Award details

AnThocyanin and polyphenol bioactives for Health Enhancement through Nutritional Advancement (ATHENA)

Reference	BBS/E/F/00042596
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Paul Kroon
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Quadram Institute Bioscience
Department	Quadram Institute Bioscience Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	122,596
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/07/2010
End date	30/06/2015
Duration	59 months

Abstract

Anthocyanins are the highly coloured flavonoids that are responsible for the red to dark purple colours of many fruits and vegetables including strawberries, blueberries, blackcurrants and aubergines. Data from epidemiological studies show that there is an inverse relationship between consumption of anthocyanins and risk of disease, particularly cardiovascular diseases (CVD). However, there is a lack of data from high quality randomised controlled trials which are required to establish if anthocyanin consumption causes reductions in CVD risk. The aim of this project is to undertake a highly controlled dietary intervention to assess whether increased anthocyanin consumption reduces CVD risk. This will be achieved using ‘purple tomatoes’ that express high levels of anthocyanins in the tomato fruit and standard red tomatoes that are replete of anthocyanins. Volunteers will be recruited via the local hospital general surgery department; they will be patients who have been referred to have varicose veins surgically removed. They will be randomised to either the treatment or control group and asked to consume 4 portions of tomato soup per week for about 6 weeks. Before and after the intervention, samples of blood and urine will be collected and various measurements will be made of CVD risk factors such as blood pressure and plasma cholesterol, and of other biomarkers associated with CVD risk. In addition, venous tissue will be collected. Non-targeted transcriptomic analyses will be performed using white blood cell fractions and the venous tissue to identify novel markers of exposure / effect, and to guide research into the underlying mechanisms. It is expected that the data from this research will establish whether or not anthocyanins, in the context of a complex food matrix, can cause reductions in CVD risk, and will identify potential mechanisms underlying the observed effects.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Diet and Health
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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