BENEFICIAL AND ADVERSE EFFECTS OF NATURAL CHEMICALS ON HUMAN HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1003459
• Multistate No.: W-3122
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2014
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2017
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
(N/A)
BURLINGTON,VT 05405

Performing Department
Nutritional Sciences

Non Technical Summary
Use of sutures in veterinary medicine is still the most widely practiced method for wound closure and tissue reconstruction. Scarring is a common defect resulted from sutures on topical use and nerve repair (lack of conduction). However, sutures sometimes are not effective on the sites where fluid and air leakage could occur (e.g., blood vessels, urethra and lung tissues). Tissue adhesives could prevent fluid and air leakage effectively and may minimize scare formation after surgery. Tissue adhesives incorporating proteins such as bovine serum albumin (BSA) and fibrin are commercially available and have been approved by FDA for clinical use. These commercial tissue adhesives are expensive and single dosed. Whey is a byproduct from cheese making, and more than one third of the whey generated by the cheese industry is disposed to the environment every year in the US. Purified whey protein is much cheaper than BSA and fibrin. Based on the chemistry of the major components of whey proteins (β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin and BSA), whey proteins might be suitable for formulation of tissue adhesives. Whey proteins are abundant, economical, and structurally modifiable. The objectives of this project are to formulate and develop safe, effective, and low cost whey protein based tissue adhesives, and to evaluate the functional properties of the new adhesives in vitro.

Animal Health Component

30%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

40%

Applied

30%

Developmental

30%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
511	3430	1000	100%

Knowledge Area
511 - New and Improved Non-Food Products and Processes;

Subject Of Investigation
3430 - Cheese;

Field Of Science
1000 - Biochemistry and biophysics;

Keywords

cheese

whey proteins

adhesive

functional properties

bonding strength

tissue

Goals / Objectives
Determine the mechanisms by which dietary bioactive compounds protect against human diseases.

Project Methods
Tissue adhesive will be directly in contact with skin or other animal tissues. It needs to be sterilized to reduce the potential microbiological hazards or infections. Whey protein solution is an ideal medium for microbiological growth, therefore, sterilization is necessary to make it shelf life stable and prevent from microbial outgrowing. The most conventional method of sterilization is heat treatment. However, due to the globular structure of whey proteins, whey protein solutions could be coagulated, at high concentrations (>10%), within 10 min under the thermo-treatment at 75°C or higher, which is insufficient to sterilize the solution. On the other hand, in order to obtain a desirable tissue bonding strength, the content of protein polymer needs to be as high as 30 % (w/w). Therefore, it is necessary to find a method to sterilize the whey protein polymer solution (around 30%) but without any gelation during and after treatment. Sterilization treatment such as thermo-treatment or radiation may change the molecular structures of whey protein, resulting in changes in viscosity and interactions between whey protein molecules (such as protein aggregation). Changes in viscosity will affect the mixing process with crosslinker. Decrease or increase in viscosity may be induced by the structural changes of the globular proteins and/or protein aggregation. Therefore, the microstructure of sterilized whey protein will be examined by Scanning Election Microscopy, and changes in molecular weight of protein components will be analyzed by SDS-PAGE. Experiment of combinations of different content of whey protein and crosslinker will conducted. The crosslinker that can produce desirable bonding strength and bonding time will be selected.

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience: Use of sutures in veterinary medicine is still the most widely practiced method for wound closure and tissue reconstruction. Scarring is a common defect resulted from sutures on topical use and nerve repair (lack of conduction). However, sutures sometimes are not effective on the sites where fluid and air leakage could occur (e.g., blood vessels, urethra and lung tissues). Tissue adhesives could prevent fluid and air leakage effectively and may minimize scare formation after surgery. Tissue adhesives incorporating proteins such as bovine serum albumin (BSA) and fibrin are commercially available and have been approved by FDA for clinical use. These commercial tissue adhesives are expensive and single dosed. Whey is a byproduct from cheese making, and more than one third of the whey generated by the cheese industry is disposed to the environment every year in the US. Purified whey protein is much cheaper than BSA and fibrin. Based on the chemistry of the major components of whey proteins (β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin and BSA), whey proteins might be suitable for formulation of tissue adhesives. Whey proteins are abundant, economical, and structurally modifiable. The objectives of this project are to formulate and develop safe, effective, and low cost whey protein based tissue adhesives, and to evaluate the functional properties of the new adhesivesin vitro. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provide the training opprotunity for two postdoctoral scientists to study whey protein chemistry and its applications in food and non food products. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Whey protein is a byproduct of cheese making. Use of whey protein as a major ingreident for developing tissue afhesive is not only bebeficial to protect theenvironmentfrom polution of cheese whey, but is good for human and animalbody to berecovered if the safe protein based adhesive used. A radiation procedure for sterilize the whey protein based adhesive mix has been establishedand the whey protein based prototype tissueadhesive also been developed.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, N., Wang, G.R., Wang, X.B., Lv, J.P., Guo, M.R. 2015. Effects of radiation on protein-protein interactions, microstructure, and microbiological properties of whey protein in model system. IFT 15 Annual Meeting Abstract Book.

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Dairy farmers, Dairy food industry, academia, Veterinary and health personnel Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provides a good opportunity for a postdoctoral scientist to learn the chemistry of whey protein and its application for non food use. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our next step: 1. To optimize the formulation and to further the sterization protocol by usiing combination of natural antimicrobial agent and radiation treatment. 2. Conduct lab tests for the whey protein based tissue adhesive.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Use of cheese making by product-whey protein to formulate natural safe tissue adhesive is not only good for the envionment, but will be benefical to human and animals. We have developed a novel method to strilize the raw mix of the natural adhesive.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Effects of gamma radiation on microbial, physicochemical and structural properties of whey protein model system. 2017. Journal of Dairy Science

Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience: Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project provides a good opportunity to train the postdoctoral scientist to learn the chemistry of whey protein and its applications in non-food use. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The next stage of this project willfocus on selection and effectiveness of natural antimicrobial agents and their impact on performance of the adhesive in vitro

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Use of whey protein for tissue adhesive formulation is not only good for protecting the environment, but will be benefical to both humans and animals.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Guo, M., X. Wang, F.Lee, J.Lv, D. Zhang. 2016. Effect of gama radiation on physiochemical Properties, protein-protein interaction, and microstructure of whey proteins. J. Dairy Science, 99, E-Suppl. 1. 241. Guo, M., X. Wang, F.Lee, J.Lv, D. Zhang. 2016. Effect of gama radiation on physiochemical Properties, protein-protein interaction, and microstructure of whey proteins. American Dairy Science Association 2016 Join Meeting, July 19-23, 2016, Salt Lake city, UT. Guo, M., X. Wang, F.Lee, J.Lv, D. Zhang. 2016. Effect of gama radiation on physiochemical Properties, protein-protein interaction, and microstructure of whey proteins. American Dairy Science Association 2016 Join Meeting, July 19-23, 2016, Salt Lake city, UT.

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Provide useful information about cheese whey and whey protein uses to farmers, food industry personnel, and consumers. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Provide the opportunity for postdoctoral scientists to learn whey protein chemistry and its applications in food and non-food areas. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Next stage of this project will be working on effects of gamma radiation on microbiological properties of whey protein solutions.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Whey protein is a byproduct of cheese making. Use of whey protein for developing tissue adhesive is not only good for protecting the environment, but is beneficial to the patients.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, N., Wang, G.R., Wang, X.B., Lv, J.P., Guo, M.R. 2015. Effects of radiation on protein-protein interactions, microstructure, and microbiological properties of whey protein in model system. IFT 15 Annual Meeting Abstract Book.