Effects of whey protein nutritional supplement on muscle function among community-dwelling frail older people: A multicenter study in China.

BACKGROUND: Frailty, featured by the presence of fatigue, weight loss, decrease in grip strength, decline gait speed and reduced activities substantially increase the risk of falls, disability, hospitalizations, and mortality of older people. Nutritional supplementation and resistance exercise may improve muscle function and reverse frailty status. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether whey protein supplements can improve muscle function of frail older people in addition to resistance exercise. METHODS: 115 community-dwelling older adults who met the Fried's criteria for frailty from four hospitals' out-patients clinic in Beijing, China completed the study. It's a case-control study which whey protein was used as daily supplementation for 12 weeks for active group and regular resistance exercise for active group and control group. Handgrip strength, gait speed, chair-stand test, balance score, and SPPB score were compared in both groups during the 12-week follow-up. RESULTS: Overall, 115 subjects were enrolled for study with 66 in active group and 49 in control group. Handgrip strength, gait speed, and chair-stand time were all significantly improved in both groups with significant between-group differences. The active group improved significantly in handgrip strength compared with the control group, which between-group effect (95% confidence interval) for female was 0.107 kg (0.066-0.149), p = 0.008 and for male was 0.89 kg (0.579-1.201), p = 0.007. For chair-stand time, between-group effect (95% confidence interval) was -2.875 s (-3.62 to -2.124), p = 0.004 and for gait speed, between-group effect (95% confidence interval) was 0.109 m/s (0.090 to 0.130), p = 0.003. CONCLUSIONS: The 12-week intervention of whey protein oral nutritional supplement revealed significant improvements in muscle function among the frailty elderly besides aiding with resistance exercise. These results warrant further investigations into the role of a multi-modal supplementation approach which could prevent adverse outcomes among frailty elderly at risk for various disabilities.

Echinacoside suppresses pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell growth by inducing apoptosis via the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway.

The clinical application of natural products derived from traditional Chinese medicine has gained attention in cancer chemotherapeutics. Echinacoside (ECH), one of the phenylethanoids, isolated from the stems of Cistanches salsa (a Chinese herbal medicine) has tissue­protective and anti­apoptotic effects on the central nervous system. However, it remains largely elusive whether ECH possesses tumor suppressive activity. In the present study, it was demonstrated that ECH can markedly inhibit the proliferation of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells by inducing the production of reactive oxygen species and the perturbation of mitochondrial membrane potential and thus triggering apoptosis. Furthermore, it was elucidated that ECH represses tumor cell growth through modulating MAPK activity. In conclusion, this study reveals an novel function of ECH in preventing cancer development, and implies that the usage of ECH could be a potential chemotherapeutic strategy for cancer.