The SWGEDWGEIW from Soybean Peptides Reduces Insulin Resistance in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes by Activating p-Akt/GLUT4 Signaling Pathway

Diabetes mellitus, a group of metabolic disorders characterized by persistent hyperglycemia, affects millions of people worldwide and is on the rise. Dietary proteins, from a wide range of food sources, are rich in bioactive peptides with anti-diabetic properties. Notably, the protective mechanism of the single peptide SWGEDWGEIW (TSP) from soybean peptides (SBPs) on insulin resistance of adipocytes in an inflammatory state was investigated by detecting the lipolysis and glucose absorption and utilization of adipocytes. The results showed that different concentrations of TSP (5, 10, 20 µg/mL) intervention can reduce 3T3-L1 adipocytes’ insulin resistance induced by inflammatory factors in a dose-dependent manner and increase glucose utilization by 34.2 ± 4.6%, 74.5 ± 5.2%, and 86.7 ± 6.1%, respectively. Thus, TSP can significantly alleviate the lipolysis of adipocytes caused by inflammatory factors. Further mechanism analysis found that inflammatory factors significantly reduced the phosphorylation (p-Akt) of Akt, two critical proteins of glucose metabolism in adipocytes, and the expression of GLUT4 protein downstream, resulting in impaired glucose utilization, while TSP intervention significantly increased the expression of these two proteins. After pretreatment of adipocytes with PI3K inhibitor (LY294002), TSP failed to reduce the inhibition of p-Akt and GLUT4 expression in adipocytes. Meanwhile, the corresponding significant decrease in glucose absorption and the increase in the fat decomposition of adipocytes indicated that TSP reduced 3T3-L1 adipocytes’ insulin resistance by specifically activating the p-Akt/GLUT4 signal pathway. Therefore, TSP has the potential to prevent obesity-induced adipose inflammation and insulin resistance.

AB0446 IMPROVEMENT OF BELIMUMAB ON QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Background

Accumulating evidence supports an impaired quality of life in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A study reported the patients concerns centred on fatigue[1].

Objectives

We investigated the effect of belimumab on quality of life in patients with SLE.

Methods

SLE patients from Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital treated with belimumab (n=19) or control group (n=22) were included. Patients in control group were in traditional treatment without belimumab. Data were collected prospectively at treatment initiation and now, including Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the SF-36 (Table 1).

Table 1.SLEDAIPPSQIPSF-36PGroupPre-treatmentPost-treatment-Pre-treatmentPost-treatment-Pre-treatmentPost-treatment-Belimumab group11±4.676.11±3.550.0016±3.833.58±2.010.02519.47±187.79685.62±141.780.004Control group8.82±5.693.55±2.110.0006.5±3.525.86±3.240.536541.73±185.22700.42±123.900.002P0.1990.007-0.6650.011-0.7050.723-

Results

Belimumab group showed improvement in SLEDAI, PSQI and the SF-36 (P＜0.05). Control group was improvement in SLEDAI and the SF-36 (P＜0.05), no changes in PSQI (P=0.536). However, the improvement of belimumab group in SLEDAI and PSQI observably outperformed the improvement of control group.

Conclusion

Belimumab effectively improve quality of life in patients with SLE. Further study of pediatric patients with SLE is still warranted.

References

[1]Golder V, Ooi J, Antony A S, et al. Discordance of patient and physician health status concerns in systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus,2018,27(3):501-506.

Disclosure of Interests

None declared

Separation of Storage Proteins (7S and 11S) from Soybean Seed, Meals and Protein Isolate Using an Optimized Method Via Comparison of Yield and Purity

The primary purpose of this study was to extract β-conglycinin (7S) and glycinin (11S) from soybean seed, soybean meals and soybean protein isolate and compare their yield and purity. The previous methods were modified for the extraction and isolation of 7S and 11S globulins. The adjustment mainly included sample to solution ratio of 1:10 (previously 1:15). Comparing the yield of 11S fraction in Tris-HCl and water as extractable solutions, it was almost doubled in soybean seed (16.97% to 32.41%) with purity from 96 to 98% respectively. In case of soybean meal, samples yield increased from 45.46 to 61.86% with purity from 94 to 98%. On contrary, 7S yield was significantly improved in soybean protein isolate sample from 30.33 to 53.81% along with no contamination in its purity while soybean seed and soybean meal samples had less increase in both yield and purity in Tris-HCl and water as extractable solutions. Results of this study will bring new insights into soybean 7S and 11S separation and purification techniques as well as pave the way for their application in food industry.

Efficient Removal of Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solutions Using a High Specific Surface Area Porous Carbon Derived from Soybean Dreg

Porous carbon material with high specific surface area was prepared from soybean dreg by a simple and effective two-step method (high temperature pyrolysis and activation). The structural characteristics of the synthesized carbon were evaluated by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), N₂ adsorption/desorption measurements/techniques, an elemental analyzer (EA), scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The specific surface area of SDB-6-K was 2786 m² g^-1, the pore volume was 2.316 cm³ g^-1, and the average pore size was 3.326 nm. The high specific surface area and effective functional groups of carbon material promoted the adsorption of methylene blue. The maximum adsorption capacity of SDB-6-K to methylene blue was 2636 mg g^-1 at 318 K. The adsorption kinetic and isotherm data were most suitable for pseudo-second-order and Langmuir equations. The results showed that the adsorbent had excellent adsorptive ability and had good practical application potential in the field of dye wastewater treatment in the future.

Efficient Adsorption of Methylene Blue by Porous Biochar Derived from Soybean Dreg Using a One-Pot Synthesis Method

Soybean dreg is a by-product of soybean products production, with a large consumption in China. Low utilization value leads to random discarding, which is one of the important sources of urban pollution. In this work, porous biochar was synthesized using a one-pot method and potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) with low-cost soybean dreg (SD) powder as the carbon precursor to investigating the adsorption of methylene blue (MB). The prepared samples were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), elemental analyzer (EA), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The obtained SDB-K-3 showed a high specific surface area of 1620 m2 g-1, a large pore volume of 0.7509 cm3 g-1, and an average pore diameter of 1.859 nm. The results indicated that the maximum adsorption capacity of SDB-K-3 to MB could reach 1273.51 mg g-1 at 318 K. The kinetic data were most consistent with the pseudo-second-order model and the adsorption behavior was more suitable for the Langmuir isotherm equation. This study demonstrated that the porous biochar adsorbent can be prepared from soybean dreg by high value utilization, and it could hold significant potential for dye wastewater treatment in the future.

The protective effect of soybean protein-derived peptides on apoptosis via the activation of PI3K-AKT and inhibition on apoptosis pathway

Soybean protein-derived peptides (SBP) are a rich source of various bioactive peptides with multiple health benefits. However, the prospective effects of SBP on human cells are still unclear. Therefore, this article investigated the effects of small molecular weight SBP on MG132-induced apoptosis in RAW264.7 cells. SBP inhibited MG132-induced apoptosis of RAW264.7 cells in a dose-dependent manner by flow cytometry. To further study its molecular mechanisms, Western blot analysis demonstrated that SBP could activate the PI3K-AKT pathway by increasing the phosphorylation of PI3K and AKT and inhibiting apoptosis pathway by downregulating the expressions of pro-apoptotic proteins of Bim, Bax, Fas, and Fasl and promoting the expressions of anti-apoptotic proteins of Bcl-xL and Bcl-2. These results indicated the protective effect of SBP on MG132-induced apoptosis in RAW264.7 cells.

Soybean protein-derived peptide nutriment increases negative nitrogen balance in burn injury-induced inflammatory stress response in aged rats through the modulation of white blood cells and immune factors

BACKGROUND

As an important nutrient, soybean protein-derived peptides (SPP) affect the immune function of animals.

OBJECTIVE

This study describes the effects of nutrient supplementation with SPP on the negative nitrogen balance in the burn injury-induced inflammatory response of aged rats.

DESIGN

Soybean protein isolate (SPI) was hydrolyzed to obtain SPP. A negative nitrogen-balance aged rat model and a major full-thickness 30% total body surface area (TBSA) burn-injury rat model were utilized.

RESULTS

The results show that SPP can increase the speed and ability of inflammatory stress by adjusting white blood cell counts. Soybean protein-derived peptides significantly increased serum immunoglobulin M (IgM), immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels; significantly decreased serum interleukin-1 beta (IL-β), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and regulated upon activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) levels. These results give conclusive evidence that SPP has a significantly positive effect in improving the immune function on the condition of negative nitrogen balance with burn-injury, and reducing excessive inflammation.

CONCLUSIONS

Nutrient supplementation of SPP can, therefore, be used as an adjuvant treatment to inhibit the development and severity of inflammatory reactions caused by burns, providing a novel therapy for the treatment and positive prognosis of burn patients.

Soybean protein-derived peptides inhibit inflammation in LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophages via the suppression of TLR4-mediated MAPK-JNK and NF-kappa B activation

This study aimed to determine the effect of soybean protein-derived peptides (SBP) on the inhibition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 cell inflammation. The mRNA of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), Lymphocyte Antigen 96 (LY96), and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) were detected with RT-qPCR. The concentrations of cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β) secreted were detected by ELISA Kit. The results indicated that SBP inhibited the inflammatory stress induced by LPS in RAW264.7 cells. Western blot analysis was used to examine this anti-inflammatory molecular mechanism. The findings showed that SBP impeded the increase of toll-like receptor 4 activity by restricting LY96, while also inhibiting the mitogen-activated protein kinase-c-Jun N-terminal kinase pathway in cells, as well as LPS-induced NF-κB activation caused by the degradation of nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells inhibitor, alpha (IκBα). Consequently, the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β) was inhibited, preventing LPS-induced inflammation of RAW 264.7 cells. Therefore, this research highlighted the potential application of SBP in the development of anti-inflammatory foods that prevented inflammatory-immune diseases. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Inflammation is the root cause of almost all pathology and is related to many human diseases, including arthritis, obesity, cancer and atherosclerosis. Therefore, the development of products that can regulate and intervene inflammation has a broad application prospect. Soybean protein and soybean peptide have many functional properties, including immunoregulation, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidation and so on. However, there are still some shortcomings in the development of soy protein supplements, such as solubility and absorption. Compared with soybean protein, derived peptide is easy to digest, and has high solubility. As a good nutritional supplement, the nutritional support of soybean protein-derived peptides may help to reduce inflammation and improve the level of cytokines combined with drugs.

Effect of soybean peptides against hydrogen peroxide induced oxidative stress in HepG2 cells via Nrf2 signaling

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of soybean protein hydrolysates against intracellular antioxidant activity.

A study of the mechanism of small-molecule soybean-protein-derived peptide supplement to promote sleep in a mouse model

Here, the effects of dietary supplementation with small-molecule soybean-protein-derived peptide (SBP) on sleep duration in mice are described.

MiR-744 mediates the Oxaliplatin chemoresistance in colorectal cancer through inhibiting BIN1

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant cancers worldwide. However, lacking of novel and sensitive chemotherapy revealed the major challenge to improve the survival of CRC patients. The aim of this study was to explore the effect and mechanism of miR-744 on the oxaliplatin chemoresistance in CRC. Firstly, the levels of miR-744 were elevated significantly in CRC tissues from patients with oxaliplatin administration before surgery and in oxaliplatin-resistant HCT116 cells. Then, the oxaliplatin chemoresistance was enhanced by miR-744 overexpression, while was attenuated by miR-744 inhibition in HCT116 and T84 cells. Additionally, the level of BIN1 protein was found to be regulated negatively by miR-744, and BIN1 overexpression blocked the oxaliplatin chemoresistance induced by miR-744. Furthermore, BIN1 was proved to be a direct target of miR-744 by luciferase reporter assay. Taken together, these findings demonstrated that miR-744 might positively mediate the oxaliplatin chemoresistance through suppressing BIN1 expression in CRC cells, thus suggested a rationale target for the developing more effective strategies to reverse oxaliplatin resistance in CRC treatment.

Effect of small molecular weight soybean protein-derived peptide supplementation on attenuating burn injury-induced inflammation and accelerating wound healing in a rat model

The populations most afflicted by burn injuries have limited abilities to support the significant specialized requirements and costs for acute and long-term burn injury care. This article describes the results of optimizing the use of readily absorbed small molecular weight soybean protein enzymolysis-derived peptide to attenuate rat burn injury-induced inflammation and accelerate wound healing. A major full-thickness 30% total body surface area burn-injury rat model was utilized and the systemic white blood cell (WBC) counts, the relative level of stimulation index of respiratory burst, and the inflammatory markers procalcitonin (PCT), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 3 (CCL-3), chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 11 (CCL-11) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were assessed. The burn injury-induced neutrophil and macrophage immune cell infiltration of the cutaneous tissues was detected by immunohistochemical analysis of the protein markers myeloperoxidase (MPO) and cluster of differentiation 68 (CD-68). The local induction of the burn injury-induced toll-like receptor 4/nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B (TLR4/NF-κB) signaling pathway in the effected cutaneous tissues was determined by the quantification of the protein expression of TLR4 and phosphorylated NF-κB/p65 using Western blots. In addition, burn wound size and healing rate were assessed biweekly for 8 weeks by imaging and measuring the burn wound surface area, and the angiogenesis protein marker of cluster of differentiation 31 (CD-31) expression in cutaneous tissues was also detected by immunohistochemical analysis. The results showed that nutrient supplementation with optimized readily absorbed small molecular weight soybean protein-derived peptide resulted in a dramatic anti-inflammatory effect as evidenced by the significant increase in the burn injury-induced systemic white blood cell counts and their relative level of stimulation index of respiratory burst, reduction in the burn injury-induced activation of NF-κB transcriptional signaling pathways, significant reduction in the local burn injury-induced cutaneous infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages at all measured time points, reduction in wound size and improved rate of burn injury wound healing with increased CD-31 protein expression. These results indicated that dietary supplementation with small molecular weight soybean-derived peptides could be used as an adjunct therapy in burn injury management to reduce inflammation and improve overall patient outcomes.

The populations most afflicted by burn injuries have limited abilities to support the significant specialized requirements and costs for acute and long-term burn injury care.

MGIS: managing banana (Musa spp.) genetic resources information and high-throughput genotyping data

Unraveling the genetic diversity held in genebanks on a large scale is underway, due to advances in Next-generation sequence (NGS) based technologies that produce high-density genetic markers for a large number of samples at low cost. Genebank users should be in a position to identify and select germplasm from the global genepool based on a combination of passport, genotypic and phenotypic data. To facilitate this, a new generation of information systems is being designed to efficiently handle data and link it with other external resources such as genome or breeding databases. The Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS), the database for global ex situ-held banana genetic resources, has been developed to address those needs in a user-friendly way. In developing MGIS, we selected a generic database schema (Chado), the robust content management system Drupal for the user interface, and Tripal, a set of Drupal modules which links the Chado schema to Drupal. MGIS allows germplasm collection examination, accession browsing, advanced search functions, and germplasm orders. Additionally, we developed unique graphical interfaces to compare accessions and to explore them based on their taxonomic information. Accession-based data has been enriched with publications, genotyping studies and associated genotyping datasets reporting on germplasm use. Finally, an interoperability layer has been implemented to facilitate the link with complementary databases like the Banana Genome Hub and the MusaBase breeding database.

Database URL:https://www.crop-diversity.org/mgis/

Chemical composition and antifungal activity of Carica papaya Linn. seed essential oil against Candida spp

In recent years, the incidence of clinical yeast infections has increased dramatically. Due to the extensive use of broad-spectrum antifungal agents, there has been a notable increase in drug resistance among infections yeast species. As one of the most popular natural antimicrobial agents, essential oils (EOs) have attracted a lot of attention from the scientific community. The aim of this study was to analyse the chemical composition and examine the antifungal activity of the EO extracted from the seeds of Carica papaya Linn. The papaya seed EO was analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The major constituent is benzyl isothiocyanate (99·36%). The filter paper disc diffusion method and broth dilution method were employed. The EO showed inhibitory effect against all the tested Candida strains including C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. krusei, C. parapsilosis and C. tropical with inhibition zone diameters in the range of 14·2-33·2 mm, the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) in the range of 4·0-16·0 μg ml^-1 and the minimum fungicidal concentrations (MFCs) in the range of 16·0-64·0 μg ml^-1 . Here, we found that the papaya seed EO has promising anticandida activity and identify C. papaya L. as a potential natural source of antifungal agents.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

The chemical composition and antifungal activity of essential oil of Carica papaya seeds were studied. The oil of papaya seeds could inhibit the growth of Candida spp. for the first report. Carica Papaya may be recognized as a possible new source of natural antifungal agents.

Blocking proteinase-activated receptor 2 alleviated neuropathic pain evoked by spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an extremely serious type of physical trauma observed in clinics. Especially, neuropathic pain resulting from SCI has a lasting and significant impact on most aspects of daily life. Thus, a better understanding of the molecular pathways responsible for the cause of neuropathic pain observed in SCI is important to develop effectively therapeutic agents and treatment strategies. Proteinase-activated receptors (PARs) are a family member of G-protein-coupled receptors and are activated by a proteolytic mechanism. One of its subtypes PAR2 has been reported to be engaged in mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia. Thus, in this study we specifically examined the underlying mechanisms responsible for SCI evoked-neuropathic pain in a rat model. Overall, we demonstrated that SCI increases PAR2 and its downstream pathways TRPV1 and TRPA1 expression in the superficial dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Also, we showed that blocking spinal PAR2 by intrathecal injection of FSLLRY-NH2 significantly inhibits neuropathic pain responses induced by mechanical and thermal stimulation whereas FSLLRY-NH2 decreases the protein expression of TRPV1 and TRPA1 as well as the levels of substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide. Results of this study have important implications, i.e. targeting one or more of these signaling molecules involved in activation of PAR2 and TRPV1/TRPA1 evoked by SCI may present new opportunities for treatment and management of neuropathic pain often observed in patients with SCI.

Genome-wide copy number profiling using high-density SNP array in chickens

Phenotypic diversity is a direct consequence resulting mainly from the impact of underlying genetic variation, and recent studies have shown that copy number variation (CNV) is emerging as an important contributor to both phenotypic variability and disease susceptibility. Herein, we performed a genome-wide CNV scan in 96 chickens from 12 diversified breeds, benefiting from the high-density Affymetrix 600 K SNP arrays. We identified a total of 231 autosomal CNV regions (CNVRs) encompassing 5.41 Mb of the chicken genome and corresponding to 0.59% of the autosomal sequence. The length of these CNVRs ranged from 2.6 to 586.2 kb with an average of 23.4 kb, including 130 gain, 93 loss and eight both gain and loss events. These CNVRs, especially deletions, had lower GC content and were located particularly in gene deserts. In particular, 102 CNVRs harbored 128 chicken genes, most of which were enriched in immune responses. We obtained 221 autosomal CNVRs after converting probe coordinates to Galgal3, and comparative analysis with previous studies illustrated that 153 of these CNVRs were regarded as novel events. Furthermore, qPCR assays were designed for 11 novel CNVRs, and eight (72.73%) were validated successfully. In this study, we demonstrated that the high-density 600 K SNP array can capture CNVs with higher efficiency and accuracy and highlighted the necessity of integrating multiple technologies and algorithms. Our findings provide a pioneering exploration of chicken CNVs based on a high-density SNP array, which contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of genetic variation in the chicken genome and is beneficial to unearthing potential CNVs underlying important traits of chickens.

Penalized gaussian process regression and classification for high-dimensional nonlinear data

The model based on Gaussian process (GP) prior and a kernel covariance function can be used to fit nonlinear data with multidimensional covariates. It has been used as a flexible nonparametric approach for curve fitting, classification, clustering, and other statistical problems, and has been widely applied to deal with complex nonlinear systems in many different areas particularly in machine learning. However, it is a challenging problem when the model is used for the large-scale data sets and high-dimensional data, for example, for the meat data discussed in this article that have 100 highly correlated covariates. For such data, it suffers from large variance of parameter estimation and high predictive errors, and numerically, it suffers from unstable computation. In this article, penalized likelihood framework will be applied to the model based on GPs. Different penalties will be investigated, and their ability in application given to suit the characteristics of GP models will be discussed. The asymptotic properties will also be discussed with the relevant proofs. Several applications to real biomechanical and bioinformatics data sets will be reported.

Measuring Fatigue in PZT Thin Films

Small signal dielectric response is reported for a variety of PZT thin film samples. Small and large signal responses, recorded simultaneously during the fatiguing of PZT thin films, are used to identify distinct fatigue mechanisms. Microcracking or electrode delamination less than 100 Å is sufficient to explain the high correlation between the dielectric permittivity and remanent polarization during fatigue.

Descriptive study of enzootic nasal adenocarcinoma in goats in southwestern China

This is the first report on enzootic nasal adenocarcinoma (ENA) in goats (Nanjiang Yellow goats and Jianyang Big-ear Black goats) in southwestern China. The clinical, histological and ultrastructural features of ENA in goats were described. From July 2007 to May 2009, 21 cases of ENA in goats, from 6 months to 8 years old, were diagnosed solely in one big herd. Clinically, the affected goats showed nasal discharge, facial swelling, sneezing, stertorous breathing and weight loss. Tumours that originated from the ethmoid area of the nasal cavity were unilateral (18/21) or bilateral (3/21). All tumours were classified as low grade adenocarcinomas by histopathological examination and were displayed a combination of tubular and papillary growth. No metastases were detected in regional lymph nodes, brain or other organs. Ultrastructurally, virus-like particles with an average diameter between 80 and 110 nm were observed in 5/7 examined tumours.