Feeding Microbes: Nutrition, Microbiome, Metabolism, and Health (Oral Session 6)

(OR06-06-25) The Gut Microbiome Modulates the Association Between Healthful Plant-Based Diet and Age-Related Cognitive Function Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Sunday, June 1, 2025

11:00 AM – 11:12 AM ET

Location: S230 CD

Presenting Author(s)

JS

Jie Shen, PhD candidate

PhD student
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China (People's Republic)

Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Co-Author(s)

ZS

Zhonghan Sun

Fudan University, China (People's Republic)
HS

Huiling Song

Fudan University, School of Life Sciences and Human Phenome Institute, China (People's Republic)
YH

Yuhui Huang

Zhejiang University, China (People's Republic)
Liyan Huang

School of Public Health, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China (People's Republic)
XW

Xiaofeng Wang, Ph.D.

Human Phenome Institute, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai
shanghai, Shanghai, China (People's Republic)
CY

Changzheng Yuan, ScD

School of Public Health, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou
YZ

Yan Zheng

Fudan University, China (People's Republic)

Objectives: The interplays among human diet, gut, and brain health remains largely unknown. Here, we aimed to identify the healthful plant-based dietary pattern (HPDIs)-related gut microbial features and to assess whether the association between adherence to the HPDIs and cognitive health varies among individuals with different gut microbial enterotypes.

Methods: We analyzed a longitudinal Chinese cohort of 1,092 individuals aged 50-98 years with comprehensive dietary information, which included a subgroup of 755 participants with shotgun fecal metagenomes data and plasma microbiome-related metabolites profiles.

Results: We observed that the healthy plant-based diet or specific healthy plant foods were associated with the overall microbial structure (beta-diversity) and specific gut community features, including 33 microbial species and 30 genera. Next, the three enterotypes driven by Prevotella (ETP), Bacteroides (ETB) or other genus (ETO) were derived, which modified the association between the healthy plant-based dietary index (HPDI) and the global cognitive function. In particular, we observed a significant protective association for modified HPDI among non-ETP individuals (beta per 10-point increment = 0.14, 95% CI, 0.03, 0.25 for cross-sectional analysis, beta per 10-point increment = 0.21, 95% CI, 0.09, 0.33 for prospective analysis) and a null association in ETP individuals (beta = -0.06, 95% CI, -0.22, 0.10 for cross-sectional analysis, beta = -0.02, 95% CI, -0.18, 0.15 for prospective analysis).

Conclusions: The study revealed gut microbiome signatures associated with healthy-plant diets and inform more tailored dietary interventions for cognitive health leveraging the microbiome enterotypes.

Funding Sources: None