Friday, May 16, 2025

Uncovering compounds that tame the heat of chili peppers

American Chemical Society

When biting into a chili pepper, you expect a fiery sensation on your tongue. This spiciness is detected because of capsaicinoid compounds. But for some peppers, despite high levels of capsaicinoids, the heat is mysteriously dull. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have identified three compounds that lessen peppers’ pungency. These results challenge the reliability of the century-old Scoville scale, which traditionally bases its rating on two capsaicinoids.

“The discovery of natural dietary compounds that reduce pungency presents promising opportunities for both the food and pharmaceutical industries,” says Devin Peterson, the corresponding author of the study.

Capsaicinoids are a group of compounds that produce the strong spicy sensation or pungency that comes with consuming chili peppers. The combined amount of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in a pepper is used to calculate its heat intensity rating on the Scoville scale, ranging from zero Scoville Heat Units (SHU) for bell peppers to millions of SHU for the hottest peppers. However, some of these fruits have less heat than would be expected from their Scoville rating, which suggests that something else in the pepper influences that spicy sensation. So, Peterson, Joel Borcherding and Edisson Tello wanted to investigate multiple chili pepper varieties for potential spiciness suppressors.

Initially, they collected dry, powdered samples from 10 types of peppers, including Chile de árbol, serrano, African bird’s eye, Fatalii and Scotch bonnet. The amount of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in each was determined by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Then a trained panel of taste testers evaluated the intensity of the powders in tomato juice. Each mixture had 800 SHU (a level meant to be spicy but tolerable). Despite the same amount of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in each tasting sample, the 10 peppers’ perceived heat intensities ranged significantly, suggesting other chemical constituents in the peppers impacted the sensation.

After additional chemical composition analyses on the pepper powders and performing complex statistical analysis, the researchers identified five compounds that could be modulating pepper spiciness. Another set of panelists assessed whether these compounds, alone or in combination, changed the pungency of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin. Three of the five compounds (capsianoside I, roseoside and gingerglycolipid A) reduced the heat intensity, though they didn’t have an additive effect when combined. In addition, none of the spiciness suppressors had a noticeable flavor in water.

“These advancements could enable the customization of desirable spicy flavor profiles or lead to the creation of a household ingredient designed to tone down excessive heat in dishes — the anti-spice,” says Peterson. “Additionally, they hold significant medical potential in the design of (non-opioid) analgesic agents for pain management."

The authors acknowledge funding from the Flavor Research and Education Center at The Ohio State University.

The study’s experimental approach was approved by the Ethics Committee of The Ohio State University.

The paper’s abstract will be available on May 14 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.5c01448

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The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is committed to improving all lives through the transforming power of chemistry. Its mission is to advance scientific knowledge, empower a global community and champion scientific integrity, and its vision is a world built on science. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, e-books and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Registered journalists can subscribe to the ACS journalist news portal on EurekAlert! to access embargoed and public science press releases. For media inquiries, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note: ACS does not conduct research but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies.

Journal

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

DOI

10.1021/acs.jafc.5c01448

Article Title

“Identification of Chili Pepper Compounds That Suppress Pungency Perception”

Article Publication Date

14-May-2025

Updated version of the "How Equitable Is It?" tool for assessing equity in scholarly communication models

PLOSEmail

[Strasbourg, 14 May 2025] The “How Equitable Is It?” tool, designed to assess the equity of scholarly communication models, has been officially launched today in its updated version following a comprehensive review of community feedback. Originally introduced as a beta version in September 2024 at the OASPA conference, this refined version of the tool incorporates significant improvements based on input from across the scholarly publishing ecosystem.

Developed by a multi-stakeholder Working Group, comprising librarians, library consortia representatives, funders and publishers, and convened by cOAlition S, Jisc and PLOS, the tool aims to provide a framework for evaluating scholarly communication models and arrangements on the axis of equity.

Key enhancements

The revised tool offers enhanced guidance for users and clearer definitions of equity indicators, across the seven core assessment criteria:

Access to Read
Publishing immediate Open Access
Maximizing participation
Re-use rights
Pricing and fee transparency
Promoting and encouraging open research practices: data and code
Promoting and encouraging open research practices: preprints and open peer review

Community-driven improvements

From September 2024 through January 2025, the Working Group collected extensive feedback from stakeholders who tested the beta version. This collaborative approach ensured that the tool's updated version addresses practical challenges faced by institutions, library consortia, funders, and publishers in evaluating equity within scholarly communication models and arrangements.

The tool, which was inspired by the “How Open Is It?” framework, is targeted at institutions, library consortia, funders and publishers, i.e. the stakeholders either investing or receiving funds for publishing services. It offers users the opportunity to rate scholarly communication models and arrangements across seven criteria:

Robert Kiley, Head of Strategy at cOAlition S and co-Chair of the Working Group, stated: “We are grateful to everyone who provided feedback during the testing period. Their insights have been instrumental in refining this tool to better serve stakeholders in making informed decisions when investing or receiving funds for publishing services while seeking equity”.

Roheena Anand, Executive Director of Global Publishing Development & Sales at PLOS, added: "With this updated release, we're delivering on our promise to create a practical tool that reflects diverse stakeholder perspectives. The refinements made based on community feedback have strengthened the tool's ability to assess equity across different publishing models and arrangements."

Anna Vernon, Head of Research Licensing at Jisc, commented: "We've been using the “How Equitable Is It?” tool to understand how agreements can broaden participation in scholarly publishing. The clearer framework of the updated version will further allow institutions to make more nuanced assessments of how their resources can best support equitable knowledge dissemination."

How the tool works

Based on the above-mentioned criteria, the “How Equitable Is It?” tool prompts users to consider to what extent the model (and associated funding flow) they are assessing facilitates (or restricts) equitable participation in knowledge sharing. Users score each criterion on a scale from "least equitable" to "most equitable," receiving an overall equity score upon completion, along with a summary of their responses.

Rather than prescribing outcomes, the tool empowers users to exercise their judgment in rating models against equitable criteria, with no pre-populated data shaping evaluations.

The "How Equitable Is It?" tool is available at https://coalitions.typeform.com/Equity-Tool. A detailed description of the revised criteria and their definitions can be accessed at: Framework_criteria_definitions.pdf

Future development

The Working Group remains committed to the ongoing development of the tool, with plans to gather implementation case studies and establish a community of practice around equity assessment in scholarly communication. Users of the tool are encouraged to share their experiences at info@coalition-s.org. The Group will review this feedback and publish annual updates as appropriate.

McGill researchers lead project to reform youth mental health care in Canada

Novel program improves access and cuts delays, including for Indigenous and underserved youths, study finds

McGill University

New data from a national project led by McGill University researchers shows that redesigning youth mental health services can significantly cut wait times and connect more young people to care.

The ACCESS Open Minds project was launched in 2014 to address gaps in access to quality mental health care, especially for Indigenous, remote and underserved communities. Findings published in Jama Psychiatry provide the first assessment of the program’s outcomes across Canada.

“We focused on transforming existing programs in clinics, schools and youth centres to make them more accessible, youth-friendly and culturally appropriate,” said lead author Srividya Iyer, Professor in McGill’s Department of Psychiatry and Researcher at the Douglas Research Centre.

The program was developed, implemented and evaluated by McGill researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at universities across Canada, as well as youth, families, community organizations and policymakers.

A measurable impact

Access to mental health care typically requires a professional referral, a step the authors say can be slow and discouraging for youth. ACCESS Open Minds removed that barrier by letting youth reach out for help on their own. It also set clear service targets: an evaluation within three days and treatment within 30 days – benchmarks few public services are able to achieve.

Over four years, nearly 8,000 youth ages 11 to 25 were referred across 11 study sites. Most were seen within three days, far faster than the typical wait of between 45 days and more than a year, say the authors. Referrals rose by 10 per cent every six months.

“At our downtown Montreal site for homeless youth, we saw a dramatic increase in the number of young people accessing services. Even with this increased demand, with just two additional staff, we were still able to see the majority of young people within 72 hours,” said Iyer, who is also Canada Research Chair in Youth, Mental Health and Learning Health Systems.

The project also involved adjusting workflows, training staff, and improving co-ordination among service providers, largely done using existing resources.

Model has helped shape Quebec’s Aire ouverte network

Of the 16 communities served across Canada, five were in Quebec. In the northern region of Nunavik, the team worked with Indigenous youth and Elders to transform a garage into a warm, youth-friendly hub where teens could connect and fix hunting gear.

In downtown Montreal, young people experiencing homelessness received holistic care through partnerships with shelters, soup kitchens, clinics and even a circus.

“We worked with Cirque Hors Piste to develop artistic programs. We wanted to create space for young people to express themselves and show that we care for the whole person, not just their symptoms,” Iyer said.

The authors say their model has helped shape Quebec’s Aire Ouverte network and similar initiatives across Canada.

They are now exploring ways to address the broader factors affecting mental health.

“From climate anxiety and unaffordable housing to precarious jobs and the impact of AI, the root causes of these challenges must be addressed in our systems,” Iyer said.

About the study

“An Approach to Providing Timely Mental Health Services to Diverse Youth Populations” by Srividya Iyer and Ashok Malla et al., was published in JAMA Psychiatry.

ACCESS Open Minds was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Graham Boeckh Foundation as part of Canada’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research.

Journal

JAMA Psychiatry

DOI

10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4880.

Method of Research

Case study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

An Approach to Providing Timely Mental Health Services to Diverse Youth Populations

Yellow fever vaccination: how strong immune responses are triggered

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Researchers show how specific immune cells are activated by the vaccine – an important starting point for the development of new vaccines.

The yellow fever vaccination using the live-attenuated YF17D vaccine is one of the most effective immunizations available. A single dose provides long-lasting protection against the disease. Due to the strength and long-lasting nature of the immune response it triggers, this vaccine serves as an excellent model for studying effective immune defense mechanisms against viral infections. However, it is still not fully understood how exactly this vaccine elicits such an exceptionally strong immune response.

A team led by immunology professor Anne Krug at LMU‘s Biomedical Center (BMC) in collaboration with Simon Rothenfußer, professor at LMU University Hospital, has investigated how specific immune cells—namely dendritic cells (DCs) and monocytes—respond to the vaccine. To this end, various DC and monocyte cell types were analyzed in the blood of over 200 healthy adults before and after vaccination. Following vaccination, many of these immune cells showed typical activation by so-called interferons—messenger molecules that play a key role in the body’s defense against viruses. A particularly striking finding was the cell surface molecule SIGLEC-1, which became more prominent on certain cell types within one week of vaccination and was associated with the rapid formation of protective antibodies against the yellow fever virus.

“Our study provides new insights into how the immune system responds to a highly effective viral vaccine” says Krug. “These findings could support the development of new vaccines that offer rapid protection, for example in the context of emerging epidemics. Additionally, SIGLEC-1 may serve as a useful biomarker in future vaccine studies.”

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2422236122

Article Title

Interferon-induced activation of dendritic cells and monocytes by yellow fever vaccination correlates with early antibody responses

Dental flosser for at-home stress monitoring

American Chemical Society

Over time, stress and anxiety can build to a point where life’s challenges become overwhelming and cause physical effects. Now, in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, researchers report a dental floss pick with a built-in sensor that could monitor stress as part of a daily routine. The device, which accurately senses levels of the stress hormone cortisol in minutes, could help users recognize when it’s time to get help.

Unchecked chronic stress can lead to health conditions such as heart disease and mental disorders. Catching rising stress levels early is important, but daily blood tests at a doctor’s office aren’t feasible for most people, and self-reported questionnaires are subjective. That’s why researchers are developing point-of-care tests that measure cortisol levels in saliva, which mirror the hormone’s concentrations in blood. Although the saliva tests are promising, many of them require people to remember to perform the complicated analyses or use a bulky mouthguard. In addition, the anxiety of performing a test can cause stress levels to spike. So, Sameer Sonkusale and colleagues took a completely different approach by integrating a cortisol sensor into a dental floss pick — something many people use every day.

The team’s dental pick features floss that collects saliva. The floss is connected to a microfluidic thread that transports saliva to a flexible electrochemical sensor embedded in the handle of the pick. The sensor is made of an electrode with an electropolymerized molecularly imprinted polymer (eMIP) on it. The researchers made the eMIP by embossing cortisol molecules into an electrically conductive film and then removing them — similar to a shoe leaving an impression in wet cement. During tests, salivary cortisol binds in the impressions, decreasing the electrical current flowing through the sensor, which produces a signal that is wirelessly transmitted to a mobile device. The strength of the signal corresponds to the amount of cortisol in the saliva. Finally, the analyzed saliva moves to an adsorbent waste pad next to the sensor and the pick can be discarded.

The device takes around 10 minutes to report a result. In tests with cortisol-spiked artificial saliva, the dental pick was sensitive enough to detect small increases in cortisol that could be early indicators of stress. In tests with real human saliva samples, the dental flosser performed just as well as the commonly used ELISA saliva test for measuring levels of cortisol.

Overall, the researchers say that this device is one of the best-performing cortisol sensors reported so far, and it could someday be modified to detect other clinically important salivary molecules.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation and Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. The human saliva samples used in this work were collected per the approved protocol from the Tufts University Institutional Review Board.

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Registered journalists can subscribe to the ACS journalist news portal on EurekAlert! to access embargoed and public science press releases. For media inquiries, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note: ACS does not conduct research but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies.

Journal

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

DOI

10.1021/acsami.5c02988

Article Title

“Saliva-Sensing Dental Floss: An Innovative Tool for Assessing Stress via On-Demand Salivary Cortisol Measurement with Molecularly Imprinted Polymer and Thread Microfluidics Integration”

Academy award-nominated movie helps researchers identify brain region biased towards drug cues and treatment effects in individuals with heroin use disorder

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Rita Goldstein BRAIN — image:
Graphic representation of the study.
view more
Credit: Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai researchers have found that a brain region that is implicated extensively in value-based decision-making and craving in people with heroin use disorder – known as the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) – shows synchronized responses biased towards drug content, outcompeting other typical subjects of attention and motivation, in a group of individuals with heroin use disorder who watched “Trainspotting,” the Academy Award-nominated 1996 movie about people who use heroin in Scotland.

Importantly, the research team also found that the OFC’s bias toward drug stimuli was significantly reduced in people who underwent treatment/abstinence from drugs. The study results appear in the May issue of Brain.

A core process in drug addiction is maladaptive salience attribution—the process by which the brain selectively focuses motivated attention on certain stimuli and gives them a sense of importance, often at the expense of other stimuli—to drug cues. In other words, with repeated drug use, drug-related stimuli, cues, and context begin to outcompete other typical rewards and reinforcers—such as food, sex, or social connection—for attention and motivation. In effect, for individuals with drug addiction, their reinforcing environment begins to “shrink” to become narrowly focused on drugs.

Previous neuroimaging studies of this phenomenon have looked at brain responses to repeated presentations of images of different types of stimuli, such as drugs, drug paraphernalia, or food. In this study, the Mount Sinai research team assessed salience attribution to drug cues using “Trainspotting” as a more realistic, dynamic, and complex stimulus. Using a movie with a narrative centered on the lived experience of individuals with heroin use disorder (or any psychiatric disorder) for this type of research has never been done before.

“In drug addiction, a drug-themed movie can function like a highly engaging mirror of a real-world drug environment in a way static images cannot, evoking brain processes that are closer to the lived experience of the person, which thereby improves the ecological validity of our functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of the brain,” said Rita Goldstein, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, and Neuroscience, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and senior author of the paper. “By imaging the brain while study participants watched the movie, we found several brain regions that responded to the movie in a manner that was biased towards the drug content in individuals with heroin use disorder. In particular, when watching the movie, the OFC responded to drug cues at the expense of other scenes. This result highlights the challenges of daily experience for individuals with substance use disorder.”

For the study, 30 inpatient individuals with heroin use disorders (24 male) and 25 healthy controls (16 male) watched the first 17 minutes of ”Trainspotting” while in an fMRI scanner at baseline and at follow-up after 15 weeks of inpatient treatment that encompassed standard of care with medications for opioid use disorder, relapse prevention and stress management, and group therapies (for the individuals with heroin use disorder). Individuals without addiction did not receive treatment, but the control group was also scanned twice, at baseline and 15 weeks later, to control for time and test-retest effects.

In analyzing these fMRI data, the research team adapted a reverse correlation method to identify the movie content that elicited synchronized fMRI responses in each group. They then measured the degree of shared bias towards drug content in the movie when both drug and non-drug stimuli were presented within this same dynamic narrative context. They also measured self-reported drug craving, which is a typical and well-validated treatment outcome that changes with abstinence and predicts clinical outcomes, in the individuals with substance use disorders.

“In addition to finding that the OFC showed synchronized responses that were biased towards drug content in the individuals with heroin use disorder, we were encouraged to find that with abstinence and treatment, there was recovery whereby this brain region normalized and responded less to the drug content,” said Greg Kronberg, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and first author of the study. “Finding functional recovery in the OFC with just three months of treatment, with a link to reduced craving, was both surprising and very notable. It is the first evidence of such recovery that points towards avenues for improving treatment.”

“We did not find similar effect when using a static picture-based task, which suggests that movie fMRI, and especially using a movie tailored to the specific concerns of a unique patient population, is more sensitive to the effects of treatment and recovery in psychiatric research in general” added Dr. Goldstein.

The authors note some limitations of the study, including that it used only one movie and that all participants with heroin use disorder were in an inpatient treatment program and abstinent from drug use at the time of the study, so the researchers could not distinguish the contribution of abstinence itself vs. treatment for these recovery processes. Future studies are needed to validate these results with other movies, other substance use disorders, and other phases within the addiction cycle.

The Mount Sinai team is now developing a real-time neurofeedback protocol in which study participants are shown their brain activity in real time with the goal of training them to modulate activity towards a target value. They are testing whether such real-time neurofeedback, provided during watching of the drug-themed movie, could help facilitate recovery in people with substance use disorders. They are also running studies to test these methods with several other movies, where one goal is to use this naturalistic drug cue reactivity platform to test for menstrual phase differences in women with addiction.

About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.

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Journal

Brain

DOI

10.1093/brain/awae369

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Shared orbitofrontal dynamics to a drug-themed movie track craving and recovery in heroin addiction

Article Publication Date

13-May-2025

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Friday, May 16, 2025

Uncovering compounds that tame the heat of chili peppers

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Article Publication Date

Updated version of the "How Equitable Is It?" tool for assessing equity in scholarly communication models

McGill researchers lead project to reform youth mental health care in Canada

A measurable impact

Model has helped shape Quebec’s Aire ouverte network

Journal

DOI

Method of Research

Subject of Research

Article Title

Yellow fever vaccination: how strong immune responses are triggered

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Dental flosser for at-home stress monitoring

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Academy award-nominated movie helps researchers identify brain region biased towards drug cues and treatment effects in individuals with heroin use disorder

Journal

DOI

Method of Research

Subject of Research

Article Title

Article Publication Date

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