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Review
. 2021 May 24;11(6):467.
doi: 10.3390/life11060467.

Personalized Nutrition Approach in Pregnancy and Early Life to Tackle Childhood and Adult Non-Communicable Diseases

Shaikha Alabduljabbar  1 , Sara Al Zaidan  1 , Arun Prasath Lakshmanan  1 , Annalisa Terranegra  1
Affiliations
Review

Personalized Nutrition Approach in Pregnancy and Early Life to Tackle Childhood and Adult Non-Communicable Diseases

Shaikha Alabduljabbar et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

The development of childhood and adult non-communicable diseases (NCD) is associated with environmental factors, starting from intrauterine life. A new theory finds the roots of epigenetic programming in parental gametogenesis, continuing during embryo development, fetal life, and finally in post-natal life. Maternal health status and poor nutrition are widely recognized as implications in the onset of childhood and adult diseases. Early nutrition, particularly breastfeeding, also plays a primary role in affecting the health status of an individual later in life. A poor maternal diet during pregnancy and lack of breastfeeding can cause a nutrient deficiency that affects the gut microbiota, and acts as a cofactor for many pathways, impacting the epigenetic controls and transcription of genes involved in the metabolism, angiogenesis, and other pathways, leading to NCDs in adult life. Both maternal and fetal genetic backgrounds also affect nutrient adsorption and functioning at the cellular level. This review discusses the most recent evidence on maternal nutrition and breastfeeding in the development of NCD, the potentiality of the omics technologies in uncovering the molecular mechanisms underlying it, with the future prospective of applying a personalized nutrition approach to prevent and treat NCD from the beginning of fetal life.

Keywords: breastfeeding; epigenetics; gut microbiota; non-communicable diseases; nutrigenetics; precision nutrition; pregnancy; transcriptomics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The effect of mother’s nutrition during pregnancy on the fetus and offspring health has been associated with microbiome, genetics, epigenetics, and transcriptomics in humans and non-human models. A repeated number in the lists indicates the pathway to follow from the mother to fetus and to offspring in each omics separately. Numbers not indicated show that there is no stated association. Arrows: (↑) represents the increase, (↓) represents the decrease, (↑↓) represents the disturbance/imbalance, (→) represents the leading cause.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Precision nutrition applied to pregnancy to understand the mechanisms that lead to NCD in childhood and adult life. Created with BioRender.com (accessed on 7 May 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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