One-year Mediterranean diet promotes epigenetic rejuvenation with country- and sex-specific effects: a pilot study from the NU-AGE project

Abstract

Mediterranean diet has been proposed to promote healthy aging, but its effects on aging biomarkers have been poorly investigated. We evaluated the impact of a 1-year Mediterranean-like diet in a pilot study including 120 elderly healthy subjects from the NU-AGE study (60 Italians, 60 Poles) by measuring the changes in their epigenetic age, assessed by Horvath's clock. We observed a trend towards epigenetic rejuvenation of participants after nutritional intervention. The effect was statistically significant in the group of Polish females and in subjects who were epigenetically older at baseline. A genome-wide association study of epigenetic age changes after the intervention did not return significant (adjusted p value < 0.05) loci. However, we identified small-effect alleles (nominal p value < 10-4), mapping in genes enriched in pathways related to energy metabolism, regulation of cell cycle, and of immune functions. Together, these findings suggest that Mediterranean diet can promote epigenetic rejuvenation but with country-, sex-, and individual-specific effects, thus highlighting the need for a personalized approach to nutritional interventions.

Exploring domains, clinical implications and environmental associations of a deep learning marker of biological ageing

“…Disentangling the relationship between Δ age and the main determinants of disease, namely lifestyles and socioeconomic status [17], we corroborated previous associations with smoking status [12,15] and provided evidence that adherence to a healthy (Mediterranean) diet slows down ageing, in line with previous observational [17,52] and interventional studies analyzing epigenetic age [53]. On the contrary, the lack of evidence of a link between physical activity and slowed biological ageing is discordant with previous evidence reported for blood [15] and brain age [54], but concordant with studies on DNA methylation age [17,52].…”

The “Elderly” Lesson in a “Stressful” Life: Italian Holistic Approach to Increase COVID-19 Prevention and Awareness

“…Epigenetic factors are heritable from cell to daughter cell within the same organism, and there is growing evidence that this heritability can be transgenerational among organisms (47). Moreover, a recent study concluded that a 1-year Mediterranean-like-nutritional intervention can promote epigenetic rejuvenation in the elderly (48). Overall, adherence to the Mediterranean diet of people aged ≥90 years in South Italy could explain their resilience to COVID-19.…”

Mediterranean-Type Dietary Pattern and Physical Activity: The Winning Combination to Counteract the Rising Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)

“…Interestingly, even age-associated epigenetic variations have been shown to be affected by diet. A very recent pilot study, performed on 120 elderly healthy subjects from the NU-AGE study, demonstrated that following a Mediterranean-like diet for 1 year, promoted an epigenetic rejuvenation of participants [ 202 ].…”