scholarly journals Influence of Imidazole-Dipeptides on Cognitive Status and Preservation in Elders: A Narrative Review

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Nobutaka Masuoka ◽  
Chenxu Lei ◽  
Haowei Li ◽  
Tatsuhiro Hisatsune

The worldwide increase in the number of patients with dementia is becoming a growing problem, while Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a primary neurodegenerative disorder, accounts for more than 70% of all dementia cases. Research on the prevention or reduction of AD occurrence through food ingredients has been widely conducted. In particular, histidine-containing dipeptides, also known as imidazole dipeptides derived from meat, have received much attention. Imidazole dipeptides are abundant in meats such as poultry, fish, and pork. As evidenced by data from recent human intervention trials conducted worldwide, daily supplementation of carnosine and anserine, which are both imidazole dipeptides, can improve memory loss in the elderly and reduce the risk of developing AD. This article also summarizes the latest researches on the biochemical properties of imidazole dipeptides and their effects on animal models associated with age-related cognitive decline. In this review, we focus on the results of human intervention studies using supplements of poultry-derived imidazole dipeptides, including anserine and carnosine, affecting the preservation of cognitive function in the elderly, and discuss how imidazole dipeptides act in the brain to prevent age-related cognitive decline and the onset of dementia.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adejoke Yetunde Onaolapo ◽  
Adebimpe Yemisi Obelawo ◽  
Olakunle James Onaolapo

Background: Age-related cognitive decline has been suggested to result from an increase in the brain neuron loss, which is attributable to continued derangement of the brain’s oxidant/ antioxidant balance. Increased oxidative stress and a concomitant decrease in the brain’s antioxidant defense system have been associated with functional senescence and organismal ageing. However, nature has configured certain foods to be rich sources of nootropic agents, with research showing that increased consumption of such foods or food ingredients may be protective against ageing-related memory decline. This knowledge is becoming increasingly valuable in an era when the boundary that separates food from medicine is becoming blurred. In this review, we examine extant literature dealing with the impact of ageing on brain structure and function, with an emphasis on the roles of oxidative stress. Secondly, we review the benefits of food-based antioxidants with nootropic effects and/or food-based nootropic agents in mitigating memory decline; with a view to improving our understanding of likely mechanisms. We also highlight some of the limitations to the use of food-based nootropics and suggest ways in which they can be better employed in the clinical management of age-related cognitive decline. Conclusion: While it is known that the human brain endures diverse insults in the process of ageing, food-based nootropics are likely to go a long way in mitigating the impacts of these insults. Further research is needed before we reach a point where food-based nootropics are routinely prescribed.


E-psychologie ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-95
Author(s):  
Radek Trnka ◽  

This report summarizes the main outputs of the finished grant project „Emotional creativity and cognitive decline in the elderly“ (GA ČR 18–26094S), conducted at the Prague College of Psychosocial Studies between the years 2018 and 2020. The main goal of this project was to explore the relationship between emotional creativity, defined as a set of cognitive abilities and personality traits related to the originality of emotional experience, and age-related cognitive impairments in older adults. The results of this project showed that age and age-related cognitive decline influence how people creatively think about their own, as well as other peoples’, emotions. This project produced empirical evidence showing that cognitive decline reduces not only creativity in problem solving, but also reduces the creativity that is closely related to the emotional life of older people. More importantly, the published preliminary study on patients in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease also indicates that emotional creativity could become another diagnostic tool for unveiling the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Umair Shabbir ◽  
Momna Rubab ◽  
Akanksha Tyagi ◽  
Deog-Hwan Oh

Curcumin is a polyphenolic natural compound with diverse and attractive biological properties, which may prevent or ameliorate pathological processes underlying age-related cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), dementia, or mode disorders. AD is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that is known as one of the rapidly growing diseases, especially in the elderly population. Moreover, being the eminent cause of dementia, posing problems for families, societies as well a severe burden on the economy. There are no effective drugs to cure AD. Although curcumin and its derivatives have shown properties that can be considered useful in inhibiting the hallmarks of AD, however, they have low bioavailability. Furthermore, to combat diagnostic and therapeutic limitations, various nanoformulations have also been recognized as theranostic agents that can also enhance the pharmacokinetic properties of curcumin and other bioactive compounds. Nanocarriers have shown beneficial properties to deliver curcumin and other nutritional compounds against the blood-brain barrier to efficiently distribute them in the brain. This review spotlights the role and effectiveness of curcumin and its derivatives in AD. Besides, the gut metabolism of curcumin and the effects of nanoparticles and their possible activity as diagnostic and therapeutic agents in AD also discussed.


Epigenomes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Aina Bellver-Sanchis ◽  
Mercè Pallàs ◽  
Christian Griñán-Ferré

During the last years, epigenetic processes have emerged as important factors for many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These complex diseases seem to have a heritable component; however, genome-wide association studies failed to identify the genetic loci involved in the etiology. So, how can these changes be transmitted from one generation to the next? Answering this question would allow us to understand how the environment can affect human populations for multiple generations and explain the high prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as AD. This review pays particular attention to the relationship among epigenetics, cognition, and neurodegeneration across generations, deepening the understanding of the relevance of heritability in neurodegenerative diseases. We highlight some recent examples of EI induced by experiences, focusing on their contribution of processes in learning and memory to point out new targets for therapeutic interventions. Here, we first describe the prominent role of epigenetic factors in memory processing. Then, we briefly discuss aspects of EI. Additionally, we summarize evidence of how epigenetic marks inherited by experience and/or environmental stimuli contribute to cognitive status offspring since better knowledge of EI can provide clues in the appearance and development of age-related cognitive decline and AD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Siegert ◽  
Lukas Diedrich ◽  
Andrea Antal

The world's population is aging. With this comes an increase in the prevalence of age-associated diseases, which amplifies the need for novel treatments to counteract cognitive decline in the elderly. One of the recently discussed non-pharmacological approaches is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). TDCS delivers weak electric currents to the brain, thereby modulating cortical excitability and activity. Recent evidence suggests that tDCS, mainly with anodal currents, can be a powerful means to non-invasively enhance cognitive functions in elderly people with age-related cognitive decline. Here, we screened a recently developed tDCS database (http://tdcsdatabase.com) that is an open access source of published tDCS papers and reviewed 16 studies that applied tDCS to healthy older subjects or patients suffering from Alzheimer's Disease or pre-stages. Evaluating potential changes in cognitive abilities we focus on declarative and working memory. Aiming for more standardized protocols, repeated tDCS applications (2 mA, 30 min) over the left dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPFC) of elderly people seem to be one of the most efficient non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) approaches to slow progressive cognitive deterioration. However, inter-subject variability and brain state differences in health and disease restrict the possibility to generalize stimulation methodology and increase the necessity of personalized protocol adjustment by means of improved neuroimaging techniques and electrical field modeling.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Coelho ◽  
Henrique M. Fernandes ◽  
Ricardo Magalhães ◽  
Pedro Silva Moreira ◽  
Paulo Marques ◽  
...  

AbstractPrevious studies have shown an association between cognitive decline and white matter integrity in aging. This led to the formulation of a “disconnection hypothesis” in the aging-brain, which states that the disruption in cortical network communication may explain the cognitive decline during aging. Although some longitudinal studies have already investigated the changes occurring in white matter microstructure, most focused on specific white matter tracts. Our study aims to characterize the longitudinal whole-brain signatures of white matter microstructural change during aging. Furthermore, we assessed the relationship between distinct longitudinal alterations in white matter integrity and cognition. White matter microstructural properties were estimated from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging, and cognitive status characterized from extensive neurocognitive testing. The same individuals were evaluated at two timepoints, with a mean interval time of 52.8 months (SD = 7.24) between first and last assessment. Our results show that age is associated with a decline in cognitive performance and a degradation in white matter integrity. Additionally, significant associations were found between diffusion measures and different cognitive dimensions (memory, executive function and general cognition). Overall, these results suggest that age-related cognitive decline is related to white matter alterations, and thus give support to the “disconnected hypothesis” of the aging brain.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhisa Ano ◽  
Rena Ohya ◽  
Akihiko Takashima ◽  
Kazuyuki Uchida ◽  
Hiroyuki Nakayama

With the rapid increase in aging populations worldwide, there has been an increase in demand for preventive and therapeutic measures for age-related cognitive decline and dementia. Epidemiological studies show that consumption of dairy products reduces the risk for cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly. We have previously demonstrated in randomized trials that the consumption of β-lactolin, a whey-derived Gly-Thr-Trp-Tyr lactotetrapeptide, improves cognitive function in older adults. Orally administered β-lactolin is delivered to the brain and inhibits monoamine oxidase, resulting in alleviation of memory impairment. However, there is currently no evidence of the effects of long-term β-lactolin intake on aging. Here, we found that the discrimination index in the novel object recognition test for object recognition memory was reduced in mice aged 20 months compared with that in young mice, indicating that age-related cognitive decline was induced in the aged mice; in aged mice fed β-lactolin for 3 months, memory impairment was subsequently alleviated. In aged mice, impairment of light/dark activity cycles was found to be induced, which was subsequently alleviated by β-lactolin consumption. Additionally, the number of activated microglia in the hippocampus and cortex and the production of cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α, macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, and macrophage chemoattractant protein-1) were increased in aged mice compared with those in young mice but were reduced in aged mice fed β-lactolin. The age-related hippocampal atrophy was improved in aged mice fed β-lactolin. Cytochrome c levels in the hippocampus and cortex were increased in aged mice compared with those in young mice but were also reduced by β-lactolin consumption. These results suggest that β-lactolin consumption prevents neural inflammation and alleviates aging-related cognitive decline.


Author(s):  
Aina Bellver-Sanchis ◽  
Mercè Pallàs ◽  
Christian Griñán-Ferré

During the last years, epigenetic processes have emerged as important factors for many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s diseases (AD). These complex diseases seem to have a heritable component; however, genome-wide association studies failed to identify the genetic loci involved in the eatiology. So, how can these changes be transmitted from one gen-eration to the next? Answering this question would allow us to understand how the environ-ment can affect human populations for multiple generations and explain the high prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as AD. This review pays particular attention to the relationship among epigenetics, cognition, and neurodegeneration across generations, deepening the under-standing of the relevance of heritability in neurodegenerative diseases. In fact, we highlight some recent examples of EI induced by experiences, focusing on their contribution of processes in learning and memory, to point out new targets for therapeutic interventions. Here, we first describe the prominent role of epigenetic factors in memory processing. Then, we briefly discuss aspects of EI. And ends, we summarize evidence of how epigenetic marks inherited by experi-ence and/or environmental stimuli contribute to cognitive status offspring, since better knowledge of EI can provide clues in the appearance and development of age-related cognitive decline and AD.


Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 1574
Author(s):  
Diego Marcos-Martínez ◽  
Víctor Martínez-Cagigal ◽  
Eduardo Santamaría-Vázquez ◽  
Sergio Pérez-Velasco ◽  
Roberto Hornero

Neurofeedback training (NFT) has shown promising results in recent years as a tool to address the effects of age-related cognitive decline in the elderly. Since previous studies have linked reduced complexity of electroencephalography (EEG) signal to the process of cognitive decline, we propose the use of non-linear methods to characterise changes in EEG complexity induced by NFT. In this study, we analyse the pre- and post-training EEG from 11 elderly subjects who performed an NFT based on motor imagery (MI–NFT). Spectral changes were studied using relative power (RP) from classical frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, and beta), whilst multiscale entropy (MSE) was applied to assess EEG-induced complexity changes. Furthermore, we analysed the subject’s scores from Luria tests performed before and after MI–NFT. We found that MI–NFT induced a power shift towards rapid frequencies, as well as an increase of EEG complexity in all channels, except for C3. These improvements were most evident in frontal channels. Moreover, results from cognitive tests showed significant enhancement in intellectual and memory functions. Therefore, our findings suggest the usefulness of MI–NFT to improve cognitive functions in the elderly and encourage future studies to use MSE as a metric to characterise EEG changes induced by MI–NFT.


Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 900
Author(s):  
Sergey Shityakov ◽  
Kentaro Hayashi ◽  
Stefan Störk ◽  
Verena Scheper ◽  
Thomas Lenarz ◽  
...  

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with neurovascular dysfunction and cognitive decline. While the deposition of amyloid β peptide (Aβ) and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are the pathological hallmarks of AD-affected brains, the majority of cases exhibits a combination of comorbidities that ultimately lead to multi-organ failure. Of particular interest, it can be demonstrated that Aβ pathology is present in the hearts of patients with AD, while the formation of NFT in the auditory system can be detected much earlier than the onset of symptoms. Progressive hearing impairment may beget social isolation and accelerate cognitive decline and increase the risk of developing dementia. The current review discusses the concept of a brain–ear–heart axis by which Aβ and NFT inhibition could be achieved through targeted supplementation of neurotrophic factors to the cochlea and the brain. Such amyloid inhibition might also indirectly affect amyloid accumulation in the heart, thus reducing the risk of developing AD-associated amyloid cardiomyopathy and cardiovascular disease.


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