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Flavonoids and Human Metabolic Disease Intervention

A Special Issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643) belonging to the section "Phytochemicals and Human Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 December 2026 | Viewed by 1068

Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
Interests: phytonutrients; chronic disease prevention; personalized nutrition; gut microbiome; nutrigenomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
Interests: medicinal and food plants; metabolic diseases; obesity; immunity and intestinal flora; nutrition and food safety; alcoholic liver disease; non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the global rise in conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, there is growing interest in bioactive food compounds as complementary strategies for metabolic health. Flavonoids, widely present in fruits, vegetables, and beverages, have demonstrated potential in modulating oxidative stress, inflammation, lipid metabolism, and insulin sensitivity through various molecular pathways. This issue invites original research and review articles that investigate the mechanisms of action, bioavailability, clinical efficacy, and epidemiological evidence of flavonoids in relation to metabolic diseases. We seek contributions that advance our understanding of how flavonoid-rich diets or isolated compounds can be integrated into personalized nutritional approaches for disease intervention, ultimately supporting translational research from bench to bedside.

Prof. Dr. Yueliang Zhao
Dr. Sha Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Publisher’s Notice

Following discussions between the Nutrients Editorial Office and the Guest Editor(s), a new Guest Editor, Dr. Sha Li, has been added to the Special Issue. This change has been approved by the journal Editorial Board, and the Special Issue website has been updated accordingly on 27 August 2027. The Special Issue will continue to be handled by the current Guest Editors in accordance with MDPI’s Special Issue and editorial policies.

Keywords

  • flavonoids
  • metabolic syndrome
  • type 2 diabetes
  • obesity
  • cardiometabolic health
  • oxidative stress
  • clinical intervention
  • nutraceuticals
  • gut microbiota
  • personalized nutrition

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

28 pages, 14161 KB  
Article
Computational Prediction of Hesperetin Modulatory Targets in Dibutyl Phthalate-Associated Steatotic Liver Injury: An Integrated Network Toxicology, Molecular Docking, and AOP-Based Study
by Shiwen Zhou, Sha Li, Yue Zhao, Hu Shi and Yueliang Zhao
Nutrients 2026, 18(15), 2577; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18152577 - 6 Aug 2026
Viewed by 595
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is a ubiquitous environmental plasticizer that has been associated with metabolic dysfunction and steatotic liver injury. Hesperetin, a citrus flavonoid, has reported hepatoprotective properties, but its potential protective mechanisms against DBP-associated steatotic liver injury remain incompletely characterized. Methods: This [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is a ubiquitous environmental plasticizer that has been associated with metabolic dysfunction and steatotic liver injury. Hesperetin, a citrus flavonoid, has reported hepatoprotective properties, but its potential protective mechanisms against DBP-associated steatotic liver injury remain incompletely characterized. Methods: This study integrated network toxicology, network pharmacology, protein–protein interaction analysis, Gene Ontology and KEGG enrichment, molecular docking with redocking validation, sensitivity analysis, and an adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework to systematically explore the predictive networks linking DBP exposure, MASLD (historically termed NAFLD)-related targets, and hesperetin intervention. Results: The DBP-MASLD network identified TP53, PPARG, TNF, AKT1, and CASP3 as candidate hub targets associated with toxicity, whereas the hesperetin-MASLD network highlighted HSP90AA1, PPARG, ESR1, TNF, and MDM2 as candidate modulatory targets. Integrated pathway analysis indicated that these targets converged mainly on the lipid and atherosclerosis pathway (hsa05417). Triplicate molecular docking, AUC-ROC differentiation validation, and PLIP analysis suggested that Hesperetin (and its glucuronide metabolite) may competitively interact with the exact same active pockets as DBP (and its MBP metabolite). These computational predictions suggest a structural basis for potential interaction, but do not confirm physiological competitive displacement. Conclusions: This in silico study identifies PPARG and TNF as candidate hub targets, providing a structural hypothesis for hesperetin’s potential modulatory effects on DBP-induced steatotic liver injury. These computational predictions establish a theoretical dual-network framework that warrants subsequent in vitro and in vivo experimental validation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flavonoids and Human Metabolic Disease Intervention)
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