Functional foods with improved nutritional quality and protective strategies to prevent age-related chronic inflammatory diseases

The adaptation of agricultural productions to the request of reduction of external inputs and greenhouse gases as well as to the sustainable exploitation of food by-products/waste and underutilized food sources has become urgent due to the narrowing of economic margins in the food chain, the occurrence of incipient environmental problems, and the availability of valuable but unexploited bioactive compounds, and the need to improve the quality and safety of harvested functional products to human health. The beneficial effects of non-nutrient components of foods on human health became a field of increasing importance in the last decades. Clinical and experimental data have widely associated phenolic-rich foods with the prevention of several age-related chronic inflammatory diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and disorders of the central nervous system. These molecules have been already largely known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in preventing non communicable diseases.
 

The research will involve different activities on bioactives such as those obtained from plants, dairy products and those derived from the Maillard reduction during food processing as reported below.
1) Evaluation of antioxidant molecules derived from plants inoculated with plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB).
2) Identification of representative foods and food by-products/waste, production of extracts, and analyses of bio-functional activities through in vitro tests (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral) and in vivo studies on animal models (toxicity, bioavailability/biodistribution, hypoglycemic, and hypolipidemic properties).
3) Evaluation of the medium-term effects of a nutritional intervention on a population of adults at high/moderate risk of developing metabolic diseases.
4) Analysis of peptides released from ingested dairy products.
5) Definition of specific building blocks of melanoidins, which mimic the production process and chemical structures in the presence of amino acids, reducing sugars and polyphenols. This will be achieved by the integration of dedicated in vitro digestion protocols, non-targeted mass spectrometry screening to identify melanoidin derivatives, and an evaluation of the functional effects of melanoidins and corresponding metabolic products from the intestinal microbiota.
 

Identification of molecules with antioxidant activity stimulated by PGPB consortia.
List of several representative foods and food by-products/waste and underutilized sources.
Dynamic database of biochemical composition, standardization, in vitro functions (antioxidant, cytotoxic, antimicrobial and antiviral) and in vivo (toxicity, bioavailability/biodistribution, and hypoglycemic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory) effects of the extracts.
In the cohort of subjects: hemodynamic profile, improvement of insulin sensitivity and glucose control, decrease of oxidative and inflammation markers.
Identification of food-derived peptides released from ingested dairy products.
Implementation of functional melanoidins in food production processes with consequent reduction of unwanted compounds both in food and during digestion; control of corresponding oxidation processes and reduction of the amount of dicarbonyl compounds; possible modulation of the spatial orientation of polyphenols through customized heat treatments on food by-products.