Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) extracted from roast salmon could interact with human serum albumin (HSA) to form protein coronas, changing their biological identity.

The unique properties of nanoparticles produced during food thermal processing have attracted considerable attention. In this study, the formation of protein coronas of fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) in roast beef with human serum albumin (HSA) and the corona effect on toxicity were reported. The CDs were roughly spherical with a size in the range of 1–5 nm, which were mainly composed of carbon (68.68%), nitrogen (10.6%), and oxygen (15.98%). The CDs could readily pass through the intestine wall due to their small size and good water solubility. There was an obvious interaction between HSA and CDs, suggesting that the CDs could form protein coronas. Thermodynamic analysis results of ΔH < 0 (−13.17 ± 3.74 kJ/mol) and ΔS > 0 ( 28.04 J/mol/K) indicated that the binding of HSA–CDs was due to electrostatic interactions or hydrophobic forces. The HSA–CD coronas were distributed in the lysosomes of the cells, alleviated swelling caused by the CDs, and inhibited the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential caused by CDs. Furthermore, the protein coronas reduced cellular reactive oxygen species production and alleviated the consumption of glutathione by the CDs, thus protecting the cells from damage. This finding provided valuable information about protein coronas in ameliorating cytotoxicity.

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Foodborne nanoparticles (FNPs) produced by roasting have attracted the attention of people, owing to their safety risk to body health. Herein, we reported the formation, physicochemical properties, elemental composition, biodistribution, and binding with human serum albumin (HSA) of FNPs extracted from roast squid. The results showed that the FNP size gradually decreased from 4.1 to 2.3 nm as the roasting temperature changed from 190 to 250 °C. The main component elements of FNPs are carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, and the carbon and nitrogen contents of FNPs increased with the roasting temperature rising. The surface of FNPs contained hydroxyl, amino, and carboxyl functional groups. The FNPs can emit fluorescence in ultraviolet light and show excitation-dependent emission behavior. Furthermore, it was found that the FNPs derived from roast squid could be accumulated in the stomach, intestine, and brain of BALB/c mice after oral feeding. Static fluorescence quenching of HSA was found by the Stern–Volmer equation and ultraviolet–visible spectrum analysis after interaction with the FNPs. After the addition of FNPs, the α-helix content of HSA decreased and the morphological height of HSA increased, which indicated that the FNPs could cause structural changes in HSA. The atomic force microscopy characterization showed the formation of nanocorona between FNPs and HSA.

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The potential biological effects of food-borne carbon dots (FCDs) generated during food heating procedures on human health has received great attention. The FCDs will be inevitably exposed to blood proteins along with our daily diet to produce unknown biological effects. In this study, the interaction between FCDs extracted from grilled Spanish mackerel and three main types of human plasma proteins including human serum albumin (HSA), human γ-globulin (HGG) and human fibrinogen (HF) was reported. It was found that the grilled Spanish mackerel FCDs could affect the morphology, size and surface electrical properties of the three proteins. The interaction between the FCDs and proteins had different effects on the secondary structure of the three proteins through a static mechanism. The tested HSA, HGG, and HF could adsorb FCDs to reach saturation state within 0.5 min after the adsorption happened. The binding affinity of the FCDs to the plasma proteins was sorted as follows: HF > HGG > HSA. The results of FCDs interacted with plasma proteins provided useful information in the assessment of the safety of FCDs in our daily diet.

Identification of edible oil adulteration is an essential task for oil quality control. In this study, the adulteration of sesame oil samples with soybean oil was detected by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) combining with chemometrics including principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares (PLS) and principal component regression (PCR) methods. PCA analysis was applied for the classification of various adulteration ratios of sesame oil samples. PLS and PCR were used for the detection of adulteration ratios of sesame oil samples. A calibration data set was established and evaluated by a cross-validation method. The correlation coefficients between actual and predicted values for the calibration and validation data sets were 0.953 and 0.973 for PLS and 0.975 and 0.979 for PCR, respectively. Therefore, a combination of LF-NMR with chemometrics can be applied for detecting sesame oil adulteration in a fast and nondestructive manner.

A new type of ultra-small food-borne nanoparticles with multiple functional groups from roast sturgeon were prepared, which had potential as efficient nanocarriers for Fe(ii) delivery.