Nutrigenomics

Health nudge interventions to steer people into healthier lifestyles are increasingly applied by governments worldwide, and it is natural to look to such approaches to improve health by altering what people choose to eat. However, to produce policy recommendations that are likely to be effective, we need to be able to make valid predictions about the consequences of proposed interventions, and for this, we need a better understanding of the determinants of food choice. These determinants include dietary components (e.g. highly palatable foods and alcohol), but also diverse cultural and social pressures, cognitive-affective factors (perceived stress, health attitude, anxiety and depression), and familial, genetic and epigenetic influences on personality characteristics. In addition, our choices are influenced by an array of physiological mechanisms, including signals to the brain from the gastrointestinal tract and adipose tissue, which affect not only our hunger and satiety but also...

A B S T R A C T Ruminants have a very special niche in the animal kingdom, and are the most important livestock species providing milk, meat, and wool for humans from consumption of highly-fibrous feedstuffs. Cattle, goat and sheep have been widely-used for years as models to study ruminal fermentation and the mechanisms whereby tissues utilize nutrients for milk synthesis, growth, wool accretion, and reproduction. The advent of high-throughput technologies to study an animal's genome, proteome, and metabolome (i.e., " omics " tools) offered ruminant scientists the opportunity to study multiple levels of biological information to better understand the whole animal response to nutrition, environment, physiological state, and their interactions. The omics revolution gave rise to the field of nutrigenomics, i.e. the study of the genome-wide influences of nutrition through alteration in mRNA, protein, and metabolite expression or abundance. This field of research is relatively new in ruminants, and particularly sheep and goats. Dietary compounds affect gene expression directly or indirectly via interactions with transcription factors including ligand-dependent nuclear receptors. New knowledge generated through the application of functional analyses of transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data sets in goat and sheep is discussed.

La epigenética estudia los procesos de expresión géni- ca que no requieren de la modificación de la secuencia de  AdN, es decir, se ocupa de las diferentes trayectorias que un genotipo puede tomar a lo largo del desarrollo del organismo. Estos mecanismos están implicados en procesos biológicos básicos como la diferenciación celular o la selección sexual, en el desarrollo de enfermedades complejas como el síndrome de Rett y en trastornos psiquiátricos como la esquizofrenia y la depresión, entre otros. Los estudios epigenéticos están proporcionando evidencias de que los eventos ambientales y los factores psicosociales pueden modificar el epigenoma.

La presentazione, redatta in occasione di un esame, prende in considerazione l'interazione tra gli alimenti e l'istone deacetilasi.
In particolare si è voluto porre attenzione alle:
- diete iperlipidiche
- diete iperglicemiche
e alcune sostanze quali:
- sulforafano
- curcumina
- Epigallocatechina 3 gallato
- butirrato

In Italy, patients with dyslipidemia account for 15-20% of the adult population with major healthcare and socio-economic impact. According to the ESC/EAS guidelines for the management of dyslipidemias, desirable cholesterol and triglyceride levels can be achieved with a synergy between drug treatment and adequate diet therapy. However, what diets should be adopted? In this review article, different types of dietary treatments are compared, with a special focus on diet education. The new scientific frontier of nutrigenetics is also discussed.

Despite progress that has been made in the treatment of obesity, the epidemic continues to rise worldwide. While pharmacological treatment of obesity may be effective, medications may have significant side effects and can be potentially fatal. This review will provide significant evidence to substantiate the existence of Reward Deficiency Syndrome in Obesity and the role of catecholaminergic pathways in aberrant substance seeking behavior, in particular cravings for carbohydrates. The genetic basis for generalized craving behavior will be established. Evidence to support the augmentation of precursor amino acid therapy and enkephalinase, MOA and COMT inhibition leading to enhanced levels of neurotransmitters: serotonin, enkephalins, GABA and dopamine/norepinephrine as well increasing insulin sensitivity (affecting dopamine neuronal synthesis regulation) through the use of certain neurometabolic optimizers will also be provided. This review article cites many published studies to support a conceptual paradigm shift towards the use of this proposed nutrigenomic formula. The analysis and research preceding this formulation is outlined. This formulation has a generalized anti-craving effect and can inhibit carbohydrate bingeing, inducing significant healthy fat loss and prevention of relapse. This is the first time that components of this formula have been combined, at the dosage levels indicated with the goal of promoting successful and sustainable body recomposition. We are encouraging other laboratories to further evaluate Neuroadtagen Amino-Acid Therapy (NAAT)/Nurometabolic optimizers as a putative anti-obesity complex in larger controlled blinded studies and await interpretation of must these needed studies.

Pregnancy is a vital time of growth and development during which maternal nutrition significantly influences the future health of both mother and baby. During pregnancy, the fetus experiences a critical period of plasticity. Epigenetics, specifically DNA methylation, plays an important role here. As nutrition is influential for DNA methylation, this review aims to determine if maternal nutrition during pregnancy can modify the offspring's epigenome at birth. Research focuses on micronutrients and methyl donors such as folate and B vitamins. Evidence suggests that maternal nutrition does not largely influence global methylation patterns, particularly in nutrient-replete populations; however, an important impact on gene-specific methylation is observed. A link is shown between maternal nutrition and the methylome of the offspring; however, there remains a paucity of research. With the potential to use DNA methylation patterns at birth to predict health of the child in later life, it is vital that further research be carried out.

The modern food system feeds six billion people with remarkable diversity, safety, and nutrition. Yet, the current rise in diet-related diseases is compromising health and devaluing many aspects of modern agriculture. Steps to increase the nutritional quality of individual foods will assist in personalizing health and in guiding individuals to achieve superior health. Nutrigenomics is the scientific field of the genetic basis for varying susceptibilities to disease and the diverse responses to foods. Although some of these genetic determinants will be simple and amenable to personal genotyping as the means to predict health, in practice most will not. As a result, genotyping will not be the secret to personalizing diet and health. Human assessment technologies from imaging to proteomics and metabolomics are providing tools to both understand and accurately assess the nutritional phenotype of individuals. The business models are also emerging to bring these assessment capabilities to...

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are one of the commonest birth defects with a high incidence in India. However, few studies have systematically looked into the etio-pathogeneis of NTDs, which mainly includes nutritional deficiencies and genetic predisposition. Efforts are afoot for universal food fortification with folic acid in the hope of preventing NTDs, without factual evidence of folate deficiency in the target population. We conducted a review of Indian literature on NTDs focusing on the role of folate and vitamin B12 nutrition and common genetic polymorphisms in 1-carbon metabolism. We performed a literature search of Medline and Indian Medlars (www. indmed.nic.in) for articles using following search terms: Neural tube defect and India, published up to November 2008, on human subjects. We did not include individual case reports and case series describing surgical and medical management, genetic syndromes where NTD was only one of the features or unusual associations of NTDs with o...

Evolutionary medicine has gained increasing attention in recent years by implying that a food selection similar to that of the Paleolithic may prevent diseases. This article is an attempt to characterize the food selection during hominid evolution based on current paleontologic research. Hominid evolution can be divided into multiple phases; and the nutrition ecology of the plio-pleistocene hominids can be tentatively characterized. According to new results of isotope analysis, the Australopithecines did ingest small amounts of animal food already 4.5–2.5 million years ago, while consuming a mainly plant based abrasive diet, which was similar to that of recent chimpanzees. Compared to the Australopithecines, the first representatives of Homo such as H. erectus and H. habilis (2.5–1.5 million years before today) were likely to consume a diet providing more energy and nutrients, which might also have been related to the more gracile dentition. Like H. sapiens the members of this species also consumed an omnivore diet. Assumptions about the nutrition ecology of the archaic and the modern H. sapiens are often concluded by analogies based on the living of historic and recent foragers (hunter-gatherers). As the few detailed ethnographic data show, the diet composition of the individual hunter-gatherer groups varied considerably and ranged from a nearly pure animal-based diet to a diet dominated by plants. All in all the eating behaviour of prehistoric humans was, like that of their pleistocene ancestors, very flexible. Except for focussing on an energy and nutrient-rich diet there was neither specialization in certain foods, nor a typical plant-animal ratio nor a defined macronutrient distribution. Correspondingly, it is impossible to justify details given by representatives of evolutionary medicine on "the Paleolithic diet" empirically. Die These, wonach eine an der Nahrungsauswahl des Paläolithikums orientierte Ernährungsweise von präventivmedizinischer Relevanz sein soll, ist in den letzten Jahren auf wachsendes Interesse gestoßen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt dieser Beitrag den Versuch dar, die Nahrungsauswahl im Verlauf der Hominisation auf Basis der aktuellen paläontologischen Forschungsergebnisse zu rekonstruieren. Bei der Hominisation lassen sich mehrere Stadien differenzieren und die Ernährungsökologie der plio-pleistozänen Homininen versuchsweise charakterisieren. Neueren Isotopen-Auswertungen zufolge sollen die Australopithecinen im Zeitraum von vor 4,5–2,5 Mio. Jahren bereits geringe Mengen tierischer Nahrung aufgenommen, jedoch eine vorwiegend harte, abrasive pflanzliche Kost konsumiert haben, die der rezenter Schimpansen ähnelte. Im Vergleich zu den Australopithecinen dürften die ersten Vertreter von Homo wie H. erectus und H. habilis (2,5–1,5 Mio Jahre vor heute) eine energetisch gehaltvollere, nährstoffkonzentriertere Kost verzehrt haben, was auch mit der Grazilisierung des Gebisses in Verbindung steht. Wie H. sapiens sollen die Mitglieder dieser Spezies eine omnivore Ernährungsstrategie verfolgt haben. Aussagen zur Ernährungsökologie des archaischen und des modernen H. sapiens gründen vielfach auf Analogieschlüssen zur Lebensweise historischer und rezenter Wildbeuter (Jäger und Sammler). Wie die wenigen detaillierten ethnographischen Daten zeigen, variiert die Zusammensetzung der Kost bei den einzelnen Jägern und Sammlern erheblich und reicht von einer fast rein animalischen bis hin zu einer vorwiegend auf pflanzlichen Ressourcen basierenden Nahrung. Insgesamt stellt sich das Ernährungsverhalten des prähistorischen Menschen wie das seiner pleistozänen Vorfahren als sehr flexibel dar. Mit Ausnahme der Fokussierung auf eine energetisch hochwertige, nährstoffreiche Kost lässt sich keine Spezialisierung auf bestimmte Lebensmittel, ein charakteristisches Pflanzen-Tier-Verhältnis oder eine definierte Makronährstoffverteilung erkennen. Entsprechend ist keine empirisch begründete Aussage dazu möglich, wie die vielfach als "artgerecht" propagierte "Steinzeiternährung" im Detail beschaffen war.

Nutrigenomics attempts to define the molecular relationships between nutrition and the response of genes, as well as establishing the expected response of the individual to nutritional substances depending on the person’s basic genetic makeup.
The ultimate aim is to extrapolate how such subtle changes can affect human health. Nutrigenomics focuses on the effect of nutrients on the genome, proteome and metabolome. By determining the mechanism of the effects of nutrients or the effects of a nutritional regime, Nutrigenomics tries to define the relationships between these specific nutrients and specific nutrient regimes (diets) on human health. Nutrigenomics has been associated with the idea of personalized nutrition based on genotype. While there is hope that nutrigenomics will ultimately enable such personalised dietary advice a great deal more work needs to be done in this area.
The main objectives  of this lecture are:
1) To identify and validate nutrigenetic, nutritional epigenetic & transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic biomarkers of effect and susceptibility.
2) Develop effective clinical and nutritional intervention programs in line with recent nutrigenomic information

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) encompassed several chronic inflammatory disorders leading to damage of the gastrointestinal tract (GI). The 2 principal forms of these disorders are ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn disease (CD). Bacteria are involved in the etiology of IBD, and the genetic susceptibility, environmental factors, and lifestyle factors can affect the individual's predisposition to IBD. The review discusses the potential role of environmental factors such as diet and microbiota as well as genetics in the etiology of IBD. It is suggested that microbial ecosystem in the human bowel colonizing the gut in many different microhabitats can be influence by diet, leading to formation of metabolic processes that are essential form the bowel metabolism.