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Heart and Brain: A neutro-genomic link
1Central Lab, R and D Center, Gangwon-do 200-883, South Korea.
Insights
Nutritional genomics explores how diet and genes interact to influence health, particularly the heart-brain connection. Understanding these interactions, like dietary regulation of Liver X Receptor-alpha, can help prevent chronic diseases.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular and Neurological Sciences
- Nutritional Genomics
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- The historical separation of heart and brain health is challenged by modern medicine's focus on the heart-brain connection for complex disorders.
- The concept of diet-genome interactions influencing disease is ancient, but nutritional genomics offers new insights.
- Dietary chemicals regulate gene expression, implicating diet-regulated genes in disease development and severity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore nutritional genomics as a holistic approach to understanding diet-health relationships.
- To investigate the role of dietary components in regulating key factors like Liver X Receptor-alpha.
- To identify disease-preventing and health-promoting foods aligned with lifestyle, culture, and genetics.
Main Methods:
- Investigated the role of nutritional genomics in diet-health-gene interactions.
- Focused on the regulation of Liver X Receptor-alpha (a key transcription factor) by dietary components.
- Utilized findings from molecular biology research at PGIMER, Chandigarh.
Main Results:
- Liver X Receptor-alpha, implicated in coronary heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases, is regulated by dietary components.
- Dietary chemicals directly and indirectly influence gene expression, impacting disease.
- Research highlights the potential of nutritional genomics to understand complex disease pathways.
Conclusions:
- Nutritional genomics provides a systems approach to understanding the intricate relationship between diet, genes, and health.
- Targeting the heart-brain connection through diet holds promise for managing cardiovascular and neurological disorders.
- Personalized nutrition, considering lifestyle, culture, and genetics, is key for disease prevention and health promotion.
Abstract:
The philosophy of heart and brain are very ancient in our literature where the things good for the heart are not suggested good for the brain and vice-versa. Modern medicine is characterized by a high degree of specialization and the heart-brain connection that could be targeted to treat these complex cardiovascular/brain disorders. The idea that adverse diet/genome interactions can cause disease is not new. In the recent era the science of nutritional genomics have increased our understanding of diet-health-gene interactions and have provided a number of benefits for individuals, groups and societies. Since dietary chemicals are regularly ingested and participate indirectly and directly in regulating gene expression, it follows that a subset of genes regulated by diet must be involved in disease initiation, progression, and severity. In this regards Liver X Receptor (LXR)-α, a key transcription factors, associated with the several chronic pathological situation including coronary heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases have recently been found to be regulated by the dietary components. The crucial findings at molecular biology unit, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, INDIA have not only forced us to explore nutritional genomics as a holistic systems approach to understand the relationship between diet and health, but also to look into the disease preventing and health promoting foods that match our lifestyles, cultures and genetics. After all, we are what we eat.
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