Qiaozhi Zhang

• Doctor of Engineering
• Professor (Associate) at Zhejiang Gongshang University

Peptides from Alcalase-hydrolyzed soybean protein hydrolysate (SPH) may hold the potential as natural antioxidants. In addition, the effect of human gastrointestinal (GI) tract on peptide bioavailability needs to be explored. In this study, the impact of simulated GI digestion and transepithelial transport on various antioxidant properties of SPH w...

Soybeans are known as a promising source of bioactive peptides. However, knowledge on the antioxidant behaviors of soybean protein hydrolysate (SPH) in the human intestinal epithelium is limited. In this study, SPH was prepared with Alcalase and subsequently ultrafiltered into four peptide fractions as SPH-I (<3 kDa), SPH-II (3–5 kDa), SPH-III (5–1...

The skim fraction (SF) obtained from enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction (EAE) of soybeans is a by-product with high protein content of up to 60.67%. As such, it is of great interest to develop an efficient method to recover protein from this fraction. In this study, the potential of dead-end ultrafiltration (UF) in recovering skim protein extracted...

Epidemiologic studies have suggested an association between the consumption of dietary advanced glycation end-products (dAGEs) and the incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the precise mechanism by which dAGEs induce NAFLD development, particularly the pathogenic role of the gut-liver axis, remains poorly understood. In th...

Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are complex and heterogeneous compounds widely present in processed foods. Previous studies evidenced the adverse effects of AGEs on gut homeostasis, but the precise pathological mechanisms and molecular pathways responsible for the disruption of intestinal barrier integrity by AGEs remain incompletely elucida...

High-fat diets (HFD) predispose to obesity and liver dysfunctions, and α-dicarbonyl compounds (α-DCs) present in highly processed foods are also implicated in relevant pathological processes. In this study, the synergistic harmful effects of α-DCs co-administrated with HFD were investigated. The findings demonstrate for the first time that dietary...

High-fat diets (HFD) predispose to obesity and liver dysfunctions, and α-dicarbonyl compounds (α-DCs) present in highly processed foods are also implicated in relevant pathological processes. However, the synergistic harmful effects of α-DCs co-administrated with HFD remain to be elucidated. In this study, 6-week-old C57BL/6 mice were fed with HFD...

The increased demand for gluten-free (GF) foods calls for the incorporation of novel ingredients to improve the technological drawbacks of GF formulations. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of a Gelidium amansii polysaccharide–based (GAP) flour as a structure-supporting ingredient in gluten-free foods in terms of its impacts on the functio...

Background: A substantial proportion of sensitized individuals tolerate suspected foods without developing allergic symptoms; this phenomenon is known as sensitized tolerance. The immunogenic and metabolic features underlying the sensitized-tolerant phenotype remain largely unknown. Objective: In this study, we aimed to uncover the metabolic signa...

There appears a steep increase in the prevalence of food allergy worldwide in the past few decades. It is believed that, rather than genetic factors, the recently altered dietary and environmental factors are the driving forces behind the rapid increase of this disease. Accumulating evidence has implied that external exposures that occurred in pren...

Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are a group of heterogeneous compounds formed in heat-processed foods and are proven to be detrimental to human health. Currently, there is no comprehensive database for AGEs in foods that covers the entire range of food categories, which limits the accurate risk assessment of dietary AGEs in human diseases. I...

Food allergy is a public health issue that receives increasing attention worldwide. Defined as a group of IgE-mediated and non-IgE-mediated “adverse immune reactions” that occurs reproducibly upon exposure to a given food, the multifactorial nature of food allergy calls for a deeper understanding of the cross-talk between diet, gut immunity, and th...

Background: A significant proportion of sensitized individuals can tolerate the suspected foods without developing allergic symptoms, known as sensitized tolerance. The immunogenic and metabolic features underlying the sensitized-tolerant phenotype remain largely unknown, and this study sought to uncover the metabolic signatures associated with cli...

This study aimed to investigate the interaction modes between maize starch (MS) and quinoa polyphenols (QPs) under hydrothermal treatments and its influence on the multi-scale structure and digestive behaviors of MS through mechanistic analyses. Thermodynamic and microscopic results revealed that during starch gelatinization, the starch chains inte...

Currently, the biological consequences of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and their link to the antigenicity of food allergens are largely unknown due to the uncertainty in their digestive fates within the body. In this study, the influence of glycation derived from α-dicarbonyl compounds (α-DCs), precursors of AGEs, on digestive behaviors o...

Studies showed that complexation of polyphenols with milk allergens reduced their immunogenic potential. However, the relationship between structures of polyphenols and their hypoallergenic effects on milk allergens in association with physiological and conformational changes of the complexes remain unclear. In this study, polyphenols from eight bo...

Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 2023, 67, 202200221 DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.202200221 Epidemiologic evidence suggests a link between food allergy and the intake of advanced glycation end‐products (AGEs). This study investigated the role of allergen‐specific and non‐specific AGEs in allergenicity of ovalbumin (OVA) in a mouse model of food allergy. The OVA‐AGE elici...

Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are a group of heterogeneous compounds formed during Maillard Reaction (MR) and have been proven to be detrimental to human health. In addition to thermally processed foods, the digestive tract may be an additional site of exogenous AGEs formation since MR would possibly occur between (oligo-)peptides, free am...

Background As potent antioxidants, anthocyanins can protect the body from free radicals. However, the traditional solvent extraction method has the disadvantages of requiring a high extraction temperature and long extraction time, so it is necessary to develop an efficient extraction method for anthocyanins. Results In this study, the technique of...

Scope: Epidemiologic studies suggested a link between the incidence of food allergy and the consumption of dietary advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). However, the pathogenic role of dietary AGEs in food allergy is largely unknown. This study aims to investigate the effect of allergen-specific and non-specific AGEs on the allergenic manifestati...

Cutaneous exposure to food allergens through a disrupted skin barrier is recognized as an important cause of food allergy, and the cutaneous sensitized mouse model has been established to investigate relevant allergic disorders. However, the role of different genetic backgrounds of mice on immune responses to food allergens upon epicutaneous sensit...

Food allergy (FA) has become a significant food safety and public health issue, with evidence of increasing prevalence worldwide. Considering the complexity and multifactorial nature of FA, the use of high-throughput technologies, collectively called omics, would benefit the in-depth understanding of the disease etiology and clinical management. Th...

This present work underlined the influence of oil/water ratio on the delivery efficiency of multilayered emulsion-filled gel microparticles for β-carotene (BC). Based on electrostatic interactions and ion gelation techniques, the secondary emulsion and the multilayered emulsion-filled gel microparticles were utilized to improve the encapsulation ef...

Dynamics in microbiota-immune interactions have been associated with several atopic phenotypes at diagnosis and treatment. Additionally, dysbiosis of oral microbiota (OM) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases. Despite recent evidence of the associations between OM and oral mucosa immunity in peanut allergy, the potential link...

Reactions between α-dicarbonyl compounds and ovalbumin (OVA) under simulated heating generated glycated OVA with various degrees of modification, conformations, and amounts of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Glycated OVA showed lower IgE-binding ability but with sRAGE-binding ligands, of which extents correlated with the levels of specific...

Currently, there is a need to explore the consequences of different types of protein-anthocyanin complexations, as well as possible changes in the nutrition and allergenicity of formed complexes. Here, we systematically investigated the covalent and non-covalent interactions between cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) and two major milk proteins, α-casein...

Alcalase hydrolysis of soybean proteins was shown effective in degrading epitopes, but with a significant loss of tastes and functional properties. In this study, the combined use of controlled Alcalase hydrolysis and transglutaminase (TGase)-cross-linking was used to produce hypoallergenic soybean protein hydrolysates (SPHs) with improved flavor a...

There is a need to understand the ultrasound-induced changes in the interactions between proteins and phenolic compounds at different pH. This study systematically explored the role of high-intensity ultrasound pre-treatment on the binding mechanisms of β-lactoglobulin (β-LG) to two common phenolic compounds, i.e., (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (E...

Protein glycation and formation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) impose threats to the human health. This study firstly investigated the inhibition of Chinese bayberry (Myrica rubra) phenolics on AGEs formation through mechanistic analysis. Four common Chinese bayberry cultivars were selected to prepare phenolic-rich extracts (CBEs) and ch...

Marine red algae are rich sources of sulfated polysaccharides as bioactive ingredients and hydrocolloid molecules. In this study, sulfated polysaccharides (YGAP, EGAP, and NGAP) were extracted from Gelidium amansiis that were harvested from three different sea areas of China. Characterization of these polysaccharides shows that they contain 3.7-4.0...

Currently, there has been a surge of interest in revealing the interactions between plasma and food matrices. In this study, we investigated the impacts of atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) treatment on the structural, physicochemical and allergenic characteristics of soybean protein isolate (SPI). SPI dispersions were subjected to ACP treatments at di...

Dietary proteins and phenolic compounds are commonly co-existing components that readily interact with each other to yield complexes in a wide range of food systems. The formed complexes play a critical role in the physiochemical characteristics of both reacting molecules, thereby impacting nutritional and quality profiles of related products. In t...

Dietary advanced glycation end products (dAGEs) are complex and heterogeneous compounds derived from nonenzymatic glycation reactions during industrial processing and home cooking. There is mounting evidence showing that dAGEs are closely associated with various chronic diseases, where the absorbed dAGEs fuel the biological AGEs pool to exhibit nox...

Objectives To investigate the impact of cyanidin-3-O-glycoside (C3G) and its two major phenolic acid metabolites, protocatechuic acid (PCA) and ferulic acid (FA), on macrophage (MФ) factor-induced inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Methods Secretory factors from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 274.7 MФ were us...

The effects of anthocyanins and concomitant compounds on adipogenesis-related disorders in adipose tissue remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the impacts of cyanidin-3-O-glycoside (C3G), protocatechuic acid (PCA) and ferulic acid (FA), on macrophage (MФ) factor-induced inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. In...

The use of enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction to extract soybean oil will produce soy protein hydrolysates (SPH) that have good antioxidant properties but are bitter and hygroscopic. To microencapsulate these hydrolysates, soy protein isolate/maltodextrin mixtures were used as the carrier. The effects of spray-drying and freeze-drying on the bitter...

There is an increasing consumer demand for natural colors in foods. However, there is a limited number of available natural food sources for use by the food industry because of technical and regulatory limitations. Natural colors are less stable and have less vibrant hues compared to their synthetic color counterparts. Natural pigments also have kn...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory potential of aqueous extracts from coffee silverskin (CSE) and husk (CHE) and their main phenolics on adipogenesis, obesity-related inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and insulin resistance, in vitro. Coffee by-products extracts (31-500 μg mL-1) and pure phenolics (100 μmol L-1) reduced lip...

This study aimed to compare the phytochemicals from coffee and cocoa by-products and their relationship with the potential for reducing markers of inflammation, oxidative stress, adipogenesis, and insulin resistance in vitro. We characterized the phytochemical profile of extracts from coffee husk, coffee silverskin, and cocoa shell and evaluated th...

We aimed to compare the composition-bioactivity profile of coffee and cocoa by-products by comprehensively characterizing the composition of extracts from coffee husk, coffee silverskin, and cocoa shell and evaluating their in vitro biological activity in RAW264.7 macrophages and 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Coffee husk and coffee silverskin extracts were ma...

Objectives: The objective was to evaluate the effect of an aqueous phenolic extract from cocoa shell (CAE) and its main phenolic compounds to prevent the adipogenesis-induced loss of mitochondrial function and insulin sensitivity, targeting the inflammatory interplay macrophages-adipocytes in vitro. Methods: CAE and its main phenolic compounds (...

The incidence of these metabolic disorders is increasing worldwide primarily due to poor lifestyle habits. Obesity is caused by the imbalance between energy intake and expenditure and entails the storage of excess amounts of triglycerides, associated with the production of adipokines involved in inflammation. Likewise, the accumulation of macrophag...

This study aimed to purify and identify antioxidant peptides from the low-molecular-weight fraction (SPH-I, MW<3 kDa) of Alcalase-hydrolyzed soybean (Glycine max L.) hydrolysate, and further evaluate cytoprotective effects of synthesized peptides against oxidative stress in human intestinal Caco-2 cells. After purification by gel filtration chromat...

Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 2019, 63, 1801413 DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.201801413 In article number 1801413 by Elvira Gonzalez de Mejia and co‐workers, an aqueous extract from cocoa shell and its main phenolics reduces inflammation derived from the interaction between macrophages and adipocytes. Adipocytes show a reduction in the accumulation of fat. Similarly, p...

Scope: The aim was to assess the action of an aqueous extract from cocoa shell (CAE) and its main phenolic compounds to prevent the loss of obesity‐induced mitochondrial function and insulin sensitivity, targeting inflammation between macrophages‐adipocytes in vitro. Methods and results: CAE (31‐500 μg mL−1) inhibited 3T3‐L1 adipocytes lipid accum...

Relationship of phenolic composition of selected purple maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes with their anti-inflammatory, anti-adipogenic and anti-diabetic potential, Food Chemistry (2019), doi: https://doi. Abstract This study aimed to investigate the associations between phenolic composition of selected purple maize genotypes and their anti-inflammator...

This study aimed to investigate the associations between phenolic composition of selected purple maize genotypes and their anti-inflammatory, anti-adipogenic and anti-diabetic properties in vitro. Anthocyanin-rich water extracts (PMWs) from 20 purple maize genotypes were evaluated in RAW 264.7 macrophages and 3T3-L1 adipocytes under different condi...

In the present work, soy protein and phospholipid were used as the research object, using the alkaline protease to hydrolyze soy protein, and then emulsions prepared with soy protein by restriction-enzyme and phospholipid was studied. The emulsifying activity, emulsifying stability, ζ-potential and particle size (D43) and light microscopy of compos...

Enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction (EAEP) is an environmental-friendly method which is an alternative to conventional hexane oil extraction. During EAEP of soybeans, an additional by-product, residue fraction was produced. About 4.4 kg residue would be produced for every liter soybean oil extracted. The residue fraction of EAEP of soybeans contains...

Enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) has long been considered as a promising alternative to traditional solvent oil extraction which has gained increasing attention recently. After EAEP of soybeans, three distinct layers are formed: cream, skim and a residual fraction. The skim fraction contains a substantial amount of protein as we...

Thermogravimetry (TG) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) were used to investigate the thermal oxidative properties of six normal vegetable oils. The influence of different heating programs on the weight changing curves was studied and the onset oxidation temperature (Ton) and peak oxidation temperature (Tp) were located from the DTG curves. Thro...

An efficient immobilization of Alcalase 2.4L alkaline protease has been developed by using chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles as support via glutaraldehyde cross-linking reaction. The Fe3O4 nanoparticles, Fe3O4-chitosan, and immobilized Alcalase 2.4L alkaline protease were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope, Fo...

Okra is consumed as a vegetable by populations in Africa and Asia and particularly in Egypt. In this study, we investigated some nutritional components of okra grown in four different geographical locations of Egypt. A comparative analysis of water-soluble vitamins (B2, B3, B6, B12, and C) and fat-soluble vitamins (E, K, D, A, and β-carotene) in ok...