Preemptive nutrition of pro-inflammatory states: a nutrigenomic model

Nutrigenomics may provide the nutritional sciences with a molecular basis for positioning nutritional bioactives, functional foods, and designer diets to preemptively offset chronic disease. The preemptive model of nutrition consists of multiple interdependent parts that can be simplified into a number of principle axes. The science axis links nutrient-gene interaction with a health or disease state; the clinical axis ties in the modifying effects of genetic polymorphisms to biomarkers of clinical effect; and the information axis links empowered consumers to authoritative information and counseling resources. Despite the complexity of the model and the nascent state of the nutrigenomic sciences, there are emerging examples of how the model might be reduced to practice, such as the use of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the dietary management of proinflammatory states. Although tightly controlled small-scale clinical studies with n-3 PUFAs are encouraging, what is needed are large-scale studies in free-living populations to broadly validate the molecular model of preemptive nutrition. With the expansion of research and the development of shared nutrigenomic databases, it may well become possible to define and track the influence of targeted nutrition on inflammation and the aging process.