Frontiers of nutritional intervention.

Abstract

It is increasingly recognized that nutritional intervention holds great potential for the management of modern chronic disease. Understanding the relationship between nutrient metabolism and disease development is an important foundation for nutritional intervention. To maximize the utility of nutritional intervention, it is critical that we identify the factors underlying chronic disease that can be modulated by nutrients. Based on recent research, I consider the following three areas to be among the frontiers of nutritional intervention: chronic low-grade inflammation, gut microbiota, and epigenetics. Chronic low-grade inflammation is known to be a common mechanism underlying the pathology of many chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases [1] . Interventions that suppress the development of chronic lowgrade inflammation could therefore be of great utility in addressing these diseases. In fact, much of the current research on the prevention and treatment of these diseases has targeted chronic inflammation. Inflammatory response involves multiple processes, including lipid mediator formation, cytokine expression, immune cell migration, etc., which can be modulated directly or indirectly by nutrients and/or their metabolites in differential manners. Certain nutrients exhibit opposing effects on inflammation. For example, omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids and their metabolites generally promote inflammatory processes, while omega-3 fatty acids and their metabolites largely suppress them [2] . Thus, a full understanding of the specific nutrients’ effect on chronic inflammation should be an important area of nutritional research. Given the complexity of the diet and the numerous interactions that occur between nutrients in different compositions, there remains much to be investigated about the overall effect of a diet on chronic low-grade inflammation. Future studies to elucidate how the steps of chronic low-grade inflammation are influenced by the type and quantity of nutrients and their metabolites will allow us to formulate effective interventions to modulate chronic low-grade inflammation. The gut microbiota, which is highly variable among individuals, has recently been shown to play a key role in human health and disease [3] . More and more studies have shown that alterations in the gut microbiota can influence many physiological and pathological processes, Published online: April 4, 2014