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Mediterranean diet, stress resilience, and aging in nonhuman primates.

ABSTRACT: Persistent psychological stress increases the risk of many chronic diseases of aging. Little progress has been made to effectively reduce stress responses or mitigate stress effects suggesting a need for better understanding of factors that influence stress responses. Limited evidence suggests that diet may be a factor in modifying the effects of stress. However, long-term studies of diet effects on stress reactive systems are not available, and controlled randomized clinical trials are difficult and costly. Here we report the outcomes of a controlled, randomized preclinical trial of the effects of long-term consumption (31 months, ~ equivalent to 9 human years) of Western versus Mediterranean - like diets on behavioral and physiological responses to acute (brief social separation) and chronic (social subordination) psychosocial stress in 38 adult, socially-housed, female cynomolgus macaques. Compared to animals fed a Western diet, those fed the Mediterranean diet exhibited enhanced stress resilience as indicated by lower sympathetic activity, brisker and more overt heart rate responses to acute stress, more rapid recovery, and lower cortisol responses to acute psychological stress and adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) challenge. Furthermore, age-related increases in sympathetic activity and cortisol responses to stress were delayed by the Mediterranean diet. Population level diet modification in humans has been shown to be feasible. Our findings suggest that population-wide adoption of a Mediterranean-like diet pattern may provide a cost-effective intervention on psychological stress and promote healthy aging with the potential for widespread efficacy.

SUBMITTER: Shively CA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7739065 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Dietary composition is associated with the differential prevalence of psychiatric disorders; the Western diet confers increased risk, while the Mediterranean diet appears to reduce risk. In nonhuman primates, anxiety-like behaviors and social isolation have been linked to both Western diet consumption and increased inflammatory disease risk, and recent evidence suggests that diet composition may affect immune system function in part through its effects on behavior. This is particularly important in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic in which social isolation has been associated with disease. Here, we examined the effects of Western- and Mediterranean-like diets on social behavior in a randomized, 34-month preclinical trial in middle-aged female cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis). Diet induced rapid and persistent changes in a suite of behaviors. After just three months of experimental diet consumption, a composite measure of diet-altered behavior (DAB) significantly differed between the two diets (p = 0.014) and remained different throughout the 24-month experimental observation period (p = 2.2 × 10-8). Monkeys fed the Western diet spent more time alone (FDR = 4.4 × 10-5) and displayed more anxiety behavior (FDR = 0.048), whereas monkeys fed the Mediterranean diet spent more time resting (FDR = 0.0013), attentive (FDR = 0.017), and in body contact with groupmates (FDR = 4.1 × 10-8). These differences were largely due to changes in behavior of animals fed the Mediterranean diet, while Western-diet-fed-animals exhibited similar behaviors compared to the eight-month baseline period, during which all monkeys consumed a common laboratory diet. These observations provide experimental support in a nonhuman primate model, demonstrating a potential therapeutic benefit of the Mediterranean diet consumption to reduce social isolation and anxiety and thus mitigate social isolation-associated disorders that often accompany illness and disability.

Project description:BACKGROUND & AIMS: Gastric cancer results from a combination of Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection, exposure to dietary carcinogens, and predisposing genetic make-up. Because the role of these factors in gastric carcinogenesis cannot be determined readily in human beings, the present study examined the role of an oral carcinogen and H pylori infection in rhesus monkeys. METHODS: Gastroscopies were performed in 23 monkeys assigned to 4 groups: controls; nitrosating carcinogen ethyl-nitro-nitrosoguanidine administration alone; and inoculation of a virulent H pylori strain alone (H), or in combination with ethyl-nitro-nitrosoguanidine (EH). Follow-up gastroscopies and biopsies were performed at 3-month intervals for 5 years for pathologic and molecular studies. RESULTS: Postinoculation, H and EH groups showed persistent infection and antral gastritis. Starting at 2 and 5 years, respectively, gastric intestinal metaplasia and intraepithelial neoplasia developed in 3 EH monkeys but in no other groups. Transcriptional analysis of biopsies at 5 years revealed group-specific expression profiles, with striking changes in EH monkeys, plus a neoplasia-specific expression profile characterized by changes in multiple cancer-associated genes. Importantly, this neoplastic profile was evident in nonneoplastic mucosa, suggesting that the identified genes may represent markers preceding cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Gastric intraglandular neoplasia is induced in primates when H pylori infection is associated with consumption of a carcinogen similar to the nitrosaminesfound in pickled vegetables, suggesting that H pylori and the carcinogen synergistically induce gastric neoplasia in primates. Monkey arrays used for analysis of the affect of Helicobacter pylori and diet on development of gastric cancer. Each RNA was hybridized against a common reference. Biopsy numbers represent the following in terms of descriptions used in publication of the paper... Each set of numbers/descriptions is organized in the following order: Biopsy#; Monkey#; Group Code on Fig 5 Biopsy #4674; AB24; E; E1 Biopsy #4684; 16G; E; E2 Biopsy #4716; 89G; H; H1 Biopsy #4724; 54H; H; H2 Biopsy #4720; 20G; H; H3 Biopsy #4710; 92F; C; C1 Biopsy #4714; 26G; C; C2 Biopsy #4712; 92G; C; C3 Biopsy #4726; 08G; H; H4 Biopsy #4722; 57G; H; H5 Biopsy #4718; 85G; H; H6 Biopsy #4694; 48H; HE NON; HE1 Biopsy #4686; 59H; HE NON; HE2 Biopsy #4690; 81G; HE NEO; HE3 Biopsy #4696; 36G; HE NEO; HE4 Biopsy #4692; 63G; HE NEO; HE5 Biopsy #4680; 76G; E; E3 Biopsy #4682; 52G; E; E4 Biopsy #4678; 15G; E; E5 Biopsy #4676; 93G; E; E6 Biopsy #4688; 47H; HE NON; HE6 A pathogenicity experiment design type is where an infective agent such as a bacterium, virus, protozoan, fungus etc. infects a host organism(s) and the infective agent is assayed. Infection: Rhesus monkeys were infected with H. pylori (+/-) Compound Based Treatment: Rhesus monkeys were treated with ENNG (N-ethyl-N-nitrosoguanidine) (+/-) pathogenicity_design

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Mediterranean diet, stress resilience, and aging in nonhuman primates.

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