Dietary Advanced Glycation End Products in an Elderly Population with Diabetic Nephropathy: An Exploratory Investigation

Dietary Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) and Urinary Fluorescent AGEs in Children and Adolescents: Findings from the Italian I.Family Project

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) have been implicated in chronic diseases in adults, but their role in paediatric populations remains uncertain. This study, conducted on the Italian sample of the I.Family project, aimed to investigate the relationship between dietary and urinary fluorescent AGEs in children and adolescents. The secondary objective was to investigate the sources of dietary AGEs (dAGEs) and their association with dietary composition and anthropometric parameters. Dietary data were collected from 1048 participants via 24 h dietary recall in 2013/2014 to estimate dAGEs intake, while urinary fluorescent AGE levels were measured in 544 individuals. Participants were stratified based on dAGEs intake and compared with respect to urinary fluorescent AGE levels, anthropometric measurements, and dietary intake. The results showed no significant correlation between dietary and urinary fluorescent AGE levels, nor between dAGEs and anthropometric parameters. Notably, higher dAGEs were associated with a diet richer in protein (especially from meat sources) and fat and lower in carbohydrates. In addition, the consumption of ultra-processed foods was lower in participants with a higher DAGE intake. This study highlights the lack of a clear association between dietary and urinary fluorescent AGEs in children, but suggests a distinctive dietary pattern associated with increased dAGEs intake. Further investigation is warranted to elucidate the potential health implications of dAGEs in paediatric populations.

Circulating Concentrations of advanced Glycation end Products, Carboxymethyl Lysine and Methylglyoxal are Associated With Renal Function in Individuals With Diabetes

OBJECTIVE

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the most severe chronic complications of diabetes and is associated with higher level of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic potential of combined detection of multiple serum AGEs in diagnosing DKD.

METHODS

Serum AGEs, Nε-(carboxymethyl) lysine (CML), Nε-(carboxyethyl) lysine, and methylglyoxal (MGO) levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 176 individuals with type 2 diabetes. Participants were classified into normoalbuminuria, microalbuminuria, and macroalbuminuria group according to their urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR).

RESULTS

Higher serum AGEs levels were found to be positively correlated with U-Alb, UACR, and blood urea nitrogen in the study of 176 individuals with type 2 diabetes. CML and MGO levels were positively correlated with U-Alb, UACR, blood urea nitrogen, Scr, and uric acid, and negatively correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (P < .05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that elevated levels of AGEs, CML, and MGO were independent risk factors for the progression of DKD (odds ratio = 1.861, 1.016, 7.607, P < .01). The sensitivity, specificity, and area under receiver operating characteristic curve of combined detection of AGEs, MGO, and CML were higher than those of three individual detections (area under the curve = 0.952, 0.772, 0.868, 0905, respectively, P < .05).

CONCLUSION

The combined detection of AGEs, CML, and MGO may improve the reliability of early diagnosis of DKD.

Communal interaction of glycation and gut microbes in diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease pathogenesis

Diabetes and its complications, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Parkinson's disease (PD) are increasing gradually, reflecting a global threat vis-à-vis expressing the essentiality of a substantial paradigm shift in research and remedial actions. Protein glycation is influenced by several factors, like time, temperature, pH, metal ions, and the half-life of the protein. Surprisingly, most proteins associated with metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders are generally long-lived and hence susceptible to glycation. Remarkably, proteins linked with diabetes, AD, and PD share this characteristic. This modulates protein's structure, aggregation tendency, and toxicity, highlighting renovated attention. Gut microbes and microbial metabolites marked their importance in human health and diseases. Though many scientific shreds of evidence are proposed for possible change and dysbiosis in gut flora in these diseases, very little is known about the mechanisms. Screening and unfolding their functionality in metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders is essential in hunting the gut treasure. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate the role of glycation as a common link in diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases, which helps to clarify if modulation of nonenzymatic glycation may act as a beneficial therapeutic strategy and gut microbes/metabolites may answer some of the crucial questions. This review briefly emphasizes the common functional attributes of glycation and gut microbes, the possible linkages, and discusses current treatment options and therapeutic challenges.

Anticancer properties of bromelain: State-of-the-art and recent trends

Bromelain is a key enzyme found in pineapple (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.); a proteolytic substance with multiple beneficial effects for human health such as anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antioxidant and anticarcinogenic, traditionally used in many countries for its potential therapeutic value. The aim of this updated and comprehensive review focuses on the potential anticancer benefits of bromelain, analyzing the cytotoxic, apoptotic, necrotic, autophagic, immunomodulating, and anti-inflammatory effects in cancer cells and animal models. Detailed information about Bromelain and its anticancer effects at the cellular, molecular and signaling levels were collected from online databases such as PubMed/MedLine, TRIP database, GeenMedical, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. The results of the analyzed studies showed that Bromelain possesses corroborated pharmacological activities, such as anticancer, anti-edema, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-coagulant, anti-osteoarthritis, anti-trauma pain, anti-diarrhea, wound repair. Nonetheless, bromelain clinical studies are scarce and still more research is needed to validate the scientific value of this enzyme in human cancer diseases.

Advanced Glycation End Products in Health and Disease

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs), formed through the nonenzymatic reaction of reducing sugars with the side-chain amino groups of lysine or arginine of proteins, followed by further glycoxidation reactions under oxidative stress conditions, are involved in the onset and exacerbation of a variety of diseases, including diabetes, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as well as in the secondary stages of traumatic brain injury (TBI). AGEs, in the form of intra- and interprotein crosslinks, deactivate various enzymes, exacerbating disease progression. The interactions of AGEs with the receptors for the AGEs (RAGE) also result in further downstream inflammatory cascade events. The overexpression of RAGE and the AGE-RAGE interactions are especially involved in cases of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, including TBI and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Maillard reactions are also observed in the gut bacterial species. The protein aggregates found in the bacterial species resemble those of AD and Parkinson’s disease (PD), and AGE inhibitors increase the life span of the bacteria. Dietary AGEs alter the gut microbiota composition and elevate plasma glycosylation, thereby leading to systemic proinflammatory effects and endothelial dysfunction. There is emerging interest in developing AGE inhibitor and AGE breaker compounds to treat AGE-mediated pathologies, including diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. Gut-microbiota-derived enzymes may also function as AGE-breaker biocatalysts. Thus, AGEs have a prominent role in the pathogenesis of various diseases, and the AGE inhibitor and AGE breaker approach may lead to novel therapeutic candidates.