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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Immunology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1474597
This article is part of the Research Topic Immunonutrition: Bridging Precision Nutrition and Modern Medicine View all articles

The Impact of a Polyphenol-Rich Supplement on Epigenetic and Cellular Markers of Immune Age: A Pilot Clinical Study

Provisionally accepted
Austin Perlmutter Austin Perlmutter 1*Jeffrey S. Bland Jeffrey S. Bland 1Arti Chandra Arti Chandra 1Sonia S. Malani Sonia S. Malani 1Ryan Smith Ryan Smith 2Tavis L. Mendez Tavis L. Mendez 2Varun B. Dwaraka Varun B. Dwaraka 2
  • 1 Big Bold Health, Bainbridge Island, United States
  • 2 TruDiagnostic, Lexington, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Age-related alterations in immune function are believed to increase risk for a host of age-related diseases leading to premature death and disability. Programming of the immune system by diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors occurs across the lifespan and influences both makeup and function of the immune system, including immunometabolism. This programming is believed to act in large part through epigenetic modification. Among dietary components that affect this process, polyphenols may play an outsized role.Polyphenols are a widely distributed group of plant nutrients consumed by humans. Certain foods possess distinctive and relatively higher levels of these compounds. One such food is Tartary buckwheat (fagopyrum tataricum), an ancient seed historically prized for its health benefits. It is suggested that the specific composition of polyphenols found in foods like Tartary buckwheat may lead to a unique impact on immunometabolic physiological pathways that could be interrogated through epigenetic analyses.The objective of this study was to investigate the epigenetic effects on peripheral immune cells in healthy individuals of a standardized polyphenol concentrate based on naturally occurring nutrients in Tartary buckwheat. This pilot clinical trial tested the effects of consuming 90 days of this concentrate in 50 healthy male (40%) and female (60%) participants aged 18-85 years using epigenetic age clocks and deconvolution methods. Analysis revealed significant intervention-related changes in multiple epigenetic age clocks and immune markers as well as population-wide alterations in gene ontology (GO) pathways related to longevity and immunity. This study provides previously unidentified insights into the immune, longevity and epigenetic effects of consumption of polyphenol-rich plants and generates additional support for health interventions built around historically consumed plants like Tartary buckwheat while offering compelling opportunities for additional research.

    Keywords: Diet and nutrition, Epigenetic clocks, Aging, Immunity, Polyphenols, epigenome-wide association study, Tartary buckwheat, Food-is-Medicine

    Received: 01 Aug 2024; Accepted: 15 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Perlmutter, Bland, Chandra, Malani, Smith, Mendez and Dwaraka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Austin Perlmutter, Big Bold Health, Bainbridge Island, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.