Biomarkers of Dietary Blueberry Intake: Insights from an Untargeted Metabolomics Study of Human Urine Using Dual-Column UHPLC-MS.
- 2026-05-12
- Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 74(22)
- Yifan Xu
- Peiyu Li
- Zilin Xiao
- Wanning Shang
- Nan Wang
- Tongtong Li
- Ying Wang
- Huiping Zhang
- Xuan Wang
- Hao Ma
- Geng Zong
- PubMed: 42118677
- DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6c00267
Study Design
- Type
- Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)
- Population
- 20 healthy young adults
- Methods
- randomized, controlled, crossover feeding study; 2-day run-in; consumption of fresh blueberries with standard meals (390 g on day 3; 780 g on day 4); urine sample collection at fasting, postprandial, and follow-up time points; untargeted dual-column UHPLC-HRMS metabolomics with multistage feature selection pipeline and analysis of fruit and in vitro digested samples
- Funding
- Unclear
- Rigorous Journal
Biomarkers of food intake (BFIs) can improve dietary assessment by providing objective measures of intake, yet no validated specific biomarkers are currently available for blueberries. In a randomized, controlled, crossover feeding study, 20 healthy young adults completed a 2-day run-in and then consumed fresh blueberries with standard meals (390 g on day 3; 780 g on day 4). Urine samples were collected at fasting, postprandial, and follow-up time points. Using untargeted dual-column ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) metabolomics, together with a multistage feature selection pipeline and analysis of fruit and in vitro digested samples, we identified 28 candidate BFIs, including novel metabolites such as 4-hydroxy-3-prenylbenzaldehyde and kirenol. XGBoost models showed that a three-compound panel comprising 4-hydroxy-3-prenylbenzaldehyde, kirenol, and p-coumaric acid-4-O-glucoside best predicted recent blueberry intake (AUC 0.81) beyond 24 h after intake and showed good specificity relative to other fruits. These findings support further development of BFIs for blueberry intake.