Evaluation of a Dietary Supplementation Combining Protein and a Pomegranate Extract in Older People: A Safety Study.

Malnutrition is a highly prevalent condition in older adults. It is associated with low muscle mass and function and increased occurrence of health problems. Maintaining an adequate nutritional status as well as a sufficient nutrient intake in older people is therefore essential to address this public health problem. For this purpose, protein supplementation is known to prevent the loss of muscle mass during aging, and the consumption of various pomegranate extracts induces numerous health benefits, mainly through their antioxidant properties. However, to our knowledge, no study has to date investigated the impact of their combination on the level of malnutrition in older people. The objective of this preliminary study was thus to evaluate the safety of a combination of protein and a pomegranate extract in healthy subjects aged 65 years or more during a 21-day supplementation period. Thirty older participants were randomly assigned to receive protein and a pomegranate extract (Test group) or protein and maltodextrin (Control group) during a 21-day intervention period. The primary outcomes were the safety and tolerability of the supplementation defined as the occurrence of adverse events, and additional secondary outcomes included physical examination and hematological and biochemical parameters. No serious adverse events were reported in any group. Changes in physical, hematological, and biochemical parameters between the initial screening and the end of the study were equivalent in both groups, except for glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and prealbumin, for which a decrease was observed only in the Test group. Our initial findings support the safety of the combination of protein and a pomegranate extract in healthy elderly people. Future clinical trials on a larger sample and a longer period are needed to determine the efficacy of this combination.

Peroxidation of n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the acidic tumor environment leads to ferroptosis-mediated anticancer effects.

Tumor acidosis promotes disease progression through a stimulation of fatty acid (FA) metabolism in cancer cells. Instead of blocking the use of FAs by acidic cancer cells, we examined whether excess uptake of specific FAs could lead to antitumor effects. We found that n-3 but also remarkably n-6 polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) selectively induced ferroptosis in cancer cells under ambient acidosis. Upon exceeding buffering capacity of triglyceride storage into lipid droplets, n-3 and n-6 PUFA peroxidation led to cytotoxic effects in proportion to the number of double bonds and even more so in the presence of diacylglycerol acyltransferase inhibitors (DGATi). Finally, an n-3 long-chain PUFA-rich diet significantly delayed mouse tumor growth when compared with a monounsaturated FA-rich diet, an effect further accentuated by administration of DGATi or ferroptosis inducers. These data point out dietary PUFA as a selective adjuvant antitumor modality that may efficiently complement pharmacological approaches.