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Review
. 2022 May;596(10):1270-1278.
doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14299. Epub 2022 Feb 3.

Decline of ergothioneine in frailty and cognition impairment

Hiroshi Kondoh  1 , Takayuki Teruya  2 , Masahiro Kameda  1 , Mitsuhiro Yanagida  2
Affiliations
Free article
Review

Decline of ergothioneine in frailty and cognition impairment

Hiroshi Kondoh et al. FEBS Lett. 2022 May.
Free article

Abstract

Ergothioneine is a well-known antioxidant that is abundant in both human red blood cells and in fission yeast responding to nutritional stress. In frail elderly people, whose ageing organs undergo functional decline, there is a correlation between ergothioneine levels and cognitive, but not skeletal muscle decline. In patients suffering from dementia, including Alzheimer's disease with hippocampal atrophy, deteriorating cognitive ability is correlated with declining ergothioneine levels. S-methyl-ergothioneine, trimethyl-histidine and three other trimethyl-ammonium compounds also decrease sharply in dementia, whereas compounds such as indoxyl-sulfate and quinolinic acid increase, possibly exacerbating the disease. Using these opposing dementia markers, not only diagnosis, but also therapeutic interventions to mitigate cognitive decline may now become possible.

Keywords: antioxidant; dementia; ergothioneine; frailty; metabolomics; sarcopenia; starvation; whole blood.

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