Publications by authors named "Jucai Xu"

Polysaccharide-protein complexes have proven to be effective nano-carrier with high stability. In this work, walnut protein hydrolysates (WPH) prepared through limited enzymolysis were considered as encapsulation carriers to solve the limited water solubility and bioavailability of icariin, a bioactive compound in functional foods. The pH-driven method was employed to prepare WPH-icariin nanoparticles (WPHI).

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Macrophage polarization is a key process involved in wound healing. The continuous release of proinflammatory cytokines by macrophages inhibits the healing process of chronic wounds, such as diabetic wounds. To promote wound healing, it is important to change the phenotype of resident macrophages to prevent inflammation.

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Article Synopsis
  • UV exposure damages skin and can lead to serious conditions like skin cancer, highlighting the importance of protection methods like sunscreen.
  • Researchers developed l-cysteine-derived carbon dots (GLCDs) that effectively absorb a wide range of UV radiation (99% for UVC, 97% for UVB, and 86% for UVA) at a low concentration.
  • GLCDs not only reduce skin damage and aging in zebrafish but also enhance collagen production and inhibit cell aging, showing potential for future UV protection applications.
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Longan ( Lour.) is a kind of traditional fruit used as a medicine and a food. Fresh longan is primarily consumed as a fruit, whereas dried longan is commonly employed for medicinal purposes.

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Short peptides have become the focus of recent research due to their variable bioactivities, good digestibility and wide existences in food-derived protein hydrolysates. However, due to the high complexity of the samples, identifying short peptides still remains a challenge. In this work, a tool, named PeposX-Exhaust, was developed for short peptide identification.

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Douchi is a kind of traditional Chinese fermented soybean product with outstanding umami taste. Besides the umami amino acids in Douchi, peptides were also considered as an important contributor for the umami taste of Douchi. Peptides with molecular weight below 0.

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Previous studies have demonstrated that thermal processing in the presence of lactate and amino acids can produce taste-active -lactoyl amino acids. This study aimed to investigate the impact of lactate and thermal processing on the sensory characteristics of acid-hydrolyzed vegetable proteins (aHVP). The results showed that the processed aHVP exhibited enhanced , a milder umami taste, and reduced bitterness on treatment with 1% lactate at 110 °C for 3 h or 3% lactate at 120 °C for 2 h compared to the unprocessed samples.

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Food-derived antioxidant peptides have become the focus of research due to their high safety and low cost. However, the discovery is suffering from a low efficient and empirical approach, involving multi-step off-line separation and identification. In this work, an on-line stop-flow RPLC × SEC-MS/DPPH radical scavenging activity analysis system was developed.

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Background: The demand for food-based anti-photoaging products is surging because of the rising recognition of health and beauty, as well as enhanced comprehension of the detrimental impact of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This study aimed to investigate the potential of bioactive peptides derived from bovine elastin, specifically focusing on identifying novel elastase inhibitory peptides and assessing their photoprotective properties using bioinformatics techniques.

Results: A total of 48 bioactive peptides were screened in bovine elastin hydrolysate (EH) utilizing Peptide Ranker analysis.

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An active polysaccharide (LP) from longan was purified and characterized. LP consisted of galactose and glucose in a molar ratio of 1.5: 98.

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Article Synopsis
  • A deep eutectic solvent (ChCl-urea) was used to extract flavonoids from leaves, achieving an extraction efficiency of 63.2 mg R/g DW under optimal conditions (1:60 g/mL ratio, 80 min, 80 °C).
  • Nine flavonoids were identified, with the extracted flavonoids (FL) demonstrating superior antioxidant activity compared to positive control drugs like vitamin C, and exhibiting strong antibacterial and anti-tumor activities.
  • Microcapsules made from xylose-modified soybean protein isolate and gelatin significantly enhanced the intestinal release of flavonoids, indicating their potential application in the food industry.
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-Lactoyl-amino acid derivatives (-Lac-AAs) are of increasing interest as potential taste-active compounds. The complexity and diversity of -Lac-AAs pose a significant challenge to the effective discovery of taste-active -Lac-AAs. Therefore, a structure-based virtual screening was used to identify taste-active -Lac-AAs.

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Food-derived bioactive peptides have many outstanding features like high safety, easy absorption, etc. However, explorations of the peptides are suffering from the limited knowledge of sample composition and low efficiency of separation techniques. In this work, a fast stop-flow two-dimensional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (2DLC-MS) was designed and constructed in-house.

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Glycyrrhetinic acid is a bioactive compound extracted from licorice that exhibits inhibition effect on various cancers. However, its hydrophobicity results in low bioavailability that limits application. We aim to overcome this barrier, the present research was performed to prepare glycyrrhetinic acid proliposomes mediated mannosylated ligand (mannose-diester lauric diacid-cholesterol, MDC) and to evaluate its physicochemical characterizations, environmental stability and bioactivity.

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The human specific gene ARHGAP11B is preferentially expressed in neural progenitors of fetal neocortex and plays a key role in the evolutionary expansion of the neocortex. Here, we generated a homozygous ARHGAP11B knockout human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line through CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system. ARHGAP11B deficient cell line maintained a normal karyotype (46, XX), expressed pluripotency markers, and showed the capability to spontaneously differentiate into all three germ layers in vivo.

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The bioactive peptide PAYCS (Pro-Ala-Tyr-Cys-Ser) identified from anchovy hydrolysates has been reported to be positive in memory alleviation. The gut microbiota-brain axis plays a vital role in brain functions, which could be affected by nutritional supplementation. Herein, we found that PAYCS at different concentrations (PAYCS-L and PAYCS-H) showed various improving effects in behavioral tests and alleviation effects on oxidative as well as inflammatory stress in the scopolamine-induced AD mouse model.

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A novel immunomodulatory polysaccharide (LP4) with a molecular weight 6.31 × 10 g/mol was purified from fresh longan pulp. It was composed of mannose, glucose, glucuronic acid, galactose, xylose, arabinose, galacturonic acid, fucose, and rhamnose in a molar percentage of 36:31:10:7:4:4:3:2:2, and mainly linked by (1→6)--Man, (1→4)--Glc and (1→6)--Glc.

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In this work, an improved algorithm was developed for two-dimensional (2D) peak detection in complex two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC×LC) data sets. In the first step, conventional one-dimensional peak detection was performed. In the second step, retention time, bidirectional overlap and unimodality criteria were applied to decide which of the individual peaks should be merged.

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Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) with wide application in peptide analysis presents challenges in determination of molecular weight distribution due to the relatively low resolution. In this study, a stop-flow reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) × SEC system was constructed, aiming at improving the peptide separation in SEC. As the chromatographic dispersion during stop-flow operation might contribute to the band broadening in the first dimension (1st D) RPLC, the effects of different stop-flow operational parameters on the additional band broadening were quantitatively evaluated.

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A walnut protein hydrolysate (WPH) was prepared by using a mixture of pancreatin and viscozyme L from industrially available defatted walnut meal. The antioxidant effects of WPH were confirmed and quantified by reducing power, oxygen radical absorbance capacity, hydroxyl radical radical-scavenging activity and ABTS· radical-scavenging activity assays. The protective effects of WPH on scopolamine-induced learning and memory deficits in mice were also evaluated based on in vivo behavioral tests.

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The need to improve the peak capacity of liquid chromatography motivates the development of two-dimensional analysis systems. This paper presented a fully automated stop-flow two-dimensional liquid chromatography system with size exclusion chromatography followed by reversed phase liquid chromatography (SEC×RPLC) to efficiently separate peptides. The effects of different stop-flow operational parameters (stop-flow time, peak parking position, number of stop-flow periods and column temperature) on band broadening in the first dimension (1 D) SEC column were quantitatively evaluated by using commercial small proteins and peptides.

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