Examples of nutrigenomics An example of nutrigenomics is the link between a compound in red wine called resveratrol and cancer. Resveratrol can stimulate a gene that protects tissues from free radical damage and can therefore help prevent cancer. Folate, a nutrient found in deep green leafy vegetables, is important for making DNA. Nutritional genomics studies the interaction between nutrients, metabolic intermediates, and
the mammalian genome.
The response to bioactive food components depends on the genetic background (nutrigenetic effects), which can influence absorption and metabolic goals or sites of action. The response to food components also depends on DNA methylation and other epigenetic events. The ability of bioactive food components to influence gene expression patterns (nutrigenomic effects) is also a factor that determines the overall response. Finally, bioactive food ingredients can influence protein synthesis, degradation, and post-translational modification
.
Understanding the links between human genetic diversity, genome function, and dietary components will enable precise manipulation of genome function and stability throughout the life cycle to ensure optimal human health and disease prevention. Nutrigenomics, or nutritional genomics, is the study of how genes and diet interact, says Peart. Variants (differences) in your genes predict how your body is likely to react to certain nutrients. There is growing evidence that genome instability when there is no direct exposure to genotoxins is itself a sensitive
marker of nutrient deficiencies
.Nutrigenomics will help initiate the development of new functional foods and genome health supplements that can be mixed and matched so that total nutrient intake is adequately tailored to a person’s genotype and genome status. As mentioned above, nutritional status influences genome stability, and deficiencies in certain micronutrients can cause serious damage to the genome. As in pharmacogenomics, where a drug has different effects on different population groups, researchers recognize that only a portion of the population reacts positively to certain dietary measures, while others do not respond to them and others could even be negatively affected. On the question of personalized nutrition and whether nutrigenomics can contribute to sustainable change in individual diet and lifestyle changes, the multi-center Food4Me study recently financed by the EU tried to answer some
of these questions.
One such endeavor is nutrigenomics, the integration of genomic science with diet and, when possible, with other lifestyle variables such as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. He developed the Genome Health Clinic concept, a new type of healthcare based on the diagnosis and nutritional prevention of DNA damage and the resulting diseases. Genetic variations are known to affect the food compatibility of human subpopulations. They can also influence dietary requirements and open up opportunities to individualize dietary intake based on the individual genome for optimal health and disease prevention. Fenech developed the concept of “Genome Health Nutrigenomics,” a science that investigates how a lack or excess of nutrients can cause genome mutations at the base sequence or chromosome
level.
Nutrigenomics also describes the use of functional genomic tools to study a biological system to understand how nutrient molecules influence metabolic pathways and homeostatic control. Nutritional genomics focuses on the interaction between bioactive food ingredients and the genome. This includes nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics. Lynn Ferguson, professor of nutrition at Auckland University in New Zealand and program manager at the New Zealand National Centre for Research Excellence in Nutrigenomics, also says: “The control of food intake is strongly influenced by gene variants that code for taste receptors or for a range of peripheral signal peptides such as insulin, leptin, ghrelin, cholecystokinin and corresponding receptors
.