Speaker
Description
Foods are sources of several nutrients and bioactive compounds that help maintain the body in proper health and prevent cancers associated with dietary exposures. There could be an interactive effect between diet and other host factors, such as lifestyle and genetics, involved in carcinogenesis. With the advancement of nutritional research and the translation of progress into practical approaches, it has become a key aspect. Precision nutrition is a novel result of this development that recommends food choices and eating patterns that meet individual needs and personal preferences. Therefore, the aim of this presentation is to elaborate on how to utilize precision nutrition concepts to unlock the power of food in cancer prevention.
Over the past few decades, nutritional science and research have made massive progress towards personalization, incorporating various areas of knowledge such as using diet as a treatment for various diseases, anthropometric and biochemical markers, food frequency questionnaires, as well as nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics information. Additionally, it is important to recognize the development of algorithms in nutritional genomics research and the advancements in multi-omics research that explore nutrigenetics interactions for genetically-tailored nutritional advice. The term “multi-omics approach” can be used as an alternative term for the holistic approach, where researchers integrate genomics, metagenomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics in nutritional research. The concepts related to precision nutrition can be discussed within three main broad aspects: the gut microbiome, genetics and epigenetics, and healthy aging.
The gut microbiome is directly related to human health and diseases. Diet plays a major role in regulating the gut microbiome. Each individual’s gut microbiome is unique, similar to a fingerprint, and there is no universal recommendation for a healthy diet related to the gut microbiome. With the rapid advancement of sequencing and high-throughput technologies, it has become possible to characterize changes in gut microbiome composition due to various diets and their effects on carcinogenesis. Due to the complex interplay between the host, diet, and gut microbiome, there is an increasing need for microbiome-oriented precision nutrition research.
In terms of genetics and epigenetics, precision nutrition takes advantage of investigating genome-wide genetic and epigenetic variants with the ultimate goal of personalizing the diet according to an individual’s biological needs for cancer prevention. Nutritional genomics encompasses nutrigenetics, which aims to clarify how individuals respond to nutrients based on their genetic background. Nutrigenomics can unravel changes in gene expression levels and resulting levels of proteins and metabolites induced by dietary factors, while nutriepigenomics investigates the epigenetic changes induced by nutrients. These disciplines yield complementary results for personalizing the diet according to an individual’s integrated metabolism.
The aging process is a multifactorial biological process characterized by changes at the molecular and cellular levels that affect multiple physiological functions and immune competence. Both epigenetic regulation and microbial metabolites are critical factors that need to be focused on in relation to individual aspects of cancer occurrence. They may provide accurate biomarkers of healthy aging, such as the epigenetic clock, which could potentially lead to personalization.
The translation of precision nutrition can be implemented in two major areas: the dietary management of people with cancer or those who require special nutritional support, and the development of more effective interventions to improve public health for cancer prevention. Our laboratory has conducted studies on gene-diet and microbiome-diet interactions in gastrointestinal cancers as part of the precision nutrition concept. As a future direction, the application of a systems approach with the use of artificial intelligence-based strategies in nutrition research could be suggested. In conclusion, integrating better biomarkers of cancer risk influenced by diet at the individual level into precision nutrition approaches is crucial.
References
- Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, et al. (2021) Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin 71, 209-49.
- Hong S, Won YJ, Lee JJ, et al. (2021) Cancer statistics in Korea: incidence, mortality, survival, and prevalence in 2018. Cancer Res Treat 53, 301-15.
- World Cancer Research Fund International. Diet, Nutrition, Physical activity and cancer; World Cancer Research Fund International: London, UK, 2023
| Keywords | precision nutrition, cancer, prevention, omics |
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