Nutraceuticals
Bioactive Compounds for Therapeutic Innovation in Preventive and Clinical Medicine
​
Nutraceuticals represent a rapidly expanding field at the crossroads between nutrition and pharmaceutical sciences, offering significant clinical and preventive potential. These bioactive compounds, derived primarily from natural sources, provide critical therapeutic and protective effects against a variety of chronic diseases, including metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and oxidative-stress-related pathologies.
The search for novel natural compounds exhibiting therapeutic, antioxidant, and cytoprotective properties is crucial for advancing healthcare strategies and preventive medicine. Our research aims to investigate and characterize such nutraceutical compounds, elucidating their mechanisms of action and potential clinical applications.
Featured Research Areas:​
Oxidative Stress and Cytoprotection
Retinal Diseases and Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) Protection
Oxidative Stress and Cytoprotection
Oxidative stress results from an imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and antioxidant defenses, leading to cellular damage. Particularly vulnerable are mitochondria, where excessive ROS can disrupt mitochondrial membrane potential, impair respiratory chain complexes, and initiate apoptotic pathways, significantly contributing to aging and numerous chronic diseases.​ Protecting mitochondria from oxidative damage is therefore a promising strategy in both prevention and therapy.
Our aim is to investigated the protective role of natural and/or synthetic antioxidant compounds (e.g. Punicalagin, Idebenone) in different cell types. Our studies combine molecular biology and metabolic imaging to show how these compounds activate key protective pathways in the cell, particularly those that regulate antioxidant defense and mitochondrial integrity. These results suggest that such natural or nature-inspired molecules could be valuable tools to counteract diseases where oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction are central.
Retinal Diseases and
Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) Protection
The retina is one of the most metabolically active tissues in the body and is highly sensitive to oxidative stress, especially under diabetic or high-glucose conditions. Damage caused by excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) contributes to the breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier and plays a major role in the development of diabetic retinopathy and other degenerative retinal diseases.​​​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​​
​
​
​
​​
​
​
​
​
​
​In our studies, we explore the protective role of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid naturally present in the retina, focusing on its ability to restore redox balance and protect retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Using cellular models exposed to oxidative stress, we demonstrated that DHA not only activates key antioxidant responses [ref] — particularly the Nrf2 pathway — but also regulates cellular energy metabolism and reduces apoptotic signaling [ref].
By integrating metabolic imaging with molecular biology, we provided new evidence of the interplay between redox regulation and lipid metabolism in retinal cells, and identified DHA as a potential therapeutic molecule for early intervention in oxidative retinal damage.
These are untreated cells, representing normal physiological conditions. Laurdan fluorescence shows a uniform green signal with few blue spots, indicating balanced lipid organization. The low number of non-polar aggregates suggests minimal membrane stress or lipid accumulation. This serves as the baseline reference for comparing the effects of treatments.​
Lipid Metabolism and Metabolic Disorders
Lipids are not just energy sources — they play critical roles in cell signaling, membrane structure, and cancer progression. In particular, the type and position of double bonds in fatty acids can influence how cells grow, divide, and respond to stress. However, the biological impact of specific fatty acid isomers, such as sapienic acid, remains poorly understood.
In our research, we investigated how sapienic acid, a less-studied isomer of palmitoleic acid, affects lipid remodeling and redox balance in colon cancer cells.
We demonstrated that this fatty acid is not only incorporated into membrane lipids and storage pools, but also leads to the de novo synthesis of n-10 polyunsaturated fatty acids, a pathway never before described in cancer cells. Using a combination of lipidomics, imaging, and viability assays, we showed that sapienic acid modifies membrane fluidity, reduces saturated lipid content, and alters cellular oxidative stress. These findings reveal new aspects of fatty acid metabolism in cancer and open the door to exploring lipid-based therapeutic strategies.