Functional Food Based Gut Microbiome Engineering: An Approach Toward Healthy Lifespan Extension 

Although several international groups are still working on an internationally accepted frailty definition, it is general regarded as an age-related multi-dimensional state of vulnerability to poor resolution of homoeostasis after a stressor event. Frailty may include physical, psychological, cognitive and social impairment, which involves frail endocrine and immune systems and frail skeletal muscle (sarcopenia).

The prevalence of frailty in high-income countries at age 50–64 years is around 4%, increasing to 7-10 % in people older than 65 years, and 26.1% in elderly aged 85 plus, which places increased burden on the healthcare systems. Similarly, the rapidly increasing elderly population in Singapore (expected to be double to 900000 by 2030, which means one in four Singaporeans will be 65 plus by 2030) also have a high prevalence of frail elderly. According to a cross-sectional survey of 2102 Singapore residents aged 60 years and above, about 6% of seniors aged 60 plus are frail, approximately 40.1% are prefrail, and the prevalence of frailty increased significantly with age. Since frailty, especially physical frailty can still be reversed in the initial phase, identifying and fighting frailty in elderly can help to delay or halt the progressive decline towards disability.

Mounting evidence shows that our gut microbiome influences our health and inflammatory status. The inflammatory state is a plausible causal factor for frailty in elderly people. There is also evidence emerging of the link between the gut microbiome and muscle strength, another factor linked to ageing.

This prompts the hypothesis that gut microbiome manipulation could alter the inflammatory state and muscle strength of the individual and directly affect the development of frailty. It is well established that diet and life style impacts on the gut microbiota and that some probiotics and dietary supplements can also impart health benefits by influencing the structure and/or function of the gut microbiota.

The objectives of this project include:

• Establish an in-vitro test systems for screening combinations of dietary supplements for their impact on the structure and function of the gut microbiota
• Identifying dietary supplements which can assist in the manipulation of the gut microbiota in order to establish a microbiota profile consistent with younger active cohorts.
• Identify dietary supplements which manipulate the microbiota such that inflammation is down regulated.