Joint Microbiota Activity and Dietary Assessment through Urinary Biomarkers by LC-MS/MS

Accurate dietary assessment in nutritional research is a huge challenge, but essential. Due to the subjective nature of self-reporting methods, the development of analytical methods for food intake and microbiota biomarkers determination is needed. This work presents an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method for the quantification and semi quantification of 20 and 201 food intake biomarkers (BFIs), respectively, as well as 7 microbiota biomarkers applied to 208 urine samples from lactating mothers (M) (N = 59). Dietary intake was assessed through a 24 h dietary recall (R24h). BFI analysis identified three distinct clusters among samples: samples from clusters 1 and 3 presented higher concentrations of most biomarkers than those from cluster 2, with dairy products and milk biomarkers being more concentrated in cluster 1, and seeds, garlic and onion in cluster 3. Significant correlations were observed between three BFIs (fruits, meat, and fish) and R24h data (r > 0.2, p-values < 0.01, Spearman correlation). Microbiota activity biomarkers were simultaneously evaluated and the subgroup patterns detected were compared to clusters from dietary assessment. These results evidence the feasibility, usefulness, and complementary nature of the determination of BFIs, R24h, and microbiota activity biomarkers in observational nutrition cohort studies.

Automated summary

Accurately assessing dietary intake in nutritional research is challenging but crucial. To overcome the subjectivity of self-reporting methods, the development of analytical methods for determining food intake and microbiota biomarkers is necessary. This study presents a UHPLC-MS/MS method for quantifying and semi quantifying food intake biomarkers (BFIs) and microbiota biomarkers in urine samples from lactating mothers. The analysis identified distinct clusters of samples based on biomarker concentrations and revealed correlations between certain BFIs and dietary recall data. These findings emphasize the feasibility, usefulness, and complementary nature of assessing BFIs, dietary recall, and microbiota biomarkers in nutrition cohort studies.