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Circulating uncarboxylated matrix Gla protein (ucMGP) is possibly related to coronary arterial calcification (CAC) in cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. We aimed to evaluate the relationships between circulating ucMGP, CVD pathology and CAC and its interplay with CVD risk factors. ucMGP was measured in 99 CVD-patients. CAC score was determined by multislice computed tomography. Circulating ucMGP, uncarboxylated (ucOC) and carboxylated osteocalcin (cOC) were assayed by ELISA kits. Vitamin-K status was evaluated by ucOC/cOC ratio. A tendency for decreased ucMGP was observed for CAC ≥ 100 AU vs. CAC = 1-99 AU after exclusion of the patients on vitamin K-antagonist anticoagulants. Significant inverse correlations between ucMGP and vitamin-K status were indicated for the entire cohort and according to CAC score. Significant associations were found between ucMGP and risk factors for CVD. Circulating ucMGP may reflect certain stages of CVD and CAC. Future studies are needed to clarify its role as potential biomarker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rutin is one of the most common dietary polyphenols found in vegetables, fruits, and other plants. It is metabolized by the mammalian gut microbiota and absorbed from the intestines, and becomes bioavailable in the form of conjugated metabolites. Rutin exhibits a plethora of bioactive properties, making it an extremely promising phytochemical. Numerous studies demonstrate that rutin can act as a chemotherapeutic and chemopreventive agent, and its anticancer effects can be mediated through the suppression of cell proliferation, the induction of apoptosis or autophagy, and the hindering of angiogenesis and metastasis. Rutin has been found to modulate multiple molecular targets involved in carcinogenesis, such as cell cycle mediators, cellular kinases, inflammatory cytokines, transcription factors, drug transporters, and reactive oxygen species. This review summarizes the natural sources of rutin, its bioavailability, and in particular its potential use as an anticancer agent, with highlighting its anticancer mechanisms as well as molecular targets. Additionally, this review updates the anticancer potential of its analogs, nanoformulations, and metabolites, and discusses relevant safety issues. Overall, rutin is a promising natural dietary compound with promising anticancer potential and can be widely used in functional foods, dietary supplements, and pharmaceuticals for the prevention and management of cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study aimed to identify which natural products and which research directions are related to the major contributors to academic journals for diabetes therapy. Bibliometric data were extracted from the Web of Science online database using the search string TOPIC = ("natural product*' OR "natural compound*' OR "natural molecule*' OR 'phytochemical*' OR "secondary metabolite*') AND TS = ('diabet*') and analysed by a bibliometric software, VOSviewer. The search yielded 3694 publications, which were collectively cited 80,791 times, with an H-index of 117 and 21.9 citations per publication on average. The top-contributing countries were India, the USA, China, South Korea and Brazil. Curcumin, flavanone, resveratrol, carotenoid, polyphenols, flavonol, flavone and berberine were the most frequently cited natural products or compound classes. Our results provide a brief overview of the major directions of natural product research in diabetes up to now and hint on promising avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elastase is a proteolytic enzyme belonging to the family of hydrolases produced by human neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, and endothelial cells. Human neutrophil elastase is known to play multiple roles in the human body, but an increase in its activity may cause a variety of diseases. Elastase inhibitors may prevent the development of psoriasis, chronic kidney disease, respiratory disorders (including COVID-19), immune disorders, and even cancers. Among polyphenolic compounds, some flavonoids and their derivatives, which are mostly found in herbal plants, have been revealed to influence elastase release and its action on human cells. This review focuses on elastase inhibitors that have been discovered from natural sources and are biochemically characterised as flavonoids. The inhibitory activity on elastase is a characteristic of flavonoid aglycones and their glycoside and methylated, acetylated and hydroxylated derivatives. The presented analysis of structure–activity relationship (SAR) enables the determination of the chemical groups responsible for evoking an inhibitory effect on elastase. Further study especially of the in vivo efficacy and safety of the described natural compounds is of interest in order to gain better understanding of their health-promoting potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of bacterial CRISPR/Cas defense system into a simple and efficient tool for genome manipulations brought experimental biology into new dimensions. Suddenly, genome editing reached many groups most of which were interested in it but not able to employ the available time- and labor-consuming approaches of the pre-CRISPR era. In plant biology and biotechnology, CRISPR/Cas gene editing became the second most important technology after plant transformation. Actually, it relies on the available array of methods of gene delivery. While sufficient for most purposes, the classic gene transfer methods might become a problem for some experimental settings. The main obstacle is that they include DNA delivery and, frequently, its subsequent integration into cellular genome. For this reason novel methods to achieve gene editing without the need of stable transformation and even without DNA delivery were developed. These new approaches include in vitro ribonucleoprotein complexes formulations (delivered by microinjection, particle bombardment, electroporation, liposomes etc.), use of virus-like particles and employment of bacterial secretory systems for Cas/gRNA delivery. The first attempts to achieve DNA-free editing were made less than ten years ago. Later, different types of animal and plant cells were addressed. In this mini review we try to summarize the current developments and emerging trends in the field of DNA-free editing in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of natural antioxidants, in particular polyphenols such as dihydroquercetin (DHQ), in animal nutrition has recently increased in popularity. This may partly be due to the risk of increased incidences of heat stress associated with raising livestock in warmer ambient temperatures, facilitated by global warming, reducing antioxidant capacity. The current research demonstrates the effect of dietary DHQ, vitamin E and standard or high ambient temperatures on growth performance, energy and nutrient metabolism, gastrointestinal tract (GIT) development, jejunal villus morphometry and antioxidant status in broiler chickens. Each of the four experimental diets was fed to 16 pens of five birds, which were allocated to four rooms (four pens in each room). The temperature in two rooms was maintained at a constant 35°C (high temperature; HT), and the temperature in the other two rooms was gradually reduced from 27°C at 7 d of age to 22°C at 20 d of age (standard temperature; ST). Rearing birds at HT reduced feed intake, weight gain, weight of small intestine, total GIT, liver, spleen, heart, villus height, villus surface area and lowered blood glutationperoxidase (GSH- Px). Dietary DHQ increased blood GSH- Px and total antioxidant status, increased heart weight and reduced caecal size. When fed separately, DHQ and vitamin E improved hepatic vitamin E concentration. Feeding vitamin E increased spleen and liver weights. When fed together, DHQ and vitamin E reduced villus height, villus height to crypt depth ratio and villus surface area. Temperature and antioxidants did not affect energy and nutrient metabolism. There were no effects of dietary antioxidants on growth performance of broiler chickens and there were no mortalities. At present, it is unclear if feeding antioxidants (in particular DHQ) at different levels, using different dietary formulations, and rearing birds under a range of environmental conditions may be effective at enhancing production performance and bird health in hot ambient climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total-scale quantitative research literature analysis on the food toxicology scientific field has yet to be conducted. In this work, we identified and analysed food toxicology publications in the existing scientific literature. A literature search was performed with the online Web of Science database. Full records and cited references of the 73,099 identified manuscripts were imported into VOSviewer software for analysis. This research field has been growing steadily since the 1990s. Article to review ratio was 7.4:1. The publications were mainly related to toxicology, environmental sciences, food science and technology, pharmacology/pharmacy and biochemistry/molecular biology. The United States and China are major contributors to food toxicology research, followed by other European and Asian countries. The prolific authors have formed three major clusters within a citation network. Toxic or hazardous chemicals related to food with high citations included aflatoxin, dioxin, fumonisin, malondialdehyde, mycotoxin, ochratoxin, phthalate, and polychlorinated biphenyl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer represents a heterogeneous disease with multiple levels of regulation and a dynamic environment that sustains the evolution of the malignant mass. This dynamic is in part sustained by a class of extracellular vesicles termed exosomes that are able to imprint the pathological state by incorporating differential cargos in order to facilitate cell-to-cell communication. Exosomes are stable within the extracellular medium and function as shuttles secreted by healthy or pathological cells, being further taken by the accepting cell with direct effects on its phenotype. The exosomal trafficking is deeply involved in multiple levels of cancer development with roles in all cancer hallmarks. Nowadays, studies are constantly exploring the ability of exosomes to sustain the malignant progression in order to attack this pathological trafficking and impair the ability of the tumor mass to expand within the organisms. As important, the circulatory characteristics of exosomes represent a steady advantage regarding the possibility of using them as minimally invasive diagnosis tools, where cancer patients’ present modified exosomal profiles compared to the healthy ones. This last characteristic, as novel diagnosis tools, has the advantage of a possible rapid transition within the clinic, compared to the studies that evaluate the therapeutic meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review discusses the potential of Haberlea rhodopensis as a food additive. The following are described: plant distribution, reproduction, cultivation, propagation and resurrection properties; extraction, isolation and screening of biologically active compounds; metabolite changes during dehydration; phytotherapy-related properties such as antioxidant potential and free radical-scavenging activities, antioxidant skin effect, antibacterial activity, cytotoxic activity and cancer-modulating effect, radioprotective effect, chemoprotective effect, immunologic effect; present use in homoeopathy and cosmetics, pharmacological and economical importance; perspectives based on the ethnobotanical data for medicinal, cosmetic or ritual attributes. H. rhodopensis showed unique medical and pharmaceutical potential, related to antioxidant, antimicrobial, antimutagenic, anticancer, radioprotective, chemoprotective and immunological properties. H. rhodopensis extracts lack any cytotoxic activity and could be used in phytotherapy. The metabolic profiling of H. rhodopensis extracts revealed the presence of biologically active compounds, possessing antiradical and other physiological activities, useful for design of in vitro synthesised analogues and drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The periodic congestion and decongestion of nasal venous sinuses and the alternation of airflow from one side of the nose to the other are referred to as a 'nasal cycle' in the literature: The aim of this study was to detect the nasal cycle during sleep in normal subjects and describe existing time periods and their sequence and patterns. We studied 58 records of the nasal cycle over 6-9 hours of sleep in six healthy volunteers and revealed that the cycle could be described as a combination of 1 to 4 discrete ultradian periods with various length: 1.0-1.5 h (mean 78.6 min), 2.5-3.0 h (168.3 min), 4.0-4.5 h (260.3 min) or 5.5-6.0 h (347.5 min). The distribution of the discrete time periods was multi-modal and the mean lengths of periods were 'multiples' of a basic period of 85.4 min (≈1.5 h) which was very close to the mean length of the sleep cycle (≈ 1.5 h). In all subjects during any of the REM stages of the sleep, an alternation of the airflow through the nostrils was observed. In about 75% of all cases, the switch of the flow between the nostrils occurred during the second or following REM stages of the sleep thus shaping a nasal cycle that contained mainly periods of 3.0 or 4.5 hours. We suggest a novel classification of the nocturnal nasal cyclicity and hypothesis that there is a relationship between the nasal cycle and the sleep cycle which, like other cyclic physiological phenomena with ultradian rhythmicity, expresses a pattern of 'lateralisation' that is synchronous with changes in the sleep cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fraction isolated from a crude aqueous extract of Galega officinalis L. and purified by column chromatography inhibit platelet aggregation in platelet-rich plasma. The active fraction of the extract, molecular weight of 100-140 kDa, appeared to be a polysaccharide-protein complex. Aggregation of platelets initiated by 25 µM ADP was inhibited 50 percent by 11.2 µg/ml of the fraction. Aggregation of platelets initiated by 100 µg/ml collagen and 0.8 U/ml thrombin was completely inhibited by 16 µg/ml and 18.3 µg/ml, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The effect of aqueous extracts of Galega officinalis L. on platelet aggregation was studied by examining the blood from rats given an intravenous application of extract in the caudal vein. Treatment of test animals with extract at a ratio of 1 part extract (25.1±3.8 mg/ml dry substance) per 40 parts blood, suppressed platelet aggregation as compared with untreated controls. Suppression of aggregation was lost by 3 h after injection of extract. The components with antiaggregating activity have not identified. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]