In an in vitro cytopathic effect inhibition assay with the H3N2 influenza virus A/Hong Kong/68 (HK/68), the bark extract of Burkea africana was found to be a promising antiviral lead with an IC50 value of 5.5 μg/mL without noteworthy cytotoxicity in Madin Darby canine kidney cells. After several chromatographic steps, triterpene saponins of the lupane and oleanane types were identified as the b...

This research was to develop a antihypertensive peptide, an efficient angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor (ACEI), from Porphyra yezoensis. Seven commercial enzymes were screened and then enzymatic hydrolysis conditions were optimised. The results showed that alcalase was the most effective for hydrolysis and its optimum conditions for achieving the highest antihypertensive activity of...

The aim of this study was identifying a suitable food grade enzymes to hydrolyze whey protein concentrates (WPCs), to give the highest bioactivity. WPCs from ultrafiltration retentate were adjusted to 35% protein (WPC-35) and hydrolyzed by enzymes, alcalase, α-chymotrypsin, pepsin, protease M, protease S, and trypsin at different hydrolysis times (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 h). These 36 types of...

In the preceding communication, the molecular properties of pepsinogen in water and water-urea solutions were evaluated (1). In this report the rates of unfolding of pepsinogen as a function of pH and temperature in urea solutions are presented. A comparison can then be made between the influence of these variables on pepsinogen denaturation and the results of a similar study reported several y...

Bovine β-lactoglobulin (β-lg), consisting of pronounced β-sheet content, have been chosen as a model protein which on prolonged thermal treatment forms large molecular aggregates similar to Alzheimer’s type amyloid fibrils. The effects of L-arginine (free base) in thermal aggregation process of β-lg were monitored at varying concentrations. Concentration dependent opposite behaviour has been re...

Three new pigment compounds--terreusinone A (1), pinophilin C (2) and cryptosporioptide A (3)-were isolated from a solid culture of Cordyceps gracilioides. The structures of these compounds were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis including HRESIMS, 1D- and 2D-NMR. The structure of terreusinone A (1) was further confirmed by single-crystal X-ray crystallographic diffraction analysis....

Dipeptide and tripeptide derivatives containing a statine residue were synthesized as inhibitors of human renin. ES-305, bis[(1-naphthyl)methyl]acetyl(BNMA)-histidyl-statine 2(S)-methylbutylamide was found to be a highly potent inhibitor of human renin with a Ki value of 1.7 X 10(-9) M. Dipeptide derivatives with the BNMA group at the N-terminal (BNMA-Val-Sta-isoleucinol [ES-313], BNMA-Leu-Sta-...

Suppose the random vector X ∈ R has mean zero and finite second moments. We show that there is a precise sense in which almost all linear projections of X into R (for d < D) look like a scale-mixture of spherical Gaussians—specifically, a mixture of distributions N(0, σ2Id) where the σ values follow the same distribution as ‖X‖/ √ D. The extent of this effect depends upon the ratio of d to D, a...

Minimum alveolar concentration (MAC), served as the vital concept for standard measure of potency for inhaled volatile anesthetic agents, has been employed in anesthetic practice for more than 50 years. A re-consideration in the connotation and influence factors on MAC is introduced in this article. MAC actually indicates “median effective dose (ED50) for immobility”, but it is at least not com...

OBJECTIVE There is a research gap in studies that evaluate the effectiveness of a school-embedded mindfulness-based intervention for both students and teachers. To address this gap, the present pilot study reviews relevant literature and investigates whether students and teachers who participate in separate Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses show improvements across a variety of ...