The Academy of Pharmacy Santa María de España of the Region of Murcia has honoured Ana Bernal Romanillos, a School of
Pharmacy student, with the Prudencio Rosique Award for her Bachelor's Thesis entitled:
'Effect of maternal fructose intake on
offspring one-carbon metabolism: a nutri- and pharmacogenomic study.' This
recognition was received alongside her peers from the research group 'Nutrigenomics and fetal
programming-NUTRIPRO,' led by Professor Carlos Bocos, Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which
also includes professors Maribel
Panadero, Elena Fauste, and Paola Otero, as well as doctoral
students Cristina Donis and Madelín Pérez-Armas.
The
objectives of this work were to determine whether fructose consumption in young
animals altered the expression of one-carbon metabolism genes, as well as the outcome of adding
salt or cholesterol to the diet. Furthermore, to verify whether all of this was
affected by maternal fructose consumption, and to study whether treatment with
bempedoic acid was able to reverse the harmful effects of the Western diet.
The most
noteworthy results of this award-winning work show that pre and postnatal
fructose consumption affects the one-carbon metabolism pathway, which could be
related to the methylation of
cellular components and, therefore, to the establishment of epigenetic marks. If confirmed in
humans, the observed results would be another example of how maternal nutrition
plays a key role in the normal development of offspring. All of this highlights
the need to raise awareness among the population about the potential negative
effects of high fructose intake,
especially during critical periods such as gestation.