The human skin is a crucial organ that protects the organism from the outer environment. Skin integrity and health depend on both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors such as aging and genetic background contribute to weakened skin and disease susceptibility. Meanwhile, extrinsic factors including UV radiation, pollution, smoking, humidity, and poor diet also affect skin health and disease. On the other hand, healthy dietary patterns such as plant-based diets have gained popularity as a complementary therapy for skin health. A plant-based diet is defined as all diets based on plant foods, including an abundance of vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds, fungi, and whole grains, with limited or no animal products or processed foods. However, some authors also exclude or limit processed foods in the definition. Recent research has shown that these diets have beneficial effects on inflammatory skin diseases. This review explored the beneficial effects of plant-based diets on inflammatory skin diseases and plant-based functional foods on healthy skin. In conclusion, plant-based diets and plant-based functional foods may have beneficial effects on skin health through the gut microbiome.

Improper hydration habits are commonly disregarded as a risk factor for the development of chronic diseases. Consuming an intake of water below recommendations (underhydration) in addition to the substitution of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) for water are habits deeply ingrained in several countries. This behavior is due to voluntary and involuntary dehydration; and because young children are exposed to SSB, the preference for a sweet taste is profoundly implanted in the brain. Underhydration and SSB intake lead to mild hyperosmolarity, which stimulates biologic processes, such as the stimulation of vasopressin and the polyol-fructose pathway, which restore osmolarity to normal but at the expense of the continued activation of these biological systems. Unfortunately, chronic activation of the vasopressin and polyol-fructose pathways has been shown to mediate many diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease. It is therefore urgent that we encourage educational and promotional campaigns that promote the evaluation of personal hydration status, a greater intake of potable water, and a reduction or complete halting of the drinking of SSB.

We evaluated the effects of fenofibrate (FF) in a SU5416/hypoxia model of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) with a specific focus on its influence on the renin–angiotensin system (RAS). We assessed right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP), mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP), medial pulmonary artery wall thickening, right ventricular (RV) hypertrophy, systolic pulmonary artery pressure (SPAP), pulmonary artery effective elastance (PAEa), RV diastolic pressure (RVDP), RV developed pressure (RVDevP), right ventricular–pulmonary arterial coupling index (RVPAC), RV dp/dt max and dp/dt min. Levels of angiotensin II, angiotensin (1–7), angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), Bmpr2, Smad5 and nitrite (NO₂⁻) and nitrate (NO₃⁻) in the lung and RV were evaluated. The expression of AT1R, MAS receptors, and ACE2 in lung tissue was assessed. FF prevented the increase in RVSP, mPAP, RV hypertrophy, reduced pulmonary arterioles remodeling, and attenuated the rise in SPAP, mPAP, and PAEa. In the RV, it reduced RVDevP and prevented the decrease in dp/dt min, without affecting RVDP. RVPAC showed partial improvement. In lung tissue, FF decreased angiotensin II levels, the Ang II/Ang-(1–7) ratio, and reduced angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT1R) expression, while preserving the receptor for the angiotensin-(1–7) (MAS) and ACE2. FF tended to restore Bmpr2/Smad5 expression. NO₂⁻ levels were preserved and tended to preserve (NO₃⁻) levels. In the RV, Ang-(1–7) increased, ACE2 was preserved, and NO₂⁻ and NO₃ levels were maintained. FF exerts protective effects in Su/Hx-induced PAH.

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by thrombotic and inflammatory manifestations whose molecular regulatory mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and N6-methyladenosine (m6A)-related regulation are increasingly recognized as components of immune gene regulation, but their involvement in APS remains poorly characterized. This study investigated BRD3OS (LINC00094) expression in APS and explored its molecular and predicted structural context in relation to m6A-associated regulation. An exploratory case–control study was conducted using an initial lncRNA PCR-array discovery cohort followed by targeted RT-qPCR validation in an independent cohort. Candidate prioritization incorporated multiple expression and technical features and was evaluated through sensitivity analyses. BRD3OS expression, selected m6A regulators (METTL3, METTL14, WTAP, and FTO), inflammatory mediators, and global m6A abundance in total peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) RNA were evaluated. Bioinformatic network analysis was used to contextualize BRD3OS within APS- and m6A-related molecular systems. RNAfold and RNAplfold were used to characterize the predicted structural context and accessibility of DRACH consensus motifs, with additional analyses evaluating fragment-boundary and composite-score robustness. BRD3OS was significantly downregulated in PBMCs from patients with APS in the independent validation cohort. METTL3, METTL14, and WTAP expression was also reduced, whereas global m6A levels in total PBMC RNA were increased. These observations indicate concurrent alterations in BRD3OS expression and the broader m6A-related molecular environment but do not establish transcript-specific methylation of BRD3OS. Bioinformatic network analysis placed BRD3OS within predicted RNA-centered regulatory relationships relevant to APS. DRACH motifs exhibited heterogeneous predicted structural accessibility, with unpaired structural environments showing greater RNAplfold-derived accessibility than paired regions. Quantitative accessibility estimates were highly concordant across overlapping transcript fragments, although sensitivity analyses indicated that the identity of individual highest-ranked candidates depended on the weighting scheme. BRD3OS downregulation represents a reproducible molecular finding in APS. Concurrent alterations in global m6A abundance and selected m6A regulators suggest broader epitranscriptomic dysregulation; however, these measurements cannot establish m6A modification of BRD3OS or a causal relationship between these observations. Structural and network analyses therefore provide a hypothesis-generating framework for prioritizing candidate regions and interactions for future transcript-specific methylation mapping and functional validation.