This WG will consider the impact of redox active food and individual food microcomponents,
\nespecially polyphenols, oxysterols and various organic sulfur compounds (including the recently
\ndiscovered inorganic Sx
\n2- polysulfide species) selected from different sources across Europe as well
\nas newly designed functional foods, on healthy, ageing animals and humans, as well as on humans
\nand animals suffering from age-linked diseases, such as diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders or
\ninflammatory related diseases. The focus will reside firmly on a better understanding of individual
\nmolecules and their impact on the organisms, bearing in mind that compounds never act alone yet
\nthat whole-diet approaches also cannot access the kind of information on the molecular level, which
\nis relevant for nutritional intervention or supplementation.
\nAs part of the top-down approach, in the first step, biomarkers will be defined and considered as
\nindicators of a changing health, including markers indicative of the preservation or regaining of
\nhealth\/disease states, the retardation of degeneration and the maintenance or recovery of certain
\n(functional) capacities. Such markers may be based on morphology or function, but also on an
\nadequate blood or tissue analysis, or may be related to nutrigenomic events. The relationship
\nbetween dietary intake, lifestyle and socio-demographic determinants on one-side and plasma levels
\nof specific biomarkers (bioactive lipids, proteins, redox state) on the other will be also assessed.
\nChemists will form an integral part of this WG as they will provide chemically pure compounds for
\nstudies, either by isolation or total synthesis and perform the analysis of biomarkers and other
\nmodified biomolecules, such as proteins or enzymes, for instance by employing mass spectrometric
\nanalytical methods.<\/p>\n
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