Fatty acid composition and CLA content in goat milk and cheese samples from Umbrian market

Goat dairy products are considered as a suitable alternative to cow milk products for some special categories of consumers (infants, old, and convalescent people). In the present research, a study on the lipid fraction of commercial goat milk and cheese samples purchased from Umbrian market was carried out. Particular attention has been paid to evaluating conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content and determining some interesting nutritional indexes. The results of goat milk samples showed that saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid contents were on average 71.2, 23.4, and 3.8 %, respectively. CLA content (cis-9, trans-11 isomer) was on average 11.5 mg/100 g in milk. Considerable variability was observed for n6/n3 ratio that varied from 2.7 to 10.6 in the considered goat milk samples. With regard to goat cheese samples CLA concentration was on average 118.8 mg/100 g in fresh cheese and 217.7 mg/100 g in semi-hard cheese, and the difference was not significant. Interestingly, α-linolenic acid content was higher and n6/n3 ratio was lower in semi-hard with respect to fresh cheese samples (p < 0.05).     

Some functional properties of lupin proteins modified by lactic fermentation and extrusion

The aim of this work was to determine modifying effects of lactic fermentation and extrusion processes on functionality of lupin proteins. Protein content, surface hydrophobicity, water absorption capacity (WAC), water solubility index (WSI) and emulsifying properties (EAI, ESI) of protein preparations obtained from lupin seeds (Lupinus luteus, Lupinus albus, Lupinus angustifolius), with various contents of hull, were analyzed. Changes of protein properties were affected by lupin cultivar, hull content and applied processing method. An increase of soluble protein content after controlled lactic fermentation of lupin seeds, and changes of surface protein hydrophobicity, WAC and WSI values after each treatment and significant worsening of protein emulsifying properties were observed. Correlations were found between parameters examined in this study.     

Deactivation of riboflavin triplet-excited state by phenolic antioxidants: mechanism behind protective effects in photooxidation of milk-based beverages

The water-soluble plant polyphenols rutin, (+)-catechin, and (–)-epigallocatechin gallate were each found to be efficient quenchers for the triplet-excited state of riboflavin in aqueous solution using nano-second laser flash photolysis. The deactivation followed second-order kinetics with rates close to the diffusion control: (–)-epigallocatechin gallate (1.70±0.2×10⁹ l mol^–1 s^–1), (+)-catechin (1.44±0.04×10⁹ l mol^–1 s^–1), and rutin (9.7±0.2×10⁸ l mol^–1 s^–1) at 25 °C and pH = 6.8. No synergetic effects for mixtures of the phenolic compounds were found. Hydrogen atom transfer is calculated to be more exergonic than electron transfer, suggesting the hydrogen atom transfer mechanism to be operative. The efficient deactivation by the plant polyphenols makes this type of compounds of importance as protectors against light-induced oxidation in flavored milk-based beverages.     

Identification and functional traits of lactic acid bacteria isolated from Ciauscolo salami produced in Central Italy

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from Ciauscolo salami produced in Marche Region of Central Italy, and LAB strains belonging to our laboratory collection were examined for their capability to survive at low pH and bile, to adhere to Caco-2 cells, and for antibiotic resistance. LAB from Ciauscolo were identified by ARDRA and RAPD-PCR. Our study showed that all LAB strains had good adaptation to gastric juice and moderate tolerance to bile. The adhesiveness was variable among strains but significantly lower in LAB from food. Antibiotic resistance was broadly spread among food strains, with level of resistance exceeding 15% for all the antibiotics tested. The resistance determinants erm(B) and tet(M) were found in nine strains of food origin (21.4%) while tet(L) in one strain of our collection (5%). Our work suggests that fermented foods are valuable sources of bacterial strains with functional traits of intestinal lactobacilli. These bacteria may be further studied for their use in probiotic applications.     

Mechanical analysis of structural adhesive for marine joints

A structural adhesive from I.C.R., X07 Extreme®, was fully characterised through tensile test, static and dynamic lap-shear strength test, cleavage peel test and DSC. Lap-shear tests were performed by using either aluminium, stainless steel and glass fibre reinforced polymer as substrate and after aging the specimen under extreme environmental conditions. The performance of this novel adhesive was compared to that of a structural adhesive of a competitor. The work summarises the typical procedures intended for the qualification of a structural adhesive for marine joints.     

Exposure data and risk indicators for safety performance assessment in Europe

The objective of this paper is the analysis of the state-of-the-art in risk indicators and exposure data for safety performance assessment in Europe, in terms of data availability, collection methodologies and use. More specifically, the concepts of exposure and risk are explored, as well as the theoretical properties of various exposure measures used in road safety research (e.g. vehicle- and person-kilometres of travel, vehicle fleet, road length, driver population, time spent in traffic, etc.). Moreover, the existing methods for collecting disaggregate exposure data for risk estimates at national level are presented and assessed, including survey methods (e.g. travel surveys, traffic counts) and databases (e.g. national registers). A detailed analysis of the availability and quality of existing risk exposure data is also carried out. More specifically, the results of a questionnaire survey in the European countries are presented, with detailed information on exposure measures available, their possible disaggregations (i.e. variables and values), their conformity to standard definitions and the characteristics of their national collection methods. Finally, the potential of international risk comparisons is investigated, mainly through the International Data Files with exposure data (e.g. Eurostat, IRTAD, ECMT, UNECE, IRF, etc.). The results of this review confirm that comparing risk rates at international level may be a complex task, as the availability and quality of exposure estimates in European countries varies significantly. The lack of a common framework for the collection and exploitation of exposure data limits significantly the comparability of the national data. On the other hand, the International Data Files containing exposure data provide useful statistics and estimates in a systematic way and are currently the only sources allowing international comparisons of road safety performance under certain conditions.     

Neutrophils Mediate Pulmonary Artery Thrombosis In Situ

Pulmonary embolism is a life-threatening condition, which can result in respiratory insufficiency and death. Blood clots occluding branches of the pulmonary artery (PA) are traditionally considered to originate from thrombi in deep veins (usually in legs). However, growing evidence suggests that occlusion of the vessels in the lungs can develop without preceding deep vein thrombosis (DVT). In this work, we used an inferior vena cava (IVC) complete ligation model of DVT in Wistar rats to explore the possibility and mechanisms of PA thrombosis under the conditions where all routes of thrombotic mass migration from peripheral veins are blocked. We demonstrate that rats both with normal and reduced neutrophil counts developed thrombi in the IVC, although, neutropenia caused a substantial decrease in thrombus size and a shift from fresh fibrin toward mature fibrin and connective tissue inside the thrombus. Massive fibrin deposition was found in the PA branches in the majority of DVT rats with normal neutrophil counts, but in none of the neutropenic animals. Neutrophil ablation also abolished macroscopic signs of lung damage. Altogether, the results demonstrate that thrombi in the lung vasculature can form in situ by mechanisms that require local neutrophil recruitment taking place in the DVT setting.     

State-of-the-Art on Wound Vitality Evaluation: A Systematic Review

The vitality demonstration refers to determining if an injury has been caused ante- or post-mortem, while wound age means to evaluate how long a subject has survived after the infliction of an injury. Histology alone is not enough to prove the vitality of a lesion. Recently, immunohistochemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology have been introduced in the field of lesions vitality and age demonstration. The study was conducted according to the preferred reporting items for systematic review (PRISMA) protocol. The search terms were “wound”, “lesion”, “vitality”, “evaluation”, “immunohistochemistry”, “proteins”, “electrolytes”, “mRNAs”, and “miRNAs” in the title, abstract, and keywords. This evaluation left 137 scientific papers. This review aimed to collect all the knowledge on vital wound demonstration and provide a temporal distribution of the methods currently available, in order to determine the age of lesions, thus helping forensic pathologists in finding a way through the tangled jungle of wound vitality evaluation.     

Engineered Sleeping Beauty Transposon as Efficient System to Optimize Chimp Adenoviral Production

Sleeping Beauty (SB) is the first DNA transposon employed for efficient transposition in vertebrate cells, opening new applications for genetic engineering and gene therapies. A transposon-based gene delivery system holds the favourable features of non-viral vectors and an attractive safety profile. Here, we employed SB to engineer HEK293 cells for optimizing the production of a chimpanzee Adenovector (chAd) belonging to the Human Mastadenovirus C species. To date, chAd vectors are employed in several clinical settings for infectious diseases, last but not least COVID-19. A robust, efficient and quick viral vector production could advance the clinical application of chAd vectors. To this aim, we firstly swapped the hAd5 E1 with chAd-C E1 gene by using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. We demonstrated that in the absence of human Ad5 E1, chimp Ad-C E1 gene did not support HEK293 survival. To improve chAd-C vector production, we engineered HEK293 cells to stably express the chAd-C precursor terminal protein (ch.pTP), which plays a crucial role in chimpanzee Adenoviral DNA replication. The results indicate that exogenous ch.pTP expression significantly ameliorate the packaging and amplification of recombinant chAd-C vectors thus, the engineered HEK293ch.pTP cells could represent a superior packaging cell line for the production of these vectors.     

Regulation of the Key Epithelial Cancer Suppressor miR-124 Function by Competing Endogenous RNAs

A decrease in the miR-124 expression was observed in various epithelial cancers. Like a classical suppressor, miR-124 can inhibit the translation of multiple oncogenic proteins. Epigenetic mechanisms play a significant role in the regulation of miR-124 expression and involve hypermethylation of the MIR-124-1/-2/-3 genes and the effects of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) according to the model of competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). More than 40 interactomes (lncRNA/miR-124/mRNA) based on competition between lncRNAs and mRNAs for miR-124 binding have been identified in various epithelial cancers. LncRNAs MALAT1, NEAT1, HOXA11-AS, and XIST are the most represented in these axes. Fourteen axes (e.g., SND1-IT1/miR-124/COL4A1) are involved in EMT and/or metastasis. Moreover, eight axes (e.g., OIP5-AS1/miR-124-5p/IDH2) are involved in key pathways, such as Wnt/b-catenin, E2F1, TGF-β, SMAD, ERK/MAPK, HIF-1α, Notch, PI3K/Akt signaling, and cancer cell stemness. Additionally, 15 axes impaired patient survival and three axes reduced chemo- or radiosensitivity. To date, 14 cases of miR-124 regulation by circRNAs have been identified. Half of them involve circHIPK3, which belongs to the exonic ecircRNAs and stimulates cell proliferation, EMT, autophagy, angiogenesis, and multidrug resistance. Thus, miR-124 and its interacting partners may be considered promising targets for cancer therapy.