Publications by authors named "Jacob Veenstra"

Ovarian cancer is a highly aggressive disease with poor survival rates in part due to diagnosis after dissemination throughout the peritoneal cavity. It is well-known that inflammatory signals affect ovarian cancer dissemination. Inflammation is a hallmark of cellular senescence, a stable cell cycle arrest induced by a variety of stimuli including many of the therapies used to treat patients with ovarian cancer.

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Natural food preservatives in the form of herb extracts and spices are increasing in popularity due to their potential to replace synthetic compounds traditionally used as food preservatives. Rosemary ( is an herb that has been traditionally used as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic agent, and currently is being studied for anti-cancer and hepatoprotective properties. Rosemary also has been reported to be an effective food preservative due to its high anti-oxidant and anti-microbial activities.

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Rosemary (Salvia Rosmarinus) is a rich source of dietary diterpenes with carnosol as one of the major polyphenols used to standardize rosemary extracts approved as a food preservative, however, at present there is not any information on the murine pharmacokinetic profile of carnosol or its potential for drug interactions. The present study utilizes cell-free, cell-based, and animal-based experiments to define the pharmacokinetic profile of the food based phytochemical carnosol. Mice were administered carnosol (100 mg/kg body weight) by oral gavage and plasma levels were analyzed by LC-MS/MS to establish a detailed pharmacokinetic profile.

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Rosemary extract (RE) is an approved food preservative in the European Union and contains dietary phytochemicals that are beneficial for gastrointestinal health. This study investigated the effects of RE on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis and also determined the pharmacokinetics of dietary phytochemicals administered to mice via oral gavage. Individual components of rosemary extract were separated and identified by LC-MS/MS.

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Plant-derived natural products (NPs) with electrophilic functional groups engage various subsets of the proteome via covalent modification of nucleophilic cysteine residues. This electrophile-nucleophile interaction can change protein conformation, alter protein function, and modulate their biological action. The biological significance of these covalent protein modifications in health and disease is increasingly recognized.

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Uncontrolled regulation of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) has negative implications in many cancers and malignancies and has recently led to the approval of select CDK inhibitors. Herein we present data reporting that xanthones, a class of compounds isolated from the purple mangosteen () fruit, can inhibit CDK2/CyclinE1. We evaluated nine different xanthones, including α-mangostin, β-mangostin, γ-mangostin, gartanin, 8-desoxygartanin, garcinone C, garcinone D, 9-hydroxycalabaxanthone, and 3-isomangostin for toxicity in 22Rν1 (prostate cancer cells) and MDA-MB-231 (breast cancer cells).

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The mangosteen fruit is a popular Southeast Asian fruit consumed for centuries. There have been a variety of xanthones isolated from the fruit, bark, roots and leaves with each having unique chemical and physical properties. Previously, the most abundant xanthone α-mangostin has been shown to inhibit CDK4.

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The Mediterranean diet has long been known to provide a variety of health benefits such as cardiovascular protection, cancer prevention, and lowering gastrointestinal inflammation. Oregano () is an herb prominent in the Mediterranean diet, and has been shown to possess several bioactive properties including anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic properties. The anti-oxidant and anti-microbial properties of oregano also make it a strong candidate as a natural food preservative.

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Background: Rosemary is abundant with phytochemicals and has recently been approved as an antioxidant food preservative in the European Union. The safety of rosemary is well established, however, the benefits on gastrointestinal health are less known. Our overall hypothesis is that the phytochemicals in rosemary including carnosol have the potential to promote gastrointestinal health by activation of the antioxidant sestrin-2 when consumed in our diet.

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The efficiency of social housing providers is a contentious issue. In the Netherlands, there is a widespread belief that housing corporations have substantial potential for efficiency improvements. A related question is whether scale influences efficiency, since recent decades have shown a trend of mergers among corporations.

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