| Project Detail |
Since the beginning of food industrialization, consumers have expected products that could bring balance to the delicate relationship between flavour and nutritional requirements. In the case of sugar and sweeteners, the necessity of a low-calories sweetener capable of providing an equivalent sweet flavour without the high caloric intake inherent to sugar-sweetened drinks stimulated the food industry to develop novel artificial molecules. Sadly, consumers who wanted to “keep tabs” on their weight have faced unexpected health-related controversy, first with Cyclamate and its carcinogenic potential, later with the ups and downs on Saccharin-associated risks, and nowadays with the on-going debate about Aspartame and related substances. Besides the proposed role of Aspartame in some neurodegenerative disorders, there are questions about the impact that this, and others amino acid-based sweeteners, may have in the gut microbiome. Since the gut microbiome can affect brain health throw the gut-brain axis, understanding self-assembly can give a clearer panorama about the role of Aspartame, and structurally related non-nutritional sweeteners as Neotame, and Advantame, on neurocognitive processes. The SWEETBARRELS project focuses on understanding the self-assembly process of these molecules, since supramolecular aggregates have been proposed as one the main causes of cytotoxicity for these substances. I will use this knowledge, and previously reports of assembly modulation of amyloid structures, to design a pioneering inhibition strategy based on the synthesis of new molecules rationally designed to interfere in the aggregation process, altering the formation of potentially cytotoxic supramolecular species. |
