Search

Bárbara Rita Cardoso,1 Cristiane Cominetti,2 Silvia Maria Franciscato Cozzolino11Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil; 2Faculty of Nutrition, Federal University of Goiás, Goiás, BrazilAbstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, and it generally affects the elderly. It has been suggested that diet is an intensively modifiable lifestyle factor that might reduce the risk of AD. Because epidemiological studies generally report the potential neuronal protective effects of various micronutrients, the aim of this study was to perform a literature review on the major nutrients that are related to AD, including selenium, vitamins C and E, transition metals, vitamin D, B-complex vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids.Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, nutritional deficiencies, diet, oxidative stress, lipid, vitamins

In this study, we investigated the beneficial effects of milk biofortified with antioxidants on the health of children. Two experiments were conducted: experiment one evaluated the milk of 24 Jersey dairy cows (450 ± 25 kg of body weight (BW); 60 ± 30 days in milk dry matter intake (DIM)) given different diet treatments (CON = control diet; COANT = diet with vitamin E and selenium as antioxidants; OIL = diet with sunflower oil; and OANT = diet with sunflower oil containing more vitamin E and selenium as antioxidants), and experiment two evaluated the effect of the milk produced in the first experiment on the health of children (CON = control diet; COANT = diet with vitamin E and selenium as antioxidants; OIL = diet with sunflower oil; OANT = diet with sunflower oil containing more vitamin E and selenium as antioxidants; and SM = skim milk). One hundred children (8 to 10 years old) were evaluated in the second experiment. Blood samples were collected at 0 days of milk intake and 28 and 84 days after the start of milk intake. The cows fed the COANT and OANT diets showed greater selenium and vitamin E concentrations in their milk ( p = 0.001), and the children who consumed the milk from those cows had higher concentrations of selenium and vitamin E in their blood ( p = 0.001). The platelet ( p = 0.001) and lymphocyte ( p = 0.001) concentrations were increased in the blood of the children that consumed milk from cows fed the OANT diet compared to those in the children that consumed SM ( p = 0.001). The children who consumed milk from cows fed the OIL diet treatment had increased concentrations of low density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterol in their blood at the end of the supplementation period compared to children who consumed SM. The results of this study demonstrate that the consumption of biofortified milk increases the blood concentrations of selenium and vitamin E in children, which may be beneficial to their health.

Nutrimiromics studies the influence of the diet on the modification of gene expression due to epigenetic processes related to microRNAs (miRNAs), which may affect the risk for the development of chronic diseases. miRNAs are a class of non-coding endogenous RNA molecules that are usually involved in post-transcriptional gene silencing by inducing mRNA degradation or translational repression by binding to a target messenger RNA. They can be controlled by environmental and dietary factors, particularly by isolated nutrients or bioactive compounds, indicating that diet manipulation may hold promise as a therapeutic approach in modulating the risk of chronic diseases. This review summarizes the evidence regarding the influence of nutrients and bioactive compounds on the expression of miRNAs related to inflammation and chronic disease in several models (cell culture, animal models, and human trials)., Competing Interests: The authors have no interests to declare.

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for human health. Its beneficial effects are exerted by selenoproteins, which can be quantified in blood and used as molecular biomarkers of Se status. We hypothesize that the presence of genetic polymorphisms in selenoprotein genes may: (1) influence the gene expression of specific selenoproteins and (2) influence the pattern of global gene expression after Brazil nut supplementation. The study was conducted with 130 healthy volunteers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, who consumed one Brazil nut (300 μg/Se) a day for eight weeks. Gene expression of GPX1 and SELENOP and genotyping were measured by real-time PCR using TaqMan Assays. Global gene expression was assessed by microarray using Illumina HumanHT-12 v4 BeadChips . Brazil nut supplementation significantly increased GPX1 mRNA expression only in subjects with CC genotype at rs1050450 ( p < 0.05). SELENOP mRNA expression was significantly higher in A-carriers at rs7579 either before or after supplementation ( p < 0.05). Genotype for rs713041 in GPX4 affected the pattern of blood cell global gene expression. Genetic variations in selenoprotein genes modulated both GPX1 and SELENOP selenoprotein gene expression and global gene expression in response to Brazil nut supplementation.

Background: Selenium is an essential trace element, but critically ill patients using total parenteral nutrition (PN) do not receive selenium because this mineral is not commonly offered. Threfore, the eval uation of plasma selenium levels is very important for treating or preventing this deficiency. Recent studies have shown that transthyretin may reflect the selenium intake and could be considered a biomarker. However, this issue is still little explored in the literature., Objective: This study aims to investigate the correlation of transthyretin with the plasma selenium of critically ill patients receiving PN., Method: This was a prospective cohort study with 44 patients using PN without selenium. Blood samples were carried out in 3 stages: initial, 7th and 14th day of PN. In order to evaluate the clinical condition and the inflammatory process, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), transthyretin, creatinine and HDL cholesterol levels were observed. To assess the selenium status, plasma selenium and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in whole blood were measured. Descriptive analyses were performed and the ANOVA, Mann-Whitney and Spearman's coefficient tests were conducted; we assumed a significance level of 5%., Results: A positive correlation of selenium with the GPx levels (r = 0.46; p = 0.03) was identified. During two weeks, there was a positive correlation of transthyretin with plasma selenium (r = 0.71; p = 0.05) regardless of the CRP values., Conclusion: Transthyretin may have reflected plasma selenium, mainly because the correlation was verified after the acute phase.