Risk-Association of Five SNPs in TOX3/LOC643714 with Breast Cancer in Southern China

The specific mechanism by which low-risk genetic variants confer breast cancer risk is currently unclear, with contradictory evidence on the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TOX3/LOC643714 as a breast cancer susceptibility locus. Investigations of this locus using a Chinese population may indicate whether the findings initially identified in a European population are generalizable to other populations, and may provide new insight into the role of genetic variants in the etiology of breast cancer. In this case-control study, 623 Chinese female breast cancer patients and 620 cancer-free controls were recruited to investigate the role of five SNPs in TOX3/LOC643714 (rs8051542, rs12443621, rs3803662, rs4784227, and rs3112612); Linkage disequilibrium (LD) pattern analysis was performed. Additionally, we evaluated how these common SNPs influence the risk of specific types of breast cancer, as defined by estrogen receptor (ER) status, progesterone receptor (PR) status and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status. Significant associations with breast cancer risk were observed for rs4784227 and rs8051542 with odds ratios (OR) of 1.31 ((95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.10–1.57)) and 1.26 (95% CI, 1.02–1.56), respectively, per T allele. The T-rs8051542 allele was significantly associated with ER-positive and HER2-negative carriers. No significant association existed between rs12443621, rs3803662, and rs3112612 polymorphisms and risk of breast cancer. Our results support the hypothesis that the applicability of a common susceptibility locus must be confirmed among genetically different populations, which may together explain an appreciable fraction of the genetic etiology of breast cancer.     

Hydrolytic degree and antioxidant activity of purified casein characterised by different haplotypes (αs1-, β- and k-casein) after enzymatic hydrolysis with pepsin and enzymatic extract from Pleurotus eryngii

The aim of this study was to estimate the hydrolytic degree and antioxidant activity of purified casein characterised by different haplotypes (α_s1-, β- and k-casein) after in vitro digestion with two different enzymatic systems: pepsin from porcine gastric mucosa (EP) and a crude enzymatic extract from the edible mushroom Pleurotus eryngii. The used enzymes showed a different mode of casein catalysis with a consequent production of peptides of different antioxidant activity. The CN haplotype significantly influenced peptides production; in fact, the amino acid substitutions caused by genetic polymorphisms at the α_s1-, β- and k-CN loci influenced the sites of enzymatic cleavage and therefore the produced peptides. The above is evidenced by the different antioxidant activity found in the hydrolysates depending on the used enzymatic system, the CN haplotype, and the CN haplotype × enzymatic treatment interaction. The findings of this study are a perspective for the production of specific foods that exert a biological effect in addition to the nutritional one.     

Emulsifying and Foaming Properties of Protein Concentrates Prepared from Cowpea and Bambara Bean Using Different Drying Methods

Effect of cabinet-drying, vacuum-drying, and freeze-drying methods on the surface hydrophobicity, secondary structure, emulsifying, and foaming properties of protein concentrates prepared from different cultivars of cowpea and Bambara bean was investigated. The vacuum-drying method reduced hydrophobicity, while freeze-dried concentrates presented high hydrophobicity. The concentrates prepared by freeze drying presented more β-sheet (40–43%) and less β-turn (19–24%) structures. Bambara bean protein concentrates prepared by freeze-drying presented higher emulsifying activity (56–59%) compared to those by vacuum-drying and cabinet-drying, while emulsifying activity varied significantly among cultivars of cowpea (46–61%). Protein concentrates prepared by cabinet-drying showed the highest foaming ability.     

GutSelf: Interindividual Variability in the Processing of Dietary Compounds by the Human Gastrointestinal Tract

Nutritional research is currently entering the field of personalized nutrition, to a large extent driven by major technological breakthroughs in analytical sciences and biocomputing. An efficient launching of the personalized approach depends on the ability of researchers to comprehensively monitor and characterize interindividual variability in the activity of the human gastrointestinal tract. This information is currently not available in such a form. This review therefore aims at identifying and discussing published data, providing evidence on interindividual variability in the processing of the major nutrients, i.e., protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, along the gastrointestinal tract, including oral processing, intestinal digestion, and absorption. Although interindividual variability is not a primary endpoint of most studies identified, a significant number of publications provides a wealth of information on this topic for each category of nutrients. This knowledge remains fragmented, however, and understanding the clinical relevance of most of the interindividual responses to food ingestion described in this review remains unclear. In that regard, this review has identified a gap and sets the base for future research addressing the issue of the interindividual variability in the response of the human organism to the ingestion of foods.     

Hierarchical particle swarm optimizer for minimizing the non-convex potential energy of molecular structure

The stable conformation of a molecule is greatly important to uncover the secret of its properties and functions. Generally, the conformation of a molecule will be the most stable when it is of the minimum potential energy. Accordingly, the determination of the conformation can be solved in the optimization framework. It is, however, not an easy task to achieve the only conformation with the lowest energy among all the potential ones because of the high complexity of the energy landscape and the exponential computation increasing with molecular size. In this paper, we develop a hierarchical and heterogeneous particle swarm optimizer (HHPSO) to deal with the problem in the minimization of the potential energy. The proposed method is evaluated over a scalable simplified molecular potential energy function with up to 200 degrees of freedom and a realistic energy function of pseudo-ethane molecule. The experimental results are compared with other six PSO variants and four genetic algorithms. The results show HHPSO is significantly better than the compared PSOs with p-value less than 0.01277 over molecular potential energy function.     

Model of a polymer chain twisted inside a statistical segment. Poly(3‐hexylthiophene) in chloroform solutions

A set of hydrodynamic methods in extremely dilute solutions (determination of intrinsic viscosity [η ], translational diffusion D and flotation in a centrifugal field s ) was used in the studies of conformational properties, dimensions and equilibrium rigidity of individual molecules of a series of samples of poly(3‐hexylthiophene). Absolute molecular masses M _sD were determined. The Mark–Kuhn–Houwink equations for the range of M _sD from 2240 to 15 300 g mol^?1 are given. For the first time, an analysis of conformational properties and equilibrium flexibility of poly(3‐hexylthiophene) molecules was carried out using the model of a statistical segment containing a twisted polymer chain. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry     

Investigation of the stereodefect distribution and conformational behavior of isotactic polypropylene polymerized with different Ziegler–Natta catalysts

Two isotactic polypropylene (iPP) samples (PP-A and PP-B) were obtained by utilizing two different heterogeneous Ziegler–Natta catalysts in a given polymerization system. The molecular structure and conformational behavior of the samples were studied. The results of determination of xylene soluble material (XS) and ¹³C NMR showed that the average isotacticity of the samples were nearly same. However, the results of high-resolution high-temperature ¹³C NMR (HRHT ¹³C NMR) and successive self-nucleation and annealing (SSA) fractionation revealed that the amount of high isotacticity of PP-B was lower than that of PP-A, and the amount of relative medium and low isotacticity of PP-B was higher than PP-A, indicating that the stereodefect distribution of PP-B was more uniform than PP-A. The calculation of average meso sequence length from SSA was found to be in good agreement with that calculated from the results of HRHT ¹³C NMR. Moreover, Fourier transformation infrared was utilized to study the influence of stereodefect distribution on the conformational behavior of iPP. The result suggested that the molecular conformation of the PP-B was more disordered than PP-A, the regularity of molecular structure for PP-B was lower than that of PP-A. The related action mechanism and the influences of which on crystallization behavior were discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Genetic Variability in DNA Repair Proteins in Age-Related Macular Degeneration

The pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is complex and involves interactions between environmental and genetic factors, with oxidative stress playing an important role inducing damage in biomolecules, including DNA. Therefore, genetic variability in the components of DNA repair systems may influence the ability of the cell to cope with oxidative stress and in this way contribute to the pathogenesis of AMD. However, few reports have been published on this subject so far. We demonstrated that the c.977C>G polymorphism (rs1052133) in the hOGG1 gene and the c.972G>C polymorphism (rs3219489) in the MUTYH gene, the products of which play important roles in the repair of oxidatively damaged DNA, might be associated with the risk of AMD. Oxidative stress may promote misincorporation of uracil into DNA, where it is targeted by several DNA glycosylases. We observed that the g.4235T>C (rs2337395) and c.–32A>G (rs3087404) polymorphisms in two genes encoding such glycosylases, UNG and SMUG1, respectively, could be associated with the occurrence of AMD. Polymorphisms in some other DNA repair genes, including XPD (ERCC2), XRCC1 and ERCC6 (CSB) have also been reported to be associated with AMD. These data confirm the importance of the cellular reaction to DNA damage, and this may be influenced by variability in DNA repair genes, in AMD pathogenesis.     

Effect of APE1 T2197G (Asp148Glu) Polymorphism on APE1, XRCC1, PARP1 and OGG1 Expression in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

It has been hypothesized that genetic variation in base excision repair (BER) might modify colorectal adenoma risk. Thus, we evaluated the influence of APE1 T2197G (Asp148Glu) polymorphism on APE1, XRCC1, PARP1 and OGG1 expression in normal and tumor samples from patients with colorectal cancer. The results indicate a downregulation of OGG1 and an upregulation of XRCC1 expression in tumor tissue. Regarding the anatomical location of APE1, OGG1 and PARP-1, a decrease in gene expression was observed among patients with cancer in the rectum. In patients with or without some degree of tumor invasion, a significant downregulation in OGG1 was observed in tumor tissue. Interestingly, when taking into account the tumor stage, patients with more advanced grades (III and IV) showed a significant repression for APE1, OGG1 and PARP-1. XRCC1 expression levels were significantly enhanced in tumor samples and were correlated with all clinical and histopathological data. Concerning the polymorphism T2197G, GG genotype carriers exhibited a significantly reduced expression of genes of the BER repair system (APE1, XRCC1 and PARP1). In summary, our data show that patients with colorectal cancer present expression changes in several BER genes, suggesting a role for APE1, XRCC1, PARP1 and OGG1 and APE1 polymorphism in colorectal carcinogenesis.