Stevioside is a natural sweetener with the characteristics of low calorie and high sweetness. It comprises a diverse range of monomers that play crucial roles in numerous biological processes. Due to these attributes, it has gained widespread application in agriculture, food, and pharmaceutical industries. As a substitute for sugar, stevioside also shows good pharmacological activities on glucose metabolism, bodyweight keeping, blood pressure maintenance, and shows anti‐inflammatory, anti‐oxidation, anti‐tumor, antibacterial, and immune regulation activities. This review summarized the update on the food safety, sweet structure–activity relationship, pharmacological activity of stevia glycosides recently, and discussed the limitations of its application in food and medicine.

Neu1 is a sialidase enzyme that plays a crucial role in the regulation of glycosylation in a variety of cellular processes, including cellular signaling and inflammation. In recent years, numerous evidence has suggested that human NEU1 is also involved in the pathogenesis of various respiratory diseases, including lung infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and pulmonary fibrosis. This review paper aims to provide an overview of the current research on human NEU1 and respiratory diseases.

Background: Metabolites are involved in biological process that govern the immune response to infection and vaccination. Knowledge of how metabolites interact with the immune system during immunization with the COVID-19 vaccine is limited. Here, we report that the serum metabolites are correlated with the magnitude of the antibody response in recipients receiving the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine, which provides critical information for studying metabolism regarding the human immune response to vaccination. Methods: 106 healthy volunteers without history of SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination were prospectively enrolled to receive the primary series of two doses of inactivated whole-virion SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The serum samples were collected 2–4 weeks after the second dose. The magnitude of the anti-RBD antibody was quantified using surrogate virus neutralization tests. The profile of metabolites in serum was identified using untargeted metabolomics analysis. Results: The level of anti-RBD antibody 14–28 days after the second dose was significantly elevated and its interpersonal variability was diverse in a wide range. Thirty-two samples at extremes of the anti-RBD antibody titer were selected to discover the metabolic correlates. Two hundred and fifteen differential metabolites associated with antibody response independent of body mass index were identified. Pregnenolone and sphingolipid metabolism might be involved in the modulation of the human antibody response to the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusion: We discovered key metabolites as well as those with a related functional significance that might modulate the human immune response to vaccination.

Background: Hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of celastrol were receiving increasing attentions. Celastrol as a triterpene has been reported to ameliorate age-associated weight gain by modulating circadian rhythms, but its linked molecular mechanism is obscure. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of celastrol on liver metabolism for the elderly. A total of 100 μg/kg celastrol was given to old ICR mice for a period of 10 days. Histological and lipid metabolism analyses were performed to confirm the benefit of celastrol on liver fatty acid metabolism. Transcriptome analysis and molecular docking were used to explore the hepatoprotection mechanism of celastrol. Results: We found that celastrol intervention improved glycolipid metabolism in the liver of aging ICR mice. Transcriptome analysis of liver revealed that celastrol can significantly reduced the expression levels of 45 genes (log2(FC) > 2) in liver of old mice, closely related to MAPK signaling pathway, TNF-α signaling pathway and NF-κB signaling pathway. Molecular docking results indicated three genes (Gadd45a, Atf3, and Rcan1) upregulated at the transcriptional level in old mice have high binding energy to celastrol (− 5.02 kcal/mol, − 7.58 kcal/mol, − 9.61 kcal/mol). Conclusions: This study suggested that MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathway might be the main way for the hepatoprotective effect of celastrol in aging mice. Graphical