Hydroxytyrosol: A compound from nature's arsenal against metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of interrelated risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Hydroxytyrosol (HT) is a single phenol and it is present in large amount in byproducts from olives. An experimental protocol has been setup encompassing isolated HT administration in a diet induced rat model of metabolic syndrome. The first step was the investigation of the PK/PD of HT in plasma and tissues. As HT does not circulate anymore 30min after the administration, it was pertinent to investigate its metabolic fate. Thus, targeted identification of circulating in plasma HT metabolites was performed using the mass defect filter technique. Additionally, an untargeted approach has been attempted on the PK plasma samples and new biomarkers related to HT administration have been identified. The aforementioned metabonomic methodology has been applied to the samples from the metabolic syndrome model in order to discern differences in the biochemistry within groups. HT supplementation for 8 weeks reduced visceral obesity and was associated with improved left ventricular structure and function, reduced blood pressure, improved glucose disposal and reduced hepatic steatosis and infiltration of inflammatory cells into the liver. Data of the targeted and untargeted approaches will be presented.