VALID

Main conclusions

Although the data analysis is still ongoing and thus no final conclusions can be made at this point, the main conclusions from the VALID project so far are that:

Recomendations

• Plasma phenyl-γ-valerolactones appear to be reliable biomarkers of polyphenol rich food consumption;
• Higher dietary polyphenol (flavan-3-ol) intake may be beneficial to cognitive health in older adults;
• Access to healthy versus unhealthy food types and sources may influence dietary behaviours, food purchasing/consumption habits and, as a result, the health of older people.

Building upon the current findings, the main recommendations from the VALID project are that:

• Follow-up research in relation to dietary polyphenols should involve randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to enable cause-and-effect relationships between higher polyphenol intake and health outcomes in ageing, including cognitive health. Such research would provide the high quality human evidence needed to underpin nutrition and health policy and thus generate the most valuable impacts to improve quality of life for older people.
• The use of GIS technologies should be applied in future studies to add value to nutrition and health research by enabling the integration of individual level nutritional information with environmental and socioeconomic data, thereby allowing potential health inequalities in ageing to be explored.
• The nature and distribution of food outlets within a given individual’s environs, should be further explored in future research, as potentially important factors in controlling access to healthy versus unhealthy food sources in older people. This aspect is rarely explored in nutrition and health studies.
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Contribution to the JPI HDHL objectives

First and foremost, the VALID project fulfilled the main requirement of the JPI ERA-HDHL co-funded call “Biomarkers for Nutrition and Health” (BioNH 2016), which focussed on The identification and validation of biomarkers that are modulated by diet and that indicate a change in health status and/or the risk of developing diet-related diseases. We validated plasma phenyl-γ-valerolactones (PVLs) as novel biomarkers that are modulated by dietary polyphenol (flavan-3-ol) intake. Furthermore, we found evidence that higher PVLs concentrations were associated with generally better cognitive function in older adults, thus increased intake of flavan-3-ol-rich foods may be linked with a reduced risk of cognitive dysfunction (a predictor of dementia) in ageing, but this requires confirmation through further research as recommended above (under Recommendations).

Our project fulfilled all of the following conditions of the call:

• We focused on novel biomarkers that are modifiable by diet and reflect a healthy state.
• We built upon previous research by Prof Daniele Del Rio (VALID Project PI from the University of Parma, Italy) who developed the methodology for measurement of phenyl-γ-valerolactones (PVLs) and we conducted the necessary research to validate PVLs as novel biomarkers that are modulated by dietary polyphenol (flavan-3-ol) intake.
• We made excellent use the existing Trinity-Ulster and Department of Agriculture (TUDA) cohort along with the related biobank, co-owned by VALID Project PI Prof Anne Molloy from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and VALID Project Coordinator Prof Helene McNulty from Ulster University, NI, UK). The project built substantially upon the TUDA study of 5,186 older adults, a unique resource designed to assess nutritional and related factors in relation to health and the prevention of age-related disease. By performing new analysis of biobanked samples from the TUDA cohort and drawing on existing data, the project succeeded in bringing together comprehensive data on a range of variables, including the relevant nutrient biomarkers, inflammatory markers, clinical variables and cognitive measures, along with socioeconomic factors. In addition, the project investigated these factors in relation to cognitive decline by analysing samples and accessing data from the ‘TUDA 5+’ cohort, a follow-up sample of 1,000 participants from the original TUDA cohort who were resampled 5 years after their initial investigation.
• We have planned to further disseminate the project findings (through publications in scientific and health professional journals and via presentations at international conferences) and data gathered through this project will be made available to the wider research community in adherence with the FAIR principles of data management.