Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and steatohepatitis (NAFLD/NASH) is one of the most common liver disorders and a major public health problem in Europe and North America and one of the most common complications of obesity and diabetes mellitus in Western populations affecting approximately 50% of diabetics and 76% of obese patients. MAST4HEALTH consists a multidisciplinary approach to assess a non pharmacological intervention for managing NAFLD/NASH. Because of limitations in current NAFLD treatment therapies, many new efforts focus on exploring non-pharmacologic means for managing the disease and in particular through dietary substances or bioactive phytochemicals in fruits, vegetables, and plants or their products. MAST4HEALTH aimed at exploring the effect of Mastiha, a natural product of Greece which was recently shown to possess antioxidant/anti- inflammatory and lipid lowering properties. We completed a multicenter randomized double blind placebo controlled (parallel arm) clinical trial to test the effectiveness of Mastiha supplement as new non-pharmacologic strategy for NAFLD/NASH treatment. MAST4HEALTH explored gene-diet interactions, more specifically the potential personalized activity of the Mastiha, and correlated genetic and epigenetic markers with metabolomic and intestinal microbiota profiles pre- and post- intervention. The effectiveness of the proposed intervention was evaluated via clinical and laboratory markers of the disease. To this end, MAST4HEALTH trained a number of researchers and PhD students in multidisciplinary approaches of this survey. MAST4HEALTH built and enhanced cooperation among partners meanwhile strengthening the interaction between our academic and non-academic sectors
