Publications by authors named "Anna Laura Capriotti"

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The sustainable valorization of infesting marine biomass offers opportunities to address environmental challenges and emerging nutritional needs. This study investigated the invasive red alga as a potential source of bioactive peptides with antihypertensive and antidiabetic properties. Protein hydrolyzates were generated via enzymatic digestion and fractionated by size exclusion chromatography.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recognizes the potential of technologies based on the use of nanoparticles (NPs) in revolutionizing clinical approaches to the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer. Recent research suggests that once NPs come into contact with the biological fluid of cancer patients, they are covered by proteins, forming a "protein corona" composed of hundreds of plasma proteins. The concept of a personalized, disease-specific protein corona, demonstrating substantial differences in NP corona profiles between patients with and without cancer, has been introduced.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This work was aimed to explore the antioxidative properties, bioavailability and the safety of bioactive peptides obtained by the enzymatic hydrolysis of ultrasound-treated (UO) and untreated (nUO) soybean okara proteins. Particularly, the peptidomic profiles of both hydrolysates were examined using an untargeted metabolomics technique for suspect screening that was specifically designed for the profiling of short-chain peptides and relied on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) and bioinformatics. Next, both UO and nUO hydrolysates reduce Dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV) enzyme activity until 39.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) play a crucial role in addressing genetic disorders, and cancer, and combating pandemics such as COVID-19 and its variants. Yet, the ability of LNPs to effectively encapsulate large-size DNA molecules remains elusive. This is a significant limitation, as the successful delivery of large-size DNA holds immense potential for gene therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nowadays, the growing knowledge about the high nutritional value and potential functionality of hempseeds, the edible fruits of the Cannabis sativa L. plant, has sparked a surge in interest in exploring the worthwhile attributes of hempseed proteins and peptides. This trend aligns with the increasing popularity of hemp-based food, assuming a vital role in the global food chain.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • 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.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hemp-sprouts are emerging as a new class of attractive functional food due to their numerous health benefits when compared to other sprout species. Indeed, the high content of beneficial components including polyphenols and flavonoids makes this type of food a promising and successful market. However, the available literature on this topic is limited and often conflicting as regards to the content of phytocannabinoids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this work, a heart-cut bidimensional achiral-chiral liquid chromatography method coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry was developed for the separation of the main carboxylated phytocannabinoids, namely cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), cannabichromenic acid (CBCA), and cannabicyclolic acid (CBLA), and decarboxylated derivatives, namely cannabidiol (CBD), Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-THC), cannabichromene (CBC), and cannabicyclol (CBL), and the evaluation of their enantiomeric composition in extracts of different Cannabis sativa L. varieties. Optimal conditions for the chiral analysis of CBC- and CBL-type compounds were found with methanol and water (95:5, v/v, with 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cannabis is a multifaceted plant with numerous therapeutic properties on one hand, and controversial psychotropic activities on the other hand, which are modulated by CB1 endocannabinoid receptors. Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) has been identified as the main component responsible for the psychotropic effects, while its constitutional isomer cannabidiol (CBD) has shown completely different pharmacological properties. Due to its reported beneficial effects, Cannabis has gained global popularity and is openly sold in shops and online.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mitragyna speciosa or kratom is emerging worldwide as a "legal" herbal drug of abuse. An increasing number of papers is appearing in the scientific literature regarding its pharmacological profile and the analysis of its chemical constituents, mainly represented by alkaloids. However, its detection and identification are not straightforward as the plant material is not particularly distinctive.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF