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BackgroundIdentifying and treating people in a pre-frail state may be an effective way to prevent or delay frailty and preserve their functional capacity. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of, and compliance with, a 12 week individualized nutritional supplementation (INS) and Nordic walking (NW) program in pre-frail older Indians. The primary measure is physical performance, as indicated by Fried’s Frailty scale. Other measures include: cognition, as indicated by the Hindi Mental Status Examination; mood, by the Geriatric Depression Scale; and nutritional status, by the Mini Nutritional Assessment.MethodsThis is an open-labeled experimental pre-test and post-test study, which took place from October 2012 to December 2014. The study was approved by Institute Ethics committee (IEC/NP-350/2012/RP-26/2012) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. Participants were sixty-six pre-frail elderly, who were randomly allocated into three subgroups, namely: A (NW only), B (INS only), and C (NW and INS). One-way ANOVA was used to statistically assess differences in baseline characteristics for quantitative variables, with the Chi-Square/Fischer exact test utilized for qualitative variables. Paired t-tests were used to assess pre and post intervention difference within the group for quantitative variables, with McNemar’s Chi-Square test used for qualitative variables. Kruskal Wallis test was used to assess significant intervention effects among the groups. A p-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.ResultsThere was significant effect of intervention in gait speed in group A (p = 0.001) and C (p = 0.002), but not in group B (p = 0.926). While there was no significant change in grip strength in Group A (p = 0.488) and B (p = 0.852), a statistically significant increase was observed in group C (p = 0.013). Mood significantly improved in group B (p = 0.025) and C (p = 0.021). No significant difference was noted in cognitive status across groups. Following the interventions, a total of 18.18% of pre-frail participants were classified as non-frail.ConclusionsCombining NW and INS provides a simple, pragmatic intervention with efficacy in the management of functionally vulnerable older adults, and allows their maintained independence. Future studies should replicate this readily applicable intervention in a larger cohort with a longer follow-up period.Trial registrationClinical Trial Registry-India CTRI/2016/05/006937 [Registered on: 16/05/2016]; Trial was Registered Retrospectively.

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Sestrins (sesn) are highly conserved proteins that play an important neuroprotective role, in part as a consequence of their antioxidative capacity, which prevents reactive oxygen species formation. In this study, we evaluated the concentrations of sesn1 and sesn2 in the serum of 41 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, 27 mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 60 elderly controls, by surface plasmon resonance, which was validated by using western blot. Moreover, the mRNA level of sestrins in all the study groups was determined by real time polymerase chain reaction. The results showed significant overexpression of serum sesn2 protein and mRNA levels in the AD group compared to MCI and elderly control groups. A difference in serum sesn2 concentration between MCI and the control group was also evident. ROC analysis showed highly sensitive, selective cutoff values for sens2 in the differentiation of AD, MCI, and controls. No significant difference in sesn1 level was observed among the study groups. This study highlights the important role of sesn2 in the progression of the AD, indicating its potential utility as a protein marker in this devastating disease.

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Background: Despite the huge clinical impact of sarcopenia, there is very little to no data from Indian subcontinent regarding sarcopenia in older adults. We conducted this study to assess the frequency of sarcopenia in Indian older outpatients and its characteristics and associations with various geriatric syndromes and quality of life in Indian older adults. Methods: 100 participants above the age of 65 years were recruited from the outpatient department of Geriatric Medicine of a tertiary care hospital in India. Muscle mass, muscle strength and physical performance was measured by DXA scan (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry), hand-held dynamometer and 4 m gait speed respectively. Sarcopenia was identified using an Asian working group for sarcopenia (AWGS) criteria. Many geriatric syndromes such as osteoporosis, dementia, depression and malnutrition were assessed using DXA scan (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry), HMSE (Hindi Mental State Questionnaire), GDS-5 (Geriatric Depression scale – 5 item questionnaire) and MNA (Mini Nutritional Assessment) respectively. Quality of life was assessed using the OPQOL-brief questionnaire. Results: The preval nce of sarcopenia in our study population was 53% (49.3% in males, 61.3% in females). Hypothyroidism, neurological disease and osteoporosis were the only comorbidities found to be positively associated with sarcopenia. Among geriatric syndromes, nutrition and cognition were negatively associated with sarcopenia. Sarcopeniawas also negatively related to the quality of life. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that osteoporosis (OR: 5.43; 95% CI: 1.57-18.81; p-value: <0.01) was significantly associated with sarcopenia. Conclusion: Sarcopenia was common among Indian older outpatients with increased risk of geriatric syndromes and poor quality of life, therefore, a regular sarcopenia assessment may be considered in elderly patients.