scholarly journals Physiology and Physical Chemistry of Bile Acids

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1780
Author(s):  
Maria Chiara di Gregorio ◽  
Jacopo Cautela ◽  
Luciano Galantini
Keyword(s):  
Physical Chemistry ◽  
Bile Acids ◽  
Material Science ◽  
Metabolic Regulation ◽  
Enterohepatic Circulation ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Body ◽  
Active Molecule ◽  
Supramolecular Aggregates ◽  
Biological Field

Bile acids (BAs) are facial amphiphiles synthesized in the body of all vertebrates. They undergo the enterohepatic circulation: they are produced in the liver, stored in the gallbladder, released in the intestine, taken into the bloodstream and lastly re-absorbed in the liver. During this pathway, BAs are modified in their molecular structure by the action of enzymes and bacteria. Such transformations allow them to acquire the chemical–physical properties needed for fulling several activities including metabolic regulation, antimicrobial functions and solubilization of lipids in digestion. The versatility of BAs in the physiological functions has inspired their use in many bio-applications, making them important tools for active molecule delivery, metabolic disease treatments and emulsification processes in food and drug industries. Moreover, moving over the borders of the biological field, BAs have been largely investigated as building blocks for the construction of supramolecular aggregates having peculiar structural, mechanical, chemical and optical properties. The review starts with a biological analysis of the BAs functions before progressively switching to a general overview of BAs in pharmacology and medicine applications. Lastly the focus moves to the BAs use in material science.

III. Regulation of bile acid synthesis: past progress and future challenges

2003 ◽  
Vol 284 (4) ◽  
pp. G551-G557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Bile Acid ◽  
Bile Acids ◽  
Enterohepatic Circulation ◽  
Acid Synthesis ◽  
Bile Acid Synthesis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Transcription Regulators ◽  
Key Steps ◽  
Fat Soluble Vitamins

Bile acids, amphipathic detergent-like molecules synthesized from cholesterol, are highly conserved by means of enterohepatic circulation. They participate in the generation of bile flow and biliary lipid secretion and also promote absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and lipids. Conversion of cholesterol to bile acids represents a quantitatively important route to eliminate cholesterol from the body. Regulation of bile acid synthesis involves a complex and interrelated group of transcription regulators that link bile acid synthesis to cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism. Targeting key steps of bile acid synthetic pathways as well as the metabolic network that maintains homeostatic levels of lipids should provide exciting novel opportunities for the treatment of cardiovascular and liver diseases.

scholarly journals Guts and Gall: Bile Acids in Regulation of Intestinal Epithelial Function in Health and Disease

2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 1983-2023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hegyi ◽  
Jozsef Maléth ◽  
Julian R. Walters ◽  
Alan F. Hofmann ◽  
Stephen J. Keely
Keyword(s):  
Epithelial Cells ◽  
Bile Acids ◽  
Epithelial Transport ◽  
Enterohepatic Circulation ◽  
Chronic Diarrhea ◽  
The Body ◽  
Intestinal Epithelial ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Specific Receptors ◽  
Inflammatory Bowel

Epithelial cells line the entire surface of the gastrointestinal tract and its accessory organs where they primarily function in transporting digestive enzymes, nutrients, electrolytes, and fluid to and from the luminal contents. At the same time, epithelial cells are responsible for forming a physical and biochemical barrier that prevents the entry into the body of harmful agents, such as bacteria and their toxins. Dysregulation of epithelial transport and barrier function is associated with the pathogenesis of a number of conditions throughout the intestine, such as inflammatory bowel disease, chronic diarrhea, pancreatitis, reflux esophagitis, and cancer. Driven by discovery of specific receptors on intestinal epithelial cells, new insights into mechanisms that control their synthesis and enterohepatic circulation, and a growing appreciation of their roles as bioactive bacterial metabolites, bile acids are currently receiving a great deal of interest as critical regulators of epithelial function in health and disease. This review aims to summarize recent advances in this field and to highlight how bile acids are now emerging as exciting new targets for disease intervention.

scholarly journals Trapping liquid drugs inside crystals

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C984-C984
Author(s):  
Alessia Bacchi ◽  
Davide Capucci ◽  
Paolo Pelagatti
Keyword(s):  
Human Health ◽  
Crystal Engineering ◽  
Room Temperature ◽  
The Body ◽  
New Materials ◽  
Active Molecule ◽  
Crystalline Materials ◽  
Pharmaceutical Ingredients ◽  
Solid Dosage ◽  
Intellectual Properties

The objective of this work is to embed liquid or volatile pharmaceuticals inside crystalline materials, in order to tune their delivery properties in medicine or agrochemistry, and to explore new regulatory and intellectual properties issues. Liquid or volatile formulations of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are intrinsically less stable and durable than solid forms; in fact most drugs are formulated as solid dosage because they tend to be stable, reproducible, and amenable to purification. Most drugs and agrochemicals are manufactured and distributed as crystalline materials, and their action involves the delivery of the active molecule by a solubilization process either in the body or on the environment. However some important compounds for the human health or for the environment occur as liquids at room temperature. The formation of co-crystals has been demonstrated as a means of tuning solubility properties of solid phases, and therefore it is widely investigated by companies and by solid state scientists especially in the fields of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, pigments, dyestuffs, foods, and explosives. In spite of this extremely high interest towards co-crystallization as a tool to alter solubility, practically no emphasis has been paid to using it as a means to stabilize volatile or labile or low-melting products. In this work we trap and stabilize volatile and liquid APIs and agrochemicals in crystalline matrices by engineering suitable co-crystals. These new materials alter the physic state of the active ingredients allowing to expand the phase space accessible to manufacturing and delivery. We have defined a benchmark of molecules relevant to human health and environment that have been combined with suitable partners according to the well known methods of crystal engineering in order to obtain cocrystals. The first successful results will be discussed; the Figure shows a cocrystal of propofol, a worldwide use anesthetic.

scholarly journals Single-Photon Detection Module Based on Large-Area Silicon Photomultipliers for Time-Domain Diffuse Optics

Instruments ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Fabio Acerbi ◽  
Anurag Behera ◽  
Alberto Dalla Mora ◽  
Laura Di Sieno ◽  
Alberto Gola
Keyword(s):  
Time Resolution ◽  
Time Domain ◽  
Single Photon ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Body ◽  
Single Photon Detection ◽  
Silicon Photomultipliers ◽  
Photon Detection ◽  
Instrument Response Function ◽  
Diffuse Optics

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) are pixelated single-photon detectors combining high sensitivity, good time resolution and high dynamic range. They are emerging in many fields, such as time-domain diffuse optics (TD-DO). This is a promising technique in neurology, oncology, and quality assessment of food, wood, and pharmaceuticals. SiPMs can have very large areas and can significantly increase the sensitivity of TD-DO in tissue investigation. However, such improvement is currently limited by the high detector noise and the worsening of SiPM single-photon time resolution due to the large parasitic capacitances. To overcome such limitation, in this paper, we present two single-photon detection modules, based on 6 × 6 mm2 and 10 × 10 mm2 SiPMs, housed in vacuum-sealed TO packages, cooled to −15 °C and −36 °C, respectively. They integrate front-end amplifiers and temperature controllers, being very useful instruments for TD-DO and other biological and physical applications. The signal extraction from the SiPM was improved. The noise is reduced by more than two orders of magnitude compared to the room temperature level. The full suitability of the proposed detectors for TD-DO measurements is outside the scope of this work, but preliminary tests were performed analyzing the shape and the stability of the Instrument Response Function. The proposed modules are thus fundamental building blocks to push the TD-DO towards deeper investigations inside the body.

scholarly journals Effect of different bile acids on the intestine through enterohepatic circulation based on FXR

Gut Microbes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1949095
Author(s):  
Junwei Xiang ◽  
Zhengyan Zhang ◽  
Hongyi Xie ◽  
Chengcheng Zhang ◽  
Yan Bai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bile Acids ◽  
Enterohepatic Circulation

scholarly journals PPARs as Metabolic Sensors and Therapeutic Targets in Liver Diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 8298
Author(s):  
Hugo Christian Monroy-Ramirez ◽  
Marina Galicia-Moreno ◽  
Ana Sandoval-Rodriguez ◽  
Alejandra Meza-Rios ◽  
Arturo Santos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Liver Diseases ◽  
Metabolic Regulation ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Molecular Characteristics ◽  
Signal Pathways ◽  
Virus Infections ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Hepatic Level

Carbohydrates and lipids are two components of the diet that provide the necessary energy to carry out various physiological processes to help maintain homeostasis in the body. However, when the metabolism of both biomolecules is altered, development of various liver diseases takes place; such as metabolic-associated fatty liver diseases (MAFLD), hepatitis B and C virus infections, alcoholic liver disease (ALD), and in more severe cases, hepatocelular carcinoma (HCC). On the other hand, PPARs are a family of ligand-dependent transcription factors with an important role in the regulation of metabolic processes to hepatic level as well as in other organs. After interaction with specific ligands, PPARs are translocated to the nucleus, undergoing structural changes to regulate gene transcription involved in lipid metabolism, adipogenesis, inflammation and metabolic homeostasis. This review aims to provide updated data about PPARs’ critical role in liver metabolic regulation, and their involvement triggering the genesis of several liver diseases. Information is provided about their molecular characteristics, cell signal pathways, and the main pharmacological therapies that modulate their function, currently engaged in the clinic scenario, or in pharmacological development.

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