A Spicy Way to Fight Poverty

SICHUAN cuisine with its uniquely numbing spicy hot flavors has conquered the taste buds of billions of diners from home and abroad. At the heart of the cuisine is a small ingredient called the Sichuan pepper or prickly-ash. Every year during the midsummer months, farmers welcome the harvest of this magical spice.

High Spicy Food Intake and Risk of Cancer： A Meta-analysis of Case-control Studies

Background：Studies on the association between spicy food intake and cancer risk have reported inconsistent results.We quantitatively assessed this association by conducting a meta-analysis based on evidence from case-control studies.Methods：PubMed,EMBASE,and the Cochrane Library were searched for eligible publications.Combined odds ratios （ORs） with their 95% confidence interval （CI） were calculated using a random-or fixed-effects model.The methodological quality of the included articles was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale （NOS）.All data were analyzed using STATA 1 1.0 software （version 11.0;StataCorp.,College Station,TX,USA）.Subgroup analyses were also performed with stratification by region,sex,number of cases,cancer subtype,source of the control group,and NOS score.Results：A total 39 studies from 28 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis （7884 patients with cancer and 10,142 controls）.Comparison of the highest versus lowest exposure category in each study revealed a significant OR of 1.76 （95% CI =1.35-2.29） in spite of significant heterogeneity （P 〈 0.00l）.In the subgroup analyses,this positive correlation was still found for gastric cancer,different regions,different numbers of cases,different sources of the control group,and high-quality articles （NOS score of≥ 7）.However,no statistically significant association was observed for women,esophageal cancer,gallbladder cancer,or low-quality articles （NOS score of〈7）.No evidence of publication bias was found.Conclusions：Evidence from case-control studies suggested that a higher level of spicy food intake may be associated with an increased incidence of cancer despite significant heterogeneity.More studies are warranted to clarify our understanding of the association between high spicy food intake and the risk of cancer.

Spicy food consumption is associated with cognition and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer disease

Background:Recent studies suggest that a healthy diet helps to prevent the development of Alzheimer disease(AD).This study aimed to investigate whether spicy food consumption is associated with cognition and cerebrospinal fluid(CSF)biomarkers of AD in the Chinese population.Methods:We enrolled 55 AD patients and 55 age-and gender-matched cognitively normal(CN)subjects in a case-control study,as well as a cohort of 131 participants without subjective cognitive decline(non-AD)in a cross-sectional study.Spicy food consumption was assessed using the Food Frequency Questionnaire(FFQ).Associations of FFQ scores with cognition and CSF biomarkers of AD were analyzed.Results:In the case-control study,spicy food consumption was lower in AD patients than that in CNs(4.0[4.0-8.0]vs.8.0[4.5-10.0],P<0.001);FFQ scores were positively associated with Mini-Mental Status Examination scores in the total sample(r=0.218,P=0.014).In the cross-sectional study,the association between spicy food consumption and cognition levels was verified in non-AD subjects(r=0.264,P=0.0023).Moreover,higher FFQ scores were significantly associated with higherβ-Amyloid(1-42)(Aβ42)levels and lower phospho-tau/Aβ42 and total tau/Aβ42 ratios in the CSF of non-AD subjects(P<0.05).Conclusion:Spicy food consumption is closely related to higher cognition levels and reversed AD biomarkers in the CSF,suggesting that a capsaicin-rich diet might have the potential to modify the cognitive status and cerebral pathologies associated with AD.

Structure and Evolution of Decadal Spiciness Variability in the North Pacific during 2004-20,Revealed from Argo Observations

Ocean spiciness is referred to as density-compensated temperature and salinity variations with warm(cool)and salty(fresh)waters having high(low)spiciness,respectively.The structure and evolution of density-compensated(warm/salty or cool/fresh)spiciness anomalies are investigated in the North Pacific thermocline using Argo observations during the period 2004-20.Two well-organized decadal spiciness events are identified through isopycnal surface analyses.One warm/salty spiciness anomaly of about 0.15°C and 0.05 g kg^(−1)temperature and salinity perturbations on the 25 kg m^(−1)isopycnal surface appeared in the eastern subtropical North Pacific at(18°-30°N,120°-150°W)in 2007,which then migrated southwestward along the mean circulation and arrived in the western tropics at(~15°N,145°E-175°W)in 2012-13,with the reduced salinity perturbation of about 0.043 g kg^(−1).Another cool/fresh spiciness anomaly of about−0.2°C and−0.07 g kg^(−1)temperature and salinity perturbations originated from the eastern subtropics at(120°-150°W,~30°N)in 2014 and followed a similar advective pathway during the period from 2014-15 to 2019-20.The subduction pathway can be adequately determined by the mean Montgomery stream function on the isopycnal surface;the propagation direction and speed are in good agreement with the expectation for the role played by advection due to the mean geostrophic current.Moreover,the subducted decadal spiciness anomalies can have negative feedback on sea surface temperature(SST)variability in the western tropical Pacific through the diapycnal processes.The identifications of these density-compensated spiciness anomalies and their propagation pathways provide a clear illustration of the oceanic extratropics-tropics interactions in the North Pacific Ocean.

Understand spiciness： mechanism of TRPV1 channel activation by capsaicin

Capsaicin in chili peppers bestows the sensation of spiciness. Since the discovery of its receptor, transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 （TRPV1） ion channel, how capsaicin activates this channel has been under extensive investigation using a variety of experimental techniques including mutagenesis, patch-clamp recording, crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, computational docking and molecular dynamic simu- lation. A framework of how capsaicin binds and acti- vates TRPV1 has started to merge： capsaicin binds to a pocket formed by the channel＇s transmembrane seg- ments, where it takes a ＂tail-up, head-down＂ configu- ration. Binding is mediated by both hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions. Upon binding, cap- saicin stabilizes the open state of TRPV1 by ＂pull-and- contact＂ with the $4-$5 linker. Understanding the ligand-host interaction will greatly facilitate pharma- ceutical efforts to develop novel analgesics targeting TRPV1.

Spice Girl of China

Considering the spiciness of its fabled cuisine,Chengdu is remarkably laid-back and mellow.Maybe the heat of the chili and the tingling of the Sichuan pepper that tickles the taste buds also balances a person out. On a weekend visit to the city with my husband and a friend,I was determined to experience Chengdu in all its fabulousness.