THE OILY PRESS

Edited by Anna Nicolaou and George Kokotos. Published in 2004. ISBN-13: 978-0-9531949-7-1 (ISBN-10: 0-9531949-7-3).

On this page you can read the Author's Preface and reviews of this book written in the scientific literature. For more details of the chapters and to buy the book, please see the main Bioactive Lipids web page.

Go to main Bioactive Lipids web page

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Preface | Reviews

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There is no doubt that the elucidation of the human genome has changed the face of modern science. All the resulting developments in gene analysis and protein expression studies have emphasized the importance of a deeper understanding of the regulatory mechanisms in the living cell and whole body. Lipid research has not been left untouched by these advances. Intense research effort has successfully defined the roles of lipids in cell signalling and the pathophysiology of disease states. Lipidomics is emerging as a rapidly expanding field aiming at the full characterization of lipid molecular species and of their biological roles in terms of molecular mechanisms, gene regulation, and protein structure and function.

For many people the term ‘lipid’ brings to mind negative associations linked with excess dietary fat consumption, obesity and heart disease. However, lipids are essential components of the cell membrane shown to play many dynamic roles in mediating and controlling a wide array of cellular activities including membrane structure and organization, metabolic and gene regulation, protein structure and function, energy production, and signalling pathways. Lipids have been intimately linked to the immune and inflammatory responses, cell proliferation, mediation of programmed cell death (apoptosis), as well as clearly shown to be major determinants in many pathologies, including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders. Lipid metabolizing enzymes and rate limiting steps in lipid-regulating and lipid-producing metabolic cascades have been targeted for drug development, the best known example being the enzyme cyclooxygenase, target for the widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Furthermore, functional foods and dietary supplements are already in the market (e. g. fish oils, conjugated linoleic acid) making claims for health benefits.

The main objective of this book is to present a clear overview of bioactive lipids to scientists and technologists not totally familiar with lipid research. We want to address the needs of new postgraduate researchers, industrial technologists, physicians, and scientists in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Overall, we wish to introduce this exciting field of research to all who need to appreciate the multifaceted roles of these biomolecules in health and disease. We have not tried to compile a series of scientific reviews but have strived for chapters discussing the nomenclature, structures, biochemistry, pharmacology and recent developments in the main classes of bioactive lipids. Our starting point has been the definition of bioactive lipids as lipids derived from components of the cellular membrane that mediate cellular function.

The first chapter of the book deals with the properties and activities of fatty acids. This is followed by detailed discussions of diacylglycerols and phosphoinositides. The lysolipids are represented by sphingosine 1-phosphate and lysophosphatidic acid, followed by an overview of the properties of ether lipids. Ceramides and glycosphingolipids are covered in two chapters. The metabolites of the arachidonic acid cascade are discussed in a further two chapters on prostanoids, leukotrienes and lipoxins, followed by the last two chapters of the book which focus on endocannabinoids and isoprostanes. The authors come from several European countries and North America, each one of them bringing on board their individual research and teaching experience, and insight of their expertise.

The book would not have been possible without the help and patience of our publisher, Peter J. Barnes, whom we thank. We are also thankful to William Christie for helpful discussions and advice during the first stages of drafting this book, the late David Horrobin for his suggestions and recommendations, and, last but not least, our copy editor Beverley White who managed to convert a bundle of manuscripts into a slick volume. We hope that this book will contribute to the advancement of lipid research, will tempt more colleagues to consider the roles of lipids in their individual fields, and inspire more students to consider researching this fascinating area.

Anna Nicolaou and George Kokotos

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Dr Valerie O `Donnell, Cardiff University, UK, writing in The Biochemist, August 2005, Vol.27, No.4, pp.42-43.

Lipids, or fats, are an essential component of our biological makeup. They play numerous important functions in biology, for example as the basic building block of all biomembranes or as essential signalling molecules in both health and disease. The signalling roles of lipids are now widely recognized as being of major importance in regulating such diverse physiological processes as cell division, apoptosis, brain development, fertilization and vascular physiology. In addition, dysregulation of lipid signalling contributes centrally to the pathogenesis of virtually all diseases, including atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, cancer, immune disorders and inflammation.

For many years, detailed analysis of lipid signalling mediators was hampered by experimental difficulties in detecting and quantifying these species to a high and accurate level in biological or clinical samples.

The gold standard analytical tool, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), was only utilized by a small number of specialist laboratories world-wide, because of the inherent complexity in both analysis and interpretation of data generated. Other approaches, including ELISAs and HPLC-UV were severely limited by selectivity and sensitivity issues.

However, in recent years, the development of high-sensitivity liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometers (LC/ESI/MS/MS) has revolutionized this field. These instruments combine highly selective and sensitive detection with greater ease of sample preparation and analysis than previous methodologies and are now enabling lipid researchers to pose questions that could not be asked even 5 years ago. The explosion of interest in this area has resulted in revolutionizing of the lipid biochemistry field, and the genesis of `lipidomics’, an area that was recently funded to the level of $35 million by the US National Institutes of Health.

The book by Nicolaou and Kokotos is therefore extremely timely and will be of interest to anyone either planning to enter the lipidomics field from a signalling perspective, or to those already established in this area seeking to brush up on their knowledge of lipid signalling. Areas represented range from fatty acids (Philip Calder and Graham Burdge) to phosphoinositides (Bernard Payrastre), plasmalogens/platelet-activating factor (Akhlaq Farooqui and Lloyd Horrocks) and glycosphingolipids (Thomas Kolter) to arachidonate metabolites including prostanoids (Anna Nicolaou), leukotrienes (Stefano Fiore) and isoprostanes (Samar Basu). Broadly speaking, each chapter is very well organized into sections on nomenclature, biosynthesis, degradation and biological functions/signalling. This makes it very easy for the reader to navigate around the comprehensive information contained in the book. The layout is of a typical biochemical reference book and each chapter is fully referenced with an up-to-date bibliography.

While covering most areas of lipid signalling in an in-depth manner, one area that has less discussion (except in passing in Chapter 5) is that of the newly discovered n-3 metabolites docosanoids, including resolvins, docosatrienes and neuroprotectins. These play important roles in brain physiology and pathophysiology, and a chapter on these mediators would have been very useful.

In addition, the book makes little reference to methodologies required to detect and quantify these species in biological samples. However, I realize that this is probably beyond the scope of this book, which sets out primarily to be an information resource on the biochemistry and signalling properties of these compounds.

Overall, the book represents a much-needed reference for those of us who are actively engaged in researching the generation of bioactive lipids in health and disease. The information collates much of what is known about this class of molecules in a straightforward and easy-to-follow manner and the book will be a very useful addition to the library of lipid researchers.

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Anon in Oils & Fats International, May 2005, p.38.

"An impressive international team of authors address the various aspects - nomenclature and structure, biochemistry, pharmacology and recent developments - in the main classes of lipids...In the future the food industry will progress - from simply using lipids as ingredients - towards the formulation of products that influence the synthesis, metabolism and effects of bioactive lipids in the body. Advances such as these will harness the fundamental science in the classes of lipids described in this book."

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Dr William W. Christie, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Dundee, Scotland, writing in Lipid Technology, 2004, Vol.16, pp.237–238.

There is no shortage of books on the market dealing with some aspect of lipids and their biochemistry, but this one truly stands out from the crowd. It is compact and above all readable, and I recommend it unreservedly. Hopefully, it will change the general negative perception that lipids are harmful tissue constituents that cause heart disease, cancer and so forth.

‘Bioactive lipids’ are here defined as those lipids that play a dynamic part in mediating and controlling a wide range of cellular processes including innumerable metabolic events, gene regulation, protein structure and function, energy production and signalling pathways. They are involved in immune and inflammatory responses, cell proliferation, and the converse cell death (apoptosis). They are indeed involved in many disease states, although often through their absence or through the absence of key metabolic pathways concerning lipids. Enzymes controlling some of the pathways of lipid metabolism are now targets of drug development, and increasingly selected lipids, such as fish oils, or conjugated linoleic acid, are being marketed as health food supplements.

The editors have assembled a number of internationally recognized authorities and given them a strict brief to discuss the various aspects of the subject in a thorough but concise and comprehensible way. Thus, Calder and Burdge (also, see the article by Burdge on page 221 of this issue of Lipid Technology) discuss the many roles of fatty acids in the diet as fuels, membrane constituents, eicosanoid precursors and metabolic regulators. It is 25 years, since the first publication describing the role of diacylglycerols in cellular signalling, and Becker and Hannun show how the subject has come of age. Payrastre discusses the related topic of phosphoinositides and their cellular functions.

It is increasingly being recognized that lysophospholipids are important signalling molecules that may be related to human disease states, and these functions are described by Susan Pyne. Platelet-activating factor was probably the first phospholipid to be recognized as having an important role in metabolism other than as a membranes constituent, and this and the plasmalogens are discussed by Farooqui and Horrocks. Ceramides and glycosphingolipids merit two important chapters. There follow three dealing with various aspects of prostaglandin biosynthesis and metabolism, including one by the editor, Anna Nicolaou. These have certainly clarified a complex subject for me. Finally, the co-editor Kokotos has written a useful chapter on the endocannabinoids.

In short, this is an excellent book that deserves to sell well. It should be on the desk of everyone with any interest in lipids.

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