Tier 3 — preclinical

Elevated spermidine serum levels in mild cognitive impairment, a potential biomarker of progression to Alzheimer dementia, a pilot study

Zohara Sternberg, Rebecca Podolsky, Adam Nir, Jihnhee Yu, Raphael Nir, Stanley W Halvorsen, Joseph F Quinn, Jeffrey Kaye, Channa Kolb

Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 2022 100:169-174

Bibliography

PubMed: PMID 35487023
DOI: 10.1016/j.jocn.2022.04.028

Study snapshot

Design	Cross-sectional biomarker pilot study
Model	Adults with Alzheimer disease, mild cognitive impairment and age-matched controls
Sample	76 total (43 AD, 12 MCI, 21 controls)
Intervention	No intervention; serum spermidine measured
Duration	Cross-sectional
Endpoints	Serum spermidine; MMSE; Clinical Dementia Rating; CDR-Sum of Boxes; Hepcidin

What the study showed, in plain terms

This pilot found higher serum spermidine in people with mild cognitive impairment than in controls. Within a subset with Alzheimer disease, higher serum spermidine tracked with worse cognitive and dementia-severity scores.

Key findings

The result adds to evidence that circulating spermidine can behave as a disease-related biomarker rather than a simple marker of beneficial exposure.

What this study can and cannot tell us

Very small MCI subgroup, cross-sectional frozen-serum analysis and no supplementation data. The study cannot determine whether elevated serum spermidine is causal, compensatory or epiphenomenal.

Editorial review

Reviewed by the Biohack Blueprint research team

Khaled Mahmoud