Abstract: A growing number of studies on food nutrition and function are concentrated on the metabolic and immunomodulatory effects, which have become the focus of diet and health research. Obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), hyperlipidemia and cancer as diseases associated with modern lifestyle have become a public health problem which scientists have to face. Scientists once believed that these diseases can be overcome by immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Unfortunately they also found that the activation and reproduction of immune cells depend on glucose leading to aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect) similarly as do diabetes and cancer. This means that when the immune system is activated, cancer cells may also be activated. Moreover, when immune cells migrate to the cancer microenvironment, immunosuppression or immune anergy may occur. Apparently, immune activity is closely related to cellular signal transduction and metabolism, both of which experience a nutrient sensing-dependent metabolic reprogramming and aerobic glycolysis. Therefore, scientists define the term “immunometabolism” to describe the metabolic reprogramming of immune cells upon activation, aiming to find the control mechanism and inner linkage between Warburg effect and immune cell activity and further to seek a new avenue for the prevention and treatment of these diseases. In this review, we focus on immunometabolism and future prospects of functional food and nutrition.

Key words: immunometabolism, functional food, nutrition, modern lifestyle-related diseases, Warburg effect, metabolic reprogramming