Publications

Abstract Apigenin (4′,5,7‐trihydroxyflavone) is a natural flavone reported to present anti‐diabetic and anti‐oxidative bioactivities. The effect of apigenin to mitigate endothelial dysfunction in diabetes remains to be investigated. In the present study, the vaso‐protective effect of apigenin as well as its underlying action mechanisms was investigated using in vitro‐ and in vivo‐based assays. Aortas were detached from C57BL/6J mice for ex vivo treatment, and primary rat aortic endothelial cells (RAECs) were cultured and further stimulated using high glucose (HG) with or without apigenin. In‐vivo diabetic model was established by feeding male C57BL/6J mice with a high‐fat diet (60% kcal% fat) for a total of 14 weeks, whereas the treatment group was orally administered apigenin (25 mg/kg/day) during the last 4 weeks. Exposure to HG (30 mM, 48 h) impaired acetylcholine‐induced endothelium‐dependent relaxation (EDR) in mouse aortas and induced oxidative stress with the downregulation of adenosine 5'‐monophosphate (AMP)‐activated protein kinase (AMPK)/phosphatidyl inositol 3‐kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt)/endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase 1 (HO‐1) signaling pathways in aortas and RAECs. These impairments were reversed by apigenin treatments. However, the vaso‐protective effects of apigenin were abolished by Compound C (AMPK inhibitor) and wortmannin (PI3K inhibitor). Chronic oral administration with apigenin ameliorated EDR and reduced oxidative stress in the aortas of high‐fat diet (HFD)‐induced obese and diabetic mice. In conclusion, this study revealed that apigenin improved endothelial function and suppressed oxidative stress in the vasculature in diabetes through the activation of AMPK/PI3K/Akt/eNOS and Nrf2/HO‐1 pathways, suggesting its therapeutic potential as a natural dietary flavonoid against vascular diseases associated with diabetes.

In this study, we investigated whether the inhibition of endogenous phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and diallyl disulfide (DADS)-induced phosphorylation of MAPKs with MAPK specific inhibitors, SB203580 and U0126 (for phospho-p38 and phospho-p42/p44, respectively), can induce or enhance apoptosis in human CNE2 nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. Our data demonstrate that MAPK inhibitors decrease the viability of CNE2 cells, stimulate typical apoptotic morphologic changes, and enhance DADS-induced apoptosis. The present findings indicate that phosphorylation of MAPKs plays an important cytoprotective role in CNE2 cell apoptosis and the DADS-induced apoptotic process.

Wild edible plants (WEP) have been consumed since ancient times. A review of ten WEPs from the northwest region of Spain has been carried out on their bioactive properties, their use and their incorporation into the diet as a new food.

Abstract Multiregional bulk sequencing data is necessary to characterize intratumor genetic heterogeneity. Novel somatic variant calling approaches aim to address the particular characteristics of multiregional data, but it remains unclear to which extent they improve compared to single-sample strategies. Here we compared the performance of 16 single-nucleotide variant calling approaches on multiregional sequencing data under different scenarios with in-silico and real sequencing reads, including varying sequencing coverage and increasing levels of spatial clonal admixture. Under the conditions simulated, methods that use information across multiple samples do not necessarily perform better than some of the standard calling methods that work sample by sample. Nonetheless, our results indicate that under difficult conditions, Mutect2 in multisample mode, in combination with a correction step, seems to perform best. Our analysis provides data-driven guidance for users and developers of somatic variant calling tools.

This work describes the control and manipulation of the optical properties of multiresponsive organic/inorganic hybrid colloids, which consist of thermo-responsive poly-(NIPAM-co-allylacetic acid) microgel cores and gold nanorods assembled on their surface. These composites are multifunctional, in the sense that they combine the interesting optical properties of the rod-shaped gold particles--exhibiting two well-differentiated plasmon modes--with the sensitivity of the copolymer microgel toward external stimuli, such as temperature or solution pH. It is shown that the collapse of the microgel core, induced by changes in either temperature or pH, enhances the electronic interactions between the gold nanorods on the gel surface, as a result of the subsequent increase of the packing density arising from the surface decrease of the collapsed microgel. Above a certain nanorod density, such interactions lead to remarkable red-shifts of the longitudinal plasmon resonance.

Changing the shape of things to come! [email protected] core–shell nanostructures with tailored morphology, ranging from nanorods all the way to spheres, through octahedrons (see picture), can be easily fabricated at room temperature through the selective reduction of Ag+ ions onto the surface of Au nanorods by using hydroquinone as a reducing agent. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as "Supporting Information". Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

Nowadays, numerous diseases still have no cure or there is no effective treatment against them (some cancers, antibiotics-resistant bacterial infections, viruses, among others). To find new treatments for these diseases it is necessary to search for compounds with associated bioactivities of interest. Secondary metabolites from natural sources, such as plants, constitute one of the most relevant pools of molecules with pharmacological potential. In this sense, extracts derived from different species belonging to Amaranthaceae family show relevant effectiveness against several cancer cell lines and pathogenic bacteria under in vitro conditions. In this study, the chemical and nutritional composition of three Amaranthaceae species (Alternanthera sessilis (L.) R.Br. ex Dc, Dicliptera chinensis (L.) Juss., and Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin & Clemants), largely used in Asiatic traditional medicine for the treatment of several diseases, due to its antimicrobial, wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, were studied. Results showed a differential flavonoid content in the three species: A. sessilis and D. ambrosioides showed similar flavonoid contents (15.1 ± 0.6 mg/g extract and 15.1 ± 0.1 mg/g extract, respectively), followed by D. chinensis (11.4 ± 0.1 mg/g extract); however, the principal flavonoids identified in A. sessilis were luteolin derivatives (luteolin-8-C-(rhamnosyl)ketodeoxihexoside and luteolin-6-C-glucoside), in the case of D. ambrosioides were isorhamnetin derivatives (mostly, isorhamnetin-3-O-rutinoside and isorhamnetin-3-O-neohesperidoside), and in D. chinensis were apigenin derivatives (apigenin-6-C-glucoside-8-C-arabinoside and apigenin-2-O-xyloside-8-C-hexoside). These flavonoids have been reported to have significant bioactive properties, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative and antioxidant activity in previous studies [1]. On the other hand, the nutritional results showed a high protein content in all the species studied (16.9-13.9 ± 0.1 g/100g dw) and they also revealed the presence of organic acids, such as oxalic and succinic acid. Therefore, the bioactive compounds found in the extracts from Amaranthaceae species could be responsible for the bioactivities attributed to these plants, together with their protein and organic acid content, which could be highly valuable for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic industries. References Williamson, G.; Kay, C.D.; Crozier, A. The Bioavailability, Transport, and Bioactivity of Dietary Flavonoids: A Review from a Historical Perspective. Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Food Saf. 2018, 17, 1054–1112, doi:10.1111/1541-4337.12351. Acknowledgments The research leading to these results was supported by MICINN supporting the Ramon y Cajal grant for M.A. Prieto (RYC-2017-22891); by University of Vigo for supporting the predoctoral grant of M. Carpena (Uvigo-00VI 131H 6410211); by EcoChestnut Project (Erasmus+ KA202) that supports the work of B. Nunez-Estevez, by Grupos de Referencia Competitiva de la Xunta that supports the work of M. Barral-Martinez (GRUPO AA1-GRC 2018) and by the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 888003 UP4HEALTH Project (H2020-BBI-JTI-2019) that supports the work of P. Otero and P. Garcia-Perez. The research leading to these results was funded by Xunta de Galicia supporting the program EXCELENCIA-ED431F 2020/12; to Ibero-American Program on Science and Technology (CYTED—AQUA-CIBUS, P317RT0003). The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and the Bio Based Industries Consortium. The project SYSTEMIC Knowledge hub on Nutrition and Food Security, has received funding from national research funding parties in Belgium (FWO), France (INRA), Germany (BLE), Italy (MIPAAF), Latvia (IZM), Norway (RCN), Portugal (FCT), and Spain (AEI) in a joint action of JPI HDHL, JPI-OCEANS and FACCE-JPI launched in 2019 under the ERA-NET ERA-HDHL (n° 696295). The authors are also gratefull to FCT, Portugal for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to the CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020); and L. Barros and R. Calhelha thank the national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional and individual scientific employment program-contract for their contracts.

The fatty-acid profiles of five main commercial pistachio cultivars, including Ahmad-Aghaei, Akbari, Chrok, Kalle-Ghouchi and Ohadi, were determined by gas chromatography: palmitic (C16:0), palmitoleic (C16:1), stearic (C18:0), oleic (C18:1), linoleic (C18:2), linolenic (C18:3) arachidic (C20:0) and gondoic (C20:1) acid. Based on the oleic to linoleic acid (O/L) ratio, a quality index was determined for these five cultivars: Ohadi (2.40) < Ahmad-Aghaei (2.60) < Kale-Ghouchi (2.94) < Chrok (3.05) < Akbari (3.66). Principal component analysis (PCA) of the fatty-acid data yielded three significant PCs, which together account for 80.0% of the total variance in the data set. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model evaluated with cross validation correctly classified almost all samples: the average percent accuracy for the prediction set was 98.0%. The high predictive power for the prediction set shows the ability to indicate the cultivar of an unknown sample based on its fatty-acid chromatographic fingerprint.