This collection of articles provides an overview of the current and future methods for applying a personalized medicine approach to the diagnosis, management, and treatment of autism spectrum disorder.

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Mucoadhesive polymers are widely used in the design of dosage forms for transmucosal drug delivery to the eye, respiratory, gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts. These routes of drug administration offer a number of advantages including improved drug bioavailability, reduced frequency of administration, and the avoidance for the use of injections.

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Starting from a kinase of interest, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has gone far beyond an average biomolecule. Being expressed in all mammalian cell types and probably having a counterpart in every eukaryotic cell, AMPK has attracted interest in virtually all areas of biological research. Structural and biophysical insights have greatly contributed to a molecular understanding of this kinase. From good old protein biochemistry to modern approaches, such as systems biology and advanced microscopy, all disciplines have provided important information. Thus, multiple links to cellular events and subcellular localizations have been established. Moreover, the crucial involvement of AMPK in human health and disease has been evidenced. AMPK accordingly has moved from an interesting enzyme to a pharmacological target. However, despite our extensive current knowledge about AMPK, the growing community is busier than ever. This book provides a snapshot of recent and current AMPK research with an emphasis on work providing molecular insight, including but not limited to novel physiological and pathological functions, or regulatory mechanisms. Up-to-date reviews and research articles are included.

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Tumor progression is linked to a switch in the balance between positive and negative regulators, and mainly depends on the release by inflammatory or neoplastic cells of specific growth factors. Inflammatory infiltration contributes to tumor progression and metastatic process, and there are many reports of associations between tumor inflammatory infiltration, progression and prognosis. New therapeutic approaches have been developed with the aim to control tumor progression through the targeting of different components of the tumor microenvironment. This reprint will be useful for anyone who wants to learn about cancer: professors and students at universities, scientists at research institutes, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical labs, and lawyers trying to understand the patent literature.

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Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and was accountable for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Nowadays, about 1 in 6 deaths in the world is due to cancer. Another major global public health issue is HIV. Over 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died of HIV-related illness, since the start of the epidemic. We have been fighting against these two serious diseases by finding successful treatments. The discovery of effective drugs is important for fighting cancer and HIV. Natural products, which are secondary metabolites produced by various living organisms, have been playing a principal role in drug discovery and developments, because of their structural and biological diversity. Many clinically used drugs have come from natural products; for example, more than 60% of anticancer drugs currently in clinical use are derived from natural sources. This Special Issue aims to collect original research and review articles focusing on notable and recent contributions to the discovery and development of novel anticancer and anti-HIV drug candidates from natural sources. Up-to-date knowledge from various research fields is welcome. This could be of great interest for scientists working in different research areas, such as natural product chemistry, including isolation and structural elucidation; phytochemistry; medicinal chemistry, including chemically modified natural compounds with improved biological activity; pharmacology; molecular biology; mechanisms of action study using natural products or related compounds; pharmacognosy, etc. Biological studies of natural extracts without an appropriate chemical characterization may not be considered.

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In recent years, great attention has been paid to polyphenols due to their positive effects on health. One of the most widely-studied phenolic compounds is resveratrol. This molecule, which is naturally present in some foods, shows beneficial effects on various physiological and biochemical processes, thus representing a potential tool for the prevention or the treatment of diseases highly prevalent in our society. Several of these beneficial effects have been observed in human beings, but others only in pre-clinical studies so far, and therefore, it is mandatory to continue with the scientific research in this field. Indeed, new knowledge concerning these issues could enable the development of novel functional foods or nutraceuticals, incorporating resveratrol, suitable for preventing or treating diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, dislipemia, insulin resistance and diabetes, liver diseases, etc.

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The Mediterranean diet is a model of eating based on the traditional foods and drinks of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The cultural and the nutritional aspects of the multisecular Mediterranean civilization include diet as a central element of health and wellbeing, including wine, if it is consumed in moderation. In recent decades, it has been promoted worldwide (UNESCO 2010) as one of the healthiest dietary patterns. The objective of this book is to bring the role of wine as part of the Mediterranean diet to light, especially through policy makers, the medical world, and vectors of images.

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Nutritional deficiencies, and different nutritional and dietary lifestyles, whether poor or absent of essential nutrients, aside from excess intake, can lead to inflammatory complications and loss of function. Bioactive compounds are non-nutritional components derived from plants, foods, and beverages with a multitude of biological effects. The improvement of analytical techniques has allowed scientific community to state that the regular consumption of bioactive phytochemicals is related to the prevention of numerous pathologies, through mechanisms that involve oxidative stress reduction, gene expression modulation, and even enzymatic activation inhibition.

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In this book, we collected scientific articles, including reviews and research articles, showcasing the lastest literature on the importance of biochemical biomarkers in the management of neurodegenerative diseases, from screening to diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.

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Epidemiological evidence from the last fifty years has demonstrated that nutrition plays a decisive role in human health. Eating properly is not only necessary to meet energy demands. It also actively contributes, through both preventive actions and therapeutic effects, to improving human wellness. Nutrition owes its functional role in human health to the biological activity of specific, small dietary molecules. Plants are the most important source of bioactive molecules, and dietary phytochemicals are mainly responsible for the documented protective effects of diets which are rich in plant foods. Dietary phytochemicals have attracted increasing interest in human nutrition research over the past few years due to their ability to exert several biological effects that are potentially useful for human health, In this Special Issue, the biological activity of dietary phytochemicals, either purified or in extracts from plant foods, and their potential effects on human health are addressed and investigated.

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The aim of this special issue was to collect and contribute to the dissemination of high-quality research articles, as well as review articles, focusing on the relationship between oxidative-stress-related diseases and cellular responses in different pathologies, including ischemic stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases. Molecular targets of cellular membranes, as well as their potential modulation under oxidative stress, will be also considered in an attempt to provide more information about cell response to oxidative stress and its possible modulation via novel pharmacological strategies.

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This book focuses on the prediction of antioxidant peptides and the improvement of the aqueous solubility, chemical stability, bioactivity, and release properties of natural antioxidants through enzymatic glycosylation and encapsulation technology. The rational design and construction of delivery systems are effective for the application of antioxidants in the industry. Special attention in this book is given to inorganic nanoparticles, biopolymer-based particulate systems, prediction in antioxidant activity of peptides, evaluation of encapsulation and delivery performance, and application in commercial products.

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Cyanobacteria are a group of ubiquitous photosynthetic prokaryotes. Their occurrence has been increasing worldwide, due to anthropogenic activities and climate change. Several cyanobacterial species are able to synthesize a high number of bioactive molecules, among them, cyanotoxins (microcystins, cylindrospermopsin, nodularin, etc.), which are considered a health concern. For risk assessment of cyanotoxins, more scientific knowledge is required to perform adequate hazard characterization, exposure evaluation and, finally, risk characterization of these toxins. This Special Issue “Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins: New Advances and Future Challenges” presents new research or review articles related to different aspects of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins, and contributes to providing new toxicological data and methods for a more realistic risk assessment.

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Several lines of evidence indicate that healthy diet and exercise can prevent cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer such as colon cancer, and smoking-related cancers. Dietary patterns defined as the quantities, proportions, variety, or combination of different foods and drinks, and the frequency with which they are habitually consumed are also associated with an increased or decreased incidence of chronic diseases. Lately, an association has been found between eating habits, exercise, and psychological and/or mental disorders. This Special Issue of Nutrients, entitled “Dietary Habits, Beneficial Exercise, and Chronic Diseases: Latest Advances and Prospects”, contains 20 manuscripts, either describing original research or reviewing the scientific literature, focused on the relationship between dietary habits (macronutrients, micronutrients, etc.) and/or exercise with metabolic, cardiovascular, neurological, mental, rheumatic, inflammatory, gastrointestinal, odontostomatological, and other chronic diseases.

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As editors of this book our aim was to collect new data from experienced authors in order to further advance the knowledge on the protective effects of polyphenols’ intake, e.g., when included in the human diet, to modulate cellular functions and pathways associated with neurodegenerative diseases.Fruits and vegetables are the richest source of polyphenols in the regular human diet. Most of these molecules possess high antioxidant capacity, as well as several other important activities that can affect human health, among which anti-inflammatory properties and the potential ability to modulate different cell-signalling pathways seem to be the most important. Neurodegenerative diseases are among the main causes of death worldwide and, in most of them like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, neurodegeneration occurs long before the onset of first symptoms, where a large population of brain neurons are already lost. Besides neurons, glial cells like astrocytes and microglia, are involved in oxidative and neuroinflammatory pathological pathways, making them interesting targets for neuroprotective strategies. Polyphenols are promising candidates for those strategies, either as prophylactic substances or as therapeutic molecules.In this book, several research papers and two reviews explore the chemical properties of naturally occurring polyphenols and some new possibilities for the therapeutical and/or prophylactic roles of these molecules on neurodegeneration and neurodegenerative diseases.

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Iodine, a key component of thyroid hormones, is considered an essential micronutrient for proper health at all life stages. Indeed, an inadequate dietary intake of iodine is responsible for several functional and developmental abnormalities. The most serious consequences of iodine deficiency include hypothyroidism, early abortion, low birth weight, preterm delivery, neurocognitive impairment, and mental retardation. On the other hand, the consequences of mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency, such as goiter, are less well understood but represent an important priority for research and public health practice. Over the last several decades, many countries across the globe have introduced mandatory salt iodization programs, which have dramatically reduced the number of iodine-deficient countries. However, despite substantial progress worldwide, mild-to-moderate deficiency is still prevalent even in many developed countries. Thus, the ongoing monitoring of the population iodine status remains crucially important, and attention may need to be paid to vulnerable life stage groups.

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Biological membranes are essential components of the living systems and processes occurring with their participation are related mainly to electric phenomena, such as signal transduction, the existence of membrane potentials, and transport through the membrane. It is well known that the universal model of the cell membrane structure is the lipid bilayer, which constitutes the environment for integral and surface membrane proteins. Thus, much attention has been given to the study of the organization and properties of these structures concerning both experimental and theoretical aspects. As systematic examinations are impeded by the complexity of the natural membranes, the best approach to conducting detailed physical and chemical studies of biological membranes is to use simplified well-defined model lipid membranes. Among the most commonly used are liposomes, planar lipid membranes, membranes on solid substrates, and lipid monolayers on the free surface.Studies of the electrical properties of model lipid membranes have been carried out for many years. However, there are still many issues that have not been verified experimentally and for which the existing results are incomplete or inconsistent. Therefore, the main objective of this book was to collect recent scientific and review articles on the electrical properties of model lipid membranes. This objective has been successfully achieved, for which I express heartfelt appreciation to all authors and reviewers for their excellent contributions.

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We are pleased to present this book, which is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue entitled “Extraction Strategies to Recover Bioactive Compounds, Incorporation into Food, and Health Benefits” published online in the open access journal Foods (ISSN 2304-8158) from 2019 to 2020 (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/foods/special_issues/extraction). Firstly, this book gathers studies addressing several strategies applied to obtain bioactive products and extracts, not only from food matrices but also from agri-food byproducts, which can serve as new natural additives, nutraceuticals, and functional ingredients for pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and food industries. In particular, free and bound phenolic compounds are explored in buckwheat, sesame, and olive leafy byproducts. Overall, these studies outline new valorization methods and offer new opportunities for alternative practices in the agro-industrial sector that help to migrate toward a circular bioeconomy model. This book also presents studies that predict bioactive components in fruits through mathematical tools and support the formulation of a novel beverage rich in resveratrol, a phenolic compound whose bioactivity is well recognized.

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This Reprint aims to immerse the readers into the latest frontiers of cutting-edge investigations regarding bioactive compounds and nutraceuticals. It explores their use in biotechnological approaches, biomedical applications, the discovery of novel bioactive natural products, the role of these products on food structure, and their potential physiological effects on human nutrition. Additionally, it discusses the use of in vitro and in vivo bioactivity research involving cell lines and animal models as exemplars of human physiology.

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