NE1939: Improving the health span of aging adults through diet and physical activity.

(Multistate Research Project)

Status: Active

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SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[10/20/2020] [01/01/1970] [10/22/2022] [10/26/2023]

Date of Annual Report: 10/20/2020

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/10/2020 - 06/10/2020
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2019 - 09/30/2020

Participants

Members who attended: Sarah Francis (ISU), David Buys (MSU), Matthew Delmonico (URI), Ingrid Lofgren (URI), Furong Xu (URI), Elgloria Harrison (UDC), Judith Gilbride (NYU), Nancy Cohen (UMASS), William Belden (RUTGERS), Tatiana Andreyeva (UCONN), Anna Arthur (U of Illinois) Martha Belury (OSU), Nadine Sahyoun (UMC), LaShan Simpson (MSU), Richard Simpson (U of Arizona), Melissa Ventura-Marra (WVU), Lee Weidauer (SDSU), Kathleen Woolf (NYU), Jiujiu Yu (UNL), Denis Titov (UC Berkeley), Elizabeth McNeil (ISU)

Guests who attended: Elmira Asongwed (UDC), Pier Broadnax (UDC), Michelle Harris (UDC), Phronie Jackson (UDC), Anne Marie Jean-Baptiste (UDC), Tia Jeffery (UDC), Lillie Monroe-Lord (UDC), Tiffany Johnson-Largent (UDC), Wijdan Dabeek (WVU), Annie Contrady (ISU), Silpa Beegala, Annie Ziegler

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes are attached.

Minutes Attachment:

June 10 2020 NE1939 Annual Meeting Minutes.docx

Accomplishments

Short-term Outcomes: Objective 1: To conduct multidimensional assessments of diet, physical activity and related factors affecting aging adults. <ul> <li>Objective 1 projects: <ul> <li>Improved dietary assessment skills of undergraduate and graduate nutrition students</li> <li>Develop, in collaboration, methods to assess mitochondria function and mitochondria lipidome.</li> <li>Implement pre-clinical feeding study to mimic aging and dietary fat composition comparisons.</li> <li>Development of novel antibody phage display technology that will facilitate biomarker discovery</li> <li>We found that GHS-R has a pivotal role inflammation in adipose tissue and liver of aging mice, GHS-R activates metabolic pathways to reprogram macrophage polarization toward a pro-inflammatory M1 state, subsequently eliciting meta-inflammation in adipose tissues and liver.</li> <li>We worked to understand data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and explore predictors and effects of food insecurity in older adults. The analysis of food insecurity effects showed a positive link to depression (based on the CES-D scale) and risk of activities of daily living (ADL) limitations among older adults using 2006–2016 HRS and the joint model of propensity score matching and difference-in-difference analysis.</li> <li>We further established a negative relationship between food insecurity and the healthy eating index (HEI) score, and also demonstrated a negative relationship between the HEI score and depression (using CES-D) and the HER score and disability (using ADL limitations) based on the 2013 HRS Health Care and Nutrition Study (HCNS), 2012-2016 HRS longitudinal data and the propensity score matching (PSM) model.</li> <li>Developed a survey instrument comprised of NE1939 common tools to measure physical activity and exercise, diet, and overall health quality of life status of older adults pre-COVID-19 and since COVID-19 of adults ages 40 years and older.</li> <li>Nutrition professionals working with older adults became familiar with techniques to collect focus group information online through our publication in the Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics. This will benefit older adults through improved assessment of needs.</li> </ul> </li> </ul>   Objective 2:  To develop, implement and evaluate interventions that preserve or improve health in aging adults living in rural and urban environments. <ul> <li>Objective 2 projects: <ul> <li>Promoted awareness of the SNAP among 6,000 older Iowans.</li> <li>Conducted a four-week program to 110 older Iowans prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that led to a significant increase in familiarity among participants with recommended lifestyle practices. The majority also reported being “very likely” to make the recommended lifestyle behavior after each lesson.</li> <li>A commodity and supplemental food nutrition education program (NEWS) reached about 4,000 older Iowans. Of those surveyed, 93.5% used the information provided to make food choices, 95.7% stated the budget tips were useful, and 72.6% made at least one of the recipes at home. The SNAP outreach program reached nearly 6,000 older adults.</li> </ul> </li> </ul>   Outputs: <ul> <li>Collectively we trained 15 undergraduate students, 18 graduate students, 5 Post-Doctoral Associates and 5 Extension personnel. The skills acquired by these trainees include:</li> <ul> <li>Quantitative research (e.g., data collection, data entry, analysis)</li> <li>Qualitative research (e.g., conducting focus groups, analyzing focus group data, etc.)</li> <li>Professional writing (e.g., manuscripts, abstracts, theses)</li> <li>Laboratory skills (e.g., telomere length assays, northern blots, etc.)</li> <li>Anthropometric measures (e.g., height, weight, skin folds, etc.)</li> <li>Nutritional Status assessment (e.g., DST, MNA)</li> <li>Dietary Intake Assessment (e.g., 24-hour food recalls, food records, etc.)</li> <li>Program implementation</li> </ul> <li>Collectively we received 45 grants ($3,929,866 Total): 11 Federal, 8 state, 7 Foundation, 9 University, 6 research station, and 4 “other” grants.</li> <li>The team published 35 journal articles including 1 joint journal articles (Mississippi, Iowa, Rhode Island, and West Virginia) and 16 published abstracts including one joint abstract (Washington DC and Iowa).</li> <li>The team provided 14 research presentations.</li> <li>The team supervised the publication of 9 theses and/or dissertations.</li> <li>3 Extension SNAP outreach materials, 5 Bodywise Extension newsletters, and 2 food security screener tools and manuals were produced</li> </ul>   Activities: <ul> <li>Five states (ISU, WVU, OSU, UCONN, UMD) submitted a NIFA grant to support the proposed Undergraduate Student Training in Aging Research (STAR) Internship. The STAR Internship will provide a comprehensive multi-disciplinary, translational nutrition and aging training experience for 24 undergraduate students from diverse and underrepresented groups from five states (Connecticut, Iowa, Ohio, Washington DC, and West Virginia) that are part of the USDA NE: 1939 multistate research project if funded.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Four articles were published in a special issue in Topics in Clinical Nutrition about the work that has been completed through the NE1439 multistate project. (All objectives)</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Seven states (ISU, SDSU, WVU, UMD, UDC, UIUC, URI) initiated a large scale needs assessment of 1,200 adults ages 40 years and older across 7 states.</li> </ul>   Milestones: <ul> <li>Completed dietary assessment (food records) for federally funded project (Lifestyle management of CKD in obese diabetic patients. NIH 5R01DK100492-02).</li> <li>Completed optimization of antibody phage display library construction January 2020.</li> <li>Developed with Dr. Baskin mitochondria function measurement using Seahorse technology Developed strong collaboration including the genesis of preliminary data for assessing the mitochondria lipidome. Implemented two pre-clinical studies.</li> <li>Testing the food security screening tool and expanding it to incorporate a dietary component.</li> <li>The construction of the HEI score was one of key factors in our project as it is not provided in the dataset and had to be developed. All relevant measures have been coded and cleaned. </li> <li>The team launched a multistate needs assessment of 1200 aging adults ages 40 years and older across 7 states. This will inform our future intervention projects.</li> <li>Understanding macrophage reprogramming is of great importance for combating inflamm-aging that is relevant to a wide range of age-associated chronic diseases. Our preliminary data suggest that GHS-R have an important role in macrophage polarization during aging, and GHS-R may serve as a crucial sensor and metabolic regulator for macrophage reprogramming. Our data provide proof-of-concept evidence that suppressing GHS-R in macrophages attenuates inflammation in various tissues and improve insulin sensitivity, promoting a healthy aging phenotype. GHS-R antagonist has potential to be a novel strategy for prevention and treatment of obesity and fatty liver diseases in aging.</li> <li>We characterized the anti-inflammatory function of honey-derived exosome-like nanoparticles, which is under revision by the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. This achievement is considered as a milestone for our studies.</li> <li>We disseminated information and findings from this project to nutrition and aging professionals through many publications.</li> <li>We introduced physical activity interventions to older adults with and without disease (e.g. cancer) to improve overall immune response and vaccine efficacy</li> </ul>

Publications

Atttached

Impact Statements

Aging adults face numerous barriers towards achieving optimal health and wellness including chronic disease, nutritional risk, food insecurity and functional impairments. The United States (U.S.) population is experiencing a shift in demographics, as adults aged 60 to 65 years and older, have become the largest growing age group. The USDA NE-1939 Multistate Project “Improving the Healthspan of Aging Adults Through Diet and Physical Activity” is an interdisciplinary team of researchers who are examining diet and activity factors that influence healthy aging through translational research approaches. Our work addresses the numerous factors impacting the health and well-being of older adults including poverty, food security, nutritional risk, dietary intakes, and physical activity. We examine these issues at a cellular, individual and societal level. In 2019 to 2020, we trained 15 undergraduate and 18 graduate students, 5 post-doctoral associates, and 5 Extension personnel. Our team members were awarded 45 grants totaling $3,929,866 for projects conducted as part of this multi-state research project. We published 35 journal articles including 1 joint journal articles (Mississippi, Iowa, Rhode Island, and West Virginia) and 16 published abstracts including one joint abstract (Washington DC and Iowa), We gave 14 research presentations. The impact of these dissemination efforts provides social, health and environmental benefits to those who interact with older adults thus bridging health policies gaps designed to increase the quality of life for the older urban residing adult. Our undergraduate and graduate student benefited directly by working with faculty in conducting research. Thus, leading to better prepared students for graduate programs, dietetic internships, and the workforce. We developed novel antibody phage display technology that will allow biomarkers for healthy aging to be identified once fully deployed. The work in the area of inflammation will promote the development of targeting dietary therapeutics to slow to prevent the development of muscle atrophy caused by aging, cancer cachexia and other debilitating, inflammatory related conditions. In addition, our food insecurity research found evidence that healthy dietary intake can decrease the risk of functional limitations and mental health issues, such as depression thus providing us with a potential direction to prevent these adverse outcomes among those who are food secure through diet. Further, we launched a 7-state nutrition and physical activity needs assessment of 1,200 adults ages 40 years and older to help inform our future intervention work. Finally, during the past reporting period, over 10,000 older Iowans participated in community education and/or research programs that increased awareness of food security resources, promoted familiarity with healthy lifestyle practices, and assessed program satisfaction and impact. The food security programs resulted in better nutrition choices and better understanding of SNAP.

Date of Annual Report: 01/01/1970

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/16/2021 - 06/17/2021
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2020 - 09/30/2021

Participants

Sarah Francis (ISU), David Buys (MSU), Matthew Delmonico (URI), Ingrid Lofgren (URI), Furong Xu (URI), Elgloria Harrison (Lehman College), William Belden (RUTGERS), Tatiana Andryeva (UCONN), Anna Arthur (U of Illinois) Martha Belury (OSU), Nadine Sahyoun (UMC), Melissa Ventura-Marra (WVU), Lee Weidauer (SDSU), Kathleen Woolf (NYU), Jiujiu Yu (U of Nebraska), Denis Titov (University CA Berkley), Elizabeth McNeil (ISU), Lillie Monroe-Lord (UDC), Phronie Jackson (UDC), Dara LoBuono (Rowan University), Jake Eubank (Lehman College), Andrew Alto (Lehman College), Douglas Oberlin (Lehman College), Yuxiang Sun (Texas A&M)

Guests who attended: Elmira Asongwed (UDC), Pier Broadnax (UDC), Michelle Harris (UDC), Anne Marie Jean-Baptiste (UDC), Tia Jeffery (UDC), James Maiden (UDC), Tiffany Johnson-Largent (UDC), Matthew Richardson (UDC), Amy Schweitzer (UDC), Kristen Brown Johnson (ISU?) Afnan Alamoudi (WVU), Natasha Peterson (ISU)

Participants Attachment:

NE1939 Annual Meeting Minutes_June_16-17_2021 Meeting.docx

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes attached.

Minutes Attachment:

NE1939 Annual Meeting Minutes_June_16-17_2021 Meeting.docx

Accomplishments

Short-term Outcomes: Objective 1: To conduct multidimensional assessments of diet, physical activity and related factors affecting aging adults. <ul> <li>Objective 1 projects: <ul> <li>Improved dietary assessment skills of undergraduate and graduate nutrition students.</li> <li>Improved data analysis skills of graduate nutrition students.</li> <li>Completed a needs assessment in aging adults and healthcare professionals working with aging adults related to diet and physical activity.</li> <li>Achieved measurable benefits to our junior non-tenured faculty including: <ul> <li>Establishing a research agenda. Since the publication of project-based joint articles, faculty have been active in other publications.</li> <li>Skill development in both quantitative and qualitative research methods of scientific inquiries.</li> <li>Development of new institutional- and project-based collaboration to support the NE1939 project area in brain health.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Worked on completing analyses of the association between the quality of diet among older Americans and their physical and mental health. We have completed this study and prepared a manuscript for journal submission (currently undergoing editorial work). Our study constructed the Healthy Eating Index-2015 to assess diet quality and link it to changes in disability (measured by functional limitations of activities of daily living), depression, and five blood-based biomarkers (glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), C-reactive protein (CRP), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), total cholesterol, and Cystatin C). In addition, we assessed how food insecurity was linked to the HEI-2015 and identified modifiers of this relationship for older adults.</li> <li>Continued to study the relationship of dietary PUFA biomarkers as predictors of cardiometabolic disease and biological aging biomarkers. We found significant relationships between higher blood levels of PUFAs (n3 and Linoleic acid) with measurements of lean mass, reduced inflammation, increased heart rate variability and better sleep quality.</li> <li>Chronic inflammation is a major pathology for aging which affects a wide range of tissues, termed “inflamm-aging”. Aging correlates with increased obesity and insulin resistance, which is known to associated with low-grade chronic inflammation in both central and peripheral tissues. Ghrelin receptor - Growth Hormone Secretagogue Receptor (GHS-R) is increasingly recognized to have important roles in metabolism and inflammation. We found that GHS-R has a critical role in inflammation of of aging mice, GHS-R activates metabolic pathways to reprogram macrophage polarization toward a pro-inflammatory state, subsequently eliciting meta-inflammation in adipose tissues, liver and brain.</li> <li>Worked on a biomarker discovery platform technology to find circulating biomarkers of adverse and/or healthy aging. To develop this technology, I have been profiling cancer cells because there is substantial literature with which to validate the results.  Just recently, I obtained that Mass Spectrometry (MS) data and uncovered over 50 cancer biomarkers validating this technology and I can now begin to apply this to older adults to find biomarkers for healthy aging which could serve as the basis for future therapies.</li> <li>Wrote a proposal for a project assessing skin carotenoid levels and acceptability of the skin carotenoid level in urban aging adults.</li> </ul> </li> </ul>   Objective 2:  To develop, implement and evaluate interventions that preserve or improve health in aging adults living in rural and urban environments. <ul> <li>Objective 2 projects: <ul> <li>Our SNAP outreach program efforts promoted SNAP awareness among 7,000 older Iowans. We reached 55 older Iowans through the online Stay Independent: A Healthy Aging Series program. Stay Independent participation led to a significant increase in familiarity among participants with recommended lifestyle practices. The majority also reported being “very likely” to make the recommended lifestyle behavior after each lesson. A commodity and supplemental food nutrition education program reached about 4,000 older Iowans. Of those surveyed, 73.3% used the information provided to make food choices, 72.4% stated the budget tips were useful, and 69.6% made at least one of the recipes at home.</li> <li>Expanded the use of Expanded Food Security Scale that we developed to identify older adults at risk for economic and physical food insecurity. Several State Units on Aging or nutrition programs have adopted or are considering adopting the tool.</li> </ul> </li> </ul>  Outputs: <ul> <li>Collectively we trained 42 undergraduate students, 29 graduate students, 6 Post-Doctoral Associates and 16 Extension personnel. The skills acquired by these trainees include:</li> <ul> <li>Quantitative research (e.g., data collection, data entry, analysis)</li> <li>Qualitative research (e.g., conducting focus groups, analyzing focus group data, etc.)</li> <li>Professional writing (e.g., manuscripts, abstracts, theses)</li> <li>Laboratory skills (e.g., telomere length assays, northern blots, etc.)</li> <li>Anthropometric measures (e.g., height, weight, skin folds, etc.)</li> <li>Nutritional Status assessment (e.g., DST, MNA)</li> <li>Dietary Intake Assessment (e.g., 24-hour food recalls, food records, etc.)</li> <li>Program implementation</li> </ul> <li>Collectively we received 17 grants ($1,747,915 Total): 7 Federal, 2 state, 2 Foundation, 5 University, and 1 research station.  </li> <li>The team published 29 journal articles and 18 published abstracts.</li> <li>The team provided 17 research presentations.</li> <li>The team supervised the publication of 4 theses and/or dissertations.</li> <li>1 Extension SNAP outreach materials</li> </ul>   Activities: <ul> <li>Five states (ISU, WVU, OSU, UCONN, UMD) resubmitted a NIFA grant to support the proposed Undergraduate Student Training in Aging Research (STAR) Internship. The STAR Internship will provide a comprehensive multi-disciplinary, translational nutrition and aging training experience for 24 undergraduate students from diverse and underrepresented groups from five states (Connecticut, Iowa, Ohio, Washington DC, and West Virginia) that are part of the USDA NE: 1939 multistate research project if funded.</li> <li>Seven states (ISU, SDSU, WVU, UMD, UDC, UIUC, URI) collaborated on a large-scale needs assessment of 1,250 adults ages 40 years and older across 7 states and are preparing manuscripts and projects based on these data.</li> <li>Three states (ISU, URI and SDSU) submitted an AOL Community Research Grant Application on Sarcopenia (LifeSpan).</li> <li>Two team members (Kathleen Wolfe [NYU] and Ingrid Lofgren [URI] submitted a USDA Integrated Project Application.</li> </ul> Milestones: <ul> <li>Completed multistate nutrition and wellness needs assessment of 1250 aging adults and 435 health care professionals working in the area of aging. The data is being used to inform our future intervention projects.</li> <li>Prepared 3 publications from the needs assessment for submission to peer-reviewed journals.</li> <li>Generated strains of C. elegans that can used to mimic the effect of caloric intake on bioenergetic status of animals - optimized an imaging platform for automated measurement of lifespan in C. elegans.</li> <li>Completed dietary assessment using Dietary Inflammatory Index from food records from externally funded projects.</li> <li>Brain Health Work Group is actively preparing a narrative literature review for submission to a national journal for publication. Brain Health Work Group will submit to the RFA from the USDA on Chronic diseases in Spring 2022.</li> <li>Completed a manuscript for peer review and journal submission. Student training in preparing his first complete manuscript for a journal submission.</li> <li>Submitted two grant applications to support NE1939 projects. One was an application to the Administration on Community Living to support the creation and evaluation of the LifeSPAN program (ISU, URI, SDSU); not funded but scored well. The second was a NIFA resubmission to support an undergraduate Student Training in Aging Research (STAR) internship opportunity (ISU, OSU, WVU, Uconn, UDC); not funded but scored well.</li> <li>Completed common tool SPSS codebooks and standardized surveys.</li> <li>We estimated that between 126,000 and 13.2 million out of the current population of 331 million Americans are likely prone to type-2 diabetes due to long-term sub-optimal selenium status as little as 23% lower than nutritional needs. This is a cost-effective approach to counteract type 2 diabetes during the aging process.</li> <li>Completed the telephone survey of home-delivered meal participants. In the process of analyzing data.</li> <li>A tangible milestone was achieved over the summer when we were able to unequivocally confirm our biomarker discovery platform works as intended (despite setbacks brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic). After discussions with colleagues at an annual meeting of NE1439 (the precursor to NE1939), my lab set out to develop an unbiased system to find circulation biomarkers of aging. For this, we decided a system capable of selecting low-level circulating factors was needed to completely profile aging biomarkers.  To develop this technology, we have been using a cancer model and have since identified numerous cancer biomarkers and now we are ready to deploy this technology to older adults to try and find markers of healthy and unhealthy aging.</li> </ul>

Publications

Attached

Impact Statements

Aging adults face numerous barriers towards achieving optimal health and wellness including chronic disease, nutritional risk, food insecurity and functional impairments. The United States (U.S.) population is experiencing a shift in demographics, as adults aged 60 to 65 years and older, have become the largest growing age group. The USDA NE-1939 Multistate Project “Improving the Healthspan of Aging Adults Through Diet and Physical Activity” is an interdisciplinary team of researchers who are examining diet and activity factors that influence healthy aging through translational research approaches. Our work addresses the numerous factors impacting the health and well-being of older adults including poverty, food security, nutritional risk, dietary intakes, and physical activity. We examine these issues at a cellular, individual and societal level. In 2020 to 2021, we trained 42 undergraduate and 29 graduate students, 6 post-doctoral associates, and 16 Extension personnel. Our team members were awarded 17 grants totaling $1,747,915 for projects conducted as part of this multi-state research project. We published 29 journal articles and 18 published abstracts. We gave 17 research presentations. The impact of these dissemination efforts provides social, health and environmental benefits to those who interact with older adults thus bridging health policies gaps designed to increase the quality of life for the older urban residing adult. Our undergraduate and graduate students benefited directly by working with faculty in conducting research and/or Extension endeavors. Thus, leading to better prepared students for graduate programs, dietetic internships, and the workforce. We developed novel antibody phage display technology that will allow biomarkers for healthy aging to be identified once fully deployed. The work in the area of inflammation will promote the development of targeting dietary therapeutics to slow to prevent the development of muscle atrophy caused by aging, cancer cachexia and other debilitating, inflammatory related conditions. In addition, our food insecurity research found evidence that healthy dietary intake can decrease the risk of functional limitations and mental health issues, such as depression thus providing us with a potential direction to prevent these adverse outcomes among those who are food secure through diet.

Date of Annual Report: 10/22/2022

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/22/2022 - 06/24/2022
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2021 - 09/30/2022

Participants

Members who attended in-person: Sarah Francis (ISU), Anna Arthur (U of Kansas Medical Center), Elgloria Harrison (Lehman College), Melissa Ventura-Marra (WVU), Lee Weidauer (SDSU), Jake Eubank (Lehman College), Elmira Asongwed (UDC), Wen-Hsing Cheng (Mississippi State University), Elizabeth McNeill (ISU), Tia Jeffrey (UDC), Phronie Jackson, (UDC).

Members attending virtually: Furong Xu (URI), Matt Delmonico (URI), Ingrid Lofgren (URI), Dara LoBuono (Rowan University), Tiffany Johnson-Largent (UDC), Matthew Richardson (UDC), Yuxiang Sun (TX A&M), Martha Belury (Ohio State University), Kathleen Woolf (NYU), Peggy Connolly (…), Kristen Brown Johnson (…), Ellen Gustavson

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

2022.NE1939 Annual Meeting Minutes_June_23-24_2022.pdf

Accomplishments

Short-term outcomes: Objective 1: To conduct multidimensional assessments of diet, physical activity and related factors affecting aging adults. Objective 1 projects: <ul> <li>Performed molecular assessment on aging adults as a means to better inform participants’ activities and diet choices.</li> <li>Conducted needs and preference assessments to determine aging adults’ perceptions and recommendations for community environmental supports for a food secure, culturally appropriate and healthy eating environment</li> <li>Conducted a needs assessment among older adults living in Northeast Tennessee to determine needs and preferences for virtual nutrition education to improve nutritional status and reduce food insecurity among older people. Over 100 older adults completed surveys and 15 professionals participated in a focus group as part of the needs assessment. Results from the needs assessment were used to develop Extension curriculum. These needs assessment results also informed a five-day training, reaching 15 nutrition graduate students and dietetic interns and 30 Extension personnel, providing training on topics such as the nutritional needs of older adults, communication skills, and ageism.</li> <li>Examined the cultural, personal and accessibility barriers to dietary intakes and physical activity by aging adults.</li> </ul> Objective 2: To develop, implement and evaluate interventions that preserve or improve health in aging adults living in rural and urban environments. Objective 2 projects: <ul> <li>Conducted qualitative and quantitative research examining nutrition and physical activity related patterns and predictor of healthy aging.</li> <li>Developed theory-based nutrition and physical activity interventions based on identified needs and preferences</li> <li>Discovered that GHS-R expression is elevated in macrophages under high fat diet-feeding and aging, has a profound role inflammation in adipose tissue, liver and brain. Moreover, GHS-R reprograms metabolic pathways to promote pro-inflammatory macrophage polarization, eliciting meta-inflammation in central/peripheral tissues.</li> <li>Promoted SNAP awareness among 7,000 older adults.</li> <li>Provided direct food and health education to 321 older adults which led to a significant increase in familiarity among participants with recommended lifestyle practices. The majority also reported being “very likely” to make the recommended lifestyle behavior after each lesson.</li> <li>Conducted a commodity and supplemental food nutrition education program that reached 4,000 older adults that resulted in participants using the information provided to make food choices (69.3 percent), of participant, applying the budget tips (63.4 percent), and making at least one recipe at home (72.7 ).</li> <li>Using our novel noninvasive technology (exfoliomics), we will integrate and characterize the relationships between dietary fat and fermentable fiber exposure with respect to maintenance of a “healthy gut”, e.g., programmed cell death/cell division, chronic inflammation-related cell-signaling pathways. Results of this controlled clinical intervention will help to translate the current mechanistic knowledge from preclinical animal models to humans and to de-risk and inform approaches for inflammatory bowel disease and cancer prevention. Interrogating the stool exfoliome is a novel, cost-effective, non-invasive approach to studying effects of interventions on the human gut.</li> </ul> Outputs <ul> <li>Collectively we trained 26 undergraduate students, 39 graduate students, 9 post-doctoral associates and 30 extension personnel. The skill acquired by theses trainees includes: <ul> <li>Quantitative research (e.g., data collection, data entry, analysis</li> <li>Qualitative research</li> <li>Professional writing</li> <li>Laboratory skills</li> <li>Anthropometric measures</li> <li>Nutritional status assessment</li> <li>Dietary intake assessment</li> <li>Education on topics to support nutrition education for older adults (nutritional needs, ageism, etc)</li> </ul> </li> <li>Collectively we received 21 grants ($2,302,056 total): 10 federal, 1 state, 3 foundation, 4 university, 1 research station, 2 others.</li> <li>The team published 31 journal articles including 2 joint journal articles (DC, IL, IA, MD, RI, SD, WV) and 10 published abstracts including one joint abstract</li> <li>The team provided 18 research presentations</li> <li>The team supervised the publication of 4 theses and/or dissertations.</li> <li>Measurable benefits to junior non-tenured faculty in establishing their research agendas including publications, interinstitutional collaborations, and election to leadership positions within this project.</li> </ul> Activities <ul> <li>Seven states (DC, IL, IA, MD, RI, SD, WV) are actively working on publishing findings from a 2020 collaborative needs assessment study. One paper has been published from that project and five more papers either in review or in preparation.</li> </ul> Milestones: <ul> <li>As part of the ACL-funded Socially Nutritious project we completed a needs assessment to inform project development, completed a draft of an Extension curriculum to pilot in late fall 2022, and completed a five day training for graduate students and dietetic interns and Extension personnel.</li> <li>“Aim 1. Determine the roles of myeloid GHS-R in lifespan and healthspan. Study Ghsr-MφKO mice under normal aging (feeding regular diet) and aging obesity (feeding HFD) to determine: 1A) Lifespan: Survival rate by assessing length of survival. 1B) Healthspan: frailty score, cognitive functions, circulating inflammatory cytokine levels and C-creative protein, fecal and plasma metabolites (to assess gut leakiness), glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity will be evaluated every 6 months throughout lifespan. Aim 2. Determine the effects of myeloid GHS-R on microphage infiltration and polarization in adipose tissue, liver, muscle, pancreas, colon and brain. Young (4- months), middle-aged (12-months) and old (20-months) Ghsr-MφKO and control mice will be subjected to the following studies: 2A) Polarization analysis of peritoneal and tissue macrophages, as well as Bone Marrow Derived Macrophages (BMDM), by flow cytometry. 2B) Metabolic profile by Seahorse extracellular flux to assess M1-promoting anabolic glycolysis and M2-promoting catabolic fatty acid oxidation; 2C) Morphological characterization of tissues by immunofluorescence to detect macrophage quantity and inflammation master regulator NF-kB. 2D) Investigate the effect of aging immunity on genetic aging by assessing telomerase activity in BMDM of old mice.” For the specific aims above, the milestones of next reporting period are as follows: 1. Aim 1: We continue carryover lifespan and healthspan studies.</li> <li>Aim 2: We completed flow cytometry experiments in BMDM and Seahorse analysis in young and middle-aged mice, next period, we will catch up on the aging group. Since the scientific community now emphasizes the need to consider sex as a biological variable, studies need to be conducted in both male and female animals. Most of our data so far are mostly in male mice, a major focus next period is to catch up on female data for on various ages for both aims. Manuscript goals: We aim to submit 3 manuscripts for publication: 1. The role of macrophage GHS-R in high fat diet-induced meta-inflammation to JCI; The role of macrophage GHS-R deficiency on LPS-induced systemic, adipose and hepatic inflammation to Frontiers in immunology.</li> <li>We have translated pre-clinical studies in mouse models of muscle wasting and biologic aging to clinical outcomes in controlled clinical cohorts. Our work with NHANES data analyses has also revealed that adults and children may be a increasing risk for insufficient intake of two essential fatty acids, linoleic and alpha-linolenic acids. Using behavioral methods to assist consumers in identifying foods rich in these two essential fatty acids may be needed to prevent worsened outcomes as people age that are related to mitochondrial dysfunction, muscle loss, cognitive decline and other chronic conditions.</li> <li>Created a Microsoft teams group that houses all NE1939 project related materials including the policy and procedure manual, common assessment tools and corresponding codebooks, and meeting minutes. We disseminated information and findings from this project to nutrition and aging professionals through many publications.</li> <li>We identified the hepatoprotective function of dietary exosome-like nanoparticles in aged mice. Completed a needs-assessment study covering dietary and physical activity preferences and patterns in rural communities.</li> <li>Completion of an NIH R15 grant (Optimized selenium status, gut microbiota, and diabetes; 08.2018-08.2022) Complete health professionals modeling paper and social determinants of health needs assessment paper and submit for publication consideration by end of 2021.</li> <li>Generated strains of C. elegans that can used to mimic the effect of caloric intake on bioenergetic status of animals - optimized an imaging platform for automated measurement of lifespan in C. elegans</li> </ul> Impact of NE1939 related work: <ul> <li>To understand the regulation of macrophage reprogramming is very important in combating meta-inflammation relevant to a wide range of chronic diseases in aging. Our preliminary data suggest that GHS-R is a key regulator of macrophage polarization, and suppressing GHS-R in macrophages attenuates inflammation in various tissues and improves insulin sensitivity, thus promoting longer healthspan. GHS-R is an GPCR, which is a highly desirable drug target. Immunotherapy has emerged as one of the most promising intervention in modern medicine. Our novel findings suggest that GHS-R antagonist may serve as a novel immunotherapy for prevention/treatment of obesity-related chronic diseases and aging.</li> <li>Muscle wasting is directly associated with cognitive decline, heart disease and insulin resistance. Our work is elucidating a mechanism that may be shared among these co-morbid diseases. My lab seeks to improve our understanding of the cellular contribution of dysregulated mitochondria in energy imbalance that leads to muscle wasting, cognitive decline, heart disease and insulin resistance. The slowing of these degenerative diseases will increase quality of life, reduce healthcare costs and possibly slow biologic aging so that people can live healthier and longer productive lives.</li> <li>During the past reporting period, over 10,000 older Iowans participated in community education and/or research programs that increased awareness of food security resources, promoted familiarity with healthy lifestyle practices, and assessed program satisfaction and impact. The food security programs resulted in better nutrition choices and better understanding of SNAP.</li> <li>The intended audience during this evaluation period continues to be building the capacity of junior non-tenured faculty on their tenure and promotion trajectory. The direct benefit would be the number of articles published from this data set targeted at physical activity, exercise, diet, and quality of life issues. The impact of their dissemination efforts would provide social, health and environmental benefits to those who interact with older adults thus bridging health policies gaps designed to increase the quality of life for the older urban residing adult. Additionally, assuming roles in the multi-state collaboration assist in the tenure and promotion trajectory.</li> <li>Personalized nutrition was used to assess microbial metabolite phenotype in order to stratify participants and non-invasive host exfoliomics and determine the effects of flaxseed lignan supplementation in a place-bo-controlled crossover trial.</li> <li>An estimation: Up to 3.75% Americans (ca. 12.3 millions) are susceptible to type 2 diabetes due to suboptimal body selenium status at levels 77% of nutritional needs or lower.</li> </ul>

Publications

Please see attachment

Impact Statements

Aging adults face numerous barriers towards achieving optimal health and wellness including chronic disease, nutritional risk, food insecurity and functional impairments. The United States (U.S.) population is experiencing a shift in demographics, as adults aged 60 to 65 years and older, have become the largest growing age group. The USDA NE-1939 Multistate Project “Improving the Healthspan of Aging Adults Through Diet and Physical Activity” is an interdisciplinary team of researchers who are examining diet and activity factors that influence healthy aging through translational research approaches. Our work addresses the numerous factors impacting the health and well-being of older adults including poverty, food security, nutritional risk, dietary intakes, and physical activity. We examine these issues at a cellular, individual and societal level. Collectively, from 2021 to 2022, we trained 26 undergraduate and 39 graduate students, 9 post-doctoral associates, and 30 Extension personnel. Our team members were awarded 21 grants totaling $2,302,056 for projects conducted as part of this multi-state research project; 10 of which were federal grants. We published 31 journal articles including 2 joint journal article (DC, IL, IA, MD, RI, SD, WV; DC, MD, NY) and 10 published abstracts. We gave 18 research presentations. The impact of these dissemination efforts provides social, health and environmental benefits to those who interact with older adults thus bridging health policies gaps designed to increase the quality of life for the older urban residing adult. Our undergraduate and graduate students benefited directly by working with faculty in conducting research and/or Extension endeavors. Thus, leading to better prepared students for graduate programs, dietetic internships, and the workforce. We developed novel antibody phage display technology that will allow biomarkers for healthy aging to be identified once fully deployed. The work in the area of inflammation will promote the development of targeting dietary therapeutics to slow to prevent the development of muscle atrophy caused by aging, cancer cachexia and other debilitating, inflammatory related conditions. In addition, our food insecurity research found evidence that healthy dietary intake can decrease the risk of functional limitations and mental health issues, such as depression thus providing us with a potential direction to prevent these adverse outcomes among those who are food secure through diet. Further, we completed our nutrition and physical activity needs assessment project which is a collaborative effort across seven states and surveyed 1,200 adults aged 40 years or older to help inform our future intervention work. We have one paper published from this project and five more manuscripts which utilized data from this project either in review or in preparation.

Date of Annual Report: 10/26/2023

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/05/2023 - 06/07/2023
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2022 - 09/30/2023

Participants

Dara LoBuono (Rowan University),
DJ Oberlin (Lehman College),
Elgloria Harrison (Lehman College),
Elizabeth McNeill (Iowa State University),
Elmira Asongwed (University of the District of Columbia),
Furong Xu (University of Rhode Island),
Ingrid Lofgren (University of Rhode Island),
Jacob Eubank (Lehman College),
Jamie Baum (University of Arkansas),
Lee Weidauer (South Dakota State University),
Marni Shoemaker (South Dakota State University),
Matthew Delmonico (University of Rhode Island),
Melissa Ventura-Mara (West Virginia University),
Phronie Jackson (University of the District of Columbia),
Tia Jeffrey (University of the District of Columbia)
Wen-Hsing Cheng (Mississippi State University),
Yuxiang Sun (Texas A&M University).

Brief Summary of Minutes

Please see attachment for 2023 Annual Meeting Minutes

Note: Day 1 (June 5) NE1939 team members arrival and committees meetings

Minutes Attachment:

NE1939 Annual Meeting Minutes - 6.5-6.7.2023.pdf

Accomplishments

Publications

Please see attached document for publications

Impact Statements

The impact of these dissemination efforts provides social, health and environmental benefits to those who interact with older adults thus bridging health policy gaps designed to increase the quality of life for the older urban residing adult. Our undergraduate and graduate students benefited directly by working with faculty in conducting research and/or Extension endeavors. Thus, leading to better-prepared students for graduate programs, dietetic internships, and the workforce. We developed novel antibody phage display technology that will allow biomarkers for healthy aging to be identified once fully deployed. The work in the area of inflammation will promote the development of targeting dietary therapeutics to slow to prevent the development of muscle atrophy caused by aging, cancer cachexia and other debilitating, inflammatory-related conditions. In addition, our food insecurity research found evidence that healthy dietary intake can decrease the risk of functional limitations and mental health issues, such as depression thus providing us with a potential direction to prevent these adverse outcomes among those who are food secure through diet.