Publications by authors named "Andrea Cerrato"

Seaweeds, comprising green (Chlorophyta), brown (Phaeophyta), and red (Rhodophyta) algae, are recognized as valuable marine resources rich in bioactive phenolic compounds with nutraceutical potential. Despite growing interest in edible species, limited attention has been given to infesting seaweeds, which may represent an underexploited source of bioactives while addressing ecological challenges. In the present study, an innovative, structure-based data processing workflow was set up for the characterization of phenolic compounds in marine organisms and applied to eight edible and two infesting seaweed species from the major taxonomic groups by means of untargeted mass spectrometric data acquisition.

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Polyphenols are a large group of plant secondary metabolites, synthesized mostly through the phenylpropanoid pathway, and they comprise flavonoids, stilbenes, lignans, and simple phenolic acids. The characterization of these natural compounds is challenging, due to the complexity of plant extracts, the variety of polyphenols forms in the various plant organs, and the limited availability of authentic standards. The analysis of polyphenols is mostly achieved by reversed-phase liquid chromatography (LC), but poor retention and resolution are often observed for the polar ones.

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The present study investigates the phytocannabinoid profiles of Cannabis sativa L. by analyzing individual glandular trichomes from both a medicinal cannabis variety (FM2) and a high-CBD (cannabidiol) hemp variety. The analysis was performed using an untargeted metabolomics approach (phytocannabinomics) that enabled the identification of nearly 70 phytocannabinoids in single trichomes, a significant improvement over previous studies, which typically analyzed pooled or enriched trichome fractions.

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Article Synopsis
  • Multi-residue methods for pesticide analysis often exclude polar compounds like glyphosate, requiring complex techniques for their detection in food samples, such as specialized chromatography.
  • A new method was developed for analyzing polar pesticides in beer, utilizing an online trapping device that combines reversed-phase and ion exchange properties, enabling effective extraction and separation.
  • Validation of this method demonstrated recoveries of 71-112% and detection limits competitive with existing polar pesticide analysis methods, confirming its efficacy for large-scale beer testing.
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  • Seaweeds, which are large algae, are becoming popular for their health benefits, potential as drug sources, and role in combating climate change, especially due to their high content of beneficial fatty acids.
  • The study focused on analyzing the structure and geometry of fatty acids in seaweeds using advanced mass spectrometry techniques, leading to a detailed understanding of their lipid composition.
  • Researchers identified over 900 lipid species from 8 different seaweed species and uncovered unique features about their double bonds, enhancing the understanding of seaweed's nutritional value.
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The fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues. Since the pandemic's onset, several biomarkers have been proposed to assess the diagnosis and prognosis of this disease. This research aimed to identify potential disease severity biomarkers in serum samples of patients with COVID-19 during the disease course.

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Pollution from micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) has long been a topic of concern due to its potential impact on human health. MNPs can circulate through human blood and, thus far, have been found in the lungs, spleen, stomach, liver, kidneys and even in the brain, placenta, and breast milk. While data are already available on the adverse biological effects of pristine MNPs ( oxidative stress, inflammation, cytotoxicity, and even cancer induction), no report thus far clarified whether the same effects are modulated by the formation of a protein corona around MNPs.

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After the most comprehensive analysis of the phenolic composition in Cannabis reported to date, a total of 211 compounds were identified, phenolic profiles were able to discriminate cannabis varieties and a complex regulatory network for phenolics accumulation in Cannabis chemovars was highlighted. Female inflorescences of Cannabis sativa L. are plenty of secondary metabolites, of which flavonoids and phenolic acids have been investigated by far less than phytocannabinoids and terpenoids.

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  • Lipidomics using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) is important in clinical chemistry for linking lipid imbalances to various diseases, but identifying specific structures beyond fatty acids remains challenging, particularly concerning the arrangement of carbon-carbon double bonds.* -
  • Researchers have proposed methods to analyze these double bonds, including a new approach that utilizes the inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) reaction with tetrazines, which provides fast results and effective characterization.* -
  • This study successfully applied a catalyst-free IEDDA reaction to identify double bonds in fatty acids and lipid regioisomers, allowing for detailed analysis and quantification in complex samples, like plasma from prostate cancer patients.*
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Background: Metabolomics is nowadays considered one the most powerful analytical for the discovery of metabolic dysregulations associated with the insurgence of cancer, given the reprogramming of the cell metabolism to meet the bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands of the malignant cell. Notwithstanding, several challenges still exist regarding quality control, method standardization, data processing, and compound identification. Therefore, there is a need for effective and straightforward approaches for the untargeted analysis of structurally related classes of compounds, such as acylcarnitines, that have been widely investigated in prostate cancer research for their role in energy metabolism and transport and β-oxidation of fatty acids.

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Multicomponent reactions offer efficient and environmentally friendly strategies for preparing monoliths suitable for applications in analytical chemistry. In the described study, a multicomponent reaction was utilized for the one-pot miniaturized preparation of a poly(propargyl amine) polymer inside commercial silica-lined PEEK tubing. The reaction involved only small amounts of reagents and was characterized by atom economy.

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The production of olive oil has important economic repercussions in Mediterranean countries but also a considerable impact on the environment. This production generates enormous quantities of waste and by-products, which can be exploited as new raw materials to obtain innovative ingredients and therefore make the olive production more sustainable. In a previous study, we decided to foster olive seeds by generating two protein hydrolysates using food-grade enzymes, alcalase (AH) and papain (PH).

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Due to their valuable nutritional content, several hemp-derived products from hempseeds have recently been placed in the market as food and food ingredients. In particular, the lipid composition of hempseeds has raised interest for their rich content in biologically active polyunsaturated fatty acids with an optimum ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 compounds. At present, however, the overall polar lipidome composition of hempseeds remains largely unknown.

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Short-chain peptides have attracted increasing attention in different research fields, including biomarker discovery, but also a well-known analytical challenge in complex matrices due to their low abundance compared to other molecules, which can cause extensive ion suppression during mass spectrometric acquisition. Moreover, there is a lack of analytical workflows for their comprehensive characterization since ordinary peptidomics strategies cannot identify them. In this context, an enrichment strategy was introduced and developed to isolate and clean up short-chain peptides by graphitized carbon black solid phase extraction.

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A molecularly imprinted polymer with a specific selectivity for patulin was successfully synthesized. The molecularly imprinted material was prepared using the two functional monomers dopamine and melamine and formaldehyde as the cross-linker. The resulting material possessed a large number of hydrophilic groups, such as hydroxyls, imino groups, and ether linkages.

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Cannabis sativa has long been harvested for industrial applications related to its fibers. Industrial hemp cultivars, a botanical class of Cannabis sativa with a low expression of intoxicating Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-THC) have been selected for these purposes and scarcely investigated in terms of their content in bioactive compounds. Following the global relaxation in the market of industrial hemp-derived products, research in industrial hemp for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical purposes has surged.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The research found that LPH reduces DPP-IV activity both in a lab setting and in living cells, suggesting it has anti-diabetic properties.
  • * Additionally, amino acid sequences from LPH that can be absorbed in the intestine were identified, and a drink containing LPH was shown to lower DPP-IV activity and glucose levels in human subjects.
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The evaluation of the chiral composition of phytocannabinoids in the cannabis plant is particularly important as the pharmacological effects of the (+) and (-) enantiomers of these compounds are completely different. Chromatographic attempts to assess the presence of the minor (+) enantiomers of the main phytocannabinoids, cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) and trans-Δ-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (trans-Δ-THCA), were carried out on heated plant extracts for the determination of the corresponding decarboxylated species, cannabidiol (CBD) and trans-Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (trans-Δ-THC), respectively. This process produces an altered phytocannabinoid composition with several new and unknown decomposition products.

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  • - The article reviews current advancements in analyzing intact glycopeptides using LC-MS proteomics, highlighting recent techniques at various stages of the analytical process.
  • - It emphasizes the importance of specialized sample preparation and introduces new materials and chemical strategies designed for glycopeptide analysis and dual enrichment of glycosylation along with other modifications.
  • - Finally, it outlines ongoing challenges in the field, such as understanding glycopeptide isomerism, improving quantitative analysis, and developing methods for large-scale characterization of underexplored glycosylation types.
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The presence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment is mainly due to their release from the effluents of the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), which are unable to completely remove them and their transformation products (TPs). Sulfonamides (SAs) are a synthetic antibacterial class used for the treatment of both human and animal infections; they have often been reported in surface water, thus contributing to the antibiotic resistance emergency. Monitoring SA TPs should be important as well because they could still exert some pharmaceutical activity; however, many TPs are still unknown since several transformation processes are possible (e.

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Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a plant matrix whose use is recently spreading for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical purposes. Detailed characterization of hemp composition is needed for future research that further exploits the beneficial effects of hemp compounds on human health.

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The paper describes the preparation and characterization of a new HILIC material for the enrichment of N-linked glycopeptides. The material was prepared using 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid as the monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linker. The material was developed by a Box-Behnken experimental design, taking into consideration the amount of monomer-to-crosslinker ratio, the composition, and the amount of porogen mixture.

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This study aims to obtain a valuable mixture of short-chain peptides from hempseed as a new ingredient for developing nutraceutical and functional foods useful for preventing metabolic syndrome that represents the major cause of death globally. A dedicated analytical platform based on a purification step by size exclusion chromatography or ultrafiltration membrane and high-resolution mass spectrometry was developed to isolate and comprehensively characterize short-chain peptides leading to the identification of more than 500 short-chain peptides. Our results indicated that the short-chain peptide mixture was about three times more active than the medium-chain peptide mixture and total hydrolysate with respect to measured inhibition of the angiotensin-converting enzyme.

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In recent years, there is increasing attention on the contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), which include plasticizers, flame retardants, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products, since they have been detected even far away from pollution sources. The polar regions are not exempt from the presence of anthropogenic contaminants, and they are employed as a model for understanding the pollutant fate and impact. During the 2021 spring campaign, sixteen surface snow samples were collected close to the research station of Ny-Ålesund located on the Spitsbergen Island of the Norwegian Svalbard Archipelago.

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Article Synopsis
  • By-products from the olive production process, particularly seeds, can be transformed into valuable protein sources and bioactives.
  • The study focused on extracting proteins from L. seeds and creating two different protein hydrolysates using enzymes alcalase and papain, followed by peptidomic analysis to identify their biological activity.
  • The hydrolysates exhibited significant antioxidant properties, effectively reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation in Caco-2 cells, with papain hydrolysates showing up to 75.7% free radical scavenging activity at 5 mg/mL.
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