Valorization of a biomass: phytochemicals in oilseed by-products

A huge amount of residue is released every year in agricultural and food industries. If this waste is valorised properly, it would be very beneficial from both economic and environmental aspects. Recently, seeds of oil crops have been getting great interest due to their waste rich in a great variety of lipophilic and hydrophilic phytochemicals. On the other hand, oilseed processing by-products comprise approximately 35 millions of tons seed for oil in European Union. Therefore, this remarkable amount of residue should be considered as a resource from waste to health. The purpose of the present research is to introduce the types of oilseed by-product and their high added value phytochemicals by summarizing the recent studies on the valorization of different wastes of several oilseed crops. This research also supplies an overview of the oilseed sources with their botanical names, production regions and target phytochemical ingredients. Moreover, further remarks with some certain concerns are discussed.     

Assessment of sesame (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sesamum indicum</Emphasis> L.<Emphasis Type="Bold">)</Emphasis> cake as a source of high-added value substances: from waste to health

The risk of exhaustion of natural resources and raw materials have given rise to emerging trends such as recycling of food waste. From the economical and ecological points of view, conversion of biowaste to high added value compounds has been getting great attention among the science and commercial entities. Due to their high-added value phytochemicals, agricultural and food residues have been a great significant to the researchers around the world. This study focuses on the valorisation of cake derived from sesame oil processing. If the very valuable non-nutrient phytochemicals in sesame cake are not evaluated properly, they would be consumed as just animal feed or fertilizers. They might be employed as antiaging (in pharmaceutical products), or free radical scavenger (in dietary supplements), or preservative additive against lipid oxidation (in fat containing food products). This review article aims to present pharmacological and therapeutic effects of sesame cake extract by pointing out its application in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries.     

Effects of Kinect-based virtual reality game training on upper extremity motor recovery in chronic stroke

Background: Therapeutic benefits of Kinect-based virtual reality (VR) game training in rehabilitation encourage its use to improve motor function.

Objective: To assess the effects of Kinect-based VR training on motor recovery of the upper extremity and functional outcomes in patients with chronic stroke.

Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, group A received 20 sessions of physical therapy (PT)?+?20 sessions of Kinect-based VR training and group B received only 20 sessions of PT. Clinical outcome measures were assessed at baseline and at the end of the treatments. Primary outcome measures that assess stroke patients’ motor function included upper extremity (UE) Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA). Secondary outcome measures were Brunnstrom Recovery Stages (BRS), Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), Box and Block test (BBT), Motricity index (MI), and active range of motion (AROM) measurement.

Results: Statistically significant improvements in game scores (p?p?Conclusions: To conclude, our results suggest that the adjunct use of Kinect-based VR training may contribute to the improvement of UE motor function and AROM in chronic stroke patients. Further studies with a larger number of subjects with longer follow-up periods are needed to establish its effectiveness in neurorehabilitation.     

Experimental design methods for bioengineering applications

Experimental design is a form of process analysis in which certain factors are selected to obtain the desired responses of interest. It may also be used for the determination of the effects of various independent factors on a dependent factor. The bioengineering discipline includes many different areas of scientific interest, and each study area is affected and governed by many different factors. Briefly analyzing the important factors and selecting an experimental design for optimization are very effective tools for the design of any bioprocess under question. This review summarizes experimental design methods that can be used to investigate various factors relating to bioengineering processes. The experimental methods generally used in bioengineering are as follows: full factorial design, fractional factorial design, Plackett–Burman design, Taguchi design, Box–Behnken design and central composite design. These design methods are briefly introduced, and then the application of these design methods to study different bioengineering processes is analyzed.     

Predicting the impact of mutations on the specific activity of Bacillus thermocatenulatus lipase using a combined approach of docking and molecular dynamics

Lipases are important biocatalysts owing to their ability to catalyze diverse reactions with exceptional substrate specificities. A combined docking and molecular dynamics (MD) approach was applied to study the chain‐length selectivity of Bacillus thermocatenulatus lipase (BTL2) towards its natural substrates (triacylglycerols). A scoring function including electrostatic, van der Waals (vdW) and desolvation energies along with conformational entropy was developed to predict the impact of mutation. The native BTL2 and its 6 mutants (F17A, V175A, V175F, D176F, T178V and I320F) were experimentally analyzed to determine their specific activities towards tributyrin (C4) or tricaprylin (C8), which were used to test our approach. Our scoring methodology predicted the chain‐length selectivity of BTL2 with 85.7% (6/7) accuracy with a positive correlation between the calculated scores and the experimental activity values (r = 0.82, p = 0.0004). Additionally, the impact of mutation on activity was predicted with 75% (9/12) accuracy. The described study represents a fast and reliable approach to accurately predict the effect of mutations on the activity and selectivity of lipases and also of other enzymes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

12 Survival-related differentially expressed genes based on the TARGET-osteosarcoma database

The Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) project aims to determine molecular changes that drive childhood cancers, including osteosarcoma. The main purpose of the program is to use the open-source database to develop novel, effective, and less toxic therapies. We downloaded TARGET-OS RNA-Sequencing data through R studio and merged the mRNA expression of genes with clinical information (vital status, survival time and gender). Further, we analyzed differential gene expressions between dead and alive patients based on TARGET-OS project. By this study, we found 5758 differentially expressed genes between deceased and alive patients with a false discovery rate below 0.05; 4469 genes were upregulated in deceased patients compared to alive, whereas 1289 genes were downregulated. The survival-related genes were obtained using Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox univariate regression (KM < 0.05 and Cox P-value < 0.05). Out of 5758 differentially expressed genes, only 217 have been associated with overall survival. Eight survival-related downregulated genes (ERCC4, CLUAP1, CTNNBIP1, GCA, RAB40C, SIRPA, USP11, and TCN2) and four survival-related upregulated genes (MUC1, COL13A1, JAG2 and KAZALD1) were selected for further analysis as potential independent prognostic candidate genes. This study may help to discover novel prognostic markers and potential therapeutic targets for osteosarcoma.     

Focus: Rare Disease: Oxytocin and Oxytocin Receptor Gene Regulation in Williams Syndrome: A Systematic Review

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic multisystem disorder that occurs because of a deletion of approximately 25 genes in the 7q11.23 chromosome region. This causes dysmorphic facial appearances, multiple congenital cardiovascular defects, delayed motor skills, and abnormalities in connective tissues and the endocrine system. The patients are mostly diagnosed with mild to moderate mental retardation, however, they have a hyper sociable, socially dis-inhibited, and outgoing personality, empathetic behavior, and are highly talkative. Oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide synthesized at the hypothalamus, plays an important role in cognition and behavior, and is thought to be affecting WS patients’ attitudes at its different amounts. Oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR), on chromosome 3p25.3, is considered regulating oxytocin receptors, via which OT exerts its effect. WS is a crucial disorder to understand gene, hormone, brain, and behavior associations in terms of sociality and neuropsychiatric conditions. Alterations to the WS gene region offer an opportunity to deepen our understandings of autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, or depression. We aim to systematically present the data available of OT/OXTR regulation and expression, and the evidence for whether these mechanisms are dysregulated in WS. These results are important, as they predict strong epigenetic control over social behavior by methylation, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and other alterations. The comparison and collaboration of these studies may help to establish a better treatment or management approach for patients with WS if backed up with future research.     

Cytoglobin: a potential marker for adipogenic differentiation in preadipocytes in vitro

Obesity, mainly characterized by the excess fat storage, is a global health problem resulting in serious morbidity and mortality. Identification of molecular mechanisms in adipogenic differentiation pathway might lead to development of new strategies for diagnosis, prevention and therapy of obesity and associated diseases. Discovery of new genes and proteins in the differentiation pathway could help to understand the key specific regulators of the adipogenesis. Cytoglobin (Cygb), identified as a new globin family member protein, is expressed in various tissues. Although its interaction with oxygen and nitric oxide indicates the potential role in antioxidant pathways, the exact role remains unclear. In the current study, expression level of Cygb was determined in proliferating and differentiating 3T3-F442A cells by gene expression and protein expression analysis. Results revealed that Cygb expression up-regulated in differentiated cells in parallel with adipogenic differentiation markers; PPARγ, CEBPα and FABP4 expressions. Besides, Cygb overexpression in preadipocytes contributed to the adipogenic differentiation as verified by detection of higher lipid droplets and increased PPARγ, CEBPα and FABP4 expressions with respect to control cells. These findings will shed light on the unknown roles of Cygb in adipogenesis and obesity.     

A new chromosomal race (2n=44) of Nannospalax xanthodon from Turkey (Mammalia: Rodentia)

A new karyotype for blind mole rats was recorded in Tunceli province in Eastern Turkey. The karyotype contained 44 chromosomes, including 13 biarmed pairs, 7 acrocentric pairs, and one heteromorphic pair with a submetacentric and an acrocentric homologue in the autosomal complement (FNa=69). The X chromosome was submetacentric and the Y chromosome medium-sized subtelocentric (FN=73). Distinct dark centromeric C-bands were observed on most of the biarmed and three pairs of the acrocentric autosomes. The NORs were detected on short arms of three subtelocentric pairs and one acrocentric pair of autosomes. The diploid number of chromosomes and the karyotype characteristics observed are obviously unique among hitherto studied populations of blind mole rats and the complement can be evaluated as a new chromosome race of Nannospalax xanthodon. The distribution ranges of individual chromosome races of the species recorded in Eastern Anatolia are revised and possible interracial hybridization is discussed in respect of the finding of a new race.