A nutrigenetics approach to study the impact of genetic and lifestyle factors on cardiometabolic traits using the Qatar Biobank Data

AlAnazi, M. M. (2026) A nutrigenetics approach to study the impact of genetic and lifestyle factors on cardiometabolic traits using the Qatar Biobank Data. PhD thesis, University of Reading. doi: 10.48683/1926.00130767

Abstract/Summary

Cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs), including obesity, type-2 diabetes (T2D), and cardiovascular disease (CVD), represent a major and growing public health burden worldwide, with particularly high prevalence across Middle Eastern Arab populations. These conditions arise from complex interactions between genetic susceptibility and environmental exposures, notably diet and physical activity. However, nutrigenetic evidence from Arab populations remains limited, constraining the development of ancestry-relevant precision nutrition strategies. This thesis adopted a nutrigenetic framework to investigate the independent and interactive effects of genetic susceptibility and lifestyle factors on cardiometabolic traits using the Qatar Biobank (QBB) dataset. A systematic review first evaluated existing evidence on gene–diet and gene–physical activity interactions influencing cardiometabolic traits in Arab populations. The review identified a small and heterogeneous body of literature, predominantly based on single-variant analyses, with limited replication and substantial methodological variability, thereby, highlighting a clear gap in ancestry-specific nutrigenetic research. Building on these findings, empirical analyses examined the role of dietary patterns in shaping cardiometabolic outcomes in healthy Qatari adults. Greater adherence to a Prudent dietary pattern was associated with more favourable body composition, improved insulin regulation, and lower diastolic blood pressure (DBP), demonstrating that dietary quality influences metabolic health beyond conventional measures such as body mass index (BMI). Given the high and early burden of dyslipidaemia in Qatar, and the lack of population-specific evidence on lipoprotein lipase (LPL) gene, subsequent analyses focused on the effect of LPL variants. A higher LPL genetic risk score (GRS), derived from rs295, rs301, and rs320, was associated with adverse lipid profiles and vascular markers, including lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), higher triacylglycerol (TG) levels, and elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP), while associations with adiposity and glycaemic traits were weaker and did not persist after correction for multiple testing. Finally, gene–diet interaction analyses demonstrated that dietary patterns modified the relationship between LPL genetic susceptibility and obesity related traits. Adherence to a Prudent dietary pattern appeared to attenuate, whereas a Western dietary pattern tended to exacerbate, the associations between LPL-GRS and central adiposity markers, supporting the role of diet in modulating inherited cardiometabolic risk. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that genetic predisposition is not deterministic but modifiable through lifestyle factors, particularly diet. This thesis provides novel ancestry-specific evidence from a Qatari population and represents the first comprehensive evaluation of LPL genetic susceptibility and its interaction with dietary patterns. It addresses a critical gap in Arab nutrigenetic research and demonstrates that genetic risk can be modified through culturally relevant dietary patterns, supporting the integration of genetic profiling with dietary assessment to advance precision nutrition in underrepresented populations.

Item Type	Thesis (PhD)
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/130767
Identification Number/DOI	10.48683/1926.00130767
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences
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