The prevalence and mortality due to multifactorial polygenic diseases; hypertension, coronary artery disease(CAD), diabetes and cancer vary depending upon genetic susceptibility and environmental precursors because they haveidentifiable mendelian subsets. Rapid changes in diet and lifestyle, may influence heritability of the variant phenotypesthat are dependent on the nutraceutical or functional food supplementation for their expression. It is possible to recognizethe interaction of specific nutraceuticals, with the genetic code possessed by all nucleated cells. There is evidence thatSouth Asians have an increased susceptibility to CAD, diabetes mellitus, central obesity and insulin resistance at youngerage, which may be due to interaction of gene and nutraceutical environment. These populations appear to have enheritedpredisposition and may have interaction of internal nutritional status and environmental factors. Higher intake of refinedstarches and sugar increases generation of super oxide anion in the leucocytes and mononuclear cells, and free fatty acids(FFA), as well as higher amount and activity of nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB), a transcriptional factor regulating the activityof at least 125 genes, most of which are pro-inflammatory. Glucose intake also causes an increase in two other proinflammatorytranscription factors; activating protein-1 (AP-1) and early growth response protein-1 (Egr-1), the first regulatingthe transcription of matrix metallo-proteinases and the second modulating the transcription of tissue factor andplasminogen activator inhibitor-1. Refined food, mixed meal induces activation of NF-kB associated with free radicalsgeneration by mononuclear cells. The super oxide anion is an activator of at least two major pro-inflammatory transcriptionfactors, NF-kB and AP-1. Increased intake of linoleic acid, saturated fat, trans fat and refined starches and sugars canincrease the generation of free radicals and activate the NF-kB, leading to rapid expression of proinflammatory genes. It ispossible that nutraceuticals; antioxidants, micronutrients, minerals, vitamins, coenzyme Q10 and w-3 fatty acids may inhibitthe generation of super oxide and suppress NF-kB as well as AP-1, and Egr-1 leading to suppression of phenotypicexpressions. It is known that genes are important in determining enzymes, receptors, cofactors, structural components involvedin regulation of blood pressure, the metabolism of lipids, lipoproteins and inflammatory and coagulation factorsthat are involved in determining individual risk for vascular diseases and diabetes. It seems that these phenotypic expressionsmay be silenced by targeting simple sequence differences known as single nucleotide polymorphisms by nutraceuticalsand slowly absorbed wild foods rich in micronutrients and antioxidants.
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