BackgroundAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the major threats of the twenty-first century and lacks available therapy. Identification of novel molecular markers for diagnosis and treatment of AD is urgently demanded, and genetic biomarkers show potential prospects.MethodWe identify and intersected differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from five microarray datasets to detect consensus DEGs. Based on these DEGs, we conducted Gene Ontology (GO), performed the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis, constructed a protein—protein interaction (PPI) network, and utilized Cytoscape to identify hub genes. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic regression was applied to identify potential diagnostic biomarkers. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to investigate the biological functions of the key genes.ResultWe identified 608 consensus DEGs, several dysregulated pathways, and 18 hub genes. Sixteen hub genes dysregulated as AD progressed. The diagnostic model of 35 genes was constructed, which has a high area under the curve (AUC) value in both the validation dataset and combined dataset (AUC = 0.992 and AUC = 0.985, respectively). The model can also differentiate mild cognitive impairment and AD patients from controls in two blood datasets. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and WW domain-containing transcription regulator protein 1 (WWTR1), which are associated with the Braak stage, Aβ 42 levels, and β-secretase activity, were identified as critical genes of AD.ConclusionOur study identified 16 hub genes correlated to the neuropathological stage and 35 potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of AD. WWTR1 were identified as candidate genes for future studies. This study deepens our understanding of the transcriptomic and functional features and provides new potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for AD.

Aim This study aimed to elucidate whether malnutrition is associated with cognitive impairment in an older Chinese population. Methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted in 2365 participants aged 60 years or older from January 2013 to September 2019. Nutritional status was measured by using the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA‐SF). Cognitive function was assessed with the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE). The relationship between malnutrition or each Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form domain and cognitive impairment was examined with univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results The prevalence of malnutrition, risk of malnutrition, and cognitive impairment was 5.54%, 33.45%, and 36.74%, respectively. The prevalence was higher in those 80 years and older: 7.88%, 40.75%, and 53.65%, respectively. The Mini‐Mental State Examination score was positively correlated with the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form score (r = 0.364, P < 0.001). After adjustment for age, gender, education, marital status, and living alone, malnutrition (odds ratio (OR) = 3.927, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.650–5.819), anorexia (OR = 1.454, 95%CI: 1.192–1.774), weight loss (OR = 1.697, 95%CI: 1.406–2.047), impaired mobility (OR = 4.156, 95%CI: 3.311–5.218), and psychological stress (OR = 1.414, 95%CI: 1.070–1.869) were significantly associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment. Conclusions Our results suggest that the prevalence of malnutrition and cognitive impairment is relatively high and increases with age. Malnutrition, anorexia, weight loss, impaired mobility, and psychological stress are significantly associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment. Therefore, clinicians should assess the nutritional and cognitive status of the elderly regularly to improve early detection and timely intervention.

Background COVID-19 is erupting globally. Mass quarantine had been implemented all around China which could influence the psychological status of patients with memory disorders and their caregivers. Aim To investigate the psychological impact of mass quarantine on patients with memory disorders and their caregivers in China. Methods We completed a cross-sectional study in 787 patients and their caregivers registered from 2010 to 2019 in Memory Clinic, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, by telephone interviews. The performance in neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs), sleep, nutrition, chronic diseases of patients, and the burden of care, anxiety and depression of caregivers was assessed by six assessment scales (MNA-SF, PSQI, NPI, RSS, PHQ-9 and GAD-7). Results Only 68 (8.6%) patients worried about the outbreak of COVID-19. The prevalence of NPSs among all subjects was nearly 60.0%. Approximately 50.0% of the caregivers reported distress. More than 70.0% of patients remained stable in NPSs. However, anxiety, depression, aberrant motor disorder and delusion were exacerbated (22.9%, 18.6%, 17.1% and 16.8%, respectively). Appetite and eating disorder led alleviation rate by 25.8% while disappearing rate of agitation led by 5.8%. 7.5% of caregivers manifested depressive symptoms while 4.9% expressed anxiety symptoms, and 40.8% showed care burden. The coefficients of RSS and PHQ-9, RSS and GAD-7, RSS and NPI-D, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were 0.7, 0.5, 0.5 and 0.6, respectively ( p < 0.01). Conclusion Changes in NPSs during COVID-19 were observed in some patients with memory disorders and their caregivers, and adherence to medication contributed to the stabilization of NPSs. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40520-021-01911-1.

Background: Malnutrition is one of the health problems in the elderly population, which increases the risk of poor clinical outcomes. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the nutritional status and cognitive function of an elderly Chinese population, to explore the association between malnutrition and cognitive condition as well as the cognitive domain.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2365 participants aged 60 years or above from January 2013 to September 2019. We used the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF), and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) to assess the impact of malnutrition on cognitive function.Nutrition-associated factors were analyzed.Results: 33.45% of the participants were identified as malnutrition risk and 5.54% were malnourished, while 36.74% had cognitive impairments. 48.63% had nutritional deficits and 53.65% had cognitive impairment in those over 80 years old. Malnutrition is associated with global cognition (ρ= 0.349, P < 0.0001) and the cognitive domain particularly in orientation (ρ= 0.343, P < 0.0001). The impact was extended to attention and calculation (ρ=0.310, P < 0.0001) as well as language (ρ= 0.302, P < 0.0001) of those over 80 years of age. Malnutrition is an independent risk factor for cognitive impairment after adjusting for other variables (OR=2.004, 95% CI: 1.621-2.479).Conclusion: The prevalence of malnutrition and cognitive impairment was relatively high and increased with age. Malnutrition leads to cognitive decline and disorientation, and also contributes to attention problems, calculation problem and language impairment in the oldest old. Thus, clinicians should assess the nutritional and cognitive status of the elderly regularly to the early dictation and timely intervention.

Background: Screening cognitive impairment is complex and not an appliance for early screening. Gait performance is strongly associated with cognitive impairment. Objectives: We aimed to explore gait indicators that could potentially screen cognitive dysfunction. Methods: A total of 235 subjects were recruited from June 2021 to June 2022. Four gait tasks, including the walking test, the timed “Up & Go” test (TUG), foot pressure balance (FPB), and one-legged standing with eyes closed test (OLS-EC), were performed. Moreover, in the walking test, participants were instructed to walk at their usual pace for the single-gait test. For the dual-task tests, participants walked at their usual pace while counting backward from 100 by 1s. The data were analyzed by the independent sample t-test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression, a linear trend, stratified and interaction analysis, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and Pearson’s correlations. Results: Among the 235 participants, 81 (34.5%) were men and 154 (65.5%) were women. The mean age of participants was 72 ± 7.836 years. The control, MCI, mild AD, and severe AD groups had means of 71, 63, 71, and 30, respectively. After adjusting for age, sex, education, and body mass index (BMI), the dual-task toe-off-ground angle (TOA) (odds ratio (OR) = 0.911, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.847, 0.979), single-task TOA (OR = 0.904, 95% CI: 0.841–0.971), and the timed “Up & Go” time (TUGT) (OR = 1.515, 95% CI: 1.243–1.846) were significantly associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment. In addition, the trend test and stratified analysis results had no significant differences (all p > 0.05). The area under the roc curve (AUC) values of TOA in the dual-task and TUGT were 0.812 and 0.847, respectively. Additionally, TOA < 36.75° in the dual-task, TOA < 38.90° in the single-task, and TUGT > 9.83 seconds (s) are likely to indicate cognitive impairment. The cognitive assessment scale scores were significantly correlated with TOA (all r > 0.3, p < 0.001) and TUGT (all r > 0.2), respectively. Conclusion: TOA and TUGT scores are, in some circumstances, associated with cognitive impairment; therefore, they can be used as simple initial screenings to identify patients at risk.