Endurance-dependent urinary extracellular vesicle signature: shape, metabolic miRNAs, and purine content distinguish triathletes from inactive people

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) enriched with bioactive molecules have gained considerable attention in nanotechnology because they are critical to intercellular communication while maintaining low immunological impact. Among biological matrices, urine has emerged as a noninvasive source of extracellular-contained liquid biopsy, currently of interest as a readout for physiological adaptations. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate chronic adaptations of endurance sport practice in terms of urinary EV parameters and evaluated by food consumption assessment. Two balanced groups of 13 inactive controls vs. triathlon athletes were enrolled; their urinary EVs were obtained by differential ultracentrifugation and analyzed by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron and atomic force microscopy. The cargo was analyzed by means of purine and miRNA content through HPLC-UV and qRT-PCR. Specific urinary EV signatures differentiated inactive versus endurance-trained in terms of peculiar shape. Particularly, a spheroid shape, smaller size, and lower roughness characterize EVs from triathletes. Metabolic and regulatory miRNAs often associated with skeletal muscle (i.e., miR378a-5p, miR27a-3p, miR133a, and miR206) also accounted for a differential signature. These miRNAs and guanosine in urinary EVs can be used as a readout for metabolic status along with the shape and roughness of EVs, novel informative parameters that are rarely considered. The network models allow scholars to entangle nutritional and exercise factors related to EVs' miRNA and purine content to depict metabolic signatures. All in all, multiplex biophysical and molecular analyses of urinary EVs may serve as promising prospects for research in exercise physiology

Dietary Patterns in European and Brazilian Adolescents: Comparisons and Associations with Socioeconomic Factors

Associations between dietary patterns (DP) and socioeconomic factors have been little explored in adolescents. The aim of this study was to identify DP in European and Brazilian adolescents and to investigate their associations with a range of socioeconomic indicators. Adolescents from the HELENA-study and the Household Budget Survey were analyzed. Factor analysis was used to obtain DP. Linear regression was used to examine the association between DP and SES. In Europeans, the Western DP was associated with low education of the mother, high socioeconomic status (boys), older age (boys), and living in cities of the Northern Europe; in Brazilians, the Western DP was associated with high secondary education of the mother, high socioeconomic status and living in Southern areas of the country. The Traditional European DP, in both genders, was associated with high secondary education of the mother and inversely associated with a high socioeconomic status; the Traditional Brazilian DP, was associated with university level education of the mother and older age (boys). The association between DP and socioeconomic factors is relevant for the understanding of food-related practices and highlight the importance of performing a complete assessment of the socioeconomic influence in adolescent’s DP from developed and developing countries.The HELENA study received funding from the European Union’s Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contracts FOOD-CT-2007-036196-2 and FOODCT-2005-007034, respectively). Additional support was received from the Spanish Ministry of Education (AGL2007-29784-E/ALI), Axis-Shield Diagnostics Ltd. (Oslo, Norway), Abbot Científica S.A. (Spain). The HBS was funded by the Ministry of Health of Brazil (agreement number 4652/2005; grant number 25000.202044/2005-16). The funder contributed to the HBS design and conduct of the study. C.A.B. received a fellowship from the Brazilian Federal Agency (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior-CAPES) and A.M.S.P received financial support by Fundación Cuenca Villoro (Spain) both for the improvement of higher education. D.J.P was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation—MINECO (RYC-2014-16938)

Cardiometabolic risk is positively associated with underreporting and inversely associated with overreporting of energy intake among european adolescents: The healthy lifestyle in Europe by nutrition in adolescence (HELENA) study

[Background]: Dietary misreporting is the main limitation of dietary assessments and has been associated with BMI during youth. However there are no prior studies assessing misreporting and cardiometabolic risks (CMRs) in adolescence.[Objectives]: To examine the associations between dietary misreporting and CMR factors in adolescents and to assess the potential bias in the association between CMR and energy intake (EI) driven by dietary misreporting.[Methods]: Two 24-hour dietary recalls were obtained from 1512 European adolescents (54.8% girls) aged 12.5–17.5 years. Physical activity was measured by accelerometry. Cut-offs suggested by Huang were applied to identify misreporters. Height, waist circumference (WC), the sum of 4 skinfold thicknesses, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) measurements were taken and serum triglycerides and total-/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio were analyzed. A sex- and age-specific clustered CMR score (n = 364) was computed. Associations were investigated by multilevel regression analyses adjusting for age, sex, center, socioeconomic status, and physical activity.[Results]: Underreporting (24.8% adolescents) was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with a higher WC, waist-to-height ratio (WHeR), and sum of skinfold thickness, whereas overreporting (23.4% adolescents) was significantly associated with a lower WC, WHeR, sum of skinfold thickness, and SBP. Associations between CMR factors and EI were significantly affected by misreporting, considering various approaches. Significant, positive associations became inverse after adjusting for misreporting for WC and WHeR. The opposite was true for the sum of skinfold thickness, SBP, and CMR score. The associations between EI and DBP and CRF did not remain significant after adjusting for misreporting.[Conclusions]: CMR factors differed among misreporting groups, and both abdominal and total fat mass indicators were more strongly associated with all forms of misreporting than was BMI. Moreover, misreporting seems to bias EI and CMR associations in adolescents. Therefore, energy misreporting should be taken into account when examining diet-CMR associations.The Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA) study was carried out with the financial support of the European Community Sixth Framework Programme Research and Technological Development (RTD) Framework Programme (contract FOODCT-2005-007034).Peer reviewe

Food portion sizes and their relationship with energy, and nutrient intakes in adolescents: The HELENA study

Objectives This study aimed to investigate the associations between portion sizes (PSs) from different food groups and energy, as well as nutrient intakes in European adolescents. Methods A sample of 1631 adolescents (54.2 % girls) were included from the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence Cross-Sectional (HELENA) study. Mean food PS was calculated by dividing the total intake of the items by the number of eating occasions of these consumed items. To determine the key items for analysis, foods were ranked by frequency of consumption. A one-way between-groups analysis of covariance was used to test for significant differences in means across tertiles. A multivariable linear regression analysis was carried out, adjusting for age, sex, maternal education, body mass index, and using country as a level. Results Energy intake increased with elevated intakes of energy-dense foods. Large portions of rice and other grains, starch roots and potatoes, and meat substitutes, nuts, and pulses were associated with increased carbohydrate and fiber intake. Larger portions of cheese and butter and animal fat were significantly associated with a higher fat intake. Lower intakes of some vitamins and micronutrients were noticed with consumption of larger portions of high energy-dense foods, such as desserts and pudding, margarine and vegetable oil, and butter and animal fat. Conclusions Large food PSs may be associated with positive energy, as well as macro- and micronutrient intake. Moreover, the findings from this study may help the future development of dietary guidance in general and specific to PSs, and support targeted strategies to address intakes of certain nutrients in European adolescents

In order to lower the antinutritional activity of serine protease inhibitors, we need to understand their role in seed development

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.Proteases, including serine proteases, are involved in the entire life cycle of plants. Proteases are controlled by protease inhibitors (PI) to limit any uncontrolled or harmful protease activity. The role of PIs in biotic and abiotic stress tolerance is well documented, however their role in various other plant processes has not been fully elucidated. Seed development is one such area that lack detailed work on the function of PIs despite the fact that this is a key process in the life cycle of the plant. Serine protease inhibitors (SPI) such as the Bowman- Birk inhibitors and Kunitz-type inhibitors, are abundant in legume seeds and act as antinutrients in humans and animals. Their role in seed development is not fully understood and present an interesting research target. Whether lowering the levels and activity of PIs, in order to lower the anti-nutrient levels in seed will affect the development of viable seed, remains an important question. Studies on the function of SPI in seed development are therefore required. In this Perspective paper, we provide an overview on the current knowledge of seed storage proteins, their degradation as well as on the serine protease-SPI system in seeds and what is known about the consequences when this system is modified. We discuss areas that require investigation. This includes the identification of seed specific SPIs; screening of germplasms, to identify plants with low seed inhibitor content, establishing serine protease-SPI ratios and lastly a focus on molecular techniques that can be used to modify seed SPI activity.NRF, South Africa incentive funding, was also partially supported by the ERA-NET co-funding on Food Systems and Climate (FOSC) BIO-BELIEF project.http://www.frontiersin.org/Plant_Scienceam2024Plant Production and Soil ScienceSDG-15:Life on lan

The role of the IRILD Consortium in the European DEDIPAC-KH project

The IRILD Consortium (partner in the DEDIPAC-KH joint Action) has been working in a few activities of Thematic Area1 and Thematic Area2 aimed at: -Developing a toolbox with state-of-the-art methods to assess dietary intake and their determinants based on their quality and suitability to be used in pan-European studies (task 1.1.1)- Identifying existing pan-European datasets including dietary intake to do secondary analysis according to variation in dietary intake by demographic (task 1.1.2)- Examining the validity and reliability of the measurement methods employed to assess physical activity and sedentary behaviours on children/adolescent and adults populations (task 1.2.4)-Identifying national state-of-the-art surveillance systems and infrastructures in Europe (task 1.3.3).-Mapping and defining life course determinants, correlates and key research challenges of dietary intake in old population (task 2.1.1)-Mapping and defining life course determinants, correlates and key research challenges of physical activity behaviour (task 2.2.1)Theoretical frameworks of determinants have been taken as the starting point for developing the frameworks and taxonomies. On-going/recently finished EU-funded projects on determinants has been consulted. Finally, SRLs have been conducted .The IRILD (Infrastructure to support Research In promoting active Lifestyles and healthy Diet) Consortium has been contributing to obtain the following results: Methodological assessment and measurements for evaluation of vitamin B12 and folate intake have been extracted. Information on the validity and reliability of assessment methods were collected and all essential data for a toolbox have been prepared (task 1.1.1);A report on variation of food consumption throughout Europe, concerning a secondary analysis to estimate food habits variation by food groups in different European age-gender population groups, has been prepared (task 1.1.2);Methodological effectiveness of measures of PA and SB on children/adolescent and adults populations have been examined (task 1.2.4);Information on nutritional surveillance in Italy have been delivered for sub-task 1.3.3.1 (task 1.3.3); Systematic Literature Review on determinants of dietary intake in community-dwelling older adults to get an overview is going to be concluded (task 2.1.1). The IRILD consortium was financially supported by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forestry Policies (DM.14474/7303/13)

A Dietary Assessment Training Course Path: The Italian IV SCAI Study on Children Food Consumption

The eating patterns in a population can be estimated through dietary surveys in which open-ended assessment methods, such as diaries and interviews, or semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires are administered. A harmonized dietary survey methodology, together with a standardized operational procedure, in conducting the study is crucial to ensure the comparability of the results and the accuracy of information, thus reducing uncertainty and increasing the reliability of the results. Dietary patterns (i) include several target variables (foods, energy and nutrients, other food components), (ii) require several explanatory variables (age, gender, anthropometric measurements, socio-cultural and economic characteristics, lifestyle, preferences, attitudes, beliefs, organization of food-related activities, etc.), and (iii) have impacts in several domains: imbalance diets; acute and chronic exposures affect health, specifically non-communicable diseases; and then sanitary expenditure. On the other hand, food demand has impacts on the food system: production, distribution, and food services system; food wastes and other wastes generated by food-related activities of the households (e.g., packaging disposal) have consequences on the “health of the planet” which in turn can have effects on human health. Harmonization and standardization of measurement methods and procedures in such a complex context require an ad hoc structured information system made by databases (food nomenclatures, portion sizes, food atlas, recipes) and methodological tools (quantification methods, food coding systems, assessment of nutritional status, data processing to extrapolate what we consider validated dietary data). Establishing a community of professionals specialized in dietary data management could lead to build a surveillance system for monitoring eating habits in the short term, thus reducing costs, and to arrange a training re-training system. Creating and maintaining the dietary data managers community is challenging but possible. In this context, the cooperation between the CREA Research Centre for Food and Nutrition and the Italian National Health Institute (ISS) promoted and supported by the Italian Ministry of Health may represent a model of best practice that can ensure a continuous training for the professional community carrying out a nutritional study

Antinutritional factors, nutritional improvement, and future food use of common beans : a perspective

Common bean seeds are an excellent source of protein as well as of carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and bioactive compounds reducing, when in the diet, the risks of diseases. The presence of bioactive compounds with antinutritional properties (e.g., phytic acid, lectins, raffinosaccharides, protease inhibitors) limits, however, the bean’s nutritional value and its wider use in food preparations. In the last decades, concerted efforts have been, therefore, made to develop new common bean genotypes with reduced antinutritional compounds by exploiting the natural genetic variability of common bean and also applying induced mutagenesis. However, possible negative, or positive, pleiotropic effects due to these modifications, in terms of plant performance in response to stresses or in the resulting technological properties of the developed mutant genotypes, have yet not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of the perspective paper is to first highlight the current advances, which have been already made in mutant bean characterization. A view will be further provided on future research directions to specifically explore further advantages and disadvantages of these bean mutants, their potential use in innovative foods and representing a valuable genetic reservoir of combinations to assess the true functional role of specific seed bioactive components directly in the food matrix.The ERA-NET co-funding on Food Systems and Climate (FOSC) BIO-BELIEF project.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-sciencedm2022Plant Production and Soil Scienc

Associations between food portion sizes, insulin resistance, VO2 max and metabolic syndrome in European adolescents: The HELENA study

HELENA Study Group: et al.[Background and aims] This study aims to examine the associations of food portion size (PS) with markers of insulin resistance (IR) and clustered of metabolic risk score in European adolescents.[Methods] A total of 495 adolescents (53.5% females) from the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA) study were included. The association between PS from food groups and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index, VO2 max, and metabolic risk score was assessed by multilinear regression analysis adjusting for several confounders. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to determine the mean differences of food PS from food groups by HOMA-IR cutoff categories by using maternal education as a covariable.[Results] Larger PS from vegetables in both gender and milk, yoghurt, and milk beverages in males were associated with higher VO2 max, while larger PS from margarines and vegetable oils were associated with lower VO2 max (p < 0.05). Males who consumed larger PS from fish and fish products; meat substitutes, nuts, and pulses; cakes, pies, and biscuits; and sugar, honey, jams, and chocolate have a higher metabolic risk score (p < 0.05). Males with lower HOMA-IR cutoff values consumed larger PS from vegetables, milk, yoghurt, and milk beverages (p < 0.05). Females with lower HOMA-IR cutoff values consumed larger PS from breakfast cereals, while those with higher HOMA-IR cutoff values consumed larger PS from butter and animal fats (p = 0.018).[Conclusion] The results show that larger PS from dairy products, cereals, and high energy dense foods are a significant determinant of IR and VO2 max, and larger PS from food with higher content of sugar were associated with higher metabolic risk score.HELENA study received funding from the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Program (Contract FOODCT-2005-007034). E.M.G.-G. holds a Juan de la Cierva-Formación grant from the Spanish Government (FJCI-2017-34,967).Peer reviewe