Thermal treatment alternatives for enzymes inactivation in fruit juices: Recent breakthroughs and advancements.

Fruit juices (FJs) are frequently taken owing to their nutritious benefits, appealing flavour, and vibrant colour. The colours of the FJs are critical indicators of the qualitative features that influence the consumer's attention. Although FJs' intrinsic acidity serves as a barrier to bacterial growth, their enzymatic stability remains an issue for their shelf life. Inactivation of enzymes is critical during FJ processing, and selective inactivation is the primary focus of enzyme inactivation. The merchants, on the other hand, want the FJs to stay stable. The most prevalent technique of processing FJ is by conventional heat treatment, which degrades its nutritive value and appearance. The FJ processing industry has undergone a dramatic transformation from thermal treatments to nonthermal treatments (NTTs) during the past two decades to meet the requirements for microbiological and enzymatic stability. The manufacturers want safe and stable FJs, while buyers want high-quality FJs. According to the past investigation, NTTs have the potential to manufacture microbiologically safe and enzymatically stable FJs with low loss of bioactive components. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that different NTTs combined with or without other NTTs or mild heating as a hurdle technology increase the synergistic effect for microbiological safety and stability of FJs. Concise information about the variables that affect NTTs' action mode has also been addressed. Primary inactivates enzymes by modifying the protein structure and active site conformation. NTTs may increase enzyme activity depending on the nature of the enzyme contained in FJs, the applied pressure, pH, temperature, and treatment period. This is due to the release of membrane-bound enzymes as well as changes in protein structure and active sites that allow substrate interaction. Additionally, the combination of several NTTs as a hurdle technology, as well as temperature and treatment periods, resulted in increased enzyme inactivation in FJs. Therefore, a combination of thermal and non-thermal technologies is suggested to increase the effectiveness of the process as well as preserve the juice quality.

Effect of Squid Cartilage Chitosan Molecular Structure on the Properties of Its Monofilament as an Absorbable Surgical Suture.

Suture is an important part of surgery, and wounds closing after surgery remains a challenge for postoperative care. Currently, silk, linen fiber, and cotton are available in the market as non-absorbable suture biomaterials. So, there is an urgent need to develop a novel suture with advantageous characteristics compared to the ones available on the market. In present study, a series of ultra-high molecular weight chitosan with different DD and MV were prepared from squid cartilage by alkaline treatment and ultrasonic degradation. The corresponding chitosan monofilaments were prepared by a wet spinning process and were characterized as sutures. The effects of the DD and MV of chitosan on the properties of its monofilament were studied, including surface morphology, mechanical property, swelling ratio, ash content, in vitro enzymatic degradation, and in vitro cytotoxicity. According to the results, AS-85 was chosen to be the best suitable as an absorbable surgical suture, which was spun from squid cartilage chitosan with DD~85% and MV~1.2 × 106. The outcome of the present study might derive tremendous possibilities for the utilization of squid cartilage ß-chitin for biomedical applications.

Melatonin Promotes Neuroprotection of H2O2-induced Neural Stem Cells via lncRNA MEG3/miRNA-27a-3p/MAP2K4 axis.

Melatonin is crucial for protecting neural stem cells (NSCs) from reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, the mechanism underlying these processes is unclear. In this study, we first investigated the significantly upregulated lncRNA MEG3 biomarker in the H2O2-induced NSCs and control groups. Melatonin inhibited the expression of MEG3 by methylation. MEG3 overexpression reversed the positive effects of melatonin on NSCs against H2O2. Furthermore, MEG3 reduced the expression levels of its targeted miRNA-27a-3p, which could be considered a neuroprotective effect. In addition, the elevated miRNA-27a-3p decreased JNK phosphorylation by targeting MAP2K4. Overexpression of MAP2K4 suppressed the neuroprotective effects of miRNA-27a-3p. Therefore, melatonin appeared to protect NSCs from H2O2-induced ROS by modification of the MEG3/miRNA-27a-3p/MAP2K4 axis.

Exosomes derived from miRNA-210 overexpressing bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells protect lipopolysaccharide induced chondrocytes injury via the NF-κB pathway.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs)-derived exosomes (Exos) have anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic functions. miRNA-210 has also been confirmed to play a role in inhibiting proinflammatory cytokines. Herein, we aimed to explore the effects of Exos derived from miRNA-210-overexpressing BMSCs (BMSCs-210-Exos) and the mechanisms by which they provide protection to chondrocytes from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced injury. BMSCs were transfected with or without miRNA-210. Exos substantially improved the proliferation of chondrocytes and inhibited LPS-induced cell apoptosis. Furthermore, BMSCs-210-Exos promoted the proliferation of chondrocytes and prevented LPS-induced cell apoptosis better than BMSCs-Exos not overexpressing miRNA-210. In addition, tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 21 (Tnfrsf21) expression was inhibited and the NF-κB pathway was attenuated by both BMSCs-Exos and BMSCs-210-Exos during LPS-induced chondrocyte injury. Collectively, these results suggest that BMSCs-210-Exos enhance the protection of chondrocytes from LPS-induced injury via the NF-κB pathway.

Erratum: Association of 3 Common Polymorphisms of IL-27 Gene with Susceptibility to Cancer in Chinese People: Evidence from an Updated Meta-Analysis of 27 Studies.

The authors informed the journal that an error occurred in their manuscript.Figure 3C was mistakenly merged by the authors.The new version of the Figure 3C is as below.Reference:1. Meng Zhang, Xiuxiu Tan, Junjie Huang, Zekai Ke, Yukun Ge, Hu Xiong, Wei Lu, Lu Fang, Zhiming Cai, Song Wu: Association of 3 Common Polymorphisms of IL-27 Gene with Susceptibility to Cancer in Chinese: Evidence From an Updated Meta-Analysis of 27 Studies. Med Sci Monit 2015; 21: 2505-2513. DOI: 10.12659/MSM.895032.

Stem-Cell Derived Exosomes for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis(OA) is a common degenerative orthopedic disease with multiple pathologic changes in joints affecting large populations worldwide. No treatment can reverse the progress of OA. Since exosomes were first reported in 1983, researches have been conducted to explore the mechanisms and therapeutic potential of exosomes in treating OA. Exosomes derived from Mesenchymal stem cells have attracted increasing attention in tackling the disease. This article summarizes the current advances and challenges in exosomes for OA, which may providea reference for further research.

Association of 3 Common Polymorphisms of IL-27 Gene with Susceptibility to Cancer in Chinese: Evidence From an Updated Meta-Analysis of 27 Studies.

BACKGROUND: Many epidemiology studies have indicated that several functional polymorphisms of the IL-27 gene may contribute to individual susceptibility to cancer. Nevertheless, the data arising from these studies were inconclusive. Therefore, we conducted the current meta-analysis aiming to elucidate the effects of IL-27 polymorphisms (rs153109, rs17855750, and rs181206) on cancer susceptibility. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We searched the CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure), Wanfang database, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for all eligible publications. We used odds ratios (ORs) corresponding with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by using the random/fixed-effects model to evaluate the association. Finally, a total of 12 publications, including 27 case-control studies comprising of 7570 patients and 9839 controls, were enrolled in our meta-analysis. RESULTS: Our work demonstrates that IL-27 rs17855750 polymorphism is significantly associated with cancer susceptibility, particularly for bladder cancer. However, no association between IL-27 rs153109 and rs181206 polymorphisms and cancer susceptibility was identified. When a stratification analysis was performed by cancer type, we identified an increased susceptibility of bladder cancer in rs153109 polymorphism. Moreover, in the stratification analysis by genotyping method, we identified an increased susceptibility for PCR-RFLP group in rs17855750 polymorphism, whereas a decreased susceptibility was identified in rs153109 polymorphism. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that IL-27 rs17855750 polymorphism is significantly associated with increased susceptibility to cancer in Chinese.

[Cloning and expression of triosephosphate isomerase gene of Boophilus microplus].

Total RNA was extracted from adult Boophilus microplus. RT-PCR was used to amplify the gene and the fragment was subcloned into the expression vector pET-28a. The cloned gene was expressed in E. coli Rosseta (DE3), induced by IPTG, and identified by SDS-PAGE. The results showed that the triosephosphate isomerase (tim) gene of B. microplus has 750bp and encodes 249 amino acids (GenBank No. JX112888). The cloned tim gene shares 99% homology with that in tick embryos. The relative molecular weight (M(r)) of the expressed recombinant protein is about 27 000.