Publications

Heart and cerebrovascular diseases are collectively referred to as cardiovascular disease (CVD), which has the highest incidence and mortality rate in the world. Atherosclerosis (AS) is the basis of CVD, induced by oxidative stress and inflammation. Hyperlipidaemia and hypertension play a critical role in AS, which inevitably causes reactive oxygen species overproduction, thus accelerating CVD occurrence. Adequate intake of foods rich in phenolic acids, flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, vitamins, and unsaturated fatty acids can effectively reduce CVD risks. The mechanisms are related to the following: (i) lowering blood lipids, (ii) blood pressure regulation, (iii) inhibiting the oxidative enzyme system and Fenton reaction, and (iv) regulating inflammatory factor expression. This chapter provides a theoretical foundation for comprehensively exploring the potential health benefits of biologically active ingredients in foods that help reduce CVD risks.

The present work reports on the development of a 3D origami microfluidic paper-based analytical device (3D µPAD) for the determination of iodide and iodate in edible seaweeds by smartphone-based colorimetric detection. In addition, a methacrylate holder was designed and fabricated to enhance interlayer contact in 3D µPADs, obtaining excellent sensitivity and precision, also allowing real-time monitoring in a straightforward and expeditious way. The reported assay, based on the formation of a blue colored triiodide-starch complex at the detection areas of the 3D µPAD, represents an affordable, fast and greener alternative for the simultaneous determination of inorganic iodine species. Under optimal conditions, the proposed method showed limits of detection and quantification of 9.8 and 32.7 µM for I- and 0.6 and 1.8 µM for IO3-, respectively. The repeatability, expressed as relative standard deviation, was 1.7% and 3.3% for I- and IO3-, respectively. The proposed 3D µPAD was applied to the determination of iodine species in extracts of edible seaweeds and related food additives, showing satisfactory recoveries (90–109%).

Bee pollen is a combination of plant pollen and honeybee secretions and nectar. The Bible and ancient Egyptian texts are documented proof of its use in public health. It is considered a gold mine of nutrition due to its active components that have significant health and medicinal properties. Bee pollen contains bioactive compounds including proteins, amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and polyphenols. The vital components of bee pollen enhance different bodily functions and offer protection against many diseases. It is generally marketed as a functional food with affordable and inexpensive prices with promising future industrial potentials. This review highlights the dietary properties of bee pollen and its influence on human health, and its applications in the food industry.

Adv. Mater. 2023, 35, 2208299 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202208299 After publication of the original article, an inconsistency was identified by the authors, regarding the use of definitions of handedness and circularly polarized light (CPL), employed for electromagnetic modeling and circular dichroism (CD) measurements. Such an inconsistency requires correction of some figures and one of Supporting Movies. Circular polarization of light can be referred to as right-handed or left-handed. However, historically, two opposing conventions exist for such definitions.[1] The convention used by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) defines handedness from the point of view of the source (also called "source view"). This definition involves pointing one's thumb away from the source, parallel to wave propagation, and then aligning finger curling with the temporal rotation of the field at a space point. Conversely, the convention used by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) defines handedness from the point of view of the receiver (also called as "detector's view"). This process involves directing the thumb towards the source and against wave propagation, with finger-curls matching the field's spatial rotation. In the published version of the article, the IUPAC convention was used for experimental measurements, whereas the IEEE convention was used in electromagnetic simulations and therefore the signs of simulated and experimental CD spectra (e.g., Figure 4) should be opposite. On the other hand, when analyzing the consequence of this mistake, it was found that the input models used for the calculation of CD spectra and electric field enhancement maps in the same Figure 4 had opposite geometrical handedness to the electron tomography image in Figure 3, which was obtained from the same sample/nanoparticle. Upon careful examination of potential sources of this anomaly, transformation of tomography reconstruction data into MATLAB-friendly files was found to have resulted in an inversion of the image, as (x,y,z) → (x,−y,z), and thus reversal of chirality. As a result, the calculation employed the IEEE convention (opposite to experimental IUPAC convention) on the enantiomer corresponding to the real particle, so that the experimental and simulated spectra find excellent agreement in both spectral shape and sign. Corrected figures that preserve the geometrical handedness of the experimental nanoparticles in the simulation models, while using the IUPAC convention of CPL handedness, are hereby provided: Figure 4, Figure S10, the table of contents (TOC) image, and Movie S2, Supporting Information are corrected. Movie S2 is replaced in the Supporting Information published with the article. The other corrected figures are found below. The Supporting Information text file is also replaced, to include the revised Figure S10. It should be noted that these corrections do not alter any of the conclusions in the published manuscript. The authors apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused. TOC image. Additionally, a mistake was also identified in Figure 7 where an erroneous correspondence was proposed for the enantiomers of cysteine and the resulting twisted chiral Au nanorods. It should be noted that cysteine is a special case among amino acids, for which L-Cys corresponds to R-Cys (and D-Cys to S-Cys). The correct version is provided below.

Diabetes, a chronic physiological dysfunction affecting people of different age groups and severely impairs the harmony of peoples’ normal life worldwide. Despite the availability of insulin preparations and several synthetic oral antidiabetic drugs, there is a crucial need for the discovery and development of novel antidiabetic drugs because of the development of resistance and side effects of those drugs in long-term use. On the contrary, plants or herbal sources are getting popular day by day to the scientists, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies all over the world to search for potential bioactive compound(s) for the discovery and development of targeted novel antidiabetic drugs that may control diabetes with the least unwanted effects of conventional antidiabetic drugs. In this review, we have presented the prospective candidates comprised of either isolated phytochemical(s) and/or extract(s) containing bioactive phytoconstituents which have been reported in several in vitro , in vivo , and clinical studies possessing noteworthy antidiabetic potential. The mode of actions, attributed to antidiabetic activities of the reported phytochemicals and/or plant extracts have also been described to focus on the prospective phytochemicals and phytosources for further studies in the discovery and development of novel antidiabetic therapeutics.

Abstract BACKGROUND Recurrence of tumor cells following local and systemic therapy is a significant hurdle in cancer. Most patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) will relapse, despite resection of the metastatic lesions. A better understanding of the evolutionary history of recurrent lesions is thus required to identify the spatial and temporal patterns of metastatic progression and expose the genetic determinants of therapeutic resistance. METHODS Utilizing a robust Bayesian phylogenetic approach, we analyzed a unique single-cell whole-genome sequencing dataset comprising 60 cells sampled from metastatic and recurrent hepatic lesions of a patient with a long-term disease course to investigate the origin, timing, and clonality of a colorectal metastatic relapse. We further tracked the changes in the size of the malignant cell population and evaluated the impact of the treatment strategy on the mutational landscape of this tumor. RESULTS Our results suggest that the recurrent lesion originated from the clonal expansion of a single drug-resistant metastatic lineage, which began to expand around one year before surgical resection of the relapse. We additionally observed substantial variability in the substitution rates along the tumor cell phylogeny and found a large number of mutations specific to the ancestral lineage that gave rise to the relapse, including non-silent mutations in CRC genes. Moreover, our results point to a substantial contribution of chemotherapy exposure to the overall mutational burden. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that resistant colorectal metastatic clones can quickly grow, even under strong drug-imposed pressure, highlighting the importance of profiling the genomic landscape of tumor lesions to identify mutations potentially contributing to treatment failure.

We report on the fabrication of thermally responsive hollow pNIPAM particles through the oxidation of the metal core in an Au@pNIPAM system. The selective oxidation of the Au core is achieved by addition of AuCl4(-) to an aqueous dispersion of Au@pNIPAM particles in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). We fabricate hollow pNIPAM particles with three cross-linking densities (N,N'-methylenebis(acrylamide), BA, at 5%, 10%, and 17.5%). The study of the effect of the amount of BA within the microgel network was performed by dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), showing its key role in determining the final hollow structure and thermal response. While the thermal responsiveness is largely achieved at low cross-linking densities, the hollow structure only remains at larger cross-linking densities. This was further confirmed by cryo-TEM analysis of hollow pNIPAM particles below and above the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT). Thus, it clearly shows (i) the shrinking of particle size with the temperature at low cross-linking density and (ii) the dependence of particle size on the amount of cross-linker for the final hollow pNIPAM structure. Observed differences in the hollow pNIPAM structure are attributed to different elastic contributions (Π(elas)), showing higher elasticity for microgels synthesized at lower amount of BA.