Search results for "functional"
showing 10 items of 4822 documents
Human Intrinsic Factor Expression for Bioavailable Vitamin B12 Enrichment in Microalgae
2018
Dietary supplements and functional foods are becoming increasingly popular complements to regular diets. A recurring ingredient is the essential cofactor vitamin B12(B12). Microalgae are making their way into the dietary supplement and functional food market but do not produce B12, and their B12 content is very variable. In this study, the suitability of using the human B12-binding protein intrinsic factor (IF) to enrich bioavailable B12 using microalgae was tested. The IF protein was successfully expressed from the nuclear genome of the model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the addition of an N-terminal ARS2 signal peptide resulted in efficient IF secretion to the medium. Co-abunda…
Quality characteristics and in vitro digestibility study of barley flour enriched ditalini pasta
2016
A ditalini pasta with a mixture of durum wheat and beta-glucan enriched barley flour (BF) (60/40%, w/w) was found to have a final content of 5% beta-glucan (BF-ditalini). Main quality parameters of BF-ditalini, water uptake and starch-protein texture, were comparable with those of 100% durum wheat ditalini (control). After in vitro simulated intestinal digestion, the content of beta-glucan in the post intestinal (PI) supernatant of BF-ditalini processed with its cooking water (soup) was six fold higher than that of pasta asciutta. BF-ditalini soup, but not pasta asciutta, strongly delayed the hydrolysis of the starch, without difference of viscosity between PI supernatant and control. PI su…
Evolutionary redesign of the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) Toll-like receptor repertoire by gene losses and expansions
2016
AbstractGenome sequencing of the teleost Atlantic cod demonstrated loss of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class II, an extreme gene expansion of MHC class I and gene expansions and losses in the innate pattern recognition receptor (PRR) family of Toll-like receptors (TLR). In a comparative genomic setting, using an improved version of the genome, we characterize PRRs in Atlantic cod with emphasis on TLRs demonstrating the loss of TLR1/6, TLR2 and TLR5 and expansion of TLR7, TLR8, TLR9, TLR22 and TLR25. We find that Atlantic cod TLR expansions are strongly influenced by diversifying selection likely to increase the detectable ligand repertoire through neo- and subfunctionalizatio…
Employ of Citrus By-product as Fat Replacer Ingredient for Bakery Confectionery Products
2020
Citrus fruits processing is one of the foremost industrial activities in Sicily and the main residual by-product consists in peels and seeds (known as "pastazzo"). Traditionally this by-product has been used for different purposes, and only most recently, it has been described as source of a wide range of healthy bioactive compounds and dietary fibers. In the present work, a debittered food grade orange fiber (DOF), extracted from orange juice by-product, was experimentally obtained and tested as fat-replacer at different percentages (30, 50, and 70%) in bakery confectionery products (brioches). The DOF showed high total fiber content, low water activity and a high water binding capacity. T…
Clinical Correlates of Functional Motor Disorders: An Italian Multicenter Study
2020
Background\ud Functional motor disorders (FMDs) are abnormal movements that are significantly altered by distractive maneuvers and are incongruent with movement disorders seen in typical neurological diseases.\ud \ud Objective\ud The objectives of this article are to (1) describe the clinical manifestations of FMDs, including nonmotor symptoms and occurrence of other functional neurological disorders (FND); and (2) to report the frequency of isolated and combined FMDs and their relationship with demographic and clinical variables.\ud \ud Methods\ud For this multicenter, observational study, we enrolled consecutive outpatients with a definite diagnosis of FMDs attending 25 tertiary movement …
Complete Genome Sequence of Lactobacillus rhamnosus Strain BPL5 (CECT 8800), a Probiotic for Treatment of Bacterial Vaginosis
2016
ABSTRACT Lactobacillus rhamnosus BPL5 (CECT 8800), is a probiotic strain suitable for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis. Here, we report its complete genome sequence deciphered by PacBio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) technology. Analysis of the sequence may provide insight into its functional activity.
Functional Genomics in Wine Yeast: DNA Arrays and Next Generation Sequencing
2017
Since their very beginning, DNA array and next-generation sequencing technologies have been used with Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. In the last 7 years, an increasing number of studies have focused on the study of wine strains and winemaking. The uncovering of the genomic features of these strains and expression profiles under the different stressful conditions that they have to deal with have contributed significantly to the knowledge of how this amazing microorganism can convert grape must into a drink that has enormously influenced mankind for 7000 years.This review presents a synopsis of DNA array and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and focus mainly in their use in study…
An Integrative Framework for the Construction of Big Functional Networks
2018
We present a methodology for biological data integration, aiming at building and analysing large functional networks which model complex genotype-phenotype associations. A functional network is a graph where nodes represent cellular components (e.g., genes, proteins, mRNA, etc.) and edges represent associations among such molecules. Different types of components may cohesist in the same network, and associations may be related to physical[biochemical interactions or functional/phenotipic relationships. Due to both the large amount of involved information and the computational complexity typical of the problems in this domain, the proposed framework is based on big data technologies (Spark a…
Nobiletin and xanthohumol sensitize colorectal cancer stem cells to standard chemotherapy
2021
Simple Summary Colorectal cancer stem cells (CR-CSCs) play a pivotal role in the therapy resistance and relapse of CRC patients. Herein we demonstrate that new treatment approaches comprising polymethoxyflavones and prenylflavonoids extracted from Citrus sinensis and Humulus lupulus, respectively, hamper the viability of CR-CSCs as well as synergizing with 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin (FOX)-based chemotherapy. Extract fractions containing Nobiletin and Xanthohumol, in combination with chemotherapy, decreased stemness properties of CR-CSCs and restrained the outgrowth of chemoresistant metastatic CR-CSCs. These data pinpoint Nobiletin and Xanthohumol as efficacious anti-cancer compounds in…
Preparation and molecular structures of N′-(2-heteroarylmethylidene)-3-(3-pyridyl)acrylohydrazides
2018
Abstract The crystal and molecular structures of N′-(2-furylmethylidene)-3-(3-pyridyl)acrylohydrazide and N′-(2-thienylmethylidene)-3-(3-pyridyl)acrylohydrazide are reported, and the influence of the type of the heteroatom on the aromaticity of the aromatic rings is discussed. Both molecules are nearly planar. The geometry of the acrylohydrazide arrangement is comparable to that of homologous compounds. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed in order to analyze the changes in the geometry of the studied compounds in the crystalline state and for the isolated molecule. The most significant changes were observed in the values of the N–N and C–N bond lengths. The harmonic …