內容: The hypothesis that some children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may show sensitivity or allergic reactions to various food items has led to the development of the the few-foods (or oligoantigenic) diet. The rationale of the diet is to eliminate certain foods from the diet in order to exclude potential allergens contained either naturally in food or in artificial ingredients with allergenic properties. The oligoantigenic diet attempts to identify individual foods to which a person might be sensitive. First, ADHD symptoms are monitored while multiple foods are excluded from the diet. Subsequently, if symptoms remit, foods are re-introduced, while observing the individual for the return of symptoms. An advantage of the oligoantigenic diet is that it can be tailored to the individual. A growing body of evidence suggests that behavioral symptoms of subgroups of children with ADHD may benefit from the elimination of certain foods. The effect sizes of an oligoantigenic diet regarding improvement of ADHD symptoms have been found to be medium to large. Available evidence suggests that the investigation of the role of food hypersensitivities in ADHD is a promising avenue worthy of further exploration. Further large-scale, randomized controlled studies including assessment of long-term outcome are therefore warranted.

內容: Atherosclerosis, as the most prevalent form of cardiovascular disease, is characterized by oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) accumulation in the vascular wall, increased inflammation of the large arteries, dysfunction of the endothelial cells (ECs) and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), which may eventually lead to the formation of plaques. Xanthophylls, one of the main groups of carotenoids, have been proposed as preventive agents or adjunct therapies to prevent and slow the progression of atherosclerosis due to their cardioprotective properties. However, the underlying preventive mechanism of action of xanthophylls on the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis remains unclear, and clinical evidence of the effect of xanthophylls on atherosclerosis have not yet been summarized and critically reviewed. In this regard, we conducted a comprehensive literature search in four scientific databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect and Web of Science) and carefully analyzed the existing evidence to provide meaningful insights on the association between xanthophylls and atherosclerosis from various aspects. Based on the evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies, we explored several potential mechanisms, including antioxidant effect, anti-inflammatory effect, regulation of lipid metabolism, and modulation of ECs and VSMCs dysfunction, and we found that a clear picture of regulatory pathways of xanthophylls on atherosclerosis prevention and treatment is still lacking. In addition, epidemiological studies suggested the possible relationship among high dietary intake of xanthophylls, high plasma/serum xanthophylls and a reduced risk of atherosclerosis. Direct evidence from interventional studies investigating the effect of xanthophylls on atherosclerosis is very sparse, whilst indirect clinical evidence was only limited to astaxanthin and lutein. Therefore, well-designed long-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are highly recommended for future studies to investigate the effective dose of different xanthophylls on atherosclerosis prevention and their possible ancillary effect in conjunction with drug therapies on different stages of atherosclerosis.

內容: Bacillus velezensis is a Gram-positive and spore-forming bacterium. It has potent antimicrobial properties that can be used to promote plant growth and as a pesticide by inhibiting pathogens. B. velezensis has the capability to generate a diverse range of enzymes that have potential applications in various fields, such as enzyme production, fermented food, degradation of pollutants, and bioenergy. In addition, B. velezensis is a promising probiotic. It possesses high bile-salt tolerance characteristics and has a high success rate of colonization in the intestinal mucosa. Besides, the strain can also regulate gut microbiota constitute by increasing the number of beneficial microorganisms and decreasing the number of pathogens. Furthermore, based on its special properties, including high-yield protease production and high salt-tolerance, B. velezensis shows potential for use in marine protein fermentation, opening up new avenues for the development of novel food products and bioactive peptides. In addition, B. velezensis can shorten the fermentation time as well as improve the nutritional value and flavor of fermented food. The safety of B. velezensis for food production was evaluated. This review provides valuable insights into the potential uses and benefits of B. velezensis, particularly in the context of fermented foods.

內容: Hyperuricemia, a metabolic disorder related to uric acid metabolism dysregulation, has become a common metabolic disease worldwide, due to changes in lifestyle and dietary structure. In recent years, owing to their high activity and few adverse effects, food-derived active peptides used as functional foods against hyperuricemia have attracted increasing attention. This article aims to focus on the challenge associated with peptide-specific preparation methods development, functional components identification, action mechanism(s) clarification, and bioavailability improvement. The current review proposed recent advances in producing the food-derived peptides with high anti-hyperuricemia activity by protein source screening and matched enzymatic hydrolysis condition adjusting, increased the knowledge about strategies to search anti-hyperuricemia peptides with definite structure, and emphasized the necessity of combining computer-aided approaches and activity evaluations. In addition, novel action mechanism mediated by gut microbiota was discussed, providing different insights from classical mechanism. Moreover, considering that little attention was paid previously on the structure-activity relationships of anti-hyperuricemia peptides, we collected the sequences from published studies and make a preliminary summary about the structure-activity relationships, which in turn provided guides for enzymatic hydrolysis optimization and bioavailability improvement. Hopefully, this article could promote the development, application and commercialization of food-derived anti-hyperuricemia peptides in the future.

內容: 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.

內容: 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.

內容: Hericium erinaceus is a nutritious edible and medicinal fungi, rich in a variety of functional active ingredients, with various physiological functions such as antioxidation, anticancer, and enhancing immunity. It is also effective in protecting the digestive system and preventing neurodegenerative diseases. In this review paper, we summarize the sources, structures and efficacies of the main active components in H. erinaceus fruiting body, mycelium, and culture media, and update the latest research progress on their biological activities and the related molecular mechanisms. Based on this information, we provide detailed challenges in current research, industrialization and information on the active ingredients of H. erinaceus. Perspectives for future studies and new applications of H. erinaceus are proposed.

內容: The high intraspecies heterogeneity of Baciillus coagulans leads to significant phenotypic differences among different strains. Thus, 6 B. coagulans strains were tested in the present study using an irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) animal model to determine whether the IBS-alleviating effects of B. coagulans strains are strain-specific. The results of this study showed that the ingestion of B. coagulans GBI-30, 6086, and B. coagulans CCFM1041 significantly alleviated IBS symptoms in mice. In contrast, other B. coagulans strains showed no or limited alleviating effects on IBS symptoms. According to our experimental results, the two main common features of these strains were as follows: 1) The resistance of vegetative cells to bile salts, and 2) ability to synthesize specific lipids and secondary metabolites. Screening strains based on these two indicators may greatly reduce costs and provide a basis for mining new functional B. coagulans strains. Our results also suggest that administration of B. coagulans could significantly regulate microbiota dysbiosis in animal models. Moreover, the close relationships between the gut microbiota, gut microbiota metabolites, and IBS were further confirmed in this study.

內容: 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.

內容: Hyperoside and quercetin are similar in molecular structures. In this study, the antioxidant regulatory targets of hyperoside and quercetin are mainly in the nuclear factor (erythroid-2-derived)-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway predicted by network pharmacology. And the antioxidant effect and mechanism of hyperoside and quercetin were measured and compared in H2O2-induced HepG2 cells and Caenorhabditis elegans. The findings indicated that quercetin was more effective than hyperoside in reducing oxidative damage, which was proved by improved cell viability, decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, decreased cellular apoptosis, and alleviated mitochondrial damage. In addition, quercetin was more efficient than hyperoside in enhancing the expression of Nrf2-associated mRNAs, increasing the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and catalase (CAT), and reducing the cellular malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Quercetin was superior to hyperoside in prolonging the lifespan of worms, decreasing the accumulation of lipofuscin, inhibiting ROS production, and increasing the proportion of skn-1 in the nucleus. With the Nrf2 inhibitor ML385, we verified that quercetin and hyperoside primarily protected the cells against oxidative damage via the Nrf2 signalling pathway. Furthermore, molecular docking and dynamics simulations demonstrated that the quercetin- Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1) complex was more stable than the hyperoside-Keap1 complex. The stable structure of the complex might hinder the binding of Nrf2 and Keap1 to release Nrf2 and facilitate its entry into the nucleus to play an antioxidant role. Overall, quercetin had a better antioxidant than hyperoside.