Nutrition in the life cycle assessment of foods—function or impact?

Purpose

This work provides an unambiguous conceptual framework for inclusion of nutrition in Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of food that enables the distinction between two different roles of nutrition, namely serving as the basis of food comparisons via the functional unit and as an impact pathway that links food ingestion with human health effects.

Methods

We compare how nutritional aspects have been considered in the functional unit of published LCAs of food with the procedural requirements for ensuring comparability of the functional units. We consider the relevance of nutrient profiling models for assessing food- and diet-related health damages and benefits in the context of LCAs of food. We finally recommend a method that will enable a systematic, comparative, and holistic assessment of the marginal health effect of food products on human health.

Results and discussion

Satiety is proposed as a central attribute for comparisons of food products, while weighted measures of nutrient content are suggested to be largely misplaced as part of the functional unit. In contrast, nutritional measures have a large role to play in assessing the human health impacts of the marginal ingestion of specific food products. Such measures should enable a direct quantification of human health effect and benefits and should take advantage of robust epidemiological evidence.

Conclusions

Nutritional measures enter into both the functional unit in the form of satiety measures and into the calculation of impacts in the form of the marginal influence of the specific food item on the human health impact of the overall diet. To enhance the differentiation of health impacts at the level of individual food items, it is recommended to combine the nutrient balance indicator with the DALY Nutritional Index (DANI) in each specific dietary context.

     

Sound Symbolism Facilitates Word Learning in 14-Month-Olds

Sound symbolism, or the nonarbitrary link between linguistic sound and meaning, has often been discussed in connection with language evolution, where the oral imitation of external events links phonetic forms with their referents (e.g., Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). In this research, we explore whether sound symbolism may also facilitate synchronic language learning in human infants. Sound symbolism may be a useful cue particularly at the earliest developmental stages of word learning, because it potentially provides a way of bootstrapping word meaning from perceptual information. Using an associative word learning paradigm, we demonstrated that 14-month-old infants could detect Köhler-type (1947) shape-sound symbolism, and could use this sensitivity in their effort to establish a word-referent association.     

Metabolism of polychlorinated biphenyls by Solanum nigrum hairy root clone SNC-9O and analysis of transformation products

The study investigates aspects of PCB metabolism by a hairy root culture of Solanum nigrum L. (clone SNC-9O) in vitro. Standard conditions were established for efficient, up to 72% PCB conversion (22 individual PCB congeners examined in commercial mixture Delor 103, 5 g fresh biomass in 100 ml media shaken with 5 mg PCB for 14 days). The conversion products formed from three monochlorobiphenyls were monohydroxychlorobiphenyls and dihydroxychlorobiphenyls, while six dichlorobiphenyls yielded different monohydroxydichlorobiphenyls. Efficiency of the transformation of individual PCB congeners was evaluated together with phytotoxic effect on the clone SNC-9O. Major metabolites of monochlorobiphenyls analysed after extraction from biomass were hydroxylated at the position 4, and 4′, respectively. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The discovery and development of inhibitors of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH)

A summary of the discovery and advancement of inhibitors of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) is presented.     

Long-Lived Folding Intermediates Predominate the Targeting-Competent Secretome

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Pharmacokinetic studies of the herbicide and antitumor compound oryzalin in mice

Oryzalin [3,5-dinitro-N,N-di(n-propyl)benzensulfanilamide] is a widely used sulfonamide herbicide that selectively inhibits microtubule formation in algae and higher plants. Oryzalin has also been found to be an inhibitor of intracellular free Ca²⁺ signalling in mammalian cells and to have antitumor activity in animals. Despite its widespread use there have been no reports of the pharmacokinetics of oryzalin in animals or man. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed to measure oryzalin in biological fluids. Following repeated daily administration of oryzalin to mice by the i.p. route to 200 mg/kg, or the p.o. route at 300 mg/kg, peak plasma concentrations of up to 25 μg/ml were achieved. The half life for oryzalin in plasma of mice given i.p. oryzalin was 14.3 h with a clearance of 0.07 1/h. A major metabolite of oryzalin, N-depropyloryzalin, was identified in plasma and its structure confirmed by mass spectral analysis (M+H⁺ = 305). This metabolite was cleared more rapidly than oryzalin with a half life of 1.15 h and a clearance of 0.17 1/h. N-Depropylorryzalin caused similar inhibition of colony formation by HT-29 colon cancer cells as oryzalin with IC₅₀ = 8 μg/ml. The results suggest that oryzalin and its N-depropyl metabolite can inhibit tumor colony formation at pharmacologically achievable levels.     

The phosphatase activity of the isolated H4-H5 loop of Na+/K+ ATPase resides outside its ATP binding site.

The structural stability of the large cytoplasmic domain (H(4)-H(5) loop) of mouse alpha(1) subunit of Na(+)/K(+) ATPase (L354-I777), the number and the location of its binding sites for 2'-3'-O-(trinitrophenyl) adenosine 5'-triphosphate (TNP-ATP) and p-nitrophenylphosphate (pNPP) were investigated. C- and N-terminal shortening revealed that neither part of the phosphorylation (P)-domain are necessary for TNP-ATP binding. There is no indication of a second ATP site on the P-domain of the isolated loop, even though others reported previously of its existence by TNP-N(3)ADP affinity labeling of the full enzyme. Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-anisotropy measurements reveal a considerable stability of the nucleotide (N)-domain suggesting that it may not undergo a substantial conformational change upon ATP binding. The FITC modified loop showed only slightly diminished phosphatase activity, most likely due to a pNPP site on the N-domain around N398 whose mutation to D reduced the phosphatase activity by 50%. The amino acids forming this pNPP site (M384, L414, W411, S400, S408) are conserved in the alpha(1-4) isoforms of Na(+)/K(+) ATPase, whereas N398 is only conserved in the vertebrates' alpha(1) subunit. The phosphatase activity of the isolated H(4)-H(5) loop was neither inhibited by ATP, nor affected by mutation of D369, which is phosphorylated in native Na(+)/K(+) ATPase.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">MYD88</Emphasis> and functionally related genes are associated with multiple infections in a model population of Kenyan village dogs

The purpose of this study was to seek associations between immunity-related molecular markers and endemic infections in a model population of African village dogs from Northern Kenya with no veterinary care and no selective breeding. A population of village dogs from Northern Kenya composed of three sub-populations from three different areas (84, 50 and 55 dogs) was studied. Canine distemper virus (CDV), Hepatozoon canis, Microfilariae (Acantocheilonema dracunculoides, Acantocheilonema reconditum) and Neospora caninum were the pathogens studied. The presence of antibodies (CDV, Neospora), light microscopy (Hepatozoon) and diagnostic PCR (Microfilariae) were the methods used for diagnosing infection. Genes involved in innate immune mechanisms, NOS3, IL6, TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, TLR7, TLR9, LY96, MYD88, and three major histocompatibility genes class II genes were selected as candidates. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were detected by Sanger sequencing, next generation sequencing and PCR-RFLP. The Fisher´s exact test for additive and non-additive models was used for association analyses. Three SNPs within the MYD88 gene and one TLR4 SNP marker were associated with more than one infection. Combined genotypes and further markers identified by next generation sequencing confirmed associations observed for individual genes. The genes associated with infection and their combinations in specific genotypes match well our knowledge on their biological role and on the role of the relevant biological pathways, respectively. Associations with multiple infections observed between the MYD88 and TLR4 genes suggest their involvement in the mechanisms of anti-infectious defenses in dogs.