Aims: The proposed research aims to infer the causal effect of diet-associated biomarkers (exposures) on non-communicable disease (NCD) risk/severity biomarkers and outcomes. The following are the specific questions:
Q1: What are the diet-modifiable biomarkers that causally influence NCD incidence, progression and outcomes?
Q2: Are there any gene-diet interactions that causally influence NCD incidence, progression and outcomes?
Q3: Does ethnicity influence the diet-disease causal relationships?
Some of the causal factors of interest are antioxidants, vitamins, amino acid levels, etc. and the outcomes of interest are hepatic fat accumulation, known biochemical risk factors, disease complications and survival outcomes.
Scientific rationale: Non communicable diseases (NCD) are an epidemic worldwide causing significant health care and economic burden, especially in India, the most populous but resource-limited country. Several nation-wide efforts are underway to highlight the need for improvement of NCD prevention and management programs in India. Unhealthy diet and dietary patterns are known to be associated with changes in metabolic status and increased risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and its complications, but specific causal associations at the biochemical level and its interaction with the genetic status remain unknown.
Public health impact: Understanding causal factors for different NCDs that are modifiable by diet can have a significant impact on designing and testing effective public health solutions. In addition to improving the current dietary recommendations, it can also help develop specific nutritional and clinical interventions addressing several NCD risk markers and its prognosis.
Project duration: The estimated duration of this project is three years. The full data from the entire UK Biobank cohort will be utilized for this study.