All eyes on Aglianico. Scientists from a cohort of Italian universities have published a study on the potential health benefits of a specially-designed supplement made from the pomace of Campania’s flagship grape. According to their paper, Aglianico could potentially spare diabetes patients from blindness.
Almost a quarter of patients with type 2 diabetes will experience some form of diabetic retinopathy (DR) after their diagnosis. The condition leads to degradation of the retina, eventually resulting in vision loss. In many countries around the world, it’s the leading cause of preventable blindness in adults.
While pharmaceutical companies are on the search for possible treatments, an unlikely answer may have been found by the researchers, working in partnership with the Inventia Biotech-Healthcare Food Research Center in Campania. Their recently published study shows that Aglianico, one of the region’s most popular grapes for winemaking, may also have medicinal properties.
Patenting Polyphenols
The study began by isolating one of the many contributing factors to the retinal swelling caused by DR: oxidative stress. A key combatant of oxidative stress happens to be a naturally occurring and very common group of compounds found in grape skins as well as wine itself: polyphenols. The scientists developed a nutraceutical powder from the Aglianico grape to see if isolating and concentrating the polyphenolic compounds could help reduce retinal swelling.
Ettore Novellino, a professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Naples Federico, and Gian Carlo Tenore of the university’s department of pharmacy succeeded in patenting maltodextrinated grape pomace extract (MaGPE) as a proven oxidative stress inhibitor for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration in 2023. In this most recent study, Novellino and Tenore expanded their research by partnering with more researchers from neighboring universities to develop a slightly different nutraceutical formulation based on MaGPE, with the hope that it would prove to have similar medicinal properties for those suffering from DR.
“MaGPE was derived from Aglianico grapes harvested and collected in autumn of 2020. For the polyphenol extract production, grapes were extracted with water at 50°C, followed by filtration, concentration and a spray-drying process with maltodextrins as support to obtain a fine microencapsulated powder,” the team explains in their study.
Vineyard Vision: 20/20
After a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 99 DR patients, where roughly half the participants were prescribed the MaGPE powder as an oral supplement, results showed that the group of participants taking the MaGPE compound had “improved visual acuity, a reduction in central retinal thickness, and a stabilization of vascular perfusion (swelling),” as well as other markers for reduced oxidative stress in the retina. “These findings suggest that MaGPE supplementation effectively reduces retinal swelling and oxidative stress, contributing to improved visual outcomes in DR patients,” the study concluded.
According to the study, the MaGPE compound in particular had concentrated levels of resveratrol and quercetin, two polyphenols with proven abilities to reduce oxidative stress in the body. The development of these nutraceutical treatments is also an exciting new option for doctors and patients hoping to use naturally occurring, as opposed to lab-developed, compounds for medicinal treatments and remedies.
