Mediterranean diet intervention alters the gut microbiome in older people reducing frailty and improving health status: the NU-AGE 1-year dietary intervention across five European countries

What is it about?

1. What is already known about this subject? a. Ageing is associated with deterioration of multiple bodily functions and inflammation, leading to the onset of frailty. b. The onset of frailty is associated with changes in the gut microbiota that are linked with a restricted diversity diet. c. The Mediterranean dietary regime is positively associated with health. 2. What are the new findings? a. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet led to increased abundance of specific taxa that were positively associated with several markers of lower frailty and improved cognitive function, and negatively associated with inflammatory markers including C-reactive protein and Interleukin-17 b. These associations were independent of host factors like age, BMI. c. Inferred microbial metabolite profiling indicated that the diet-modulated microbiome change was associated with an increase in short/branch chained fatty acid production and lower production of secondary bile acids, p-cresols, ethanol and carbon dioxide. d. Microbiome ecosystem network analysis showed that the bacterial taxa enriched due to the MedDiet intervention occupy key-stone interaction positions, whereas frailty-associated taxa are peripheral in the networks 3. How might it impact on clinical practice in the foreseeable future? a. Our findings support the feasibility of changing the habitual diet to modulate the gut microbiota which in turn has the potential to promote healthier ageing. b. Our findings also provide a short list of candidate taxa that can be investigated further as live biotherapeutic agents for direct administration to older subjects to reduce onset of frailty

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