Yingjian Lu

Nanjing University of Finance and Economics | NJUE · Department of Food Science and Technology

In this study, we investigated the effect of bread-making on the assay of phenolic acids from flour, dough, and bread fractions of whole and refined three wheat varieties. Comparison of efficacy of two commonly used methods for hydrolysis and extraction of phenolic acids showed that yields of total phenolic acids (TPA) was 5-17% higher among all va...

Thymol (THY), a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) compound found in thyme oil, has inhibitory effects against foodborne pathogens including Salmonella. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is another GRAS agent to effectively inactivate Salmonella. The aim of the current study was to develop a GRAS wash solution containing THY (or H2O2) and other GRAS antimi...

The increased consumption of dietary fats contributes to the development of MAFLD (metabolic fatty liver disease). The ability of broccoli to enhance lipid metabolism has attracted researchers' attention. Researchers fed C57BL/6 mice a 12-week HFD to ensure the induction of MAFLD. The findings indicated that broccoli floret juice could effectively...

Traditional Chinese fermented vegetables are excellent probiotic food with probiotic lactic acid bacteria that are benefical to the health. A novel bacteriocin with molecular weight, 825 Da was found successfully from Lactobacillus plantarum 163, which was isolated from Guizhou salted radish. The complete amino acid sequence was speculated as YVCAS...

Listeria monocytogenes biofilm contamination on food contact surfaces is a major concern for the food industry. Nanoparticle encapsulation appears as a novel strategy for food surface disinfection to prevent biofilm formation. Chitosan nanoparticles loaded with nisin and DNase I (DNase-CS-N) have been constructed to exhibit antimicrobial activity a...

Globally, the incidence of colitis is on the rise. Rice bran (RB) is a promising natural dietary supplement. The research aimed to explore how RB impacts colitis in mice caused by dextran sulfate sodium. Notably, administering RB led to better weight control, better colon lengths, and a decreased disease activity index. Furthermore, it was discover...

Listeria monocytogenes biofilms represent a continuous source of contamination, leading to serious food safety concerns and economic losses. This study aims to develop novel nisin‐loaded chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs) functionalized with DNase I and evaluate its antibiofilm activity against L. monocytogenes on food contact surfaces. Nisin‐loaded CS...

Globally, type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is on the rise. Maintaining a healthy diet is crucial for both treating and preventing T2DM.As a common vegetable in daily diet, broccoli has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticarcoma physiological activities. We developed a mouse model of type 2 diabetes and carried out a systematic investigation to clarify th...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is accompanied by hyperglycaemia, liver dysfunction and intestinal dysbiosis. Bioactive peptides, as functional food, ameliorate type 2 diabetes mellitus by preventing oxidative damage to the liver. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens fmb50 was used in our earlier studies to create the lipopeptide surfactin, which was shown to allev...

Curcumin is a polyphenolic compound that has been widely investigated for its health benefits. However, the clinical relevance of curcumin is limited due to its low water solubility and inefficient absorption. Therefore, curcumin is often encapsulated in nanocarriers to improve its delivery and function. In this study, composite nanoparticles compo...

Background Bacillomycin D-C16 can induce resistance in cherry tomato against pathogens; however, the underlying molecular mechanism is poorly understood. Here, the effect of Bacillomycin D-C16 on induction of disease resistance in cherry tomato was investigated using a transcriptomic analysis. Results Transcriptomic analysis revealed a series of o...

Large preclinical evidence suggested that colitis was one of the risk factors for depression and probiotics were effective therapeutic agents to prevent the disease. The effect of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus Fmb14 on colitis-related depression-like behavior and its possible mechanisms were investigated. One week of DSS exposure led to the followin...

A high-fat diet (HFD) easily contributes to the pathogenesis of obesity and insulin resistance. Obesity and insulin resistance have been clinical and public health challenges all over the world. Probiotic-fermented yogurt is one type of popular and functional beverage in people's daily lives. This study mainly explored the lipid- and glucose-loweri...

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is associated with brain neurotransmitter disorders and intestinal dysbiosis. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens fmb50 produces the lipopeptide surfactin, which has a wide range of biological activities. However, the effects of surfactin on DSS-induced colitis have not been reported. In the present study, oral surfactin significantl...

Carbon sources alter the synthesis of exopolysaccharides (EPS) in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum. Maltose increased the EPS production of L. plantarum 163 6.5-fold. Subsequently, EPS production, transcriptome, and proteome were analyzed using glucose or maltose to further clarify the regulatory mechanism. A cAMP receptor protein (UniProtKB: F9UNI5)...

Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is becoming the key factor in causing chronic liver disease all over the world. Sulforaphane (SFN) has been proven to be effective in alleviating many metabolic diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. In this study, C57BL/6 mice were fed a high-fat diet for 12 weeks to induce MAFLD and given S...

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is becoming an increasingly serious health problem. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a newly isolated Lactobacillus species that produces feruloyl esterase (FAEb) on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced UC in mice. In this study, FAEb supplementation slowed body weight loss and mitigated colon length shortening,...

In addition to their biological functions, polysaccharides assist Lactiplantibacillus plantarum in resisting harsh conditions. To enhance the polysaccharide biosynthesis and increase the survival of L. plantarum in gut environment. We analyzed the transcriptional regulators that regulated the polysaccharide biosynthesis. A new transcriptional inhib...

Surfactin from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens fmb50 was utilized to treat mice with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) induced by a high-fat diet/streptozotocin (HFD/STZ). Our group’s earlier research indicated that surfactin could lower blood glucose and mitigate liver dysfunction to further improve HFD/STZ-induced T2DM through modulating intestinal microbiota. T...

Accumulating evidence revealed that some probiotics regulated lipid metabolism and alleviated diet-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study mainly explored whether yogurt-derived Lactobacillus plantarum Q16 modulated lipid and energy metabolism, and suppressed microbial dysbiosis in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. Results showed...

Surfactin, an antibacterial lipopeptide produced by different strains of Bacillus subtilis, is a powerful biosurfactant. It also has multiple biological activities including antiviral, anti-mycoplasma and antiprotozoal activities, in addition to the broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities against Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria and f...

Overexpression of Staphylococcus aureus efflux pumps is commonly associated with antibiotic resistance, causing conventional antibiotics to be unsuccessful in combating multidrug‐resistant bacterial infections. Reducing the activity of the efflux pump is an urgently required to tackle this problem. Here, we found that plantaricin A (PlnA), an antim...

To improve the bioavailability of curcumin, surfactin was used to prepare curcumin-loaded nanoemulsions (Cur-NEs). Moreover, the physicochemical properties, digestive characteristics, as well as inhibition activity to Caco-2 cells of Cur-NEs were measured. Furthermore, the morphological analysis revealed that Cur-NEs with 320 mg/L surfactin appeare...

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungus including Aspergillus and Fusarium. They can contaminate food and cause major health issues. Bacillomycin D (BD) is a natural antimicrobial lipopeptide generated by Bacillus that has excellent antifungal capabilities, but its high price prevents it from being widely used. Chemically prod...

Hyperuricemia is a critical threat to human health, and conventional medical treatment only aims to treat acute gouty arthritis. Purine diet-mediated chronic hyperuricemia and related syndromes are neglected in clinical therapeutics. In this study, the prevention ability of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus Fmb14, screened from Chinese yogurt, was evalu...

Aims: A novel endolysin Salmcide-p1 was developed as a promising candidate of new preservative and a supplement to effective enzyme preparations against Gram-negative bacterial contaminations. Methods and results: Salmcide-p1 was identified by complementing the genomic sequence of a virulent Salmonella phage fmb-p1. 112 μg ml-1 Salmcide-p1 could...

Unlabelled: In Bacillus, the spore formation process is associated with the synthesis and release of secondary metabolites. A large number of studies have been conducted to systematically elucidate the pathways and mechanisms of spore formation. However, there are no studies have explored the relationship between secondary metabolites and spores....

Antibiotic resistance is a global health concern due to indiscriminate use of antibiotics, resistance transfer, and intrinsic resistance of certain Gram-negative bacteria. The asymmetric bacterial outer membrane prevents the entry of hydrophobic antibiotics and renders them ineffective.

This study aims to explore the hypoglycemic effect of lyophilized broccoli microgreens on type 2 diabetes (T2D) in mice. The experiment lasted 18 weeks, including 1 week of adaptation (normal diet) and 17‐week experimental period (high‐fat diet). After ingestion of broccoli microgreens, the body weight and glucose homeostasis were improved. Meanwhi...

Surfactin, produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens fmb50, was used to treat insulin‐resistant (IR) hepatocyte. It was found that surfactin increased glucose consumption in insulin‐resistant HepG2 (IR‐HepG2) cells and ameliorated IR by increasing glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) protein expression and AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) mRNA expression,...

Food safety and quality are seriously compromised by the growth of spoilage bacteria in food. Various lactic acid bacteria (LAB) may inhibit the growth of spoilage bacteria in food and animal feed. In our study, the antibacterial activity of Lactobacillus acidophilus NX2‐6 was improved by genome shuffling. The starting populations were obtained via...

Most foodborne pathogens have biofilm‐forming capacity and prefer to grow in the form of biofilms. Presence of biofilms on food contact surfaces can lead to persistence of pathogens and the recurrent cross‐contamination of food products, resulting in serious problems associated with food safety and economic losses. Resistance of biofilm cells to co...

Accumulating evidence suggested that suppression of Propionibacterium acnes-induced inflammation was a promising strategy to alleviate acne vulgaris. This study evaluated the alleviating effect of surfactin-oleogel on P. acnes-induced inflammatory acne vulgaris in mice. Epidermis morphology and histopathological examination showed that surfactin-ol...

Fusarium verticillioides causes ear and kernel rot in maize and produces mycotoxins, like fumonisin B1 (FB1). Bacillomycin D-C16 is a natural antimicrobial lipopeptide produced by Bacillus subtilis. In this study, the inhibitory effects of Bacillomycin D-C16 on the growth of F. verticillioides and on the production of FB1 in maize were investigated...

The soft rot disease caused by Rhizopus stolonifer is an important disease in cherry tomato fruit. In this study, the effect of iturin A on soft rot of cherry tomato and its influence on the storage quality of cherry tomato fruit were investigated. The results showed that 512 μg/mL of iturin A could effectively inhibit the incidence of soft rot of...

L-arabinose is a good and healthy food additive. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of L-arabinose in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) induced by exposure to a high-fat diet (HFD) and streptozotocin (STZ). The model mice received L-arabinose at 20 and 60 mg (kg body weight [bw])⁻¹d⁻¹, metformin at 300 mg (kg bw)⁻¹d⁻¹...

Increasing cases of infections by S. aureus in food resulted in a great demand to utilize natural, safe, and effective antimicrobial agents which could inactivate foodborne pathogens in the food industry. A novel class IId bacteriocin, plantaricin 827, produced by Lactobacillus plantarum 163 was isolated and identified. Its molecular mass and amino...

We incorporated oxidized dextran (Odex) into nanoparticles composed of gallic acid-modified chitosan (GA-CS) and sodium caseinate (NaCas). The mass ratio of GA-CS to NaCas and the pH of the reaction solution were optimized to obtain nanoparticles with excellent performance and stability. The interactions among various nanomaterials were confirmed b...

PurposeThis study aimed to explore the protective effect of broccoli microgreens juice (BMJ) during C57BL/6J mice obesity development. Methods The obese model mice, induced by feeding high-fat diet (HFD), were treated with BMJ by gavage for 10 weeks. Melbine was gavaged at 300 mg/(kg bw)/d, as a positive control group.ResultsBMJ supplementation sig...

In this study, the cell-free extracts (CFE) of Lactobacillus acidophilus NX2-6 were utilized to treat oleic acid (OA)-induced hepatic steatosis. It was found that CFE treatment improved lipid metabolism in OA-induced hepatic steatosis model by downregulating several lipogenic genes but increasing expression levels of lipolysis-related genes. In add...

Salmcide-p1 is an enzybiotic derived from Salmonella bacteriophage fmb-p1 with broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria. This study found that Salmcide-p1 completely destroyed the structural integrity of Salmonella Typhimurium within 15 min, causing the leakage of intracellular nucleic acids, proteins, K⁺, and Ca²⁺, ulti...

Lactic acid bacteria have been used to inhibit the growth of spoilage bacteria in food and animal feeds. For instance, Lactobacillus plantarum 163 can inhibit efficiently the growth of both gram‐positive and gram‐negative bacteria. In our study, the antibacterial activity of L. plantarum 163 was further improved significantly by genome shuffling. T...

Brevibacillins are broad-spectrum cationic antimicrobial lipopeptides produced by Brevibacillus laterosporus fmb70 CGMCC 18426. The antibacterial mode of brevibacillins against Salmonella typhimurium CICC 21493 was investigated by quantum chemistry calculation in this study. The addition of LPS, Mg²⁺, and Ca²⁺ partially reduced the antimicrobial ac...

Bacteriocins are useful to control the composition of microorganisms in fermented food. Bacteriocin synthesis is regulated by quorum sensing mediated by autoinducing peptides. Besides, short-chain fatty acids, especially acetic acid, reportedly regulate bacteriocin synthesis. Five histidine kinases that regulated the synthesis of bacteriocins were...

Diet-induced obesity is one of the major public health concerns all over the world, and obesity also contributes to the development of other chronic diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty acid liver disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Evidence shows that the pathogenesis of obesity and obesity-associated chronic diseases ar...

Broccoli microgreens have shown potential health benefits due to their high glucosinolate (GL) levels. Previously, we observed that postharvest UVB treatment did not have much effect on increasing GLs in broccoli microgreens. In this study, we investigated the influence of preharvest UVB irradiation on GL levels in broccoli microgreens. UHPLC-ESI/I...

Brassica vegetables are widely consumed mostly after processing and cooking. These processing and cooking methods not only can affect the taste, texture, flavor and nutrients of these vegetables, but also influence the levels of some important bioactive compounds, such as glucosinolates (GLSs). Glucoraphanin (GLR) is the most abundant GLSs and its...

Plantaricin EF, a kind of natural antibacterial substance, has shown inhibitory effect on most pathogen and spoilage microorganisms, which possessed great potential in food preservation. However, the lower production of plantaricin EF has limited its large-scale production and application. In this study, the effect of maltose on plantaricin EF prod...

Bacillus subtilis fmb60, which has broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities, was isolated from plant straw compost. A hybrid NRPS/PKS cluster was screened from the genome. Sixteen secondary metabolites produced by the gene cluster were isolated and identified using LC-HRMS and NMR. Three lipoamides D–F (1–3) and two amicoumacin derivatives, amicouma...

The synthesis of plantaricin in Lactobacillus plantarum is regulated by quorum sensing. However, the nature of the extra‐cytoplasmic (EC) sensing domain of the histidine kinase (PlnB1) and the ability to recognize the auto‐inducing peptide PlnA1 is not known. We demonstrate the key motif Ile‐Ser‐Met‐Leu of auto‐inducing peptide PlnA1 binds to the h...

Bacillus subtilis fmb60, which has broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities was isolated from plant straw compost. A hybrid NRPS/PKS cluster was screened from the genome. Sixteen secondary metabolites produced by the gene cluster were isolated and identified using LC-HRMS and NMR. Three lipoamides D–F (1-3) and two amicoumacin derivatives, amicoumac...

Although rennet is one of the best choices for cheese manufacturing, its production cannot meet the growing demands of the cheese industry. Thus, new milk-clotting enzymes (MCEs) with similar or better properties as/than those of calf chymosin are needed urgently. Here, three MCEs, BY-2, BY-3, and BY-4, were mined by bioinformatic analysis and then...

Four novel chimeric lysins (P361, P362, P371, and P372), which were the fusion of Salmonella phage lysins and novel antimicrobial peptide LeuA-P, were obtained using bioinformatics analysis and in silico design. The recombinant chimeric lysins were expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) strain and showed highly specific inhibition against Salmonella. The m...

Aim: In the study, we investigated the regulatory effects of these genes (codY, comA, degU, and spo0A) on the biosynthesis of three lipopeptides (bacillomycin D, fengycin, and surfactin) in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Methods and results: The codY, comA, degU, and spo0A genes in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens fmbJ were knocked out. The results showe...

Pullulanase is a debranching enzyme that cleaves explicitly α-1,6 glycosidic bonds, which is widely used in starch saccharification, production of glucose, maltose, and bioethanol. The thermal-resistant pullulanase is isolated from a variety of microorganisms; however, the lack of industrial production of pullulanase has hindered the transformation...

The cell-free extract (CFE) of Lactobacillus acidophilus NX2-6 was used to treat oleic acid (OA)-exposed HepG2 cells. Biochemical analysis showed that CFE could reduce high levels of triglyceride, LDL-c, LDH, and MDA caused by OA treatment. RT-PCR and western blot analysis revealed that CFE distinctly decreased levels of Srebp-1c and FAS but elevat...