NIH-supported implementation science and nutrition research: a portfolio review of the past decade.

Objective: This portfolio analysis aims to describe the scope of NIH-funded extramural research grants at the intersection of nutrition research and implementation science (IS) from 2011 to 2022 and to offer insights into future research opportunities relevant to the Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research 2020-2030.

Methods: A portfolio analysis of funded grants using NIH reporting systems was conducted to identify nutrition research and IS awarded between fiscal years 2011 and 2022. The authors screened the titles and abstracts for inclusion criteria: research and career development awards involved a nutrition and/or dietary intervention and measured a stated implementation outcome or used an IS theory, model, or framework.

Opportunities to advance implementation science and nutrition research: a commentary on the Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research.

Despite population-wide recommendations by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans and others to encourage health-promoting dietary patterns, the proportion of Americans following dietary recommendations remains low.

An evaluation of the National Institutes of Health grants portfolio: identifying opportunities and challenges for multi-omics research that leverage metabolomics data.

Background: Through the systematic large-scale profiling of metabolites, metabolomics provides a tool for biomarker discovery and improving disease monitoring, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response, as well as for delineating disease mechanisms and etiology. As a downstream product of the genome and epigenome, transcriptome, and proteome activity, the metabolome can be considered as being the most proximal correlate to the phenotype. Integration of metabolomics data with other -omics data in multi-omics analyses has the potential to advance understanding of human disease development and treatment.

Funding of Hispanic/Latino Health-Related Research by the National Institutes of Health: An Analysis of the Portfolio of Research Program Grants on Six Health Topic Areas.

Hispanics/Latinos are expected to constitute 25% of the U.S. population by 2060.

Dietary patterns and associations with BMI in low-income, ethnic minority youth in the USA according to baseline data from four randomised controlled trials.

Few studies have derived data-driven dietary patterns in youth in the USA. This study examined data-driven dietary patterns and their associations with BMI measures in predominantly low-income, racial/ethnic minority US youth. Data were from baseline assessments of the four Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) Consortium trials: NET-Works (534 2-4-year-olds), GROW (610 3-5-year-olds), GOALS (241 7-11-year-olds) and IMPACT (360 10-13-year-olds).

Report of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Working Group on Hypertension: Barriers to Translation.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened a multidisciplinary working group of hypertension researchers on December 6 to 7, 2018, in Bethesda, MD, to share current scientific knowledge in hypertension and to identify barriers to translation of basic into clinical science/trials and implementation of clinical science into clinical care of patients with hypertension. The goals of the working group were (1) to provide an overview of recent discoveries that may be ready for testing in preclinical and clinical studies; (2) to identify gaps in knowledge that impede translation; (3) to highlight the most promising scientific areas in which to pursue translation; (4) to identify key challenges and barriers for moving basic science discoveries into translation, clinical studies, and trials; and (5) to identify roadblocks for effective dissemination and implementation of basic and clinical science in real-world settings. The working group addressed issues that were responsive to many of the objectives of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Strategic Vision.

Food insecurity and obesity: research gaps, opportunities, and challenges.

Food insecurity, defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life, is a major public health concern with 11.8% of U.S.

Perspective: Dietary Biomarkers of Intake and Exposure-Exploration with Omics Approaches.

While conventional nutrition research has yielded biomarkers such as doubly labeled water for energy metabolism and 24-h urinary nitrogen for protein intake, a critical need exists for additional, equally robust biomarkers that allow for objective assessment of specific food intake and dietary exposure. Recent advances in high-throughput MS combined with improved metabolomics techniques and bioinformatic tools provide new opportunities for dietary biomarker development. In September 2018, the NIH organized a 2-d workshop to engage nutrition and omics researchers and explore the potential of multiomics approaches in nutritional biomarker research.

Snacking characteristics and patterns and their associations with diet quality and BMI in the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research Consortium.

Objective: To describe snacking characteristics and patterns in children and examine associations with diet quality and BMI.

Design: Children's weight and height were measured. Participants/adult proxies completed multiple 24 h dietary recalls.

Implementing the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Strategic Vision in the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences.

As we commemorate the 70 Anniversary of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and celebrate important milestones that have been achieved by the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences (DCVS), it is imperative that DCVS and the Extramural Research community at-large continue to address critical public health challenges that persist within the area of Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD). The NHLBI's Strategic Vision, developed with extensive input from the extramural research community and published in 2016, included overarching goals and strategic objectives that serve to provide a general blueprint for sustaining the legacy of the Institute by leveraging opportunities in emerging scientific areas (e.g.

Accumulating Data to Optimally Predict Obesity Treatment (ADOPT) Core Measures: Behavioral Domain.

Background: The ability to identify and measure behaviors that are related to weight loss and the prevention of weight regain is crucial to understanding the variability in response to obesity treatment and the development of tailored treatments.

Objectives: The overarching goal of the Accumulating Data to Optimally Predict obesity Treatment (ADOPT) Core Measures Project is to provide obesity researchers with guidance on a set of constructs and measures that are related to weight control and that span and integrate obesity-related behavioral, biological, environmental, and psychosocial domains. This article describes how the behavioral domain subgroup identified the initial list of high-priority constructs and measures to be included, and it describes practical considerations for assessing the following four behavioral areas: eating, activity, sleep, and self-monitoring of weight.

The Accumulating Data to Optimally Predict Obesity Treatment (ADOPT) Core Measures Project: Rationale and Approach.

Background: Individual variability in response to multiple modalities of obesity treatment is well documented, yet our understanding of why some individuals respond while others do not is limited. The etiology of this variability is multifactorial; however, at present, we lack a comprehensive evidence base to identify which factors or combination of factors influence treatment response.

Objectives: This paper provides an overview and rationale of the Accumulating Data to Optimally Predict obesity Treatment (ADOPT) Core Measures Project, which aims to advance the understanding of individual variability in response to adult obesity treatment.

A Systematic Review of Obesity Disparities Research.

Context: A review of interventions addressing obesity disparities could reveal gaps in the literature and provide guidance on future research, particularly for populations with a high prevalence of obesity and obesity-related cardiometabolic risk.

Evidence Acquisition: A systematic review of clinical trials in obesity disparities research that were published in 2011-2016 in PubMed/MEDLINE resulted in 328 peer-reviewed articles. Articles were excluded if they had no BMI, weight, or body composition measure as primary outcome or were foreign (n=201); were epidemiologic or secondary data analyses of clinical trials (n=12); design or protocol papers (n=54); systematic reviews (n=3); or retracted or duplicates (n=9).

The Productivity of NHLBI-Funded Obesity Research, 1983-2013.

Objective: To describe and elucidate the time trends of the academic productivity of NHLBI's obesity-related research funding via bibliometric analysis of 30 years of NHLBI-supported obesity-related publications.

Methods: In total, 3,545 NHLBI-funded obesity-related publications were identified in the Thomson Reuters InCites™ database. Shared references in a community detection algorithm were used to identify publication topics.

Using 2 Assessment Methods May Better Describe Dietary Supplement Intakes in the United States.

Background: One-half of US adults report using a dietary supplement. NHANES has traditionally assessed dietary supplement use via a 30-d questionnaire but in 2007 added a supplement module to the 24-h dietary recall (24HR).

Objective: We compared these 2 dietary assessment methods, examined potential biases in the methods, and determined the effect that instrument choice had on estimates of prevalence of multivitamin/multimineral dietary supplement (MVMM) use.

Navigating the road ahead: addressing challenges for use of metabolomics in epidemiology studies.

Metabolomics platforms allow for the measurement of hundreds to thousands of unique small chemical entities, as well as offer extensive coverage of metabolic markers related to obesity, diet, smoking, and other exposures of high interest to health scientists. Nevertheless, its potential use as a tool in population-based study design has not been fully explored. As the field of metabolomics continues to mature, and in part, accelerate through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investment of ≤65 million in the Common Fund's Metabolomics Program (https://common fund.

Garlic and onions: their cancer prevention properties.

The Allium genus includes garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, and chives. These vegetables are popular in cuisines worldwide and are valued for their potential medicinal properties. Epidemiologic studies, while limited in their abilities to assess Allium consumption, indicate some associations of Allium vegetable consumption with decreased risk of cancer, particularly cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.

Urinary lignans and inflammatory markers in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 and 2005-2008.

Purpose: Chronic inflammation has been implicated in the etiology of various chronic diseases. We previously found that certain urinary isoflavones are associated with markers of inflammation. In the present study, we examined the associations of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC) count with lignans, which are more frequent in the Western diet than isoflavones.

Preventive effects of NSAIDs, NO-NSAIDs, and NSAIDs plus difluoromethylornithine in a chemically induced urinary bladder cancer model.

Urinary bladder cancer prevention studies were performed with the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) naproxen (a standard NSAID with a good cardiovascular profile), sulindac, and their nitric oxide (NO) derivatives. In addition, the effects of the ornithine decarboxylase inhibitor, difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), alone or combined with a suboptimal dose of naproxen or sulindac was examined. Agents were evaluated at their human equivalent doses (HED), as well as at lower doses.

3,3'-diindolylmethane rapidly and selectively inhibits hepatocyte growth factor/c-Met signaling in breast cancer cells.

3,3'-Diindolylmethane (DIM), an indole derivative from vegetables of the Brassica genus, has antiproliferative activity in breast cancer cells. Part of this activity is thought to be due to DIM inhibition of Akt signaling, but an upstream mechanism of DIM-induced Akt inhibition has not been described. The goals of this study were to investigate the kinetics of inhibition of Akt by physiologically relevant concentrations of DIM and to identify an upstream factor that mediates this effect.

Associations between urinary soy isoflavonoids and two inflammatory markers in adults in the United States in 2005-2008.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the association between urinary isoflavonoid (genistein, daidzein, and the daidzein metabolites O-desmethylangolensin (O-DMA) and equol) excretion and markers of inflammation in adults in the United States in National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2008.

Methods: The NHANES is a cross-sectional study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics to study the health and nutritional status of people living in the United States. The analysis included 1,683 participants from study years 2005-2008 for whom urinary isoflavonoids were measured and who met inclusion criteria.

Selenium and prostate cancer prevention: insights from the selenium and vitamin E cancer prevention trial (SELECT).

The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) was conducted to assess the efficacy of selenium and vitamin E alone, and in combination, on the incidence of prostate cancer. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial design clinical trial found that neither selenium nor vitamin E reduced the incidence of prostate cancer after seven years and that vitamin E was associated with a 17% increased risk of prostate cancer compared to placebo. The null result was surprising given the strong preclinical and clinical evidence suggesting chemopreventive activity of selenium.

Effect of intermittent dosing regimens of erlotinib on methylnitrosourea-induced mammary carcinogenesis.

EGF receptor (EGFR) inhibitors are used in the therapy of lung and pancreatic cancers and effectively prevent cancers in multiple animal models. Although daily dosing with erlotinib is effective, weekly dosing may reduce toxicity and have advantages, particularly for prevention. We tested alternative dosing regimens for preventive/therapeutic efficacy in a rat mammary cancer model.

Nutrigenomics and Cancer Prevention.

Mounting evidence continues to point to dietary habits as a modifier of cancer risk and tumor behavior; although it is clear that considerable variability occurs across studies. While genetic public health messages can be developed, the use of mean values may result in underexposure to some essential and nonessential food components, yet precipitate overexposure to nutrients. Undeniably, inconsistencies in the literature may reflect variation in timing of exposures to specific dietary constituents, interactions with the food matrix, processing technologies, or the genomic variation among individuals, which can influence absorption, metabolism, and/or the molecular target.

Opportunities for small nutrition-related cancer research grants (R03) from the National Cancer Institute.

Small research grants, or R03 grants, provide limited, short-term support for individual research projects. R03s may be an excellent means of support for projects by nutrition scientists at all stages in their careers. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded roughly one-half of all nutrition-related NIH R03 grants in the period from 2005 to 2010.