We’ve known for many years that certain micronutrients, such as vitamins A and D, have dramatic effects on gene expression by regulating intracellular receptors that bind promoters of specific genes. Dietary bioactive components regulate gene expression through changes in chromatin structure (including DNA methylation and histone modification), noncoding RNA, activation of transcription factors through signaling cascades, or direct ligand binding to nuclear receptors. The metabolic pathways involved in glucose homeostasis are regulated in part by transcriptional control of the genes that code for the regulatory enzymes of these metabolic pathways. Sterol-rich diets prevent the proteolytic cleavage of SREBPs, which facilitates their translocation
into the cell nucleus and thus the transcription ratio weakens the target gene.
Understanding the interactions between gene products and consumption of bioactive food components is fundamental to identifying these compounds that provide the greatest health benefits and correlate with the risk of disease onset. First, it is an artificial system and the cultured cells have no way of responding to a current factor as they would in an organism, where they are exposed to a whole range of factors that work together to produce a response. It seems important to further develop knowledge about nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics and to encourage dieticians to use this knowledge to make more effective dietary recommendations. Bioactive dietary components influence gene expression through various mechanisms, primarily by altering chromatin structure, non-coding RNA, activation of transcription factors through signaling
cascades or direct ligand binding to the nuclear receptor.
In another study, supplementing pregnant women with olive oil was shown to affect histone acetylation in the genes that regulate immune system proteins during fetal life. It concludes with a discussion of ethical issues and an appendix on determining sample size in connection with the determination of genetic characteristics in nutritional epidemiology studies. Certain patterns of histone modification determine the binding of proteins that regulate the structure of chromatin and determine its state as well as the activity of genes in its area, which is called the histone code. Although the actual mechanism of allergic responses to nutrients is relatively well studied, some aspects require in-depth investigation, particularly when they relate to epigenetic regulation
.
The application of new technologies and the development of new fields of knowledge such as nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics enable individual dietary recommendations. There is increasing evidence that the way nutrients are metabolically processed is more or less genetically controlled. DNA methylation regulates gene expression (primarily gene blocking) by recruiting proteins involved in gene repression (the MBD proteins (methyl-CpG binding proteins)), the UHRF proteins (ubiquitin-like, contain PHD and RING finger domain protein), and the zinc finger proteins, or by impeding the binding of transcription factors to DNA. Nutrigenomics includes research on interactions between nutrients and gene expression as well as the identification of mechanisms that determine how food elements
influence human health.
An adequate, healthy diet (a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, vegetable fats, fish and eggs) is important at every stage of life because it reduces the incidence of not only cancer but also other non-infectious diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, or allergic diseases.