3,134 publications from this institution
Abstract The intestinal epithelium acts as a key defensive barrier that protects internal organs from the detrimental gut environment. The homeostasis of the gut epithelium may be altered by environmental conditions and exogenous pathogens that can impair the integrity of the gut barrier, leading to immune response associated with low‐grade systemic inflammation, a known contributor to metabolic and inflammatory diseases. Autoimmune diseases (ADs) are a collection of abnormalities of the immune system, in which the immune system of an individual acts against healthy organs or systems, due to a failure in antigenic recognition. Hence, this review aims to focus on modulators of intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction with effects on autoimmune disorders. All data on dietary phytochemicals and their impact on the modulation of the intestinal epithelium barrier and various ADs were collected from electronic searches of library databases (PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar). An electronic search was conducted using PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar by finding the keywords “phytochemicals” AND “bioactive compounds” AND “flavonoids” AND “polyphenols” OR “intestinal epithelium barrier” OR “autoimmune diseases” OR “inflammatory diseases” in “Title/Abstract/Keywords,” with the date from January 2011 to December 2020, to identify all published studies (in vitro, in vivo, clinical, and case‐control) that have investigated the connection between dietary phytochemicals and their various beneficial effects. Dietary phytochemicals are promising key modulators, stabilizing the integrity of the intestinal barrier and attenuating the progression of ADs. Health‐modulatory information was gathered and orchestrated in a suitable place in this review.
In addition to nutrients, plant foods contain compounds that may provide additional health benefits improving the quality of life. Species from Arbutus genus (Ericaceae) represent a promising source of healthy phytochemicals. Bioactive compounds including such as anthocyanins, iridoids, phenols, triterpenes, sterols, and fatty acids are reported from Arbutus species. Some Arbutus species revealed promising biological activities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, anti-diabetic, and antimicrobial activities, and deserve for that reason further consideration for new drug discovery. However, only few species are investigated scientifically for their chemical profile and biological activities. The aim of this article is to summarize the current knowledge of the components and biological properties of Arbutus species common in Mediterranean area, as well as the future prospects on their applications as potentially valuable products.
The Third International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine and Food (3-ISPMF) was held in Kunming, China on 25–30 August 2018. 3-ISPMF was organized by the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE...
Indirect estimates of the genomic rate of deleterious mutations (lambda), their average homozygous effect (s) and their degree of dominance (h) can be obtained from genetic parameters of natural populations, assuming that the frequencies of the loci controlling a given fitness trait are at mutation-selection equilibrium. In 1996, H.-W. Deng and M. Lynch developed a general methodology for obtaining these estimates from inbreeding/outbreeding experiments. The prediction of the sign and magnitude of the biases incurred by these estimators is essential for a correct interpretation of the empirical results. However, the assessment of these biases has been tested so far under a rather limited model of the distribution of dominance effects. In this paper, the application of this method to outbred populations is evaluated, focusing on the level of variation in h values (sigma(h)(2) and the magnitude of the negative correlation (rs,h) between s and h. It is shown that the method produces upwardly biased estimates of lambda and downwardly biased estimates of the average s in the reference situation where rs,h=0, particularly for large values of sigma(h)(2), and biases of different sign depending on the magnitude of the correlation. A modification of the method, substituting the estimates of the average h for alternative ones, allows estimates to be obtained with little or no bias for the case of rs,h=0, but is otherwise biased. Information on rs,h and sigma(h)(2), gathered from mutation-accumulation experiments, suggests that sigma(h)(2) may be rather large and rs,h is usually negative but not higher than about -0.2, although the data are scarce and noisy, and should be used with caution.
Summary Phenotypic scrutiny on the life cycle of Icthyodinium chabelardi ( Perkinsoide chabelardi n. gen.) based on ultrastructural techniques, and molecular phylogenetic analysis of RNA gene sequences, were carried out in order to elucidate the taxonomic position of this parasite. The absence of plastid, presence of trichocysts, and chromosomes or chromatin condensed and low in number, suggested that this protozoan could be considered a dinoflagellate syndinial parasite. However, the life cycle, schizogonic divisions and structure of schizonts inside the host, the nuclei without the typical dinoflagellate appearance, presence of rhoptrias‐like structures, a possible pseudo‐conoid, and the biflagellated spore, resembled those of the genus Perkinsus. Phylogenetic analysis of genes transcribing for the RNA forming the small subunit and the large subunit suggests that this parasite has an ambiguous evolutionary position within the group formed by dinoflagellates, perkinsids and syndinials. Because of differences with dinoflagellates and similarities with perkinsids, we propose to change the generic name to P. chabelardi n. gen. High stationary infection prevalence on Sardina pilchardus eggs was observed. This protozoan parasite caused the death of all the infected sardine eggs, and therefore a high impact in the recruitment of this fishery in the Atlantic coast is expected.
The synergistic combination of noble metal nanoparticles and bacterial cells results in hybrid systems that offer new useful properties for the development of future applications and tools.