Dietary patterns, microbiome, metabolome and cardiovascular disease risk in transitioning India

越来越多生活在印度的人正在遭受心脏病的折磨。许多研究人员认为，这是由于各国经济发展时发生的饮食变化(从富含谷物的传统饮食到富含糖、脂肪和肉类产品的西方饮食)。由于对素食的强烈文化偏好，印度的饮食变化似乎与其他发展中国家不同。因此，我们的目标是了解印度的饮食变化可能如何影响心脏病的风险。我们特别感兴趣的是通常生活在我们肠道中的无害细菌的作用，因为新的研究表明它们与许多健康状况有关。近20年来，我们一直在印度南部海得拉巴市边缘的29个村庄进行与健康相关的研究。在过去的十年里，这些村庄经历了快速不平衡的发展，这为了解饮食变化对健康的影响提供了一个独特的机会。在2010-12年度，我们收集了这个社区约7,000人的饮食和心脏健康数据。我们现在计划收集这些人的类似数据，包括他们的血液和粪便样本。我们将使用最先进的技术来识别血液中的小分子(即代谢组学)和肠道中的细菌(即微生物组)的模式。然后我们将分析这些数据，以了解饮食模式和肠道细菌如何在更深的(分子)水平上影响心脏病的风险。这项研究的发现将为印度的饮食指南和食品政策提供参考，并最终减少该国因心脏病造成的经济损失。

A growing number of people living in India are suffering from heart disease. Many researchers think that this is because of changes in diet (from traditional diets rich in cereals to western diets rich in sugars, fats and meat products) that occur when countries develop economically. The dietary changes in India appear to be different from other developing countries due to a strong cultural preference for vegetarian food. Therefore, our goal is to understand how dietary changes in India may be influencing the risk of heart disease. We are particularly interested in the role of bacteria that usually live harmlessly in our gut, as new research suggests their involvement in many health conditions.For nearly two decades, we have been conducting health-related research in 29 villages on the edge of Hyderabad city in South India. Over the past decade, these villages have undergone rapid uneven development providing a unique opportunity to understand the health effects of dietary changes. In 2010-12, we collected data on diet and heart health of ~7,000 individuals from this community. We now plan to collect similar data on these individuals, including their blood and stool samples. We will use state-of-the-art technologies to identify the patterns of small molecules in the blood (i.e. metabolomics) and bacteria in the gut (i.e. microbiome). We will then analyse the data to understand how dietary patterns and gut bacteria may influence the risk of heart disease at a deeper (molecular) level. Findings from this research will inform dietary guidelines and food policy in India, and ultimately lead to a reduction in economic loss to the country from heart disease.