Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of orally administrated imidazole dipeptides in carnosine synthase gene knockout mice.

Imidazole dipeptides (ID) are abundant in skeletal muscle and the brain and have various functions, such as antioxidant, pH-buffering, metal-ion chelation. However, the physiological significance of ID has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we orally administered ID to conventional carnosine synthase gene-deficient mice (Carns-KO mice) to investigate the pharmacokinetics.

The Steroidal Alkaloid Tomatidine and Tomatidine-Rich Tomato Leaf Extract Suppress the Human Gastric Cancer-Derived 85As2 Cells In Vitro and In Vivo via Modulation of Interferon-Stimulated Genes.

The steroidal alkaloid tomatidine is an aglycone of α-tomatine, which is abundant in tomato leaves and has several biological activities. Tomatidine has been reported to inhibit the growth of cultured cancer cells in vitro, but its anti-cancer activity in vivo and inhibitory effect against gastric cancer cells remain unknown. We investigated the efficacy of tomatidine using human gastric cancer-derived 85As2 cells and its tumor-bearing mouse model and evaluated the effect of tomatidine-rich tomato leaf extract (TRTLE) obtained from tomato leaves.

Anserine, HClO-scavenger, protected against cognitive decline in individuals with mild cognitive impairment.

Neuroinflammation has been recognized as a promising target when considering strategies for treating AD. In particular, it has been shown that neutrophils and MPO-mediated neuroinflammatory responses with the production of HClO play a role in the progression of AD. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of anserine, a scavenger of HClO, on the protection of cognitive declines in persons with MCI.

Effect of a dipeptide-enriched diet in an adult Drosophila melanogaster laboratory strain.

Here we present free amino acid profiles for Drosophila melanogaster adults. Imidazol dipeptides anserine and carnosine, which are abundant in mammalian muscle tissue, are not present in Drosophila. Dipeptide-enriched food altered the amino acid balance, suggesting that the free amino acid content is nutrition-dependent and probably mediated by dipeptides.

Antioxidant combination inhibits reactive oxygen species mediated damage.

We examined the preventive activity of naturally occurring antioxidants against three reactive oxygen species using a protein degradation assay. The hydroxyl, hypochlorite, and peroxynitrite radicals are typical reactive oxygen species generated in human body. Previously, we found that hydrophobic botanical antioxidants exhibited specific antioxidant activity against hydroxyl radicals, whereas anserine and carnosine mixture, purified from chicken extract and vitamin C, exhibited antioxidant activities against hypochlorite and peroxynitrite radicals respectively.