PREDICT-OMICS

Project Title: PREDICT-OMICS - Predictive Cardio-Metabolic Transcriptomic Trajectories In The Barilla Offspring Follow-Up STUDY: The PREDICT-OMICS Study

Funded by: PRIN - PROJECTS OF RELEVANT NATIONAL INTEREST – Call 2022 

Project Leader: Prof. Alessandra Dei Cas

Project Participants: Dr Anna D’Antuono, Dr Valentina Spigoni, Dr Federica Fantuzzi, Dr Gloria Cinquegrani, Dr.ssa Francesca Bagnaresi, Dr Raffaella Aldigeri, Dr Marta Maggi, Dr Giulia Frigeri, Dr Azzurra Vinciguerra, Dr Federica Bergamo, Prof Luca Marchetti, Dr Giacomo Fantoni

Insulin resistance is a condition associated with the early stages of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease and it has been hypothesised as a common origin of the two diseases. There is also a close relationship between insulin resistance and inflammation, a process in which immune cells, including lymphocytes and monocytes, play a key role. Therefore, the gene expression profile of these cells is a useful tool for studying the processes underlying insulin resistance and thus also cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

In a previous study, the Barilla Offspring study, the gene expression profile of lympho-monocytes was analysed and the cardiometabolic profile of over 100 donors was characterised. To date, the project aims to re-analyse these transcriptomic signatures, 15 years later, in order to highlight whether changes in lympho-monocyte gene expression can predict or be associated with changes in cardiometabolic profiles of the study subjects.

To this aim, the parameters and variables collected in 2006-2007 will be re-evaluated, including lifestyle (smoking habit, physical activity monitored by fit tracker and questionnaire, diary and sleep quality questionnaires) and dietary habits (questionnaire on the frequency of consumption of different foods and drinks and food diary), blood pressure, standard biochemical analyses and inflammatory profile. In particular, in order to assess the evolution of glucose tolerance and vascular damage in each subject, the analyses of the metabolic (oral glucose tolerance test) and cardiovascular (carotid ultrasonography) profiles will be repeated.