Red Wine, the Microbiome, and Heart Disease

Kristie Nybo
BioTechniques Newsletter (http://www.biotechniques.com/news/)

While foods regularly fall in and out of favor with nutritionists, nothing has created a more volatile debate than the effects of red wine on health. Now researchers have studied how a compound found in red wine influences the microbiome, directly linking it to an important factor in heart disease. Learn more...

The microbiome first burst into the news in 2013 with a study by Stanley Hazen's group (Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute). By recruiting vegetarians and vegans to eat steak, the team showed clearly that eating red meat promoted growth of gut bacteria that produce precursors of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a compound closely tied to heart disease. Now, a study in the journal mBio shows that a compound in red wine also affects gut bacteria and production of this metabolite.

While the pros and cons of regularly consuming red wine have been hotly debated, one compound found in grapes and berries, resveratrol, is generally accepted as beneficial for treating some metabolic diseases. However, this compound has poor bioavailability, leaving many questions about how it brings about such substantial physiological changes. Man-tian Mi (Third Military Medical University, China) wondered if microbes might play a role in the effects of resveratrol on health. To find out, Mi's team treated a group of mice with resveratrol and looked for changes in gut microbes

"We found that resveratrol can remodel the gut microbiota including increasing the Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes ratios, significantly inhibiting the growth of Prevotella, and increasing the relative abundance of Bacteroides, Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Akkermansia in mice," Mi said in a press release.

What's more, the team tested metabolites in the blood of the mice and found that after resveratrol treatment, mice had far less TMAO circulating in their blood, as well as reduced levels of its precursors known to be produced by gut microbes. These results suggest that red wine might help prevent heart disease by targeting the same pathway through which red meat promotes development of heart disease. The researchers also noted attenuated disease development in a mouse model prone to TMAO-induced development of atherosclerosis.

"Our results offer new insights into the mechanisms responsible for resveratrol's anti-atherosclerosis effects and indicate that gut microbiota may become an interesting target for pharmacological or dietary interventions to decrease the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases," Mi said. The team now plans to repeat their studies to see if the effects seen in mice hold true with humans. They will also continue to explore the role of resveratrol in cardiovascular disease in their mouse models.

Reference

Chen et al. 2016. Resveratrol Attenuates Trimethylamine-N-Oxide (TMAO)-Induced Atherosclerosis by Regulating TMAO Synthesis and Bile Acid Metabolism via Remodeling of the Gut Microbiota. mBio 5;7(2)