Food authentication, current issues, analytical techniques, and future challenges: A comprehensive review.

Food authentication and contamination are significant concerns, especially for consumers with unique nutritional, cultural, lifestyle, and religious needs. Food authenticity involves identifying food contamination for many purposes, such as adherence to religious beliefs, safeguarding health, and consuming sanitary and organic food products. This review article examines the issues related to food authentication and food fraud in recent periods. Furthermore, the development and innovations in analytical techniques employed to authenticate various food products are comprehensively focused. Food products derived from animals are susceptible to deceptive practices, which can undermine customer confidence and pose potential health hazards due to the transmission of diseases from animals to humans. Therefore, it is necessary to employ suitable and robust analytical techniques for complex and high-risk animal-derived goods, in which molecular biomarker-based (genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) techniques are covered. Various analytical methods have been employed to ascertain the geographical provenance of food items that exhibit rapid response times, low cost, nondestructiveness, and condensability.

Phytochemical analysis and gastroprotective effect of Stellaria media (L.) Vill. methanolic extract on piroxicam-induced gastric ulcer in Wistar rats.

Stellaria media L. has traditionally been used to treat inflammatory and gastrointestinal ailments. This study aimed to phytochemically characterize the S. media extract and explore its anti-ulcer efficacy against piroxicam-induced stomach lesions in Wistar rats. Phytochemical analysis was performed and antioxidant capacity of extract was determined using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. In vivo, piroxicam (30mg/kg) was administered to induce gastric ulceration. Gastro protective effect of S. media extract was observed at 150, 300 and 450mg/kg, respectively. While omeprazole (20mg/kg) was used as a conventional anti-ulcer drug. After oral treatment for 14 days, stomach acidic secretions, ulcerogenic indices, hematological markers and oxidative stress parameters were assessed along with histological examination. The existence of polyphenol contents in S. media extract was confirmed in correlation to a marked DPPH inhibition (IC50 27.94µg/mL). S. media extract resulted in a dose-dependent elevation in gastric pH while a decrease in acid volume, acidity and ulceration. Also, S. media extract administration restored the impaired hematological markers (RBCs, Hb, WBCs and PLTs) and decreased oxidative stress by reducing oxidants (TOS and MDA) while raising antioxidants (TAC and CAT). Furthermore, gastric histological results corroborated the aforementioned findings. Conclusively, S. media could provide a promising protective effect against drug-induced gastric ulceration.

The identification of high potential archers based on fitness and motor ability variables: A Support Vector Machine approach.

Support Vector Machine (SVM) has been shown to be an effective learning algorithm for classification and prediction. However, the application of SVM for prediction and classification in specific sport has rarely been used to quantify/discriminate low and high-performance athletes. The present study classified and predicted high and low-potential archers from a set of fitness and motor ability variables trained on different SVMs kernel algorithms. 50 youth archers with the mean age and standard deviation of 17.0 ±â€¯0.6 years drawn from various archery programmes completed a six arrows shooting score test. Standard fitness and ability measurements namely hand grip, vertical jump, standing broad jump, static balance, upper muscle strength and the core muscle strength were also recorded. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis (HACA) was used to cluster the archers based on the performance variables tested. SVM models with linear, quadratic, cubic, fine RBF, medium RBF, as well as the coarse RBF kernel functions, were trained based on the measured performance variables. The HACA clustered the archers into high-potential archers (HPA) and low-potential archers (LPA), respectively. The linear, quadratic, cubic, as well as the medium RBF kernel functions models, demonstrated reasonably excellent classification accuracy of 97.5% and 2.5% error rate for the prediction of the HPA and the LPA. The findings of this investigation can be valuable to coaches and sports managers to recognise high potential athletes from a combination of the selected few measured fitness and motor ability performance variables examined which would consequently save cost, time and effort during talent identification programme.

Quantitative determination of deferiprone in human plasma by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography and its application to pharmacokinetic study.

Deferiprone (1, 2 dimethyl-3-hydroxypyrid-4-one) is considered to be the standard iron chelator. Pharmacokinetic studies of generic formulations are required in local condition before placed on the market. High performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was used for quantification of deferiprone in human plasma using UV/VIS detector. Chromatographic separation was carried out on C(18) column, with a mobile phase of methanol-buffer (18:82, v/v), pH 3.5, and caffeine was used as an internal standard. The calibration curve was linear over the range 0.25-10 µg/mL in human plasma (R(2) = 0.9994). After oral administration of deferiprone (500 mg) to human, the plasma concentration-time curve of deferiprone was conformed to two-compartment open model. The deferiprone plasma concentration showed a rapid absorption and average area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of deferiprone was 17.0 ± 1.23 h.µg/ml. Average absorption and elimination half-life values of deferiprone of 24 volunteers were 0.62 ± 0.12 and 2.65 ± 0.43 hours. This study confirms the rapid absorption of deferiprone in humans. AUC was similar to that previously reported but C(max) was slightly lower than that stated in the literature.

Demonstration of a role for alpha-synuclein as a functional microtubule-associated protein.

Alpha-synuclein is a major constituent of pathological intracellular inclusion bodies, a common feature of several neurodegenerative diseases. Two missense mutations in the alpha-synuclein gene have been identified in confirmed autosomal-dominant familial Parkinson's disease, which segregate with the illness. However, the physiological function of alpha-synuclein remains unknown. After biochemical investigations we have revealed tubulin to be an alpha-synuclein associated/binding protein. Here, we show that alpha-synuclein induces polymerization of purified tubulin into microtubules. Mutant forms of alpha-synuclein lose this potential. The binding site of alpha-synuclein to tubulin is identified, and co-localization of alpha-synuclein with microtubules is shown in cultured cells. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of microtubule-polymerizing activity of alpha-synuclein. Now we can see a striking resemblance between alpha-synuclein and tau: both have the same physiological function and pathological features, making abnormal structures in diseased brains known as synucleinopathies and tauopathies. The discovery of a physiological role for alpha-synuclein may provide a new dimension in researches into the mechanisms of alpha-synuclein-associated neurodegenerative diseases.

Copper chelation delays the onset of prion disease.

The prion protein (PrP) binds copper and under some conditions copper can facilitate its folding into a more protease resistant form. Hence, copper levels may influence the infectivity of the scrapie form of prion protein (PrPSc). To determine the feasibility of copper-targeted therapy for prion disease, we treated mice with a copper chelator, D-(-)-penicillamine (D-PEN), starting immediately following intraperitoneal scrapie inoculation. D-PEN delayed the onset of prion disease in the mice by about 11 days (p = 0.002), and reduced copper levels in brain by 29% (p < 0.01) and in blood by 22% (p = 0.03) compared with control animals. Levels of other metals were not significantly altered in the blood or brain. Modest correlation was observed between incubation period and levels of copper in brain (p = 0.08) or blood (p = 0.04), indicating that copper levels are only one of many factors that influence the rate of progression of prion disease. In vitro, copper dose-dependently enhanced the proteinase K resistance of the prion protein, and this effect was counteracted in a dose-dependent manner by co-incubation with D-PEN. Overall, these findings indicate that copper levels can influence the conformational state of PrP, thereby enhancing its infectivity, and this effect can be attenuated by chelator-based therapy.

Tubulin seeds alpha-synuclein fibril formation.

Increasing evidence suggests that alpha-synuclein is a common pathogenic molecule in several neurodegenerative diseases, particularly in Parkinson's disease. To understand alpha-synuclein pathology, we investigated molecules that interact with alpha-synuclein in human and rat brains and identified tubulin as an alpha-synuclein binding/associated protein. Tubulin co-localized with alpha-synuclein in Lewy bodies and other alpha-synuclein-positive pathological structures. Tubulin initiated and promoted alpha-synuclein fibril formation under physiological conditions in vitro. These findings suggest that an interaction between tubulin and alpha-synuclein might accelerate alpha-synuclein aggregation in diseased brains, leading to the formation of Lewy bodies.