Brandeis scientist invents anti-cholesterol process
Daniel Perlman solves phytosterol dispersibility problem
2013-06-19
(Press-News.org) Senior Brandeis research scientist Daniel Perlman has discovered a way to make phytosterol molecules from plants dispersible in beverages and foods that are consumed by humans, potentially opening the way to dramatic reductions in human cholesterol levels.
A U.S. patent (#8,460,738) on the new process and composition was issued on June 11.
Phytosterols in plants and cholesterol molecules in animals are highly similar and when both are dispersed together they are attracted to one another. When they mix in the gut of an animal, the cholesterol molecules are competitively inhibited from passing into the blood stream and instead are excreted.
The ability of phytosterols to reduce cholesterol levels in animals has been recognized since the 1950s, but practical application of this knowledge was difficult because phytosterols are not naturally water-soluble, and they are only poorly soluble in fatty substances.
Perlman and K.C. Hayes, professor emeritus of biology and former director of the Foster Biomedical Research Laboratories, invented and patented a way to increase the bioavailability of phytosterols in fats more than 10 years ago. Their separate discoveries relating to fat metabolism and oxidative stability led to development of the Smart Balance blend of oils and a number of other food products.
However, improving dispersal of phytosterols in water has remained problematic, and was an obstacle to their general use in foods and beverages. Phytosterols placed in water-based substances will not disperse, and this has thwarted their cholesterol-reducing potential.
Now, Perlman has found a way to change the behavior of phytosterols in liquids by forming a new complex in which glycerin molecules attach to phytosterol molecules. Phytosterols and glycerin are heated together to a temperature at which the water molecule that usually attaches to each phytosterol molecule boils off and is replaced by a glycerin molecule. Because glycerin molecules have multiple places at which water molecules can be attached and because glycerin also inhibits crystal growth that complicates dispersal, the phytosterol-glycerin complex together with an emulsifier becomes dispersible in water-based foods.
"I had been playing with ideas on how to enhance the dispersibility of this molecule for a number of years," said Perlman, who has more than 100 patents and pending patents on inventions he has made in his years at Brandeis. This was critically important, he explained, because "if you really want to have widespread public health benefits, you want to be able to put [phytosterols] in foods and beverages."
Hayes said he has tested Perlman's new compound on gerbils in his laboratory and obtained results from the water-dispersed phytosterols that are excellent in terms of their cholesterol-reducing action.
Physics Professor Seth Fraden, who is director of the Brandeis Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, said "the actual science of how it all works" when the attachment of glycerin changes phytosterol behavior "is not understood."
Perlman, he said, "had a chemical intuition for doing this. He is a good chemist; he has a feeling for molecules and what they'll do when you mix them. In addition to this intuition, he is very open-minded and will go in the lab and try things that other people don't do because their professors have told them it won't work.
"That's why he's a good inventor," Fraden said.
INFORMATION: END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2013-06-19
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Like a stealthy enemy, blast disease invades rice crops around the world, killing plants and cutting production of one of the most important global food sources.
Now, a study by an international team of researchers has shed light on how the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, invades plant tissue. The finding is a step toward learning how to control the disease, which by some estimates destroys enough rice to feed 60 million people annually.
The team, led by Barbara Valent, Kansas State University distinguished professor in plant pathology, found ...
2013-06-19
Scientists are expecting a very large "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico and a smaller than average hypoxic level in the Chesapeake Bay this year, based on several NOAA-supported forecast models.
NOAA-supported modelers at the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University, and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium are forecasting that this year's Gulf of Mexico hypoxic "dead" zone will be between 7,286 and 8,561 square miles which could place it among the ten largest recorded. That would range from an area the size of Connecticut, Rhode Island and the District ...
2013-06-19
Boulder, Colo., USA – Each of the six new papers published in Geosphere on 13 June address geoscience compiled in specially themed issues: CRevolution 2: Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System II; The 36-18 Ma southern Great Basin, USA, ignimbrite province and flareup: Swarms of subduction-related supervolcanoes; New Developments in Grenville Geology; and Origin and Evolution of the Sierra Nevada and Walker Lane.
Abstracts for these and other Geosphere papers are available at http://geosphere.gsapubs.org/. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary ...
2013-06-19
Swainson' s Thrushes, from a local population near Bolinas, CA spend their winters together in Mexico, according to a new tracking study released by Point Blue Conservation Science, (Point Blue, formerly PRBO). This result is important because it shows that the conservation of habitat for these local populations in California is tightly linked with climate and habitat changes in Mexico, where these birds spend their winters, 1,600 miles away.
The Swainson's Thrush is one of the most melodic of all the songbirds, and can be heard singing now by hikers, walkers, and cyclists ...
2013-06-19
Is the US Tea Party movement a racial backlash against President Obama? A new study by Angie Maxwell from the University of Arkansas, and Wayne Parent from Louisiana State University, assesses whether racial attitudes are contributing to Tea Party membership, and if so, the exact nature of this racial prejudice. Their work is published online in Springer's journal, Race and Social Problems.
The Tea Party is an American political movement that began in 2009 and which is focused on fiscal conservatism. The first major protests took place in 40 states just 37 days after ...
2013-06-19
People with HIV are more likely to keep their scheduled medical appointments — and their disease under control — if they feel their physician listens, explains things clearly and knows them as a person, not just a "case," new Johns Hopkins research suggests.
"If people feel their doctor really knows them and listens to them, they feel that doctor has their best interests at heart and may be more likely to follow medical advice," says study leader Tabor E. Flickinger, M.D., M.P.H., a fellow in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School ...
2013-06-19
Researchers from the United Kingdom, the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the University of Kentucky have recently published a paper describing a novel cellulose-degrading enzyme from a marine wood borer Limnoria quadripunctata, commonly known as the gribble.
Gribbles are biologically intriguing because they exhibit a relatively unique ability to produce their own enzymes instead of using symbiotic microbes to break down the biomass they eat. New biomass-degrading enzymes from novel sources such as the gribble may prove beneficial ...
2013-06-19
HOUSTON – Researchers have discovered and mapped the signaling network between two previously unconnected proteins, exposing a link that, if broken, could cut off cancer cell growth at its starting point.
A team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported the tie between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a well-known cancer drug target, and MCM7, a protein vital to the first step in DNA replication, in the June issue of Cancer Cell.
"MCM7 overexpression marks cell proliferation and is associated with glioblastoma and colorectal, ...
2013-06-19
Recent research has shown that cancer cells have a much different – and more complex – metabolism than normal cells. Now, scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas have found that exploiting these differences might provide a new strategy to combat lung cancer.
In an article published online May 21 in the journal PLOS ONE, UT Dallas researchers compared the metabolic characteristics of non-small-cell lung cancer cells with normal lung cells taken from the same patient.
They found that the cancer cells consumed substantially more oxygen than normal cells, about ...
2013-06-19
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks identified a new tool that can dramatically improve the notoriously inaccurate surveys of what and how much an individual eats and drinks. Their research is published in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
Conventional wisdom says that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda and fruit juice is a significant contributor to obesity and chronic disease risk, but the science surrounding this issue is inconclusive. Part of the problem is that in a typical diet survey few people accurately ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Brandeis scientist invents anti-cholesterol process
Daniel Perlman solves phytosterol dispersibility problem
