New findings in the metabolism of the saffron apocarotenoids, crocins and crocetin, by the human gut microbiota.

The main constituents of saffron are the apocarotenoids crocins and crocetin, present in the stigmas. Numerous healthy properties, especially those related to the effects on the central nervous system, have been attributed to these compounds but the metabolites responsible for these effects are still unknown. Previous evidences in animal models suggest a role for the gut microbiota in the pharmacokinetics and the neuroprotective effects of these compounds.

NMR Spectroscopic Identification of Urolithin G, a Novel Trihydroxy Urolithin Produced by Human Intestinal Species.

Urolithins are gut microbiota metabolites of ellagic acid. Here, we have identified and chemically characterized a novel urolithin produced from urolithin D (3,4,8,9-tetrahydroxy urolithin) by in vitro incubation with different human gut species under anaerobic conditions. Urolithin G (3,4,8-trihydroxy urolithin) was identified by H NMR, C NMR, UV, HRMS, and 2D NMR.

ERP evidence for emotion-specific congruency effects between sentences and new words with disgust and sadness connotations.

Introduction: The present study investigated how new words with acquired connotations of disgust and sadness, both negatively valenced but distinctive emotions, modulate the brain dynamics in the context of emotional sentences.

Methods: Participants completed a learning session in which pseudowords were repeatedly paired with faces expressing disgust and sadness. An event-related potential (ERP) session followed the next day, in which participants received the learned pseudowords (herein, new words) combined with sentences and were asked to make emotional congruency judgment.

Diagnosis of Anaplasma marginale in cattle at the Iowa State University veterinary diagnostic laboratory 2003-2021.

Anaplasma marginale is a blood-borne rickettsia-like organism that infects cattle erythrocytes and causes anaplasmosis. This study reviews diagnostic data of all A. marginale diagnostics performed from 2003 to August 2021 in the Iowa State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

A randomized pilot trial assessing the reduction of gout episodes in hyperuricemic patients by oral administration of CECT 30632, a strain with the ability to degrade purines.

Introduction: Hyperuricemia and gout are receiving an increasing scientific and medical attention because of their relatively high prevalence and their association with relevant co-morbidities. Recently, it has been suggested that gout patients have an altered gut microbiota. The first objective of this study was to investigate the potential of some strains to metabolize purine-related metabolites.

Gut Bacteria Involved in Ellagic Acid Metabolism To Yield Human Urolithin Metabotypes Revealed.

We aimed to elucidate the gut bacteria that characterize the human urolithin metabotypes A and B (UM-A and UM-B). We report here a new bacterium isolated from the feces of a healthy woman, capable of producing the final metabolites urolithins A and B and different intermediates. Besides, we describe two gut bacterial co-cultures that reproduced the urolithin formation pathways upon in vitro fermentation of both UM-A and UM-B.

The negation-induced forgetting effect remains even after reducing associative interference.

Recent research has provided evidence that negation processing recruits the neural network of response inhibition (de Vega et al., 2016). Furthermore, inhibition mechanisms also play a role in human memory.

Immunomodulation of the Vaginal Ecosystem by CECT 30632 Improves Pregnancy Rates among Women with Infertility of Unknown Origin or Habitual Abortions.

In this study, the probiotic potential of CECT 30632 was assessed, including properties specifically related with gynecological targets. This strain displayed co-aggregative and antimicrobial activity against a wide spectrum of vaginal pathogens while being respectful with the growth of vaginal lactobacilli. The strain produced a high concentration of lactic acid and displayed α-amylase activity when assayed in vitro.

Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Resveratrol Xylobioside Obtained Using a Mutagenic Variant of a GH10 Endoxylanase.

Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol with antioxidant activity and numerous health benefits. However, in vivo application of this compound is still a challenge due to its poor aqueous solubility and rapid metabolism, which leads to an extremely low bioavailability in the target tissues. In this work, rXynSOS-E236G glycosynthase, designed from a GH10 endoxylanase of the fungus was used to glycosylate resveratrol by using xylobiosyl-fluoride as a sugar donor.

Language switching may facilitate the processing of negative responses.

It has been proposed that processing sentential negation recruits the neural network of inhibitory control (de Vega et al., 2016; Beltrán et al., 2021).

Lunularin Producers versus Non-producers: Novel Human Metabotypes Associated with the Metabolism of Resveratrol by the Gut Microbiota.

We describe here for the first time the consistent observation of two metabotypes associated with resveratrol metabolism by the human gut microbiota, that is, lunularin (LUNU)-producers and LUNU non-producers. In healthy volunteers ( = 195), resveratrol was reduced to dihydroresveratrol, which only in the LUNU-producer metabotype was sequentially dehydroxylated at the 5-position to yield LUNU and the 3-position to produce 4-hydroxydibenzyl. These metabolites (also 3,4'-dihydroxy--stilbene in some LUNU-producers) were detected in the urine and (or) feces of 74% of volunteers after consuming resveratrol, while 26% lacked these dehydroxylase activities.

Production of New Microbially Conjugated Bile Acids by Human Gut Microbiota.

Gut microbes have been recognized to convert human bile acids by deconjugation, dehydroxylation, dehydrogenation, and epimerization of the cholesterol core, but the ability to re-conjugate them with amino acids as an additional conversion has been recently described. These new bile acids are known as microbially conjugated bile acids (MCBAs). The aim of this study was to evaluate the MCBAs diversity produced by the gut microbiota through a metabolomics approach.

The Brain Dynamics of Syllable Duration and Semantic Predictability in Spanish.

This study examines the neural dynamics underlying the prosodic (duration) and the semantic dimensions in Spanish sentence perception. Specifically, we investigated whether adult listeners are aware of changes in the duration of a pretonic syllable of words that were either semantically predictable or unpredictable from the preceding sentential context. Participants listened to the sentences with instructions to make prosodic or semantic judgments, while their EEG was recorded.

Social approach and avoidance in language: N400-like ERP negativity indexes congruency and theta rhythms the conflict.

Motivational congruency has been examined using tasks where participants perform approach or avoidance movements towards socially positive or negative faces. Language is tightly intertwined with interpersonal cognition. Thus, similar situations could be represented by means of language in interpersonal contexts: adjectives furnish valence to people (e.

Regional accents modulate perspective in geographical space.

In this study, participants listened to first-person statements that mentioned a character who was approaching a geographical location close to (Tenerife, Canary Islands) or distant from the participant (Madrid, Spanish peninsula), pronounced with either the participants' local or a distal regional accent. Participants more often judged approaching statements as coherent when they refer to a close place pronounced with local accent or refer to a distant place with distal accent, rather than when they refer to a close place with distal accent or to a distant place with local accent. These results strongly suggest that the local accent induces listeners to keep their own geographical perspective, whereas the distal accent determines shifting to another's perspective.

Inhibitory Mechanisms in the Processing of Negations: A Neural Reuse Hypothesis.

Negation is known to have inhibitory consequences for the information under its scope. However, how it produces such effects remains poorly understood. Recently, it has been proposed that negation processing might be implemented at the neural level by the recruitment of inhibitory and cognitive control mechanisms.

Application of CECT5713 to Achieve Term Pregnancies in Women with Repetitive Abortion or Infertility of Unknown Origin by Microbiological and Immunological Modulation of the Vaginal Ecosystem.

In this study, the cervicovaginal environment of women with reproductive failure (repetitive abortion, infertility of unknown origin) was assessed and compared to that of healthy fertile women. Subsequently, the ability of CECT5713 to increase pregnancy rates in women with reproductive failure was evaluated. Vaginal pH and Nugent score were higher in women with reproductive failure than in fertile women.

Mutual influence between emotional language and inhibitory control processes. Evidence from an event-related potential study.

There is abundant literature demonstrating that processing emotional stimuli modulates inhibitory control processes. However, the reverse effects, namely, how cognitive inhibition influences the processing of emotional stimuli, have been considerably neglected. This ERP study tries to fill this gap by studying the bidirectional interactions between emotional language and inhibitory processes.

Rapid acquisition of novel written word-forms: ERP evidence.

Background: Novel word acquisition is generally believed to be a rapid process, essential for ensuring a flexible and efficient communication system; at least in spoken language, learners are able to construct memory traces for new linguistic stimuli after just a few exposures. However, such rapid word learning has not been systematically found in visual domain, with different confounding factors obscuring the orthographic learning of novel words. This study explored the changes in human brain activity occurring online, during a brief training with novel written word-forms using a silent reading task RESULTS: Single-trial, cluster-based random permutation analysis revealed that training caused an extremely fast (after just one repetition) and stable facilitation in novel word processing, reflected in the modulation of P200 and N400 components, possibly indicating rapid dynamics at early and late stages of the lexical processing.

Effect of mindfulness intervention versus health education program on salivary Aβ-42 levels in community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Few randomized controlled trials have investigated the effects of mindfulness intervention on older adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Specifically, scarce literature exists on the potential benefits of mindfulness intervention on biomarkers representing AD hallmarks. Our previous studies showed the potential of Mindful Awareness Practice (MAP) in improving multiple biomarkers of gut microbiota, systemic inflammation, and synaptic functions.

Neurophysiological Correlates of Top-Down Phonological and Semantic Influence during the Orthographic Processing of Novel Visual Word-Forms.

The acquisition of new vocabulary is usually mediated by previous experience with language. In the visual domain, the representation of orthographically unfamiliar words at the phonological or conceptual levels may facilitate their orthographic learning. The neural correlates of this advantage were investigated by recording EEG activity during reading novel and familiar words across three different experiments ( = 22 each), manipulating the availability of previous knowledge on the novel written words.

Human Gut Microbiota Metabolism of Dietary Sesquiterpene Lactones: Untargeted Metabolomics Study of Lactucopicrin and Lactucin Conversion In Vitro and In Vivo.

Scope: Gut microbiota converts dietary phytochemicals into metabolites and modulates their health effects. The microbial metabolism of dietary terpenoids, as the sesquiterpene lactones of leafy vegetables, is unknown.

Methods And Results: In vitro fermentation of lactucopicrin, lactucin, and romaine lettuce with gut microbiota from independent donors, show their extensive metabolism through untargeted metabolomics of the fecal incubations.

Enhancing Memory for Relationship Actions by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Superior Temporal Sulcus.

We examine the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of right superior temporal sulcus (rSTS) in memorization of approach/avoidance relationship-action sentences; for example, "Alejandro accepted/rejected Marta in his group." Sixty-five university students participated in a tDCS study, in which a between-subjects design was adopted. Sixty-four participants were also given the behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) scales.

Metabolism of different dietary phenolic compounds by the urolithin-producing human-gut bacteria Gordonibacter urolithinfaciens and Ellagibacter isourolithinifaciens.

Gordonibacter urolithinfaciens and Ellagibacter isourolithinifaciens are two human gut bacterial species that convert ellagic acid into urolithins. Urolithins are bioactive postbiotics produced by dehydroxylation reactions catalyzed by different catechol-dehydroxylases. The metabolic ability of these anaerobic bacteria on other dietary-phenolic compounds is unknown.