Publications by authors named "Cristabelle De Souza"

Breast milk storage provides flexibility for working mothers, though its effects on milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) lipids are not fully understood. This study examined breast milk stored under refrigerated (2 and 4 days) and frozen (7, 14, and 21 days) conditions, finding that these storage durations preserved similar structural characteristics during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. The analysis focused on MFGM lipid composition under various storage conditions using non-targeted lipidomics.

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The cell membrane, consisting of a phospholipid bilayer, is an important defense system of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) against adverse conditions. However, this membrane gets damaged during the process of spray drying of LAB into powder. In this study, two strains of Lactobacillus bulgaricus L9-7 and L4-2-12 with significantly different survival rates of about 22.

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Milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) contains lipids, which are essential for promoting infant brain development and improving cognition. In this study, the lipid differences between human MFGM and four dietary lipid sources (cow MFGM, soybean, krill, and yolk) were compared using the UHPLC-Q-Exactive MS-based lipidomics techniques. A total of 45 lipid classes and 5048 lipid species were detected.

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COVID-19 remains a global pandemic of an unprecedented magnitude with millions of people now developing "COVID lung fibrosis." Single-cell transcriptomics of lungs of patients with long COVID revealed a unique immune signature demonstrating the upregulation of key proinflammatory and innate immune effector genes CD47, IL-6, and JUN. We modeled the transition to lung fibrosis after COVID and profiled the immune response with single-cell mass cytometry in JUN mice.

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Nanomedicine based drug delivery platforms provide an interesting avenue to explore for the future of cancer treatment. Here we discuss the barriers for drug delivery in cancer therapeutics and how nanomaterials have been designed to bypass these blockades through stimuli responsive transformation in the most recent update. Nanomaterials that address the challenges of each step provide a promising solution for new cancer therapeutics.

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Probiotics have several health benefits to the host. However, low pH in the stomach, various digestive enzymes and bile salts in the intestine threaten their viability and function. Thus, probiotics need to be protected during gastric transit to address challenges associated with low viability and impaired function.

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Glycyrrhiza polysaccharide extract 1 (GPS-1) is a bioactive component isolated from Glycyrrhiza uralensis, also known as Chinese licorice. It appears to be pharmacologically active as an antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-tumor agent. GPS-1 has also been shown to buffer liver health and regulate the immune system.

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Background And Objective: Multiple studies have demonstrated the medical potency of plant extracts and specific phytochemicals as therapeutics for prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Of note, the Neem plant known for its role as an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory is underexplored with an untapped potential for further development. This review focuses on extracts and phytochemicals derived from the Neem tree (Latin name; ), commonly used throughout Southeast Asia for the prevention and treatment of a wide array of diseases including cancer.

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Smart conversion of supramolecular structures in vivo is an attractive strategy in cancer nanomedicine, which is usually achieved via specific peptide sequences. Here we developed a lysosomal targeting small-molecule conjugate, PBC, which self-assembles into nanoparticles at physiological pH and smartly converts to nanofibrils in lysosomes of tumor cells. Such a transformation mechanically leads to lysosomal dysfunction, autophagy inhibition, and unusual cytoplasmic vacuolation, thus granting PBC a unique anticancer activity as a monotherapy.

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Tumor heterogeneity poses one of the greatest challenges to a successful treatment of cancer. Tumor cell populations consist of different subpopulations that have distinct phenotypic and genotypic profiles. Such variability poses a challenge in successfully targeting all tumor subpopulations at the same time.

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Licorice is a medicinal and food plant widely used to treat diseases and produce food additives, because of its unique chemical constituents like polysaccharides, flavones, and saponins. Glycyrrhiza Polysaccharides (GPS-1) are water-soluble neutral polysaccharides extracted from licorice. Currently, GPS-1 is administrated to chickens by gavage every d for 14 d to observe the impact of GPS-1 on the Newcastle disease vaccine.

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Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy, with high incidence rates in recent decades. Most TC cases have good prognoses, but a high risk of recurrence and metastases poses challenges, especially for patients with high-risk factors. Currently used prognostic markers for TC involve a combination of genetic factors and overexpressed proteins.

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Background: TP53 mutations occur in more than 50% of cancers. We sought to determine the effect of the intragenic P72R single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs1042522) on the oncogenic properties of mutant p53.

Methods: P72R allelic selection in tumors was determined from genotype calls and a Gaussian distributed mixture model.

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High-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), the most lethal subtype of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), is characterized by widespread mutations (>90%), most of which are missense mutations (>70%). The objective of this study was to investigate differential transcriptional targets affected by a common germline P72R SNP () in two p53 hotspot mutants, R248Q and R248W, and identify the mechanism through which the P72R SNP affects the neomorphic properties of these mutants. Using isogenic cell line models, transcriptomic analysis, xenografts, and patient data, we found that the P72R SNP modifies the effect of p53 hotspot mutants on cellular morphology and invasion properties.

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Integration of the unique advantages of the fields of drug discovery and drug delivery is invaluable for the advancement of drug development. Here we propose a self-delivering one-component new-chemical-entity nanomedicine (ONN) strategy to improve cancer therapy through incorporation of the self-assembly principle into drug design. A lysosomotropic detergent (MSDH) and an autophagy inhibitor (Lys05) are hybridised to develop bisaminoquinoline derivatives that can intrinsically form nanoassemblies.

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The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is a global pandemic with increasing incidence and mortality rates. Recent evidence based on the cytokine profiles of severe COVID-19 cases suggests an overstimulation of macrophages and monocytes associated with reduced T-cell abundance (lymphopenia) in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. The SARS-CoV-2 open reading frame 3 a (ORF3a) protein was found to bind to the human HMOX1 protein at a high confidence through high-throughput screening experiments.

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Background: Gustilo-Anderson type III traumas have been described as high-energy injuries with severe bone defects and extensive soft tissue damage, which remain a challenging entity, due to an inherent risk of infection, nonunion and even amputation. The emergency management of such severe trauma presents additional difficulties. Our study attempts to retrospectively evaluate the Masquelet technique combined with the muscle flap for the management of Gustilo type III trauma of the lower limb with segmental bone loss in emergencies and assess key points of success in this technique.

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Objective: Cancer patient-derived organoids (PDOs) grow as three dimensional (3D) structures in the presence of extracellular matrix and have been found to represent the original tumor's genetic complexity. In addition, PDOs can be grown and subjected to drug sensitivity testing in a shorter time course and with lesser expense than patient-derived xenograft models. Many patients with recurrent ovarian cancer develop malignant effusions that become refractory to chemotherapy.

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Treatment of cancer with poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors is currently limited to cells defective in the homologous recombination (HR) pathway. Identification of genetic targets that induce or mimic HR deficiencies will extend the clinical utility of PARP inhibitors. Here we perform a CRISPR/Cas9-based genome-scale loss-of-function screen, using the sensitivity of PARP inhibitor olaparib as a surrogate.

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In recent years, multiple studies including ours have reported on the mechanism of resistance towards valosin-containing protein (VCP) inhibitors. While all these studies reported target alterations via mutations in VCP as the primary mechanism of resistance, discrepancies persist to date regarding the zygosity of these mutations responsible for the resistance. In addition, the extent to which resistant cells harbor additional mutations in other genes is not well described.

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Article Synopsis
  • * New drugs targeting zinc-containing HDAC enzymes are being tested; notable candidates in clinical trials include PCI-24781, ITF-2357, and others, though only three HDAC inhibitors have gained FDA approval to date.
  • * Recent advancements focus on developing HDAC inhibitors that are specific to certain HDAC isoforms, aiming to improve upon older treatments by reducing side effects and enhancing effectiveness in cancer therapies.
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