Food-based biomaterials: pH-responsive alginate/gellan gum/carboxymethyl cellulose hydrogel beads for lactoferrin delivery.

The present study utilizes a combination of sodium alginate (Alg), gellan gum (GG), and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to fabricate a ternary composite hydrogel system to encapsulate and release lactoferrin (LF). Rheological properties as well as extensive microscopy and spectroscopy characterization are performed on these materials demonstrating that the physical properties of the resultant hydrogels, such as particle size, water content, gray value, and shrinkage rate were related to the concentration of Alg. In addition, most of these hydrogels were found to have reticulated shells and inner laminar structures assembled based on hydrogen bonding and electrostatic forces.

BrainPepPass: A Framework Based on Supervised Dimensionality Reduction for Predicting Blood-Brain Barrier-Penetrating Peptides.

Peptides that pass through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) not only are implicated in brain-related pathologies but also are promising therapeutic tools for treating brain diseases, e.g., as shuttles carrying active medicines across the BBB.

Bacterial Quorum-Sensing Peptides as Immune Modulators Present in Systemic Circulation.

Quorum-sensing peptides (QSPs) are bacterial peptides traditionally considered only as inter-bacterial communication molecules. Recently, their involvement in microbiome-host interactions influencing host diseases such as cancer and sarcopenia were explored. However, it is still unknown to what extent these peptides have the potential to modulate the immune system.