Tier 3 — preclinical

Spermidine in dementia: Relation to age and memory performance

Thomas Pekar, Aribert Wendzel, Walter Flak, Alexandra Kremer, Susanne Pauschenwein-Frantsich, Anna Gschaider, Felix Wantke, Reinhart Jarisch

Wiener klinische Wochenschrift 2020 132(1-2):42-46

Bibliography

PubMed: PMID 31832773
PubMed Central: PMC6978435
DOI: 10.1007/s00508-019-01588-7
Funding: Open-access funding by University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt
Competing interests: Authors declared no competing interests.

Study snapshot

Design	Cross-sectional observational study
Model	Older nursing-home residents aged 60-96 years
Sample	80 analyzed participants
Intervention	No intervention; serum spermidine measured alongside cognitive testing
Duration	Cross-sectional
Endpoints	Serum spermidine; MMSE; CERAD-Plus cognitive measures; Age association

What the study showed, in plain terms

In older nursing-home residents, serum spermidine was positively correlated with MMSE performance. A separate healthy comparison dataset showed lower serum spermidine with increasing age.

Key findings

The study raised interest in circulating spermidine as a cognition-related biomarker, but later human studies have reported conflicting directions of association.

What this study can and cannot tell us

Cross-sectional design, small sample, many participants could not complete the full CERAD battery, and serum spermidine is not equivalent to dietary intake, brain concentration or response to supplementation.

Editorial review

Reviewed by the Biohack Blueprint research team

Khaled Mahmoud