A comparative investigation on the extraction-function relationship of polysaccharides derived from moringa oleifera seeds in terms of antioxidant capacity.

Owing to the hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory, and other beneficial bioactivities of Moringa oleifera seeds (MOS), the antioxidant activities and physicochemical characteristics of deproteinized polysaccharides extracted using hot water (MSWP) and alkali (MSAP) from MOS were systematically studied. MSAP exhibited higher antioxidant activity than MSWP in vitro. Subsequently, the antioxidant capacity was evaluated after oral administration of MSAP in diabetic rats.

Youth-derived Lactobacillus rhamnosus with prebiotic xylo-oligosaccharide exhibits anti-hyperlipidemic effects as a novel synbiotic.

Changes in dietary patterns and living habits have led to an increasing number of individuals with elevated cholesterol levels. Excessive consumption of high-cholesterol foods can disrupt the body's lipid metabolism. Numerous studies have firmly established the cholesterol-lowering effects of probiotics and prebiotics, with evidence showing that the synergistic use of synbiotics is functionally more potent than using probiotics or prebiotics alone.

Redox-Regulated and Guest-Driven Transformations of Aromatic Oligoamide Foldamers in Advanced Structures.

In this study, we demonstrate that an aromatic oligoamide sequence assembles into a trimeric helix-turn-helix architecture with a disulfide linkage, and upon cleavage of this linkage, it reconstructs into an antiparallel double helix. The antiparallel double helix is accessible to encapsulate a diacid guest within its cavity, forming a 2:1 host-guest complex. In contrast, hydrogen-bonding interactions between the trimeric-assembled structure and guests induce a conformational shift in the trimeric helix, resulting in a cross-shaped double-helix complex at a 2:2 host-guest ratio.

Quantum plasmonics pushes chiral sensing limit to single molecules: a paradigm for chiral biodetections.

Chiral sensing of single molecules is vital for the understanding of chirality and their applications in biomedicine. However, current technologies face severe limitations in achieving single-molecule sensitivity. Here we overcome these limitations by designing a tunable chiral supramolecular plasmonic system made of helical oligoamide sequences (OS) and nanoparticle-on-mirror (NPoM) resonator, which works across the classical and quantum regimes.

Construction of a food-grade gene editing system based on CRISPR-Cas9 and its application in Lactococcus lactis NZ9000.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system has been widely used in gene editing of various organisms. However, food-grade gene editing systems in lactic acid bacteria are still preliminary. Red/ET-dependent homologous recombination or CRISPR-based systems have been developed to gene editing in Lactococcus lactis, but these methods are overall inefficient.

Study on R6-3 from Sayram Ketteki to prevent chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depression in mice through the microbiota-gut-brain axis.

The prevention, mitigation and treatment of depression has become a global issue that needs to be solved urgently. Sayram Ketteki, a traditional natural fermented yoghurt from the region with the world's fourth highest life expectancy, has been known as the "longevity secret", whose longevity and anti-depression factors are speculated to come from its rich microorganisms. Therefore, for the first time, we systematically studied in depth the microbes of Sayram Ketteki, screened a new edible probiotic strain, R6-3, and explored its anti-depression effect in chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depression in mice.

Copper inhibits postacidification of yogurt and affects its flavor: A study based on the Cop operon.

Yogurt and its related products are popular worldwide. During transportation and storage, Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus in yogurt continues to metabolize to form lactic acid, the postacidification phenomenon of yogurt.

Niacin inhibits post-acidification of yogurt based on the mining of LDB_RS00370 biomarker gene.

The post-acidification of yogurt results in short shelf life, undesirable flavor, and sour taste, making it unacceptable to consumers. Many scholars have proposed several solutions to this problem. However, the existing methods of inhibiting post-acidification cannot fundamentally solve this problem.

Mechanism of gastrointestinal adaptability and antioxidant function of infant-derived BF_15 through genomics.

Unlabelled: is an essential probiotic in the human gastrointestinal tract. BF_15, a functional probiotic isolated from the feces of breast-fed infants, has been reported in many in vitro and in vivo studies with strong gastrointestinal adaptability and outstanding anti-oxidative activities. Therefore, the whole genome of BF_15 was sequenced.

Switching plasmonic nanogaps between classical and quantum regimes with supramolecular interactions.

In the realm of extreme nanophotonics, nanogap plasmons support reliable field enhancements up to 1000, which provide unique opportunities to access a single molecule for strong coupling and a single atom for quantum catalysis. The quantum plasmonics are intriguing but difficult to modulate largely because of the lack of proper spacers that can reversibly actuate the sub-1-nm gaps. Here, we demonstrate that supramolecular systems made of oligoamide sequences can reversibly switch the gap plasmons of Au nanoparticles on mirror between classical and quantum tunneling regimes via supramolecular interactions.

Global transcriptomic analysis of subsp ATCC11842 reveals the role of in the post-acidification of yogurt.

During the storage of yogurt, acid-resistant bacteria continue to produce lactic acid (, post-acidification process), leading to undesirable taste and flavor. Many methods have been proposed to inhibit post-acidification. However, the specific genes involved during this biological process have not yet been systematically studied.

Macrocyclic Aromatic Amide Foldamer: Synthesis, Twisted-to-Boxlike Conformational Switching, and Molecular Recognition.

In this study, a twisted macrocycle was synthesized via ring closure of a double-helical aromatic oligoamide foldamer with two disulfide bridges. Single-crystal X-ray structure and NMR spectroscopy demonstrate the twisted conformation of macrocycle both in the solid state and in solution. As a result of the rearrangement of hydrogen bonding preference, the twisted conformation could be transformed to boxlike through protonation of the pyridine segments of macrocycle.

A Disulfide Switch Providing Absolute Handedness Control in Double Helices via Conversion from the Antiparallel to Parallel Helical Pattern.

A strategy to reversibly switch the parallel/antiparallel helical conformation of aromatic double helices through the formation/breakage of a disulfide bond is presented. Single-crystal X-ray structures, NMR, and circular dichroism spectroscopy demonstrate that the double helices with terminal thiol groups favor an antiparallel helical arrangement both in the solid state and in solution, while the P/M bias of helicity induced by chiral segments from another extremity of the sequence is weak in this structural motif. The antiparallel helices can be rearranged to parallel helices through the disulfide connection of the sequences.

Lactulose significantly increased the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium and Blautia in mice feces as revealed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.

Background: Lactulose was one of the earliest prebiotics to be identified. To assess the potential risk of large intakes of lactulose to the intestinal microbiota, mice were fed a diet containing lactulose (0%, 5% and 15%, w/w) for 2 weeks and the changes in the fecal microbiota were evaluated by 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing.

Results: Lactulose intervention decreased the α-diversity of the fecal microbiota in both low-dose and high-dose groups.

Absolute handedness control of oligoamide double helices by chiral oxazolylaniline induction.

Aromatic oligoamide double helices bearing a chiral oxazolylaniline moiety at the C-terminus were synthesized and their helix handedness was completely controlled (de > 99%). The absolute helix sense and the de values were evaluated by using H NMR, X-ray crystallography, and circular dichroism (CD). Using crystal structure analysis, the high efficiency of helix handedness induction was attributed to the close location of the asymmetric carbon center to the helix orbits via intramolecular hydrogen bonding.

Enhanced Efficacy of Gefitinib in Drug-Sensitive and Drug-Resistant Cancer Cell Lines after Arming with a Singlet Oxygen Releasing Moiety.

Attractive results have been achieved with small-molecule target-based drugs in the anticancer field; however, enhancing their treatment effect and solving the problem of drug resistance remain key concerns worldwide. Inspired by the specific affinity of gefitinib for tumour cells and the strong oxidation capacity of singlet oxygen, we combined a chemically generated singlet oxygen moiety with the small-molecule targeted drug gefitinib to improve its anticancer effect. We designed and synthesised a novel compound (Y5-1), in which a small-molecule targeted therapy agent (gefitinib) and a singlet oxygen (provided by an in vitro photodynamic reaction) thermally controlled releasing moiety are covalently conjugated.

Quadruple hybridization of quinoline-triazole oligomers.

A series of quinoline-triazole oligomers and their quadruple helical structures are demonstrated. The helical folding is mainly induced by the intramolecular hydrogen bonds, and solvophobic effects impel the aggregation, causing the quadruplex to be more stable in DMSO than in CDCl3 by four orders of magnitude. As a proof of concept, our studies reveal a tetramerization mechanism in which the single sequences first hybridize to dimers, and then two such dimers further aggregate into a quadruplex.

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Targeted Delivery of a Singlet-Oxygen Sensitizer with Thermal Controlled Release for Efficient Anticancer Therapy.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) utilizing light-induced singlet oxygen has achieved attractive results in anticancer fields; however, its development is hindered by limited light penetration depth, skin phototoxicity, tumor hypoxia, and PDT-induced hypoxia. Inspired by our previous research work and the limitations of PDT, we introduce a small-molecule-targeted drug erlotinib into the singlet-oxygen chemical source endoperoxide to achieve an EGFR-targeted PDT-mimetic sensitizer () for anticancer therapy. We demonstrated the erlotinib-based precise delivery of the singlet-oxygen chemical source (in vitro photosensitization) to EFGR-overexpressing tumor cells and tissues.

Potential Functions of the Gastrointestinal Microbiome Inhabiting the Length of the Rat Digest Tract.

The rat is an important model animal used frequently in biological researches exploring the correlations between gut microbiome and a wide array of diseases. In this study, we used an extended ancestral-state reconstruction algorithm to predict the functional capabilities of the rat gastrointestinal microbiome. Our results indicate an apparent tendency toward metabolic heterogeneity along the longitudinal and transverse axes of the rat gastrointestinal tract (GIT).

Automatic microarray image segmentation with clustering-based algorithms.

Image segmentation, as a key step of microarray image processing, is crucial for obtaining the spot expressions simultaneously. However, state-of-art clustering-based segmentation algorithms are sensitive to noises. To solve this problem and improve the segmentation accuracy, in this article, several improvements are introduced into the fast and simple clustering methods (K-means and Fuzzy C means).

Ultralow thermal conductivity of turbostratically disordered MoSe ultra-thin films and implications for heterostructures.

Films containing 8, 16, 24, 32 and 64 MoSe layers were synthesized using the modulated elemental reactants method. X-ray reflectivity patterns showed that the annealed films were the targeted number of MoSe layers thick with atomically smooth interfaces. In-plane x-ray diffraction (XRD) scans contained only hk0 reflections for crystalline MoSe monolayers.

In vitro fermentation of raffinose by the human gut bacteria.

Raffinose has become a major focus of research interest and recent studies have shown that besides beneficial bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecium and Streptococcus pneumoniae can also utilize raffinose and raffinose might lead to flatulence in some hosts. Therefore, it is required to find out the raffinose-metabolizing bacteria in the gut and the bacteria responsible for the flatulence. The BLASTP search results showed that the homologous proteins of glycosidases related to raffinose utilization are widely distributed in 196 of the 528 gut bacterial strains.

Effects of Different Doses of Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) on the Composition of Mice Fecal Microbiota, Especially the Bifidobacterium Composition.

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are a well-known class of prebiotic and are considered to selectively stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria in the gut. Previous studies focused on the growth stimulation of , but they did not further investigate the bifidobacterial composition and the specific species that were stimulated. In this study, mice were fed with FOS in different doses for four weeks and the composition of fecal microbiota, in particular , was analyzed by sequencing the V3⁻V4 region and the gene on the MiSeq platform, respectively.

Regulatory interactions between long noncoding RNA LINC00968 and miR-9-3p in non-small cell lung cancer: A bioinformatic analysis based on miRNA microarray, GEO and TCGA.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to mediate carcinogenesis in various types of cancer. However, the regulatory role of lncRNA LINC00968 in lung adenocarcinoma remains unclear. The microRNA (miRNA) expression in LINC00968-overexpressing human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells was detected using miRNA microarray analysis.