Use of glucosamine and chondroitin and lung cancer risk in the VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) cohort.

Inflammation plays an important role in lung carcinogenesis. Epidemiologic studies have reported inverse associations of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use and lung cancer risk. Previously, we found that ever use of glucosamine and chondroitin, which have anti-inflammatory properties, were inversely associated with lung cancer risk. After an additional year of follow-up, we further examined the association including frequency/duration of use, interaction with factors associated with inflammation, and lung cancer histology

A prospective study of bowel motility and related factors on breast cancer risk.

BACKGROUND: Estrogen is an established risk factor for breast cancer. Greater bowel motility has been associated with increased estrogen excretion and lower serum estrogen levels, suggesting that it may influence breast cancer risk. However, only one other epidemiologic study thus far, to our knowledge, has examined the relation between bowel motility and breast cancer risk. METHODS: We prospectively examined whether bowel motility, measured by self-reported frequency of bowel movements, and related factors (constipation, laxative use, water consumption, and dietary fiber intake) were associated with incidence of breast cancer among 28,586 postmenopausal women, ages 50 to 76 years, in the Vitamins and Lifestyle study. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate multivariate-adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). From 2000 to 2005, 507 incident invasive breast cancers among the cohort were identified. RESULTS: Women with very frequent (> or =3/d) bowel movements had a 46% decreased risk compared with 1/d women (RR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.31-0.92), but the test for linear trend was not significant (P(trend) = 0.41). Constipation was nonsignificantly associated with increased risk (RR, 1.30 for > or =1/wk versus <1/y; 95% CI, 0.87-1.95). No statistically significant associations were observed for the other study exposures: 10-year chemical laxative use, 10-year use of fiber laxatives, water consumption, and dietary fiber intake. CONCLUSION: This study adds limited support to the hypothesis that increased bowel motility lowers breast cancer risk

Common Supplements Found To Lower Circulating Inflammation Levels

Glucosamine and chondroitin are popular non-vitamin dietary supplements used for osteoarthritis. Long-term use is associated with lower incidence of colorectal and lung cancers and with lower mortality; however, the mechanism underlying these observations is unknown. In vitro and animal studies show that glucosamine and chondroitin inhibit NF-kB, a central mediator of inflammation, but no definitive trials have been done in healthy humans.We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study to assess the effects of glucosamine hydrochloride (1500 mg/d) plus chondroitin sulfate (1200 mg/d) for 28 days compared to placebo in 18 (9 men, 9 women) healthy, overweight (body mass index 25.0-32.5 kg/m2) adults, aged 20-55 y. We examined 4 serum inflammatory biomarkers: C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6, and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptors I and II; a urinary inflammation biomarker: prostaglandin E2-metabolite; and a urinary oxidative stress biomarker: F2-isoprostane. Plasma proteomics on an antibody array was performed to explore other pathways modulated by glucosamine and chondroitin.Serum CRP concentrations were 23% lower after glucosamine and chondroitin compared to placebo (P = 0.048). There were no significant differences in other biomarkers. In the proteomics analyses, several pathways were significantly different between the interventions after Bonferroni correction, the most significant being a reduction in the "cytokine activity" pathway (P = 2.6 x 10-16), after glucosamine and chondroitin compared to placebo.Glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation may lower systemic inflammation and alter other pathways in healthy, overweight individuals. This study adds evidence for potential mechanisms supporting epidemiologic findings that glucosamine and chondroitin are associated with reduced risk of lung and colorectal cancer.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01682694

Variable selection with FDR control for noisy data -- an application to screening metabolites that are associated with breast and colorectal cancer

The rapidly expanding field of metabolomics presents an invaluable resource for understanding the associations between metabolites and various diseases. However, the high dimensionality, presence of missing values, and measurement errors associated with metabolomics data can present challenges in developing reliable and reproducible methodologies for disease association studies. Therefore, there is a compelling need to develop robust statistical methods that can navigate these complexities to achieve reliable and reproducible disease association studies. In this paper, we focus on developing such a methodology with an emphasis on controlling the False Discovery Rate during the screening of mutual metabolomic signals for multiple disease outcomes. We illustrate the versatility and performance of this procedure in a variety of scenarios, dealing with missing data and measurement errors. As a specific application of this novel methodology, we target two of the most prevalent cancers among US women: breast cancer and colorectal cancer. By applying our method to the Wome's Health Initiative data, we successfully identify metabolites that are associated with either or both of these cancers, demonstrating the practical utility and potential of our method in identifying consistent risk factors and understanding shared mechanisms between diseases

Tissue-specific patterns of gene expression in the epithelium and stroma of normal colon in healthy individuals in an aspirin intervention trial

AbstractRegular aspirin use reduces colon adenoma and carcinoma incidence. UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGT) are involved in aspirin metabolism and clearance, and variant alleles in UGT1A6 have been shown to alter salicylic acid metabolism and risk of colon neoplasia. In a randomized, cross-over, placebo-controlled trial of 44 healthy men and women, homozygous for UGT1A6*1 or UGT1A6*2, we explored differences between global epithelial and stromal expression, using Affymetrix U133+2.0 microarrays and tested effects of 60-day aspirin supplementation (325mg/d) on epithelial and stromal gene expression and colon prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels. We conducted a comprehensive study of differential gene expression between normal human colonic epithelium and stroma from healthy individuals. Although no statistically significant differences in gene expression were observed in response to aspirin or UGT1A6 genotype, we have identified the genes uniquely and reproducibly expressed in each tissue type and have analyzed the biologic processes they represent. Here we describe in detail how the data, deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) – accession number GSE71571 – was generated including the basic analysis as contained in the manuscript published in BMC Medical Genetics with the PMID 25927723 (Thomas et al., 2015 [9])

Correlates of Toenail Zinc in a Free-Living U.S. Population

No prior studies have reported on dietary correlates of toenail zinc, an easily collected biomarker of zinc status. The study aim was to identify dietary and other factors that influence toenail zinc in a healthy population, in order to understand the usefulness of this biomarker in public health studies. Cross-sectional comparison of toenail zinc with questionnaire measures of demographic and behavioral factors, dietary intake and supplement use. Western Washington State, US. 106 men and 106 women, who are participants in a large cohort study, of whom 66% used multivitamins or individual supplements containing zinc. Increased toenail zinc concentrations were associated with increased dietary zinc intake (adjusted difference in toenail zinc between those in the highest quartile of intake vs. lowest = 11.0 ppm, p for trend = 0.03), with the association primarily among men. Borderline associations of increased toenail zinc were found with decreased vegetable intake (p=0.08) and increased body mass index (p=0.11). Supplemental zinc and intake of phytic acid, alcohol, iron (from food or supplements) did not influence toenail zinc. Toenail zinc concentrations vary with dietary zinc intake, even in a healthy population with presumably little zinc deficiency

Cruciferous vegetable feeding alters UGT1A1 activity: diet- and genotype-dependent changes in serum bilirubin in a controlled feeding trial.

Chemoprevention by isothiocyanates from cruciferous vegetables occurs partly through up-regulation of phase-II conjugating enzymes, such as UDP-glucuronosyl-transferases (UGT). UGT1A1 glucuronidates bilirubin, estrogens, and several dietary carcinogens. The UGT1A1*28 polymorphism reduces transcription compared to the wild-type, resulting in decreased enzyme activity. Isothiocyanates are metabolized by glutathione-S-transferases (GST); variants may alter isothiocyanate clearance, such that response to crucifers may vary by genotype. We evaluated, in a randomized, controlled, cross-over feeding trial in humans (n=70), 3 test diets, (single- and double-“dose” cruciferous and cruciferous plus apiaceous) compared to a fruit-and-vegetable-free basal diet. We measured serum bilirubin concentrations on days 0, 7, 11 and 14 of each 2-week feeding period to monitor UGT1A1 activity, and determined effects of UGT1A1*28 and GSTM1/GSTT1-null variants on response. Aggregate bilirubin response to all vegetable-containing diets was statistically significantly lower compared to the basal diet (p<0.03 for all). Within each UGT1A1 genotype, lower bilirubin concentrations were seen in: *1/*1 in both single and double-dose cruciferous diets compared to basal (p<0.03 for both); *1/*28 in double-dose cruciferous and cruciferous plus apiaceous compared to basal, and cruciferous plus apiaceous compared to single-dose cruciferous (p<0.02 for all); and *28/*28 in all vegetable-containing diets compared to basal (p<0.02 for all). Evaluation of the effects of diet stratified by GST genotype revealed some statistically significant genotypic differences however, the magnitude was similar and not statistically significant between genotypes. These results may have implications for altering carcinogen metabolism through dietary intervention, particularly among UGT1A1*28/*28 individuals

Association of Habitual Intake of Probiotic Supplements and Yogurt with Characteristics of the Gut Microbiome in the Multiethnic Cohort Adiposity Phenotype Study

Consumption of probiotics and/or yogurt could be a solution for restoring the balance of the gut microbiota. This study examined associations of regular intake of probiotic supplements or yogurt with the gut microbiota among a diverse population of older adults (N=1,861; 60–72 years). Fecal microbial composition was obtained from 16S rRNA gene sequencing (V1-V3 region). General Linear Models were used to estimate the associations of probiotic supplement or yogurt intake with microbiome measures adjusting for covariates. Compared to non-yogurt consumers (N=1,023), regular yogurt consumers (≥once/week, N=818) had greater Streptococcus (β=0.29, P=0.0003) and lower Odoribacter (β=−0.33, P\u3c0.0001) abundance. The directions of the above associations were consistent across the five ethnic groups but stronger among Japanese Americans (Streptococcus: β=0.56, P=0.0009; Odoribacter: β=−0.62, P=0.0005). Regular intake of probiotic supplements (N=175) was not associated with microbial characteristics (i.e., alpha diversity and the abundance of 152 bacteria genera). Streptococcus is one of the predominant bacteria genera in yogurt products, which may explain the positive association between yogurt consumption and Streptococcus abundance. Our analyses suggest that changes in Odoribacter were independent of changes in Streptococcus abundance. Future studies may investigate whether these microbial genera and their sub-level species mediate potential pathways between yogurt consumption and health

Modulation of human serum glutathione S-transferase-A1/2 concentration by cruciferous vegetables in a controlled feeding study is influenced by GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes

Glutathione S-transferases (GST) detoxify a wide range of carcinogens. Isothiocyanates (ITC), from cruciferous vegetables, are substrates for, and inducers of GST. GST variants may alter ITC clearance such that response to crucifers varies by genotype. In a randomized cross-over trial, we tested the hypothesis that changes in serum GSTA1/2 concentration in response to cruciferous vegetable feeding depends on GSTM1/GSTT1 genotype. Thirty-three men and 34 women (age 20-40 yr), ate four 14-day controlled diets: basal (vegetable-free), basal supplemented with 2 different doses of crucifers, (single-“dose” and double-“dose”) and single-dose cruciferous-plus-apiaceous vegetables, fed per kg body weight. Fasting bloods from days 0, 7, 11, and 14 of each diet period were analyzed for serum GSTA1/2 by ELISA. GSTA1/2 increased with single- and double-dose cruciferous compared to basal diet (10% and 13%, respectively; P = 0.02 and 0.004), but cruciferous-plus-apiaceous did not differ from basal (P = 0.59). Overall, GSTA1/2 was higher in GSTM1-null/GSTT1-null than GSTM1+/GSTT1+ individuals (4198 ± 338 and 3372 ± 183 pg/ml; P = 0.03). The formal interaction of genotype-by-diet was not statistically significant, but the GSTA1/2 increase during the single-dose cruciferous diet was among GSTM1-null/GSTT1-null individuals (by 28%; P = 0.008), largely explained by GSTM1-null/GSTT1-null men (by 41%; P = 0.01). GSTA1/2 increased during the double-dose cruciferous diet in both GSTM1-null/GSTT1-null men (by 35 %; P = 0.04) and GSTM1+/GSTT1+ men (by 26%; P = 0.01), but not in women. In summary, cruciferous vegetable supplementation increased GSTA1/2, but the effect was most marked in GSTM1-null/GSTT1-null men

Associations between endogenous sex hormone levels and mammographic and bone densities in premenopausal women

PURPOSE: Mammographic breast and bone mineral densities (BMD) have been associated with luteal phase hormone concentrations in premenopausal women. We assessed the associations of breast and bone densities with follicular phase hormones and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in premenopausal women given that follicular phase hormones have been shown to be positively associated with premenopausal breast cancer risk. METHODS: One hundred and ninety two 40-45 year old women provided a spot urine and/or blood sample during the follicular phase. Hormone and SHBG concentrations and bone density were measured and routine mammograms were accessed and digitized to obtain breast density measures. Regression models were fit to assess the associations between hormones and SHBG and breast and bone densities. RESULTS: Positive associations were observed between percent breast density and SHBG (p trend = 0.02), as well as estradiol (p trend = 0.08), after controlling for body mass index (BMI), number of pregnancies, and breast feeding history. In addition, a statistically significant inverse association was observed between total testosterone and head BMD (p trend = 0.01), after controlling for BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Associations were observed between breast and bone densities and serum hormone concentrations during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle