Composed of nearly a thousand different types of microorganisms - some beneficial, others not - the human gut microbiota plays an important role in health and disease. This is due to the presence of probiotic or beneficial microbes, or due to the feeding of prebiotics that stimulate the endogenous beneficial microbes (these promote health by stimulating the immune system, improving the digestion and absorption of nutrients, and inhibiting the growth of pathogens). The notable health benefits of probiotic organisms have prompted much commercial interest, which in turn has led to a plethora of research initiatives in this area. These range from studies to elucidate the efficacy of the various health benefits to analyses of the diet-microbe interaction as a means of modulating the gut microbiota composition. Research in this area is at a very exciting stage. With state-of-the-art commentaries on all aspects of probiotics and prebiotics research, this book provides an authoritative and timely overview of the field. Written by leading international researchers, each chapter affords critical insight to a particular topic, reviews current research, discusses future direction, and stimulates discussion. Topics range from the different microorganisms used as probiotics (lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, yeast, etc.), and the techniques and approaches used (metagenomics, etc.), to the reviews of the clinical and medical aspects. The provision of extensive reference sections positively encourages readers to pursue each subject in greater detail. *** Librarians: ebook available on ProQuest and EBSCO [Subject: Microbiology, Life Science]

This book comprehensively summarizes the biology, etiology, and pathology of ovarian cancer and explores the role of deep molecular and cellular profiling in the advancement of precision medicine. The initial chapter discusses our current understanding of the origin, development, progression and tumorigenesis of ovarian cancer. In turn, the book highlights the development of resistance, disease occurrence, and poor prognosis that are the hallmarks of ovarian cancer. The book then reviews the role of deep molecular and cellular profiling to overcome challenges that are associated with the treatment of ovarian cancer. It explores the use of genome-wide association analysis to identify genetic variants for the evaluation of ovarian carcinoma risk and prognostic prediction. Lastly, it highlights various diagnostic and prognostic ovarian cancer biomarkers for the development of molecular-targeted therapy.

Inflammation in Heart Failure, edited by W. Matthijs Blankesteijn and Raffaele Altara, is the first book in a decade to provide an in-depth assessment on the causes, symptoms, progression and treatments of cardiac inflammation and related conditions. This reference uses two decades of research to introduce new methods for identifying inflammatory benchmarks from early onset to chronic heart failure and specifically emphasizes the importance of classifying at-risk subgroups within large populations while determining the patterns of cytokines in such classifications. Further, the book details clinical applications of the pathophysiological mechanisms of heart failure, diagnosis and therapeutic strategies. Inflammation in Heart Failure's breadth of subject matter, easy-to-follow structure, portability, and high-quality illustrations create an accessible benefit for researchers, clinicians and students. - Presents updated information and research on the relevant inflammatory mediators of heart failure to aid in targeting future translational research as well as the improvement of early diagnosis and treatment - Provides research into better understanding the different inflammatory mediators that signal the underlying diseases that potentially lead to heart failure - Contains 20 years of research, offering a brief overview of the topic leading to current opinions on, and treatment of, heart failure - Provides a structured, systematic and balanced overview of the role of inflammation in heart failure making it a useful resource for researchers and clinicians, as well as those studying cardiovascular diseases

This book provides a comprehensive overview of metabonomics and gut microbiota research from molecular analysis to population-based global health considerations. The topics include the discussion of the applications in relation to metabonomics and gut microbiota in nutritional research, in health and disease and a review of future therapeutical, nutraceutical and clinical applications. It also examines the translatability of systems biology approaches into applied clinical research and to patient health and nutrition. The rise in multifactorial disorders, the lack of understanding of the molecular processes at play and the needs for disease prediction in asymptomatic conditions are some of the many questions that system biology approaches are well suited to address. Achieving this goal lies in our ability to model and understand the complex web of interactions between genetics, metabolism, environmental factors and gut microbiota. Being the most densely populated microbial ecosystem on earth, gut microbiota co-evolved as a key component of human biology, essentially extending the physiological definition of humans. Major advances in microbiome research have shown that the contribution of the intestinal microbiota to the overall health status of the host has been so far underestimated. Human host gut microbial interaction is one of the most significant human health considerations of the present day with relevance for both prevention of disease via microbiota-oriented environmental protection as well as strategies for new therapeutic approaches using microbiota as targets and/or biomarkers. In many aspects, humans are not a complete and fully healthy organism without their appropriate microbiological components. Increasingly, scientific evidence identifies gut microbiota as a key biological interface between human genetics and environmental conditions encompassing nutrition. Microbiota dysbiosis or variation in metabolic activity has been associated with metabolic deregulation (e.g. obesity, inflammatory bowel disease), disease risk factor (e.g. coronary heart disease) and even the aetiology of various pathologies (e.g. autism, cancer), although causal role into impaired metabolism still needs to be established. Metabonomics and Gut Microbiota in Nutrition and Disease serves as a handbook for postgraduate students, researchers in life sciences or health sciences, scientists in academic and industrial environments working in application areas as diverse as health, disease, nutrition, microbial research and human clinical medicine.

The book provides an overview on how the gut microbiome contributes to human health. The readers will get profound knowledge on the connection between intestinal microbiota and immune defense systems. The tools of choice to study the ecology of these highly-specialized microorganism communities such as high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic mining will be presented. In addition the most common diseases associated to the composition of the gut flora are discussed in detail. The book will address researchers, clinicians and advanced students working in biomedicine, microbiology and immunology.

The book provides an overview on how the microbiome contributes to human health and disease. The microbiome has also become a burgeoning field of research in medicine, agriculture & environment. The readers will obtain profound knowledge on the connection between intestinal microbiota and immune defense systems, medicine, agriculture & environment. The book may address several researchers, clinicians and scholars working in biomedicine, microbiology and immunology. The application of new technologies has no doubt revolutionized the research initiatives providing new insights into the dynamics of these complex microbial communities and their role in medicine, agriculture & environment shall be more emphasized. Drawing on broad range concepts of disciplines and model systems, this book primarily provides a conceptual framework for understanding these human-microbe, animal-microbe & plant-microbe, interactions while shedding critical light on the scientific challenges that lie ahead. Furthermore this book explains why microbiome research demands a creative and interdisciplinary thinking—the capacity to combine microbiology with human, animal and plant physiology, ecological theory with immunology, and evolutionary perspectives with metabolic science.This book provides an accessible and authoritative guide to the fundamental principles of microbiome science, an exciting and fast-emerging new discipline that is reshaping many aspects of the life sciences. These microbial partners can also drive ecologically important traits, from thermal tolerance to diet in a typical immune system, and have contributed to animal and plant diversification over long evolutionary timescales. Also this book explains why microbiome research presents a more complete picture of the biology of humans and other animals, and how it can deliver novel therapies for human health and new strategies.