About this Research Topic
It is widely known that bioactive food compounds affect the overall health of an individual, both physically and mentally, resulting in the prevention or reduction, but also in some cases on the contrary in the initiation of metabolic abnormalities and various diseases. However, due to the complex nature of food-bioactive compounds and the different mechanisms of absorption, metabolism, and excretion, the comprehension of the bioavailability and bioefficacy of the resulting primary and secondary metabolites, along with their possible synergistic or antagonistic effects or possible interaction targets still needs extensive research.
Moreover, due to this lack of standardized knowledge, there is lack in the regulatory measures for natural products and extracts that may be commercially available as therapeutic agents. Nowadays, bioinformatics is used in drug target identification and validation and in the screening of compounds' toxicological and pharmacological properties to maximize their therapeutic benefit, while minimizing their toxicological effect.
The main goal of this research topic is to address recent advances in the bioinformatics tools and the methodological in-silico approaches that could be used in the exploration of natural metabolites' bioactivity screening; giving also details and suggestions about workflow and protocols used by means of examples of case studies. Metabolomic data already available from suitable database(s) or newly produced data, as long as the bioinformatics procedures of data analysis/production represent the main study approach, are accepted.
Data could derive from experiments on human cell lines, edible plants, farm animals, or other experimental setup/model providing direct correlation with human nutrition/health (murine models and similar are excluded). Discussion about the role of primary and secondary metabolites as markers for safety and quality of unprocessed/processed/ultra-processed foods is also encouraged, as well as "omic" approaches oriented to the investigation of the impact that genetic and environmental factors may have on the abundance of certain metabolites. We endorse the submission of purely in-silico studies as well as computational studies supported by biological assays or exploiting bioassay data as starting point of their research.
We welcome the submission of original research articles, reviews and mini-reviews and perspectives, addressing the study of the potential pharmacological activity of natural metabolites from dietary sources by means of bioinformatics and computational biology approaches.
Thus, themes of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Methods for studying the association between metabolomic, clinical and pathological data
- Drug discovery and development based on metabolomic data
- Methods for the detection of (protein) targets of metabolites
- Methods for disease screening based on metabolomic data
- Metabolomics in Systems Agro-Biotechnology and its impact on screening product quality to protect the consumer's health
- Methods for the analysis of the relationship between metabolomic data and food quality
- AI and nutritomics/metabolomics in nutrition: examples, pitfalls, and solutions
- Experimental validation of biomarkers identified from metabolomic data analysis
- Methods for integration between genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic data in nutritomics
Moreover, due to this lack of standardized knowledge, there is lack in the regulatory measures for natural products and extracts that may be commercially available as therapeutic agents. Nowadays, bioinformatics is used in drug target identification and validation and in the screening of compounds' toxicological and pharmacological properties to maximize their therapeutic benefit, while minimizing their toxicological effect.
The main goal of this research topic is to address recent advances in the bioinformatics tools and the methodological in-silico approaches that could be used in the exploration of natural metabolites' bioactivity screening; giving also details and suggestions about workflow and protocols used by means of examples of case studies. Metabolomic data already available from suitable database(s) or newly produced data, as long as the bioinformatics procedures of data analysis/production represent the main study approach, are accepted.
Data could derive from experiments on human cell lines, edible plants, farm animals, or other experimental setup/model providing direct correlation with human nutrition/health (murine models and similar are excluded). Discussion about the role of primary and secondary metabolites as markers for safety and quality of unprocessed/processed/ultra-processed foods is also encouraged, as well as "omic" approaches oriented to the investigation of the impact that genetic and environmental factors may have on the abundance of certain metabolites. We endorse the submission of purely in-silico studies as well as computational studies supported by biological assays or exploiting bioassay data as starting point of their research.
We welcome the submission of original research articles, reviews and mini-reviews and perspectives, addressing the study of the potential pharmacological activity of natural metabolites from dietary sources by means of bioinformatics and computational biology approaches.
Thus, themes of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Methods for studying the association between metabolomic, clinical and pathological data
- Drug discovery and development based on metabolomic data
- Methods for the detection of (protein) targets of metabolites
- Methods for disease screening based on metabolomic data
- Metabolomics in Systems Agro-Biotechnology and its impact on screening product quality to protect the consumer's health
- Methods for the analysis of the relationship between metabolomic data and food quality
- AI and nutritomics/metabolomics in nutrition: examples, pitfalls, and solutions
- Experimental validation of biomarkers identified from metabolomic data analysis
- Methods for integration between genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic data in nutritomics
Keywords: Metabolites, Nutritomics, Metabolomics, Food-bioactive compounds, Metabolomic data analysis, Food quality, Consumer's health
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
