Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science | Okayama University

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Food Biochemistry

Understanding how food phytochemicals induce biological and physiological activities

Staff

Yoshimasa_NAKAMURA
  • Professor:NAKAMURA Yoshimasa, Ph. D.
  • E-mail:yossan@(@okayama-u.ac.jp)
  • Food Chemical Biology (Biological and physiological functions of food phytochemicals)

> Directory of Researchers > Research Introduction
Toshiyuki_NAKAMURA
  • Assistant Professor: NAKAMURA Toshiyuki, Ph. D.
  • E-mail:t-nakamura@(@okayama-u.ac.jp)


> Directory of Researchers

Research Topics

The values of foods are defined by three categories: nutritional function, sensory function, and health-maintenance function. Our research has been focused on disease prevention. The major research objective is to investigate biological and physiological properties including antioxidant, anti-allergy, and anti-cancer activities as well as the chemical characteristics of non-nutrients such as polyphenols and organosulfur compounds derived from plant food items. In recent years, it has been shown that isothiocyanates (ITCs), an important and promising group of compounds that have a chemopreventive property, induce phase II drug-metabolizing enzyme up-regulation, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. We have clarified the molecular mechanism underlying antiproliferation induced by benzyl ITC, a major ITC compound isolated from papaya. The voluminous results from all these detailed investigations are published in various journals of repute.

Publication List

  • Nakamura, Y., Ishii T., Abe, N., Murata, Y.: Thiol modification by bioactivated polyphenols and its potential role in skin inflammation.Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 78, 1067-1070 (2014)
  • Qi, H., Abe, N., Zhu, B., Murata, Y., Nakamura, Y.: (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate ameliorates photodynamic therapy responses in an in vitro T lymphocyte model. Phytother. Res., 28, 1486-1491 (2014)
  • Abe, N., Hou, D.X., Munemasa, S., Murata, Y., Nakamura, Y.: Nuclear factor-kappaB sensitizes to benzyl isothiocyanate-induced antiproliferation in p53-deficient colorectal cancer cells. Cell Death Dis., 5, e1534 (2014)
  • Tang, Y., Abe, N., Yoshimoto, M., Zhu, B., Murata, Y., Nakamura, Y.: Benzyl isothiocyanate inhibits IL-13 expression in human basophilic KU812 cells.Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., in press (2014)
  • Nakamura, Y.: Plant polyphenols as a double-edged sword in health promotion: Lessons from the experimental models using simple phenolic acids. Agri-Biosci. Monogr., in press (2015)

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