Nutrigenomics and Beyond Informing the Future: Workshop Summary (2007) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
4 Implications for the Future
4 Implications for the Future
Pages 41-60
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 41... ...
These include issues involving ethics, economics, industry, and public policy. ISSUES IN ETHICS Presented by Daid Castle, Chair in Science and Society, Department of Philosophy, Uniersity of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Public Attitudes Toward Nutrigenomics Acceptance of nutrigenomics by the public will depend not just on the products of scientists and industry but also on attitudes toward this field of research, said David Castle.
|
From page 42... ...
The first one is the consumer model, in which individuals pay for and consume nutrigenomics products on their own. An individual consumer might, for example, find a nutrigenomics company on the Internet, send away for a test kit, take a cheek swab, return it to the company, and then use the test results to shape his or her eating habits.
|
From page 43... ...
It gives up some of the power of personalized dietary advice to focus on nutritional advice that can benefit population groups. In the United States, much of the focus has been on models that deliver individualized nutrigenomics advice, but the question about which model is most appropriate for service delivery raises a number of ethical issues and raises political and societal questions about health care delivery as well.
|
From page 44... ...
In response to Choosing Health: Making Healthy Choices Easier, the Food Ethics Council, a nongovernmental organization in the United Kingdom, released its own report. The report argues against the idea of personalization, claiming that personalization is "actually just one small cog in a broader neo-conservative agenda to save costs and reduce government involvement in people's lives." Rather than viewing personalization in terms of personal empowerment, the Food Ethics Council sees the issue as a way of separating individuals from their government and disengaging government from the provision of health care to its citizens.
|
From page 45... ...
Too much information can create confusion, resulting in noncompliance with dietary guidelines. The problem, according to Castle, is that no one has done systematic public consultation and engagement work on nutrigenomics to determine the drivers for applied nutrigenomics research and to determine how individuals form perceptions and the role of the media in informing those perceptions.
|
From page 46... ...
Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the public will heed the advice. Referring to the two delivery models that Castle spoke about, the public health model and the individualized-advice model, Okie pointed out that it has been very difficult to get people to modify personal choices even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they can improve their chances of good health by following a particular path.
|
From page 47... ...
"The dust bin of research history is starting to fill up with models of disease which were cured in the laboratory in an animal; those cures had absolutely no effect when they were taken to clinical trials." Such events occur because biological networks accomplish things in multiple ways. Although superficial similarities or even bona fide pathologic similarities between a disease model and a human disease may exist, the cure does not happen in the same way in the animal model and humans.
|
From page 48... ...
In other words, it is a highly interconnected network. Gene and Metabolic Networks Gene networks also interact with metabolic networks in a number of different ways: they can alter the expression levels of genes, they can alter the protein structure (which can change the functionality of a gene)
|
From page 49... ...
Experiments to determine whether gene variants affected metabolism revealed that the gene affects many of the enzymes involved in the citric acid cycle. Testing of the flies' responses to acetylcarnitine, a metabolite whose level is affected by the citric acid cycle, showed that one of the variants responds and the other one does not.
|
From page 50... ...
NUTRIGENOMICS: INDUSTRY'S PERSPECTIVE Presented by Peter Gillies, Adjunct Professor, Department of Nutrition Science, Pennsylania State Uniersity; Adjunct Professor, Department of Nutrition, Uniersity of Toronto; and Senior Research Fellow in Central Research and Deelopment, E
|
From page 51... ...
The pharmaceutical industry operates in the world of unmet medical needs, rational drug design, clinical trials, and physicians who oversee and manage the interactions between drugs and patients. The food industry, by contrast, operates in the world of taste and convenience, food-related clinical trials are limited in number and scope, and products are promoted directly to consumers.
|
From page 52... ...
As the field of nutrigenomics unfolds in the United States, one can look to Europe for some guidance. In 2004, for example, the European Commission formed the European Nutrigenomics Organization (NuGO)
|
From page 53... ...
nugo.org/everyone/24017, accessed January 9, 2007. the food industry coming together to develop novel products that have nutritional benefits; and they are doing so in a way that engages both society and members of the business community in a structured partnership." The goal is to modify the diet with products enriched with omega-3 fatty acids and then to evaluate their impact on metabolic syndrome.
|
From page 54... ...
Scientists at ARS have also produced transgenic tomatoes that contain four to eight times as much lycopene, a carotenoid known for its strong antioxidant properties, as nontransgenic tomatoes. As nutrigenomics research reveals more details about the roles of various nutrients, the agriculture industry can modify food to take these findings into account for future research and development.
|
From page 55... ...
Nutrigenomics will make it possible to extend this pattern and to offer dietary guidelines that are even more closely focused on individuals. "We have different genetic backgrounds, different life styles, and so on," Spence noted, "so it is very difficult, in the nutrigenomic age, to continue to make dietary advice that is based on population types of studies." In the future, he suggested, dietary guidelines will take into account an individual's genetic background and will vary the recommendations on the basis of that individual's ancestry.
|
From page 56... ...
Patricia Danzon spoke about the potential economic impact of nutrigenomics in managing health care costs. Danzon said that because the science of nutrigenomics is still in its infancy, it would be foolhardy to try to estimate the economic impact at this point.
|
From page 57... ...
Unfortunately, she noted, the current system is generally set up to favor the use of supplements rather than simply encouraging the consumption of a variety of foods. Insurance companies, for example, are likely to pay for medicines or dietary supplements that are prescribed for medical reasons, but they generally do not pay for healthier foods.
|
From page 58... ...
First, Fineberg spoke of the challenge that nutrigenomics will pose to the existing public health paradigm. There are a variety of public health programs aimed at prevention, for example, programs that encourage the use of seat belts and smoking cessation and programs that issue dietary guidelines aimed at lowering the risk of cancer.
|
From page 59... ...
Fineberg concluded with a question meant to be a provocation and a challenge to the audience and to those everywhere interested in nutrigenomics: "Is it not possible that nutrition science -- bridging, as it does, everything from human behavior, cultural values, all the way through to nutrigenomics and metabolomics and so on -- might not be the crossroads for such a grand unification theory for health and disease?
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.