In mice, consumption of AE, CE, or quercetin appears to modulate some of the harmful effects associated with the consumption of an obesogenic HF diet. Furthermore, in a cell culture model, quercetin was shown to reduce intracellular lipid accumulation in a dose-dependent fashion.

Soy isoflavones exert beneficial health effects; however, their potential to ameliorate conditions associated with the metabolic syndrome (MetS) has not been studied in detail. In vitro and in vivo models were used to determine the effect of isoflavones on lipid metabolism, inflammation, and oxidative stress. In nude mice, consumption of Novasoy (NS) increased cholesterol and lipid metabolism gene expression, including Scd-1 (27.7-fold), Cyp4a14 (35.2-fold), and Cyp4a10 (9.5-fold), and reduced anti-inflammatory genes, including Cebpd (16.4-fold). A high-fat (HF) diet containing 0.4% (w/w) NS for 10 weeks significantly reduced percent weight gain (74.6 ± 2.5 vs 68.6 ± 3.5%) and hepatic lipid accumulation (20 ± 1.2 vs 27 ± 1.5%), compared to HF alone (p < 0.05) in C57BL/6J mice. NS also increased lipid oxidation and antioxidant gene expression while decreasing inflammatory cytokines. In vitro analysis in HepG2 cells revealed that genistein dose-dependently decreases oleic acid-induced lipid accumulation. Soy isoflavones may ameliorate symptoms associated with MetS via anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and hypolipidemic modulation.

P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is a promiscuous small molecule transporter whose overexpression in cancer is associated with multidrug resistance (MDR). In these instances, anticancer drugs can select for P-gp-overexpressing cells, leading to cancer recurrence with an MDR phenotype. To avoid selection for MDR cancers and inform individual patient treatment plans, it is critical to noninvasively identify P-gp-overexpressing tumors prior to administration of chemotherapy. We report the facile free radical copolymerization of quinidine, a competitive inhibitor of P-gp, and acrylic acid to generate multiplexed polymeric P-gp-targeted imaging agents with tunable quinidine content. Copolymer targeting was demonstrated in a nude mouse xenograft model. In xenografts overexpressing P-gp, copolymer distribution was enhanced over two-fold compared to the negative control of poly(acrylic acid) regardless of quinidine content. In contrast, accumulation of the copolymers in xenografts lacking P-gp was equivalent to poly(acrylic acid). This work forms the foundation for a unique approach toward the phenotype-specific noninvasive imaging of MDR tumors and is the first in vivo demonstration of copolymer accumulation through the active targeting of P-gp.