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Dietary medicine is an applied science that involves drug-free nutritional prescriptions and programs implemented for the cure of chronic health problems. Diets that contain the essential nutrients are very essential for the growth, upkeep, and advancement of sustainable health in human population. Dietary medicine is a profitable and frugally inexpensive resource from nature with abundant pools of nutraceuticals that are vital for the wellness of human as well as recommended dietary allowance in terms of proteins, carbohydrates, fatty acids, fiber, phytochemicals, minerals, and vitamins. This chapter focused on some well-known and underutilized dietary sources that are multiculturally consumed in several human populations worldwide and described their mineral and chemical contents based on available literature. Understanding of the nutraceuticals in common underutilized foods will encourage patronage and acceptance of it, which could lead to processing that will functionalize the diet to deliver improved essential nutrients that could avert diseases associated with nutrition-influenced metabolic dysfunction.

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369870220_Dietary_medicine_with_nutraceutical_importance

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is regarded as a fatal neurodegenerative disease that is featured by progressive damage of the upper and lower motor neurons. To date, over 45 genes have been found to be connected with ALS pathology. The aim of this work was to computationally identify unique sets of protein hydrolysate peptides that could serve as therapeutic agents against ALS. Computational methods which include target prediction, protein-protein interaction, and peptide-protein molecular docking were used. The results showed that the network of critical ALS-associated genes consists of ATG16L2, SCFD1, VAC15, VEGFA, KEAP1, KIF5A, FIG4, TUBA4A, SIGMAR1, SETX, ANXA11, HNRNPL, NEK1, C9orf72, VCP, RPSA, ATP5B, and SOD1 together with predicted kinases such as AKT1, CDK4, DNAPK, MAPK14, and ERK2 in addition to transcription factors such as MYC, RELA, ZMIZ1, EGR1, TRIM28, and FOXA2. The identified molecular targets of the peptides that support multi-metabolic components in ALS pathogenesis include cyclooxygenase-2, angiotensin I-converting enzyme, dipeptidyl peptidase IV, X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein 3, and endothelin receptor ET-A. Overall, the results showed that AGL, APL, AVK, IIW, PVI, and VAY peptides are promising candidates for further study. Future work would be needed to validate the therapeutic properties of these hydrolysate peptides by in vitro and in vivo approaches.

Download link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369370031_In_Silico_Exploration_of_Metabolically_Active_Peptides_as_Potential_Therapeutic_Agents_against_Amyotrophic_Lateral_Sclerosis