitro fecal fermentation results showed that MLO 2-1 could modulate the composition of gut microbiota. Meanwhile, MLO 2-1 was effectively metabolized by fecal bacteria to produce lactate and short chain fatty acids, especially acetate and butyrate. The specific metabolic pathways of MLO 2-1 by gut microbiota were further illuminated. Gut microbiota analysis revealed that MLO 2-1 selectively promoted the growth of Ligilactobacillus murinus, a commensal bacterium presented a reduced level in T2DM mice. Animal experiments indicated that MLO 2-1 and L. murinus exhibited hypoglycemic activities. These results demonstrated that MLO 2-1 might alleviate T2DM by selectively accelerating the proliferation of L. murinus.

內容: 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.

內容: 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.

內容: This study demonstrates the feasibility of producing three polysaccharides (neutral LJP-1, acidic LJP-2 and acidic LJP-3) with significant in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory activities from the flowers of Lonicera japonica. The three polysaccharides differed in chemical composition, molecular weight (Mw) distribution, glycosidic linkage pattern, functional groups and morphology. They exhibited excellent protective effects (in a dose-dependent manner) in lipopolysaccharide-injured RAW264.7 macrophages and CuSO4-damaged zebrafish via reducing NO production and inhibiting the overexpressions of inflammation-related transcription factors, inflammatory proteins and cytokines in the NF-κB/MAPK signaling pathways. Their anti-inflammatory effects varied owing to their different molecular characteristics and chemical compositions. Overall, LJP-2 at 400 μg/mL was the most effective. LJP-2 consisted mainly of →5)-α-L-Araf (1→, →4)-α-L-GalpA (1→ and →2)-α-L-Rhap (1→ residues with terminal T-β-D-Glcp. Thus, honeysuckle flowers are good sources of anti-inflammatory polysaccharides, and precise fractionation enables the production of potent anti-inflammatory agents for the development of functional foods and healthcare products.

內容: 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.

內容: 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.