New technologies for nutrition research

Use of nanotechnology-based nanomaterial as a substitute for antibiotics in monogastric animals

Nanotechnology has emerged as a promising solution for tackling antibiotic resistance in monogastric animals, providing innovative methods to enhance animal health and well-being. This review explores the novel use of nanotechnology-based nanomaterials as substitutes for antibiotics in monogastric animals. With growing global concerns about antibiotic resistance and the need for sustainable practices in animal husbandry, nanotechnology offers a compelling avenue to address these challenges. The objectives of this review are to find out the potential of nanomaterials in improving animal health while reducing reliance on conventional antibiotics. We examine various forms of nanomaterials and their roles in promoting gut health and also emphasize fresh perspectives brought by integrating nanotechnology into animal healthcare. Additionally, we delve into the mechanisms underlying the antibacterial properties of nanomaterials and their effectiveness in combating microbial resistance. By shedding light on the transformative role of nanotechnology in animal production systems. This review contributes to our understanding of how nanotechnology can provide safer and more sustainable alternatives to antibiotics.

Nanoencapsulated Aquafeeds and Current Uses in Fisheries/Shrimps: A Review

Feeds for aquaculture animals are designed to provide them with the greatest amount of nourishment they need to carry out their regular physiological activities, such as maintaining a potent natural immune system and boosting growth and reproduction. However, the problems that severely hamper this sector's ability to contribute to achieving global food security include disease prevalence, chemical pollution, environmental deterioration, and inadequate feed usage. The regulated release of active aquafeed components; limited water solubility, bioaccessibility, and bioavailability, as well as their potent odour and flavour, limit their utilisation. They are unstable under high temperatures, acidic pH, oxygen, or light. Recent advancements in nano-feed for aquaculture (fish/shrimp) have attract enormous attention due to its excellent nutritional value, defeating susceptibility and perishability. Encapsulation is a multifunctional smart system that could bring benefits of personalized medicine; minimize costs and resources in the preclinical and clinical study in pharmacology. It guarantees the coating of the active ingredient as well as its controlled release and targeted distribution to a particular area of the digestive tract. For instance, using nanotechnology to provide more effective fish/shrimps feed for aquaculture species. The review enables a perspective points on safety and awareness in aquafeeds that have been made by the advancements of nanosystem. Therefore, potential of nano-delivery system in aquafeed industry for aquaculture act as concluding remark on future directions.

Comprehensive Approaches of Nanoparticles for Growth Performance and Health Benefits in Poultry: An Update on the Current Scenario

Currently, providing nutritious food to all people is one of the greatest challenges due to rapid human population growth. The global poultry industry is a part of the agrifood sector playing an essential role in food insecurity by providing nutritious meat and egg sources. However, limited meat production with less nutritional value is not fulfilling the higher market demands worldwide. Researchers are focusing on nanobiotechnology by employing phytosynthesized mineral nanomaterials to improve the growth performance and nutritional status of broilers as these mineral nanoparticles are usually absorbed in greater amounts from the gastrointestinal tract and exert enhanced biological effects in the target tissues of animals with greater tissue accumulation. These mineral nanoparticles are efficiently absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract and reach essential organs via blood. As a result, it enhances growth performance and nutritional value with less toxicity and tremendous bioavailability properties. In this review, the research work conducted in the recent past, on the different aspects of nanotechnology including supplementation of mineral nanoparticle in diet and their potential role in the poultry industry, has been concisely discussed.

Calcium Carbonate Nanoparticles-Toxicity and Effect of In Ovo Inoculation on Chicken Embryo Development, Broiler Performance and Bone Status

Simple Summary

Intensive selection in broiler chicken flocks has led do several leg disorders. The injection of nanoparticles, with high specificity to the bone, into the egg is a potential method to improve bone quality. The objective of our study was to evaluate the potential effect of calcium carbonate nanoparticles injected to the egg on chicken embryo development and bone quality of broiler chickens after 42 day of life. The calcium carbonate nanoparticles were not toxic to embryo and even improved the bone quality of embryos and later broilers without negative impact on production results. Thus, the application of calcium carbonate nanoparticles to the egg may be the potential solution for improving the bone mineralization of broiler chickens.

Abstract

The use of intensive selection procedure in modern broiler chicken lines has led to the development of several skeletal disorders in broiler chickens. Therefore, current research is focused on methods to improve the bone quality in birds. In ovo technology, using nanoparticles with a high specificity to bones, is a potential approach. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of in ovo inoculation (IOI) of calcium carbonate nanoparticles (CCN) on chicken embryo development, health status, bone characteristics, and on broiler production results and bone quality. After assessing in vitro cell viability, the IOI procedure was performed with an injection of 500 μg/mL CCN. The control group was not inoculated with CCN. Hatchability, weight, and selected bone and serum parameters were measured in embryos. Part of hatchlings were reared under standard conditions until 42 days, and production results, meat quality, and bone quality of broilers were determined. CCN did not show cytotoxicity to cells and chicken embryo and positively influenced bone parameters of the embryos and of broilers later (calcification) without negatively affecting the production results. Thus, the IOI of CCN could modify the molecular responses at the stage of embryogenesis, resulting in better mineralization, and could provide a sustained effect, thereby improving bone quality in adult birds.

Curcumin, Curcumin Nanoparticles and Curcumin Nanospheres: A Review on Their Pharmacodynamics Based on Monogastric Farm Animal, Poultry and Fish Nutrition

Nanotechnology is an emerging field of science that is widely used in medical sciences. However, it has limited uses in monogastric farm animal as well as fish and poultry nutrition. There are some works that have been done on curcumin and curcumin nanoparticles as pharmaceutics in animal nutrition. However, studies have shown that ingestion of curcumin or curcumin nanoparticles does not benefit the animal health much due to their lower bioavailability, which may result because of low absorption, quick metabolism and speedy elimination of curcumin from the animal body. For these reasons, advanced formulations of curcumin are needed. Curcumin nanospheres is a newly evolved field of nanobiotechnology which may have beneficial effects in terms of growth increment, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects on animal and fish health by means of nanosphere forms that are biodegradable and biocompatible. Thus, this review aims to highlight the potential application of curcumin, curcumin nanoparticles and curcumin nanospheres in the field of monogastric farm animal, poultry and fish nutrition. We do believe that the review provides the perceptual vision for the future development of curcumin, curcumin nanoparticles and curcumin nanospheres and their applications in monogastric farm animal, poultry and fish nutrition.

Exploitation of microbial forensics and nanotechnology for the monitoring of emerging pathogens

Emerging infectious diseases remain among the leading causes of global mortality. Traditional laboratory diagnostic approaches designed to detect and track infectious disease agents provide a framework for surveillance of bio threats. However, surveillance and outbreak investigations using such time-consuming approaches for early detection of pathogens remain the major pitfall. Hence, reasonable real-time surveillance systems to anticipate threats to public health and environment are critical for identifying specific aetiologies and preventing the global spread of infectious disease. The current review discusses the growing need for monitoring and surveillance of pathogens with the same zeal and approach as adopted by microbial forensics laboratories, and further strengthening it by integrating with the innovative nanotechnology for rapid detection of microbial pathogens. Such innovative diagnostics platforms will help to track pathogens from high risk areas and environment by pre-emptive approach that will minimize damages. The various scenarios with the examples are discussed where the high risk associated human pathogens in particular were successfully detected using various nanotechnology approaches with potential future prospects in the field of microbial forensics.

Effect of Aqueous Nanosuspensions of Clay Minerals on Broilers' Performance and Some Selected Antibody Titers

The effect of using different concentrations of aqueous nanosuspensions of clay minerals (1%, 1.5%, and 2%) offered at different periods of time (one time per one or two weeks) compared with tap-water with and without antibiotics on growth performance and some selected antibody titer was studied. The experiment lasted from 1 to 36 days of age. The statistical findings of the experiment prove that aqueous nanosuspension 1% offered one time per two weeks significantly improved feed conversion ratio (FCR). Meanwhile, aqueous nanosuspension 2% offered one time per two weeks significantly gave the same effect on live body weight (LBW) and body weight gain (BWG) as did antibiotics. Concerning the findings that pertain to immunity, antibody titer against the most infectious diseases [Newcastle (ND), infectious bronchitis (IB), and infectious bursal disease (IBD)] were significantly improved by offering aqueous nanosuspension 1.5% offered one time per one and two weeks, and aqueous nanosuspension 1% offered one time per one week, respectively.

Estimating design space available for polyepitopes through consideration of major histocompatibility complex binding motifs

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC ) epitope presentation is needed for robust adaptive immune responses. Core peptide binding motifs for class I and class II MHC are 8-10 amino acids long, containing two or more "anchor" residues. These binding motifs define epitope anchor amino acid content and spacing, and knowledge of them has facilitated emergence of polyepitope vaccines. However, polyepitopes can exhibit "junctional epitopes" (neoepitopes interfering with vaccine function) resulting from juxtaposition of authentic epitopes. We have developed an algorithm for consideration of polyepitope sequence in light of MHC motifs to exhaustively identify all junctional-free polyepitope designs for any given set of authentic epitopes, and in so doing discovered that the number of such variants of any given polyepitope can be astronomically high. Our approach designs polyepitopes of any length, considers multiple MHC class I or class II motifs simultaneously and can be adapted to design variants of existing proteins with pre-selected epitope contents. We have also implemented the algorithm as a computer-based tool (CANVAC II), which we make available to interested parties. The vast diversity of junctional-free polyepitopes suggests that the number of potential T-helper epitope free protein variants may also be large, which may have implications for discovery of bioactive but non-immunogenic therapeutics.

Nanotechnology research: applications in nutritional sciences

The tantalizing potential of nanotechnology is to fabricate and combine nanoscale approaches and building blocks to make useful tools and, ultimately, interventions for medical science, including nutritional science, at the scale of approximately 1-100 nm. In the past few years, tools and techniques that facilitate studies and interventions in the nanoscale range have become widely available and have drawn widespread attention. Recently, investigators in the food and nutrition sciences have been applying the tools of nanotechnology in their research. The Experimental Biology 2009 symposium entitled "Nanotechnology Research: Applications in Nutritional Sciences" was organized to highlight emerging applications of nanotechnology to the food and nutrition sciences, as well as to suggest ways for further integration of these emerging technologies into nutrition research. Speakers focused on topics that included the problems and possibilities of introducing nanoparticles in clinical or nutrition settings, nanotechnology applications for increasing bioavailability of bioactive food components in new food products, nanotechnology opportunities in food science, as well as emerging safety and regulatory issues in this area, and the basic research applications such as the use of quantum dots to visualize cellular processes and protein-protein interactions. The session highlighted several emerging areas of potential utility in nutrition research. Nutrition scientists are encouraged to leverage ongoing efforts in nanomedicine through collaborations. These efforts could facilitate exploration of previously inaccessible cellular compartments and intracellular pathways and thus uncover strategies for new prevention and therapeutic modalities.

Implications of available design space for identification of non-immunogenic protein therapeutics

Immunogenicity/antibody responses are major issues for parenteral proteins and nanotherapeutics (nanovectors, diagnostics, theranostics, etc.), and robust antibody responses require T-helper epitopes. T-helper epitopes consist of specific amino acids at specific positions (anchor positions) in immunogens which contact the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), provide most of the energy for MHC binding and constitute the binding motif for the corresponding MHC alleles. We developed an algorithm that considers motifs to design vaccines lacking unwanted T-cell epitopes, and found numbers of such vaccines can be astronomical (Lee et al. 2009). The algorithm can be used to design reduced immunogenicity proteins, and numbers of predicted proteins are also immense. Reducing T-helper epitope content reduces protein immunogenicity, but the depth of mutagensis needed to eliminate immunogenicity is commonly assumed to be too great for retention of protein bioactivity. However, very deep, but successful substitution, insertion and deletion mutagenesis have been reported. These reports and design space the algorithm reveals suggest development of non-immunogenic therapeutics might be more feasible than commonly assumed.

Accelerator mass spectrometry targets of submilligram carbonaceous samples using the high-throughput Zn reduction method

The high-throughput Zn reduction method was developed and optimized for various biological/biomedical accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) applications of mg of C size samples. However, high levels of background carbon from the high-throughput Zn reduction method were not suitable for sub-mg of C size samples in environmental, geochronology, and biological/biomedical AMS applications. This study investigated the effect of background carbon mass (m_c) and background ¹⁴C level (F_c) from the high-throughput Zn reduction method. Background m_c was 0.011 mg of C and background F_c was 1.5445. Background subtraction, two-component mixing, and expanded formulas were used for background correction. All three formulas accurately corrected for backgrounds to 0.025 mg of C in the aerosol standard (NIST SRM 1648a). Only the background subtraction and the two-component mixing formulas accurately corrected for backgrounds to 0.1 mg of C in the IAEA-C6 and -C7 standards. After the background corrections, our high-throughput Zn reduction method was suitable for biological (diet)/biomedical (drug) and environmental (fine particulate matter) applications of sub-mg of C samples (≥ 0.1 mg of C) in keeping with a balance between throughput (270 samples/day/analyst) and sensitivity/accuracy/precision of AMS measurement. The development of a high-throughput method for examination of ≥ 0.1 mg of C size samples opens up a range of applications for ¹⁴C AMS studies. While other methods do exist for ≥ 0.1 mg of C size samples, the low throughput has made them cost prohibitive for many applications.

Recent advances in biomedical applications of accelerator mass spectrometry

The use of radioisotopes has a long history in biomedical science, and the technique of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), an extremely sensitive nuclear physics technique for detection of very low-abundant, stable and long-lived isotopes, has now revolutionized high-sensitivity isotope detection in biomedical research, because it allows the direct determination of the amount of isotope in a sample rather than measuring its decay, and thus the quantitative analysis of the fate of the radiolabeled probes under the given conditions. Since AMS was first used in the early 90's for the analysis of biological samples containing enriched ¹⁴C for toxicology and cancer research, the biomedical applications of AMS to date range from in vitro to in vivo studies, including the studies of 1) toxicant and drug metabolism, 2) neuroscience, 3) pharmacokinetics, and 4) nutrition and metabolism of endogenous molecules such as vitamins. In addition, a new drug development concept that relies on the ultrasensitivity of AMS, known as human microdosing, is being used to obtain early human metabolism information of candidate drugs. These various aspects of AMS are reviewed and a perspective on future applications of AMS to biomedical research is provided.

Urinary hippuric acid after ingestion of edible fruits

Aim of this study was to evaluate the biotransformation of simple phenols after ingestion of edible fruits and mixed food. It was analyzed hippuric acid in urine as biomarker of conjugation in the liver cells of glycine with aromatic phenolic acids such benzoic and salicylic acid from ingested food. Measurement of hippuric acid in urine samples of 10 healthy individuals: 5 female and 5 male with a mean age 51,5 years were recruited to participate in this study. Urine samples were collected for 24 hours. The additional meals 300 g of fruits: blueberry, cherry, raspberry, melon, blackberry and mixed food were given immediately before the 24 hr urine sampling. Otherwise, the meals given during 24 hr was a usually food. Biotransformation of phenols in edible fruits, that are together with liver glycins precursors of hippuric acid biosynthesis, was evaluated by direct spectrophotometric measurement of excreted hippuric acid in urine at 410 nm. It was established that the highest quantity of hippuric acid was after ingestion of 300 g of bilberry fruits (p< 0,003), and same quantity of cherries (p< 0,003). Concentration of excreted hippuric acid was twice higher after ingestion of these fruits in comparison with hippuric acid concentrations in urine after ingestion of common - mixed food. Quantity of biosynthesised hippuric acid was in direct correlation with the concentrations of its precursors, primarily phenol acids and other simple aromatic acids ingested with food.

Synthesis, characterization, and bioavailability in rats of ferric phosphate nanoparticles

Particle size is a determinant of iron (Fe) absorption from poorly soluble Fe compounds. Decreasing the particle size of metallic Fe and ferric pyrophosphate added to foods increases Fe absorption. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize nanoparticles of FePO(4) and determine their bioavailability and potential toxicity in rats. Amorphous FePO(4) nanopowders with spherical structure were synthesized by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP). The nanopowders were characterized and compared with commercially available FePO(4) and FeSO(4), including measurements of specific surface area (SSA), structure by transmission electron microscopy, in vitro solubility at pH 1 and 2, and relative bioavailability value (RBV) to FeSO(4) in rats using the hemoglobin repletion method. In the latter, the potential toxicity after Fe repletion was assessed by histological examination and measurement of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). The commercial FePO(4) and the 2 FePO(4) produced by FSP (mean particle sizes, 30.5 and 10.7 nm) had the following characteristics: SSA: 32.6, 68.6, 194.7 m(2)/g; in vitro solubility after 30 min at pH 1: 73, 79, and 85% of FeSO(4); and RBV: 61, 70, and 96%, respectively. In the histological examinations and TBARS analysis, there were no indications of toxicity. In conclusion, nanoparticles of FePO(4) have a solubility and RBV not significantly different from FeSO(4). Reducing poorly soluble Fe compounds to nanoscale may increase their value for human nutrition.

Maltose-binding protein: a versatile platform for prototyping biosensing

The bacterial periplasmic-binding protein (PBP) superfamily members, in particular the maltose-binding protein, have been used extensively to prototype a variety of biosensing platforms. Although quite diverse at the primary sequence level, this protein superfamily retains the same basic two-domain structure, and upon binding a recognized ligand almost all PBPs undergo a conformational change to a closed structure. This process forms the basis for most, but not all, PBP-based biosensor signal transduction. Many direct detection or reagentless sensing modalities have been utilized with maltose-binding protein for both in vitro and in vivo detection of target compounds. Signal transduction modalities developed to date include direct fluorescence, electrochemical detection, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based detection, surface-tethered FRET sensing, hybrid quantum dot FRET sensing, and enzymatic detection, each of which have different benefits, potential applications and limitations.

A proteomics approach to identifying fish cell lines

Fish cell lines are relatively easy to culture and most have simple growth requirements that make cross contamination a potential problem. Cell line contamination is not an uncommon incident in laboratories handling more than one cell line and many reports have been made on cross contamination of mammalian cell lines. Although problems of misidentification and cross-contamination of fish cell lines have rarely been reported, these are issues of concern for cell culturists that can make scientific results and their reproducibility unreliable. Proper identification of cell lines is thus crucial and protocols for routine and rapid screening are preferred. Cytogenetic evaluation, DNA fingerprinting, microsatellite analysis and PCR methods have been published for inter-species identification of many cell lines, but discerning intra-species contamination has been challenging. More complex DNA fingerprinting and hybridization techniques coupled with isoenzyme analysis have been developed to discriminate intra-species contamination, however, these require complex and time consuming procedures to enable cell identification thus are difficult to apply for routine use. A simple proteomic approach has been made to identify several fish cell lines derived from tissues of the same or differing species. Protein expression signatures (PES) of the evaluated fish cell lines have been developed using 2-DE and image analysis. A higher degree of concordance was seen among cell lines derived from rainbow trout, than from other fish species. Similar concordance was seen in cells derived from the same tissues than from other tissues within the same species. These profiles have been saved in an electronic databank and could be made available to be used for discerning the origins of the various cell lines evaluated. This proteomic approach could thus serve as an additional, valuable and reliable technique for the identification of fish cell lines.