World population growth and aging are posing unprecedented challenges in sustaining the health of 9.1 billion people that will be occupying the planet by 2050. Although noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and diabetes are among the top 10 global causes of death, they can be prevented by risk factor reduction, early detection, and adequate treatment. Since a healthy diet along with dietary supplementation could play an important role to reduce morbidity and cut off its associated health care costs, research in the food and nutrition area is required to find solutions to global challenges affecting health. As a result of the healthy living trend, dietary supplements category is growing fast, leading to an urgent need for dietitians, physicians, and policy makers to broaden the scientific evidence on the efficacy and safety of a wide range of active ingredients. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), as the third most consumed dietary supplement, and as a potential candidate for the treatment of various noncommunicable diseases that are among the global top 10 causes of death, has gained interest over years. Scientific evidence regarding mainly CoQ10 efficacy and safety, as well as formulation challenges, is addressed in this review.

This revision intends to provide an overview on the major and emerging trends in food and nutrition. Food scientists and dietitians should keep an eye on the trends shaping the food industry in order to understand consumer changes in preferences, expectations and dietary patterns; and to identify those areas that should be added to the research agenda. In addition, to comprehend the major drivers of change in the food industry, global consumer trends are also reviewed in this article. Global concerns are shaping consumer attitudes, and with an easier access to information and an unprecedented consumer power through social media, the food industry should quickly adapt to meet consumer needs. In order to meet these objectives, this review is organized in three different but interrelated sections: global consumer trends, food and nutrition trends, and trends in sports foods and nutrition. This last one is also included due to its influence over food trends, and its significant relevance as a category and food trend.

This theoretical study seeks to critically review the use of excipients in the paediatric population. This study is based on the rules and recommendations of European and American drug regulatory agencies. On the one hand, this review describes the most frequent excipients used in paediatric medicine formulations, identifying the compounds that scientific literature has marked as potentially harmful regarding the side effects generated after exposure. On the other hand, this review also highlights the importance of carrying out safety -checks on the excipients, which, in most cases, are linked to toxicity studies. An excipient in the compilation of paediatric population databases is expected to target safety and toxicity, as in the STEP database. Finally, a promising pharmaceutical form for child population, ODT (Orally Disintegrating Tablets), will be studied.

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are emerging therapeutic tools but there are barriers to their translation to clinical practice. Key issues concern the specificity of the targets, the delivery of the molecules, and their stability, while avoiding “on-target” and “off-target” side effects. In this “ncRNA in therapeutics” issue, we collect several studies of the differential expression of ncRNAs in cardiovascular diseases, bone metabolism-related disorders, neurology, and oncology, and their potential to be used as biomarkers or therapeutic targets. Moreover, we review recent advances in the use of antisense ncRNAs in targeted therapies with a particular emphasis on their basic biological mechanisms, their translational potential, and future trends.

The tightly regulated process of precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) alternative splicing (AS) is a key mechanism in the regulation of gene expression. Defects in this regulatory process affect cellular functions and are the cause of many human diseases. Recent advances in our understanding of splicing regulation have led to the development of new tools for manipulating splicing for therapeutic purposes. Several tools, including antisense oligonucleotides and trans-splicing, have been developed to target and alter splicing to correct misregulated gene expression or to modulate transcript isoform levels. At present, deregulated AS is recognized as an important area for therapeutic intervention. Here, we summarize the major hallmarks of the splicing process, the clinical implications that arise from alterations in this process, and the current tools that can be used to deliver, target, and correct deficiencies of this key pre-mRNA processing event.

Experimental evidence suggests that endothelin 1 (ET-1) is involved in the development of retinal microvascular abnormalities induced by diabetes. The effects of ET-1 are mediated by endothelin A- and B-receptors (ETA and ETB). Endothelin B-receptors activation mediates retinal neurodegeneration but there are no data regarding the effectiveness of ETB receptor blockage in arresting retinal neurodegeneration induced by diabetes. The main aim of the present study was to assess the usefulness of topical administration of bosentan (a dual endothelin receptor antagonist) in preventing retinal neurodegeneration in diabetic (db/db) mice. For this purpose, db/db mice aged 10 weeks were treated with one drop of bosentan (5 mg/mL, n = 6) or vehicle (n = 6) administered twice daily for 14 days. Six non-diabetic (db/+) mice matched by age were included as the control group. Glial activation was evaluated by immunofluorescence using specific antibodies against glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Apoptosis was assessed by TUNEL method. A pharmacokinetic study was performed in rabbits. We found that topical administration of bosentan resulted in a significant decrease of reactive gliosis and apoptosis. The results of the pharmacokinetic study suggested that bosentan reached the retina through the trans-scleral route. We conclude that topical administration of bosentan was effective in preventing neurodegeneration in the diabetic retina and, therefore, could be a good candidate to be tested in clinical trials.