Predictive modeling of biofilm flows, based on first principles, is used to quantify 2D protein crystallization on a ligand-bearing phospholipid film at the air–water interface.
Calvo, C; Hermida, R C; Ayala, D E; Lopez, J E; Dominguez, M J; Covelo, M; Fontao, M J; Soler, R; Mojon, A; Fernandez, J R Author Information
Plants have provided the basis of traditional medicine systems throughout the world for thousands of years and continue to yield molecules for new remedies. We analyzed studies published from 2009 to 2016 on the Annona species (Annonaceae), including A. coriacea , A. crassifolia , A. hypoglauca , A. muricata , A. squamosa , A. sylvatica , and A. vepretorum , as sources of potential antitumor agents. Here, we report and discuss the mechanisms of action and structure–activity relationships of the most active Annona constituents. Annonaceous acetogenins are one of the most promising classes of natural products, owing to their potential antitumor activity. However, their neurotoxicity should not be underestimated.
Mushrooms have long been used for medicinal and food purposes for over a thousand years, but a complete elucidation of the health-promoting properties of mushrooms through regulating gut microbiota has not yet been fully exploited. Mushrooms comprise a vast, and yet largely untapped, source of powerful new pharmaceutical substances. Mushrooms have been used in health care for treating simple and common diseases, like skin diseases and pandemic diseases like AIDS. This review is aimed at accumulating the health-promoting benefits of edible mushrooms through gut microbiota. Mushrooms are proven to possess anti-allergic, anti-cholesterol, anti-tumor, and anti-cancer properties. Mushrooms are rich in carbohydrates, like chitin, hemicellulose, β and α-glucans, mannans, xylans, and galactans, which make them the right choice for prebiotics. Mushrooms act as a prebiotics to stimulate the growth of gut microbiota, conferring health benefits to the host. In the present review, we have summarized the beneficial activities of various mushrooms on gut microbiota via the inhibition of exogenous pathogens and, thus, improving the host health.
PartitionTest test suite
Objectives: Independent studies have concluded that non-dipping and an elevated asleep blood pressure (BP) are relevant predictors of cardiovascular risk. The potential reduction in cardiovascular risk associated with increasing the dipping of the BP pattern has never been evaluated and is still a matter of debate. The MAPEC study was designed to investigate whether normalization of the circadian BP profile towards a more dipper pattern by increasing the sleep-time relative BP decline results in reduced cardiovascular risk. Methods: This prospective study investigated 3344 subjects (1718 men), 52.6 ± 14.5 years of age. At inclusion, 649 subjects were normotensive and 2695 were hypertensive. At baseline, BP was measured by ambulatory monitoring (ABPM) every 20-min from 07:00 to 23:00 h and every 30-min at night for 48 h. ABPM was scheduled yearly or more frequently (quarterly) if treatment adjustment was required to improve BP control. The Cox proportional-hazard model was used to estimate relative risks of cardiovascular events associated to changes in sleep-time relative BP decline and other ABPM parameters. Results: The median time of follow-up was 5.6 years. Based on either the single first or the last available ABPM profile from each subject, the sleep-time relative BP decline and the asleep BP mean were the best joint predictors of cardiovascular risk in a Cox proportional-hazard model adjusted for sex, age, diabetes, antihypertensive treatment, and clinic BP. When data were analyzed on the basis of changes in BP during follow-up, decreased cardiovascular risk was significantly associated with progressive increase in sleep-time relative systolic BP decline (P < 0.001). The increased event-free survival associated with normalizing the BP pattern was significant whether ambulatory BP level was at the normotensive or at the hypertensive range. Conclusions: The sleep-time relative BP decline is a prognostic marker of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, independent from 24 h BP mean. Most important, increasing this relative decline towards a more dipping pattern decreases cardiovascular risk at all BP levels, even within the normotensive range.
In recent years, a large number of sunscreens have emerged to protect our skin. Most of them are made up of simple or compound aromatic structures, which can pose a threat to marine ecosystems. In order to understand their effects on the marine environment, different ecotoxicological bioassays were carried out using planktonic organisms from three phyla and two different trophic levels: larvae of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, the copepod Acartia tonsa, and the microalga Tisochrysis lutea. The aim of these tests was to expose these organisms to leachates from eight sunscreen formulations. All of them showed a great variability in toxicity on the different plankton organisms. The highest toxicity level was found for cream number 4 when tested on sea urchin, exhibiting an EC50 = 122.4 mg/L. The toxicity of the UV filter 2-phenyl-5-benzimidazolesulfonic acid, exclusively present in that cream, was evaluated in sea urchin, where an EC10 = 699.6 mg/L was obtained under light exposure. According to our results, all tested creams become nontoxic to plankton upon 30,000-fold dilution in seawater; thus, only local effects are expected. This study highlights the need to understand the toxic effects generated by solar protection products, as well as their ingredients, on marine organisms.
