Nutrigenomics, health's new ally

Nutrigenomics is the study of molecular relationships between nutrition and the response of genes, with the aim of extrapolating how such subtle changes can affect human health (Chavez A, Munoz de Chavez M . Eur J Clin Nut, 57(Suppl. 1)97-100, 2003).

The alarming rise in the prevalence of obesity and associated pathologies (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke) points an accusing finger at the inadequacies between modern diets, a sedentary lifestyle and our genetic inheritance.

The postgenomic era is the catalyst for a veritable revolution in the nutritional sciences, thanks to the development of genomics and associated technologies.

Nutrigenomics relies on these new high-performance tools to define and characterise «diet signatures» reflecting the action of nutrients on the structure and expression of the human genome.

The challenges of nutrigenomics are, first, to prevent illness by detecting nutrient impacts on biological markers identifying the early stages of diseases. The second challenge is therapeutic, once the disease takes hold. Here, nutrigenomics allies itself with pharmacogenomics in seeking maximum benefit from treatments.

In a few years tailor-made nutritional recommendations will be possible, taking into account individuals' personal nutritional needs on the basis of their genotype, age, sex, physical activity and profession, the purpose of all this being to improve the population's general state of health.

(From Walter Wahli and Nathalie Constantin, Swiss Medical Forum, 2009a)

Nutrigenomics, a medico-social challenge

Nutrigenomics open new avenues for the nutritional sciences in very different areas. A few worth mentioning are tailor-made diets for overfed populations and better foods for malnourished populations, nutrients designed to potentiate drug-based treatments, or nutrients to preserve the integrity of the genome of in vitro cultured stem cells for therapeutic use in vivo.

Nutrigenomics will bring new generations of "nutrigenomic products" onto the market, often as combinations of ingredients to optimize a variety of functions in humans, animals and plants.

Personalized, genotype-based nutrition will impact on humans' relationship with nutrition at its economic, social, ethical and medical dimensions. This will mean greater responsibility for individuals in the way their eating habits evolve.

Medicine, biology, human sciences and the food industry will do well to join forces in promoting nutrigenomics as a vector for scientific and social innovation, in the prevention of, and the fight against, diseases arising from the mismatch between certain foods and eating habits and the regulatory capabilities of the genome.

(From Walter Wahli and Nathalie Constantin, Swiss Medical Forum, 2009a)

Nutrinomic Research Activities at Exichol

Exichol investigates the interaction between micronutrient combinations and the genome. Indeed, whilst it is known that nutrients play an important role in health and disease, their regulatory action on gene expression is still poorly known. In light of the rapid advances in molecular genetics, which have been fuelled by the elucidation of the human and mouse genomes, there are novel opportunities for research in combinatorial nutrition, and hence for the development of innovative products with specific genome signatures. The scope of Exichol’s research is within the new field of NutriGenomics, which investigates the response of the genome to diverse forms of nutrition and aims at the development of novel micronutritional combinations improving the metabolic syndrome.

Exichol’s nutrigenomics reseach missions comprise :

- the identification of networks of genes responding to Exichol’s combined micronutrients in organisms predisposed to diet-related diseases (diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases) ;
- the characterization of the systemic beneficial action of the combined micronutrients resulting from their action on genes that participate in metabolic homeostasis, whose deregulation by genetic or environmental factors results in the cluster of conditions defined as metabolic syndrome ;
- the development of improved and novel therapeutic micronutrient combinations, based on gene expression profiles, promoting the metabolic balance and, consequently, a better health status.

This research will contribute to unveil the mechanisms of the metabolic syndrome as a whole and, more importantly provide ways to reduce all the risk factors and the long-term deleterious consequences of the metabolic syndrome conditions. In addition to a primary intervention based on a nutritional approach, people considered at high risk, require classic drug therapy as secondary intervention. The currently available pharmacological agents treat the individual components of the syndrome. It would be highly beneficial to have at disposal therapies that impact on several risk factors concurrently. With this goal in mind, Exichol is testing micronutrient combinations with known specific drugs against hypercholesterolemia, hyperlipidemia, and type 2 diabetes. In such associations, combinatorial nutrition and classic drugs may synergize and, as a result, have the expected overall impact affecting several conditions simultaneously with, hopefully, reduced deleterious sides effects known for all classic drugs.

The proposed mechanistic studies will be greatly assisted by different mouse models that have proven their usefulness in the study human diseases. In fact, continued refinement of genetic tools provides more accurate models of human pathologies, which form an extremely valuable resource for basic and clinical research. These models offer a flexible testing platform for current and future therapeutic nutritional interventions.