About this Research Topic

Background

Nutrition plays a pivotal role in both human and animal health, and increasingly requires science-based evidence to develop and evaluate adequate functional diets. The effectiveness of functional compounds and nutrients in animal diets depend on different parameters, such as metabolomics, nutrigenomics, bioavailability, among others. Bioavailability is assessed by In vivo methodologies using gastrointestinal digestion, absorption, metabolism, tissue distribution, and bioactivity. In order to reduce the use of animals for experimental purposes, innovative, reliable and informative models, simulating complex intestinal physiology, represent an expanding research field. In vitro methodologies allow researchers to determine the bio-accessibility of bioactive compounds and nutrients through liberation from the food matrix, simulation of gastrointestinal digestion, and assimilation by the intestinal epithelium.
Nutrigenomics studies how bioactive chemicals in foods and supplements affect animal metabolism by altering gene expression and it is a discipline that combines several fields: nutrition, bioinformatics, molecular biology, genomics, functional genomics, epidemiology, and epigenomics.

The use of multi-disciplinary tools provides new opportunities to investigate the complex interactions of the genome and the diet, such as:
- Interactions between the gut microbiota and functional food components and nutraceuticals: the intestinal microbiota is both a target for nutritional intervention and a factor influencing the biological activity of food compounds acquired orally. Phytochemicals and their metabolic products may also inhibit pathogenic bacteria while stimulating the growth of beneficial bacteria, exerting prebiotic-like effects.
- Nutraceuticals and functional ingredients are compounds that have physiological effects and provide medical benefits: used as dietary supplementation could improve the health status, delay the aging process, and play a role in the prevention and treatment of several pathologies in both humans and animals.
- Microbiota represent a complex ecological community that inhabit specific areas of multicellular organisms often developing a symbiotic relationship. In fact protozoa, bacteria, viruses, and fungi, can colonize every niche of the body. The microbiota of the digestive tract plays a pivotal role in most physiological processes, including the digestion and absorption of nutrients, maturation of the immune system, resistance to infections, and preservation of the health status of the host.
- In light of the widely-accepted problem of antibiotic resistance, the use of antibiotics in livestock production has decreased considerably. However, it has not yet disappeared, especially at the critical peri-weaning period. Functional ingredients can promote health through different mechanisms of action and can be considered for the reduction of the use of antibiotics in animals.

Original Research, Review, Brief Research Report, Case Report, Methods, Mini Review focused on the bioaccessibility of functional compounds and nutrients of animal diets.

Keywords: Bioaccessibility, Nutraceuticals, Diet, Microbiota, Gut

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