The Nutrigenomics Research Group of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili aims to generate general knowledge oriented to the design of functional foods able to prevent, delay or alleviate metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome. These studies also allows to increase the value of by-products from the food industry by the obtaining of functional ingredients.

The Nutrigenomics Group has several research lines that are supported by grants from national and international public and private entities. The group always has at least a competitive national project or international.

The main research lines that we currently follow are:

    - Evaluation of the beneficial effects of phenolic compounds on diseases related to metabolic syndrome, especially the exerted by proanthocyanidins.
    - Search of bioactive compounds capable of modulating leptin signaling pathway and to reverse leptin resistance.
    - Development of a functional food addressed to weight loss and prevention of diseases associated with obesity.
    - Generation and purification of bioactive peptides from by-products of the food industry.
    - Search of bioactive compounds with antihypertensive properties.
    - Influence of circadian rhythms on the effect of bioactive ingredients.
    - Study of the interaction between bioactive compounds and microRNAs.
    - Browning and adipogenesis.

Ávila-Román J, Arreaza-Gil V, Cortés-Espinar AJ, Soliz-Rueda JR, Mulero M, Muguerza B, Arola-Arnal A, Arola L, Torres-Fuentes C. Impact of gut microbiota on plasma oxylipins profile under healthy and obesogenic conditions..Clin Nutr. 2021 Apr;40(4):1475-1486. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2021.02.035. Epub 2021 Feb 26.

López-Fernández-Sobrino R, Soliz-Rueda JR, Margalef M, Arola-Arnal A, Suárez M, Bravo FI, Muguerza B. ACE Inhibitory and Antihypertensive Activities of Wine Lees and Relationship among Bioactivity and Phenolic Profile. Nutrients. 2021 Feb 20;13(2):679. doi: 10.3390/nu13020679.

 Monfoulet LE, Ruskovska T, Ajdžanovi? V, Havlik J, Vauzour D, Bayram B, Krga I, Corral-Jara KF, Kistanova E, Abadjieva D, Massaro M, Scoditti E, Deligiannidou E, Kontogiorgis C, Arola-Arnal A, van Schothorst EM, Morand C, Milenkovic D. Molecular Determinants of the Cardiometabolic Improvements of Dietary Flavanols Identified by an Integrative Analysis of Nutrigenomic Data from a Systematic Review of Animal Studies. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2021 Aug;65(16):e2100227. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.202100227. Epub 2021 Jul 2.

López-Fernández-Sobrino R, Soliz-Rueda JR, Ávila-Román J, Arola-Arnal A, Suárez M, Muguerza B, Bravo FI. Blood Pressure-Lowering Effect of Wine Lees Phenolic Compounds Is Mediated by Endothelial-Derived Factors: Role of Sirtuin 1. Antioxidants (Basel). 2021 Jul 3;10(7):1073. doi: 10.3390/antiox10071073.

 Ruskovska T, Budi?-Leto I, Corral-Jara KF, Ajdžanovi? V, Arola-Arnal A, Bravo FI, Deligiannidou GE, Havlik J, Janeva M, Kistanova E, Kontogiorgis C, Krga I, Massaro M, Miler M, Milosevic V, Morand C, Scoditti E, Suárez M, Vauzour D, Milenkovic D. Systematic Bioinformatic Analyses of Nutrigenomic Modifications by Polyphenols Associated with Cardiometabolic Health in Humans-Evidence from Targeted Nutrigenomic Studies. Nutrients. 2021 Jul 6;13(7):2326. doi: 10.3390/nu13072326.

GibertRamos A, Ibars M, Salvadó MJ, Crescenti A. Response to the photoperiod in the white and brown adipose tissues of Fischer 344 rats fed a standard or cafeteria diet. J Nutr Biochem. 2019; 70: 82-90. doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2019.04.005.

Herrero P, Rodríguez MÁ, Ras MR, Del Pino A, Arola L, Canela N. Metabolomics Analyses to Investigate the Role of Diet and Physical Training. Methods Mol Biol. 2019; 1978: 403430. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9236-2_25.

AlcaideHidalgo JM, Margalef M, Bravo FI, Muguerza B, López-Huertas E. Virgin olive oil (unfiltered) extract contains peptides and possesses ACE inhibitory and antihypertensive activity. Clinical Nutrition. 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2019.05.016.

Bravo FI, MasCapdevila A, Margalef M, Arola-Arnal A, Muguerza B. Novel Antihypertensive Peptides Derived from Chicken Foot Proteins. Molecular Nutrition & Foog Research. 2019; 1801176: 1-8. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201801176.

GibertRamos A, Palacios-Jordan H, Salvadó MJ, Crescenti A. Consumption of out-of-season orange modulates fat accumulation, morphology and gene expression in the adipose tissue of Fischer 344 rats. Eur J Nutr. 2019; 1-11. doi: 10.1007/s00394-019-01930-9.

Casanova E, Salvadó J, Crescenti A, GibertRamos A. Epigallocatechin Gallate Modulates Muscle Homeostasis in Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity by Targeting Energetic and Redox Pathways: A Narrative Review. Int J Mol Sci. 2019; 20 (3): E532. doi: 10.3390/ijms20030532.

MasCapdevila A, Iglesias-Carres L, Arola-Arnal A, Suárez M, Muguerza B, Bravo FI. Longterm administration of protein hydrolysate from chicken feet induces antihypertensive effect and confers vasoprotective pattern in diet-induced hypertensive rats. Journal of Functional Foods. 2019; 55: 28-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jff.2019.02.006.

MasCapdevila A, Iglesias-Carres L, Arola-Arnal A, Aragonès G, Aleixandre A, Bravo FI, Muguerza B. Evidence that nitric oxide is involved the blood pressure lowering effect of the peptide AVFQHNCQE in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Nutrients. 2019; 11 (2): 225. doi: 10.3390/nu11020225.

IglesiasCarres L, Mas-Capdevila A, Bravo FI, Aragonès G, Muguerza B, Arola-Arnal A. Optimization of a polyphenol extraction method for sweet orange pulp (Citrus sinensis L.) to identify phenolic compounds consumed from sweet oranges. Plos One. 2019; 14 (1): e0211267. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211267.

DomenechCoca C, Mariné-Casadó R, Caimari A, Arola L, Del Bas JM, Bladé C, Rodriguez-Naranjo MI. Dual liquidliquid extraction followed by LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantification of melatonin, cortisol, triiodothyronine, thyroxine and testosterone levels in serum: Applications to a photoperiod study in rats. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2019; 1108: 11-16. doi: 10.1016/j.jchromb.2019.01.002.