Prevalence and risk factors of cognitive frailty among pre-frail and frail older adults in nursing homes.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this research was to stratify the level of frailty to examine the risk factors associated with reversible cognitive frailty (RCF) and potentially reversible cognitive frailty (PRCF) in nursing homes to provide a basis for hierarchical management in different stages of frailty. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional study conducted from September to November 2022; 504 people were selected by stratified random sampling after convenience selection from the Home for the Aged Guangzhou. The structured questionnaire survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews using the general data questionnaire, Fried Frailty Phenotype, Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale. RESULTS: In total, 452 individuals were included for analysis. A total of 229 cases (50.7%) were PRCF, 70 (15.5%) were RCF. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that in pre-frailty, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) score (odds ratio (OR) 1.802; 95% CI 1.308-2.483), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL) score (0.352; 0.135-0.918) and energy (0.288; 0.110-0.755) were influencing factors of RCF. GDS-15 score (1.805; 1.320-2.468), IADL score (0.268; 0.105-0.682), energy (0.377; 0.150-0.947), lack of intellectual activity (6.118; 1.067-35.070), admission time(>3 years) (9.969; 1.893-52.495) and low education (3.465; 1.211-9.912) were influencing factors of PRCF. However, RCF with frailty was associated with the Short-Form Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA-SF) score (0.301; 0.123-0.739) and low education time (0 ~ 12 years) (0.021; 0.001-0.826). PRCF with frailty was associated with age (1.327; 1.081-1.629) and weekly exercise time (0.987; 0.979-0.995). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of RCF and PRCF was high among pre-frail and frail older adults in nursing homes. Different levels of frailty had different influencing factors for RCF and PRCF. Depression, daily living ability, energy, intellectual activity, admission time, education level, nutrition status, age and exercise time were associated with RCF and PRCF. Hierarchical management and intervention should be implemented for different stages of frailty to prevent or delay the progression of cognitive frailty.

Preparation of glycosylated zein and retarding effect on lipid oxidation of ground pork.

The focus of the present work was to investigate the glycosylation of zein, partial properties of the glycosylated zein (GZ) and its retarding effect on lipid oxidation of ground pork. Zein was glycosylated with chitosan (MW 1500Da) by microbial transglutaminase, the reaction was verified by FT-IR. Under the optimized conditions, 97.48mg of glucosamine was covalently conjugated to 1g of zein, determined by HPLC. The solubility and the surface hydrophobicity of GZ were significantly improved. In vitro studies of GZ showed a dose-dependent scavenging activity against free radicals of DPPH, superoxide and hydroxyl radical, and the EC50 value for DPPH radical was 1.99µg TE/mg protein. In addition, reducing power and Fe2+-chelating capacity of it were 16.60 and 12.96µg TE/mg protein, respectively. GZ resulted in low levels of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances and peroxide value of ground pork. These results suggest that GZ is a potential natural antioxidant.

Purification and characterization of a novel fibrinolytic enzyme from culture supernatant of Pleurotus ostreatus.

A fibrinolytic enzyme was produced by an edible mushroom of Pleurotus ostreatus using submerged culture fermentation. The enzyme was purified from the culture supernatant by applying a combination of freeze-thaw treatment, ammonium sulfate precipitation, hydrophobic interaction, and gel filtration chromatographies. The enzyme was purified by a 147-fold, with a yield of 7.54%. The molecular masses of the enzyme an determined by gel filtration and SDSPAGE were 13.6 and 18.2 kDa, respectively. The isoelectric point of the enzyme was 8.52. It hydrolyzed fibrinogen by cleaving the α and ß chains of fibrinogen followed by the γ chains, and also activated plasminogen into plasmin. The enzyme was optimally active at 45°C and pH 7.4. The enzyme activity was completely inhibited by EDTA, whereas protease inhibitors of TPCK, SBTI, PMSF, aprotinin and pepstatin showed no inhibition on its activity. The partial amino acid sequences of the enzyme as determined by Q-TOF2 were ATFVGCSATR, GGTLIHESSHFTR, and YTTWFGTFVTSR. These sequences showed a high degree of homology with those of metallo-endopeptidases from P. ostreatus and Armillaria mellea. The purified enzyme can also be applied as a natural agent for oral fibrinolytic therapy or prevention of thrombosis.

No association of SORT1 gene polymorphism with sporadic Alzheimer's disease in the Chinese Han population.

Increasing evidence shows that sortilin (encoded by SORT1 gene), a member of the vacuolar protein sorting 10 family of sorting receptors, can modulate amyloid-ß peptides (Aß) metabolism and clearance, as well as mediate the neurotoxicity of the Aß oligomer and proneurotrophins, thus playing diverse roles in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. To assess the association between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the SORT1 gene and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (sAD) in the Chinese Han population, a case-control study was carried out including 220 sAD patients and 245 controls. One tag SNP was selected from the entire SORT1 gene through construction of linkage disequilibrium blocks, and three SNPs located in the vicinity of SORT1 that affect its expression were also selected. The four target SNPs were genotyped using a multiplex PCR-ligase detection reaction method, yielding no significant association between them or haplotypes containing three of them, and the risk of sAD. The results of this study indicate that polymorphisms of the SORT1 gene are unlikely to confer the risk of sAD in the Chinese Han population.