Abstract
Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for human health. Its beneficial effects are exerted by selenoproteins, which can be quantified in blood and used as molecular biomarkers of Se status. We hypothesize that the presence of genetic polymorphisms in selenoprotein genes may: (1) influence the gene expression of specific selenoproteins and (2) influence the pattern of global gene expression after Brazil nut supplementation. The study was conducted with 130 healthy volunteers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, who consumed one Brazil nut (300 μg/Se) a day for eight weeks. Gene expression of GPX1 and SELENOP and genotyping were measured by real-time PCR using TaqMan Assays. Global gene expression was assessed by microarray using Illumina HumanHT-12 v4 BeadChips. Brazil nut supplementation significantly increased GPX1 mRNA expression only in subjects with CC genotype at rs1050450 (p < 0.05). SELENOP mRNA expression was significantly higher in A-carriers at rs7579 either before or after supplementation (p < 0.05). Genotype for rs713041 in GPX4 affected the pattern of blood cell global gene expression. Genetic variations in selenoprotein genes modulated both GPX1 and SELENOP selenoprotein gene expression and global gene expression in response to Brazil nut supplementation.
Highlights
There is a considerable evidence to indicate that nuts are an important component of a healthy diet and this is thought to be at least partly due to their fatty acid composition and micronutrient content [1,2,3]
The study was conducted with 130 healthy adults, ofbiomarkers which 66 were selected according to their genotype for analysis of gene expression of four adults, of which were selected according to their genotype for analysis of gene expression of four selenoproteins and 12 were selected based on their genotype for rs713041 for microarray analysis
Previous works have investigated possible associations between Se supplementation and molecular biomarkers of Se status such as transcripts of selenoproteins in white blood cells in human studies [13,14,15,16]. These studies were not able to find an association between plasma Se biomarkers and selenoprotein expression after Se supplementation, except for one study conducted with healthy adults in the UK, which could observe the upregulation of some selenoprotein genes after Se supplementation [16]
Summary
There is a considerable evidence to indicate that nuts are an important component of a healthy diet and this is thought to be at least partly due to their fatty acid composition and micronutrient content [1,2,3]. In most minerals that interact as cofactors in the active site of enzymes, Se is inserted as the amino acid selenocysteine (Sec) during translation. This process involves recoding the stop codon UGA to insert Sec and requires the presence of a stem-loop structure in the 30 untranslated region (30 UTR) of selenoprotein mRNAs
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