Methionine Intake Microbiota

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Methionine-restricted diet: Methionine-restricted diet (plant-based diet) is a feasible and palatable way to achieve 50% reduction in methionine intake. Reduction to around 800 mg/day methionine will be achieved using participants' selection from low-methionine plant-based and ready to eat meals for 100% of their meals, for 6 weeks. Participants will be provided with education and a list of low methionine content food (green) and high methionine (red) for eating out, snacks and homemade meals.

Study summary

Pro-inflammatory immune cells play a pivotal role in multiple sclerosis, and the gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as a key factor shaping the immune system. This study aims to determine the impact of a dietary intervention (methionine-restricted diet-MR) on gut microbiota and inflammation in humans. A randomized interventional pilot study with cross-over intervention is conducted in 40 healthy participants. For all participants, the first two weeks (week 1+week 2) consist of baseline assessment on their usual diet, and week 3+week 4 consist of MR diet only. For group A, the week 5+week 6 are MR+1,500 mg daily supplementation of methionine and for group B are MR+placebo, with a cross-over for week 7+week 8. Usual diet is resumed for all participants during week 9+week 10. Gut microbiota, blood levels of methionine and its metabolites, as well as immune and inflammatory markers will be evaluated every 2 weeks. It is hypothesized that MR could be used in humans to prevent and alleviate the course of multiple sclerosis by shaping the gut microbiota towards an anti-inflammatory profile, and that the gut microbiota is a biomarker associated with successful dietary interventions targeting inflammation in multiple sclerosis.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Gut microbiota — At the end of week 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
  Lipocalin-2 will be measured in stools to assess for inflammation in the gut. Stool samples from a given participant (all timepoints) will be processed simultaneously for DNA extraction and sequencing. Amplification of hyper-variable regions V1-V3 of 16S with primers, 16S libraries preparation and sequencing (Génome Québec) will be performed. Microbiota diversity will be measured with Shannon and α-diversity indexes. To represent microbial communities' similarity/difference between groups, a principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) will be used. Data will be interpreted by using high dimensional class comparisons via linear discriminant analysis of effect size (LEfSe) and volcano plots to identify potential relationships between specific bacteria and immunological/metabolomics results and clinical data.

Trial sites (1)

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