Dietary Botanicals in the Preservation of Cognitive and Psychological Resilience
Principal Investigators: Giulio M. Pasinetti, M.D., Ph.D. and Richard Dixon, Ph.D.
Institution: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
Website: https://icahn.mssm.edu/research/molecular-neuroresilience/research
Partners: Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick; University of North Texas, Denton
This Center focused on the mechanisms through which polyphenol-containing dietary supplements derived from grapes promote cognitive and psychological resilience to common psychological stresses including sleep deprivation. In addition to extending their previous research on the mechanisms of action of these botanical products in the brain, this Center also sought to understand the role of the human gastrointestinal microflora (microbiota) in their activity, and in cognitive and psychological health more generally.
Highlighted Publications
Frolinger T, Sims S, Smith C, et al. The gut microbiota composition affects dietary polyphenols-mediated cognitive resilience in mice by modulating the bioavailability of phenolic acids. Sci Rep. 2019;9(1):3546. Published 2019 Mar 5. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-39994-6
Pasinetti GM, Singh R, Westfall S, Herman F, Faith J, Ho L. The role of the gut microbiota in the metabolism of polyphenols as characterized by gnotobiotic mice. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;63(2):409-421. doi:10.3233/JAD-171151
Wang J, Blaze J, Haghighi F, Kim-Schulze K, Trageser KJ, Pasinetti GM. Characterization of 3(3,4-dihydroxy-phenyl) propionic acid as a novel microbiome-derived epigenetic modifier in attenuation of immune Inflammatory response in human monocytes. Mol Immunol. 10.1016/j.molimm.2020.07.003. In Press.
Wang J, Hodes GE, Zhang H, et al. Epigenetic modulation of inflammation and synaptic plasticity promotes resilience against stress in mice. Nat Commun. 2018;9(1):477. Published 2018 Feb 2. doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02794-5
Westfall S, Pasinetti GM. The gut microbiota links dietary polyphenols with management of psychiatric mood disorders. Front Neurosci. 2019;13:1196. Published 2019 Nov 5. doi:10.3389/fnins.2019.01196