Toward Personalized Nutrition: Comprehensive Phytoprofiling and Metabotyping

Abstract

Nutrition research is increasingly concerned with the complex interactions between multicomponent dietary ingredients and the human metabolic regulatory system. The substantiation of nutritional health benefits is challenged by the intrinsic complexity of macro- and micronutrients and individualized human metabolic responses. Metabonomics, uniquely suited to assess metabolic responses to deficiencies or excesses of nutrients, is used to characterize the metabolic phenotype of individuals integrating genetic polymorphisms, metabolic interactions with commensal and symbiotic partners such as gut microbiota, as well as environmental and behavioral factors including dietary preferences. The two profiling strategies, metabolic phenotyping (metabotyping) and phytochemical profiling (phytoprofiling), greatly facilitate the measurement of these important health determinants and the discovery of new biomarkers associated with nutritional requirements and specific phytochemical interventions. This paper presents an overview of the applications of these two profiling approaches for personalized nutrition research, with a focus on recent advances in the study of the role of phytochemicals in regulating the human or animal metabolic regulatory system.

The pharmaceutical industry and natural products: historical status and new trends

“…This study highlighted markers related to the ingestion of herbs and demonstrated the potential of such an approach in this emerging field. To date, and despite the rapid development of systems biology only a few studies have been published, but comprehensive approaches that combine phytoprofiling and metabotyping are now emerging (Xie et al 2013). From a clinical perspective, systems biology approaches guided by Chinese medicine have revealed new markers for sub-typing rheumatoid arthritis patients (van Wietmarschen et al 2009) and similar strategies have also been applied for studying effects of TCM for complex diseases.…”

Personalized Lifestyle Medicine: Relevance for Nutrition and Lifestyle Recommendations

“…Metabonomics, or assessment of metabolic responses based on nutrient sufficiency or deficiency, is a way to characterize the metabolic phenotype of individual and predict their corresponding interactions with gut microbiota, environment, and behavior. In addition, Xie et al [10] discuss advances in the role of phytochemical modulation of cellular physiology and propose phytochemical profiling, or phytoprofiling, to assist in the facilitation of determining phytonutrient requirements with more effective interventions with plant-derived compounds. Hence, the needs of the individual can be complex and require in-depth assessment before interventions can be confidently applied.…”

NMR/MS Translator for the Enhanced Simultaneous Analysis of Metabolomics Mixtures by NMR Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry: Application to Human Urine

“…1234 Mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy are the two leading analytical methods in metabolomics. 5 This is because of their high-resolution power allowing detection of hundreds of signals from individual metabolites without the need of extensive sample purification or hyphenation.…”