Forum of nutrition
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Hypothalamic neurons have the capacity to sense and alter their activity in response to fluctuations in local nutrient concentrations. Alterations in glucose, fatty acid and amino acid concentrations have all been demonstrated to affect neuronal excitability and/or intracellular signaling pathways. The degree to which such changes in nutrient availability have the capacity to modify energy balance varies across nutrient type. The underlying mechanisms through which various nutrients affect food intake and overall energy balance involve both specific and shared neuronal substrates.
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Proteomics has been widely applied to several biomedical fields in recent years. The high-throughput capability of proteomics allows simultaneous examination of numerous proteins and offers the possibility of a global analysis of proteins in cells, tissues or biofluids. The rapid progress in the field of proteomics is based primarily on the success of protein separation sciences (either gel-based or gel-free techniques) and recent advances of mass spectrometry. ⋯ This paper will provide a brief overview of proteomics, a summary of current proteomic technologies and an example of proteomic application to nutrition research. Finally, the concept of systems biology, which involves integrative 'omics' (i.e., combining genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, lipomics and metabolomics) as well as bioinformatics and modeling, will be discussed. Due to the extent of information that can be obtained from systems biology, this ideal approach holds great promise for future nutrition research.