Moringa oleifera impedes protein glycation and exerts reno-protective effects in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Association of skin autofluorescence with depressive symptoms and the severity of depressive symptoms: The prospective REACTION study

AIM

Millions of people are afflicted by depression, a highly prevalent mental illness with increased morbidity and mortality. Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are potential risk factors for depression. We aimed to investigate the correlation of AGEs with depressive symptoms and the severity of depressive symptoms.

METHODS

This study was nested in the prospective REACTION (Risk Evaluation of cAncers in Chinese diabeTic Individuals) study and included 4420 eligible participants. skin autofluorescence (SAF) was used to measure skin AGEs. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association of AGEs with depressive symptoms and the severity of depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

Logistic analysis showed a significantly positive relationship between quartiles of SAF-AGEs and the risk of depressive symptoms with the OR [95% confidence interval (CI), p value] of 1.24 (95% CI: 1.03-1.50, p = 0.022), 1.39 (95% CI: 1.15-1.68, p = 0.001) and 1.57 (95% CI: 1.28-1.91, p < 0.001) for multivariable-adjusted model respectively. And SAF-AGEs were associated with the severity of depressive symptoms with the multivariable-adjusted OR (95% CI, p value) of 1.06 (95% CI:0.79-1.43, p = 0.681), 1.47 (95% CI: 1.08-1.99, p = 0.014), and 1.54 (95% CI: 1.12-2.11, p = 0.008) respectively. Stratified analyses showed that SAF-AGEs were significantly associated with the severity of depressive symptoms only in females, overweight people, individuals with hypertension, and those without diabetes and insomnia.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study showed that a higher SAF-AGEs level was associated with depressive symptoms and the severity of depressive symptoms.

The anti-inflammatory activity of GABA-enriched Moringa oleifera leaves produced by fermentation with Lactobacillus plantarum LK-1

Introduction

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), one of the main active components in Moringa oleifera leaves, can be widely used to treat multiple diseases including inflammation.

Methods

In this study, the anti-inflammatory activity and the underlying anti-inflammatory mechanism of the GABA-enriched Moringa oleifera leaves fermentation broth (MLFB) were investigated on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7 cells model. The key active components changes like total flavonoids, total polyphenols and organic acid in the fermentation broth after fermentation was also analyzed.

Results

ELISA, RT-qPCR and Western blot results indicated that MLFB could dose-dependently inhibit the secretions and intracellular expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines like 1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Furthermore, MLFB also suppressed the expressions of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Moreover, the mRNA expressions of the key molecules like Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB in the NF-κB signaling pathway were also restrained by MLFB in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, the key active components analysis result showed that the GABA, total polyphenols, and most organic acids like pyruvic acid, lactic acid as well as acetic acid were increased obviously after fermentation. The total flavonoids content in MLFB was still remained to be 32 mg/L though a downtrend was presented after fermentation.

Discussion

Our results indicated that the MLFB could effectively alleviate LPS-induced inflammatory response by inhibiting the secretions of pro-inflammatory cytokines and its underlying mechanism might be associated with the inhibition of TLR-4/NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathway activation. The anti-inflammatory activity of MLFB might related to the relative high contents of GABA as well as other active constituents such as flavonoids, phenolics and organic acids in MLFB. Our study provides the theoretical basis for applying GABA-enriched Moringa oleifera leaves as a functional food ingredient in the precaution and treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.