Two H2020 projects within the Joint Programming Initiative “a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” launched to examine food-related “omics” in relation to diabetes, cognitive aging and brain plasticity

The two projects will be conducted by multidisciplinary consortia including researchers from the LEHA team.

D-CogPlast (Identification of dietary modulators of cognitive ageing and brain plasticity and proof of concept of efficacy for preventing/reversing cognitive decline), initiated in 2016, will examine the role of dietary bioactives affecting brain plasticity for cognitive ageing processes. D-CogPlast consists of 6 partners from 5 countries (UK, Austria, France, Netherlands and Spain) and is coordinated by Sandrine Thuret (UK). D-CogPlast is a translational project across nutrition, epidemiology, and neurosciences, ranging from studies in rodent models to human data. Innovative methods will be employed, such as food metabolomics, in-vitro approaches to study brain plasticity in humans and cognitive ageing models in rodents. Cécilia Samieri (BPH center, LEHA team) leads Work Package 1, dedicated to the discovery stage in humans, aimed at identifying a set of dietary bioactives from the food metabolome associated with cognitive decline in 200 individuals with accelerated cognitive decline over 13+ years against 200 individuals with preserved cognition. This will be conducted in the Three-City study in collaboration with Claudine Manach (unité Nutrition Humaine UMR 1019, INRA and Université d’Auvergne). Sophie Lefèvre-Arbogast has been recruited as a PhD student in LEHA team for this project.

SALAMANDER (Salivary biomarkers of Mediterranean Diet associated with long-term protection against type 2 diabetes mellitus) will start in early 2017. The project aims at identifying and validating salivary signatures indicative of healthy dietary choices (adherence to a Mediterranean diet) and associated with a long-term protection against type 2 diabetes. As D-Cogplast, Salamander is multidisciplinary and is based on innovative omics approaches, including investigation of novel markers of the salivary microbiome. The project brings together partners from France, the UK and Spain. It is coordinated by Martine Morzel (INRA, France). Catherine Féart (BPH, LEHA team) will be involved in Work Packages 1 and 2. WP1 will aim at identifying, using the saliva microbiome, proteome and metabolome of selected subjects from the UK Biobank, a multi-marker signature of a healthy Mediterranean diet associated with protection against type 2 diabetes. In WP2, the signature will be validated in older subjects form the ENRICA and the Three-City cohorts. Perrine André will be recruited as a PhD student in LEHA team in 2017 on the Salamander project.