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Food derived bioactives compounds have significant potential to prevent and treat various chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular diseases etc. To translate this potential, there is an unmet need to develop food formulations that can maintain activity of these bioactives during processing and storage; design optimal formulations to aid targeted delivery of bioactives and to characterize molecular interactions of these bioactives with tissues. <P>
To achieve these goals, the specific objectives of the proposed research are: <OL> <LI> Characterize and design food formulations to maintain oxidative stability of food derived bioactive compounds during processing and storage: Central hypothesis of the proposed research is that transport of oxygen and free radicals across encapsulation barriers and food packaging materials limits the oxidative stability of food derived bioactives during processing and storage. <LI> Design optimized formulations for targeted delivery of food bioactives to diseased tissue: Central hypothesis of this aim is targeted delivered of food derived bioactives based on unique molecular profile of diseased cells and tissues can significantly improve the protective and therapeutic effects of food bioactives. <LI> Develop molecular imaging approaches to characterize interactions of food bioactives with diseased tissue: The central hypothesis of this aim is that molecular imaging approaches can provide non-invasive characterization of bio-distribution and interaction of food bioactives with diseased tissues. </ol> Expected Output: <OL> <LI> Development of novel assays to characterize real time transport of oxygen and free radicals in various encapsulation barriers. <LI> Development of numerical simulation approaches to characterize transport of oxygen in encapsulation barriers and films; <LI>Optimized formulations to improve stability and delivery of food bioactives; <LI>Molecular characterization of interaction of food bioactives with diseased tissue.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Food derived bioactives compounds have significant potential to prevent and treat various chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular diseases etc. To translate this potential, there is an unmet need to develop food formulations that can maintain stability and activity of these bioactives during food processing and storage; design optimal formulations to aid targeted delivery of bioactives and to characterize molecular interactions of these bioactives with tissues. The overall goal of this project is to develop comprehensive and interdisciplinary approaches to improve stability of food bioactives during processing, develop novel approaches for targeted delivery of bioactives to diseased cells and tissues and novel molecular imaging tools to characterize bioactivity of these selected compounds and formulations. The interdisciplinary approaches used in research will combine biomaterial engineering, food chemistry, engineering analysis of transport processes and chemical reactions and molecular imaging. <P>
This comprehensive approach will provide (a) Novel encapsulation and packaging solutions to improve processing and storage stability of bioactives; (b) Improved methods to deliver bioactive compounds to diseased tissues; (c) fundamental understanding of their interactions with pathophysiology. The proposed research plan will contribute towards the overall mission of Foods for Health Initiative at University of California, Davis.
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APPROACH: Objective 1: The overall goal of aim 1 is to optimize stability of food derived bioactives by preventing oxidative degradation of bioactive compounds during processing and storage. For this aim, the proposed research will focus on developing non-invasive measurement tools to characterize real time in-situ transport of oxygen and free radicals across encapsulation barriers and their interaction with food derived bioactives. Optical imaging and spectroscopy methods will be developed to characterize transport of oxygen and free radicals. These results from these novel assays will be compared with traditional methods of studying lipid oxidation. The proposed research plan will also develop numerical simulation tools based on fundamental principles of transport processes and chemical reaction kinetics to complement the experimental studies. Combination of experimental and numerical approaches will provide a comprehensive set of tools to characterize and design food formulations to maintain oxidative stability of food derived bioactive compounds during processing and storage. <P>
Objective 2: The overall aim is to develop optimized formulations to enhance delivery of bioactive compounds to specific cells. This will be achieved using development of novel encapsulation approaches based on a combination of inorganic and biopolymer food grade materials. These novel encapsulation approaches will be developed based on principles of self assembly and biomimetic mineralization. Surface properties of these materials will be engineered to provide specific targeting to diseased cells and tissues. These material formulations will be characterized using structural (electron and optical microscopy and functional analysis (stability, biocompatibility, controlled release under physiological conditions.<P>
Objective 3: The overall goal is to characterize molecular interactions of bioactive compounds with diseased tissue. To develop this fundamental understanding the proposed research plan will develop novel molecular imaging and bioconjugation technologies to 1) characterize bio-distribution of bioactive compounds at sub-cell cellular and tissue levels; 2) measure changes in metabolic activity and redox potential of individual cells in tissues upon interaction with food derived bioactives; 3) measure changes in microenvironment of diseased tissue upon interaction with food derived bioactives. Molecular imaging probes and imaging tools will be developed for in-situ analysis of changes in tissue physiology as a function of treatment with bioactive compounds.