Studies on Coffee Consumption: New Biomarker Proposed

In order to record coffee consumption in nutrition and health studies, researchers usually rely on self-reporting by participants. However, this is not always reliable. It would therefore be desirable to conduct additional studies to objectively verify individual consumption using biomarkers. A research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has now validated the suitability of a specific roasted coffee compound and proposes it as a new, practical food biomarker.

Millions of people around the world drink coffee every day. The beverage contains a large number of bioactive substances, and its health effects on the human metabolism are therefore frequently subjects of scientific studies.

In many of these studies, however, the data on coffee consumption is largely based on self-reporting by the participants and is therefore not always accurate. This can affect the scientific validity of nutritional studies.

Reliable biomarkers could remedy this problem by using biological samples to objectively distinguish between coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers.

The research team, which also includes the nutritional physician Thomas Skurk and first author Beate Brandl from the ZIEL — Institute for Food & Health at the Technical University of Munich, has therefore comprehensively validated the roast coffee compound N-methylpyridinium as one such biomarker candidate for its suitability.

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich first proposed the substance as a biomarker candidate in 2011 as part of a pilot study.

As part of the scientific validation, the team analyzed existing literature data. It also analyzed urine, blood and plasma samples from more than 460 people from Freising and Nuremberg who had participated in a nutrition study conducted by the BMBF-funded enable cluster.

As the study shows, N-methylpyridinium is a compound that is specific to roasted Arabica and Robusta coffee. The substance is chemically very stable and its absorption into the organism is concentration-dependent.

The substance can also be easily and reproducibly detected in various body fluids after coffee consumption, before leaving the body unchanged in the urine within a few hours to days.

Sources:

Beate Brandl, Coline Czech, Susanne I. Wudy, Anja Beusch, Hans Hauner, Thomas Skurk, Roman Lang. Validation of N-Methylpyridinium as a Feasible Biomarker for Roasted Coffee Intake. Beverages, 2024; 10 (1): 12 DOI: 10.3390/beverages10010012

Leibniz-Institut für Lebensmittel-Systembiologie an der TU München. (2024, March 4). Studies on coffee consumption: New biomarker proposed. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 5, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240304135843.htm

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