Grant: CIHR-ICRH Travel Awards - General pool

Although the beneficial effects of consuming omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FAs) of marine origin on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and more specifically on triglyceride (TG) levels (Innes JK et al., Int J Mol Sci (2020)) have been demonstrated, several studies report significant heterogeneity in the TG response to n-3 FA supplementation. This heterogeneity in metabolic response to nutritional intervention is partly attributable to genetic factors (Zeisel SH., Annu Rev Food Sci Technol (2020)). In this sense, our team has previously conducted a simple intervention study in which participants were supplemented with marine n-3 FAs. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified genes associated with TG response to n-3 FA supplementation (Rudkowska I et al., J Lipid Res. (2014)). After refinement of GWAS signals, the most relevant genetic factors were pooled to create a genetic risk score (GRS) offering excellent predictive ability of TG variance in response to supplementation (Vallée Marcotte B et al., Am J Clin Nutr (2019)). Lipidomic features (TG and cholesterol esters) were added to GRS in a classifier enabling discrimination of TG response phenotypes in 75% of cases. (Picklo M et al., J Am Heart Assoc. (2021)). In this project, plasma metabolomic profiles will be enhanced by the addition of short-chain GAs, branched-chain amino acids and bile acids. The classifier will then be updated to assess its performance.