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This work first sets out to find if economic, ecological, or social incentives drive consumers towards or against dietary decisions (Contribution A). It then develops a framework of TCA for food to describe economically conveyed incentives that are tied to ecological and social indicators within the food market (Contribution B). The framework is subsequently enhanced and broadened to include a deeper understanding and broader field of indicators for more holistic TCA calculations (Contributions C and D). Lastly, based on these calculations, TCA of food is implemented in a factual use case as the framework and calculations are deployed for commodities of a German supermarket chain; then consumer, as well as expert feedback is used for the discussion on socially responsible campaigning and policy change (Contribution E).
Gout was described by Hippocrates in the 5th century BC as a disease of rich people and linked with excess food and alcohol. It is caused by long-lasting hyperuricemia, which is a result of an imbalance between excretion and production of uric acid. The surplus of uric acid leads to deposition of monosodium urate crystals in the joints, which can initiate a painful inflammation called a gout attack. Despite various pharmacological treatments for this disease, a low purine diet remains the basis of all gout therapies. Since food is rich in purines, the aim of this project was to develop a novel enzyme system to decrease the purine content of food, what should result in reduced serum urate concentration in patients with hyperuricemia. The system consists of five degrading enzymes (adenine deaminase, guanine deaminase, xanthine oxidoreductase, urate oxidase and purine nucleoside phosphorylase) that combined in one product are able to hydrolyse all purines to a highly soluble allantoin, which can be easily removed from the body. This approach provides the patients a possibility to reduce the symptoms and frequency of gout attacks or even doses of prescribed drugs. In order to obtain necessary system components, yeast Arxula adeninivorans LS3 was screened for enzyme activities. A. adeninivorans is known to utilise various purines and this ability is a result of activity of desired enzymes, two of which, adenine deaminase and xanthine oxidoreductase, are in focus of this thesis. The analysis of growth of A. adeninivorans on various carbon and nitrogen sources gave the first insight into the cells’ nutrient preferences indicating the presence of purine degrading enzymes, such as adenine deaminase and xanthine oxidoreductase. Purines, such as adenine and hypoxanthine, could be utilised by this yeast as sole carbon and nitrogen sources and were shown to trigger the gene expression of the purine degradation pathway. Enzyme activity tests and quantitative real-time PCR method allowed for identification of the best inducers for adenine deaminase and xanthine oxidoreductase, as well as their concentration and time of induction. The adenine deaminase (AADA) and the xanthine oxidoreductase (AXOR) genes were isolated and subjected to homologous expression in A. adeninivorans cells using Xplor®2 transformation/expression platform. The selected transgenic strains accumulated the recombinant adenine deaminase in very high concentrations. The expression of AXOR gene posed difficulties and remained a challenge. Additional expression of both proteins in alternative E. coli system was undertaken but failed for AXOR gene. The recombinant adenine deaminase and wild-type xanthine oxidoreductase were purified and characterized biochemically. The characterization included determination of optimal pH and temperature, stability in different buffers and temperatures, molecular weight, substrate spectrum, enzyme activators and inhibitors, kinetics and intracellular localisation. The determination of these parameters was necessary to ensure optimal conditions for application of these enzymes in the industry. At the final stage, the enzymes were combined in one mix with provided guanine deaminase and urate oxidase and used to degrade purines in selected food constituents. The application was successful and demonstrated the potential of this approach for the production of food with lower purine concentration.
Ziel dieses Projektes war die Entwicklung eines neuen Ansatzes zur Senkung der Harnsäurekonzentration im Blutserum von Patienten mit Hyperurikämie und der damit verbundenen Verringerung der Anzahl von schmerzhaften Gichtanfällen. Dafür sollten Purine in Lebensmitteln mit einem Gemisch aus purinabbauenden Enzymen zu dem gut löslichen Allantoin abgebaut werden. Durch diesen neuen Ansatz ist eine abwechslungsreiche Ernährung von Hyperurikämiepatienten ohne oder mit reduzierter zusätzlicher medikamentöser Behandlung zur Senkung der Harnsäurebildung, Erhöhung der Harnsäureausscheidung bzw. enzymatischen Reduktion von Harnsäure möglich. Die Analyse des Wachstumsverhaltens von Arxula adeninivorans LS3 zeigte die Vermehrung des Zellmaterials in einer Kultivierung mit Adenin als Kohlenstoff- und Stickstoffquelle bzw. mit Hypoxanthin und Harnsäure als alleiniger Stickstoffquelle. Die Fähigkeit des Wachstums mit Adenin, Hypoxanthin oder Harnsäure als alleiniger Stickstoffquelle bestätigte das Vorhandensein des Purinabbauweges in der nicht-konventionellen Hefe A. adeninivorans LS3. Das Guanin-Deaminase-Gen (AGDA) aus A. adeninivorans LS3 kodierte für ein Protein aus 475 Aminosäuren, das in der Zelle als Dimer vorlag (55 kDa je Untereinheit). Das Guanin-Deaminase-Protein (Agdap) zeigte eine Homologie auf Aminosäureebene zwischen 44 und 55 % zu anderen pilzlichen Guanin-Deaminasen. Beim Wachstum auf Medien mit Adenin, Hypoxanthin oder Guanin als alleiniger Stickstoffquelle erfolgten eine Induktion der Genexpression des AGDA-Gens sowie eine intrazelluläre Akkumulation des Guanin-Deaminase-Proteins in der Vakuole wie auch dem Zytoplasma der Hefezelle. Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit bildete die biochemische Charakterisierung der Uratoxidase. Das Uratoxidase-Gen (AUOX) aus A. adeninivorans LS3 lag auf Chromosom 4 und kodierte für das Uratoxidase-Protein (Auoxp) mit 306 Aminosäuren. Bei dem Auoxp handelte es sich um ein 35 kDa großes Protein, das als Dimer in der Zelle vorlag. Ein Vergleich mit anderen pilzlichen Uratoxidasen ergab eine Homologie von 61 bis 65 % auf der Ebene der Aminosäuresequenz. Das Enzym zeigte konservierte Sequenzmotive, die in den Uratoxidasen einer Vielzahl von Organismen beschrieben wurden. Die AUOX-mRNA-Konzentration stieg bei Wachstum auf Medien mit Harnsäure, Adenin und Hypoxanthin als alleiniger Stickstoffquelle. Die Akkumulation von Auoxp zeigte einen Maximalwert nach achtstündiger Kultivierung im Medium mit Harnsäure und zeitlich verschoben mit den Stickstoffquellen Adenin bzw. Hypoxanthin (nach 12 Stunden). Der biotechnologische Einsatz der purinabbauenden Enzyme der Hefe A. adeninivorans erforderte eine Überexpression der Uratoxidase- bzw. der Guanin-Deaminase-Gene in transgenen A. adeninivorans-Stämmen aufgrund zu niedriger, natürlicher Expressionshöhe im Wildtypstamm LS3. Als Transformations-/Expressionssystem fand das etablierte Xplor®2-Vektorsystem Verwendung. Diese Plattform bietet den Vorteil, dass keine Resistenzgene in die Hefe übertragen werden. Die Hefen wurden mit unterschiedlichen Expressionsmodulen transformiert, um die optimalen Expressionsbedingungen für die Guanin-Deaminase bzw. die Uratoxidase zu ermitteln. Vergleichende Untersuchungen bezüglich der Integrationshäufigkeit, dem Wirtsorganismus (homolog/heterolog) und der optimalen Expression (konstitutiv/induziert) zeigten, dass A. adeninivorans ein geeigneter Organismus für die Expression des Guanin-Deaminase- bzw. Uratoxidase-Gens darstellte. Für weiterführende Analysen erfolgte die nähere Untersuchung der Hefetransformanden mit der höchsten Guanin-Deaminase-Aktivität bzw. der über einen längeren Zeitraum konstant hohen Uratoxidase-Aktivität. Das über den C-terminalen His-Tag gereinigte rekombinante Protein zeigte eine hohe Übereinstimmung der biochemischen Eigenschaften (Substratspektrum, intrazelluläre Lokalisation, usw.) im Vergleich zum endogenen Protein der Hefe A. adeninivorans LS3 (nach induzierter Genexpression). Die rekombinanten Enzyme des Purinabbauweges (Uratoxidase, Guanin-Deaminase, Adenin-Deaminase und Xanthin-Oxidoreduktase) bewirkten nach deren Zugabe zu einem reinen Puringemisch aus Adenin, Guanin, Xanthin, Hypoxanthin und Harnsäure eine Reduktion der Konzentration sämtlicher Purine. Das Gemisch aus purinabbauenden Enzymen der Hefe A. adeninivorans belegte bei ersten Anwendungen in einem Lebensmittel (Rinderbrühe) die abbauende Wirkung auf sämtliche, im Lebensmittel befindlichen, Purine. Es gelang in dieser Arbeit, den Puringehalt eines Lebensmittels mit in transgenen A. adeninivorans-Stämmen hergestellten Proteinen enzymatisch abzubauen.
Decision making in everyday purchase situations requires mental processing of factors that are related to the items on display. These influencing factors – called persuasive information – can take various forms, like the price level, the design of the package or the display of certain product attributes. Despite the existence of persuasive information trying to influence our buying behavior, almost nothing is known about the underlying neural mechanisms responsible for processing this information. In this thesis functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate neural activity correlated with product related persuasive information. As persuasive information organic, light and regular labeled food was chosen. The 1st experiment investigated the neural correlates of visually inspected organic and regular labeled food and the influence on willingness to pay (WTP) for the displayed items. It was hypothesized that organic compared to regular labeled food will be perceived as more rewarding which should be visible by an increased activity in the ventral striatum as a central area for reward processing and by a heightened WTP. As organic label information the national German eco emblem 'Bio-Siegel' was chosen (for stimuli details see 2.1). As there is no emblem indicating regular food, an artificially created logo was used for indicating a conventional product. 40 well- known food products (e.g. milk, bread, eggs etc.) were presented to the subjects. These products were marked with the organic emblem and the same 40 products with the regular label. We found that visual inspection of organic labeled food indeed led to an increase in neural activity in the ventral striatum and to a heightened WTP, suggesting a higher subjective value for these products. The 2nd experiment investigated the neural correlates of actually administered food stimuli labeled organic, light or regular and the influence on expected and experienced taste. For organic compared to regular labeled food we hypothesized an increase in expected and experienced taste pleasantness. Furthermore, light compared to regular labeled food should lead to a decrease in expected and perceived pleasantness and intensity ratings. During the active tasting process this should be accompanied by an increase in reward-related (e.g. organic vs. regular; regular vs. light) areas like the ventral striatum medial orbitofrontal cortex or aversion-related (e.g. regular vs. organic; light vs. regular) areas as the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) and operculum/insula. As organic label information the national German eco emblem 'Bio-Siegel' was chosen. Light label information was issued in form of the internationally used 'Bewusst-Wählen®' ('Healthy Choice') label (for stimuli details see 2.2). However, inside the scanner the written forms 'Bio', 'Light' or 'Normal' (indicating regular food) were chosen. Subjects were randomly assigned in two groups and were either confronted with the organic or the regular label (organic group) or with the light or the regular label (light group) but otherwise identical milk drink. The results show that organic compared to regular labeling of identical food stimuli indeed led to an increase in expected and experienced taste pleasantness for organic labeled food. Light compared to regular labeling of identical food stimuli led to a decrease in expected and experienced taste pleasantness and intensity for light labeled food. Moreover, taste-related activity was found in aversion related areas like the operculum insula and the lOFC for food labeled regular compared to organic and in reward-related areas like the ventral striatum for food labeled regular compared to light. The results show that persuasive food-related information influences human cognition on the behavioral and neural level; the effects were shown during visual and gustatory evaluation of the stimuli. Taken together the results demonstrate that the same stimulus can vary dramatically in personal valuation depending on the applied information.