Scientifically Combining Ingredients to Develop Products that Deliver on Your Brand Promise
The best medicine that one can have is the food one consumes. Nature was way ahead of us in creating foods that are in reality potent multi-combination drugs that help keep us healthy. Functional Foods are those that, with help from science, go one step above to target and support specific health conditions. Creating Functional Foods requires analyzing very complex molecular reactions. Current methods for doing this are very rudimentary and involve a lot of animal testing. CytoSolve, with its intrinsic capability to seamlessly integrate complex molecular pathways to predict biological reactions, affords a breakthrough approach that eliminates the need for animal testing, while substantially reducing the time to market.
CYTOSOLVE CASE STUDY: Brad’s Raw Foods
More and more people are incorporating what they believe to be raw foods into their diets principally for health and taste reasons. But there is debate and confusion over what actually constitutes ‘raw’ and what the characteristics should be to maintain a food’s ‘raw’ quality at point of sale and also protect consumers from foodborne diseases. International Center for Integrative Systems has developed a standard that aims to verify the claims and support the growth of the raw food community while enabling transparency for consumers, retailers, manufacturers and the regulatory community. Towards the certification of raw products manufactured by Brad’s Raw Foods, the list of names and weight percentage of all ingredients in each product, and the processing performed for each product were acquired from Brad’s Raw Foods. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify top 3-5 active ingredient molecules representing the significant micronutrients were identified along with their physical, chemical and physiological properties. Using the proprietary Bioavailability model developed by CytoSolve, bioavailability was estimated for each ingredient. The bioavailability score for each product was calculated as a function of bioavailability of all the ingredients and the weight percentage of each ingredient. A score of >80% is required to fulfil the Bioavailability criteria of the Raw Food Standard. The bioavailabilty analysis was performed on 13 products from Brad’s Raw Foods. All of the products score more that 80% (86-100%) and passed the Bioavailability criteria.
CYTOSOLVE CASE STUDY: Solid Gold® Pet Food
There is a body of empirical evidence demonstrating the positive effect of dietary supplement Solid Gold® SeaMeal™ on coat appearance of pets. However, the molecular mechanistic understanding of the effect of SeaMeal ingredients, individually and in combination is not clearly understood. In this study, a systematic literature review is conducted to identify the molecular pathways affecting pet coat appearance. The molecular pathways of coat appearance are converted to individual mathematical models; each model is validated; and, the plurality of models is integrated with the CytoSolve® computational systems biology platform to produce an integrative model of coat appearance. CytoSolve provides for the dynamic integration of molecular pathway models, in silico, to understand synergistic effects of multi-ingredient dietary supplements on molecular pathways of biological processes. Five individual ingredients from Solid Gold® SeaMeal™, specifically, bladderwrack kelp, dulse flakes kelp, flaxseed, alpha amylase and bromelain, are tested, in silico using the CytoSolve model, to evaluate efficacy. Combination of the five ingredients, from the current dosage in SeaMeal, is also tested in silico. The results from the systematic review reveal two major molecular pathway systems that govern coat appearance: 1. cornified envelope synthesis and 2. oxidative stress pathways in skin. The results from the CytoSolve in silico modeling demonstrate that SeaMeal ingredients synergistically enhance coat appearance by: 1.increasing cornified envelope synthesis, and 2. reducing the oxidative stress in the skin.
CYTOSOLVE CASE STUDY: Hail Merry
More and more people are incorporating what they believe to be raw foods into their diets principally for health and taste reasons. But there is debate and confusion over what actually constitutes “raw” and what the characteristics should be to maintain a food’s ‘raw’ quality at point of sale and also protect consumers from foodborne diseases. International Center for Integrative Systems has developed a standard that aims to verify the claims and support the growth of the raw food community while enabling transparency for consumers, retailers, manufacturers and the regulatory community. Towards the certification of raw products manufactured by Hail Merry, the list of names and weight percentage of all ingredients in each product, and the processing performed for each product were acquired from Hail Merry Foods. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify active ingredient molecules from different categories like polyphenols, flavanoids, saponins, carotenoids, anthocyanins, vitamins, essential oils and enzymes. Active ingredients identified are analyzed with their physical, chemical and physiological properties. Using the proprietary Bioavailability model developed by CytoSolve, bioavailability was estimated for each ingredient. The bioavailability score for each product was calculated as a function of bioavailability of all the ingredients and the weight percentage of each ingredient. A score of >80% is required to fulfil the Bioavailability criteria of the Raw Food Standard. The bioavailability analysis was performed on 20 products from Hail Merry Foods.
CYTOSOLVE CASE STUDY: Safety Testing for United States Pharmacopeia
Use of dietary supplements by military personnel is well acknowledged and documented in a review conducted by the Institute of Medicine. About half of the US population uses dietary supplements. Concerns regarding the benefits and safety of dietary supplement use by military arise because (a) military personnel may have a different intent than the general population and (b) military personnel have unique challenges and needs. CytoSolve® computational systems biology platform provides for the dynamic integration of molecular pathway models, in silico, to understand synergistic effects of multi-ingredient dietary supplements on molecular pathways of biological processes. CytoSolve platform was used to evaluate the effect of combinations of arginine and caffeine, found in dietary supplements taken by military personnel, on nitric oxide production, which is directly related to cardiovascular health. The CytoSolve analysis revealed that arginine alone increased the nitric oxide concentration whereas caffeine alone reduced the nitric oxide concentration in healthy individuals. In combination, the results indicated that production rate in healthy individuals did not increase significantly by arginine supplementation. On the other hand, arginine supplementation attenuated NO production rate to nearly normal levels in hyperglycemic/hypertensive individuals.