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Impact of Microbiome-changing Interventions on Food Decision-making

Not Applicable
Recruiting
Conditions
Overweight and Obesity
Interventions
Dietary Supplement: Placebo
Dietary Supplement: Inulin
Behavioral: Lifestyle intervention
Registration Number
NCT05353504
Lead Sponsor
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Brief Summary

The investigators aim to test the hypothesis that a microbiome-changing dietary intervention improves food decision-making and to determine the underlying microbiotal and metabolic mechanisms. To this end, 90 overweight/obese adults will be enrolled in a randomized controlled trial to test the effects of a pre-biotic dietary intervention (supplementary intake of soluble fibre) or a behavioural lifestyle intervention (weekly educational program) vs. control condititon (supplementary intake of isocaloric starch) over a period of 26 weeks. Before and after the intervention/control period, participants will undergo task-based functional and structural MRI and cognitive testing. The gut microbiota will be assessed using 16S rDNA next-generation sequencing (V3/V4 region) in stool samples. Diet, anthropometry and lifestyle will be monitored with questionnaires and metabolomics will be assayed in peripheral blood and stool (e.g. SCFA). Using a modulation of gut-brain communication through a prebiotic diet and lifestyle intervention, respectively, the investigators will be able to discover microbiota communities that play a key role for eating behaviour. Related mechanistic insights could help to develop novel preventive and therapeutic options to combat unhealthy weight gain in our obesogenic society.

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
90
Inclusion Criteria
  • BMI >= 25 kg/m2 or WHR >= 0.9/0.85 (m/d, f)
  • no MRI contra-indication
  • written informed consent
Exclusion Criteria
  • athletes
  • occurrence of a clinically relevant psychiatric disease in the last 12 months, e.g. depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, schizophrenia
  • any chronic inflammatory or malignant disease
  • type 1 diabetes
  • previous bariatric/gastric surgery
  • pregnancy or breastfeeding woman

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
placebo dietary supplementPlaceboequicaloric daily maltodextrin
prebiotic dietary supplementInulinhigh-dose daily inulin
behavioural lifestyle interventionLifestyle interventionnew educational program to change eating behaviour, provided through weekly sessions.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) activity during food wanting6 months

BOLD-acitvity will be measured using event-related echo-planar T2\*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during food wanting task according to previously described procedures (details of preprocessing at: https://osf.io/ynkxw). Onsets of food and art stimuli presentation will be modelled as separate regressors convolving delta functions with a canonical hemodynamic response function. Wanting rating scores (on an 8-point likert scale) per stimulus will be added as covariates. In a parallel model, kcal of food stimuli will be added multiplied with wanting scores to model high caloric food wanting interaction. At the group level, we will assess the contrasts food \> art and wanting modulation.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
ghrelin6 months

ghrelin pg/ml in blood

leptin6 months

leptin ng/ml in blood

executive attention performance6 months

measured using the attention network task (ANT)

food craving6 months

assessed with the food craving questionnaire (Meule et al., 2012, German version).

microbial alpha and beta diversity6 months

Changes in alpha and beta diversity assessed using 16S rRNA sequencing of stool samples

insulin6 months

insulin in blood uU/ml

fMRI BOLD activity memory performance6 months

BOLD-acitvity will be measured using event-related echo-planar T2\*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during food wanting and food memory recognition tasks according to previously described procedures (details of preprocessing at: https://osf.io/ynkxw). Onsets of food and art stimuli presentation in encoding and recognition will be modelled as separate regressors convolving delta functions with a canonical hemodynamic response function. Correctly remembered and correctly rejected, as well as misses and false alarms will be modeled separately. In parallel models, similar and new items als well as wanting rating scores (on an 8-point likert scale) per stimulus and kcal of food stimuli multiplied with wanting scores will be added as covariates. At the group level, we will assess the contrasts correct \> false and wanting modulation.

satiety6 months

self-reported hunger feeling on a 8-point score from minimum 0 (not at all) to maximum 8 (very much).

PYY6 months

peptide YY pg/ml in blood

HbA1c6 months

hemoglycated globulin A1c in blood %

microbial metabolic markers in blood6 months

short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), bile acids

body mass index6 months

weight kg/height in m squared

GLP-16 months

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) pg/ml in blood

inflammatory markers6 months

high sensitive C-reactive protein mg/l (and optionally tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 6 in blood, pg/ml)

waist hip ratio6 months

waist (cm) to hip (cm) circumeference ratio

body fat6 months

body fat % according to bioelectrical impedance analysis

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

🇩🇪

Leipzig, Germany

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