AS417 - Dietary metabolite profiling of nutrition and physical assessment

Investigator Names and Contact Information

Dan Raftery (draftery@uw.edu)

Introduction/Intent

Hypothesis/Statement of Study Goal

Metabolite profiling, both targeted and untargeted, has potential to contribute novel knowledge when applied to dietary and disease studies. In this pilot study we propose to use blood and urine specimens collected in the WHI core Nutrition and Physical Activity Assessment Study (NPAAS) to examine the extent to which metabolite profiling can recover variation among participants in their provided nutrients/foods in the current (feeding study) phase of NPAAS. The goal of these analyses is to identify biomarkers/objective markers for the consumption of specific nutrients or foods. Any novel biomarkers that emerge will then be used to develop calibration equations using dietary self-report data and study subject characteristics for the development of nutritional epidemiology association studies of uncommon reliability in WHI cohorts. Self-reported dietary information is notoriously inaccurate and reduces the confidence of studies that rely solely on this information. Our hypothesis is that metabolite profiling will allow a quantifiable and verifiable assessment with which to correct and enhance self-reporting. This pilot study will take advantage of the expertise of Dan Raftery's group in metabolite profiling, and the NPAAS investigator group in nutrition, epidemiology and data analysis.

Specific Aim of Proposed Study

We aim to identify specific metabolite biomarkers from both the ongoing human feeding study phase of NPAAS to identify novel consumption biomarkers from which biomarker-calibrated nutrient/food consumption estimates throughout the WHI cohorts can be developed, for use in novel disease-association studies.