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High soy isoflavone or soy-based food intake during infancy and in adulthood is associated with an increased risk of uterine fibroids in premenopausal women: a meta-analysis.
Qin, H, Lin, Z, Vásquez, E, Luan, X, Guo, F, Xu, L
Nutrition research (New York, N.Y.). 2019;:30-42
Abstract
Numerous studies have examined the association of soy isoflavones or soy-based food intake with the risk of uterine fibroids (UF), but the results are inconsistent. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to quantitatively assess whether high soy isoflavones intake is associated with an increased risk of UF. PUBMED and EMBASE databases were reviewed to screen for relevant published studies up to December 2018. Using key words of uterine fibroid and isoflavone, we identified 4 studies focusing on infancy intake and 7 studies evaluating intake during adulthood. The pooled odds ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated using a random-effect model. In addition, subgroup analyses and 2-stage random-effect dose-response were also performed. When comparing high vs low intake of soy isoflavones, we found that there were positive associations of UF among patients being fed soy formula during infancy (OR, 1.19; 95% CI, 0.99-1.43; P = .06) and with high consumption of soy-based foods in adulthood (OR, 2.50; 95% CI, 1.09-5.74; P = .03), respectively. Additionally, dose-response analysis showed the pooled ORs (95% CIs) of UF risk for low, moderate, and high intake of soy isoflavones were 1.00 (0.87-1.14), 1.08 (0.94-1.24), and 1.23 (0.99-1.53) when compared to occasional intake, respectively. Our findings suggest that high soy isoflavones or soy-based food intake during infancy and in adulthood is associated with an increased risk of uterine fibroids in premenopausal women. There is a need for large-scale prospective cohort studies using more accurate measurements of soy isoflavones to further ascertain our study findings.
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2.
Current state of art after twenty years of the discovery of bioactive peptide lunasin.
Fernández-Tomé, S, Hernández-Ledesma, B
Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.). 2019;:71-78
Abstract
Non-communicable diseases have become the medical challenge of the 21st century because of their high incidence and mortality rates. Accumulating evidence has suggested that the modulation of diet and other lifestyle habits is the best strategy for the prevention of these diseases. An increasing number of dietary compounds have been found to exert health promoting benefits beyond their nutritional effects. Among them, lunasin is considered one of the most studied bioactive peptides. Since its discovery in soybean twenty years ago, many researchers around the world have focused their studies on demonstrating the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activity of lunasin. Moreover, in the last years, promising protective effects of this peptide against hypercholesterolemia, obesity, metabolic syndrome and associated cardiovascular disorders, and inflammatory and immune-regulated diseases have been described. This review summarizes recent remarkable advances on the use of peptide lunasin as a potential functional ingredient to provide health benefits. Moreover, novel aspects related to the influence of lunasin's digestion and bioavailability, the mechanisms of action proposed to explain the underlying biological properties, and the incorporation of this peptide into nutritional supplements are critically discussed.
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3.
Equol Decreases Hot Flashes in Postmenopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.
Daily, JW, Ko, BS, Ryuk, J, Liu, M, Zhang, W, Park, S
Journal of medicinal food. 2019;(2):127-139
Abstract
Soy isoflavones may benefit some, but not all, menopausal women, and the ability of the women to produce equol may be the major determinant of effectiveness. We assessed the efficacy of soy isoflavones and equol for alleviating menopausal symptoms, especially vasomotor symptoms, in postmenopausal women who were equol producers and nonproducers by using systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs). We searched 12 English, Korean, and Chinese language scientific and medical databases. We selected all available RCTs that assessed the effect of equol, either equol itself or soy isoflavone in equol producers, on menopausal symptoms in peri- or postmenopausal women. The primary outcome was the effect on hot flashes. The severity of hot flashes was determined by the scores, and sensitivity and risk of bias analyses were conducted. Other outcomes of the review, but not meta-analysis, included depression and adverse events. Six studies (779 total subjects) met all criteria for the systematic review, 5 of those could be included in the meta-analysis (728 total subjects). Two studies included in the meta-analysis reported no statistically significant benefits of equol; the other three did report significant benefits of equol. Meta-analysis revealed a significant benefit of equol for lowering hot flash scores and revealed a generally low risk of bias. In conclusion, this study found that supplementing equol to equol nonproducers significantly lowered the incidence and/or severity of hot flashes in menopausal women.
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4.
The effect of soy nut on serum total antioxidant, endothelial function and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Sedaghat, A, Shahbazian, H, Rezazadeh, A, Haidari, F, Jahanshahi, A, Mahmoud Latifi, S, Shirbeigi, E
Diabetes & metabolic syndrome. 2019;(2):1387-1391
Abstract
BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes has a high spread and growing process. Using appropriate food diets is among therapeutic approaches has been applied for diabetic patients. Soya utilization has shown effective results in controlling metabolic abnormalities of these patients. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of soy nut on glycemic conditions, blood pressure, lipid profile, antioxidant effects and vascular endothelial function of these patients. METHODS 70 patients with type 2 diabetes were randomly divided into two groups of the test (35 people) and control (35 people). The patients in the intervention group were subjected to 60 g soy nut diet as a part of daily protein for 8 weeks and the control group under the usual diet of diabetes. The fasting glucose, blood pressure, lipid profile, brachial blood flow, the level of serum E-Selectin and total antioxidant capacity in control and test group were assessed before and after diet. RESULTS Consuming 60 g soy nut for 8 weeks significantly decreased the fasting blood glucose (P = 0.03), total serum cholesterol (P < 0.01), LDL-c (P = 0.01), and E-Selectin (P < 0.01) and increased the capacity of serum total antioxidants (P < 0.01), brachial blood flow (P < 0.01) but didn't have any significant effect on systolic/diastolic blood pressure, HDL-c, and TG. CONCLUSION Soy nut utilization in the patients with type-2 diabetes can significantly improve the glycemic condition, increase brachial blood flow, decrease E-selectin (improvement of endothelial function), increase serum total antioxidants and lipid profile but has no significant effect on blood pressure and HDL-c.
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An integrated metagenomic/metaproteomic investigation of microbiota in dajiang-meju, a traditional fermented soybean product in Northeast China.
Xie, M, Wu, J, An, F, Yue, X, Tao, D, Wu, R, Lee, Y
Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.). 2019;:414-424
Abstract
Dajiang-meju have been used as major ingredients for the preparation of traditional spontaneously fermented soybean paste in Northeast China. In this work, we sequenced and analyzed the metagenome of 12 dajiang-meju samples. To complement the metagenome analysis, we analyzed the taxonomic and functional diversity of the microbiota by metaproteomics (LC-MS/MS). The analysis of metagenomic data revealed that the communities were primarily dominated by Enterobacter, Enterococcus, Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, Citrobacter and Leclercia. Moreover, changes in the functional levels were monitored, and metaproteomic analysis revealed that most of the proteins were mainly expressed by members of Rhizopus, Penicillium and Geotrichum. The number of sequences allocated to fungi in the fermentation process decreased, whereas the number of sequences assigned to bacteria increased with time of fermentation. In addition, functional metagenomic profiling indicated that a series of sequences related to carbohydrates and amino acids metabolism were enriched. Additionally, enzymes associated with glycolysis metabolic pathways were presumed to contribute to the generation of flavor in dajiang-meju. Proteins from different dajiang-meju samples involved in global and overview maps, carbohydrate metabolism, nucleic acid metabolism and energy metabolism were differentially expressed. This information improves the understanding of microbial metabolic patterns with respect to the metaproteomes of dajiang-meju and provides a powerful tool for studying the fermentation process of soybean products.
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6.
Genotoxicity Evaluation of the Soybean Isoflavone Genistein in Human Papillary Thyroid Cancer Cells. Study of Its Potential Use in Thyroid Cancer Therapy.
Ferrari, SM, Antonelli, A, Guidi, P, Bernardeschi, M, Scarcelli, V, Fallahi, P, Frenzilli, G
Nutrition and cancer. 2019;(8):1335-1344
Abstract
Genistein is one of the several known isoflavonic phytoestrogens found in a number of plants, with soybeans and soy products being the primary food source. The aim of the study is to evaluate if genistein is able to exert antineoplastic action in primary human papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) cells. Thyroid tissues were treated with genistein (1-10-50-100 µM). Cell viability, proliferation, DNA primary damage and chromosomal damage were evaluated. An antiproliferative effect was induced by the highest doses of genistein, and such an effect was synergistically enhanced by the cotreatment with the antineoplastic drug sorafenib. Comet assay did not show any genotoxic effect in terms of primary DNA damage at all the times (4 and 24 h) and tested doses. A reduction of hydrogen peroxide-induced DNA primary damage in primary thyrocytes from PTC cells pretreated with genistein was observed. Data suggest that genistein exerts antineoplastic action, does not induce genotoxic effects while reduces oxidative-induced DNA damage in primary thyrocytes from PTC cells, supporting its possible use in therapeutic intervention.
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7.
On-line rapid purification of [13N]N2 gas for visualization of nitrogen fixation and translocation in nodulated soybean.
Yin, YG, Ishii, S, Suzui, N, Igura, M, Kurita, K, Miyoshi, Y, Nagasawa, N, Taguchi, M, Kawachi, N
Applied radiation and isotopes : including data, instrumentation and methods for use in agriculture, industry and medicine. 2019;:7-12
Abstract
Accurate analysis of N fixation in leguminous crops requires determination of N utilization within an intact plant; however, most approaches require tissue disassembly. We developed a simple and rapid technique to generate high-purity and high-yield [13N]N2 gas and obtained real-time images of N fixation in an intact soybean plant. The purification efficiency was ∼81.6% after decay correction. Our method provides accurate signals of N fixation and allows free changes to the tracer gas composition to suit different experimental designs.
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8.
Glycation affects differently the main soybean Bowman-Birk isoinhibitors, IBB1 and IBBD2, altering their antiproliferative properties against HT29 colon cancer cells.
Olías, R, Becerra-Rodríguez, C, Soliz-Rueda, JR, Moreno, FJ, Delgado-Andrade, C, Clemente, A
Food & function. 2019;(9):6193-6202
Abstract
Naturally-occurring serine protease inhibitors of the Bowman-Birk family, particularly abundant in legume seeds, exert their potential chemopreventive and/or therapeutic properties via protease inhibition. Processing of legume seeds, including soybeans, has been proposed as a major cause for their loss of bioactivity due to glycation. In order to assess how glycation affected the protease inhibitory activities of major soybean Bowman-Birk isoinhibitors (BBI) and their antiproliferative properties, IBB1 and IBBD2 were purified and subjected to glycation under controlled conditions using glucose at high temperature. Both soybean isoinhibitors showed remarkable heat stability. In the presence of glucose, IBBD2 lost most of its trypsin inhibitory activity while IBB1 maintains similar trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitory activities as in the absence of sugar. Glycation patterns of both BBI proteins were assessed by MALDI-TOF spectrometry. Our results show that the glycation process affects IBBD2, losing partially its antiproliferative activity against HT29 colon cancer cells, while glycated-IBB1 was unaffected.
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Comparative genomics approach to build a genome-wide database of high-quality, informative microsatellite markers: application on Phytophthora sojae, a soybean pathogen.
Cai, G, Fleury, TJ, Zhang, N
Scientific reports. 2019;(1):7969
Abstract
Microsatellites are a tract of repetitive, short DNA motifs (usually 1 to 6 bp) abundant in eukaryotic genomes. They are robust molecular markers in many areas of studies. Development of microsatellite markers usually involves three steps: (1) obtaining microsatellite-containing sequences, (2) primer design, and (3) screening microsatellite loci for polymorphism. The first and third steps require considerable resources. Next generation sequencing technologies have greatly alleviated the constraint of the first step. In this study, we leveraged the availability of genome assemblies of multiple individuals in many species and designed a comparative genomics approach to bioinformatically identify polymorphic loci. Our approach can eliminate or greatly reduce the need of experimental screening for polymorphism and ensure that the flanking regions do not have length difference that would confound interpretation of genotyping results using microsatellite markers. We applied this approach on Phytophthora sojae, a soybean pathogen, and identified 157 high-quality, informative microsatellite markers in this oomycete. Experimental validation of 20 loci supported bioinformatics predictions. Our approach can be readily applied to other organisms of which the genomes of multiple individuals have been sequenced.
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10.
Effect of S-equol and Soy Isoflavones on Heart and Brain.
Sekikawa, A, Ihara, M, Lopez, O, Kakuta, C, Lopresti, B, Higashiyama, A, Aizenstein, H, Chang, YF, Mathis, C, Miyamoto, Y, et al
Current cardiology reviews. 2019;(2):114-135
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Observational studies in Asia show that dietary intake of soy isoflavones had a significant inverse association with coronary heart disease (CHD). A recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) of soy isoflavones on atherosclerosis in the US, however, failed to show their benefit. The discrepancy may be due to the much lower prevalence of S-equol producers in Westerners: Only 20-30% of Westerners produce S-equol in contrast to 50-70% in Asians. S-equol is a metabolite of dietary soy isoflavone daidzein by gut microbiome and possesses the most antiatherogenic properties among all isoflavones. Several short-duration RCTs documented that soy isoflavones improves arterial stiffness. Accumulating evidence shows that both atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness are positively associated with cognitive decline/dementia. Therefore, potentially, soy isoflavones, especially S-equol, are protective against cognitive decline/dementia. METHODS/RESULTS This narrative review of clinical and epidemiological studies provides an overview of the health benefits of soy isoflavones and introduces S-equol. Second, we review recent evidence on the association of soy isoflavones and S-equol with CHD, atherosclerosis, and arterial stiffness as well as the association of atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness with cognitive decline/ dementia. Third, we highlight recent studies that report the association of soy isoflavones and S-equol with cognitive decline/dementia. Lastly, we discuss the future directions of clinical and epidemiological research on the relationship of S-equol and CHD and dementia. CONCLUSIONS Evidence from observational studies and short-term RCTs suggests that S-equol is anti-atherogenic and improves arterial stiffness and may prevent CHD and cognitive impairment/ dementia. Well-designed long-term (≥ 2years) RCTs should be pursued.