Advances in Gerontology最新文献

As the global population ages, healthcare systems face increasing challenges in managing the complex health needs of older adults, including multimorbidity, cognitive decline, and frailty. Artificial intelligence (AI) holds significant potential to address these challenges by offering advanced tools for personalized health management, disease prediction, and real-time monitoring. This paper reviews key AI applications in gerontology, focusing on its role in analyzing multimodal data such as electronic health records, genomic data, medical imaging, and wearable device metrics. AI’s ability to integrate and analyze these diverse data types enhances the precision of disease management and treatment personalization, particularly in chronic disease care and cognitive function assessment. However, challenges related to data quality, privacy concerns, and model interpretability remain. This review highlights both the transformative potential and the limitations of AI in elderly healthcare, advocating for future research aimed at improving model transparency, scalability, and interdisciplinary integration to enhance geriatric care.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is among the most common neurological diseases. The number of MS affected people is constantly growing worldwide. Untreated MS leads to disability of the most capable part of the population of young age, and in recent years it has been diagnosed more often in elderly patients. The second part of our review is focused on the prospects of MS therapies under development. Mitochondria and the use of mitochodria-targeted antioxidants, neutrophils, as well as immune cells affected by pathology and other specialized cells, which can be reprogrammed and replaced by healthy cells using stem cells, pre-oligodendrocytes able to accelerate maturation and remyelinating ability on the antihistamine action, are considered as targets in MS treatment. Helminth therapy, accompanied by a shift in the composition of the microbiota of MS patients and the release of antioxidants in the tissues of humans and model animals, may lead to immunomodulation and reduction of oxidative stress, providing significant mitigation of the disease. Approaches to the treatment of elderly MS patients are discussed.

We checked whether national cultural differences according to Hofstede dimensions (HD) contribute to differences in life expectancy (LE) irrespective of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in the countries, such as the Russian Federation (RF), where LE is markedly below the general LE-vs.-GDP trend (Preston curve, PC). The sample of 102 countries included those from the lists available at World Bank, Human Mortality Database and Hofstede Insight websites that feature all required data on GDP, LE and HD. Partial Kendall correlations between LE, GDP and five HD scores were calculated for GDP ranges distinguished based on different patterns of LE-vs.-GDP relations. It was found that, among the countries where LE is higher at GDP lower than in RF (Group Q; 37 countries), RF stands at the tops of lists ranged by HD scores for power distance (PD) and uncertainty avoidance (UA). Generally, PD and UA are uncorrelated. In Group Q, the combination of high UA and PD scores is specific for former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia states. Correlations with LE are negative and significant for this combination and for separate UA but not PD scores. UA does not correlate with LE in all countries and in groups where GDP > 30 000 or < 30 000 US$. The main cultural correlates of LE there are long-term orientation (both groups) and individualism (at GDP < 30 000), which do not correlate with LE in Group Q. These observations may be useful for judging about prospects for increasing LE in Q countries by measures limited to economics, administration and public health.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a complex progressive eye disease, resulting in loss of central vision in the aging population. The senescence-accelerated OXYS rats reproduce the major signs of AMD. Autophagy is a cellular degradation pathway for the breakdown of cytoplasmic components. Defects in the autophagy are linked to aging and disease pathology. The purpose of this study was to determine the daily pattern of autophagy genes expression in the retina of young and old OXYS and Wistar control rats. Retina from 3-month and 21-month-old OXYS rats and Wistar rats were collected at ZT1, ZT8 and ZT16 in Zeitgeber time units, where ZT0 represents lights on (8:00) and ZT12 represents lights off (20:00). Levels of autophagy genes expression (Atg5, Atg7, Becn1, Gabarapl1, Nbr1, Map1lc3b, p62/Sqstm1, and Ulk1) were evaluated by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR. At the age of 21 months, OXYS rats had altered diurnal expression of three key autophagy genes (Atg7, p62/Sqstm1, and Ulk1) in the retina compared to age-matched Wistar rats and 3-month-old OXYS rats. No time-of-day or age-related changes in the expression of other autophagy genes were detected in control Wistar rats. Therefore, the regulation of autophagy is impaired in OXYS rats in late stages of retinopathy. Our study highlights the importance of the autophagy pathway in the pathogenesis of AMD and suggests that dysregulation of the autophagy daily rhythms accompanies the progression of AMD-like retinopathy.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is among the most common diseases of the central nervous system. The disease leads to pathological demyelination of axons in the white matter of the brain, followed by demyelination of gray matter, and is accompanied by progressive neurodegeneration in patients. The etiology of the disease is not fully understood. However, a number of external and internal factors that increase the likelihood of MS among the active capable part of the population have been established. The characteristics of age patients exacerbating the course of MS have been identified. The review discusses the mechanism of inflammation activation at MS involving NLRP3 inflammasome and neutrophils identified in recent years, the effect of inflammation on damage to the blood-brain barrier and MS progression, as well as reactive oxygen species-mediated participation of mitochondria in MS pathology development.

The main pathophysiological triggers of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome are oxidative stress and hypoxia. These factors cause cellular and molecular disorders that characterize the aging process. The fact that the blood content of the differentiating protein GDF-15 (the “protein of senility”) increases with age, which was revealed by a number of researchers, arouses interest in its assessment in patients with OSA. Thus, the purpose of this study is to evaluate changes in the content of GDF-15 under conditions of oxidative stress and intermittent nocturnal hypoxia with normalization of the nocturnal oxygen gradient in patients with OSA. The study involves 30 men aged 45–55 years with moderate OSA (main group, MG1) and 35 men of the same age without OSA (control group, CG). The MG1 patients are prescribed aРАР therapy (automatic positive airway pressure) during sleep for 6 months. These patients after treatment make up the second main group, MG2. Blood is taken from all the subjects in the morning to determine the content of lipid-peroxidation products and components of antioxidant defense (LPO-AOD) and GDF-15. The following methods are used to evaluate the results: questionnaires, polysomnographic monitoring, spectrometric and radioimmunoassay methods, and statistical analysis. According to the results, an imbalance of the LPO-AOD system with the predominance of oxidation processes in MG1 is revealed demonstrating the coefficient of oxidative stress, which statistically significantly decreases with the elimination of hypoxia and improvement of sleep structure. GDF-15 demonstrates significant differences between MG1 and CG patients with a predominance of content in the group of MG1 patients with OSA. In comparison with the indicators of MG2, no statistical differences are revealed.

Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide, significantly affecting not only the health and quality of life of survivors but also of those who provide daily care to these individuals, requiring reliable measurement tools to assess these impacts. The Adult Carer Quality of Life Questionnaire (AC-QoL) is a recent and valid instrument, surpassing the limitations of previous tools. Given the lack of validated measures to assess the quality of life (QoL) of carers of stroke survivors, this study aimed to explore the psychometric properties of the AC-QoL among Portuguese informal carers of stroke survivors. After a linguistic adaptation to Portuguese of the AC-QoL, informal carers (n = 443) of stroke survivors hospitalized in all Stroke Units of the North of Portugal (n = 12), were invited to complete the AC-QoL and a structured questionnaire assessing their sociodemographic, caregiving-related, and psychological features, 18 to 24 months post-stroke (November 2019 and August 2021). Psychometric properties were investigated through confirmatory factor analyses and reliability evaluation. Linear regression models assessed convergent-discriminant validity with carers’ sociodemographic, caregiving-related, and psychological characteristics. Our results found a replicable eight-factor structure from the original AC-QoL, revealing good adequacy (CFI = 0.899] and high internal consistency (alpha = 0.904]. Convergent-discriminant validity was satisfactory with burden, anxiety, and depression being inversely associated with the overall score of the AC-QoL. Being younger, married, with higher education, being the son/daughter, and living with the stroke survivor were associated with higher scores of QoL. The Portuguese version of the AC-QoL is a comprehensive, simple, reliable and valid instrument to assess informal stroke carers’ QoL. The AC-QoL can be a valuable tool contributing to devise strategies promoting the well-being and social integration of stroke survivors and their informal carers.

Zinc deficiency in the human body occurs when there is a lack of this trace element in food and water, which is especially important for the territories of the North that belong to biogeochemical provinces. The surface waters of the Republic of Karelia are ultra fresh and low mineralized. In this work, the zinc content in the hair of the older age group of residents of the Republic of Karelia (Petrozavodsk) is determined and the prevalence of this deficiency is assessed. To conduct the study, the method of atomic emission spectrometry and mass spectrometry with inductively coupled argon plasma are used. To assess the severity of hypozincosis, we use a point scale corresponding to the degree of deviation of the zinc content from the reference values. Hypozincosis is typical for 74.5% of the subjects, and a zinc deficiency was significantly more typical for people over 60 years of age than for young people aged 20–25 years. It is shown that the first degree of deviation of the level of zinc in hair in the direction of either a decrease or an excess of the concentration of the element compared to the reference values is the most common, which is regarded as a “predisease” state. Moreover, in the age group of 20–25 years, an excess of zinc is significantly more often diagnosed, and in people over 60 years old, a deficiency of this element is diagnosed. No gender differences are found in zinc deficiency. It is assumed that the natural, ecological, and social living conditions of this region are the cause of the development of hypozincosis. It is likely that people of older age groups living in the territories of the European North require the additional intake of mineral complexes. The composition of such multimineral complexes must necessarily include zinc, and in greater quantities than is recommended for residents of central Russia.

In people over 60 years, the most common diseases are those of the cardiovascular system and geriatric syndromes. Dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia are traditional cardiovascular risk factors. However, their impact on the development of major geriatric syndromes among people over 60 years remains unclear. The relationship between the presence of type-2 diabetes mellitus and the development of frailty, sarcopenia, and cognitive impairment depends on age. The influence of chronic hyperglycemia on geriatric syndromes decreases with increasing age and acquires a neutral role in long-living people. Recent studies have shown that low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels in people over 60 years old are associated with the development of frailty, sarcopenia, and cognitive impairment.