scholarly journals The Modulatory Effect of Gender and Cytomegalovirus-Seropositivity on Circulating Inflammatory Factors and Cognitive Performance in Elderly Individuals

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Di Benedetto ◽  
Marcel Gaetjen ◽  
Ludmila Müller
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Inflammatory Factors ◽  
Metabolic Markers ◽  
Inflammatory Status ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Potential Contributor ◽  
Anti Inflammatory ◽  
And Gender

Aging is characterized by a chronic increase in the systemic levels of inflammatory cytokines even in ostensibly healthy individuals. The drivers of age-related increase in systemic inflammation are unclear but one potential contributor may be a persistent infection with Cytomegalovirus (CMV). In this study, we characterized the inflammatory status of 161 older participants recruited to undergo a six-month training intervention. We investigated the influence of gender and CMV-seropositivity on the main inflammatory and anti-inflammatory circulating biomarkers, such as cytokines, receptor antagonist, soluble receptor, immune cells, and relevant metabolic markers. We found that both gender and CMV-seropositivity modulate circulating peripheral biomarkers, and that CMV-infection modifies associations among the latter. Moreover, we observed an interaction between CMV-serostatus and gender associations with cognitive abilities: gender differences in fluid intelligence (Gf) and working memory (WM) were noted only in CMV-negative individuals. Finally, we found that in the CMV-seronegative participants Gf, episodic memory (EM), and WM correlated negatively with pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor (TNF); and EM correlated positively with anti-inflammatory interleukin (IL)-10. In CMV-seropositive individuals EM and Gf correlated negatively with pro-inflammatory IL-6, while EM, Gf, and WM correlated negatively with anti-inflammatory IL-1RA. We conclude that both CMV-serostatus and gender may modulate neuroimmune factors, cognitive performance and the relationship between the two domains and should therefore be considered in comparative and interventional studies with elderly people.

scholarly journals Allostatic load and ageing: linking the microbiome and nutrition with age-related health

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1165-1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul G. Shiels ◽  
Sarah Buchanan ◽  
Colin Selman ◽  
Peter Stenvinkel
Keyword(s):  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Nutritional Risk ◽  
Inflammatory Factors ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Methyl Donors ◽  
Inflammatory Status ◽  
Persistent Inflammation ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Metabolic Capability ◽  
Lifestyle Disease

Abstract Ageing is a process of decline in physiological function and capability over time. It is an anticipated major burden on societal health-care costs due to an increasingly aged global population. Accelerated biological ageing is a feature of age-related morbidities, which also appear to share common underpinning features, including low-grade persistent inflammation, phosphate toxicity, diminished Nrf2 activity, a depleted metabolic capability, depressed mitochondrial biogenesis and a low diversity gut microbiome. Social, psychological, lifestyle and nutritional risk factors can all influence the trajectory of age-related health, as part of an individual's exposome, which reflects the interplay between the genome and the environment. This is manifest as allostatic (over)load reflecting the burden of lifestyle/disease at both a physiological and molecular level. In particular, age-related genomic methylation levels and inflammatory status reflect exposome differences. These features may be mediated by changes in microbial diversity. This can drive the generation of pro-inflammatory factors, such as TMAO, implicated in the ‘diseasome’ of ageing. Additionally, it can be influenced by the ‘foodome’, via nutritional differences affecting the availability of methyl donors required for maintenance of the epigenome and by the provision of nutritionally derived Nrf2 agonists. Both these factors influence age-related physiological resilience and health. This offers novel insights into possible interventions to improve health span, including a rage of emerging senotherapies and simple modifications of the nutritional and environmental exposome. In essence, the emerging strategy is to treat ageing processes common to the diseasome of ageing itself and thus preempt the development or progression of a range of age-related morbidities.

The Effects of Age and Gender on Lipreading Abilities

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 883-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Tye-Murray ◽  
Mitchell S. Sommers ◽  
Brent Spehar
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Percent Correct ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Las Mujeres ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Older Males

Age-related declines for many sensory and cognitive abilities are greater for males than for females. The primary purpose of the present investigation was to consider whether age-related changes in lipreading abilities are similar for men and women by comparing the lipreading abilities of separate groups of younger and older adults. Older females, older males, younger females and younger males completed vision-only speech recognition tests of: (1) 13 consonants in a vocalic /i/-C-/i/ environment; (2) words in a carrier phrase; and (3) meaningful sentences. In addition to percent correct performance, consonant data were analyzed for performance within viseme categories. The results suggest that while older adults do not lipread as well as younger adults, the difference between older and younger participants was comparable across gender. We also found no differences in the lipreading abilities of males and females, regardless of stimulus type (i.e., consonants, words, sentences), a finding that differs from some reports by previous investigators (e.g., Dancer, Krain, Thompson, Davis, & Glenn, 1994). El deterioro relacionado con la edad de muchas habilidades sensoriales y cognitivas es mayor para los hombres que para las mujeres. El propósito primario de la presente investigación fue considerar si los cambios relacionados con la edad en la habilidad de leer los labios eran similares para hombre y mujeres, comparando las habilidades de lectura labial de grupos separados de adultos jóvenes y viejos. Mujeres viejas, hombres viejos, mujeres jóvenes y hombres jóvenes completaron pruebas de reconocimiento del lenguaje únicamente por medio de la visión de: (1) 13 consonantes en un ambiente vocálico /i/-C-/i/; (2) de palabras en una frase portadora; y (3) de frases significativas. Además del porcentaje correcto de desempeño, los datos de las consonantes se analizaron en cuanto a desempeño dentro de las categorías de visemas. Los resultados sugieren que mientras los adultos más viejos no leen los labios tan bien como los adultos más jóvenes, las diferencias entre participantes más viejos y más jóvenes fueron comparables entre los géneros. Tampoco encontramos diferencias en las habilidades de lectura labial de hombres y mujeres, sin importar el tipo de estímulo (p.e., consonantes, palabras, frases), un hallazgo que difiere con algunos reportes de investigadores previos (p.e., Dancer, Krain, Thompson, Davis, & Glenn, 1994).

scholarly journals Network topology dynamics of circulating biomarkers and cognitive performance in older Cytomegalovirus-seropositive or -seronegative men and women

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Di Benedetto ◽  
Ludmila Müller ◽  
Stefanie Rauskolb ◽  
Michael Sendtner ◽  
Timo Deutschbein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Network Topology ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Clustering Coefficient ◽  
Modular Organization ◽  
Circulating Biomarkers ◽  
Metabolic Factors ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Inflammatory Status ◽  
Anti Inflammatory

Abstract Background Cytokines are signaling molecules operating within complex cascade patterns and having exceptional modulatory functions. They impact various physiological processes such as neuroendocrine and metabolic interactions, neurotrophins’ metabolism, neuroplasticity, and may affect behavior and cognition. In our previous study, we found that sex and Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-serostatus may modulate levels of circulating pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, metabolic factors, immune cells, and cognitive performance, as well as associations between them. Results In the present study, we used a graph-theoretical approach to investigate the network topology dynamics of 22 circulating biomarkers and 11 measures of cognitive performance in 161 older participants recruited to undergo a six-months training intervention. For network construction, we applied coefficient of determination (R2) that was calculated for all possible pairs of variables (N = 33) in four groups (CMV− men and women; CMV+ men and women). Network topology has been evaluated by clustering coefficient (CC) and characteristic path length (CPL) as well as local (Elocal) and global (Eglobal) efficiency, showing the degree of network segregation (CC and Elocal) and integration (CPL and Eglobal). We found that networks under consideration showed small-world networks properties with more random characteristics. Mean CC, as well as local and global efficiency were highest and CPL shortest in CMV− males (having lowest inflammatory status and highest cognitive performance). CMV− and CMV+ females did not show any significant differences. Modularity analyses showed that the networks exhibit in all cases highly differentiated modular organization (with Q-value ranged between 0.397 and 0.453). Conclusions In this work, we found that segregation and integration properties of the network were notably stronger in the group with balanced inflammatory status. We were also able to confirm our previous findings that CMV-infection and sex modulate multiple circulating biomarkers and cognitive performance and that balanced inflammatory and metabolic status in elderly contributes to better cognitive functioning. Thus, network analyses provide a useful strategy for visualization and quantitative description of multiple interactions between various circulating pro- and anti-inflammatory biomarkers, hormones, neurotrophic and metabolic factors, immune cells, and measures of cognitive performance and can be in general applied for analyzing interactions between different physiological systems.

scholarly journals Differential and Experimental Approaches to Studying Intelligence in Humans and Non-Human Animals

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Burgoyne ◽  
Jason S. Tsukahara ◽  
Christopher Draheim ◽  
Randall W Engle
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
General Factor ◽  
Albino Rat ◽  
General Ability

Why do some individuals learn more quickly than others, or perform better in complex cognitive tasks? In this article, we describe how differential and experimental research methods can be used to study intelligence in humans and non-human animals. More than one hundred years ago, Spearman (1904) discovered a general factor underpinning performance across cognitive domains in humans. Shortly thereafter, Thorndike (1935) discovered positive correlations between cognitive performance measures in the albino rat. Today, research continues to shed light on the underpinnings of the positive manifold observed among ability measures. In this review, we focus on the relationship between cognitive performance and attention control: the domain-general ability to maintain focus on task-relevant information while preventing attentional capture by task-irrelevant thoughts and events. Recent work from our lab has revealed that individual differences in attention control can largely explain the positive associations between broad cognitive abilities such as working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. In research on mice, attention control has been closely linked to a general ability factor reflecting route learning and problem solving. Taken together, both lines of research suggest that individual differences in attention control underpin performance in a variety of complex cognitive tasks, helping to explain why measures of cognitive ability correlate positively. Efforts to find confirmatory and disconfirmatory evidence across species stands to improve not only our understanding of attention control, but cognition in general.

scholarly journals Effect of Chronic Administration of Resveratrol on Cognitive Performance during Aging Process in Rats

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Navarro-Cruz ◽  
R. Ramírez y Ayala ◽  
C. Ochoa-Velasco ◽  
E. Brambila ◽  
R. Avila-Sosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Geriatric Patients ◽  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Chronic Administration ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Health Demands ◽  
Sirt1 Gene

The increase in the elderly population has generated concern to meet health demands. The research efforts to elucidate the mechanisms of damage associated with aging have also been significantly increased, especially in order to avoid the reduction of the cognitive abilities in geriatric patients, resulting from the damage generated mainly at the level of the hippocampus during old age. At present, many studies describe resveratrol as an antiaging component. There are reports that it can activate the Sirt1 gene related to antiaging, emulating the effects obtained by caloric restriction in rodents. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of chronic administration of resveratrol (10 mg/kg) on cognitive performance in behavioral tests after 8 months of treatment and on the preservation of cerebral integrity in the cytoarchitecture of regions CA1 and CA2. Results showed that the cytoarchitecture of the CA1 and CA2 regions in the hippocampus retained their integrity over time in rats treated with resveratrol, and the behavioral test performed revealed that chronic resveratrol administration for 8 months showed improvements in cognitive performance. The results indicate that resveratrol may exhibit therapeutic potential for age-related conditions.

scholarly journals Macrophage function in the elderly and impact on injury repair and cancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Duong ◽  
HG Radley ◽  
B Lee ◽  
DE Dye ◽  
FJ Pixley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inflammatory Cytokines ◽  
Transforming Growth Factor ◽  
Healthy Ageing ◽  
Inflammatory Factors ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Macrophage Function ◽  
Injury Repair ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Anti Inflammatory ◽  
Age Related Changes

AbstractOlder age is associated with deteriorating health, including escalating risk of diseases such as cancer, and a diminished ability to repair following injury. This rise in age-related diseases/co-morbidities is associated with changes to immune function, including in myeloid cells, and is related to immunosenescence. Immunosenescence reflects age-related changes associated with immune dysfunction and is accompanied by low-grade chronic inflammation or inflammageing. This is characterised by increased levels of circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6. However, in healthy ageing, there is a concomitant age-related escalation in anti-inflammatory cytokines such as transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and IL-10, which may overcompensate to regulate the pro-inflammatory state. Key inflammatory cells, macrophages, play a role in cancer development and injury repair in young hosts, and we propose that their role in ageing in these scenarios may be more profound. Imbalanced pro- and anti-inflammatory factors during ageing may also have a significant influence on macrophage function and further impact the severity of age-related diseases in which macrophages are known to play a key role. In this brief review we summarise studies describing changes to inflammatory function of macrophages (from various tissues and across sexes) during healthy ageing. We also describe age-related diseases/co-morbidities where macrophages are known to play a key role, focussed on injury repair processes and cancer, plus comment briefly on strategies to correct for these age-related changes.

scholarly journals CHRONIC INFLAMMATION IN THE ELDERLY: MECHANISMS AND ASSOCIATION WITH ATHEROSCLEROSIS

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-18
Author(s):  
P. A. Zinovev ◽  
I. Zh. Shubina ◽  
V. V. Yamenskov ◽  
M. V. Kiselevskiy
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Chronic Inflammation ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Transforming Growth Factor ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Cellular Aging ◽  
Inflammatory Factors ◽  
Inflammatory Status ◽  
Age Related

In 2000 Claudio Franceschi first used the term “inflammageing” derived from the English words “inflammation” and “age”. This term refers to the development of chronic inflammation in the elderly, which is characterized by a high level of pro-inflammatory markers of cells and tissues. Cellular aging can be triggered by a variety of factors: critical telomere shortening, permanent DNA damage, epigenetic damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, and an increase in the number of molecular fragments associated with cell damage.A large number of markers have been found to reveal the pro-inflammatory status, such as interleukin (IL) 1, IL-1ra (IL-1 receptor antagonist protein), IL-6, -8, -13, -18, C-reactive protein, interferons α, β, transforming growth factor β, tumor necrosis factor α and its soluble receptors and SAA-1 (serum amyloid А1). The molecular mechanisms associated with aging and age-related diseases are not clear yet, while sluggish chronic inflammation is one of the leading mechanisms for the atherosclerosis development. Remodeling of the immune system with the increasing production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and NLRP3 inflammasomes also play a key role in the maintenance of chronic inflammation due to its ability to pick up a variety of age-related dangerous signals that trigger the immune response and subsequent inflammation and may act as a factor of the atherosclerosis development.Thus, pro-inflammatory factors of the immune system play an important role in pathogenesis of atherosclerosis,especially at an early stage, involving various mechanisms of action that boost atherosclerotic changes.

scholarly journals Peripheral NF-κB dysregulation in people with schizophrenia drives inflammation: putative anti-inflammatory functions of NF-κB kinases

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin E. Murphy ◽  
Adam K. Walker ◽  
Maryanne O’Donnell ◽  
Cherrie Galletly ◽  
Andrew R. Lloyd ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Inflammatory Cytokine ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Inflammatory Factors ◽  
Blood Leukocytes ◽  
Reactive Protein ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Inflammatory Status ◽  
Activating Receptors ◽  
Healthy Control

AbstractElevations in plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and C-reactive protein (CRP) in patient blood have been associated with impairments in cognitive abilities and more severe psychiatric symptoms in people with schizophrenia. The transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) regulates the gene expression of pro-inflammatory factors whose protein products trigger CRP release. NF-κB activation pathway mRNAs are increased in the brain in schizophrenia and are strongly related to neuroinflammation. Thus, it is likely that this central immune regulator is also dysregulated in the blood and associated with cytokine and CRP levels. We measured levels of six pro-inflammatory cytokine mRNAs and 18 mRNAs encoding NF-κB pathway members in peripheral blood leukocytes from 87 people with schizophrenia and 83 healthy control subjects. We then assessed the relationships between the alterations in NF-κB pathway genes, pro-inflammatory cytokine and CRP levels, psychiatric symptoms and cognition in people with schizophrenia. IL-1β and IFN-γ mRNAs were increased in patients compared to controls (both p < 0.001), while IL-6, IL-8, IL-18, and TNF-α mRNAs did not differ. Recursive two-step cluster analysis revealed that high levels of IL-1β mRNA and high levels of plasma CRP defined ‘high inflammation’ individuals in our cohort, and a higher proportion of people with schizophrenia were identified as displaying ‘high inflammation’ compared to controls using this method (p = 0.03). Overall, leukocyte expression of the NF-κB-activating receptors, TLR4 and TNFR2, and the NF-κB subunit, RelB, was increased in people with schizophrenia compared to healthy control subjects (all p < 0.01), while NF-κB-inducing kinase mRNAs IKKβ and NIK were downregulated in patients (all p < 0.05). We found that elevations in TLR4 and RelB appear more related to inflammatory status than to a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but changes in TNFR2 occur in both the high and low inflammation patients (but were exaggerated in high inflammation patients). Further, decreased leukocyte expression of IKKβ and NIK mRNAs was unique to high inflammation patients, which may represent schizophrenia-specific dysregulation of NF-κB that gives rise to peripheral inflammation in a subset of patients.

scholarly journals Network Topology Dynamics of Circulating Biomarkers and Cognitive Performance in Older Cytomegalovirus-seropositive or -seronegative Men and Women

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Di Benedetto ◽  
Ludmila Müller ◽  
Stefanie Rauskolb ◽  
Michael Sendtner ◽  
Martin Fassnacht ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Network Topology ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Clustering Coefficient ◽  
Modular Organization ◽  
Circulating Biomarkers ◽  
Metabolic Factors ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Inflammatory Status ◽  
Anti Inflammatory

AbstractBackgroundCytokines are signaling molecules operating within complex cascade patterns and having exceptional modulatory functions. They impact various physiological processes such as neuroendocrine and metabolic interactions, neurotrophins’ metabolism, neuroplasticity, and may affect behavior and cognition. In our previous study, we found that sex and Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-serostatus may modulate levels of circulating pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, metabolic factors, immune cells, and cognitive performance, as well as associations between them.ResultsIn the present study, we used a graph-theoretical approach to investigate the network topology dynamics of 22 circulating biomarkers and 11 measures of cognitive performance in 161 older participants recruited to undergo a six-months training intervention. For network construction, we applied coefficient of determination (R2) that was calculated for all possible pairs of variables (N = 33) in four groups (CMV− men and women; CMV+ men and women). Network topology has been evaluated by clustering coefficient (CC) and characteristic path length (CPL) as well as local (Elocal) and global (Eglobal) efficiency, showing the degree of network segregation (CC and Elocal) and integration (CPL and Eglobal). We found that networks under consideration showed small-world networks properties with more random characteristics. Mean CC, as well as local and global efficiency were highest and CPL shortest in CMV− males (having lowest inflammatory status and highest cognitive performance). CMV− and CMV+ females did not show any significant differences. Modularity analyses showed that the networks exhibit in all cases highly differentiated modular organization (with Q-value ranged between 0.397 and 0.453).ConclusionsIn this work, we found that segregation and integration properties of the network were notably stronger in the group with balanced inflammatory status. We were also able to confirm our previous findings that CMV-infection and sex modulate multiple circulating biomarkers and cognitive performance and that balanced inflammatory and metabolic status in elderly contributes to better cognitive functioning. Thus, network analyses provide a useful strategy for visualization and quantitative description of multiple interactions between various circulating pro- and anti-inflammatory biomarkers, hormones, neurotrophic and metabolic factors, immune cells, and measures of cognitive performance and can be in general applied for analyzing interactions between different physiological systems.

Cognitive Aging in a Precision Sport Context

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Molander ◽  
Lars Bäckman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adult ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Intervention Programs ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
High Arousal ◽  
Memory And Attention ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Principal Finding

Highly skilled miniature golf players were examined in a series of field and laboratory studies. The principal finding from these studies is that young and young adult players (range = 15-38 years) score equally well or better in competition than in training whereas older adult players (range = 46-73 years) perform worse in competitive events than under training conditions. It was also found that the impairment in motor performance on the part of the older players is associated with age-related deficits in basic cognitive abilities, such as memory and attention. These results support the hypothesis that older players may be able to compensate for age-related deficits under relaxed conditions, but not under conditions of high arousal. The possibility of improving the performance of the older players in stressful situations by means of various intervention programs is discussed.

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