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The objective of this study was to develop, optimize and validate a fast and reliable method for the simultaneous determination of caffeine and taurine contents by micellar electrokinetic chromatography with diode array detector, using direct and indirect detection concomitantly. Multivariate statistical techniques were used as a central composite design and the simultaneous optimization method of responses of Derringer and Suich were used for optimization. The method was applied in the analysis of 73 samples of energy drinks commercialized in Brazil. The optimized method employed a capillary tube with an extended bulb of 50 µm i.d. x 72 cm total length, an electrolyte containing 16.20 mmol.L-1 of benzoic acid and 39.90 mmol.L-1 of SDS, a pH value of 7.26, + 30 kV voltage, direct detection of caffeine at 274 nm and indirect detection of taurine at 230 nm. Validation parameters have demonstrated the reliability and applicability of this method. Ot was found that more than 50% of the samples were out of the legal limits determined by the Brazilian government regarding the taurine content and 68 % contained caffeine below the value declared on the label. Therefore, the need for greater control concerning the composition of these drinks exists.

The partial replacement of proteins from animal sources by plant proteins in formulated food products has been proposed as useful to improve sustainability aspects of the products without dramatically changing their techno-functional properties. Although several research groups have published on the gelling properties of mixed systems containing whey and soy protein isolates (WPI and SPI), their foaming properties are much less described. In this context, the main objective of this paper was to evaluate the structural and foaming properties of samples containing different mass ratios of WPI:SPI (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100) before and after heat treatment. The samples were evaluated according to their solubility, foaming capacity (FC), foam microstructure and foam stability (FS). Before heat treatment, mixing SPI to WPI did not affect the solubility of whey proteins, but, after heat treatment, insoluble co-aggregates were formed. Similar FC was measured for all samples despite their WPI:SPI ratio and the applied heat treatment. The partial replacement of WPI by SPI changed the microstructure of the foams and had an antagonistic effect on the FS of the samples, due to the negative effect of insoluble soy protein aggregates and/or insoluble co-aggregates on the reinforcement of the air-water interfacial film.

For more than 40 years, the fluid mosaic model of cellular membranes has supported our vision of an inert lipid bilayer containing membrane protein receptors that are randomly hit by extracellular molecules to trigger intracellular signaling events. However, the notion that compartmentalized cholesterol- and sphingomyelin-rich membrane microdomains (known as lipid rafts) spatially arrange receptors and effectors to promote kinetically favorable interactions necessary for the signal transduction sounds much more realistic. Despite their assumed importance for the dynamics of ligand-receptor interactions, lipid rafts and biomembranes as a whole remain less explored than the other classes of biomolecules because of the higher variability and complexity of their membrane phases, which rarely provide the detailed atomic-level structural data in X-ray crystallography assays necessary for molecular modeling studies. The fact that some alkylphospholipids (e.g. edelfosine: 1-O-octadecyl-2-O-methyl-rac-glycero-3-phosphocholine) selectively induce the apoptotic death of cancer cells by recruiting Fas death receptors and the downstream signaling molecules into clusters of lipid rafts suggests these potential drug targets deserve a more in-depth investigation. Herein, we review the structure of lipid rafts, their role in apoptotic signaling pathways and their potential role as drug targets for the treatment of cancer.

Solutions of lithiated cumulenic ethers and bis-ethers R2CH=C=C=C(Li)OR3 and R10CH=C=C=C(Li)OR3 can be obtained by treatment of the compounds R10CH(R2)C=CCHz0R3 and R10CH2C=CCH(OR3)z respectively with 2 equivalents of butyllithium in ether. Reaction of these solutions with HzO, DzO, methyl iodide, a-chloroethers or ketones gives the cumulenic compounds or their derivatives in good yields.Solutions of lithiated cumulenic thioethers R2CH=C=C=C(Li)SR3 are obtained in an analogous way, but hydrolysis affords the isomeric enynic thioethers R2CH=CHC=CSR3 in addition to the expected curnulenic thioethers R2CH=C=C=CHSR3. Elimination of R'OH from R10C(R2)zC=CCH(SR3)2 with 1 equivalent of C4HgLi leads to the cumulenic dit hioacetals ( R Z ) K = C =C = C(SR3)2.