Dietary Supplements and Functional Foods: Molecular Aspects and Integrative Omics

A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Cellular Biochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 8610

Special Issue Editor

Department of Life Sciences, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung 811, Taiwan
Interests: bioactive compounds; chromatography techniques; medicinal plants; phytochemicals; plant biotechnology; plant growth regulators; plant secondary metabolites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bioactive compounds such as indoles, lignin, lycopene, resveratrol, tannins, and many others that exist in plants, fungi, and certain foods in small quantities have a wide range of health benefits and the ability to prevent diseases. These compounds were consumed in the form of dietary supplements or functional foods in the market throughout the world with increasing demand. Thus, research in bioactive compounds has become increasingly important to reveal their bioactive effects and for clarifying efficacy.

In recent years, integrative omics is an emerging powerful tool to gain deep insights into biological systems. Hence, this Special Issue aims to collect recent innovative approaches using high-throughput technologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, interactomics, as well as bioinformatics and other related topics, including biochemistry and biotechnology attempts, to make significant progress in understanding the molecular aspects of bioactives in human health. I sincerely invite scientists to contribute both original research articles and reviews on this Special Issue.

Dr. Jen-Tsung Chen
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • bioinformatics
  • dietary supplements
  • functional foods
  • genomics
  • high-throughput technologies
  • integrative omics
  • medicinal fungi
  • metabolomics
  • nutraceuticals
  • plant by-product
  • proteomics
  • transcriptomics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 19973 KiB  
Article
Kaempferitrin-Treated HepG2 Differentially Expressed Exosomal Markers and Affect Extracellular Vesicle Sizes in the Secretome
by Wei-Chi Ku, Badrinathan Sridharan, Jiann-Yeu Chen, Jen-Ying Li, Shu-Yu Yang and Meng-Jen Lee
Biomolecules 2021, 11(2), 187; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom11020187 - 29 Jan 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2137
Abstract
Kaempferitrin is extracted in significantly high quantities from the leaves of Cinnamomum osmophloeum, which belongs to a group of plant species that comes under the genus Cinnamomum, well-known for its established anti-diabetic property in Chinese medicine. Oral administration of kaempferitrin and Cinnamomum [...] Read more.
Kaempferitrin is extracted in significantly high quantities from the leaves of Cinnamomum osmophloeum, which belongs to a group of plant species that comes under the genus Cinnamomum, well-known for its established anti-diabetic property in Chinese medicine. Oral administration of kaempferitrin and Cinnamomum osmophloeum extract reduced blood sugar in alloxan-induced diabetic rats and improved the lipid profile in hamsters respectively. In this paper we studied the differential protein expression profile using mass spectrometry approach in the kaempferitrin-treated conditioned medium of liver cancer cell line HepG2. We discovered that 33 genes were up/down-regulated consistently between two biological samples. A slightly different version of the analysis software selected 28 genes, and the final 18 genes that appeared in both lists were selected. Interestingly, 5 proteins out of 18 were either exosomal markers or reported in high frequency of occurrence in exosome/secreted vesicles. We also examined the extracellular particles with atomic force microscopy (AFM), which showed that the conditioned medium of kaempferitrin treated had larger vesicles and fewer small vesicles. Expression of some lipid-regulating genes were also altered. Our data suggested that extracellular vesicle secretions may be regulated by kaempferitrin, and regulation of lipid profile by kampeferitrin involves multiple mechanisms. Full article
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17 pages, 3151 KiB  
Article
Blueberry-Derived Exosome-Like Nanoparticles Counter the Response to TNF-α-Induced Change on Gene Expression in EA.hy926 Cells
by Mariangela De Robertis, Angelo Sarra, Valentina D’Oria, Francesco Mura, Federico Bordi, Paolo Postorino and Deborah Fratantonio
Biomolecules 2020, 10(5), 742; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom10050742 - 10 May 2020
Cited by 77 | Viewed by 5843
Abstract
Exosome-like nanoparticles (ELNs) are attracting interest as important vehicles of intercellular communication, both in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Recently, dietary nanoparticles similar to mammalian exosomes have attracted attention for these features. In particular they appear to be relevant in the modulation of several cellular [...] Read more.
Exosome-like nanoparticles (ELNs) are attracting interest as important vehicles of intercellular communication, both in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Recently, dietary nanoparticles similar to mammalian exosomes have attracted attention for these features. In particular they appear to be relevant in the modulation of several cellular processes as well as candidate carriers of bioactive molecules (proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, including miRNAs) with therapeutic value. Herein, we investigated the cellular uptake of blueberry-derived ELNs (B-ELNs) by a human stabilized endothelial cell line (EA.hy926) and the ability of B-ELNs to modulate the expression of inflammatory genes as the response of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Our results indicate that 1) EA.hy926 cells internalize B-ELNs in a dose-dependent manner; 2) pretreatment with B-ELNs counters TNF-α-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and loss of cell viability and modulates the differential expression of 29 genes (fold change > 1.5) induced by TNF-α compared to control; 3) pathway analysis reveals their involvement in a total of 340 canonical pathways, 121 KEGG pathways, and 121 GO Biological processes; and 4) the intersection between differentially expressed (DE) genes and miRNAs contained in B-ELNs unveils a set of candidate target genes, such as prostaglandin I2 synthase (PTGIS), mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 (MAPK14), and phosphodiesterase 7A (PDE7A), for ELNs-contained cargo. In conclusion, our study indicates that B-ELNs can be considered candidate therapeutic carriers of bioactive compounds potentially able to protect vascular system against various stressors. Full article
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