Plasma metabolomic analysis indicates flavonoids and sorbic acid are associated with incident diabetes: A nested case-control study among Women's Interagency HIV Study participants

• Authors: Elaine A Yu, Emory University; José O Aleman, New York University; Donald R Hoover, Rutgers State University; Qiuhu Shi, New York Medical College; Michael Verano, New York University; Kathryn Anastos, Montefiore Medical Center; Phyllis C Tien, University of California San Francisco; Anjali Sharma, Montefiore Medical Center; Ani Kardashian, University of Southern California; Mardge H Cohen, Cook County Health & Hospitals System and Rush University, Chicago; Elizabeth T Golub, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Katherine G Michel, Georgetown University; Deborah R Gustafson, State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University; Marshall J Glesby, Weill Cornell Medicine
• Journal Title: PLOS ONE
• Volume: Volume 17, Number 7
• Publisher: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | 2022-07-08, Pages e0271207-e0271207
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271207
• Subjects: Health Sciences, Public Health
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Science & Technology - Other Topics; CHAIN AMINO-ACIDS; RISK; EXTRACTION; COHORT; CELLS

Abstract

Introduction Lifestyle improvements are key modifiable risk factors for Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) however specific influences of biologically active dietary metabolites remain unclear. Our objective was to compare non-targeted plasma metabolomic profiles of women with versus without confirmed incident DM. We focused on three lipid classes (fatty acyls, prenol lipids, polyketides). Materials and methods Fifty DM cases and 100 individually matched control participants (80% with human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]) were enrolled in a case-control study nested within the Women's Interagency HIV Study. Stored blood samples (1-2 years prior to DM diagnosis among cases; at the corresponding timepoint among matched controls) were assayed in triplicate for metabolomics. Time-of-flight liquid chromatography mass spectrometry with dual electrospray ionization modes was utilized. We considered 743 metabolomic features in a two-stage feature selection approach with conditional logistic regression models that accounted for matching strata. Results Seven features differed by DM case status (all false discovery rate-adjusted q<0.05). Three flavonoids (two flavanones, one isoflavone) were respectively associated with lower odds of DM (all q<0.05), and sorbic acid was associated with greater odds of DM (all q<0.05). Conclusion Flavonoids were associated with lower odds of incident DM while sorbic acid was associated with greater odds of incident DM.