The Relationship between PM2.5 and Health Vulnerability in Argentina in 2010

This study aimed to further explore the concept of health vulnerability in Argentina, including environmental pollution in 2010. To this end, we developed a geo-referenced database of PM2.5 concentrations and emissions data from the national emissions inventory to analyze possible correlations with the demographic, activity, education, and health data from the 2010 national census. In addition, to provide a more complete picture of health vulnerability in Argentina, an extended index (SVI + PM2.5) was constructed and mapped, including PM concentration. We obtained data for annual PM2.5 values emissions and air concentrations in Argentina from public sources (GEEA-AEIv3.0M for emissions and the Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group V5.GL.03 dataset for surface PM2.5). We evaluated health vulnerability using the “Sanitary Vulnerability Index” (SVI). PM2.5 emissions are concentrated in urban and intensive agricultural areas of Argentina. PM2.5 air concentrations were acceptable (≤10 µg/m3) in only 15% of the Argentinean territory. The newly developed SVI + PM2.5 index showed that exposure to particulate material significantly increases the vulnerability shown by SVI in almost all census blocks. These results indicate that the new SVI + PM2.5 index might help identify populations that are at risk because of social issues or air pollution.Fil: Bullo, Manuela. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; ArgentinaFil: Lakkis, Gabriela. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Pustilnik, Martin. Universidad Nacional de Hurlingham; ArgentinaFil: Bonfiglio, Juan Ignacio. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; ArgentinaFil: Di Pasquale, Ricardo. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez, Luciana Marisol. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez Alemán, Gabriela. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; ArgentinaFil: Lamas, María Cristina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; ArgentinaFil: Salvia, Hector Agustin. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Langsam, Martín. No especifíca;Fil: Olego, Tomás Alberto. No especifíca;Fil: Starosta, Valentín. No especifíca;Fil: Perez Lloret, Santiago. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Longitudinal association of changes in diet with changes in body weight and waist circumference in subjects at high cardiovascular risk: the PREDIMED trial

Background: Consumption of certain foods is associated with long-term weight gains and abdominal fat accumulation in healthy, middle-aged and young, non-obese participants. Whether the same foods might be associated with changes in adiposity in elderly population at high cardiovascular risk is less known. Objective: Using yearly repeated measurements of both food habits and adiposity parameters, we aimed to investigate how changes in the consumption of specific foods were associated with concurrent changes in weight or waist circumference (WC) in the PREDIMED trial. Design: We followed-up 7009 participants aged 55-70 years at high cardiovascular risk for a median time of 4.8 years. A validated 137-item semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire was used for dietary assessment with yearly repeated measurements. We longitudinally assessed associations between yearly changes in food consumption (serving/d) and concurrent changes in weight (kg) or WC (cm). Results: Yearly increments in weight were observed with increased consumption (kg per each additional increase in 1 serving/d) for refined grains (0.32 kg/serving/d), red meat (0.24), potatoes (0.23), alcoholic beverages (0.18), processed meat (0.15), white bread (0.07) and sweets (0.04); whereas inverse associations were detected for increased consumption of low-fat yogurt (- 0.18), and low-fat milk (- 0.06). Annual WC gain (cm per each additional increase in 1 serving/d) occurred with increased consumption of snacks, fast-foods and pre-prepared dishes (0.28), processed meat (0.18), alcoholic beverages (0.13), and sweets (0.08); whereas increased consumption of vegetables (- 0.23), and nuts (- 0.17), were associated with reductions in WC. Conclusions: In this assessment conducted in high-risk subjects using yearly repeated measurements of food habits and adiposity, some ultra-processed foods, refined carbohydrates (including white bread), potatoes, red meats and alcohol were associated with higher weight and WC gain, whereas increases in consumption of low-fat dairy products and plant foods were associated with less gain in weight and WC

Metabolites related to purine catabolism and risk of type 2 diabetes incidence; modifying efects of the TCF7L2-rs7903146 polymorphism

Studies examining associations between purine metabolites and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are limited. We prospectively examined associations between plasma levels of purine metabolites with T2D risk and the modifying effects of transcription factor-7-like-2 (TCF7L2) rs7903146 polymorphism on these associations. This is a case-cohort design study within the PREDIMED study, with 251 incident T2D cases and a random sample of 694 participants (641 non-cases and 53 overlapping cases) without T2D at baseline (median follow-up: 3.8 years). Metabolites were semi-quantitatively profiled with LC-MS/MS. Cox regression analysis revealed that high plasma allantoin levels, including allantoin-to-uric acid ratio and high xanthine-to-hypoxanthine ratio were inversely and positively associated with T2D risk, respectively, independently of classical risk factors. Elevated plasma xanthine and inosine levels were associated with a higher T2D risk in homozygous carriers of the TCF7L2-rs7903146 T-allele. The potential mechanisms linking the aforementioned purine metabolites and T2D risk must be also further investigated

Plasma Metabolites Associated with Coffee Consumption: A Metabolomic Approach within the PREDIMED Study

Few studies have examined the association of a wide range of metabolites with total and subtypes of coffee consumption. The aim of this study was to investigate associations of plasma metabolites with total, caffeinated, and decaffeinated coffee consumption. We also assessed the ability of metabolites to discriminate between coffee consumption categories. This is a cross-sectional analysis of 1664 participants from the PREDIMED study. Metabolites were semiquantitatively profiled using a multiplatform approach. Consumption of total coffee, caffeinated coffee and decaffeinated coffee was assessed by using a validated food frequency questionnaire. We assessed associations between 387 metabolite levels with total, caffeinated, or decaffeinated coffee consumption (≥50 mL coffee/day) using elastic net regression analysis. Ten-fold cross-validation analyses were used to estimate the discriminative accuracy of metabolites for total and subtypes of coffee. We identified different sets of metabolites associated with total coffee, caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption. These metabolites consisted of lipid species (e.g., sphingomyelin, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylcholine) or were derived from glycolysis (alpha-glycerophosphate) and polyphenol metabolism (hippurate). Other metabolites included caffeine, 5-acetylamino-6-amino-3-methyluracil, cotinine, kynurenic acid, glycocholate, lactate, and allantoin. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.60 (95% CI 0.56–0.64), 0.78 (95% CI 0.75–0.81) and 0.52 (95% CI 0.49–0.55), in the multimetabolite model, for total, caffeinated, and decaffeinated coffee consumption, respectively. Our comprehensive metabolic analysis did not result in a new, reliable potential set of metabolites for coffee consumption

Fatty Acids Composition of Blood Cell Membranes and Peripheral Inflammation in the PREDIMED Study: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

There is limited evidence from epidemiological studies for the inflammatory or anti-inflammatory properties of fatty acids in blood cell membranes. Therefore, this study examined associations between baseline (n = 282) and 1-year (n = 143) changes in the levels of fatty acids in blood cell membranes with circulating inflammatory markers in older adults at high cardiovascular risk. The data for this cross-sectional analysis was obtained from a case-control study within the PREDIMED study. Linear regression with elastic net penalty was applied to test associations between measured fatty acids and inflammatory markers. Several fatty acids were associated with interferon-γ (IFNγ) and interleukins (ILs) IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 at baseline and additionally also with IL-1b at 1 year. Omega-6 fatty acids were consistently positively associated with pro-inflammatory IL-6 and IL-8 at baseline. Omega-3 fatty acids including C20:5n3 and C18:3n3 were negatively associated with IFN-γ at 1 year. It is interesting to note that the cis and trans forms of C16:1n7 at 1 year were oppositely associated with the inflammatory markers. C16:1n7trans was negatively associated with IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and IL-1b, whereas C16:1n7cis was positively associated with IL-1b. This study adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting potential differences in inflammatory or anti-inflammatory properties of fatty acids in blood cell membranes

The relationship between pm2.5 and health vulnerability in Argentina in 2010

Abstract: This study aimed to further explore the concept of health vulnerability in Argentina, including environmental pollution in 2010. To this end, we developed a geo-referenced database of PM2.5 concentrations and emissions data from the national emissions inventory to analyze possible correlations with the demographic, activity, education, and health data from the 2010 national census. In addition, to provide a more complete picture of health vulnerability in Argentina, an extended index (SVI + PM2.5) was constructed and mapped, including PM concentration. We obtained data for annual PM2.5 values emissions and air concentrations in Argentina from public sources (GEEAAEIv3.0M for emissions and the Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group V5.GL.03 dataset for surface PM2.5). We evaluated health vulnerability using the “Sanitary Vulnerability Index” (SVI). PM2.5 emissions are concentrated in urban and intensive agricultural areas of Argentina. PM2.5 air concentrations were acceptable (≤10 µg/m3 ) in only 15% of the Argentinean territory. The newly developed SVI + PM2.5 index showed that exposure to particulate material significantly increases the vulnerability shown by SVI in almost all census blocks. These results indicate that the new SVI + PM2.5 index might help identify populations that are at risk because of social issues or air pollution

MetProc: Separating Measurement Artifacts from True Metabolites in an Untargeted Metabolomics Experiment.

High-throughput metabolomics using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC/MS) provides a useful method to identify biomarkers of disease and explore biological systems. However, the majority of metabolic features detected from untargeted metabolomics experiments have unknown ion signatures, making it critical that data should be thoroughly quality controlled to avoid analyzing false signals. Here, we present a postalignment method relying on intermittent pooled study samples to separate genuine metabolic features from potential measurement artifacts. We apply the method to lipid metabolite data from the PREDIMED (PREvención con DIeta MEDi-terránea) study to demonstrate clear removal of measurement artifacts. The method is publicly available as the R package MetProc, available on CRAN under the GPL-v2 license

Fatty Acids Composition of Blood Cell Membranes and Peripheral Inflammation in the PREDIMED Study: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

There is limited evidence from epidemiological studies for the inflammatory or anti-inflammatory properties of fatty acids in blood cell membranes. Therefore, this study examined associations between baseline (n = 282) and 1-year (n = 143) changes in the levels of fatty acids in blood cell membranes with circulating inflammatory markers in older adults at high cardiovascular risk. The data for this cross-sectional analysis was obtained from a case-control study within the PREDIMED study. Linear regression with elastic net penalty was applied to test associations between measured fatty acids and inflammatory markers. Several fatty acids were associated with interferon-γ (IFNγ) and interleukins (ILs) IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 at baseline and additionally also with IL-1b at 1 year. Omega-6 fatty acids were consistently positively associated with pro-inflammatory IL-6 and IL-8 at baseline. Omega-3 fatty acids including C20:5n3 and C18:3n3 were negatively associated with IFN-γ at 1 year. It is interesting to note that the cis and trans forms of C16:1n7 at 1 year were oppositely associated with the inflammatory markers. C16:1n7trans was negatively associated with IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and IL-1b, whereas C16:1n7cis was positively associated with IL-1b. This study adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting potential differences in inflammatory or anti-inflammatory properties of fatty acids in blood cell membranes

Nut Consumptions as a Marker of Higher Diet Quality in a Mediterranean Population at High Cardiovascular Risk

Background: Nut consumption has been associated with improved nutrient adequacy and diet quality in healthy adult populations but this association has never been explored in individuals at high cardiovascular risk. Objective: to assess the associations between consumption of nuts and nutrient adequacy and diet quality in a Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk. Design: baseline assessment of nutritional adequacy in participants (n = 6060, men and women, with ages 55⁻75 years old, with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome) in the PREDIMED-PLUS primary cardiovascular prevention randomized trial. Methods: nut intake was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Participants who reported consuming zero quantity of nuts were classified as 'non-nut consumers'. 'Nut consumers' were participants who reported consuming any quantity of nuts. Nineteen micronutrients were examined (vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, A, C, D, E and folic acid; Ca, K, P, Mg, Fe, Se, Cr, Zn, and iodine). The proportion of micronutrient inadequacy was estimated using the estimated average requirements (EAR) or adequate intake (AI) cut-points. Diet quality was also assessed using a 17-item Mediterranean dietary questionnaire (Mediterranean diet score, MDS), a carbohydrate quality index (CQI) and a fat quality index (FQI). Results: eighty-two percent of participants were nut consumers (median of nut consumption 12.6 g/day; interquartile range: 6.0⁻25.2). Nut consumers were less likely to be below the EAR for vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, D, E, folic acid, and Ca, Mg, Se and Zn than non-nut consumers. Nut consumers were also more likely to be above the AI for K and Cr than non-nut consumers. Nut consumers had lower prevalence of inadequate micronutrient intakes, but also higher CQI, higher FQI, and better scores of adherence to the Mediterranean diet (Mediterranean diet score, MDS). Conclusions: nut consumers had better nutrient adequacy, diet quality, and adherence to the MedDiet than those non-nut consumers