Critical care: Nestlé files patent on high-protein blend targeting muscle wastage
Writing in its global patent filing, Nestlé said the blend contained high levels of protein – at least 25% of total energy or more than 6g per 100kcal – from a range of sources, including milk, whey, caseinate, pea and soy. The composition, it said, could be used to induce autophagy in skeletal muscle when used in an effective amount. It could be administered parenterally, enterally, or intravenously for critically ill patients or incorporated into dietary supplements, powders and food and drink products for the elderly and those with genetic diseases, including muscular dystrophies.
Advancing nutrition for the critically ill and elderly
Nestlé said while “major advances” had been made in intensive care medicine, mortality remained high in patients who survived the initial phase, typically entering a chronic phase of critical illness. While a range of treatments had been developed to improve muscle myophathy and weakness during these times, including growth hormones, androgens and hyperalimentation, it said these treatments had “failed” because of unexpectedly increasing the risk of organ failure and death.
“Multiple organ dysfunction and muscle weakness are common in the critical care setting and can be caused or aggravated by unbalanced parenteral nutrient delivery or a parenterally delivered relative or absolute nutrient overload,” Nestlé wrote in its patent filing.
“...Effective measures to provide critically ill patients with appropriate treatments and adequate nutrition remain lacking.”
Considering the elderly, the company said age-related loss of muscle mass and function – considered sarcopenia when it impacted life quality – was inevitable in all individuals. Many also suffered with frailty – a function decline associated with low muscle strength and functionality, but not muscle mass.
Nestlé said its high-protein formulation could be used in both instances to “concomitantly promote protein synthesis and removal of damaged cellular materials” or “induce autophagy” - an action supported in findings from a mouse, zebrafish and western blot study.
An “additional advantage” of the composition, it said, was it could also be used to “protect a patient suffering from a genetic disease”, including muscular dystrophies such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, mitochondrial myopathies or Pompe disease.
Protein specifics...
Nestlé said the blend should ideally be administered daily, although could also be given just two days per week as long as it provided an amount of protein greater than 1.0g protein per kilo of body weight; preferably greater than 1.2g/kg body weight per day. Administration, it said, should continue “at least until a therapeutic effect is achieved”, which could be one week; one month or three to six months.
Protein content should also ideally equate to more than 36% of total energy and more than 9g per 100kcal and be from at least one animal or plant source, although blends were “also suitable”. The composition could also contain essential amino acids; branched chain amino acids; carbohydrates; and fat, Nestlé said.
Nestlé Health Science in LATAM
Clinical nutrition is Nestlé Health Science's strongest business in Latin America. Created in 2011 as part of the Nestlé Group and headquartered in Switzerland, the business now produced more than nine billion products each year through its global network. Nestlé Health Science had an office in Mexico and office and production facility in Brazil.
Speaking earlier this year to NutraIngredients-LATAM, head of Nestlé Health Science LATAM Monica Meale said that while clinical nutrition remained extremely important for the region, there was “greater potential for retail”.
Source: WIPO International Patent No. 2019121855
Filed: December 19, 2018. Published: June 27, 2019.
Title: “Compositions and methods using high protein for induction of autophagy”
Author: Societe des Produits Nestlé S.A. - G. Civiletto, B. Cuenoud, J. Feige and P. Gut
