Research Publications (Food Safety)

Author(s): Linting Hao, Lianghua Chen, Peng Zhu, Jian Zhang, Danju Zhang, Jiujin Xiao, Zhenfeng Xu, Li Zhang, Yang Liu, Han Li, Hanbo Yang, Guoxing Cao

Daytime and nighttime PM2.5 samples were collected from an urban community in Tianjin. The major chemical components in PM2.5, including metal elements, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and inorganic water-soluble ions, were monitored. A positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was used to apportion the potential sources of PM2.5 under different weather conditions.

Eugenia brejoensis L. (Myrtaceae) is an endemic plant from caatinga ecosystem (brazilian semi-arid) which have an E. brejoensis essential oil (EbEO) with reported antimicrobial activity. In this work, in vitro and in vivo models were used to characterize the inhibitory effects of EbEO in relation to Staphylococcus aureus. EbEO inhibited the growth of all tested S. aureus strains (including multidrug resistance isolates) with values ranging from 8 to 516 μg/mL.

Retroviral reverse transcriptases (RTs) have the ability to carry out strand displacement DNA synthesis in the absence of accessory proteins. Although studies with RTs and other DNA polymerases suggest that fingers subdomain residues participate in strand displacement, molecular determinants of this activity are still unknown.

by Ahmad R. Kirmani, Ahmed E. Mansour, Chen Yang, Rahim Munir, Ahmed M. El-Zohry, Omar F. Mohammed, Aram Amassian

As a prebiotics, lactosucrose plays an important role in maintaining human gastrointestinal homeostasis. In this study, a thermostable enzyme from Arthrobacter sp. 10138 was screened from six β-fructofuranosidase-producing strains for the lactosucrose production and the coding gene was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli for efficient expression. Recombinant β-fructofuranosidase was purified and biochemically characterized by MALDI-TOFMS spectrometry.

Gram-negative bacteria expressing class A β-lactamases pose a serious health threat due to their ability to inactivate all β-lactam antibiotics. The acyl–enzyme intermediate is a central milestone in the hydrolysis reaction catalyzed by these enzymes. However, the protonation states of the catalytic residues in this complex have never been fully...

Since coffee is a significant contributor to the consumption of acrylamide, its reduction is required. Acrylamide is produced during the roasting of coffee beans, but the roasting process is an essential step in determining the taste of coffee. Acrylamide content in coffee has been suggested to decrease by reacting with proteins and/or other substances during storage, but details are unknown. Investigation of acrylamide adducts may contribute to a strategy for acrylamide reduction in coffee.

To investigate the drug residue situation in commercial liquid milk products in China, 190 samples, including ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk (n=168) and pasteurized (n=22) milk samples, were collected in 2019. Milk samples were analyzed for the presence of any of the sixty-one veterinary drugs in them by using a screening assay combined with a UPLC-MS/MS analysis.

by Elena Gorokhova, Anne L. Soerensen, Nisha H. Motwani

by Yi-Jia Lin, Hsuan-Kai Lin, Ying-Hong Lin

Author(s): Ming-Yuan Xu, Ying-Jian Sun, Pan Wang, Lin Yang, Yi-Jun Wu

ABSTRACT Pesticides have posed significant threats to aquatic ecosystems, yet little is known about their transformation products. The challenge is to simultaneously analyze various pesticides and transformation products in water as they have distinct physicochemical properties.

In this study, the molecularly imprinted nano-polymer of minocycline was polymerized on the surface of a metal organic framework material to synthesize a novel composite. This composite was used as absorbent to develop a dispersive solid phase microextraction method for extraction of 7 tetracyclines in chicken muscle followed by determination with ultra performance liquid chromatography.

Clayey soils have been used as liners at the base of waste deposits due to their geotechnical characteristics and capacity to adsorb metallic cations. However, a number of soils may not possess all required properties to ensure contaminant retention and therefore require additives.

The potential toxicity of cadmium‐containing quantum dots (QDs) has received much attention because of increasing biomedical applications. However, little has been known about how cadmium telluride (CdTe) QDs influence the gut microbiota and lipid metabolism. In this study, mice were exposed orally to CdTe QDs (200 μL of 0.2, 2, 20 or 200 μm; twice per week) for 4 weeks.

Cadmium contamination of agricultural soils is a serious problem due to its toxic effects on health and yield of crop plants. This study investigates the potential of low-dose nano-TiO2 as soil nanoremediation on Cd toxicity in cowpea plants. To achieve this goal, cowpea seeds were germinated on Cd-spiked soils at 10 mg/kg for 14 days and later augmented with 100 mg nTiO2/kg (nTiO2-50 nm and bTiO2-68 nm, respectively).

Abstract

Aims

Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling are key ecosystem functions potentially altered by heavy metal pollution. We used an ecosystem approach to study the long-term effect of lead (Pb) on C and N cycles in a natural grassland in a former shooting range.

Antibiotic residues in chicken meat samples is a serious public health concern due to their harmful effects on consumers’ health. We conducted this research in 2017 to determine antibiotic residues in chicken meat samples and to describe the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of farmers on the antibiotic uses in poultry farms at Tay Ninh province.

Malaria is a tropical disease that kills about half a million people around the world annually. Enzymatic reactions within pyrimidine biosynthesis have been proven to be essential for Plasmodium proliferation. Here we report on the essentiality of the second enzymatic step of the pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway, catalyzed by aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATC).

Author(s): Hamdy A. Abdel-Gawwad, Mona S. Mohammed, Sahar E. Zakey

Metal exposure has recently been related to the risk of hypertension. However, the association remains unclear and relevant epidemiologic studies are limited. The present study aimed to assess the associations between exposure to metals and the odds of hypertension, as well as blood pressure (BP) levels. A total of 816 participants were enrolled in southwestern China.

Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), a typical carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, exists worldwide in vehicle exhaust, cigarette smoke and other polluted environments. Recent studies have demonstrated a strong association between B[a]P and lung cancer. However, whether B[a]P at human blood equivalent level can promote epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT), a crucial molecular event during cell malignant transformation, remains unclear.

BACKGROUND Flavor rapeseed oil is a type of hot‐pressed oil in China. In this work, physicochemical properties, oxidative stability index (OSI), tocopherols, sterols and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in flavor rapeseed oils were evaluated. Additionally, the cancer risk assessment pertaining to PAHs in flavor rapeseed oil was investigated.

The role of molecular arrangement of hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups for designing membrane-active molecules remains largely ambiguous. To explore this aspect, herein we report a series of membrane-active small molecules by varying the spatial distribution of hydrophobic groups.