Dietary Polyphenol Intake Is Associated with Biological Aging, a Novel Predictor of Cardiovascular Disease: Cross-Sectional Findings from the Moli-Sani Study

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 13; no. 5; p. 1701
• Main Authors: Esposito, Simona, Gialluisi, Alessandro, Costanzo, Simona, Di Castelnuovo, Augusto, Ruggiero, Emilia, De Curtis, Amalia, Persichillo, Mariarosaria, Cerletti, Chiara, Donati, Maria, de Gaetano, Giovanni, Iacoviello, Licia, Bonaccio, Marialaura
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 17.05.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Aging; Aging - blood; Aging - physiology; Analysis; antioxidant activity; Antioxidants; Antioxidants - analysis; Beverages; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Blood; Blood platelets; bone health; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - etiology; Chronobiology Phenomena; Cohort Studies; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diet; Diet - adverse effects; Diet Surveys; Diet, Mediterranean - statistics & numerical data; Disability; DNA methylation; Eating - physiology; Female; Food; food frequency questionnaires; food intake; Health care; Heart Disease Risk Factors; Hemoglobin; Humans; Italy; Linear Models; Male; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Mediterranean diet; Mitochondrial DNA; Mortality; Neural networks; Neural Networks, Computer; Peptides; Polyphenols; Polyphenols - analysis; Population; Questionnaires; risk; Risk Assessment; Surveys; Italy; biological aging; cardiovascular disease; dietary polyphenols; bone health
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu13051701

Biological aging, or the discrepancy between biological and chronological age of a subject (Δage), has been associated with a polyphenol-rich Mediterranean diet and represents a new, robust indicator of cardiovascular disease risk. We aimed to disentangle the relationship of dietary polyphenols and total antioxidant capacity with Δage in a cohort of Italians. A cross-sectional analysis was performed on a sub-cohort of 4592 subjects (aged ≥ 35 y; 51.8% women) from the Moli-sani Study (2005–2010). Food intake was recorded by a 188-item food-frequency questionnaire. The polyphenol antioxidant content (PAC)-score was constructed to assess the total dietary content of polyphenols. Total antioxidant capacity was measured in foods by these assays: trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), total radical-trapping antioxidant parameter (TRAP) and ferric reducing-antioxidant power (FRAP). A deep neural network, based on 36 circulating biomarkers, was used to compute biological age and the resulting Δage, which was tested as outcome in multivariable-adjusted linear regressions. Δage was inversely associated with the PAC-score (β = −0.31; 95%CI −0.39, −0.24) but not with total antioxidant capacity of the diet. A diet rich in polyphenols, by positively contributing to deceleration of the biological aging process, may exert beneficial effects on the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease and possibly of bone health.