Mediterranean diet related metabolite profiles and cognitive performance

Christopher Papandreou; Christos Papagiannopoulos; Myrto Koutsonida; Afroditi Kanellopoulou; Georgios Markozannes; Georgios Polychronidis; Andreas G Tzakos; Georgios A Fragkiadakis; Evangelos Evangelou; Evangelia Ntzani; Ioanna Tzoulaki; Eleni Aretouli; Konstantinos K Tsilidis

doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2022.12.012

Mediterranean diet related metabolite profiles and cognitive performance

Clin Nutr. 2023 Feb;42(2):173-181. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.12.012. Epub 2022 Dec 22.

Affiliations

¹ Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV), Reus, Spain. Electronic address: papchris10@gmail.com.
² Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece.
³ Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Section of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece; Institute of Materials Science and Computing, University Research Center of Ioannina (URCI), Ioannina, Greece.
⁶ Department of Nutrition and Dietetics Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU), Siteia, Greece.
⁷ Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; Institute of Biosciences, University Research Center of Ioannina, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
⁸ Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece; Institute of Biosciences, University Research Center of Ioannina, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece; Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece; Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
¹⁰ Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK. Electronic address: ktsilidi@uoi.gr.

PMID: 36599272
DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.12.012

Abstract

Background & aims: Evidence suggests that adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) affects human metabolism and may contribute to better cognitive performance. However, the underlying mechanisms are not clear.

Objective: We generated a metabolite profile for adherence to MedDiet and evaluated its cross-sectional association with aspects of cognitive performance.

Methods: A total of 1250 healthy Greek middle-aged adults from the Epirus Health Study cohort were included in the analysis. Adherence to the MedDiet was assessed using the 14-point Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS); cognition was measured using the Trail Making Test, the Verbal Fluency test and the Logical Memory test. A targeted metabolite profiling (n = 250 metabolites) approach was applied, using a high-throughput nuclear magnetic resonance platform. We used elastic net regularized regressions, with a 10-fold cross-validation procedure, to identify a metabolite profile for MEDAS. We evaluated the associations of the identified metabolite profile and MEDAS with cognitive tests, using multivariable linear regression models.

Results: We identified a metabolite profile composed of 42 metabolites, mainly lipoprotein subclasses and fatty acids, significantly correlated with MedDiet adherence (Pearson r = 0.35, P-value = 5.5 × 10^-37). After adjusting for known risk factors and accounting for multiple testing, the metabolite profile and MEDAS were not associated with the cognitive tests.

Conclusions: A plasma metabolite profile related to better adherence to the MedDiet was not associated with the tested aspects of cognitive performance, in a middle-aged Mediterranean population.

Keywords: Cognition; Executive function; Mediterranean diet; Memory; Metabolomics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Cognition
Cognition Disorders*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diet, Mediterranean*
Humans
Middle Aged
Risk Factors