Metabolite Profiles in Response to Dietary Interventions for Management of Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review

Hypertension is a major global public health issue. The mechanisms through which diet influences blood pressure (BP) remain to be fully elucidated. Nutritional metabolomics offers an objective method for examining diet-health outcomes, including the contribution of intermediate molecules and metabolic byproducts or metabolites to BP regulation. To date, no review has investigated the relationship between diet, metabolites and BP regulation.

This systematic review aim was to synthesise findings of human dietary intervention studies on BP, including feeding studies providing all foods and meals, as well as those that provided supplements.

Six databases were systematically searched (Scopus, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane) for intervention studies examining the relationship between dietary metabolites and BP regulation. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Quality Criteria were used to assess the risk of bias.

Twelve articles (11 unique studies) met the inclusion criteria, reporting 11 significant associations between metabolites and BP, while one study found no significant associations. More than 100 metabolites were associated with BP, 40 associated with SBP, 29 with DBP, 31 with both, and 2 did not differentiate between SBP or DBP. Only two metabolites, proline-betaine and N-acetylneuraminate, had significant relationships with BP measurement in more than one study.

This review identified a shortlist of potential metabolite indicators of response to dietary interventions for BP regulation. Findings highlight nutritional metabolomics as a potential contributor to understanding diet-induced changes in BP and CVD risk reduction. However, variability in reported metabolites and limited replication across studies may affect specificity and limit generalizability. Further research is needed to better understand this relationship.