HDHL-Biomarkers: VALID, Valerolactones and healthy Ageing: Linking diet, biomarkers and metabolic health with cognition in older adults

在全球范围内，人口正在老龄化；据估计，到2050年，60岁以上的人口将超过20亿。这将伴随着认知功能障碍的增加，从轻微的认知障碍到痴呆症。某些饮食模式或营养成分可能会起到有益的作用，从而提供潜在的策略来预防或延缓老年认知功能障碍的发生。(多聚)酚就是这样一类物质，但很难将它们与认知和其他健康结果联系起来，因为在食用水果和蔬菜后，它们只会在血液中出现很短的一段时间(2-4小时)，从而限制了基于良好血液的饮食消费生物标记物的开发。我们的研究将解决这个问题；茶、可可、葡萄、坚果和浆果等食物中常见的原花青素是(多)酚中特别感兴趣的，几乎完全由肠道细菌分解为酚酸和戊内酯。这些戊内酯被认为对健康有益，并具有额外的优势，它们在血液中停留的时间更长(长达48小时)，从而提供了新的基于血液的生物标志物(S)来检测茶、可可、葡萄、坚果和浆果等食物的饮食摄入量。在我们的项目中，我们的目标是验证伽马-戊内酯作为茶、可可、葡萄、坚果和浆果等食物的稳定血液生物标记物，并证明它们与欧洲老龄化人口中炎症和新陈代谢健康的标记物以及最终认知功能的相关性。为此，我们将利用数据并对农业部三一阿尔斯特研究(TUDA)队列研究(TUDA)的样本进行新的分析，这是一项独特的资源，旨在评估从爱尔兰岛招募的5,186名60-102岁成年人的营养和衰老，包括一系列现有的生物标志物、代谢健康状况和认知测量。通过这种方式，我们的项目将识别和验证伽马-戊内酯作为新的生物标记物，它受饮食(多)酚的调节，并与衰老中良好的健康结果有关。

Globally, populations are ageing; by 2050 it is estimated that more than 2 billion people will be aged over 60 years. This will be accompanied by an increase in cognitive dysfunction which ranges from mild cognitive impairment to dementia. Certain dietary patterns or nutritional components may have a beneficial role, thus offering potential strategies to prevent or delay the onset of cognitive dysfunction in ageing. (Poly)phenols are one such category, but linking these to cognition and other health outcomes is difficult because they appear in the blood for only a brief period of time (2-4 hours) after consumption of fruits and vegetables, which then limits the development of good blood based biomarkers of dietary consumption as a result. Our study will address this problem; procyanidins commonly found in foods such as tea, cocoa, grapes, nuts and berries, are of specific interest among (poly)phenols, and are almost exclusively broken down by gut bacteria to phenolic acids and valerolactones. These valerolactones are thought to be beneficial to health and have the added advantage that they remain in the blood for longer periods of time (up to 48 hours), thus offering new blood based biomarker(s) to detect dietary consumption of foods such as tea, cocoa, grapes, nuts and berries. In our project we aim to validate gamma-valerolactones as stable blood biomarkers of foods such as tea, cocoa, grapes, nuts and berries and demonstrate their association with markers of inflammation and metabolic health, and ultimately cognitive function, in an ageing European population. To do this, we will utilise data and perform new analysis on samples from the Trinity, Ulster, Department of Agriculture Study (TUDA) cohort study, a unique resource designed to assess nutrition and ageing in 5,186 adults aged 60-102 years recruited from the island of Ireland, and including a range of existing biomarkers, metabolic health status and cognitive measures. In this way, our project will identify and validate gamma-valerolactones as novel biomarkers that are modulated by dietary (poly)phenols and associated with favourable health outcomes in ageing.