Prebiotics and probiotics. Bioactive molecules in products derived from plants and animals. Development of a nutraceutical product: in vitro and in vivo experimental models in research; effects on memory and age-related brain dysfunctions, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and depression. Inter-relationship diet-genome. Nutrigenetics. Diet effect on DNA: mutation selection, mutagen effect, gene expression changes. Epigenetic and transgenerational effects.
The aim of the course is to acquire knowledge, skills and competence in the field of nutraceuticals, functional foods, medical foods and food supplements. The Course, with the achievement of the aforementioned training objectives, intends to respond to specific and emerging needs for skills in the bionutrition sector that are currently expanding.
Prerequisites
None
Teaching Methods
Frontal lessons supported by slides, available to students to the UNIFI e-learning platform.
Further information
.
Type of Assessment
Final oral exam.
Course program
Nutraceutics, a synthesis between nutrition and pharmaceutics, is a discipline that studies food components that, through particular actions-interactions, play a positive role on organismal health, thus contributing to the prevention of pathologies, especially the chronic ones. Nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics study the interactions between food and genetic heritage, also using the biomolecular techniques collectively known as “-omics”, for the evaluation of metabolites, gene expression at RNA and protein level, regulatory miRNA expression. An overview on the epigenetics of nutrition will also be provided. The student will acquire knowledge on the tools and methodologies currently used to evaluate, with a scientifically valid approach, the beneficial effect of foods and their components on human health. Nutraceutics: overview of Italian and European legislation. The importance of the microbiota: prebiotics and probiotics. Main mechanisms of action of food or food extracts. Bioactive molecules in products derived from plants and animals. From chemical characterization to clinical study: use of in vitro and in vivo experimental models in research in the nutraceutical field: effects on memory and age-related brain dysfunctions, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and depression. Nutrigenomics: Inter-relationship diet-genome. Nutrigenetics. Diet effect on DNA: mutation selection, mutagen effect, gene expression changes. Fatty acids, polyphenols. AhR and its dietary ligands. Epigenetic effects of diet: vitamin D. Epigenetic transgenerational effects. Diet and miRNAs. Epigenetic transgenerational effects mediated by male germline.