process-development-for-spray-drying-probiotic-bacteria-evaluation

Process Development for the Spray-Drying of Probiotic Bacteria and Evaluation of the Product Quality

Probiotics and prebiotics are of great interest to the food and pharmaceutical industries due to their health benefits. Probiotics are live bacteria that ...

Universidade De São Paulo (USP)

Universidade de São Paulo

The energy of the frontier molecular orbitals and reactivity indices such as chemical potential, hardness, and electrophilicity of neutral and charged molecules have been investigated in aqueous solution using explicit model for the solvent with the sequential Monte Carlo/quantum mechanics methodology. The supermolecular structures of the solute-solvent system were generated by Monte Carlo simulation. Statistically uncorrelated structures have been extracted for quantum mechanical calculations of the solute surrounded by the first solvation shell, using explicit water molecules, and the second and third shells as atomic point charges. The supermolecular calculations treating both the solute and the solvent explicitly were performed within density functional theory. The solvent dependence of the frontier molecular orbital energies was analyzed and used to calculate the reactivity indices in solution. The dependence of the results with respect to the number of explicit solvent molecules is also analyzed. It is seen that for the systems considered here, the energies of the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital show a strong dependence with the number of solvent molecules. However, the properties derived from these are relatively stable. In particular, the results reported here for the reactivity indices obtained using the first solvation shell are similar to those obtained for the limit bulk value. For comparison, the reactivity indices were also calculated in the gas phase and using the polarizable continuum model (PCM). As frequently reported in the literature, neutral molecules do not show significant changes in the reactivity indices between gas phase and the PCM model. However, with the explicit solvent model some important changes were observed: a larger negative chemical potential, a smaller hardness, and a larger electrophilicity. The stabilization of an anion corresponding to a negative chemical potential is obtained only by using explicit solvent molecules. In general, the solvent effect was well treated by using the first solvation shell, and the calculated results are in agreement with the experimental trends. The delocalization of the solute orbitals over the solvent region is analyzed, and its consequence to the reactivity indices are discussed. The importance of including explicit solvent molecules and adopting a statistical approach for the liquid is emphasized.

Solvent effects on global reactivity properties for neutral and charged systems using the sequential Monte Carlo quantum mechanics model.

Boron compounds are widely used in synthetic chemistry. The synthesis of the compounds is relatively easy, presenting thermodynamic stability and synthetic versatility. Almost all of them show electrophilic reactivity. Recently, some boryllithium species have been reported as a base or a nucleophile in reaction with organic electrophiles in S(N)2 reactions. In the present work, the proton affinity (PA) of boryllithium compounds was calculated. These values can be useful as theoretical reference values and to provide valuable complementary information for the interpretation and discussion of the basicity of these compounds. The proton affinity was calculated using a theoretical method based on density functional theory and high-level theoretical methods through MP2 and G2MP2 levels of theory. In addition, some global and local reactivity indexes based on density functional theory (DFT) on boryllithium compounds were studied. In order to compare and discuss the chemical reactivity of these compounds, some analogues and electrophilic boron compounds were also studied. Our results showed a local and global nucleophilic reactivity of the boryllithium molecules in agreement with the experimental reactivity. The boryllithium compounds revealed to be strong bases in comparison to other analogue compounds studied in this work.

On the nucleophilicity of boryllithium compounds. A theoretical study.

Pterins are members of a family of heterocyclic compounds present in a wide variety of biological systems and may exist in two forms, corresponding to an acid and a basic tautomer. In this work, the proton transfer reaction between these tautomeric forms was investigated in the gas phase and in aqueous solution. In gas phase, the intramolecular mechanism was carried out for the isolated pterin by quantum mechanical second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ) calculations and it indicates that the acid form is more stable than the basic form by -1.4 kcal/mol with a barrier of 34.2 kcal/mol with respect to the basic form. In aqueous solution, the role of the water molecules in the proton transfer reaction was analyzed in two separated parts, the direct participation of one water molecule in the reaction path, called water-assisted mechanism, and the complementary participation of the aqueous solvation. The water-assisted mechanism was carried out for one pterin-water cluster by quantum mechanical calculations and it indicates that the acid form is still more stable by -3.3 kcal/mol with a drastic reduction of 70% of the barrier. The bulk solution effect on the intramolecular and water-assisted mechanisms was included by free energy perturbation implemented on Monte Carlo simulations. The bulk water effect is found to be substantial and decisive when the reaction path involves the water-assisted mechanism. In this case, the free energy barrier is only 6.7 kcal/mol and the calculated relative Gibbs free energy for the two tautomers is -11.2 kcal/mol. This value is used to calculate the pK(a) value of 8.2 +/- 0.6 that is in excellent agreement with the experimental result of 7.9.

Solvent effects in chemical processes. water-assisted proton transfer reaction of pterin in aqueous environment.

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species' threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project - and avert - future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups - including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems - http://www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015. 

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts.

The expression of facial asymmetries has been recurrently related with poverty and/or disadvantaged socioeconomic status. Departing from the developmental instability theory, previous approaches attempted to test the statistical relationship between the stress experienced by individuals grown in poor conditions and an increase in facial and corporal asymmetry. Here we aim to further evaluate such hypothesis on a large sample of admixed Latin Americans individuals by exploring if low socioeconomic status individuals tend to exhibit greater facial fluctuating asymmetry values. To do so, we implement Procrustes analysis of variance and Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) to estimate potential associations between facial fluctuating asymmetry values and socioeconomic status. We report significant relationships between facial fluctuating asymmetry values and age, sex, and genetic ancestry, while socioeconomic status failed to exhibit any strong statistical relationship with facial asymmetry. These results are persistent after the effect of heterozygosity (a proxy for genetic ancestry) is controlled in the model. Our results indicate that, at least on the studied sample, there is no relationship between socioeconomic stress (as intended as low socioeconomic status) and facial asymmetries.

Socioeconomic Status Is Not Related with Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry: Evidence from Latin-American Populations.

The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)-has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.

The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project.

Facial asymmetries are usually measured and interpreted as proxies to developmental noise. However, analyses focused on its developmental and genetic architecture are scarce. To advance on this topic, studies based on a comprehensive and simultaneous analysis of modularity, morphological integration and facial asymmetries including both phenotypic and genomic information are needed. Here we explore several modularity hypotheses on a sample of Latin American mestizos, in order to test if modularity and integration patterns differ across several genomic ancestry backgrounds. To do so, 4104 individuals were analyzed using 3D photogrammetry reconstructions and a set of 34 facial landmarks placed on each individual. We found a pattern of modularity and integration that is conserved across sub-samples differing in their genomic ancestry background. Specifically, a signal of modularity based on functional demands and organization of the face is regularly observed across the whole sample. Our results shed more light on previous evidence obtained from Genome Wide Association Studies performed on the same samples, indicating the action of different genomic regions contributing to the expression of the nose and mouth facial phenotypes. Our results also indicate that large samples including phenotypic and genomic metadata enable a better understanding of the developmental and genetic architecture of craniofacial phenotypes.

Developmental pathways inferred from modularity, morphological integration and fluctuating asymmetry patterns in the human face.

Several studies in human and equine medicine have produced controversial results regarding the role of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as a therapeutic agent. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of joint lavage with different DMSO concentrations on biomarkers of synovial fluid inflammation and cartilage degradation in joints with lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced synovitis. Twenty-six tibiotarsal joints of 13 horses were randomly distributed into four groups (lactated Ringer's solution; 5% DMSO in lactated Ringer's; 10% DMSO in lactated Ringer's; and sham). All animals were evaluated for the presence of lameness, and synovial fluid analyses were performed at 0 h, 1 h, 8 h, 24 h, and 48 h (T0, T1, T8, T24, and T48, respectively). The white blood cell counts (WBC), total protein (TP), urea, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), hyaluronic acid (HA), and chondroitin sulfate (CS) concentrations were measured. The WBC counts and PGE2, IL-1β, IL-6, and TP concentrations increased in all groups at T8 compared to baseline values (<0.05). At T48, only the 5% DMSO and 10% DMSO groups showed a significant decrease in WBC counts (<0.05). Furthermore, the 10% DMSO group had lower concentrations of PGE2 and IL-1β at T48 than at T8 (<0.05) and presented lower IL-6 levels than the5% DMSO and lactated Ringer's groups at T24. All groups showed an increase in CS concentration after LPS-induced synovitis. Joint lavage with 10% DMSO in lactated Ringer´s has anti-inflammatory but not chondroprotective effects.

Effects of Joint Lavage with Dimethylsulfoxide on LPS-Induced Synovitis in Horses-Clinical and Laboratorial Aspects.

Identify and characterise the food industry's involvement in nutrition and dietetics national and regional events in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Involvement of the food industry in nutrition conferences in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Despite hepatotoxic effects, imidocarb dipropionate is the drug of choice for treatment of equine piroplasmosis. It is important, therefore, to identify adjuvant therapies that may improve the safety of imidocarb dipropionate by reducing the risk of liver damage during its use. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the hepatoprotective and hepatoregulatory effects of treatment with  and  during administration of imidocarb dipropionate.

Efficacy of oral  and  on toxicity of imidocarb dipropionate in horses.

To characterize the genetic basis of facial features in Latin Americans, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 6000 individuals using 59 landmark-based measurements from two-dimensional profile photographs and ~9,000,000 genotyped or imputed single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We detected significant association of 32 traits with at least 1 (and up to 6) of 32 different genomic regions, more than doubling the number of robustly associated face morphology loci reported until now (from 11 to 23). These GWAS hits are strongly enriched in regulatory sequences active specifically during craniofacial development. The associated region in 1p12 includes a tract of archaic adaptive introgression, with a Denisovan haplotype common in Native Americans affecting particularly lip thickness. Among the nine previously unidentified face morphology loci we identified is the VPS13B gene region, and we show that variants in this region also affect midfacial morphology in mice.

A GWAS in Latin Americans identifies novel face shape loci, implicating VPS13B and a Denisovan introgressed region in facial variation.

Here we evaluate the accuracy of prediction for eye, hair and skin pigmentation in a dataset of > 6500 individuals from Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil (including genome-wide SNP data and quantitative/categorical pigmentation phenotypes - the CANDELA dataset CAN). We evaluated accuracy in relation to different analytical methods and various phenotypic predictors. As expected from statistical principles, we observe that quantitative traits are more sensitive to changes in the prediction models than categorical traits. We find that Random Forest or Linear Regression are generally the best performing methods. We also compare the prediction accuracy of SNP sets defined in the CAN dataset (including 56, 101 and 120 SNPs for eye, hair and skin colour prediction, respectively) to the well-established HIrisPlex-S SNP set (including 6, 22 and 36 SNPs for eye, hair and skin colour prediction respectively). When training prediction models on the CAN data, we observe remarkably similar performances for HIrisPlex-S and the larger CAN SNP sets for the prediction of hair (categorical) and eye (both categorical and quantitative), while the CAN sets outperform HIrisPlex-S for quantitative, but not for categorical skin pigmentation prediction. The performance of HIrisPlex-S, when models are trained in a world-wide sample (although consisting of 80% Europeans, https://hirisplex.erasmusmc.nl), is lower relative to training in the CAN data (particularly for hair and skin colour). Altogether, our observations are consistent with common variation of eye and hair colour having a relatively simple genetic architecture, which is well captured by HIrisPlex-S, even in admixed Latin Americans (with partial European ancestry). By contrast, since skin pigmentation is a more polygenic trait, accuracy is more sensitive to prediction SNP set size, although here this effect was only apparent for a quantitative measure of skin pigmentation. Our results support the use of HIrisPlex-S in the prediction of categorical pigmentation traits for forensic purposes in Latin America, while illustrating the impact of training datasets on its accuracy.

Prediction of eye, hair and skin colour in Latin Americans.

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified genes influencing skin ageing and mole count in Europeans, but little is known about the relevance of these (or other genes) in non-Europeans.

Article	Year
Solvent effects on global reactivity properties for neutral and charged systems using the sequential Monte Carlo quantum mechanics model. The journal of physical chemistry. B\| PubMed ID: 19320524	2009
On the nucleophilicity of boryllithium compounds. A theoretical study. The journal of physical chemistry. A\| PubMed ID: 19459612	2009
Solvent effects in chemical processes. water-assisted proton transfer reaction of pterin in aqueous environment. The journal of physical chemistry. A\| PubMed ID: 19754044	2009
The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts. Ecology and evolution\| PubMed ID: 25558364	2014
Socioeconomic Status Is Not Related with Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry: Evidence from Latin-American Populations. PloS one\| PubMed ID: 28060876	2017
The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project. Ecology and evolution\| PubMed ID: 28070282	2017
Developmental pathways inferred from modularity, morphological integration and fluctuating asymmetry patterns in the human face. Scientific reports\| PubMed ID: 29343858	2018
Effects of Joint Lavage with Dimethylsulfoxide on LPS-Induced Synovitis in Horses-Clinical and Laboratorial Aspects. Veterinary sciences\| PubMed ID: 32365982	2020
Involvement of the food industry in nutrition conferences in Latin America and the Caribbean. Public health nutrition\| PubMed ID: 33118920	2021
Efficacy of oral and on toxicity of imidocarb dipropionate in horses. Veterinary record open\| PubMed ID: 33178437	2020
A GWAS in Latin Americans identifies novel face shape loci, implicating VPS13B and a Denisovan introgressed region in facial variation. Science advances\| PubMed ID: 33547071	2021
Prediction of eye, hair and skin colour in Latin Americans. Forensic science international. Genetics\| PubMed ID: 33865096	2021
A genome-wide association study identifies novel gene associations with facial skin wrinkling and mole count in Latin Americans. The British journal of dermatology\| PubMed ID: 33959940	2021

Yeily Jaramillo

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