Nutrient Institute LLC, Reno, NV, United States.
Nutrient Institute LLC, Reno, NV, United States.
J Nutr. 2023 Aug;153(8):2137-2146. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.06.004. Epub 2023 Jun 8.
The future of precision nutrition requires treating amino acids as essential nutrients. Currently, recognition of essential amino acid requirements is embedded within a generalized measure of protein quality known as the PDCAAS (Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score). Calculating the PDCAAS includes the FAO/WHO/UNU amino acid score, which is based on the limiting amino acid in a food, that is, the single amino acid with the lowest concentration compared to the reference standard. That "limiting" amino acid score is then multiplied by a bioavailability factor to obtain the PDCAAS, which ranks proteins from 0.0 (poor quality) to 1.0 (high quality). However, the PDCAAS has multiple limitations: it only allows for direct protein quality comparison between 2 proteins, and it is not scalable, transparent, or additive. We therefore propose that shifting the protein quality evaluation paradigm from the current generalized perspective to a precision nutrition focus treating amino acids as unique, metabolically active nutrients will be valuable for multiple areas of science and public health. We report the development and validation of the Essential Amino Acid 9 (EAA-9) score, an innovative, nutrient-based protein quality scoring framework. EAA-9 scores can be used to ensure that dietary recommendations for each essential amino acid are met. The EAA-9 scoring framework also offers the advantages of being additive and, perhaps most importantly, allows for personalization of essential amino acid needs based on age or metabolic conditions. Comparisons of the EAA-9 score with PDCAAS demonstrated the validity of the EAA-9 framework, and practical applications demonstrated that the EAA-9 framework is a powerful tool for precision nutrition applications.
精准营养的未来需要将氨基酸视为必需营养素。目前，必需氨基酸需求的认识是嵌入在一种称为 PDCAAS（蛋白质消化率校正氨基酸评分）的通用蛋白质质量衡量标准中的。计算 PDCAAS 包括 FAO/WHO/UNU 氨基酸评分，它基于食物中的限制氨基酸，即与参考标准相比浓度最低的单个氨基酸。然后，将“限制”氨基酸评分乘以生物利用度因子以获得 PDCAAS，该评分将蛋白质从 0.0（质量差）到 1.0（质量高）进行排名。然而，PDCAAS 存在多个局限性：它仅允许在 2 种蛋白质之间直接进行蛋白质质量比较，并且不可扩展、不透明或不可加。因此，我们建议将蛋白质质量评估范式从当前的广义视角转变为以精准营养为重点，将氨基酸视为独特的、具有代谢活性的营养素，这将对多个科学和公共卫生领域具有价值。我们报告了必需氨基酸 9（EAA-9）评分的开发和验证，这是一种创新的、基于营养素的蛋白质质量评分框架。EAA-9 评分可用于确保满足每个必需氨基酸的饮食推荐。EAA-9 评分框架还具有可加性的优点，也许最重要的是，它允许根据年龄或代谢状况对必需氨基酸需求进行个性化调整。EAA-9 评分与 PDCAAS 的比较证明了 EAA-9 框架的有效性，实际应用表明 EAA-9 框架是精准营养应用的有力工具。
