Dottorato in SCIENZE CHIMICHE

Titolo della tesi: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-based Metabolomics for the study of the gut microbiota and its variations in relation to the dietary intake and in non-communicable diseases

Until recently, large cohort studies have been considered the gold standard for the establishment of causal associations in both perspective and observational studies. However, such studies have two fundamental issues: first, they are limited to findings where a significant set of participants responds in the same way to a nutritional treatment or a disease; second, they don’t recognize that the individual needs are associated to the high inter-variability and metabolic heterogeneity and also linked to the uniqueness of each gut microbiota composition. The gut microbiota functionality affects the way different foods (or drugs) are digested and metabolized, in a strictly individualized manner: the same substance may exert beneficial effect for one and no (or worst, harmful) effects for another. Human studies aimed at defining the molecular mechanisms and activities involved in the health effects of microbiome, need to be implemented on this aspect. The exponential development of analytical high-throughput technologies along with advances in data analysis are leading to a research scenario where inter-platform correlation can be routinely employed for shedding light on the complex interaction that are critical in the identification of disease’s effects, development and, possibly, diagnosis and treatment. Disciplines such as chemistry, biology, informatics, medicine, that has been considered for decades as single entities, are now even more interconnected thus providing, altogether, accurate answers to the research questions. The body of work of my PhD makes two key contributions: (i) designing a protocol for the application of longitudinal studies, in terms of standardized sample collection, operational procedures, multi-platforms models and chemometrics that represent a further step toward personalized approaches. This contribution is from study [I]; (ii) showing how the NMR-based metabolomics approach makes significant and reliable contributions in different fields of application and, more importantly, how its combination with other analytical platforms, with other omics sciences and with clinical data, can lead to more detailed insights; although this contribution appears in several of my works, I selected study [XI] as a representative cross-sectional study. The challenges associated with precision strategies will not be easy, but the public health implications are wide. We have witnessed how much precision approach mirrors beneficial developments in precision medicine and, therefore, public health. The access to these processes may be prohibitively expensive and can potentially increase health disparities.