Key result
Cardiovascular lipid disorders drive ~57% of metabolic nutrigenomic links, centered on key lipid-regulating hub genes.
Why the study?
Systems-level characterization of metabolic nutrigenomic interactions linked to metabolic health and disease prevention was underdeveloped.
Computational network analysis of 144,377 nutrigenomic records demonstrates that gene-diet interactions in metabolic disease are predominantly organized around cardiovascular lipid transport and lipoprotein remodeling hub genes (ZPR1, GCKR, APOE, PCSK9), supporting pathway-level targeting for precision nutrition.
Hypothesis-generating for precision nutrition; leaves open clinical validation of these lipid hubs.
Complex interactions between genetic variation, nutrition, lipid metabolism and environmental exposures play a role in metabolic diseases. While nutrigenomics is growing in significance for precision nutrition studies, systems level (whole organism) characterization of metabolic nutrigenomic interactions is underdeveloped. This study investigated nutrigenomic associations linked to metabolic health and disease prevention using statistical, network-based, and functional enrichment approaches. A curated dataset containing experimentally validated gene–trait associations was analyzed using computational workflows, including disease categorization, descriptive statistical analysis, hub-gene prioritization, gene–trait interaction network construction, and pathway enrichment analysis. The dataset comprised 144,377 metabolic nutrigenomic records involving 194 genes, 541 SNPs, 392 disease traits, and 3,535 PubMed references. Cardiovascular lipid disorders represented the dominant disease category, followed by liver NAFLD and obesity. Network-centrality analysis identified ZPR1, GCKR, APOE, and PCSK9 as the most interconnected hub genes across metabolic phenotypes. Additional genes, including LPL, APOB, ANGPTL4, TM6SF2, LPA, and LIPG, formed interconnected metabolic modules associated with lipid transport, triglyceride regulation, and hepatic fat metabolism. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated significant overrepresentation of pathways related to cholesterol homeostasis, triglyceride metabolism, cholesterol metabolism, PPAR signaling, plasma lipoprotein remodeling, chylomicron clearance, and HDL remodeling. These findings indicate that metabolic nutrigenomic associations are predominantly organized around lipid-regulatory biology and lipoprotein dynamics. The results support a systems-level framework for personalized nutrition in which interconnected metabolic pathways and gene networks may contribute to targeted strategies for metabolic disease prevention and nutritional intervention.
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Bukya et al. (2026) studied Metabolic diseases (cardiovascular lipid disorders, liver NAFLD, obesity, diabetes) (n=144,377). Metabolic nutrigenomic genetic variations and nutrient interactions was evaluated on Disease category distribution, hub-gene network centrality, and biological pathway enrichment across metabolic nutrigenomic records (p=<0.000001). Cardiovascular lipid disorders accounted for 57.1% (82,430/144,377) of metabolic nutrigenomic associations, with ZPR1, GCKR, APOE, and PCSK9 identified as top interconnected hub genes.
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