Saad, Ramy;
Costeira, Ricardo;
Matías-García, Pamela R;
Villicaña, Sergio;
Gieger, Christian;
Suhre, Karsten;
Peters, Annette;
... Bell, Jordana T; + view all
(2025)
Theobromine is associated with slower epigenetic ageing.
Aging
10.18632/aging.206344.
(In press).
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Abstract
Theobromine, a commonly consumed dietary alkaloid derived from cocoa, has been linked to extended lifespan in model organisms and to health benefits in humans. We examined associations between circulating levels of theobromine intake, measured using serum metabolomics, and blood-based epigenetic markers of biological ageing in two European human population-based cohorts. Serum theobromine levels were significantly associated with reduced epigenetic age acceleration, as measured by GrimAge (p < 2e-7) and DNAmTL (p < 0.001) in 509 individuals from the TwinsUK cohort, and both signals replicated in 1,160 individuals from the KORA cohort (p = 7.2e-08 and p = 0.007, respectively). Sensitivity analyses including covariates of other cocoa and coffee metabolites suggest that the effect is specific to theobromine. Our findings indicate that the reported beneficial links between theobromine intake on health and ageing extend to the molecular epigenetic level in humans.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Theobromine is associated with slower epigenetic ageing |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.18632/aging.206344 |
| Publisher version: | https://www.aging-us.com/article/206344/text |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2025 Saad et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | Theobromine, epigenetic aging, DNA methylation, metabolomics, nutrition |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Genetics and Genomic Medicine Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10219046 |
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