Publications by authors named "Y Yawata"

Lipids comprise a significant fraction of sinking organic matter in the ocean and play a crucial role in the carbon cycle. Despite this, our understanding of the processes that control lipid degradation is limited. We combined nanolipidomics and imaging to study the bacterial degradation of diverse algal lipid droplets and found that bacteria isolated from marine particles exhibited distinct dietary preferences, ranging from selective to promiscuous degraders.

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Effective treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) have long been needed. One hypothesis for the mechanism of depression involves a decrease in neuroactive steroids such as allopregnanolone, an endogenous positive allosteric modulator of the γ-aminobutyric acid-gated chloride channel (GABA) receptor. In our previous study, we discovered that allopregnanolone, not diazepam, exhibited antidepressant-like effects in the social interaction test (SIT) of social defeat stress (SDS) model mice.

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Article Synopsis
  • Zuranolone (SAGE-217) is a neuroactive steroid that shows quick and effective antidepressant effects, unlike benzodiazepines, which are not approved for MDD treatment but target different GABA receptors.
  • A study comparing allopregnanolone (another neuroactive steroid) and diazepam (a benzodiazepine) found that only allopregnanolone had antidepressant-like effects in stressed mice, linked to increases in certain brain activity and inhibition mechanisms not seen with diazepam.
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The pungent component of sansho (Japanese pepper, ) is sanshool, which is easily oxidized and decomposed. We have previously reported several sanshool stabilizers, such as α-tocopherol (α-Toc). Sansho pericarp powder treated with middle-chain triglycerides (MCTs) can be used to obtain extracts containing hydroxy-α-sanshool (HαS).

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Japanese pepper (sansho, ) contains several types of sanshools belonging to -alkylamides. Because of the long-chain unsaturated fatty acids present in their structure, sanshools are prone to oxidative deterioration, which poses problems in processing. In this paper, we evaluated the effects of antioxidants from the genus in preventing sanshool degradation using accelerated tests.

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