(Press-News.org)
AUSTRALIA, Sydney – October 11, 2023 – Western Sydney University’s NICM Health Research Institute has led a world-first clinical trial in Australia that offers new hope in the treatment of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among older people. The trial’s results, published in Alzheimer's and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring, a journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, signal the efficacy and safety of Sailuotong (SLT), a novel herbal extract, as a potential treatment for MCI.
Trial participants taking SLT showed improvements in aspects of memory and executive function including delayed episodic memory retrieval, switching between cognitive concepts, higher-level divided attention, and multitasking compared to those taking the placebo.
The study was led by Associate Professor Genevieve Steiner-Lim, a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at NICM Health Research Institute, who is optimistic about SLT’s potential.
“People with mild cognitive impairment have an increased risk of dementia – over fivefold in some cases – and at the moment we do not have any approved medications for mild cognitive impairment.
“Our findings are very promising as they show that even after a relatively short treatment period of just 12-weeks, SLT can support important aspects of memory and thinking in people with mild cognitive impairment. It is also well-tolerated.
“Early intervention is critical in order to delay or prevent a dementia diagnosis,” said Associate Professor Steiner-Lim.
MCI, characterized by cognitive decline, including memory and thinking difficulties, is often considered a precursor to dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, there are no approved pharmaceutical interventions for MCI, and existing Alzheimer’s disease treatments are not considered safe or effective.
SLT is a unique herbal preparation containing standardized extracts of Panax ginseng, Ginkgo biloba, and Crocus sativus L. The herbal medicine has been developed as part of a long-standing collaboration between NICM Health Research Institute and Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing. SLT shows promise in addressing various aspects of MCI pathophysiology, such as its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiapoptotic, and cholinergic-enhancing properties, among others. Prior studies have demonstrated SLT's safety and potential cognitive benefits in vascular dementia and neurocognition in healthy adults.
The 12-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot phase II trial included 78 participants aged 60 years and older diagnosed with MCI. The participants were randomly assigned to receive 180 mg/day capsule of SLT or a placebo.
The results bring fresh optimism, offering a glimpse of potential treatment for the 17 per cent of people aged 60 and above worldwide who are living with MCI.
Key Findings:
Memory Improvement: After 12-weeks, participants receiving SLT demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in Logical Memory delayed recall scores compared to the placebo group.
Enhanced Executive Function: SLT treatment improved performance in executive function tasks.
Safety and Tolerability: SLT was well-tolerated, with a low incidence of a mild or moderate adverse events.
These findings suggest that SLT may serve as a supportive therapy for memory and executive function in people with MCI. However, further research is essential to determine the long-term benefits and understand the clinical implications, including their impact on daily functioning and quality of life.
“More investment in this research is needed. The next step is to conduct another trial with a larger sample size and longer treatment period to test whether SLT can be used to treat mild cognitive impairment and potentially delay a diagnosis of dementia,” said Associate Professor Steiner-Lim.
The trial (ACTRN12617000371392) received support from funding awarded to Associate Professor Steiner-Lim from a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)-Australian Research Council (ARC) Dementia Research Development Fellowship (APP1102532) and NHMRC Investigator Grant (APP1195709). Medication and placebo were provided in-kind by Shineway Pharmaceuticals Group.
For more information on this study or to access the full journal article, "A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group 12-week pilot phase II trial of Sailuotong (SLT) for cognitive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment’, please visit:
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/trc2.12420
-ends-
END
Lack of rainfall is not the only measure of drought. New UC Riverside research shows that despite a series of storms, the impact of drought can persist in streams and rivers for up to 3.5 years.
There are two measures of drought in streams. One measure is the total water level, which is impacted by snowmelt and rainfall. Many researchers examine this measurement. Another measure is baseflow, which is the portion of streamflow fed by groundwater.
Fewer researchers examine baseflow droughts, and there was not previously an accurate way to measure them. Because baseflow is strongly tied to groundwater, and because the ...
Research Highlights:
Chronic kidney disease was strongly associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest among Hispanic/Latino adults, in a new study.
Early identification and management of kidney disease may reduce risk of sudden cardiac arrest among Hispanic/Latino people, researchers suggest.
Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023
DALLAS, October 11, 2023 — Chronic kidney disease may increase risk and predict sudden cardiac arrest among Hispanic/Latino adults, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American ...
Hispanics and Latinos with chronic kidney disease are at significant risk for suffering from sudden cardiac arrest, according to a new study from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.
During sudden cardiac arrest, the heart unexpectedly stops beating.
“Because people who experience sudden cardiac arrest have a survival rate of less than 10%, prevention is extremely important,” said Kyndaron Reinier, Ph.D., associate director of Epidemiology in the Center for Cardiac Arrest Prevention at the Smidt Heart Institute and lead author of the study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
“This study highlights the importance for Hispanic ...
Tens of thousands of endangered sharks and rays are caught by small-scale fisheries off the Republic of the Congo each year, new research shows.
Scientists surveyed fish brought ashore at Songolo, which is home to more than 60% of the country's “artisanal” fishers (small boats, small engines, hand-hauled lines and nets).
In three years, the team – led by the University of Exeter in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Congo Program and the Republic of the Congo’s fisheries department – recorded more than 73,000 sharks and rays landed.
Most were juveniles, and 98% of individuals were of species listed as vulnerable, ...
Named after its habitat preference, Paroedura manongavato, from the Malagasy words “manonga” (to climb) and “vato” (rock), is a bouldering expert. Part of its “home range” is also very well-known to rock climbers for its massive granitic domes. “Its description represents another step into the crux (in climbing jargon, the most difficult section of a bouldering problem) of resolving the taxonomy of the recently revised P. bastardi group, where the new species belongs, and reaching a total of 25 described species in this genus, ...
Predators must eat to survive — and to survive, prey must avoid being eaten. One theory, the Wolf-Mangel model, suggests predators could use false attacks to tire prey out or force them to take bigger risks, but this has been hard to show in practice. Now, scientists observing peregrine falcons have found evidence that they deliberately exhaust their prey to improve later hunting success.
“Although predators are imagined as clever in novels and movies, like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, empirical biologists are generally not inclined to give much credence to such ideas,” ...
In 2023, life expectancy in Korea will be 83.6 years, the third highest among OECD countries, and it is steadily increasing every year. As the proportion of the elderly population increases, the social cost of treating various geriatric diseases is also increasing rapidly, and there is a growing interest in early diagnosis of diseases. Among the various diagnostic methods, researchers are actively conducting research on measuring glutamine as an indicator of geriatric diseases by finding that the concentration of glutamine in the cells and blood of patients with serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and dementia is significantly changed compared to normal people.
Dr. Seo, Moon-Hyeong ...
Herbicides are the most used class of pesticides worldwide, with uses in agriculture, homes and industry. Exposures to two of the most popular herbicides were associated with worse brain function among adolescents, according to a study led by researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego.
In the Oct. 11, 2023 online issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers reported measuring metabolite concentrations of two commonly used herbicides — glyphosate and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) — and the insect repellent DEET in urine samples ...
A new antibiotic drug developed by a research team led by Professor Li Xuechen from the Department of Chemistry at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has recently gained approval from the authorities to undergo clinical trials in the Mainland.
The new drug, which has taken the research team ten years to develop and is named Kynomycin, received the "Notice of Approval for Drug Clinical Trials" from the National Medical Products Administration of China to be tested in human subjects.
The new antibiotic drug targets complex skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTI) caused by bacteria. It ...
Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors are special materials that have long fascinated researchers with their unique properties. For one, they are flat, one-atom-thick two-dimensional (2D) materials similar to that of graphene. They are compounds that contain different combinations of the transition metal group (e.g., molybdenum, tungsten) and chalcogen elements (e.g., sulfur, selenium, tellurium).
What's even more fascinating is that assembling different TMD layers into vertical stacks creates a new artificial material called a van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure. By incorporating different materials, it becomes possible to ...
