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Nutrients
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Nutrients, Nutraceuticals, and Functional Foods to Boost Brain–Gut Axis Health
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Nutrients, Nutraceuticals, and Functional Foods to Boost Brain–Gut Axis Health

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemicals and Human Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 December 2022) | Viewed by 25695

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Raquel Abalo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Basic Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC), Alcorcón, 28922 Madrid, Spain
Interests: gastrointestinal motility; visceral pain; functional foods; cannabinoids; irritable bowel syndrome; nutraceuticals; enteric nervous system; brain–gut axis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The brain–gut axis is increasingly being considered essential for achieving a state of holistic health and wellbeing. The connection between the brain and the gut involves components from the hormonal, nerve, and immune systems that are recognized to be sensitive to many different influences. As a consequence of negative influences, the brain, the gut or, generally, both (the brain–gut axis) display significant alterations in functional gastrointestinal disorders (irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia), organic gastrointestinal pathologies (gastrointestinal cancers, inflammatory bowel diseases, celiac disease, eosinophil-related disorders, other allergies and intolerances) but also neurodegenerative (Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, prion’s diseases) and psychiatric diseases (autism, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety), as well as infective (Chagas’ disease, COVID-19, salmonellosis) and iatrogenic disorders (i.e., chemotherapy- or radiotherapy-induced alterations).

Nutrients, nutraceuticals, and functional foods have attracted attention for their potential preventative and therapeutic role, including that exerted through balancing the gut microbiota. For example, many components of plants growing on the ground and in water environments are already well recognized for their beneficial health properties, but many are still awaiting identification and functional characterization for their optimal use by the food and pharma industries in the development of new efficient and safe functional foods and medicinal products. Thus, although much has been done, there is clearly still room for research in this hot field at the basic, clinical, and epidemiological level.

In this Special Issue, we welcome different types of manuscript submissions, including original preclinical and clinical research articles and up-to-date reviews (narrative and systematic reviews, as well as meta-analyses) focused on the potential benefits of nutrients, nutraceuticals, and functional foods on the brain, the gut, and especially brain–gut axis health. Studies aimed at clarifying the differential effects of nutrients, nutraceuticals, and functional foods on the brain, gut, and brain–gut axis associated with different ages (children, adolescents, elderly), genetic or racial background, physiological conditions (gender, pregnancy, menopause), or other individual circumstances (sport performance, pluripathology, polymedication) are particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Raquel Abalo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Brain–gut axis
  • Functional gastrointestinal disorders
  • Organic gastrointestinal disorders
  • Psychological distress
  • Gastrointestinal infections
  • Antioxidant nutraceuticals
  • Antiinflammatory nutraceuticals
  • Immunomodulatory nutraceuticals
  • Antiproliferative nutraceuticals
  • Enteric nervous system

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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35 pages, 4038 KiB  
Article
The Effects of Walnuts and Academic Stress on Mental Health, General Well-Being and the Gut Microbiota in a Sample of University Students: A Randomised Clinical Trial
by Mauritz F. Herselman, Sheree Bailey, Permal Deo, Xin-Fu Zhou, Kate M. Gunn and Larisa Bobrovskaya
Nutrients 2022, 14(22), 4776; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14224776 - 11 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 19804
Abstract
Poorer mental health is common in undergraduate students due to academic stress. An interplay between stress and diet exists, with stress influencing food choices. Nutritional interventions may be effective in preventing mental health decline due to complex bidirectional interactions between the brain, the [...] Read more.
Poorer mental health is common in undergraduate students due to academic stress. An interplay between stress and diet exists, with stress influencing food choices. Nutritional interventions may be effective in preventing mental health decline due to complex bidirectional interactions between the brain, the gut and the gut microbiota. Previous studies have shown walnut consumption has a positive effect on mental health. Here, using a randomized clinical trial (Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, #ACTRN12619000972123), we aimed to investigate the effects of academic stress and daily walnut consumption in university students on mental health, biochemical markers of general health, and the gut microbiota. We found academic stress had a negative impact on self-reported mood and mental health status, while daily walnut consumption improved mental health indicators and protected against some of the negative effects of academic stress on metabolic and stress biomarkers. Academic stress was associated with lower gut microbial diversity in females, which was improved by walnut consumption. The effects of academic stress or walnut consumption in male participants could not be established due to small numbers of participants. Thus, walnut consumption may have a protective effect against some of the negative impacts of academic stress, however sex-dependent mechanisms require further study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrients, Nutraceuticals, and Functional Foods to Boost Brain–Gut Axis Health)
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16 pages, 3913 KiB  
Article
The Potential Neuroprotective Effects of Extracts from Oat Seedlings against Alzheimer’s Disease
by Won Seok Lee, Hae-June Lee, Ji Yeong Yang, Hye-Lim Shin, Sik-Won Choi, Jong-Ki Kim, Woo Duck Seo and Eun Ho Kim
Nutrients 2022, 14(19), 4103; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14194103 - 02 Oct 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2419
Abstract
The physiological or dietary advantages of germinated grains have been the subject of numerous discussions over the past decade. Around 23 million tons of oats are consumed globally, making up a sizeable portion of the global grain market. Oat seedlings contain more protein, [...] Read more.
The physiological or dietary advantages of germinated grains have been the subject of numerous discussions over the past decade. Around 23 million tons of oats are consumed globally, making up a sizeable portion of the global grain market. Oat seedlings contain more protein, beta-glucan, free amino acids, and phenolic compounds than seeds. The progressive neurodegenerative disorder of Alzheimer’s is accompanied by worsening memory and cognitive function. A key indicator of this disorder is the unusual buildup of amyloid-beta protein (or Aβ) in human brains. In this context, oat seedling extract (OSE) has been identified as a new therapeutic candidate for AD, due to its antioxidant activity and AD-specific mechanism of action. This study directly investigated how OSE affected AD and its impacts by examining the cognitive function and exploring the inflammatory response mechanism. The dried oat seedlings were grounded finely with a grinder, inserted with 50% fermented ethanol 10 times (w/v), and extracted by stirring for 10 h at 45 °C. After filtering the extract by 0.22 um filter, some of it was used for UHPLC analysis. The results indicated that the treatment with OSE protects against Aβ25–35-induced cytotoxicity in BV2 cells. Tg-5Xfad AD mice had strong deposition of Aβ throughout their brains, while WT mice did not exhibit any such deposition within their brains. A drastic reduction was observed in terms of numbers, as well as the size, of Aβ plaques within Tg-5Xfad AD mice exposed to OSE. This study indicated OSE’s neuroprotective impacts against neurodegeneration, synaptic dysfunction, and neuroinflammation induced by amyloid-beta. Our results suggest that OSE acts as a neuroprotective agent to combat AD-specific apoptotic cell death, neuroinflammation, amyloid-beta accumulation, as well as synaptic dysfunction in AD mice’s brains. Furthermore, the study indicated that OSE treatment affects JNK/ERK/p38 MAPK signaling, with considerable inhibition in p-JNK, p-p38, and p-ERK levels seen in the brain of OSE-treated Tg-5Xfad AD mice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrients, Nutraceuticals, and Functional Foods to Boost Brain–Gut Axis Health)
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Review

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36 pages, 1111 KiB  
Review
New Pieces for an Old Puzzle: Approaching Parkinson’s Disease from Translatable Animal Models, Gut Microbiota Modulation, and Lipidomics
by Lorena Ortega Moreno, Ana Bagues, Vicente Martínez and Raquel Abalo
Nutrients 2023, 15(12), 2775; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15122775 - 16 Jun 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2445
Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a severe neurodegenerative disease characterized by disabling motor alterations that are diagnosed at a relatively late stage in its development, and non-motor symptoms, including those affecting the gastrointestinal tract (mainly constipation), which start much earlier than the motor symptoms. [...] Read more.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a severe neurodegenerative disease characterized by disabling motor alterations that are diagnosed at a relatively late stage in its development, and non-motor symptoms, including those affecting the gastrointestinal tract (mainly constipation), which start much earlier than the motor symptoms. Remarkably, current treatments only reduce motor symptoms, not without important drawbacks (relatively low efficiency and impactful side effects). Thus, new approaches are needed to halt PD progression and, possibly, to prevent its development, including new therapeutic strategies that target PD etiopathogeny and new biomarkers. Our aim was to review some of these new approaches. Although PD is complex and heterogeneous, compelling evidence suggests it might have a gastrointestinal origin, at least in a significant number of patients, and findings in recently developed animal models strongly support this hypothesis. Furthermore, the modulation of the gut microbiome, mainly through probiotics, is being tested to improve motor and non-motor symptoms and even to prevent PD. Finally, lipidomics has emerged as a useful tool to identify lipid biomarkers that may help analyze PD progression and treatment efficacy in a personalized manner, although, as of today, it has only scarcely been applied to monitor gut motility, dysbiosis, and probiotic effects in PD. Altogether, these new pieces should be helpful in solving the old puzzle of PD. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrients, Nutraceuticals, and Functional Foods to Boost Brain–Gut Axis Health)
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