Whole Blood DNA Methylation Signatures of Diet Are Associated With Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and All-Cause Mortality

Abstract

Background: DNA methylation patterns associated with habitual diet have not been well studied. Methods: Diet quality was characterized using a Mediterranean-style diet score and the Alternative Healthy Eating Index score. We conducted ethnicity-specific and trans-ethnic epigenome-wide association analyses for diet quality and leukocyte-derived DNA methylation at over 400 000 CpGs (cytosine-guanine dinucleotides) in 5 population-based cohorts including 6662 European ancestry, 2702 African ancestry, and 360 Hispanic ancestry participants. For diet-associated CpGs identified in epigenome-wide analyses, we conducted Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to examine their relations to cardiovascular disease risk factors and examined their longitudinal associations with all-cause mortality. Results: We identified 30 CpGs associated with either Mediterranean-style diet score or Alternative Healthy Eating Index, or both, in European ancestry participants. Among these CpGs, 12 CpGs were significantly associated with all-cause mortality (Bonferroni corrected P <1.6×10 −3 ). Hypermethylation of cg18181703 ( SOCS3 ) was associated with higher scores of both Mediterranean-style diet score and Alternative Healthy Eating Index and lower risk for all-cause mortality ( P =5.7×10 −15 ). Ten additional diet-associated CpGs were nominally associated with all-cause mortality ( P <0.05). MR analysis revealed 8 putatively causal associations for 6 CpGs with 4 cardiovascular disease risk factors (body mass index, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, and type 2 diabetes mellitus; Bonferroni corrected MR P <4.5×10 −4 ). For example, hypermethylation of cg11250194 ( FADS2 ) was associated with lower triglyceride concentrations (MR, P =1.5×10 −14 ).and hypermethylation of cg02079413 ( SNORA54 ; NAP1L4 ) was associated with body mass index (corrected MR, P =1×10 −6 ). Conclusions: Habitual diet quality was associated with differential peripheral leukocyte DNA methylation levels of 30 CpGs, most of which were also associated with multiple health outcomes, in European ancestry individuals. These findings demonstrate that integrative genomic analysis of dietary information may reveal molecular targets for disease prevention and treatment.

Epigenome-wide association meta-analysis of DNA methylation with coffee and tea consumption

“…DNA methylation can differ across continental ancestries 72 , challenging replication across populations of varying descent in epigenetic studies 73,74 . Here we observed this discrepancy in our results for some CpGs.…”

Mediterranean diet and the hallmarks of ageing

“…Recent studies show that Let-7b is a regulator of histone H2B ubiquitination which may be a mechanism though which this miRNA exerts its anti-tumour effects [61]. A recent epigenome-wide analysis of methylation at >400,000 CpG sites in leucoctye-derived DNA from 6,662 individuals of European ancestry revealed 30 CpG sites at which methylation status was associated with diet quality, measured using the MedDiet Score and/ or Alternative Healthy Eating Index [62]. Of these, methylation status at 12 CpG sites was associated significantly with all-cause mortality [62].…”

Identification of novel functional CpG-SNPs associated with Type 2 diabetes and birth weight

“…[ 23 ] identified 30 CpGs representing the whole blood DNA methylation signatures that are associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors and all-cause mortality. Our previous work also proposed that peripheral blood-derived meQTL loci were related to the increasing risk of diabetes and coronary artery disease [ 23 , 24 ]. Focusing on these CpG-SNPs may be an effective strategy to improve the detection of novel potential functional variants associated with T2D and BW.…”