Does a coffee a day keep the doctor away? Investigating the impact of coffee on cardiometabolic health

咖啡在世界范围内是一种非常受欢迎的饮料；仅在英国，每天就有9500万杯咖啡被消费。从历史上看，关于喝咖啡对健康的影响一直存在争议，但最近的观察性研究发现，证据表明每天喝3-5杯咖啡可以预防心脏新陈代谢疾病。然而，这些研究并不能证明因果关系；需要进行随机对照试验。咖啡是一种化学成分复杂的饮料，含有许多不同的生物活性成分(如多酚、生物碱、类黑色素、二萜)，这些成分可能会因咖啡的饮用方式而有所不同；这使得人们很难完全理解是什么推动了这些健康影响。识别不同咖啡消费的生物标志物将有助于理解咖啡对健康的影响。观察到对咖啡反应的个体间差异很大，加剧了这种复杂性；一些人似乎有明显的健康反应，而另一些人则没有。目前还不清楚是什么导致了这一现象，尽管它可能是遗传多态和肠道微生物区系组成的组合。本课题的目的是了解饮用咖啡对心脏代谢健康的影响。在这个项目中，学生将：1)分析不同方法制作的咖啡的活性化合物含量；2)进行随机对照试验以测试咖啡对心脏代谢健康的影响；3)调查咖啡对心脏代谢健康的个体差异；4)识别咖啡消费的生物标志物，并预测心脏代谢疾病的风险

Coffee is an extremely popular beverage worldwide; 95 million cups per day are consumed in the UK alone. Historically, there has been debate about the health impacts of consuming coffee, however recent findings from observational studies has provided evidence that drinking 3-5 cups of coffee per day is protective against cardiometabolic diseases. These studies, however, do not prove causality; randomised controlled trials are needed. Coffee is a chemically complex beverage and contains many different bioactive component (e.g. polyphenols, alkaloids, melanoidins, diterpenes), which are likely to differ depending on how the coffee is consumed; this makes it hard to fully understand what is driving these health effects. Identifying biomarkers of different coffee consumption would contribute towards understanding the health effects. This complexity is exacerbated by the observation of large inter-individual variation in response to coffee; some individuals seem to have marked health responses, whereas others do not. It is not clear what is driving this, although it is possible that it is a combination of genetic polymorphisms and gut microbiota composition. The objective of this project is to understand the impact of coffee consumption on cardiometabolic health.In this project the student will:1) Analyse a variety of coffee prepared by different methods for bioactive compound content2) Perform a randomised controlled trial to test the impact of coffee on cardiometabolic health3) Investigate the inter-individual variation in response to coffee on cardiometabolic health4) Identify biomarkers of coffee consumption and to predict cardiometabolic disease risk