Oxidative stress is considered as a critical factor in the process of pathological diseases, and mitochondria are considered as vital target organelles for disease intervention. The purpose of this study was aimed to evaluate the antioxidant efficacy of mitochondria-targeted astaxanthin nanoparticle on hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative damage. As expected, mitochondria-targeted nanoparticle showed excellent mitochondria co-localization ability with higher Pearson’s correlation coefficient (R=0.88). In vitro experiments suggested that the mitochondria-targeted astaxanthin nanoparticle could promote cell viability and increase antioxidant-related enzyme activities. Simultaneously, metabolomics analysis indicated that mitochondria-targeted astaxanthin nanoparticle could alleviate oxidative stress by regulating amino acid metabolism and energy metabolism. Altogether, all these results strongly confirmed the mitochondria-targeted strategy for astaxanthin delivery could relieve oxidative stress and had great promise in the application of disease intervention.

The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of Maillard reaction products of Haematococcus pluvialis protein and galactose (HPP-GAL) for improving the bioactivities of curcumin (CUR) for alleviating alcoholic liver damage. CUR was embedded into HPP-GAL nanoparticles by the self-assembly of hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interaction with the particle size around 200 nm. HPP-GAL enhanced the encapsulation efficiency and loading amount of CUR with the value of (89.21 ± 0.33)% and (0.50 ± 0.004)%, respectively. The stabilities of CUR under strong acid, salt ion stability and UV irradiation conditions were improved by the encapsulation. HPP-GAL-CUR nanoparticles exhibited excellent concentration-dependent in vitro antioxidant activities including DPPH and ABTS scavenging rates, and better protective effect on CUR against gastric acid environment as well as longer release of CUR in simulated intestinal fluid. In addition, the HPP-GAL-CUR delivery system possessed liver targeting property due to the existence of GAL, which could effectively alleviate the alcohol-induced liver damage and the inflammation indexes by inhibiting the oxidative stress. Therefore, HPP-GAL-CUR nanoparticles might be a potential candidate system for the prevention of alcoholic liver damage in the future.

Cellular senescence is the results of aging and age-related diseases, and the development of anti-aging methods may improve health and extend longevity. The natural flavonol fisetin has been shown to antagonize senescence in vitro and increases longevity in vivo, but has poor water solubility and limited bioavailability. In this study, a food-grade and senescent cell-targeted delivery system for fisetin was developed based on whey protein isolate-galactooligosaccharides (WPI-GOS) Maillard conjugate, which could recognize senescence associated β-galactosidase in senescent cells. The fisetin nanoparticles possessed a high encapsulation efficiency, excellent dispersibility in water, good storage stability and well biocompatibility. Moreover, they could effectively accumulate and retain in senescent cells with excellent senescent cell-targeting efficacy, and inhibit the oxidative stress-induced cellular senescence in vitro. Thus, this novel nanoparticle system based on WPI-GOS Maillard conjugate showed promise to deliver hydrophobic bioactive ingredients like fisetin to senescent cells to improve their bioavailability and anti-senescence effect.

Inflammation plays an important role in the occurrence and development of many inflammatory diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect and metabolic behavior of the dual targeting procyanidins (PC) nanoparticles on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated inflammatory macrophages by metabolomics method. The double-targeting PC nanoparticles could specifically target both the CD44 receptor and mitochondria, while the single targeting PC-loaded nanoparticles that could target the CD44 receptor on the surface of macrophages. The double-targeting PC nanoparticles had better inhibitory effect than single-targeting PC nanoparticles on the leakage of lactate dehydrogenase and reactive oxygen species overexpression induced by LPS. Amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism and purine metabolism were disordered in LPS-treated group, and metabolic pathway analysis indicated that the double-targeting PC nanoparticles reversed some of LPS impacts. The changes of these potential biomarkers and their corresponding pathways are helpful to further understand the mechanism of PC nanoparticles in alleviating inflammation, and promote their application in nutrition intervention.