Associations of polypharmacy with frailty severity and each frailty phenotype in community-dwelling older adults: Itabashi Longitudinal Study on Aging.

AIM: Although polypharmacy and frailty are concerns in older adults, there is limited understanding of their association, particularly regarding frailty severity and its phenotypes within this population. This study aimed to examine the association between polypharmacy and frailty severity or frailty phenotypes in community-dwelling older Japanese adults. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 1021 older adults from the Itabashi Longitudinal Study on Aging. Men accounted for 45.4%, and the mean age (standard deviation) was 77.9 (5.1) years. Participants were classified into frail (n = 67), pre-frail (n = 543), and robust (n = 411) groups using the revised Japanese Cardiovascular Health Study criteria. Polypharmacy was defined as using five or more self-reported prescription drugs. Ordinal and binomial logistic regression analyses examined the association between polypharmacy and frailty severity or frailty phenotypes (weight loss, weakness, exhaustion, slowness, and low activity). These models were adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, number of comorbidities, living status, employment status, years of education, as well as drinking and smoking habits. RESULTS: The prevalence of frailty in participants with and without polypharmacy was 10.1% and 5.0%, respectively. Participants with polypharmacy were more likely to have frailty (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 1.89 [1.40-2.57]), weight loss (1.81 [1.00-3.27]), weakness (1.50 [1.08-2.09]), and slowness (2.25 [1.29-3.94]) compared with the no-polypharmacy group. CONCLUSIONS: Polypharmacy was associated with frailty severity and three frailty phenotypes. Longitudinal studies are required to investigate whether polypharmacy can predict the development and progression of frailty. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 196-201.

Camouflage makeup improves quality of life in cancer patients with treatment-related skin changes.

BACKGROUND: Cancer treatment causes various skin appearance changes, which affect quality of life (QoL) in patients with cancer. We examined whether camouflage makeup improves QoL in these patients. METHODS: Skindex-16 and visual analogue scale scores of 39 female patients with cancer treatment-related skin changes were compared before and 2-3 months after self-administration of camouflage makeup. RESULTS: Camouflage makeup was able to conceal almost all skin changes, improving QoL scores regardless of age, diagnosis, and site of skin changes. Use frequency was significantly higher in patients with skin changes on exposed sites compared with patients with unexposed sites. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the patients applied the makeup only when required, they were satisfied with its effect, which improved their QoL. Moreover, the makeup had a positive effect even in patients with changes in unexposed sites, suggesting that clinicians can recommend camouflage makeup to all patients to improve QoL.

Association between polypharmacy and cognitive impairment in an elderly Japanese population residing in an urban community.

AIM: Polypharmacy is a serious medical problem among older adults. Polypharmacy can cause adverse drug reactions and is associated with frailty. Several drugs, particularly psychotropic medications, can cause cognitive impairment. Recent research also suggests that polypharmacy can cause cognitive impairment. We investigated the prevalence of polypharmacy, and examined the association between polypharmacy and cognitive impairment in a large sample of community-dwelling older adults in Japan. METHODS: A questionnaire covering sociodemographic variables was sent to all residents aged ≥65 years in an urban residential district of Tokyo, Japan (n = 7682). Next, 3000 individuals were randomly selected as study participants. A trained nurse and researcher interviewed participants in their own homes to obtain information about cognitive status, prescribed medications, and current medical history. Cognitive status was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination. Polypharmacy was defined as treatment with six or more prescribed medications. RESULTS: Of the 1270 respondents who completed an interview, 1152 were included in the analysis of medications. The prevalence of polypharmacy was 28.0% (n = 323). When the older adults in the medications analysis were stratified by Mini-Mental State Examination scores, polypharmacy was present in 48.3% of those scoring <24, and 25.7% of those scoring ≥24 (χ2 = 26.76, P < 0.001). After controlling for potential confounding factors (including psychotropic medications), a multivariate logistic regression analysis showed an association between polypharmacy and cognitive impairment (odds ratio 1.83, 95% confidence interval 1.10-3.02; P = 0.019). CONCLUSIONS: Polypharmacy was associated with cognitive impairment among urban community-dwelling older adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1286-1293.

Protein N-myristoylation plays a critical role in the endoplasmic reticulum morphological change induced by overexpression of protein Lunapark, an integral membrane protein of the endoplasmic reticulum.

N-myristoylation of eukaryotic cellular proteins has been recognized as a modification that occurs mainly on cytoplasmic proteins. In this study, we examined the membrane localization, membrane integration, and intracellular localization of four recently identified human N-myristoylated proteins with predicted transmembrane domains. As a result, it was found that protein Lunapark, the human ortholog of yeast protein Lnp1p that has recently been found to be involved in network formation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), is an N-myristoylated polytopic integral membrane protein. Analysis of tumor necrosis factor-fusion proteins with each of the two putative transmembrane domains and their flanking regions of protein Lunapark revealed that transmembrane domain 1 and 2 functioned as type II signal anchor sequence and stop transfer sequence, respectively, and together generated a double-spanning integral membrane protein with an N-/C-terminal cytoplasmic orientation. Immunofluorescence staining of HEK293T cells transfected with a cDNA encoding protein Lunapark tagged with FLAG-tag at its C-terminus revealed that overexpressed protein Lunapark localized mainly to the peripheral ER and induced the formation of large polygonal tubular structures. Morphological changes in the ER induced by overexpressed protein Lunapark were significantly inhibited by the inhibition of protein N-myristoylation by means of replacing Gly2 with Ala. These results indicated that protein N-myristoylation plays a critical role in the ER morphological change induced by overexpression of protein Lunapark.