Alejandra Cardelle

• PostDoc Position at University of Santiago de Compostela

Purpose: Immunodeficiency conditions, which are characterized by reduced immune activity that promotes the development of chronic diseases, are needed for efficient monitoring. A promising area of monitoring and early diagnosis of immunodeficiency diseases is the determination of metabolic biomarkers in the blood. Methods: In this work, we identifi...

Since it has been linked to a variety of advantages for human health, seaweed consumption has grown in Western nations. Seaweeds are typically divided into three phylum-level groupings based on their natural pigmentation: red seaweed (Rhodophyta), brown seaweed (Phaeophyta), and green seaweed (Chlorophyta), with brown seaweed being the most prevale...

Rabbit meat production faces challenges due to the prevalence of gastrointestinal diseases in rabbits, exacerbated by restrictions on antibiotic use in European animal production. Marine macroalgae, rich in bioactive compounds such as soluble polysaccharides, represent promising solutions to this problem. However, research on the effects of macroal...

Selenium is an essential trace element in human health. However, it has been considered a widespread selenium deficiency worldwide, although the recommended daily intake is very low (55 μg per day). Strategies have been implemented to comply with the recommended doses, for example, through bioavailable selenium such as selenoamino acids. Thus, this...

Different research studies have identified specific groups or certain dietary compounds as the onset and progression of obesity and suggested that gut microbiota is a mediator between these compounds and the inflammation associated with pathology. In this study, the objective was to evaluate the dietary intake of 108 overweight (OW), obese (OB), an...

The work environment is a factor that can significantly influence the composition and functionality of the gut microbiota of workers, in many cases leading to gut dysbiosis that will result in serious health problems. The aim of this paper was to provide a compilation of the different studies that have examined the influence of jobs with unconventi...

Many studies have reported the benefits of probiotic microorganisms and the production of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Determining the proteolytic and ACE inhibition capacities during whey fermentation was the goal of the study. Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, Streptococcus thermophilus SY-102, and both bacteria together were in...

Two brown seaweeds (Saccharina japonica and Undaria pinnatifida) were characterized in terms of their nutritional and mineral composition, as well as their potential to modify the human gut microbiota. Nutritional analysis of these seaweeds showed that they comply with the criteria set out in European legislation to be labeled “low fat,” “low sugar...

The human gastrointestinal tract contains large communities of microorganisms that are in constant interaction with the host, playing an essential role in the regulation of several metabolic processes. Among the gut microbial communities, the gut bacteriome has been most widely studied in recent decades. However, in recent years, there has been inc...

Veterinary drugs are frequently employed to treat and prevent diseases in food-producing animals to improve animal health and to avoid the introduction of microorganisms into the food chain. The analysis of the presence of pharmaceutical residues in animal manure could help to evaluate the legal and illegal practices during food production without...

Animal food production is one of the most powerful European economic sectors; however, this sector is facing new challenge due to the development of bacteria with resistant genes, and consequently, restriction on the administration of antibiotics. Limitation, at the moment, is focused on those antibiotics employed in human medicines. Therefore, it...

In this study, an undervalued marine crustacean (Talitrus saltator) was characterized in terms of nutritional and heavy metal composition and its potential to affect human gut microbiota. Nutritional analysis of this crustacean revealed that it complies with the criteria established in European legislation to include nutritional claims in their lab...

Objective: Our aim was to identify changes in population habits induced by COVID-19 confinement in Argentina. Methods: An internet-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults in Argentina on December 2020, requesting possible changes occurring during the COVID-19 outbreak. It included 26 questions regarding general information (age,...

Although milk consumption is increasing worldwide, in some geographical regions, its consumption has persistently declined in recent decades. This fact, together with the increase in milk production prices, has caused both milk producers and the dairy industry to be immersed in a major crisis. Some possible solutions to this problem are to get peop...

Until now, although different studies have shown the potential prebiotic effect of seaweed carbohydrates, no studies with the whole seaweeds have been carried out. In addition, the prebiotic effect throughput sequencing remains poorly investigated since most of the published works used qPCR or FISH to estimate bacterial changes. In this work, , an...

The use of veterinary drugs in animal production is a common practice to secure animal and human health. However, residues of administrated drugs could be present in animal food products. Levels of drugs in food of animal origin are regulated within the European Union. In recent years, residues have been detected not only in food, but also in the e...

The gut microbiota acts as a real organ. The symbiotic interactions between the living microorganisms and the digestive tract contribute greatly to maintaining gut homeostasis. However, alterations to the microbiota caused by environmental changes (e.g., infection, diet, and/or lifestyle) can disturb this relationship, altering the healthy status a...

The human gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem that possesses an essential role in maintaining intestinal and systemic health. Its maximal diversity and concentration takes place in the colon. Here is where the symbiotic interactions among the living microorganisms and the host contribute to maintaining gut homeostasis and influence the host’s inn...

This review aimed to gather the available literature investigating the effects of probiotics against the most common viral infections using in vitro trials in cell lines and in vivo clinical trials in both experimental animals and humans. Probiotics were employed to prevent and reduce symptoms of infections caused by common viruses, especially resp...

Introduction: Introduction: during the COVID-19 crisis food habits have changed among the population as food consumption is now carried out totally at home, and visits to groceries or food centers have decreased considerably. Likewise, other habits, such as physical activity or sleeping hours have also been modified. Objectives: the objective of t...

Background In recent decades, there has been a very rapid increase in the prevalence of diabetes globally, with serious health and economic implications. Although today there are several therapeutic treatments for this disease, these do not address the causes of the disease and have serious side effects, so it is necessary to seek new treatments to...

Human gut microbiota plays an important role in several metabolic processes and human diseases. Various dietary factors, including complex carbohydrates, such as polysaccharides, provide abundant nutrients and substrates for microbial metabolism in the gut, affecting the members and their functionality. Nowadays, the main sources of complex carbohy...

Low fat fresh goat sausages based on chitosan (LMWC) and derivative chitosan (LMWC-Glc) were developed aiming to produce a functional food product evaluating the effect of inclusion of these compounds on quality, stability and shelf life. Goat sausages (10% pork fat) were formulated with 2% (w/w) of LMWC or LMWC-Glc and stored at 4 °C during 21 day...

O efeito da adição de quito-oligossacarídeos modificados com glucose (COS-Glc), com potencial atividade prebiótica em uma bebida smoothie foi avaliado durante a estocagem. Duas formulações de bebida probiótica foram elaboradas com iogurte probiótico (60%) e polpa de manga (40%), sendo a formulação F1 adicionada de 2,0% de COS-Glc e a formulação F2...

Chitosan-impregnated gutta-percha points (ChitGPP) were tested for their ability to inhibit the growth of microorganisms usually involved in root canal infections. Their mechanical properties were also studied and compared with the commonly used commercial points in endodontics. ChitGPP were more efficient in reducing the microbial load than those...

The proportion of different microbial populations in gut microbiota (GM) is an important factor that in recent years has been linked to obesity and numerous metabolic diseases. Antibiotics are one of the factors that can dramatically alter GM at therapeutic dosages, but their effects at subtherapeutic doses have been less investigated. Here, a mous...

The access of the young people to the university marks a fundamental break in their lives that may also result in a substantial change in their dietary habits. The aim of this study was to characterize the food patterns, body composition and biochemical profiles of Galician university students from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Campus d...

Nowadays, the strong relationship between diet and health is well known. Although the primary role of diet is to provide nutrients to fulfill metabolic requirements, the use of foods to improve health and the state of well-being is an idea increasingly accepted by society in the last three decades. During the last years, an important number of scie...

The proportion of different microbial populations in the human gut is an important factor that in recent years has been linked to obesity and numerous metabolic diseases. Because there are many factors that can affect the composition of human gut microbiota, it is of interest to have information about what is the composition of the gut microbiota i...

Gut bacteria play an important role in several metabolic processes and human diseases, such as obesity and accompanying co-morbidities, such as fatty liver disease, insulin resistance/diabetes, and cardiovascular events. Among other factors, dietary patterns, probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, antibiotics, and non-dietary factors, such as stress,...

Se ha elaborado la primera guía clínica española que permitirá a los farmacéuticos comunitarios y demás profesionales de la salud seleccionar, para cada indicación específica, el producto con probióticos adecuado, la dosis y la vía de administración. Con ello se pretende lograr que la práctica diaria de indicación farmacéutica de los suplementos pr...

Silver nanoparticles have been studied as an alternative for treatment of microbial infections and leishmaniasis, without promoting induction of microbial or parasite resistance. In this study, chitosan-based silver nanoparticles were synthesized from silver nitrate (AgNO 3), sodium borohydride as a reducing agent, and the biopolymer chitosan as a...

Gut bacteria play an important role in several metabolic processes and human diseases, such as obesity and its co-morbidities, like fatty liver disease, insulin resistance/diabetes and cardiovascular events. Among several factors, dietary patterns, probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, antimicrobials and non-dietary factors, such as stress, age, exer...

Aims: When skin dysbiosis occurs as a result of skin disorders, probiotics can act as modulators, restoring microbial balance. Several properties of selected probiotics were evaluated so that their topical application could be considered. Methods and results: Adhesion, antimicrobial, quorum sensing and antibiofilm assays were carried out with se...

Goat meat is extensively known for its interesting nutritional value and for being an important source of protein with high quality. Its food derivatives are, therefore, a good alternative to develop new products addressed to health conscious consumers. In this work, a healthier goat product, namely, a low fat fresh sausage, was produced with the o...

β-Galactosidase from Aspergillus oryzae offers a high yield for the synthesis of oligosaccharides derived from lactulose (OsLu) by transgalactosylation. Oligosaccharides with degree of polymerization (DP) ≥ 3 have shown to possess higher in vitro bifidogenic effect than di- and tetrasaccharides. Thus, in this work, an optimization of reaction condi...

Four different strategies were employed to obtain egg-derived products in form of sticks with a reduced cholesterol content (use of β-cyclodextrins, extraction of egg-yolk granules, bioconversion of cholesterol by cholesterol oxidase, and use of chitosan as a chelating agent). The developed products were analyzed and compared to conventional egg-de...

Eggs are good candidates to be employed as functional food and to provide people with bioactive compounds such as n-3 PUFAs. However, in most cases, development of eggs with high content of n-3 PUFAs was carried out by modifying the hens’ feed. In the present work, egg-derived sticks with high content of n-3 PUFAs were technologically developed thr...

Chitosan (Chit) was submitted to the Maillard reaction (MR) by co-heating a solution with glucose (Glc). Different reaction conditions as temperature (40, 60 and 80 °C), Glc concentration (0.5%, 1%, and 2%, w/v), and reaction time (72, 52 and 24 h) were evaluated. Assessment of the reaction extent was monitored by measuring changes in UV absorbance...

A low fat fresh pork sausage based on chitosan was developed with the objective of obtaining a new functional meat product with improved properties and health claims promoting cholesterol reduction. Sausages were formulated with chitosan (2%, w/w) and different fat levels (5%, 12.5% and 20%, w/w). The results indicated that incorporation of 2% chit...

In the last years, the number of products for oral care has been expanded to adapt to consumer needs. Thus, in addition to conventional products, new “pocket products” such as sugar-free chewing gums and oral strips (OS) have been developed for oral care. In the present study, OS were formulated using chitosan as the film-forming polymer in adequat...

A novel β-galactosidase from Lactobacillus plantarum (LPG) was over-expressed in E. coli and purified via a single chromatographic step by using lowly activated IMAC (immobilized metal for affinity chromatography) supports. The pure enzyme exhibited a high hydrolytic activity of 491 IU/mL towards o-nitrophenyl β-d-galactopyranoside. This value was...

Intestinal microbiota modulation is becoming an interesting approach to manage inflammatory bowel disease, and can be achieved by the administration of prebiotics. Previous studies showed the intestinal anti-inflammatory effects of the prebiotic lactulose. The aim of the present study was to test the preventative effects of oligosaccharides derived...

Low molecular weight chitosan (LMWC) and chitooligosaccharide (COS) derivatives were obtained by the introduction of lactobionic acid (LA) through amide formation, obtaining different complexes COS-LA and LMWC-LA (1–5), with a degree of substitution (DS) between 3 and 16%. The synthesis of these derivatives was monitored by Scanning Electron Micros...

Nowadays chitosan has established itself as a high sought material due to its biocompatibility, reduced toxicity and high percentage of amino groups that confer it specific functionalities, including antimicrobial activity and acceleration of wound healing, and studies into chitosan’s applicability have shown chitosan’s potential and feasibility. O...

The effect of drying methods on chitosan reactivity towards Maillard reaction during storage of dried chitosan–lactose systems was investigated. Two different structural forms of chitosan, scaffold and microspheres, were prepared. Then they were dried by lyophilization or using supercritical fluid technology (SF-CO2) and stored with lactose under c...

The β-galactosidase activity of 15 Kluyveromyces strains isolated from cheese belonging to Kluyveromyces lactis and Kluyveromyces marxianus species was tested for the production of oligosaccharides derived from lactose (GOS) and lactulose (OsLu). All Kluyveromyces crude cell extracts (CEEs) produced GOS, such as 6-galactobiose and 3'-, 4'-, and 6'-...

Fermentation properties of oligosaccharides derived from lactulose (OsLu) and lactose (GOS) have been assessed in pH-controlled anaerobic batch cultures using lactulose and Vivinal-GOS as reference carbohydrates. Changes in gut bacterial populations and their metabolic activities were monitored over 24 h by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH)...

We have studied the effect of pH (6.5, 7.5), temperature (40, 50 °C), time (2–24 h) as well as lactulose (250, 450 g/L) and enzyme (3, 6, 9 U/mL) concentration on the formation of 6′-galactosyl-lactulose (β-D-Galp(1 → 6)-β-D-Galp(1 → 4)-D-Fru) and 1-galactosyl-lactulose (β-D-Galp(1 → 4)-β-D-Frup(1 → 1)-D-Gal) formed during the transgalactosylation...

The effect of structure on the fermentative properties of potential prebiotic trisaccharides derived from lactulose like 6'-galactosyl-lactulose (β-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→4)-β-d-fructopyranose), 4'-galactosyl-lactulose (β-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→4)-β-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→4)-β-d-fructopyranose), and 1-galactosyl-lactulose (β...

The production of prebiotic galactooligosaccharides (GOS) from lactose has been widely studied whereas the synthesis of new prebiotic oligosaccharides with improved properties as those derived from lactulose is receiving an increasing interest. Understanding the mechanism of enzymatic oligosaccharides synthesis from lactulose would help to improve...

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is the edible bulb from a plant of the Allium genus, commonly used for flavouring in cooking and for its beneficial effects for human health. Although garlic cloves are usually eaten raw or cooked, different garlic dietary supplements including dried or powdered formulations, oils and liquid extracts have being recently i...

The synthesis of novel galactosides is interesting because of their important role in several biological processes. Their properties greatly depend upon the configuration and type of galactoside. Therefore, to study biological activity, it is essential to elucidate the structure of the products. Glycosidases are capable of catalyzing glycosidic lin...

Di- and trisaccharides obtained by transgalactosylation reaction of lactose using two different commercial enzyme preparations (Pectinex Ultra SP-L and Lactozym 3000 L HP G) have been characterised by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry as their trimethylsilyl oximes. Although mass fragments are common for most of the glycosidic linkages, their re...

Bifidogenic effect and stimulation of short chain fatty acid (SCFA) production by fractions of oligosaccharides with a DP> or =3 and Gal beta(1-6) linkages synthesised from lactose or lactulose by Pectinex Ultra SP-L and Lactozym 3000 L HP G were evaluated in human faecal slurries. Results were compared with those obtained for the commercial oligos...

The composition of fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), together with glucose, fructose and sucrose, has been determined in commercial dehydrated samples of onion (Allium cepa L.) and garlic (Allium sativum L.). No qualitative differences were detected among the FOS identified in both onion and garlic. Results show a lower FOS content in garlic than in o...

Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) obtained during the enzymatic hydrolysis of lactose contain large amounts of glucose, galactose, and unreacted lactose, which do not have prebiotic properties and increase the calorific value of the product. In this work, the isomerization of the GOS mixture by the action of sodium aluminate has been studied. During th...

A simple high-performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD) method was validated to determine the galactooligosaccharide (GOS) content of 14 commercially available fermented milks (yogurts, yogurts containing bifidobacteria, and ready-to-drink yogurts containing Lactobacillus casei) marketed in Spain. The...

The beta-galactosidase activity of the commercial enzymatic preparation Pectinex Ultra SP-L derived from Aspergillus aculeatus has been used to hydrolyze and transgalactosylate the prebiotic carbohydrate lactulose. During this reaction, new oligosaccharides derived from lactulose have been detected by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography...

BACKGROUND: Galacto‐oligosaccharides (GOS) are synthesised from lactose by transglycosylation using β‐galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23) and are recognised as prebiotics. The commercial enzyme preparation Pectinex Ultra SP‐L produced by Aspergillus aculeatus possesses β‐galactosidase activity; however, because its use has been directed towards the formati...

A study on optimisation of the conditions for galactooligosaccharide (GOS) formation during lactose hydrolysis, produced by Lactozym 3000 L HP G, was carried out. The synthesis was performed during times up to 300 min at 40, 50 and 60 °C, pH 5.5, 6.5 and 7.5, lactose concentration 150, 250 and 350 mg/mL and enzyme concentration 3, 6 and 9 U/mL. The...

The enzymatic transgalactosylation during lactulose hydrolysis was studied using the beta-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces lactis and an initial lactulose concentration of 250 g/L. During hydrolysis of lactulose, the formation of two novel trisaccharides was followed by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detecti...

The initial steps of the Maillard reaction in freshly laboratory-freeze-dried and commercial dehydrated onion and garlic samples have been assessed by quantitative determination of 2-furoylmethylamino acids, obtained after acid hydrolysis of the corresponding Amadori compound. In freshly prepared samples, hardly any presence of 2-furoylmethylamino...

Los productos derivados de cereales, tales como las galletas, las crackers y los cereales para desayu-no, constituyen unos alimentos fundamentales en la dieta humana, tanto por su alto contenido en nu-trientes, como por su importante aporte de energía, especialmente en niños, quienes de forma mayorita-ria, desayunan diariamente con este tipo de pro...

Tesis doctoral inédita. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Química Física Aplicada. Fecha de lectura: 11-12-2009 Bibliogr.: p.179-196