Central University of Kerala

About: Central University of Kerala is a education organization based out in Kāsaragod, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 556 authors who have published 881 publications receiving 7474 citations.

Nutritional Value of the Duckweed Species of the Genus Wolffia (Lemnaceae) as Human Food.

Abstract: Species of the genus Wolffia are traditionally used as human food in some of the Asian countries. Therefore, all 11 species of this genus, identified by molecular barcoding, were investigated for ingredients relevant to human nutrition. The total protein content varied between 20 and 30% of the freeze-dry weight, the starch content between 10 and 20%, the fat content between 1 and 5%, and the fiber content was ~25%. The essential amino acid content was higher or close to the requirements of preschool-aged children according to standards of the World Health Organization. The fat content was low, but the fraction of polyunsaturated fatty acids was above 60% of total fat and the content of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids was higher than that of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in most species. The content of macro- and microelements (minerals) not only depended on the cultivation conditions but also on the genetic background of the species. This holds true also for the content of tocopherols, several carotenoids and phytosterols in different species and even intraspecific, clonal differences were detected in Wolffia globosa and Wolffia arrhiza. Thus, the selection of suitable clones for further applications is important. Due to the very fast growth and the highest yield in most of the nutrients, Wolffia microscopica has a high potential for practical applications in human nutrition.

Association of Flavonifractor plautii, a Flavonoid-Degrading Bacterium, with the Gut Microbiome of Colorectal Cancer Patients in India.

Abstract: Recently, dysbiosis in the human gut microbiome and shifts in the relative abundances of several bacterial species have been recognized as important factors in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, these studies have been carried out mainly in developed countries where CRC has a high incidence, and it is unclear whether the host-microbiome relationships deduced from these studies can be generalized to the global population. To test if the documented associations between the microbiome and CRC are conserved in a distinct context, we performed metagenomic and metabolomic association studies on fecal samples from 30 CRC patients and 30 healthy controls from two different locations in India, followed by a comparison of CRC data available from other populations. We confirmed the association of Bacteroides and other bacterial taxa with CRC that have been previously reported in other studies. However, the association of CRC with Flavonifractor plautii in Indian patients emerged as a novel finding. The plausible role of F. plautii appears to be linked with the degradation of beneficial anticarcinogenic flavonoids, which was also found to be significantly correlated with the enzymes and modules involved in flavonoid degradation within Indian CRC samples. Thus, we hypothesize that the degradation of beneficial flavonoids might be playing a role in cancer progression within this Indian cohort. We also identified 20 potential microbial taxonomic markers and 33 potential microbial gene markers that discriminate the Indian CRC from healthy microbiomes with high accuracy based on machine learning approaches.IMPORTANCE This study provides novel insights on the CRC-associated microbiome of a unique cohort in India, reveals the potential role of a new bacterium in CRC, and identifies cohort-specific biomarkers, which can potentially be used in noninvasive diagnosis of CRC. The study gains additional significance, as India is among the countries with a very low incidence of CRC, and the diet and lifestyle in India have been associated with a distinct gut microbiome in healthy Indians compared to other global populations. Thus, in this study, we hypothesize a unique relationship between CRC and the gut microbiome in an Indian population.

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

Abstract: High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries1,2. However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world3 and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health4,5. However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol—which is a marker of cardiovascular risk—changed from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million–4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.

Role of the Gut Microbiome in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a severe neurodevelopmental or neuropsychiatric disorder with elusive etiology and obscure pathophysiology. Cognitive inabilities, impaired communication, repetitive behavior pattern, and restricted social interaction and communication lead to a debilitating situation in autism. The pattern of co-occurrence of medical comorbidities is most intriguing in autism, compared to any other neurodevelopmental disorders. They have an elevated comorbidity burden among which most frequently are seizures, psychiatric illness, and gastrointestinal disorders. The gut microbiota is believed to play a pivotal role in human health and disease through involvement in physiological homoeostasis, immunological development, glutathione metabolism, amino acid metabolism, etc., which in a reasonable way explain the role of gut-brain axis in autism. Branded as a neurodevelopmental disorder with psychiatric impairment and often misclassified as a mental disorder, many experts in the field think that a therapeutic solution to autism is unlikely to emerge. As the pathophysiology is still elusive, taking into account of the various symptoms that are concurrent in autism is important. Gastrointestinal problems that are seen associated with most of the autism cases suggest that it is not just a psychiatric disorder as many claim but have a physiological base, and alleviating the gastrointestinal problems could help alleviating the symptoms by bringing out the much needed overall improvement in the affected victims. A gut disorder akin to Crohn’s disease is, sometimes, reported in autistic children, an extremely painful gastrointestinal disease which is named as autistic enterocolitis. This disturbed situation hypothesized to be initiated by dysbiosis or microbial imbalance could in turn perturb the coordination of microbiota-gut-brain axis which is important in human mental health as goes the popular dictum: “fix your gut, fix your brain.”