Creation of products made from honey based on the content of elements determined by ICP-OES.

People of different age can consume honey, but the taste is often not accepted easily. Therefore, products made from honey with a pleasant taste and high nutritional and health benefits are highly demanded on the market. Honey is a bioindicator of environmental pollution.

Human estrogen receptor α antagonists, part 2: Synthesis driven by rational design, in vitro antiproliferative, and in vivo anticancer evaluation of innovative coumarin-related antiestrogens as breast cancer suppressants.

New twelve in silico designed coumarin-based ERα antagonists, namely 3DQ-1a to 3DQ-1е, were synthesized and confirmed as selective ERα antagonists, showing potencies ranging from single-digit nanomolar to picomolar. The hits were confirmed as selective estrogen receptor modulators and validated as antiproliferative agents using MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines exerting from picomolar to low nanomolar potency, at the same time showing no agonistic activity within endometrial cell lines. Their mechanism of action was inspected and revealed to be through the inhibition of the Raf-1/MAPK/ERK signal transduction pathway, preventing hormone-mediated gene expression on either genomic direct or genomic indirect level, and stopping the MCF-7 cells proliferation at G/G phase.

Human Estrogen Receptor α Antagonists. Part 1: 3-D QSAR-Driven Rational Design of Innovative Coumarin-Related Antiestrogens as Breast Cancer Suppressants through Structure-Based and Ligand-Based Studies.

The estrogen receptor α (ERα) represents a 17β-estradiol-inducible transcriptional regulator that initiates the RNA polymerase II-dependent transcriptional machinery, pointed for breast cancer (BC) development either genomic direct or genomic indirect (., tethered) pathway. To develop innovative ligands, structure-based (SB) three-dimensional (3-D) quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies have been undertaken from structural data taken from partial agonists, mixed agonists/antagonists (selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs)), and full antagonists (selective ERα downregulators (SERDs)) correlated with either wild-type or mutated ERα receptors.

Optimization and validation of the kinetic spectrophotometric method for quantitative determination of the pesticide atrazine and its application in infant formulae and cereal-based baby food.

Background: Pesticides are potentially toxic to humans and can produce both acute and chronic health effects, depending on the quantity and the ways in which a person is exposed. Exposure to pesticides can cause serious health problems. Infants and young children are particularly sensitive to these contaminants because their brains and organ systems are not fully developed.

Multifunctional ternary composite films based on PLA and Ag/alginate microbeads: Physical characterization and silver release kinetics.

Novel multifunctional composite poly(lactic acid) (PLA) films with alginate microbeads containing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were developed for potential antimicrobial food packaging applications. AgNPs, 10-20 nm in size, were synthesized in a Na-alginate solution by a hydrothermal method yielding a sterile, pH neutral colloid solution of low viscosity that was electrostatically extruded to produce Ag/alginate microbeads (190 μm in size) with retained AgNPs. Dried microbeads were uniformly dispersed in PLA films with retained AgNPs as confirmed by UV-Vis spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

Phenolic profiles and metal ions analyses of pulp and peel of fruits and seeds of quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.).

Six hydroxycinnamic acids were identified and determined quantitatively in methanol and acetone extracts from quince peel and pulp, namely 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3-CQA), 4-p-coumaroylquinic acid (HC1), 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid (4-CQA), 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid (5-CQA), derivative of p-coumaroylquinic acid (HC2) and 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid (3,5-diCQA). The most abundant hydroxycinnamic acid was 5-CQA (neochlorogenic acid) with 259.12-481.

Statistical characteristics of selected elements in vegetables from Kosovo.

Zinc, copper, iron, chromium and cobalt are essential elements for human health, showing toxicity only in high concentrations, while lead and cadmium are extremely toxic even as traces. Therefore, it is important to monitor the contents of toxic metals in vegetables. Large number of vegetables is grown and used in nutrition, in Kosovo.

A comprehensive approach to in vitro functional evaluation of Ag/alginate nanocomposite hydrogels.

In this work, we present a comprehensive approach to evaluation of alginate microbeads with included silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) at the concentration range of 0.3-5mM for potential biomedical use by combining cytotoxicity, antibacterial activity, and silver release studies. The microbeads were investigated regarding drying and rehydration showing retention of ∼ 80-85% of the initial nanoparticles as determined by UV-vis and SEM analyses.