Norberto A. Guzman
Princeton Biochemicals, Inc., U.S.A
Title: Immunoaffinity Capillary Electrophoresis Technology: A Powerful Tool for the Understanding of the Role of Food-Derived Peptides in Wellness and Disease
Biography
Biography: Norberto A. Guzman
Abstract
The human body is home to a unique microbial population, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. Most of the human body’s microbiota is located in the gut and its composition changes throughout life, with lower diversity in infants and elderly people. A woman’s microbiota even changes during pregnancy. The main role of the microbiota is to degrade larger polymeric substances into smaller compounds that serve as nutrients for the rest of the microbiota community and for the human body as nutrients and building-block components of genetic materials, proteins, polysaccharides, lipids and other molecules essentials for life. Both human and animal research are increasingly showing the influence of diet on the microbiota, and its potential in maintaining health and preventing disease. A better understanding of the dysregulation of microbiota host interactions is generating a paradigm shift in science understanding between bacteria and the human health environment. Changes to the type and the diversity of bacteria in the microbiota is known as dysbiosis, and has been linked to a variety of diseases, including obesity, immune-related and inflammatory bowel disease, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Our laboratory has been interested in comprehending the effect of food-derived peptides that are generated by the microbiota from casein and gluten, and transported to the blood stream that have been associated in some people with certain non-communicable diseases such as autism, schizophrenia, type I diabetes, heart disease, celiac disease, sudden infant death syndrome, mild allergies, and other disorders. We are using a portable point-of-care instrument, based on immunoaffinity capillary electrophoresis (IACE), for the determination of casomorphins and gliadins in biosamples. IACE is a two-dimensional technology that consists of the use of immuno-capture techniques found in some immunoassays, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and pairs it with a high-resolution analytical separation technique, such as capillary electrophoresis.
Conceptually, research and development into the role of diet, biology of the gut and its microbiota, and the way that each of these parameters influence health and disease, have a potential to open a whole new arena of healthcare, playing a key role in prevention, prediction and treatment of disease.