COCOA AND ITS BIOACTIVE COMPONENT EPICATECHIN EXTEND LIFESPAN IN AGING MICE FED A STANDARD DIET

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: EVANS-ALLEN
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1004774
• Project Start Date: Nov 6, 2014
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2017
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
3500 JOHN A. MERRITT BLVD
NASHVILLE,TN 37209

Performing Department
Family and Consumer Sciences

Non Technical Summary
The number of the Americans aged 65 or older is quickly growing, which will place unprecedented burdens on health care costs. Therefore, developing strategies to promote health and functional independence are very important in helping older Americans stay healthy, live longer, and incur fewer health-related costs. Among these, a search for novel, cost-effective, and health-improving agents for prevention of multiple organs' dysfunction and prolonging healthy lifespan are of major importance in efforts to promote the health of elderly American.Our recent study observed that dietary intake of epicatechin, a major bioactive compounds of cocoa, significantly increased survival rate to 69.7% from 39.4% in control group in aged C57B6 mice fed a standard diet. This epicatechin supplement also improved aging-related inflammation and multiple organs function. These findings suggest that epicatechin may be a novel anti-aging compound, particularly a breakthrough of anti-aging natural compounds research because most potential natural agents including resveratrol, green tea extract and curcumin have failed in extending lifespan in mice from the National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program (1). However, our current studies used only one dosage (0.25% drinking) of epicatechin and further pathological, biochemical and molecular analysis from collected animal tissues were not done because of lack of funding support. A comprehensive aging study with different dosages of epicatechin and whole cocoa extracts to select the optimum dosage and define the physiological and transcriptional mechanisms is extremely needed to confirm whether and how dietary epicatechin and cocoa extracts extend lifespan in aged mice fed a standard diet.This grant will explore whether and how epicatechin and cocoa extracts act in vivo as an anti-aging agent. The results from these studies are expected to establish the fundamental mechanism by which epicatechin and cocoa extracts extend healthy lifespan, which could potentially lead to the development of strategies using this cost-effective, naturally available compound to promote health and extend lifespan in humans. In addition, completion of this project will strengthen the capacities in molecular nutrition and chronic diseases research as well as minority graduate students training at Tennessee State University.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

100%

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
704	2233	1010	100%

Knowledge Area
704 - Nutrition and Hunger in the Population;

Subject Of Investigation
2233 - Cocoa;

Field Of Science
1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;

Keywords

epicatechin

cocoa

aging mice

lifespan

Goals / Objectives
To investigate whether and how dietary epicatechin and cocoa extracts extend lifespan in aged mice fed a standard diet

Project Methods
The pure epicatechin and whole cocoa extracts (at different dosages) will be fed to aging mice and monitor physical activity, physiological functionss as well as lifespan. Samples from the mice will be further used to analyze cellular and transcriptional mechanisms.

Progress 11/06/14 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Nutrition and aging research community University faculty and students Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One professional developent grant was awarded based on this project's results and etablishment of collaborations How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?One research artile has been submitted to Aging Cell in 2017 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The animal studies show that dietary cocoa epicatechin intake really extends lifespan in mice feed a standard diet, which accompanied by improving physical activity, inflammatory markers. A manuscript from these results has been submittedin 2017 2. Two new grant was offered by NIFA/USDAbased on the current project. 3. The molecular nutrition lab worked very well 4. One PhD student was graduated in May 2016 and two more phd graduate students will be graduated in 2018 project

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Si Hongwei. (2016) Phytochemicals and Aging: Current Insights. International Summit on Probiotic Health and Nutraceuticals. Baltimore, MD
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Si Hongwei*, X Wang, L Zhang, L D. Parnell, B Admed, T LeRoith, T Ansah, L Zhang, J Ordov�s, HZ Si et al. (2018) Dietary epicatechin improves survival and skeletal muscle function in aged C57BL/6 mice. Aging Cell;

Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The molecular nutrition lab worked very well One PhD student was graduated in May2016and two more phdgraduate students (thired year) are workingin this project How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Results have been also presented on national and international conference, and university/college seminars What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue current experiments submit one research paper Mentor two phd students present results on various meetings/conferences

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The animal studies show that dietary cocoa epicatechin intake really extends lifespan in mice feed a standard diet, which accompanied by improving physical activity, inflammatory markers. A manuscript from these results will be published in 2017 A new grant was offered by USDA/1890 Faculty Fellowship program based on the current project. The molecular nutrition lab worked very well One PhD student was graduated in May2016 and two more phdgraduate students (thired year) are working in this project

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Si Hongwei. (2016) Phytochemicals and Aging: Current Insights. International Summit on Probiotic Health and Nutraceuticals. Baltimore, MD

Progress 11/06/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:General public, nutrition and human health research communities Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One PhD student will graduate in 2016 and two more graduate students are working onthis project How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? One peer-reviewed journal articleswill be published Results have been also presented on national and international conference, and university/college seminars What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The animal studies show that dietary cocoa epicatechin intake really extends lifespan in mice feed a standard diet, which accompanied by improving physical activity, inflammatory markers. A manuscript from these results will be published in 2016 One PhD student will graduate in 2016 and two more graduate students are working onthis project

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Zhang L, Ahmed B, Wang X, Ansah T, Si Hongwei. (2015) Cocoa epicatechin extends lifespan and promotes health in aged C57/BL mice. 44th American Aging Association Annual Meeting, Marina del Rey , CA