Myricetin affords protection against peroxynitrite-mediated DNA damage and hydroxyl radical formation.

Peroxynitrite has been extensively implicated in the pathogenesis of various forms of neurodegenerative disorders via its cytotoxic effects, this study was undertaken to investigate whether the neuroprotective effect of myricetin is associated with inhibition of peroxynitrite-mediated DNA damage, a critical event leading to peroxynitrite elicited cytotoxicity. We observed that peroxynitrite can cause DNA damage in ϕX-174 plasmid DNA and rat primary astrocytes. The presence of myricetin at physiological concentration was found to significantly inhibit DNA strand breakage induced by both peroxynitrite and its generator 3-morpholinosydnonimine (SIN-1).

Electron-beam inactivation of a norovirus surrogate in fresh produce and model systems.

Norovirus remains the leading cause of foodborne illness, but there is no effective intervention to eliminate viral contaminants in fresh produce. Murine norovirus 1 (MNV-1) was inoculated in either 100 ml of liquid or 100 g of food. The inactivation of MNV-1 by electron-beam (e-beam), or high-energy electrons, at varying doses was measured in model systems (phosphate-buffered saline [PBS], Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium [DMEM]) or from fresh foods (shredded cabbage, diced strawberries).

Protein-network modeling of prostate cancer gene signatures reveals essential pathways in disease recurrence.

Objective: Uncovering the dominant molecular deregulation among the multitude of pathways implicated in aggressive prostate cancer is essential to intelligently developing targeted therapies. Paradoxically, published prostate cancer gene expression signatures of poor prognosis share little overlap and thus do not reveal shared mechanisms. The authors hypothesize that, by analyzing gene signatures with quantitative models of protein-protein interactions, key pathways will be elucidated and shown to be shared.

Integrated application of nitric oxide and modified atmosphere packaging to improve quality retention of button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus).

Button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) were dipped for 10min in different concentrations (0.5, 1, and 2mM) of 2,2'-(hydroxynitrosohydrazino)-bisethanamine (DETANO), a nitric oxide donor, then packed in biorientated polypropylene (BOPP) bags, heat sealed and stored at 4°C for 16days (d). Mushroom weight loss, firmness, colour, percent open caps, total phenolics, ascorbic acid and H2O2 contents, superoxide anion (O2(-)) production rate and activities of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) were measured.

Temporal genetic variability and host sources of Escherichia coli associated with fecal pollution from domesticated animals in the shellfish culture environment of Xiangshan Bay, East China Sea.

This study was conducted to analyze the genetic variability of Escherichia coli from domesticated animal wastes for microbial source tracking (MST) application in fecal contaminated shellfish growing waters of Xiangshan Bay, East China Sea. (GTG)(5) primer was used to generate 1363 fingerprints from E. coli isolated from feces of known 9 domesticated animal sources around this shellfish culture area.

Enhanced removal of a human norovirus surrogate from fresh vegetables and fruits by a combination of surfactants and sanitizers.

Fruits and vegetables are major vehicles for transmission of food-borne enteric viruses since they are easily contaminated at pre- and postharvest stages and they undergo little or no processing. However, commonly used sanitizers are relatively ineffective for removing human norovirus surrogates from fresh produce. In this study, we systematically evaluated the effectiveness of surfactants on removal of a human norovirus surrogate, murine norovirus 1 (MNV-1), from fresh produce.

Aberrant upregulation of astroglial ceramide potentiates oligodendrocyte injury.

Oligodendroglial injury is a pathological hallmark of many human white matter diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and periventricular leukomalacia (PVL). Critical regulatory mechanisms of oligodendroglia destruction, however, remain incompletely understood. Ceramide, a bioactive sphingolipid pivotal to sphingolipid metabolism pathways, regulates cell death in response to diverse stimuli and has been implicated in neurodegenerative disorders.

Effect of tea polyphenols on microbiological and biochemical quality of Collichthys fish ball.

Background: Tea polyphenols (TP), as the most active constituents of tea, are considered natural food additives. This study examined the preservative properties of TP for Collichthys fish ball in well storage. Vacuum-packed Collichthys fish balls were treated with 0, 0.

Inactivation of a human norovirus surrogate, human norovirus virus-like particles, and vesicular stomatitis virus by gamma irradiation.

Gamma irradiation is a nonthermal processing technology that has been used for the preservation of a variety of food products. This technology has been shown to effectively inactivate bacterial pathogens. Currently, the FDA has approved doses of up to 4.

GO-Module: functional synthesis and improved interpretation of Gene Ontology patterns.

Unlabelled: GO-Module is a web-accessible synthesis and visualization tool developed for end-user biologists to greatly simplify the interpretation of prioritized Gene Ontology (GO) terms. GO-Module radically reduces the complexity of raw GO results into compact biomodules in two distinct ways, by (i) constructing biomodules from significant GO terms based on hierarchical knowledge, and (ii) refining the GO terms in each biomodule to contain only true positive results. Altogether, the features (biomodules) of GO-Module outputs are better organized and on average four times smaller than the input GO terms list (P = 0.

Biomolecular Systems of Disease Buried Across Multiple GWAS Unveiled by Information Theory and Ontology.

A key challenge for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) is to understand how single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) mechanistically underpin complex diseases. While this challenge has been addressed partially by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment of large list of host genes of SNPs prioritized in GWAS, these enrichment have not been formally evaluated. Here, we develop a novel computational approach anchored in information theoretic similarity, by systematically mining lists of host genes of SNPs prioritized in three adult-onset diabetes mellitus GWAS.

Evaluation of an Ontology-anchored Natural Language-based Approach for Asserting Multi-scale Biomolecular Networks for Systems Medicine.

The ability to adequately and efficiently integrate unstructured, heterogeneous datasets, which are incumbent to systems biology and medicine, is one of the primary limitations to their comprehensive analysis. Natural language processing (NLP) and biomedical ontologies are automated methods for capturing, standardizing and integrating information across diverse sources, including narrative text. We have utilized the BioMedLEE NLP system to extract and encode, using standard ontologies (e.

Differentiation of fecal Escherichia coli from human, livestock, and poultry sources by rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting on the shellfish culture area of East China Sea.

The rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting performed with REP, BOX A1R, and (GTG)(5) primers was investigated as a way to differentiate between human, livestock, and poultry sources of fecal pollution on the area of Xiangshan Bay, East China Sea. Of the three methods, the BOX-PCR DNA fingerprints analyzed by jack-knife algorithm were revealed high rate of correct classification (RCC) with 91.30, 80.

Vesicular stomatitis virus as a vector to deliver virus-like particles of human norovirus: a new vaccine candidate against an important noncultivable virus.

Human norovirus (HuNoV) is a major causative agent of food-borne gastroenteritis worldwide. Currently, there are no vaccines or effective therapeutic interventions for this virus. Development of an attenuated vaccine for HuNoV has been hampered by the inability to grow the virus in cell culture.

[(Me)2NH2](0.75)[Ag(1.25)SnSe3]: a three-dimensionally microporous chalcogenide exhibiting framework flexibility upon ion-exchange.

A microporous silver-selenidostannate, namely [(Me)(2)NH(2)](0.75)[Ag(1.25)SnSe(3)], has been solvothermally synthesized in the presence of in situ-generated dimethylammonium cation.

Inactivation of a human norovirus surrogate by high-pressure processing: effectiveness, mechanism, and potential application in the fresh produce industry.

Fresh produce is often a high-risk food for norovirus contamination because it can become contaminated at both preharvest and postharvest stages and it undergoes minimal or no processing. Currently, there is no effective method to eliminate the viruses from fresh produce. This study systematically investigated the effectiveness of high-pressure processing (HPP) on inactivating murine norovirus (MNV-1), a surrogate for human norovirus, in aqueous medium and fresh produce.

[Comparative study of effect of Magnolia officinalis and M. officinalis var. biloba on gastrointestinal motility dysfunction].

Objective: To compare the effect of Magnolia officinalis and M. officinalis var. biloba on gastrointestinal motility dysfunction.

Ligand bridging-angle-driven assembly of molecular architectures based on quadruply bonded Mo-Mo dimers.

A systematic exploration of the assembly of Mo2(O2C-)4-based metal-organic molecular architectures structurally controlled by the bridging angles of rigid organic linkers has been performed. Twelve bridging dicarboxylate ligands were designed to be of different sizes with bridging angles of 0, 60, 90, and 120° while incorporating a variety of nonbridging functional groups, and these ligands were used as linkers. These dicarboxylate linkers assemble with quadruply bonded Mo-Mo clusters acting as nodes to give 13 molecular architectures, termed metal-organic polygons/polyhedra with metal cluster node arrangements of a linear shape, triangle, octahedron, and cuboctahedron/anti-cuboctahedron.

Functional mesoporous metal-organic frameworks for the capture of heavy metal ions and size-selective catalysis.

By using Zn(4)O(CO(2))(6) as secondary building units (SBUs) and two extended ligands containing amino functional groups, TATAB and BTATB (TATAB = 4,4',4''-s-triazine-1,3,5-triyltri-p-aminobenzoate and BTATB = 4,4',4''-(benzene-1,3,5-triyltris(azanediyl))tribenzoate), two isostructural mesoporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with cavities up to 2.73 nm, designated as PCN-100 and PCN-101 (PCN represents porous coordination network), have been synthesized. N(2) sorption isotherms of both PCN-100 and -101 showed typical type IV behavior, indicating their mesoporous nature.

Induction of apoptosis in human colon carcinoma COLO 205 cells by the recombinant α subunit of C-phycocyanin.

The α-subunit of C-phycocyanin (CpcA) was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. The recombinant CpcA inhibited the growth of human colon carcinoma COLO 205 cells. Typical apoptotic morphological characteristics, such as chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation, were observed in CpcA-treated COLO 205 cells by fluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.

A HPLC-UV method for the determination of puerarin in rat plasma after intravenous administration of PEGylated puerarin conjugate.

A sensitive and reproducible HPLC method for quantitative determination of puerarin (PUE) in rat plasma was developed and validated using 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde as an internal standard. The separation of PUE was performed on a CAPCELL PAK C18 column by gradient elution with 0.2% aqueous phosphoric acid and acetonitrile as the mobile phase.

Astrocytes promote TNF-mediated toxicity to oligodendrocyte precursors.

Neuroinflammation and increased production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in the CNS have been implicated in many neurological diseases including white matter disorders periventricular leukomalacia and multiple sclerosis. However, the exact role of TNF in these diseases and how it mediates oligodendrocyte injury remain unclear. Previously, we demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) selectively kills oligodendrocyte precursors (preOLs) in a non-cell autonomous fashion through the induction of TNF in mixed glial cultures.

Effects of chitosan nanoparticles on survival, growth and meat quality of tilapia, Oreochromis nilotica.

To evaluate the effect of dietary chitosan and chitosan nanoparticles on survival rate, growth performance and meat quality of tilapia (Oreochromis nilotica) under laboratory conditions, fish were fed with these compounds both at 5.0 g kg(-1) of diet for a period of 60 days. The addition of chitosan nanoparticles (T-2) significantly improved (P < 0.

Identification of aromatic amino acid residues in conserved region VI of the large polymerase of vesicular stomatitis virus is essential for both guanine-N-7 and ribose 2'-O methyltransferases.

Non-segmented negative-sense RNA viruses possess a unique mechanism for mRNA cap methylation. For vesicular stomatitis virus, conserved region VI in the large (L) polymerase protein catalyzes both guanine-N-7 (G-N-7) and ribose 2'-O (2'-O) methyltransferases, and the two methylases share a binding site for the methyl donor S-adenosyl-l-methionine. Unlike conventional mRNA cap methylation, the 2'-O methylation of VSV precedes subsequent G-N-7 methylation.

Tea polyphenols inhibit Pseudomonas aeruginosa through damage to the cell membrane.

This paper aims to delineate the inhibition mechanism of tea polyphenols (TP) toward Pseudomonas aeruginosa by cell membrane damage. Morphological changes in bacteria treated with TP were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, with results indicating that the primary inhibitory action of TP is to damage bacterial cell membranes. TP also increased the permeability of the outer and inner membranes of P.