ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Coffee is widely consumed and contains many bioactive compounds, any of which may impact pathways related to disease development.

OBJECTIVE:

To identify individual metabolite changes in response to coffee.

METHODS:

We profiled the metabolome of fasting serum samples collected from a previously reported single blinded, 3-stage clinical trial. 47 habitual coffee consumers refrained from drinking coffee for 1 month, consumed 4 cups of coffee/d in the second month and 8 cups/d in the third month. Samples collected after each coffee stage were subject to nontargeted metabolomic profiling using UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. 733 metabolites were included for univariate and multivariate analysis.

RESULTS:

A total of 115 metabolites were significantly associated with coffee intake (P<0.05 and Q<0.05). 82 were of known identity and mapped to one of 33 pre-defined biological pathways. We observed a significant enrichment of metabolite members of 5 pathways (P<0.05): (1) xanthine metabolism- includes caffeine metabolites, (2) benzoate metabolism- reflects polyphenol metabolite products of gut-microbiota metabolism, (3) steroid- novel but may reflect phytosterol content of coffee, (4) fatty acid metabolism (acyl choline)- novel link to coffee and (5) endocannabinoid- novel link to coffee.

CONCLUSIONS:

The novel metabolites and candidate pathways we have identified may provide new insight to the mechanisms by which coffee may be exerting its health effects.