Apricot Melanoidins Prevent Oxidative Endothelial Cell Death by Counteracting Mitochondrial Oxidation and Membrane Depolarization

The cardiovascular benefits associated with diets rich in fruit and vegetables are thought to be due to phytochemicals contained in fresh plant material. However, whether processed plant foods provide the same benefits as unprocessed ones is an open question. Melanoidins from heat-processed apricots were isolated and their presence confirmed by colorimetric analysis and browning index. Oxidative injury of endothelial cells (ECs) is the key step for the onset and progression of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), therefore the potential protective effect of apricot melanoidins on hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative mitochondrial damage and cell death was explored in human ECs. The redox state of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial compartments was detected by using the redox-sensitive, fluorescent protein (roGFP), while the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) was assessed with the fluorescent dye, JC-1. ECs exposure to hydrogen peroxide, dose-dependently induced mitochondrial and cytoplasmic oxidation. Additionally detected hydrogen peroxide-induced phenomena were MMP dissipation and ECs death. Pretreatment of ECs with apricot melanoidins, significantly counteracted and ultimately abolished hydrogen peroxide-induced intracellular oxidation, mitochondrial depolarization and cell death. In this regard, our current results clearly indicate that melanoidins derived from heat-processed apricots, protect human ECs against oxidative stress.     

Performance of Sclerodermus brevicornis,a parasitoid of invasive longhorn beetles,when reared on rice moth larvae

Biological control efficiency can be improved by developing effective mass‐rearing systems to produce large numbers of high‐quality parasitoids. This study explored an alternative host for rearing Sclerodermus brevicornis (Kieffer) (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae), a potential biocontrol agent for the suppression of exotic and invasive wood‐boring longhorn beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) populations in the European agroforestry ecosystems. We tested larvae of the rice moth, Corcyra cephalonica Stainton (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), as host for the parasitoid. We quantified the probability and timing of host attack and parasitism as well as reproductive success, offspring production, and the characteristics of adult offspring. As S. brevicornis is a quasi‐social species (multiple females, communally produced offspring broods), we also explored the effects of varying the number of females to which individual hosts were presented, with the aim of determining the optimal female‐to‐host ratio. As time to host attack can be a limiting factor in S. brevicornis rearing protocols, we tested the use of adult females of another bethylid species, Goniozus legneri Gordh, to paralyse C. cephalonica larvae prior to presentation. We identified the conditions within our experiment that maximized offspring production per host and offspring production per adult female parasitoid. We found that C. cephalonica is suitable as a factitious host and, as it is considerably more straightforward for laboratory rearing than cerambycid species, it is a good candidate for adoption by future S. brevicornis mass‐rearing and release programmes.     

Cellular retinol binding protein 1 transfection reduces proliferation and AKT-related gene expression in H460 non-small lung cancer cells

Molecular Biology Reports - In recent years, new treatments with novel action mechanisms have been explored for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Retinoids promote cancer cell...     

Lipid-Conjugated Rigidochromic Probe Discloses Membrane Alteration in Model Cells of Krabbe Disease

The plasma membrane of cells has a complex architecture based on the bidimensional liquid-crystalline bilayer arrangement of phospho- and sphingolipids, which in turn embeds several proteins and is connected to the cytoskeleton. Several studies highlight the spatial membrane organization into more ordered (L_o or lipid raft) and more disordered (L_d) domains. We here report on a fluorescent analog of the green fluorescent protein chromophore that, when conjugated to a phospholipid, enables the quantification of the L_o and L_d domains in living cells on account of its large fluorescence lifetime variation in the two phases. The domain composition is straightforwardly obtained by the phasor approach to confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging, a graphical method that does not require global fitting of the fluorescence decay in every spatial position of the sample. Our imaging strategy was applied to recover the domain composition in human oligodendrocytes at rest and under treatment with galactosylsphingosine (psychosine). Exogenous psychosine administration recapitulates many of the molecular fingerprints of a severe neurological disease, globoid cell leukodystrophy, better known as Krabbe disease. We found out that psychosine progressively destabilizes plasma membrane, as witnessed by a shrinking of the L_o fraction. The unchanged levels of galactosyl ceramidase, i.e., the enzyme lacking in Krabbe disease, upon psychosine treatment suggest that psychosine alters the plasma membrane structure by direct physical effect, as also recently demonstrated in model membranes.     

Multi-Target Analysis and Design of Mitochondrial Metabolism

Analyzing and optimizing biological models is often identified as a research priority in biomedical engineering. An important feature of a model should be the ability to find the best condition in which an organism has to be grown in order to reach specific optimal output values chosen by the researcher. In this work, we take into account a mitochondrial model analyzed with flux-balance analysis. The optimal design and assessment of these models is achieved through single- and/or multi-objective optimization techniques driven by epsilon-dominance and identifiability analysis. Our optimization algorithm searches for the values of the flux rates that optimize multiple cellular functions simultaneously. The optimization of the fluxes of the metabolic network includes not only input fluxes, but also internal fluxes. A faster convergence process with robust candidate solutions is permitted by a relaxed Pareto dominance, regulating the granularity of the approximation of the desired Pareto front. We find that the maximum ATP production is linked to a total consumption of NADH, and reaching the maximum amount of NADH leads to an increasing request of NADH from the external environment. Furthermore, the identifiability analysis characterizes the type and the stage of three monogenic diseases. Finally, we propose a new methodology to extend any constraint-based model using protein abundances.     

Chlorophyta microalgae as dietary protein supplement: a comparative analysis of productivity related to photosynthesis

Journal of Applied Phycology - Microalgae are studied as innovative sources of a wide range of highly valuable products, including proteins for the food/feed sectors. However, protein content...