Newly identified ‘metabolic signature’ can help predict CVD risk
A newly identified “metabolic signature” can evaluate an individual’s adherence and metabolic response to the Mediterranean diet and help predict future risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with collaborators from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Spain. The metabolic signature consists of 67 metabolites — small chemicals produced in the processes of metabolism that circulate in the bloodstream — and can be measured through a blood sample. The findings were published online in the European Heart Journal on May 14. For the study, researchers used a machine-learning model to analyze hundreds of metabolites in blood samples from 1,859 participants from the Spanish PREDIMED study, the largest study of the Mediterranean diet’s ability to prevent CVD. The model identified 67 metabolites that when analyzed collectively indicated whether a person had followed the Mediterranean diet and showed how the person...