Rosario B. Jaime-Lara

Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States. While management guidelines recommend reducing dietary sodium/salt intake, salt taste can enhance food flavor and quality of life, making adherence to dietary recommendations challenging. Objective: In this study, we aimed to explore differences in salt taste perception between adults with CHD and those without CHD and whether these differences interact with sex and body mass index (BMI). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis to assess the associations of CHD with sodium intake and salt taste intensity using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013–2014 data. General linear model analyses were conducted by regressing sodium intake or salt tastant concentration on CHD, controlling for sex and BMI. Results: Of the 4094 participants, 50.2% females with a mean age of 45.8 (standard deviation = 17.7). Individuals with CHD reported a higher intensity of dietary salt perception via the Tongue Tip Test: 1 M NaCl generalized Label Magnitude Scale (mean = 31.73, standard error = 2.71) compared with those without CHD (mean = 24.65; standard error = 0.51), P = .04. When stratifying by sex and BMI, there was a significant difference between individuals with and without CHD. Conclusions: These findings suggest that individuals with CHD exhibit distinct salt taste perception, with notable sex and BMI differences. Our study underscores the importance of incorporating sensory science into dietary counseling and developing tailored interventions to individual taste profiles to enhance dietary adherence and overall well-being.

Survival depends on adaptive decision-making wherein the benefits of seeking food are weighed against the risk of threats, a process influenced by internal states like hunger. Highly palatable, calorie-dense foods, such as a high-fat-containing diet (HFD), potently drive feeding even in the absence of hunger. However, it remains unclear whether approach-avoidance conflict is shaped by the interaction between hunger state, motivation for rewards of differing palatability, and the lasting effects of chronic HFD exposure. Here, we examined how hunger, reward value, and chronic high-fat diet (cHFD) exposure affect behavioral strategies for resolving approach-avoidance conflict. We established a modified platform-mediated avoidance (PMA) task where mice resolve conflict between approaching a reward and avoiding a footshock. In this task, we systematically manipulated three key variables: (1) hunger state [via 6-hour (6h) vs. 23-hour (23h) food restriction], (2) reward type (sucrose vs. a high-fat liquid), and (3) diet history (cHFD vs. control diet). We found that hunger, reward value, and diet pre-exposure shaped conflict resolution. Hunger increased risk-taking, with 23h food-restricted mice seeking more rewards than mice with limited 6h food restriction. Similarly, HF-reward increased approach behavior even under 6h food restriction. Importantly, cHFD pre-exposure robustly suppressed reward-seeking during conflict, overriding the motivational effects of both hunger and acute reward value. These findings highlight the interaction between internal states (e.g., hunger), reward value, and environmental factors (e.g., diet) in shaping behavior during conflict.

Obesity is characterized by excess adipose tissue, metabolic imbalance, and persistent low-grade inflammation, all of which can affect brain centers and their communication with peripheral organs. The genetic basis of obesity is complex, involving genetics, metagenomics, and gene-environment interactions that impact gene expression. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate the translational rates of target messenger RNAs (mRNAs). Exploring miRNA-mRNA interactions in obesity offers insights into molecular processes, potential biomarkers, and therapeutic targets of this condition. The current study examined the interplay between miRNA and mRNA collected from individuals with overweight and obesity, and normal weight controls. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental attempt to construct a comprehensive dataset of miRNA-mRNA interactions in overweight and obesity. Total RNA, including miRNA, was isolated from venous blood samples collected from 95 participants. Subsequently, 100 ng of RNA from each sample was analyzed using the NanoString quantitative assay. Quantile normalization, the Bayesian-based method Combat, multi-variable linear regression, over-representation, weighted gene correlation network analyses, and functional analyses were conducted. We found an association between IQGAP1 and DAZAP2 genes and miRNA-20-a and miRNA-2113. IQGAP1 and DAZAP2 were associated with insulin signaling and energy metabolism and insulin sensitivity, respectively. We also identified a positive correlation between peripheral cortisol levels and miRNA-548 with alterations in metabolic processes and the immune system. This suggests that miRNA-mRNA interactions in overweight and obesity may impact insulin sensitivity, metabolism, and immunity, providing novel insight into miRNA-mRNA interactions in overweight and obesity. (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier #NCT00824941; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00824941 ).

The incidence of obesity has markedly increased globally over the last several decades and is believed to be associated with the easier availability of energy-dense foods, including high-fat foods. The reinforcing hedonic properties of high-fat foods, including olfactory cues, activate reward centers in the brain, motivating eating behavior. Thus, there is a growing interest in the understanding of the genetic changes that occur in the brain that are associated with obesity and eating behavior. This growing interest has paralleled advances in genomic methods that enable transcriptomic-wide analyses. Here, we examined the transcriptomic-level differences in the olfactory bulb and striatum, regions of the brain associated with olfaction and hedonic food-seeking, respectively, in high-fat-diet (HFD)-fed obese mice. To isolate the dietary effects from obesity, we also examined transcriptomic changes in normal-chow-fed and limited-HFD-fed groups, with the latter being pair-fed with an HFD isocaloric to the consumption of the normal-chow-fed mice. Using RNA sequencing, we identified 274 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the striatum and 11 in the olfactory bulb of ad libitum HFD-fed mice compared to the chow-fed group, and thirty-eight DEGs in the striatum between the ad libitum HFD and limited-HFD-fed groups. The DEGs in both tissues were associated with inflammation and immune-related pathways, including oxidative stress and immune function, and with mitochondrial dysfunction and reward pathways in the striatum. These results shed light on potential obesity-associated genes in these regions of the brain.

The consumption of probiotics may influence children’s gut microbiome and metabolome, which may reflect shifts in gut microbial diversity composition and metabolism. These potential changes might have a beneficial impact on health. However, there is a lack of evidence investigating the effect of probiotics on the gut microbiome and metabolome of children. We aimed to examine the potential impact of a two (Streptococcus thermophilusandLactobacillus delbrueckii; S2)vs. three (S2 +Bifidobacterium animalissubsp.lactisstrain BB-12) strain-supplemented yogurt. Included in this study were 59 participants, aged one to five years old, recruited to phase I of a double-blinded, randomized controlled trial. Fecal samples were collected at baseline, after the intervention, and at twenty days post-intervention discontinuation, and untargeted metabolomics and shotgun metagenomics were performed. Shotgun metagenomics and metabolomic analyses showed no global changes in either intervention group’s gut microbiome alpha or beta diversity indices. The relative abundance of the two and three intervention bacteria increased in the S2 and S2 + BB12 groups, respectively, fromDay 0toDay 10. In the S2+BB12 group, the abundance of several fecal metabolites was reduced atDay 10, including alanine, glycine, lysine, phenylalanine, serine, and valine. These fecal metabolite changes did not occur in the S2 group. Future research using longer probiotic intervention durations and in children at risk for gastrointestinal disorders may elucidate if functional metabolite changes confer a protective gastrointestinal effect.

Ultra-processed food consumption has increased worldwide, yet little is known about the potential links with taste preference and sensitivity. This exploratory study aimed to (i) compare sweet and salty taste detection thresholds and preferences following consumption of ultra-processed and unprocessed diets, (ii) investigate whether sweet and salty taste sensitivity and preference were associated with taste substrates (i.e. sodium and sugar) and ad libitum nutrient intake, and (iii) examine associations of taste detection thresholds and preferences with blood pressure (BP) and anthropometric measures following consumption of ultra-processed and unprocessed diets. In a randomized crossover study, participants (N = 20) received ultra-processed or unprocessed foods for 2 weeks, followed by the alternate diet. Baseline food intake data were collected prior to admission. Taste detection thresholds and preferences were measured at the end of each diet arm. Taste-substrate/nutrient intake, body mass index (BMI), and body weight (BW) were measured daily. No significant differences were observed in participant salt and sweet detection thresholds or preferences after 2 weeks on ultra-processed or unprocessed diets. There was no significant association between salt and sweet taste detection thresholds, preferences, and nutrient intakes on either diet arm. A positive correlation was observed between salt taste preference and systolic BP (r = 0.59; P = 0.01), BW (r = 0.47, P = 0.04), and BMI (r = 0.50; P = 0.03) following consumption of the ultra-processed diet. Thus, a 2-week consumption of an ultra-processed diet does not appear to acutely impact sweet or salty taste sensitivity or preference. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT03407053.

Heavy alcohol consumption-associated chemosensory dysfunction is understudied, and early detection can help predict disease-associated comorbidities, especially those related to four quality of life (QOL) domains (physical, psychological, social and environment). We examined self-reports of chemosensory ability of individuals with different alcohol drinking behaviors and their association with changes in QOL domains. Participants (n = 466) were recruited between June 2020 and September 2021 into the NIAAA COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Alcohol study. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to categorize participants without any known COVID-19 infection into three groups (non-drinkers, moderate drinkers and heavy drinkers) based on their Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test consumption scores at four different time points (at enrollment, week 4, week 8 and week 12). Linear mixed models were used to examine chemosensory differences between these groups. The associations between chemosensory abilities and QOL were determined in each group. We observed significant impairment in self-reported smell ability of heavy drinking individuals compared to non-drinkers. In contrast, taste ability showed marginal impairment between these groups. There were no significant differences in smell and taste abilities between the moderate and non-drinking groups. Heavy drinkers’ impairment in smell and taste abilities was significantly associated with deterioration in their physical, psychological, social and environmental QOL. Persistent heavy drinking was associated with lower chemosensory ability. Heavy drinkers’ reduced smell and taste function and association with poorer QOL indicate that early assessment of chemosensory changes may be crucial in identifying poorer well-being outcomes in heavy drinkers at risk for alcohol use disorder.