Nutrition plays a crucial role in modulating aging trajectories. Diet must not be seen as a mere regulator of body composition as it also affects immune functions, inflammatory status, epigenetic regulations, and gene expression. For these reasons, dietary habits have a major role in the development and progression of complex non-communicable diseases (e.g., obesity, cardio-metabolic disorders, neurodegeneration), which represent a major burden for modern society. A plethora of bioactive compounds, nutrients, metabolites, and dietary patterns have been described as potential discriminants affecting human health. However, elucidating the exact molecular mechanisms underpinning these effects remains an ambitious goal still to be achieved and is the main focus of an emerging discipline: nutrigenomics.
This research area remains still marginally explored especially with regard, but not limited to, the following aspects: the impact on dietary patterns and single molecules on metabolomics, regulation of gene expression, epigenetic modifications, and microbiome modulations. Furthermore, several dietary metabolites have been proposed as risk biomarkers for non-communicable diseases, thus opening interesting possibilities for prevention interventions and population risk stratification. Indeed, defining mechanistic insights and molecular pathways underlying the effect of nutrition of cellular/body health may provide novel tools to tackle or prevent non-communicable diseases while promoting healthy aging. As such, advances in this area will contribute to: 1) discover new molecular targets of primary and secondary prevention interventions; 2) define new potential applications of dietary patterns/bioactive compounds/nutraceuticals to counteract non-communicable diseases; 3) provide measurable outcomes of nutritional interventions efficacy; 4) identify molecular biomarkers for population risk stratification; 5) implement early-stage and personalized nutritional interventions; 6) contribute to highlight the role of nutrition as a key modulator of cellular pathways able to affect health at the cellular and whole-body level.
This Research Topic aims at collecting new research tailored at advancing our knowledge in the following areas:
- Cellular and molecular pathways regulated by dietary patterns, specific nutrients, bioactive compounds, or microbiota-derived metabolites;
- Omic approaches (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, metagenomics) aimed at elucidating how nutrition, at the molecular level, can modulate the risk for non-communicable diseases onset and progression;
- Molecular biomarkers that can be modulated by nutrition and their association with non-communicable diseases.
We welcome original research articles as well as reviews and mini-reviews that focus on the molecular mechanisms through which nutrition affects human health and prevents or promotes non-communicable disease onset and progression. Clinical and human cell cultures are preferred to animal models, although the latter can also be potentially included. Intervention studies on human cohorts as well as studies analyzing publicly available data aimed at demonstrating causal effects are particularly welcome.
Nutrition plays a crucial role in modulating aging trajectories. Diet must not be seen as a mere regulator of body composition as it also affects immune functions, inflammatory status, epigenetic regulations, and gene expression. For these reasons, dietary habits have a major role in the development and progression of complex non-communicable diseases (e.g., obesity, cardio-metabolic disorders, neurodegeneration), which represent a major burden for modern society. A plethora of bioactive compounds, nutrients, metabolites, and dietary patterns have been described as potential discriminants affecting human health. However, elucidating the exact molecular mechanisms underpinning these effects remains an ambitious goal still to be achieved and is the main focus of an emerging discipline: nutrigenomics.
This research area remains still marginally explored especially with regard, but not limited to, the following aspects: the impact on dietary patterns and single molecules on metabolomics, regulation of gene expression, epigenetic modifications, and microbiome modulations. Furthermore, several dietary metabolites have been proposed as risk biomarkers for non-communicable diseases, thus opening interesting possibilities for prevention interventions and population risk stratification. Indeed, defining mechanistic insights and molecular pathways underlying the effect of nutrition of cellular/body health may provide novel tools to tackle or prevent non-communicable diseases while promoting healthy aging. As such, advances in this area will contribute to: 1) discover new molecular targets of primary and secondary prevention interventions; 2) define new potential applications of dietary patterns/bioactive compounds/nutraceuticals to counteract non-communicable diseases; 3) provide measurable outcomes of nutritional interventions efficacy; 4) identify molecular biomarkers for population risk stratification; 5) implement early-stage and personalized nutritional interventions; 6) contribute to highlight the role of nutrition as a key modulator of cellular pathways able to affect health at the cellular and whole-body level.
This Research Topic aims at collecting new research tailored at advancing our knowledge in the following areas:
- Cellular and molecular pathways regulated by dietary patterns, specific nutrients, bioactive compounds, or microbiota-derived metabolites;
- Omic approaches (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, metagenomics) aimed at elucidating how nutrition, at the molecular level, can modulate the risk for non-communicable diseases onset and progression;
- Molecular biomarkers that can be modulated by nutrition and their association with non-communicable diseases.
We welcome original research articles as well as reviews and mini-reviews that focus on the molecular mechanisms through which nutrition affects human health and prevents or promotes non-communicable disease onset and progression. Clinical and human cell cultures are preferred to animal models, although the latter can also be potentially included. Intervention studies on human cohorts as well as studies analyzing publicly available data aimed at demonstrating causal effects are particularly welcome.
