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Instrumentation Techniques and Analyses of Bioactive Compounds in Different Dried Fruit Products
No full textIt is well known that the unit operation of drying is a highly energy-intensive operation encountered in diverse industrial sectors ranging from agricultural processing, to ceramics, chemicals, mineral processing, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, coal polymer, food, and forest products industries, as well as waste management. Drying also determines the quality of the final dried products. Meeting the need to make drying technologies sustainable and cost-effective via the application of modern scientific techniques is the goal of academic as well as industrial R&D activities around the world.
Drying is a truly multi- and interdisciplinary area. Over the last four decades, the scientific and technical literature on drying have seen exponential growth. The continuously rising interest in this field is also evident from the success of numerous international conferences devoted to drying science and technology.
The establishment of this new series of books, entitled Advances in Drying Science and Technology, is designed to provide authoritative and critical reviews and monographs focusing on current developments as well as future needs. It is expected that books in this series will be valuable to academic researchers as well as industry personnel involved in any aspect of drying and dewatering.
The series will also encompass themes and topics closely associated with drying operations, e.g., mechanical dewatering, energy savings in drying, environmental aspects, life-cycle analysis, techno-economics of drying, electro-technologies, control and safety aspects, and so on
A Study of Bioactivities and Composition of a Cocktail of Supernatants Derived from Lactic Acid Bacteria for Potential Food Applications
Get PDFGrowing interests in replacing conventional preservatives and antibiotics in food and pharmaceutical industries have driven the exploration of bacterial metabolites, especially those from strains with generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status, such
as lactic acid bacteria (LAB). In this study, a supernatant cocktail derived from multiple LAB strains was prepared and its bioactivities—antimicrobial, antibiofilm, antioxidant, cytotoxicity, and stability—were thoroughly investigated. The cocktail’s main components were identified using thermal and protease treatments, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC–MS), and flame ionization detection (GC-FID). The results demonstrated that the supernatant cocktail had a broad
inhibition spectrum and was effective against food-related bacterial indicators with the highest activity observed on Bacillus cereus ATCC9634 (inhibition zone sizes 12.33 mm) and the lowest on Enterococcus faecium DSM 13590 (3.31 mm). It showed dose- and time-dependent delaying effects on the growth of tested fungi. Regarding the antibiofilm activity, it was more effective in preventing biofilm formation (40% biofilm mass reduction) than in degrading preformed biofilm (20% reduction). Additionally, the cocktail showed antioxidant capacity of 10.1 ± 0.3 g Trolox equivalent (TE)/kg and dose-dependent cytotoxicity on HEK-293 and HT-29 cell lines. The main bioactive compounds in this cocktail are organic acids (particularly acetic acid), volatiles, and bacteriocin-like compounds. The antimicrobial capacity of this supernatant cocktail was highly
reproducible across different fermentation batches, and it remained highly stable at 4 °C. Overall, these findings provided novel insights into the functional potentials of LAB metabolites, broadening their application as customizable biopreservatives for food and pharmaceutical industry
Evaluation of polygenic risk scores for hormones and receptors levels in patients with vestibulodynia: a case-control study
No full textBackground: Vulvodynia is a multifactorial disease affecting 7%-16% of reproductive-aged women in general population; however, little is still known about the genetics underlying this complex disease. Aim: To compare polygenic risk scores for hormones and receptors levels in a case-control study to investigate their role in vulvodynia and their correlation with clinical phenotypes. Methods: Our case-control study included patients with vestibulodynia (VBD) and healthy women. All participants underwent a vestibular cotton swab test and the assessment of their: pelvic floor, vestibular trophism, ultrasound vestibular mucosa thickness, and current perception threshold levels (Neurometer CPT device). Shallow whole genome sequencing and polygenic risk score calculations were performed. Linear regression models were applied to predict whether genomic predisposition varied significantly between cases and controls, and to investigate the relationship of polygenic risk scores with clinical endophenotypes. Outcomes: The genomic predisposition to hormones and receptors levels, together with clinical endophenotypes, can support VBD diagnosis and personalized treatment of related pain condition. Results: Thirty women with VBD and 30 controls were recruited. Significant differences between cases and controls were observed for body mass index, vestibular mucosa thickness, vestibular trophic health, pelvic floor hypertone and pain sensitivity (P < .05). Cases showed a genomic predisposition to higher levels of membrane-associated progesterone receptor component 1 compared to controls (P < .05). When considering the clinical endophenotypes, cases showed significant correlations between their polygenic risk scores with several clinical measures: predicted genomic levels of testosterone and estrogen receptor and the vestibular mucosa thickness values (estimates: 9.74E-09 and 9.16E-08, respectively; P < .05); predicted genomic levels of prolactin and Neurometer data at 250 Hz (-2.15E-07; P < .05); predicted genomic levels of prolactin, membrane-associated progesterone receptor component 2 and mineralocorticoid receptor and Neurometer data at 5 Hz (-3.75E-07, -3.43E-07 and -3.06E-07, respectively; P < .05). Clinical Implications: Introduction of polygenic risk scores evaluation in clinical practice can assist early diagnosis and personalized therapeutic treatment of VBD. Strengths and Limitations: Polygenic risk scores and clinical data allowed the identification of disease endophenotypes and highlighted the possibility of a personalized therapeutic approach. As limitations, these data should be confirmed on a larger cohort and polygenic risk score calculation should be adapted to ancestries other than European. Conclusion: Cases showed significant differences compared to controls on both clinical and genetic data and specific endophenotypes necessary to classify disease development and treatment were identified
Chemical modification for improving drug-like molecular properties of climacostol, a natural resorcinolic lipid
No full textSmall organic molecules are compounds that are manufactured through chemical synthesis. One of the key advantages of small molecules is that they have a low molecular weight and simple chemical structures. This allows more predictability to their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, which means that dosing is simpler. To use small molecules as a useful tool to address human health issues, the collaboration between disciplines, especially chemistry and biology, is essential. In recent years in our laboratories, we have demonstrated that climacostol, a 5-alkenyl resorcinolic produced by eukaryotic microorganisms as secondary metabolite and obtained by our synthetic strategy too, it shows important biological and pharmacological activities. These ones are highly dependent on the 5-alkenyl chain, and chemical modifications to the resorcinolic moiety can be exploited to achieve higher toxicity against pathogen microbes and protists than climacostol. In this study, we have designed and made a synthetic strategy for a new analogue of climacostol (AN3), and evaluated how the new hydroxyl group at position four in the aromatic ring influences its biological effects on prokaryotic and freeliving protists and on non-target cells/organisms, especially with regard to cytotoxic properties
Eco-friendly zinc nanoparticles biosynthesized by Lactobacillus casei as alternative anticoccidial agent ameliorate Eimeria tenella infection in broiler chickens: Impact on oxidative stress, intestinal health, growth performance, and gut microbiota
Get PDFCoccidiosis, a parasitic infection caused by Eimeria species poses significant challenges to poultry farms worldwide.
Despite extensive control efforts, the disease continues to impact poultry health and productivity. Recently,
green-synthesized nanoparticles have emerged as a promising area in nanotechnology for combating infections.
This study evaluates the potential of Lactobacillus casei EE12-mediated zinc nanoparticles (Lc-ZnNPs) as an
alternative anticoccidial agent in Eimeria tenella-infected broiler chickens and assesses their effects on growth
performance, oxidative status, immunity, gut microbiota, and inflammatory responses. Zinc nanoparticles
fabricated by the Lactobacillus casei EE12 supernatant were spherical, 41 nm, -24.4 mV charged, and surrounded
with active groups. A total of 360 broiler chickens were equally divided into 6 groups: C) the control received
basal diet; T1-T3) received basal diet supported with Lc-ZnNPs at different concentrations (25, 50, and 75 mg/kg
diet); T4) E. tenella-infected group were infected orally through a stomach tube, with 5 × 104 sporulated oocysts
of Eimeria tenella, and T5) E. tenella-infected broilers supplemented with Lc-ZnNPs (75 mg/kg diet). Adding Lc-
ZnNPs to the broiler diet significantly improved growth performance markers, including body weight gain
(BWG), feed intake (FI) & feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared to the control and infected groups. The Eimeriainfected
broilers showed higher levels of AST, ALT, uric acid, total cholesterol, MDA, & LDL. Meanwhile, the
addition of Lc-ZnNPs (75 mg/kg) mitigated the oxidative stress by lowering MDA and enhancing the activity of
SOD, CAT, & GPx besides the immunity markers. Also, downregulating the intestinal, hepatic, & kidney
proinflammatory markers (Mucin-1, OCCU & interleukin-6, & IL-1β) and proapoptotic (Bcl-2-associated protein x
& Casp-3) markers. Lc-ZnNPs significantly (P < 0.05) reduced oocyst per gram (OPG) by 67 % and lesion score,
recovering the typical structure of intestines. The E. tenella-infected broilers showed higher total bacterial count
(TBC), total yeasts and molds count (TYMC), and Salmonella count; meanwhile, the Lc-ZnNPs-treated birds in T5
significantly (P < 0.05) reduced these counts and enhanced the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) count compared to the
T4 and control group. In conclusion, the findings indicated that Lc-ZnNPs could be a safe and potent anticoccidial
agent against coccidiosis in broiler chickens
La tutela della salute nell’ordinamento internazionale ed eurounitario
No full textQuesto studio analizza il diritto alla salute sia a livello internazionale che nell’ordinamento dell’Unione Europea. In particolare, si esaminano le convenzioni universali e regionali che definiscono i contenuti e gli obblighi degli Stati, oltre al ruolo delle organizzazioni internazionali come l’Organizzazione mondiale della sanità e altre enti coinvolti nel One Health Approach. Successivamente, si approfondiscono le competenze dell’UE nella tutela della salute, i programmi europei dedicati, le buone pratiche adottate e la normativa sulla assistenza sanitaria transfrontaliera, con particolare attenzione alla Direttiva 2011/24/UE
Well-Preserved Urinary Bladder Anatomy in Rats After Minimally Invasive Surgery
No full textBackground: The setup of experimental protocols able to preserve the anatomical integrity also in terms of organ microarchitecture is mandatory to ensure result translatability.
Also, the maintenance of structural integrity perfectly aligns with the refinement implementation aiming to reduce procedure severity, a key issue in animal studies deemed compulsory from both ethical and legal standpoints. Here we report a detailed description of all peri-operative and post-operative care and clinical evaluation in a surgical rat model to test the efficacy of a catheter functionalized by a peptide coating with antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties, whose efficacy was previously tested in vitro. Methods: We used male and female adult Fischer 344 rats (tot n = 44, n = 22 each sex), which were divided into
four experimental groups. Each animal underwent refined surgery for the implantation of a functionalized or standard catheter, depending on the group, and was observed for 7 and
14 days. The surgical refinement strategy was based on the placement of the catheter into the bladder lumen rather than in the urethra. Still in the refinement perspective, ultrasound
examination of the bladder was conducted to confirm the in situ position of the medical device at an intermediate time point, 4 or 10 days post-surgery depending on the group, while, at the same time, but also at days 0, 7, or 14 post-surgery, an ultrasound-guided cystocentesis was performed to collect sterile urine. The imaging approach was used in place of metabolic cages to minimize distress to the animals and to ensure reliable and unbiased scientific outcomes. Hematological and biochemical parameters were monitored along the preclinical trial; namely, blood sampling was performed at the beginning
(day 0) and at the end of the trial (day 7 or 14 post-surgery depending on the group). Results: Clinical scores and biochemical analyses of all animals did not reveal signs of
distress or disease. At the endpoints, histological analyses of urinary bladder displayed a well-preserved anatomical structure of the organ without significant signs of inflammatory
infiltration into the urothelium. Conclusions: Our model represents a refined strategy to achieve the scientific goals required by the preclinical setting related to catheter-associated
urinary tract infections. In particular, it ensures the preservation of bladder morphology and urothelium microarchitecture, maintaining an adequate level of animal health and
welfare while monitoring the onset of urinary tract infections through the sterile collection of urine in long-lasting experiments
Fish protein hydrolysates from rainbow trout processing in replacement of feed protein sources: Effects on growth performances, liver status and body composition of gilthead sea bream, Sparus aurata L., juveniles
Get PDFThe use of processing by-products may reduce pressure on fish stocks as well as diminish wastes and negative environmental impact. Different studies investigated fish byproducts used as alternative nutritional source to conventional feedstuffs. Fish protein hydrolysates (FPH), as a protein source derived from discards of rainbow trout processing, were included in feeds and effects were evaluated on productive performances, liver status, and body composition in gilthead sea bream, Sparus aurata L., juveniles. Three groups of 170 juveniles each (initial weight 37.8 ± 0.5 g), in triplicate indoor tanks of 2 m3 volume each, were fed including FPH in L1 (7.5 g/kg) and L2 (15 g/kg) feeds in replacement of fishmeal. LC diet was used as control having fish meal and soybean meal as main protein sources. At the end of the trial (85 days), satisfactory productive performances were obtained in all the groups with similar performances. The final mean weight ranged from 76.6 to 78.0 g. The two FPH diets exhibited high palatability equal to LC. Liver histology did not differ although fat accumulation was detected in all fish. Body composition and fatty acids were similar. FPH as substitute of protein source is suitable in the feeding of gilthead sea bream juveniles