Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: The aging process is often accompanied by a decline in cognitive function, impacting memory, attention, and decision-making. Malnutrition, including protein deficiency, is recognized as a contributing factor to cognitive decline in elderly populations. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), essential amino acids obtained solely from dietary sources, play a pivotal role in various physiological processes, including neurotransmitter synthesis and protein synthesis in the brain. This study aims to investigate the relationship between serum BCAA levels and cognitive function in elderly individuals.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 25 elderly subjects (age > 60 years) in Padang, Indonesia. Serum BCAA levels were measured using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), and cognitive function was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment - Indonesian version (MoCA-Ina). Statistical analysis was performed to determine the correlation between BCAA levels and MoCA-Ina scores.
Results: The mean serum levels of total BCAAs, leucine, isoleucine, and valine in the elderly subjects were 0.40 ± 0.15 mM, 0.09 ± 0.06 mM, 0.05 ± 0.02 mM, and 0.26 ± 0.10 mM, respectively. The median MoCA-Ina score was 23 (range: 8-27), indicating a significant proportion of participants with cognitive impairment. Statistical analysis revealed no significant correlation between total BCAA levels and MoCA-Ina scores (r = 0.071, p = 0.735). However, a moderate positive correlation was observed between isoleucine levels and MoCA-Ina scores (r = 0.344, p = 0.092), although not statistically significant.
Conclusion: This study suggests that serum BCAA levels, particularly isoleucine, may have implications for cognitive function in elderly populations. Further research with a larger sample size and longitudinal design is warranted to elucidate the complex relationship between dietary BCAAs, serum BCAA levels, and cognitive health in aging individuals.
Keywords
Article Details
As our aim is to disseminate original research article, hence the publishing right is a necessary one. The publishing right is needed in order to reach the agreement between the author and publisher. As the journal is fully open access, the authors will sign an exclusive license agreement.
The authors have the right to:
- Share their article in the same ways permitted to third parties under the relevant user license.
- Retain copyright, patent, trademark and other intellectual property rights including research data.
- Proper attribution and credit for the published work.
For the open access article, the publisher is granted to the following right.
- The non-exclusive right to publish the article and grant right to others.
- For the published article, the publisher applied for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
