Modulation of Oxidative Processes

In addition to seeking to understand the physiological processes and the nutritional requirements during the different stages of the human vital cycle, the research work on food and nutrition is also intended to improve people’s health conditions. In this regard, the research on food has expanded its scope to understand the non-nutritious components of food over the past few decades.

Oxidative stress is a phenomenon caused by an imbalance between the production and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in cells and tissues, and the capacity of a biological system to detoxify them. Even though some reactive species can perform important physiological functions for the organism, diverse environmental factors, such as ultraviolet rays, ionizing radiation, environmental pollution, inadequate nourishment and unhealthy lifestyles, contribute to causing an imbalance that drives the increase to the damage of both cells and tissues mediated by the oxidative stress. This process can damage the cells, the lipids, the proteins and the DNA, which may contribute to the occurrence of multiple diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases. A number of oxidization products are involved in the regulation of pathological processes such as inflammation, coagulation, endothelium-leukocytes interaction, vasoconstriction, platelet aggregation, dysbiosis, among other.

The molecular mechanisms with both oxidant and antioxidant activity represent subjects of major interest and understanding them allows globally addressing from the basic aspects of biology to the specific aspects applied in both medicine and nutrition. The research line centered on the modulation of oxidative processes has the purpose of finding out more about the mechanisms associated with the damage to important biomolecules caused by oxidative stress in order to identify and propose strategies focused on their modulation.