Tier 3 — preclinical

The positive effect of spermidine in older adults suffering from dementia after 1 year

Thomas Pekar, Aribert Wendzel, Reinhart Jarisch

Wiener klinische Wochenschrift 2024 136(1-2):64-66

Bibliography

PubMed: PMID 37284840
PubMed Central: PMC10776733
DOI: 10.1007/s00508-023-02226-z
Funding: Open-access funding by University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt
Competing interests: Authors declared no competing interests.

Study snapshot

Design	Open-label longitudinal continuation study
Model	Older nursing-home residents with neurocognitive impairment
Sample	45
Intervention	Diet providing at least 3.3 mg spermidine/day
Duration	1 year
Endpoints	MMSE cognitive score

What the study showed, in plain terms

Forty-five nursing-home residents received at least 3.3 mg/day dietary spermidine for one year. Mean MMSE scores improved by five points from baseline.

Key findings

The one-year signal is interesting but uncontrolled, so regression to the mean, practice effects, co-interventions and selection cannot be excluded.

What this study can and cannot tell us

No concurrent control group, no blinding, only 45 participants and reliance on baseline-to-follow-up MMSE comparison. The result cannot establish efficacy for dementia treatment.

Editorial review

Reviewed by the Biohack Blueprint research team

Khaled Mahmoud