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Session: Nutritional Proteomics and Metabolomics (Oral 2)

(OR02-05-23) Untargeted Metabolomic Analysis Reveals Inverse Associations Between Red Meat Intake and Two Anti-Inflammatory Amino Acids

Saturday, July 22, 2023
3:18 PM – 3:30 PM ET
Location:  Constitution B
Disclosure(s):
Alexis C. Wood, Ph.D, F.A.H.A: Beef Checkoff: Grant/Research Support (Terminated, July 31, 2022)
Hass avocado Board: Grant/Research Support (Terminated, December 31, 2022)
Objectives: To identify whether metabolites associated with red meat intake are also associated with inflammation.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of adults participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (62% female, mean age 63±0.3 y; N=6,224), with dietary intake, untargeted 1H NMR metabolomic features, and markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein [CRP], interleukin-2, interleukin-6, fibrinogen, homocysteine, and tumor necrosis factor alpha) (N=3,638 with metabolomics). Initial associations were examined using linear regression models, adjusted for demographic factors and lifestyle behaviors, and subsequently also for BMI. Significance for metabolome-wide analysis was determined via permutation, otherwise via a Bonferroni correction.

Results: Unprocessed meat was inversely associated with 5 features representing glutamine (sentinel hit: β=-0.10±0.02, P=3.2*10-7) and 2 representing histidine (sentinel hit: em>β-6). Both sets of features were inversely associated with multiple markers of inflammation (P < 2.0*10-16 - .0002). When controlling for BMI, unprocessed red meat was no longer significantly associated with CRP, nor with histidine. However, the inverse association between unprocessed meat and features annotated as glutamine remained (em>β-5), as did the inverse associations between features and markers of inflammation (P < 2.0*10-10 - .001).

Conclusions: Higher intake of unprocessed red meat is associated with lower levels of two anti-inflammatory amino acids, which are in turn, associated with lower inflammation, but adiposity plays an important role in these relationships. As metabolite levels represent the physiological effects of food after digestion and processing, the difference in magnitude between diet-inflammation vs. metabolite-inflammation associations highlights the importance of considering individual responses to dietary intake when understanding diet-health associations.

Funding Sources: The National Cattleman’s Beef Association, USDA/ARS, National Institutes of Health, EU COMBI-BIO project, The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences