Despite the rich diversity in molecular structures and biological functionality, the complex matrix of the compounds with a broad dynamic range has limited the use of plants as an important source... Show moreDespite the rich diversity in molecular structures and biological functionality, the complex matrix of the compounds with a broad dynamic range has limited the use of plants as an important source for drug development. Adressing this issue, several papers have described the use of the more holistic approach targeting on a wide range of metabolite present in plant extract, i.e. metabolomics. This new approach involves the use of various analytical methods followed by appropriate multivariate data analysis. The aim is to shorten the bioassay guided isolation route, particularly in the identification and dereplication step This thesis describes a new strategy to improve dereplication and identification steps in drug discovery process from plants. The integration of comprehensive extraction coupled to NMR metabolomics and multivariate data analysis is found to be a potential new approach to uncovering bioactive compounds from crude plant extracts. Show less
The general aim of the studies described in this thesis is the effect evaluation of a family-based multidisciplinary cognitive behavioral treatment on several domains related to childhood obesity... Show moreThe general aim of the studies described in this thesis is the effect evaluation of a family-based multidisciplinary cognitive behavioral treatment on several domains related to childhood obesity compared to standard care. The main findings from these studies are a modest long-term reduction of both total and abdominal adiposity accompanied by improved physical fitness, while unchanged adiposity in the untreated controls led to decreased physical fitness and deteriorating insulin sensitivity. In addition, we found significantly impaired health related quality of life in the obese children compared to their normal weight peers. We showed that our multidisciplinary lifestyle treatment improved health related quality of life of the obese children after 1 year. We observed a significantly increased postprandial ghrelin response after the multidisciplinary treatment, but no effect on inflammatory markers, nor on gut hormones PYY and GLP-1. Finally, we propose an alternative for the definition of the metabolic syndrome in children, since the usefulness of its current dichotomous form is questionable. We show that a multivariate prediction model based on the individual components of the metabolic syndrome expressed as standard deviation scores (SDS) has a good predictive value regarding increased HOMA-IR SDS. Show less
