Top 10 reasons glycation is bad for your health

Glycation makes food taste good; It also forms AGEs.

The humble toast you had for breakfast today may seem like one of the simple pleasures of life, but did you realize that you were consuming 54 different flavors?

That’s right, and you have Maillard’s reaction to thank!

In 1912, French chemist, Louis Camille Maillard, explained the principle behind the ‘browning’ in foods that makes it oh-so-delicious.

Uncooked bread contains carbohydrates (complex sugars), proteins and water.

When the toaster heats it to 302^oF, the carbohydrates start decomposing to free sugars.

These sugars get added, irreversibly, to amino acids (building blocks of proteins) present in bread, in a chemical process called Glycation.

Chewing breaks down the sugar-added-proteins to yield amino acid-sugar complexes called Accumulated Glycation End-products (AGEs), which have different chemical profiles governing flavor and taste.

Another result of an increased surface breakdown of carbohydrates is the generation of melanoidins (glycated protein polymers),¹ that are colored, giving us the familiar and tempting browning on the toast.

And it is not just toasted that rely on the flavor resulting from glycation.

The food industry relies extensively on glycated amino acids for flavoring (e.g., glycine in beer, cysteine in meat, and valine in rye bread).

These flavor and color profiles attract us to certain foods and dictate both our eating and cooking habits.

AGEs come from diet and can also form within the body

AGEs from the diet are called dietary AGES, while those formed within the human body are called endogenous AGEs.

In the body, carbohydrate metabolism creates sugar intermediates, such as methylglyoxal, which have a high propensity of getting added to proteins, fats, and DNA.

Since sugar-tagged amino acids, lipids, or nucleotides can no longer retain their original shape (having chemically altered), their function is compromised, leading to poorly functioning cells.

As a result, a slow systemic deterioration kicks in, a.k.a aging!

Science proves that AGEs cause aging

Dietary and endogenous AGEs circulate in the blood, binding to cell surfaces via receptors called RAGE (Receptors for AGE).

AGE-RAGE binding dictates inflammation and disease fates, as described further below.

Our body has evolved an anti-AGE defense, in the form of detoxifying enzymes called glyoxalases (GLOs), which eliminate reactive glucose metabolites (e.g., methylglyoxal), saving cells from glycation.

However, when dietary AGE intake is high, it increases the flux of reactive sugars towards enhanced glycation in the body.

Some of the best scientific proof for AGEs causing aging comes from studying GLOs.

A study using genetically engineered worms (c. elegans) made to overproduce GLOs showed low levels of AGEs, decreased glycation of mitochondrial proteins and increased lifespan².

When GLOs were deleted, AGEs increased, and worms died faster. Also, worms without GLOs died faster when fed on a high glucose diet³.

That’s some very cool science providing conclusive evidence.

AGEs influence diseases through oxidative stress, inflammation, and protein cross-links.

A research group studying 174 human subjects found that increased intake of dietary AGEs led to high blood levels of AGE-related markers (e.g., methylglyoxal and N^∊-Carboxymethyl lysine), irrespective of participants’ age and physical fitness⁴.

Across all age groups, high circulating AGEs correlated with increased oxidative stress and inflammation.

When RAGEs bind with AGEs, they initiate signaling pathways⁶ increasing pro-inflammatory molecules⁷that cause immune cells to attack the tissues.

Inflammation also leads to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that oxidize biomolecules and signal tissue damage.

In addition to this, long-lived proteins (like collagen which degrade slowly in the human body) accumulate glycated amino acids, which now serve as nodes for cross-links in proteins, making them rigid with reduced elasticity.

Cross-linking decreases both protein turnover and functionality, causing them to persist longer in cells than is beneficial⁷.

These changes defy physiology, causing complications and diseases. Here are the top 10 reasons why AGEs are bad for your health.

1. AGEs propagate neurodegenerative diseases

AGEs worsen Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Both conditions are caused by protein clumps in the brain.

Protein plaques from AD brain samples have increased glycation of the amyloid-beta protein, tau proteins, and a 3-fold increase in AGEs compared to healthy, similar-aged individuals⁸.

Research also suggests that glycation of amyloid and tau proteins increases cross-linking, promoting their fibrillar organization in the brain⁹.

Protein clumps in the brains of PD patients have higher AGEs than healthy individuals⁹. α-synuclein, the main protein in PD brain clumps, is extensively cross-linked and stabilized by AGEs¹⁰.

2. AGEs cause innate immunity defects

Innate immunity is the body’s first line of defense against pathogens.

It kicks in before antibody-mediated immunity and consists of natural killer (NK) cells, dendritic cells (DC), and macrophages that recognize infected cells and clear them out to contain infection¹¹.

In studies involving NK cells exposed to synthetic AGEs, glycation of NK cell proteins increased, leading to reduced immunity against tumors and virally infected cells¹².

Accumulated AGEs in DCs inhibited DC maturation and immune function¹³.

Similarly, AGEs affect macrophages’ immune activity, reducing their ability to clear out RNA virus infections¹⁴.

3. AGEs lead to skin aging

AGEs glycate and extensively cross-link long-lived skin proteins such as elastin, fibronectin and collagen.

This leads to a decrease in elasticity, skin permeability and skin repair while increasing stiffness and aging.

Accumulation of AGEs in the epidermis and dermis increases cell death, ROS, and inflammation-causing skin injury¹⁵.

4. AGEs negatively influence obesity, metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance

It is well known that obesity, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome are linked to lifestyle disorders.

When experimental mice feed on dietary AGEs in their high-fat food, they develop non-alcoholic fatty liver disease symptoms.

Besides weight gain, there is an increase of pro-inflammatory molecules in their adipose tissue, promoting obesity¹⁶.

This is similar to the standard Western diet’s effects that supply high dietary AGEs causing chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance¹⁶.

A clinical trial of obese individuals with metabolic syndrome showed that cutting out dietary AGEs from their food reversed insulin resistance¹⁷.

5. AGEs are toxic for persons with chronic kidney disease

Kidneys eliminate AGEs from the body.

The reduced function of kidneys in chronic kidney diseases causes the accumulation of circulatory AGEs.

This increases AGEs present in the blood, consequently increasing glycation events.

In this sense, AGEs pose as toxins.

Their continued presence in the body and affinity for long-lived proteins could lead to added complications such as vascular pathologies in patients with chronic kidney diseases¹⁸.

6. AGEs promote atherosclerosis

Inflammation from RAGE signaling and AGE-mediated protein cross-links cause injuries to blood vessel walls, making them stiffen¹⁹.

AGE build-up also leads to atherosclerotic plaques (narrowing blood vessels due to clogging) as glycation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) prevents their uptake by cells. This increases LDL blood levels and their deposition on arterial walls ²⁰.

More evidence linking AGEs to atherosclerosis comes from rodent experiments with intravenous injection of glycated albumin (an AGE proxy).

Results showed a 6-fold increase of AGEs in rodent arteries, making them porous and unable to dilate.

Side note: The fluorescent properties of AGEs are now being used to monitor the atherosclerotic plaque burden in humans.

Increased level of AGEs leads to glycation of skin proteins.

Which results in autofluorescence of the skin correlating with the extent of atherosclerosis in elderly patients²¹.

7. AGEs worsen diabetes and related morbidities

Diabetes is a condition of chronic hyperglycemia or high blood glucose concentration.

Therefore, the body’s proteins are in constant contact with high circulating sugars, increasing glycation events in tissues.

On a systemic level, this contributes to various diabetes-associated complications.

The AGE-RAGE axis of inflammation worsens diabetic nephropathy (damage of kidney blood vessels) by causing thickening of kidney compartments²² and increasing cell death in them²³.

AGEs affect diabetic neuropathy (loss of sensation of touch and stimulus) by increasing blood vessels’ glycation in nervous tissues²⁴.

AGEs also glycate proteins within the eye (in the retina, lens, and vitreous fluid).

An inflammatory signal is initiated on binding with RAGEs (expressed on retinal pigment epithelial cells), leading to vision loss in diabetic retinopathy²⁵.

90% of type 1 diabetics and 60% of type 2 diabetics suffer from diabetic retinopathy within 20 years of diabetes onset.

8. AGEs propagate autoimmune diseases

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system is directed against self-antigens.

Pentosidine, an AGE formed by adding ribose sugar to the amino acids arginine and lysine, is implicated in rheumatoid arthritis progression.

Pentosidine concentrations found in the fluid at bone joints (synovial fluid) are markedly increased in rheumatoid arthritis patients compared to healthy individuals²⁶.

Inflammatory signaling by RAGE drives myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disorder causing skeletal muscle weakness²⁷.

AGE-modified proteins are highly reactive with the immune system, leading to self-destructive antibodies that cause tissue injury — a possible reason for AGE-induced autoimmunity²⁸.

9. AGEs mediate osteoporosis

Bone health is maintained by balancing cells that resorb old bone tissue (osteoclasts) and cells that lay new bone material (osteoblasts), a.k.a. bone remodelling.

Bone remodelling is a slow processthat gets hampered when circulating AGEs extensively glycate and cross-link proteins in the bone, like collagen I, altering biomechanical properties.

Along with inflammation from AGE-RAGE signaling, this leads to an increase in osteoclasts’ destructive function while reducing the constructive functions of osteoblasts, weakening bones with age²⁹.

10. AGEs enhance cancer malignancy

AGEs are now found to drive malignancy in cancers. In the lab, when lung cancer cells are incubated with glycated-albumin (an AGE proxy), they show migratory and invasive tissue properties³⁰, causing metastasis.

A real-world study of 7800 middle-aged (55-74 years) cancer-free women established a correlation between AGEs and breast cancer.

1592 of these women who had a high dietary intake of AGEs went on to develop breast cancer³¹.

So, watch your dietary AGE consumption

A good start to controlling dietary AGE consumption is to avoid sugar-rich diets and processed foods and employ slow cooking methods for most of the week.

Braise, boil and poach as often as you would pan-fry or grill to welcome new flavors and textures to your dining table or in your take-out parcel.

Moist heat in slow cooking and boiling methods reduces dietary AGE formation.

What’s more, fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants and phytonutrients (such as Iridoids) that lower AGEs.

If you enjoy a grill, it can be made healthier using acid-based marinades as acidity dampens glycation.

So, feel free to enjoy your morning toast as long as you make more conscious choices of food and food preparation for lunch and dinner.

Written by Divyaanka Iyer, PhD and Pankaj Kapahi, PhD

References:

Do you age as you eat? Glycation and 10 reasons it is bad for you

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