The core aim of this proposal is to collect suitable clinical and molecular data from human subjects in order to investigate the relationship between individual circadian phase, eating habits, changes of weight and possible reversal of metabolic syndrome. To achieve this, we will integrate information from clinical data on the health/disease state of a cohort of volunteers in an ongoing chrononutrition study led by Dr. Collet at CHUV, which includes smartphone app recordings of subjects’ eating patterns. We will add to this a transcriptome analysis (RNA-seq) of monocytes isolated from blood samples to infer circadian phase.
One of the current major healthcare challenges is the global epidemic of obesity and the related metabolic syndrome, which is a group of conditions including central obesity, elevated blood pressure and impaired glucose tolerance. The cardiovascular and metabolic diseases associated with metabolic syndrome, such as myocardial infarction, stroke and diabetes, are major health risks. There is therefore a major drive to find new solutions to the obesity epidemic, but programs targeting physical activity and food intake have experienced limited success, as lifestyle programs can be difficult to apply for some. Basic chronobiology research has demonstrated that many metabolic processes are influenced by the 24-hour circadian body clock, so clinicians may be able to devise more effective dietary regimes using personalised parameters including individual circadian phase together with sleeping and eating habits.
