Research Publications (Food Safety)

The effects of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) on diabetic metabolic disorders are still controversial, and the mechanisms underlying these effects remain largely unknown. This study was conducted to investigate the potential relationship between the gut microbiota and the improvement of diabetic metabolic disorders by exogenous H2S in obese db/db mice. The db/db mice were treated with sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) (80 μmol/kg), or vehicle for 16 weeks, respectively.

Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Accepted Article. The hepatitis E virus (HEV) can cause acute and chronic hepatitis in humans. Infections with the zoonotic HEV genotype 3, which can be transmitted from infected wild boar and deer to humans, are increasingly detected in Europe.

Zoonoses and Public Health, EarlyView. Yersinia enterocolitica is a human pathogen transmitted via the faecal–oral route among animals and humans and is a major foodborne public health hazard. This study explores the role of Y. enterocolitica transmission at the livestock–wildlife interface and investigates the potential role wild and peridomestic rodents play as a source of this zoonotic pathogen.

International Journal of Food Science & Technology, Accepted Article. In this study, an Enzyme Linked Immuno Assay (ELISA) was used to detect the presence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and total aflatoxins (AFT) in 200 samples of nuts for human consumption.

Even though Listeria monocytogenes is an extensive-studied foodborne pathogen, genome analysis of isolates from snails that may represent a reservoir of L. monocytogenes are still scarce. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to assess the genomic diversity of hypervirulent, virulent and non-virulent phenotypes of 15 L.

The occurrence of deoxynivalenol, nivalenol and deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside in 104 corn and wheat flour samples available on the Egyptian market was investigated using ultra-performance liquid chromatography with a photodiode array detector (UPLC-PDA). Of all samples, 70.2% were contaminated with deoxynivalenol at levels varying between < LOQ and 853 μg/kg.

Background Cereulide, a potent toxin produced by emetic Bacillus cereus (B. cereus), is a small, heat- and acid-stable cyclic dodecadepsipeptide known as a potassium-selective ionophore. Recently, cereulide is responsible for an increasing number of foodborne poisonings due to changes in lifestyle and eating habits.

Toxoplasmosis is an important zoonosis caused by the intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite is known to infect almost all warm blooded animals, and meat containing tissue cysts is one of the main sources of infection for omnivorous an carnivorous animals.

A total of 60 WRKY family genes of ramie were identified in the ramie. The genes were unevenly distributed across 14 chromosomes in the specie and highly concentrated (72%) in the distal telomeric region. Phylogenetic analysis placed these genes into seven distinct subfamilies groups: I, II (a, b, c, d, e), and III, with group IIc containing only the variant of heptapetide sequence (WRKYGKK). Segmental duplication events (41.7%) was found to be the main driver of BnGWRKY evolution.

Bacterial drug resistance caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics is common, especially in clinical multispecies infections. It is of great significance to discover novel agents to treat clinical bacterial infections. Studies have demonstrated that autoinducer-2 (AI-2), a signal molecule in quorum sensing (QS), plays an important role in communication among multiple bacterial species and bacterial drug-resistance.

Grassland ecosystems cover around 37% of the ice-free land surface on Earth and have critical socioeconomic importance globally. As in many terrestrial ecosystems, biological dinitrogen (N2) fixation represents an essential natural source of nitrogen (N). The ability to fix atmospheric N2 is limited to diazotrophs, a diverse guild of bacteria and archaea.

A new trithiodiketopiperazine derivative, adametizine C (1), and five new alkane derivatives (7–11), were isolated from the mangrove sediment–derived fungus Penicillium ludwigii SCSIO 41408, together with five known dithiodiketopiperazine derivatives (2–6). Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analysis, and the absolute configuration of 1 was determined by X-ray crystallographic analysis.

Salmonella enterica serovar Infantis is one of the five main causes of human salmonellosis in the European Union (EU) and in recent years, has been increasingly reported to carry multiple antimicrobial resistance determinants, including extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) genes. In our study, we used WGS-based tools to characterize S. Infantis strains circulating in the Abruzzo and Molise regions of Italy between 2017 and 2020 and compared this local dataset to the S.

Bacillus cereus is widely distributed in foods, especially dairy products, and can lead to diarrhea (non-emetic B. cereus) and emesis (emetic B. cereus). Although diarrhea due to B. cereus is usually mild, emesis can lead to acute encephalopathy and even death. To develop rapid and sensitive detection methods for B. cereus in foods, specific primers targeting the gyrase B (gyrB) and cereulide synthetase (ces) genes were designed and screened using recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA).

Animal feed (including forage and silage) can be contaminated with mycotoxins. Here, 200 maize silage samples from around China were collected in 2019 and analyzed for regulated mycotoxins, masked mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol, and deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside), and emerging mycotoxins (beauvericin, enniatins, moniliformin, and alternariol). Deoxynivalenol and zearalenone were detected in 99.5% and 79.5% of the samples, respectively.

The intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium is a significant cause of severe diarrhoeal disease that can have long term effects. Therapeutic options remain limited despite a significant impact on public health, partly due to various challenges in the field of Cryptosporidium research, including the availability of genomic and transcriptomic data from environmental and clinical isolates.

Daptomycin is an important antibiotic used for treating serious infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Establishing structure–activity relationships of daptomycin is important for developing new daptomycin-based antibiotics with expanded clinical applications and for tackling the ever-increasing problem of antimicrobial resistance.

Owing to the serious adverse effects caused by pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine, the drugs commonly used to treat toxoplasmosis, there is a need for treatment alternatives for this disease. Nanotechnology has enabled significant advances toward this goal. This study was conducted to evaluate the activity of biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNp-Bio) in RAW 264.7 murine macrophages infected with the RH strain of Toxoplasma gondii. The macrophages were infected with T.

Salmonellosis is a prevalent food poisoning disease caused by Salmonella spp. that affects millions of people throughout the world. Contamination of chicken meat and processing equipment with Salmonella is a major issue in the food industry.

The potential of organic acids to inactivate foodborne pathogens in food industry has gained attention, while the sanitizing mechanism of acid stress has not been explained fully at metabolomics level.

Abstract Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen, and the appearance of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) renders S. aureus infections more challenging to treat. Therefore, new antimicrobial drugs are urgently needed to combat MRSA infections. Drug repurposing is an effective and feasible strategy.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables refer to edible commodities that are free from large scale and typical traditional processing operations. However, maintaining their nutritional value and microbiological integrity is challenging. The processing operations such as peeling, cutting and trimming done in the fresh-cut industry can trigger deteriorative reactions such as tissue softening and enzymatic browning.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. Milk quality and safety maintenance is an important issue, as many reports showed several biological and chemical contaminants in the milk. Among all contaminants, AFM1 is detected frequently in milk samples. Therefore, our main aim was to understand the digestive fate of AFM1 in an in-vitro digestion (IVD) model system by using AFM1 spiked milk samples (2ug/L).

Journal of Food Biochemistry, EarlyView. Copper II-Albumin complex (Cu-II-Albumin complex) is a novel therapeutic target that has been used as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-gastrointestinal toxicity.

Traditional foods and diets can provide health benefits beyond their nutrient composition because of the presence of bioactive compounds. In various traditional healthcare systems, diet-based approaches have always played an important role, which has often survived until today. Therefore, investigating traditional foods aimed at health promotion could render not only novel bioactive substances but also mechanistic insights.