US-12620459-B2 - High efficacy functional ingredient blends

US12620459B2US 12620459 B2US12620459 B2US 12620459B2US-12620459-B2

Abstract

A system is configured to identify efficacious ingredients for functional blends by determining a rank of at least one functional ingredient using several pathway-based groups of functional ingredients. A rank of at least one functional ingredient is based on predicted activity of active compounds present in the at least one functional ingredient.

Inventors

Jenna Wang
Tsz-Ching (James) Yuan
Lei Zhao
Lara Nyman
KELLY BARNES
Elhadji DIOUM
YiFang Chu

Assignees

STOKELY-VAN CAMP, INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20220216

Claims (20)

1 . A system comprising: a database including data indicating a plurality of functional ingredients, each functional ingredient having at least one active compound, and each functional ingredient affecting a predefined organism function via a corresponding biological pathway; and an analytic device communicatively coupled to the database to receive data therefrom, wherein the analytic device comprises processors and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processors, causes the analytic device to: receive, from the database, a plurality of groups of functional ingredients, each group including a plurality of functional ingredients that affect a same organism function via a same corresponding biological pathway, for each active compound present in each of the functional ingredients, determine a reverse fingerprinting score of the active compound, wherein determining the reverse fingerprinting score of the active compound comprises: representing, by the analytic device and without human input, molecular descriptors of physicochemical or structural features of molecules of the active compound as a plurality of bit strings; identifying, by the analytic device and without human input, whether each bit in the plurality of bit strings corresponds to presence or absence of a particular physicochemical or structural feature for producing a food product; and evaluating, by the analytic device and without human input, a frequency of bit positions corresponding to the particular physicochemical or structural feature in the plurality of bit strings to generate the reverse fingerprinting score of the active compound, determine a rank of each of the functional ingredients based on the respective reverse fingerprinting score, generate a blend of functional ingredients based on selecting at least one functional ingredient amongst the plurality of functional ingredients having a rank greater than a threshold rank, and return the blend of functional ingredients for use in creating the food product with the at least one functional ingredient in the blend of functional ingredients.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the predefined organism function is selected from sleep, metabolism, gut health, cognition, immunity, attentiveness, alertness, test performance, relaxation, pain, anxiety, inflammation, drowsiness, insomnia, discomfort, stress, vitality, vigor, mental acuity, bone health, circulatory health, and vascular health.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the analytic device is further configured to determine, for each active compound present in each of the functional ingredients, at least one of (i) a docking score indicating a level of interaction of the active compound with a target receptor or (ii) a multi-parameter optimization score indicating ability of the active compound to cross a blood-brain membrane barrier.
4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the analytic device is configured to, for each active compound present in each of the functional ingredients, determine a second score that differs from the reverse fingerprinting score, determine a second rank of each of the functional ingredients based on the reverse fingerprinting score and the second score, and generate the blend of functional ingredients by selecting, from at least one pathway-based group, at least one functional ingredient having the rank greater than the threshold rank.
5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the second score is one of (i) a docking score indicating a level of interaction of the active compound with a target receptor, (ii) a second reverse fingerprinting score indicating a difference between a molecular fingerprint of the active compound and a reference fingerprint of a reference compound, or (iii) a multi-parameter optimization score indicating ability of the active compound to cross a blood-brain membrane barrier and differs from the reverse fingerprinting score.
6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the analytic device is further configured to determine a third score that differs from the reverse fingerprinting score and the second score, determine a third rank of each of the functional ingredients based on the reverse fingerprinting score, the second score, and the third score, and generate the blend of functional ingredients by selecting, from at least one pathway-based group, at least one functional ingredient having the rank greater than the threshold rank.
7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the third score is one of (i) a docking score indicating a level of interaction of the active compound with a target receptor, (ii) another reverse fingerprinting score indicating a difference between a molecular fingerprint of the active compound and a reference fingerprint of a reference compound, or (iii) a multi-parameter optimization score indicating ability of the active compound to cross a blood-brain membrane barrier and differs from the reverse fingerprinting score and the second score.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the predefined organism function is selected from one of sleep and metabolism.
9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein one of the biological pathways is an adenosine (Ado) pathway.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein one of the biological pathways is a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) pathway.
11 . A method comprising: receiving, by a controller, a plurality of groups of functional ingredients, each group including a plurality of functional ingredients that affect a predefined organism function via a same corresponding biological pathway, and each functional ingredient having at least one active compound, for each active compound in each of the functional ingredients, determining a reverse fingerprinting score of the active compound, wherein determining the reverse fingerprinting score of the active compound comprises: representing, by the controller and without human input, molecular descriptors of physicochemical or structural features of molecules of the active compound as a plurality of bit strings; identifying, by the controller and without human input, whether each bit in the plurality of bit strings corresponds to presence or absence of a particular physicochemical or structural feature for producing a food product; and evaluating, by the controller and without human input, a frequency of bit positions corresponding to the particular physicochemical or structural feature in the plurality of bit strings to generate the reverse fingerprinting score of the active compound, determining a rank of each of the functional ingredients based on the respective reverse fingerprinting score, generating a blend of functional ingredients based on selecting at least one functional ingredient among the plurality of functional ingredients having a rank greater than a threshold rank, and returning the blend of functional ingredients for use in creating the food product with the at least one functional ingredient in the blend of functional ingredients.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the predefined organism function is selected from sleep, metabolism, gut health, cognition, immunity, attentiveness, alertness, test performance, relaxation, pain, anxiety, inflammation, drowsiness, insomnia, discomfort, stress, vitality, vigor, mental acuity, bone health, circulatory health, and vascular health.
13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising determining, for each active compound present in each of the functional ingredients, at least one of (i) a docking score indicating a level of interaction of the at least one active compound with a target receptor or (ii) a multi-parameter optimization score indicating ability of the at least one active compound to cross a blood-brain membrane barrier.
14 . The method of claim 13 further comprising, for each active compound present in each of the functional ingredients, determine a second score that differs from the reverse fingerprinting score, determine a second rank of each of the functional ingredients based on the reverse fingerprinting score and the second score, and generate the blend of functional ingredients by selecting, from at least one pathway-based group, at least one functional ingredient having the rank greater than the threshold rank.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the second score is one of (i) a docking score indicating a level of interaction of the active compound with a target receptor, (ii) a second reverse fingerprinting score indicating a difference between a molecular fingerprint of the active compound and a reference fingerprint of a reference compound, or (iii) a multi-parameter optimization score indicating ability of the active compound to cross a blood-brain membrane barrier and differs from the reverse fingerprinting score.
16 . The method of claim 15 further comprising determining a third score that differs from the reverse fingerprinting score and the second score, determine a third rank of each of the functional ingredients based on the reverse fingerprinting score, the second score, and the third score, and generate the blend of functional ingredients by selecting, from at least one pathway-based group, at least one functional ingredient having the rank greater than the threshold rank.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the third score is one of (i) a docking score indicating a level of interaction of the active compound with a target receptor, (ii) another reverse fingerprinting score indicating a difference between a molecular fingerprint of the active compound and a reference fingerprint of a reference compound, or (iii) a multi-parameter optimization score indicating ability of the active compound to cross a blood-brain membrane barrier and differs from the reverse fingerprinting score and the second score.
18 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the predefined organism function is selected from one of sleep and metabolism.
19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein one of the biological pathways is an adenosine (Ado) pathway.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein one of the biological pathways is a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) pathway.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure generally relates to identifying efficacious ingredients for high efficacy blends. BACKGROUND Consumers are searching for natural solutions to improve their well-being and health. Typically, blends of functional ingredients are marketed for a particular purpose based on the efficacy of the individual ingredients forming the blend rather than the efficacy of the blend “as a whole”. It would be desirable to create blends of specific individual functional foods that, in combination, provide efficacious results. SUMMARY A system of the present disclosure is configured to identify efficacious ingredients for functional blends by determining a rank of functional ingredients using several pathway-based groups of functional ingredients. The ranking system may be based on predicted activity of active compounds present in that functional ingredient, and may further include a filter of blood-brain membrane barrier (BBB) permeability yielding a score which enables prediction of top candidates for functionality. A system of the present disclosure is configured to identify efficacious ingredients for blends of functional ingredients. The system may include a database that includes data that indicates a plurality of functional ingredients where each functional ingredient has at least one active compound, and each functional ingredient affects a predefined organism function via a corresponding biological pathway. The system may also include an analytic device that is communicatively coupled to the database to receive data from the data base. The analytic device may be configured to (i) receive, from the database, a plurality of groups of functional ingredients, each group including a plurality of functional ingredients that affect the same organism function via the same corresponding biological pathway, (ii) for at least one active compound present in at least one functional ingredient of at least one pathway-based group of functional ingredients, determine at least a first score of the active compound, (iii) determine a first rank of the at least one functional ingredient of at least one pathway-based group based on the first score of the at least one active compound of the at least one functional ingredient, and/or (iv) generate a blend of two or more functional ingredients by selecting, from at least one pathway-based group, at least one functional ingredient having the first rank greater than a threshold. A method of the present disclosure includes, receiving by a controller, a plurality of groups of functional ingredients with each group including a plurality of functional ingredients that affect a predefined organism function via the same corresponding biological pathway, and each functional ingredient having at least one active compound. The method may also include, determining a first score for one or more active compounds present in at least one functional ingredient of at least one of the plurality of pathway-based groups of functional ingredients. The method may also include determining a first rank of at least one functional ingredient based on the first score of the one or more active compounds present in the at least one functional ingredient, and generating a blend of two or more functional ingredients by selecting, from at least one pathway-based group of functional ingredients, at least one functional ingredient having the first rank greater than a threshold. In other aspects, a system of the present disclosure may include a database that includes data indicating a plurality of functional ingredients with each functional ingredient having at least one active compound, and each functional ingredient affecting a predefined organism function via a corresponding biological pathway. The system may also include an analytic device that is configured to (i) receive, from the database, a plurality of groups of functional ingredients, each functional ingredient having at least one active compound, each functional ingredient affecting a predefined organism function via the same corresponding biological pathway, (ii) determine at least one score of one or more active compounds present in at least one functional ingredient of at least one of the plurality of pathway-based groups of functional ingredients, (iii) determine a rank of the at least one functional ingredient based on the at least one score of the one or more active compounds present in the at least one functional ingredient and (iv) generate a blend of two or more functional ingredients by selecting, from at least one of the plurality of pathway-based groups of functional ingredients, at least one functional ingredient having the rank greater than a threshold. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The detailed description particularly refers to the following figures, in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system for generating functional ingredient blends; FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a coop