scholarly journals Evaluation of the Effect of Resistance Exercise and Donepezil on Some Neurotrophin-Induced Changes in Gene Expression and Trk Receptors in the Hippocampus of Rats with Alzheimer’s Disease

Author(s):  
Gholamhasan Jafarzadeh ◽  
Asieh Sadat Mousavian ◽  
Saeid Shakerian

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of resistance exercise and donepezil on some neurotrophins gene expression and Trk receptors in the hippocampus of rats with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: In this study, 32 male adult Wistar rats (mean weight: 230 - 280 g) were assigned into two groups of AD and control. The control and AD groups received normal saline and streptozotocin (STZ) through intraventricular injection, respectively. Then, six subgroups were considered: (1) control rest (Con); (2) control exercise (Con-Exe); (3) Alzheimer’s rest (Alz); (4) Alzheimer’s exercise (Alz-Exe); (5) Alzheimer’s donepezil (Alz-Don); and (6) Alzheimer’s donepezil-exercise (Alz-Don-Exe). Donepezil was fed daily at a dose of 1.5 mg/kg to the treated groups. The three subgroups of exercising rats received exercises for eight weeks (three times a week). Each day, the resting groups were managed to decrease stress impacts. Twenty-four hours after the last session of exercise by the eighth week, deep anesthesia was applied, and the rats' heads were severed. Results: Considering an error rate below 5% (P < 0.05) and a confidence of more than 95%, a significant difference was observed in BDNF, NT3, NGF, TrkA, and TrkB values between exercising and donepezil-exercise rats compared to AD group. These values were considerably greater for donepezil-exercising Alzheimer’s group. Besides, the donepezil group was not significantly different from the Alzheimer’s group. Conclusions: Although the use of donepezil alone did not significantly increase the expression of the studied genes, the concomitant use of the drug and resistance training significantly increased the expression levels.

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Albuquerque M. de Carvalho ◽  
Valéria Santoro Bahia ◽  
Leticia Lessa Mansur

Abstract Functional communication is crucial for independent and efficient communicative behavior in response to every day activities. In the course of dementia progression, cognitive losses may impair these abilities. For this reason, functional communication assessment should be part of a formal assessment to quantify and qualify the impact of deficiency on patients' lives. Objective: To compare functional communication abilities in fronto-temporal lobar degeneration (FLTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: Six AD patients (mean age: 82.50±2.66 years; mean education: 5.67±3.61 years), and eight FTLD patients (mean age: 57.13±9.63 years; mean education: 10.86±6.91 years) had their close relatives answer the Functional Assessment of Communication Skills for Adults (Asha-facs) . Statistical analyses correlated the performance on each of the Asha-facs domains (social communication, communication of basic needs; reading, writing, number concept and daily planning) between both groups. Results: Analyses showed that functional communication was similar for AD and FTLD patients. Only two items had statistical difference, namely 'Comprehension of inference' (AD 6.7±1.33; FTLD 2.43±2.30, p=0.017) and 'capacity to make basic money transactions' (AD 2.17±2.04; FTLD 4.00±0.90, p=0.044). Comparison among the four domains' mean scores revealed no significant difference. Conclusion: The Asha-facs is a useful instrument to characterize functional communication abilities in both FTLD and AD. Nevertheless, the analysis presented for this sample showed that the Asha-facs could not discriminate which aspects of the FTLD and AD differed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1109-1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Li ◽  
Matteo Cesari ◽  
Natalia Del Campo ◽  
Sandrine Andrieu ◽  
Birong Dong ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBackground:To estimate the impact of comorbid diabetes on caregiver stress in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients from the Impact of Cholinergic Treatment Use (ICTUS) study.Methods:Using the Data from the ICTUS study, diabetes mellitus (DM) was recorded at baseline and caregiver burden was assessed twice per year using the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) scale. The three-factorial model of ZBI (the effect on the social and personal life of caregivers, the psychological burden and the feelings of guilt) was adopted. Linear mixed models were used to examine the relation between DM and the scores of ZBI.Results:The present analyses were conducted on 1,264 AD subjects. A total of 156 patients (12.3%) had DM with taking antidiabetic medication and/or self-report of a history. At baseline, the caregivers of patients with or without DM had similar ZBI global scores and similar scores of three different factors of ZBI. Unadjusted and adjusted models both indicated that ZBI global score increased over a 24-month follow-up without significant effect of DM. Similarly, unadjusted model showed that DM was not determining any significant difference in the score of any factor. However, adjusted model indicated that in diabetic patients, the scores of the social and personal life of caregivers and the psychological burden increased more slowly than those in non-diabetic patients (p = 0.04 and 0.01, respectively).Conclusions:DM may affect the caregivers’ daily social and personal life and psychological burden in AD patients. It is necessary for further research.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 498-498
Author(s):  
M.T. Santos ◽  
G.C. Couto ◽  
J.C. Achieri ◽  
C.A. Júnior

Dementia are increasingly prevalent in population. The most common causes of dementia is Alzheimer's disease (AD). Screening tests have been used for the premature diagnosis of Alzheimer Disease (AD), specifically in the executive functions and language, which are compromised at an initial stage. However, the necessity standardized means and validated for our middle, to show oneself a pressing subject.ObjectiveTo analyze the impact of the length of sentences in the abstraction of proverbs in the Screening Test for Alzheimer's disease with Proverbs (TRDAP), healthy elderly and with Alzheimer's disease at early stage.MethodSurvey document in the database, analyzing the responses of the elderly (abstract or concrete interpretation of proverbs), relating the length of sentences (sayings) of stage B of TRDAP with the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and the interference of age and schooling.ResultsHealthy older people showed greater capacity for abstraction than those with AD. There was Significant differences, in the sayings 1 (p = 0.033) and 2 (p = 0.001), corresponding to lower sentences, which did not occur with the proverb 3. As for age no verified significant difference among the healthy and only saying 3 in AD patients, however schooling differenced the healthy.ConclusionElderly with Alzheimer's disease at an initial stage have lower performance in the comprehension of ambiguous sentences, interpretation and abstraction of proverbs, corroborating with the data of the literature. The size of these sentences appears to be inversely proportional to the correctness of interpretation in elderly patients with and without AD.


Genetika ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 503-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jalal Gharesouran ◽  
Maryam Rezazadeh ◽  
Mohaddes Mojtaba

Alzheimer's disease is a complex neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory and cognitive impairment and is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly. The aim of our study was to examine the polymorphic DNA markers CCR2 (+190 G/A), CCR5?32, TNF-? (-308 G/A), TNF-? (-863 C/A) and CALHM1 (+394 C/T) to determine the relationship between these polymorphisms and the risk of late onset Alzheimer's disease in the population of Eastern Azerbaijan of Iran. A total of 160 patient samples and 163 healthy controls were genotyped by PCR-RFLP and the results confirmed using bidirectional sequencing. Statistical analysis of obtained data revealed non-significant difference between frequency of CCR5?32 in case and control groups. The same result was observed for TNF-? (-863 C/A) genotype and allele frequencies. Contrary to above results, significant differences were detected in frequency of TNF-? (-308 G/A) and CCR2-64I genotypes between the cases and healthy controls. A weak significant difference observed between allele and genotype frequencies of rs2986017 in CALHM1 (+394 C/T; P86L) in patient and control samples. It can be concluded that the T allele of P86L variant in CALHM1 & +190 G/A allele of CCR2 have a protective role against abnormal clinical features of Alzheimer's disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fátima Cuadrado ◽  
Adoración Antolí ◽  
Juan A. Moriana ◽  
Julia Vacas

Abstract The prevalence of negative representations of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) reinforces the stigma and negative attitudes toward this dementia. To mitigate these negative views, campaigns have been launched by several organizations. This study aims to explore the effect of framing in AD campaigns on attitude change. For this purpose, several posters were designed with framed messages defining dementia (dualism, unity, and control) and 189 participants were shown the posters. In order to analyze the effect of the different frames, a repeated-measures design was used, in which attitudes toward dementia were measured three times. The impact of the campaign and the emotions it produced were recorded as well as the effects of the participants’ experience with AD and the importance they attached to it. Posters with unity-framed messages produced a positive and lasting change in attitudes toward dementia and higher levels of happiness, while dualism-framed messages had a greater impact and produced feelings of sadness, anger, and fear but did not change the audience’s attitude. Although more research is needed on persuasion in campaigns, the findings can serve to guide the design of AD campaigns.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 153331752110448
Author(s):  
Tomiyo Nakamura

Objectives: To compare differences in weight loss in patients with Alzheimer’s disease on normal, diabetic, or texture-modified diets. Methods: This prospective interventional study examined the data of patients with Alzheimer’s disease who were admitted to a long-term care hospital in Japan from February to April 2013. Dietary elements and weight loss over a 3-month period were examined. Results: Of the 75 patients examined, 6 were on a normal diet, 10 were on a diabetic diet, and 59 were on a texture-modified diet. Weight loss was significantly associated with body weight, Mini Nutritional Assessment®, and diet type. In the non-malnourished patients, there was a significant difference between the three types of diets in terms of eating rate and weight loss. Conclusion: Diet type was independently associated with weight loss in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Research using larger sample sizes is necessary to eliminate the differences between these diet types.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Eva Mª Arroyo-Anlló ◽  
Corinne Souchaud ◽  
Pierre Ingrand ◽  
Jorge Chamorro Sánchez ◽  
Alejandra Melero Ventola ◽  
...  

Alexithymia is widely recognized as the inability to identify and express emotions. It is a construct which consists of four cognitive traits such as difficulty in identifying feelings, describing feelings to others, externally oriented thinking, and limited imaginative capacity. Several studies have linked alexithymia to cognitive functioning, observing greater alexithymia scores associated with poorer cognitive abilities. Despite Alzheimer’s disease (AD) being a neurodegenerative pathology characterized by cognitive troubles from the early stages, associated to behavioral and emotional disturbances, very few investigations have studied the alexithymia in AD. These studies have shown that alexithymia scores—assessed with Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)—were greater in AD patients than healthy participants. The objective of the study was to investigate if the alexithymia was present in patients with mild AD. We hypothesized that the AD group would show more alexithymia features than the control group. We evaluated 54 subjects, including 27 patients diagnosed with mild AD and 27 normal healthy controls, using the Shalling Sifneos Psychosomatic Scale (SSPS-R) and a neuropsychological test battery. Using non-parametric statistical analyses—Wilcoxon and Mann–Whitney U tests—we observed that the SSPS-R scores were similar in the AD and control groups. All participants showed SSPS-R scores below to 10 points, which means no-alexithymia. We did not find significant correlations between SSPS-R scores and cognitive variables in both groups (p > 0.22), but we observed a negative association between name abilities and alexithymia, but it does not reach to significance (p = 0.07). However, a significant correlation between SSPS-R score and mood state, assessed using Zerssen Rating Scale, was found in both groups (p = 0.01). Because we did not find a significant difference in the alexithymia assessment between both subject groups, pot hoc analyses were computed for each item of the SSPS-R. We made comparisons of alexithymic responses percentages in each SSPS-R item between AD and control groups, using Fisher’s test. We observed that AD patients produced more alexithymic responses in some items of SSPS-R test than the control group, particularly about difficulties to find the words to describe feelings, as well as difficulties of imagination capacity and externally oriented thinking. The present results do not confirm our hypothesis and they do not support the results of previous studies revealing great alexithymia in AD.


1995 ◽  
Vol 306 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Lindahl ◽  
L Eriksson ◽  
U Lindahl

Heparan sulphate (HS) was isolated after proteolytic digestion of cerebral cortex, obtained at autopsy, of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and of control subjects. Deaminative cleavage in combination with selective radiolabelling procedures showed that the N-acetylated regions in the intact polysaccharides ranged from isolated residues to approximately 10 consecutive N-acetylated disaccharide units, without any apparent difference between AD and control HS. The yield of disaccharide deamination products was slightly higher with AD than with control HS, suggesting a differential distribution of N-sulphate groups. Separation of the disaccharides by anion-exchange h.p.l.c. yielded four mono-O-sulphated and one di-O-sulphated disaccharide; these components occurred in strikingly similar proportions in all cerebral HS preparations (except polysaccharide from neonatal brain) irrespective of the age of the individual and the histopathology of the cortex specimen. No significant difference was noted between HS obtained from control and from AD tissue. By contrast, the composition of HS isolated from brain differed significantly from that of HS preparations derived from other human organs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. e47810515311
Author(s):  
Isabela Ribeiro Madalena ◽  
Claudia Salete Judachesci ◽  
Erika Calvano Küchler ◽  
Paulo Nelson-Filho ◽  
Lucas Alexandre Ramazzotto ◽  
...  

Background: The impact of estrogen deficiency and occlusion in the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) expression in dental tissues has not yet been elucidated. Objective: To evaluate the influence of estrogen deficiency and occlusal hypofunction and hyperfunction on the gene expression of MMP1, MMP8 and MMP13 in the odontogenic region of teeth in continuous growth, in the murine model. Material and methods: Rats (Wistar Hannover lineage) were divided into two groups according to the intervention received: Hypoestrogenism Group - ovariectomy surgery and Control Group - fictitious surgery. Occlusal hypofunction and hyperfunction conditions were also established in all animals (each animal presented both conditions). After euthanasia, the hemimandibles were removed to evaluate the gene expression through real time PCR. T-test was used to compare the mean differences between groups (P<0.05). Results: There was no statistically significant difference of the relative gene expression of MMP1, MMP8 and MMP13 between the hypoestrogenism and control groups (P>0.05). A statistically significant difference of the relative MMP13 expression between the occlusal hypofunction and hyperfunction tooth was observed (P=0.03). In the hypoestrogenism group, MMP13 was overexpressed in hypofunction tooth (P=0.045). Conclusion: Occlusal function affects MMP13 expression in the odontogenic region, in murine model.


2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 1743-1753
Author(s):  
Jarrod Flax ◽  
Heather M. Wilkins ◽  
Reegan Miller ◽  
Sarah Griffith ◽  
Gentry K. Cork ◽  
...  

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) features reductions in key bioenergetic fluxes and perturbed mitochondrial function. Cytoplasmic hybrids (cybrids) generated through the transfer of AD subject mitochondria to mtDNA-depleted SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells recapitulate some of these features in an in vitro setting. Objective: For this study, we used the AD cybrid model to assess the impact of a nutrient-excess like-state via increasing O-GlcNAcylation on whole cell and mitochondrial homeostasis. Methods: We induced increased O-GlcNAc by treating AD and control cybrid cell lines with Thiamet G (TMG), an inhibitor of the O-GlcNAcase enzyme that mediates removal of the nutrient-dependent O-GlcNAc modification. Results: Relative to control cybrid cell lines, AD cybrid lines showed a blunted response to TMG-induced O-GlcNAcylation. At baseline, AD cybrid cell line mitochondria showed partial activation of several proteins that help maintain bioenergetic homeostasis such as AMP-Regulated Kinase suggesting that AD mitochondria initiate a state of nutrient stress promoting energetic compensation; however, this compensation reduces the capacity of cells to respond to additional nutrient-related stresses such as TMG treatment. Also, TMG caused disruptions in acetylation and Sirtuin 3 expression, while lowing total energetic output of the cell. Conclusion: Together, these findings suggest that modulation of O-GlcNAc is essential for proper energetic function of the mitochondria, and AD mitochondrial capacity to handle nutrient-excess is limited.


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