Precision Nutrition in Chronic Inflammation

Abstract

The molecular foundation of chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs) can differ markedly between individuals. As our understanding of the biochemical mechanisms underlying individual disease manifestations and progressions expands, new strategies to adjust treatments to the patient’s characteristics will continue to profoundly transform clinical practice. Nutrition has long been recognized as an important determinant of inflammatory disease phenotypes and treatment response. Yet empirical work demonstrating the therapeutic effectiveness of patient-tailored nutrition remains scarce. This is mainly due to the challenges presented by long-term effects of nutrition, variations in inter-individual gastrointestinal microbiota, the multiplicity of human metabolic pathways potentially affected by food ingredients, nutrition behavior, and the complexity of food composition. Historically, these challenges have been addressed in both human studies and experimental model laboratory studies primarily by using individual nutrition data collection in tandem with large-scale biomolecular data acquisition (e.g. genomics, metabolomics, etc.). This review highlights recent findings in the field of precision nutrition and their potential implications for the development of personalized treatment strategies for CIDs. It emphasizes the importance of computational approaches to integrate nutritional information into multi-omics data analysis and to predict which molecular mechanisms may explain how nutrients intersect with disease pathways. We conclude that recent findings point towards the unexhausted potential of nutrition as part of personalized medicine in chronic inflammation.

The nutrition and immunity (nutrIMM) study: protocol for a non-randomized, four-arm parallel-group, controlled feeding trial investigating immune function in obesity and type 2 diabetes

“…Nutrition plays a crucial role in the prevention and treatment of health conditions that have an inflammatory component, such as obesity ( 55 , 56 ). Saturated fatty acids (SFA) have been shown to have pro-inflammatory properties, while fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), generally exert anti-inflammatory and/or immunosuppressive effects in the presence of chronic inflammation as previously reviewed ( 20 ).…”

Effects of vitamin D supplementation on depression and some selected pro-inflammatory biomarkers: a double-blind randomized clinical trial

“…Regarding the repeatedly documented association of diet and inflammation [22], dietary approaches have been considered to ameliorate depression through targeting specific pathways involved in inflammation including oxidative stress, HPA and obesity, among the others [23].…”

Towards Tailored Gut Microbiome-Based and Dietary Interventions for Promoting the Development and Maintenance of a Healthy Brain

“…It is important to highlight that even though there are food intake guidelines and general dietary recommendations for the population as a whole, a high inter-individual variation has been documented in clinical response to diet ( 191 ). The concept of “Precision Nutrition” arose when the scientific community agreed that the observed inter-individual variability in response to diet was not exclusively based on genetics (nutrigenetics), but rather on the interaction between the host's genetic make-up and the environment ( 192 , 193 ). Regarding Nutritional Psychiatry, scientific evidence strongly supports that subject stratification based on multiple individuals' specific variables, including gut microbiota profile modulated by multiple factors such as diet and other lifestyle factors (physical activity, smoking, medication and other features), would increase the effectiveness of particular dietary interventions for improving mental health ( Figure 3 ).…”