A healthier approach to clinical trials evaluating resveratrol for primary prevention of age-related diseases in healthy populations

In recent years, the wealth of basic science research supporting resveratrol's potential to treat, delay, and even prevent age-related chronic diseases has led to a number of human clinical trials. While such translational research has yielded promising results in clinical populations, recently published conflicting results from studies evaluating resveratrol's potential for primary prevention of chronic disease in healthy / asymptomatic individuals have generated considerable controversy and do not initially appear consistent with findings from animal models. We argue that trials targeting healthy humans are often fundamentally flawed owing to inappropriate use of paradigms only applicable to populations with overt clinical disease and the consequent misleading (typically negative) results can severely retard advancement of drug development. To appropriately perform translational research centered on resveratrol as a primary prevention agent in non-clinical populations, it is critical to utilize study designs which can provide adequate information on clinically relevant outcome measures, avoid paradigms and assumptions from interventions which are specific to clinical populations, and maintain realistic expectations compared to interventions which provide the theoretical maximal response (e.g., caloric restriction and aerobic exercise training).