Perlmutter Austin, Bland Jeffrey S, Chandra Arti, Malani Sonia S, Smith Ryan, Mendez Tavis L, Dwaraka Varun B
Big Bold Health PBC, Bainbridge Island, WA, United States.
TruDiagnostic Inc., Lexington, KY, United States.
Front Nutr. 2024 Nov 18;11:1474597. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1474597. eCollection 2024.
Age-related alterations in immune function are believed to increase risk for a host of age-related diseases leading to premature death and disability. Programming of the immune system by diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors occurs across the lifespan and influences both makeup and function of the immune system, including immunometabolism. This programming is believed to act in large part through epigenetic modification. Among dietary components that affect this process, polyphenols may play an outsized role. Polyphenols are a widely distributed group of plant nutrients consumed by humans. Certain foods possess distinctive and relatively higher levels of these compounds. One such food is Tartary buckwheat (), an ancient seed historically prized for its health benefits. It is suggested that the specific composition of polyphenols found in foods like Tartary buckwheat may lead to a unique impact on immunometabolic physiological pathways that could be interrogated through epigenetic analyses. The objective of this study was to investigate the epigenetic effects on peripheral immune cells in healthy individuals of a standardized polyphenol concentrate based on naturally occurring nutrients in Tartary buckwheat. This pilot clinical trial tested the effects of consuming 90 days of this concentrate in 50 healthy male (40%) and female (60%) participants aged 18-85 years using epigenetic age clocks and deconvolution methods. Analysis revealed significant intervention-related changes in multiple epigenetic age clocks and immune markers as well as population-wide alterations in gene ontology (GO) pathways related to longevity and immunity. This study provides previously unidentified insights into the immune, longevity and epigenetic effects of consumption of polyphenol-rich plants and generates additional support for health interventions built around historically consumed plants like Tartary buckwheat while offering compelling opportunities for additional research.
ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT05234203.
免疫功能的年龄相关变化被认为会增加患一系列与年龄相关疾病的风险，这些疾病会导致过早死亡和残疾。饮食、生活方式和环境因素对免疫系统的编程贯穿一生，并影响免疫系统的组成和功能，包括免疫代谢。这种编程被认为在很大程度上是通过表观遗传修饰起作用的。在影响这一过程的饮食成分中，多酚可能发挥着格外重要的作用。多酚是人类食用的一类广泛分布的植物营养素。某些食物含有独特且相对较高水平的这些化合物。苦荞就是这样一种食物，它是一种古老的种子，历来因其对健康有益而备受珍视。有人认为，在苦荞等食物中发现的多酚的特定组成可能会对免疫代谢生理途径产生独特影响，这可以通过表观遗传分析来探究。本研究的目的是调查基于苦荞中天然存在的营养素的标准化多酚浓缩物对健康个体外周免疫细胞的表观遗传效应。这项初步临床试验使用表观遗传年龄时钟和反卷积方法，测试了50名年龄在18 - 85岁的健康男性（40%）和女性（60%）参与者食用90天这种浓缩物的效果。分析显示，多个表观遗传年龄时钟和免疫标志物出现了与干预相关的显著变化，以及与长寿和免疫相关的基因本体（GO）途径在全人群中的改变。本研究为食用富含多酚的植物对免疫、长寿和表观遗传的影响提供了此前未被发现的见解，并为围绕苦荞等历史食用植物开展的健康干预提供了更多支持，同时也为进一步研究提供了引人注目的机会。
ClinicalTrials.gov，标识符：NCT05234203。
