The Eurecat technology centre has carried out, in collaboration with the technology centre AZTI, a clinical study involving elder people that lays the groundwork for advancing towards precision nutrition for this population group. The aim is to help combat age-related problems such as the progressive loss of muscle mass, strength and function associated with ageing, and to improve health and well-being.
“One of the population groups with the highest protein requirements is precisely elder people” notes Noemí Boqué, a researcher at Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit, since “due to the metabolic changes that occur with ageing, the ability of dietary amino acids to stimulate muscle formation decreases, meaning that a higher protein intake can help maintain or improve muscle mass and strength.”
The clinical study focused on 200 individuals aged between 50 and 75. Using metabolomics techniques based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, together with routine biochemical and clinical analyses, different metabotypes were identified groups of individuals with similar metabolic health profiles. Based on these metabotypes, progress was made in developing nutritional recommendation algorithms tailored to each group.
The study forms part of the Cervera OPTIPROT Network of Excellence, a network of omics technologies for innovation in optimal protein combinations for consumers, coordinated by AZTI. It has enabled deeper insight “into group-based precision nutrition strategies, which could in the future make it possible to stratify the population and generate precision dietary recommendations for elders, optimizing their health and well-being,” explains Núria Canela, Director of the Centre of Omics Sciences (COS) Unit.
According to Antoni Caimari, Director of Eurecat’s Biotechnology Area, “gaining an in-depth understanding of consumers at the metabolic level could make it possible to design product ranges aimed at specific consumer groups with similar health conditions.”
Single-cell genomics in the food of the future
Within the OPTIPROT network, single-cell genomics has also been used as an approach to identify epigenetic patterns in blood cells obtained from participants in the clinical study, using a single-cell sequencing technology (ATAC-seq). This technology has made it possible to establish the foundations to identify potential health biomarkers associated with ageing and metabolic status in this population group, and to study how these biomarkers are modulated in response to dietary or nutritional interventions.
Single-cell genomics is an omics approach used to investigate cellular heterogeneity and identify new molecular features. This method makes it possible to unravel the complexity of cellular diversity one cell at a time within a sample, without the loss of information that occurs when tissues are analysed as a whole.
Helena Torrell, researcher and Head of Genomics at Eurecat’s Omics Sciences Unit, points out that “single-cell genomics allows us to improve our understanding of health and disease from a much more detailed and precise perspective. As a result, it has numerous practical applications across various fields of biology and medicine, such as oncology, and opens the door to new emerging applications in areas such as precision nutrition”.
OPTIPROT is funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities – the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology and Innovation (CDTI) – and by the European Union through the NextGeneration funds / Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, under the Cervera Network of Excellence support program.
