Antioxidant properties and changes in vitro digestion of the fermented kiwifruit extract prepared by lactic acid bacteria and yeasts.

The health benefits of fermented fruits have attracted consumers' attention. High levels of antioxidant ability in the fermented kiwifruit extract were found at the early stage of fermentation. The co-fermention with Lactobacillus paracasei LG0260 and Kluyveromyces marxianus J2853 showed the highest ABTS radical scavenging ability (ABTS⋅+-SA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. Also, the typical antioxidant components of SOD activity, vitamin C concentration and total phenol content were highly correlated with ABTS⋅+-SA. Obviously, polyphenols in the fermented kiwifruit extract evolved into monophenols during fermentation. Compared to undigested samples, the activity of ABTS⋅+-SA and reducing power capacity (RP-CA) after the final intestinal digestion decreased and ranged 387.44-531.89 VCµg/mL, 650.95-981.63 VCµg/mL, respectively (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, SOD activity on the 10th day of fermentation were still remained 222.82 U/mL, 206.98 U/mL and 217.23 U/mL, respectively. These results suggested that the fermented kiwifruit extract could exhibit antioxidant activity through tolerance to the digestive environment.

Finger exercise could reduce painfulness and radial artery complications related to coronary artery angiography.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate if applying a finger exercise during trans-radial coronary artery angiography (CAG) could help to reduce a patient's painfulness and evaluate its protective effects against radial artery complications. METHODS: This is a prospective, controlled, single-center trial. Overall, 390 patients who underwent coronary angiography through radial path in our hospital during 2022 were randomized 1 : 1 to the following two groups: test group: finger exercise in addition to routine perioperative care; control group: routine care. The success rate of radial puncture, the incidence of procedural radial artery dissection (RAD) and radial artery spasm (RAS), change of wrist circumference, pain degree related to the operation, occurrence of access site hemorrhagic complications, hemostasis time and postprocedure occurrence of radial artery occlusion (RAO) before discharge were recorded and compared between two groups. RESULTS: Compared to the control group, the test group had a higher success rate of radial puncture, lower incidence of RAS, RAD and RAO, slighter swelling of wrist and patients who felt less pain in the test group. There was no difference in prolonged hemostasis time or hemorrhagic complications between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Finger exercise could help to make a patient more comfortable and reduce radial artery complications related to CAG.

Early warning prevention and control strategies to reduce perioperative venous thromboembolism in patients with gastrointestinal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major cause of unexpected and perioperative in-hospital deaths. It is characterized by high morbidity, high mortality, high misdiagnosis rate, and high missed diagnosis rates. VTE is a common postoperative complication in cancer patients. VTE is preventable, and early identification of risk factors leading to VTE and appropriate early preventive actions can reduce its occurrence and mortality. Presently, there is no uniform standard for the prevention and control of VTE in clinical practice, and hospitals in China lack mature and effective protocols for the assessment, prevention, and treatment of VTE. AIM: To explore whether an early warning program could influence the occurrence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) postoperatively. METHODS: This is a comparative retrospective cohort study, which enrolled patients who underwent laparotomic or laparoscopic gastrointestinal tumor resection for gastrointestinal cancer between January 2016 and December 2019. Patients were divided into a control group and an early warning group depending on whether or not the early warning program was implemented. A venous thromboembolism prevention and control team was established. The outcomes included the occurrence of DVT, the correct rate of VTE assessment, the coagulation indicators, and the mastery of VTE knowledge by the nurses. RESULTS: A total of 264 patients were included in this study, with 128 patients in the control group and 136 patients in the early warning group. The occurrence rate of DVT in the early warning group was 6.6% (9/136), compared with 14.1% (18/128) in the control group (P < 0.05). The correct rates of VTE risk assessment by the nurses and standard implementation rate of VTE preventive measures were 86.8% vs 65.6% and 80.2% vs 57.8% in early warning and control groups, respectively (all P < 0.001). The independent factors associated with postoperative DVT occurrence were age (OR = 1.083, 95%CI: 1.070-3.265, P = 0.032), Hyperlipidemia (OR = 1.127, 95%CI: 1.139-2.564, P = 0.042), preoperative high VTE risk (OR = 2.131, 95%CI: 1.085-5.178, P = 0.001), time of operation (OR = 2.268, 95%CI: 2.005-5.546, P = 0.026) and not adoption of early warning prevention (OR = 3.747, 95%CI: 1.523-6.956, P = 0.017). CONCLUSION: The early warning strategy was independently associated with the decreasing occurrence of VTE, and it might be suitable for protection from VTE in patients undergoing gastrointestinal cancer surgery.

New insights into the anti- hepatoma mechanism of triple-helix ß- glucan by metabolomics profiling.

Natural polysaccharide as the third abundant biomacromolecule has attracted considerable attentions due to their superior anti-tumor activities. However, the anti-tumor mechanism of polysaccharides has not been completely understood. Herein, the anti-tumor effects of black fungus polysaccharide (BFP), a typical ß-glucan was comprehensively investigated, and the anti-tumor mechanism was obtained from metabolomics profiling. The in vitro results demonstrate that BFP inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of hepatoma carcinoma cells (HCC) through inducing the cell apoptosis and arresting the cell cycle at S phase without direct cytotoxicity. The hepatoma-bearing nude mice experiments further demonstrate that BFP could significantly inhibit the growth without system toxicity in vivo. Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics unveils that BFP significantly disturbed the multiple metabolic pathways, leading to the inhibition of tumor cells proliferation by promoting DNA damage, attenuating DNA damage repair, and inhibiting DNA synthesis. This study provides new insights for pharmacological research and clinical practice of polysaccharides.

Pt(IV) Prodrugs Designed to Embed in Nanotubes of a Polysaccharide for Drug Delivery.

Cisplatin exhibits a sufficient killing effect on cancer cells; however, it damages normal cells simultaneously. Herein, we developed a prodrug delivery system based on branched ß-(1→3)-d-glucan. This natural biomacromolecule-based polysaccharide nanotube was modified with cisplatin embedded in the hollow cavity (BFCP), showing high anticancer activity and low toxicity in vitro. It is a broad-prospect system, which is based on biocompatible nanomaterials loaded with Pt(IV) prodrugs for cancer cell absorption with subsequent release in tumors by utilizing the intracellular reducibility. BFCP chains adopted a nanotube conformation in water, observed by transmission electron microscopy. In comparison to cisplatin, the Pt(IV) prodrugs not only displayed better antitumor properties but also had significant tumor targeting. A potent natural complex conjugated with redox-responsive platinum prodrugs is a significantly efficient tumor drug demonstrated in vitro and in vivo.

Characteristics on the oxidation stability of infant formula powder with different ingredients during storage.

Infant formula powder is prone to oxidation reaction during storage, which leads to the decrease of milk powder quality. The whole milk powder (WMP) was formulated, and the characteristics of infant formula powder were tracked during storage. The addition of metal ions, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and vitamins could reduce the peroxide value and increase the thiobarbituric acid value in the infant formula powder during the early stage of storage. When the samples were stored for 6 months, the free fat content of the base milk powder and the sample added with metal ions had high level (3.3%-3.6%). With adding vitamins, the content of free fat in the samples decreased first and then increased. The color value L of all the samples decreased during storage. Compared with WMP, the color value B of all the infant formula powder with different ingredients decreased. Levels of 2-heptanone and 2-nonaone indicated that the formation of the main methyl ketones in the infant formula powder with different ingredients decreased. The content of hexanal in the sample added metal ions was the highest. The type and intensity of free radicals changed with the formula components. The range of g value was 2.0043-2.0060 after 6 months of storage and 2.0017-2.1338 after 12 months of storage, respectively. The index of peroxide value and color value B were significantly related to the existence of free radicals in the infant formula powder with different ingredients.

Anti-leukemia activities of selenium nanoparticles embedded in nanotube consisted of triple-helix ß-d-glucan.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a difficult therapeutic hematological tumor. It is urgent to find a non-toxic natural drug to treat AML. Herein, the selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) embedded in nanotubes consisted of triple helix ß-(1, 3)-d-glucan (BFP) from the black fungus that were wrapped to form stable inclusion complex BFP-Se, which was self-assembled and exhibited high stability in water. In vitro, the BFP-Se significantly inhibited the proliferation of AML cells and increased the cytotoxicity on AML cells. On single-cell levels, the U937 cells were gradually swelled and lysed with BFP-Se treatment on optofluidics chips. Further, the blood and bone marrow analysis indicated the anti-leukemia effects of BFP-Se in vivo. Moreover, BFP-Se increased the total antioxidant capacity of AML cells and decreased the expression of c-Jun activation domain-binding protein 1 and thioredoxin 1. Our results suggest that this biocompatible polysaccharide nanotube containing Se nanoparticles would provide a novel strategy for AML therapy.

Chain conformation and biological activities of hyperbranched fucoidan derived from brown algae and its desulfated derivative.

A fucoidan derived from marine brown algae has great potential in biomedical filed. Herein, the fucoidan was successfully isolated and purified by using chitosan microspheres, resulting in the sulfate fucoidan (CF) with degree of sulfation (DS) of 0.94. CF was identified to be highly branched, consisting of fucose (77.4%) and galactose (13.9%), etc., supported by the results of GCMS and light scattering with the structure-sensitive parameter of 0.98 in 0.15 M aqueous NaNO3. The individual CF and its desulfated derivative chains adopted sphere-like conformation in water, observed by atomic force microscopy. CF exhibited higher antiangiogenesis than the desulfated one and strong antileukemia activities through inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing cell apoptosis via cell cycle arrest at G1 phase in vitro. This work provided important information that ester sulfate groups of polysaccharide played an important role in the enhancing of bioactivities of fucoidan, and put forward to a potential drug to treat acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) and tumors.

Construction of size-controllable gold nanoparticles immobilized on polysaccharide nanotubes by in situ one-pot synthesis.

A green method for in situ one-pot synthesis of size-controlled gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was provided in this work. In our findings, a ß-1,3-D-glucan, AF1, extracted from black fungus was used as a support of AuNPs. The AuNPs were dispersed in the AF1 aqueous solution without additional reducing and stabilizing or dispersing agents. The infrared spectrum (FT-IR), thermogravimetry (TG), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and atomic force microscope (AFM) results indicated that the AuNPs synthesized by AF1 were immobilized on the AF1 nanotubes with controllable shape and size of 5-45nm. The hydroxyl groups on AF1 nanotubes not only acted as reducing agents but also were able to stabilize AuNPs by the strong interaction between the surface Au atoms of AuNPs and oxygen atoms of AF1 nanotubes. The AuNPs exhibited a good catalytic activity for the rapid reduction from 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) by excess borohydride, further confirming the dispersion of AuNPs in water.