Nutrigenetics: where next for the foods industry?

Role of Personalized Nutrition in Chronic-Degenerative Diseases

Human nutrition is a branch of medicine based on foods biochemical interactions with the human body. The phenotypic transition from health to disease status can be attributed to changes in genes and/or protein expression. For this reason, a new discipline has been developed called “-omic science”. In this review, we analyzed the role of “-omics sciences” (nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, proteomics and metabolomics) in the health status and as possible therapeutic tool in chronic degenerative diseases. In particular, we focused on the role of nutrigenetics and the relationship between eating habits, changes in the DNA sequence and the onset of nutrition-related diseases. Moreover, we examined nutrigenomics and the effect of nutrients on gene expression. We perused the role of proteomics and metabolomics in personalized nutrition. In this scenario, we analyzed also how dysbiosis of gut microbiota can influence the onset and progression of chronic degenerative diseases. Moreover, nutrients influencing and regulating gene activity, both directly and indirectly, paves the way for personalized nutrition that plays a key role in the prevention and treatment of chronic degenerative diseases.

The Applications of Omics Technologies and the Challenges of Ethics in Nutritional Sciences

During the past two decades, there have been numerous developments in the genetic and genomic technologies enabling us to understand complex biological systems in an integrative manner through holistic approaches in research. Since the sequencing of the human genome, efforts are made to identify the number of the genes and their functions. The tools for determining the functionality of the genes are just beginning to appear. Initially the methodologies to identify functionality of the genes were largely based on comparative studies between model organisms. The very high number of genes with unknown functions demanded the need to develop new methods and technologies that may be helpful in assigning functions to the identified genes. Advancements in computing techniques and software opened the door for new technologies to be able to take an applied approach by studying biomolecules needed for proper functioning of the cell and take a holistic approach in biomedical research. Besides genomics, several other technologies are developed in the last decade that take an ‘omics’ approach, i.e., an integrated approach in the study of cell function. It is hoped that the applied integrative omics approaches may be helpful in establishing cause and effect relationships between genotype and phenotype. These ‘omics’ approaches include the integration of genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and other omic technologies to do the non-targeted studies of biomolecules involved in the proper functioning of the cells and their responses to environmental changes. The applications of these technologies have been also utilized in the field of nutrition for studies on how nutrients and other metabolites effect the proper functioning of the cell. With these emerging techniques to understand the molecular functioning of the body, it is envisaged that they might be helpful to give personalized medical care and dietary advice to people based on their individual genotypes in the future. Whilst nutritional genomics is a rapidly growing field in the nutritional sciences focusing on the diet-gene relationships, there is an increasing understanding that other technologies will also be crucial in understanding the whole biological processes involved in metabolism of food. In this chapter I wish to outline the use of contemporary technologies that are involved in establishing the intricate linkages between diet and the genes, and the ethical challenges they raise in their applications.

The challenges for molecular nutrition research 1: linking genotype to healthy nutrition

Nutrition science finds itself at a major crossroad. On the one hand we can continue the current path, which has resulted in some substantial advances, but also many conflicting messages which impair the trust of the general population, especially those who are motivated to improve their health through diet. The other road is uncharted and is being built over the many exciting new developments in life sciences. This new era of nutrition recognizes the complex relation between the health of the individual, its genome, and the life-long dietary exposure, and has lead to the realisation that nutrition is essentially a gene-environment interaction science. This review on the relation between genotype, diet and health is the first of a series dealing with the major challenges in molecular nutrition, analyzing the foundations of nutrition research. With the unravelling of the human genome and the linking of its variability to a multitude of phenotypes from "healthy" to an enormously complex range of predispositions, the dietary modulation of these propensities has become an area of active research. Classical genetic approaches applied so far in medical genetics have steered away from incorporating dietary effects in their models and paradoxically, most genetic studies analyzing diet-associated phenotypes and diseases simply ignore diet. Yet, a modest but increasing number of studies are accounting for diet as a modulator of genetic associations. These range from observational cohorts to intervention studies with prospectively selected genotypes. New statistical and bioinformatics approaches are becoming available to aid in design and evaluation of these studies. This review discusses the various approaches used and provides concrete recommendations for future research.

From farm to pharma: public health challenges of nutrigenomics

Nutrigenomics is speculated to be the next big dimension of genomic sciences geared toward improving public and personal health through nutritional and dietary interventions. This article traces how public health nutrition has been used as an agenda both in agriculture genomics and now in biomedicine. The centrality and importance of food in health and well-being is well recognized and, with the developments in genomics, it has also been used as a tool for public health-related policies and commercialization. This perspective discusses nutrigenomics from four public health perspectives; novel foods and the public health agenda; the epidemic of lifestyle-related diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; commercialization; and conceptual issues. Several ethical and governance issues in applying nutrigenomics to public health and the implications for public policy will also be considered.

Non-invasive methods and stimuli for evaluating the skin's microcirculation

Vessels in the skin are arranged into superficial and deep horizontal plexuses and they are involved in thermoregulation, oxygen and nutritional support. The skin has a large number of functions and broad appeal spanning basic mechanistic and clinical research. Indeed, the skin can be used as a marker of normal and impaired vascular control and, owing to its accessibility and frequent involvement, is easy to investigate non-invasively. A large number of non-invasive methods are available for investigating the skin, ranging from those that permit the visualisation of microvessels, to those that monitor blood flow or one of its derivatives (e.g., skin temperature and transcutaneous oxygen). Such methods can be combined with non-invasive, dynamic stimuli (e.g., the use of cold or warm stimuli, activation of the peripheral nervous system or local neuronal systems, and the topical application of vasoactive drugs) and this potentially enables the differentiation of underlying disorders (e.g., primary from secondary Raynaud's phenomenon) and also to quantify changes over time or following intervention. The present article outlines the non-invasive methods and dynamic tests that can be used to investigate the microcirculation of the skin.