Editorial: The underlying relationship between sleep and neurodegenerative diseases

Editorial on the Research Topic: The underlying relationship between sleep and neurodegenerative diseasesS-BL was supported in part by Sleep Research Society Foundation Career Development Award (030-JP-21) and Fudan University (JIF2641029Y and JIH2642002/155). ML was recipient of CNPq fellowship (CNPq-306432/2022-6)

Study of community-living Alzheimer’s patients’ adherence to the Mediterranean diet and risks of malnutrition at different disease stages

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by deficits in episodic memory. It is the most common form of dementia and affects 50–70% of patients with cognitive impairments over the age of 65. Elderly people are particularly susceptible to malnutrition and that risk is even higher in patients with AD. This study assessed the nutritional status of patients with AD at different stages of AD and explored how that status correlated with cognitive, functional and behavioural variables and caregiver overburden. The characteristics of the diet and the degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet were also analysed.This work has been partially funded by College of Nurses of Lleida and Department of Health of Generalitat de Catalunya (grant number SLT002/16/00384) and also was supported by “Fundació La Marató TV3” (464/C/2014) and by IRBLleida Biobank (B.0000682)

Effectiveness of technology-based interventions in detection, prevention, monitoring and treatment of patients at risk or diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment: protocol for a systematic review

Introduction: The gradual changes over the decades in the longevity and aging of European society as a whole can be directly related to the prolonged decline in the birth rate and increase in life expectancy. According to the WHO, there is an increased risk of dementia or other cognitive disorders as the population ages, which have a major impact on public health. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is described as a greater than expected cognitive decline for an individual's age and level of education, but that does not significantly interfere with activities of daily living. Patients with MCI exhibit a higher risk of dementia compared with others in the same age group, but without a cognitive decline, have impaired walking, and a 50% greater risk of falling. The urban lifestyle and advent of smartphones, mobility, and immediate access to all information via the internet, including health information, has led to a totally disruptive change in most general aspects. This systematic review protocol is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of technology-based interventions in the detection, prevention, monitoring, and treatment of patients at risk or diagnosed with MCI. Methods and analysis: This review protocol follows the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols reporting guidelines. The search will be performed on MEDLINE (PubMed), CENTRAL, CINAHL Plus, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus databases from 2010 to 2020. Studies of interventions either randomized clinical trials or pre-post non-randomized quasi-experimental designs, published in English and Spanish will be included. Articles that provide relevant information on the use of technology and its effectiveness in interventions that assess improvements in early detection, prevention, follow-up, and treatment of the patients at risk or diagnosed with MCI will be included. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics committee approval is not required. The results will be disseminated in publications and congresses. Keywords: dementia; geriatric medicine; health informatics; mental health; preventive medicine.This paper is a result of the NEXTPERCEPTION project (www.nextperception.eu), which is jointly funded by the European Commission and national funding agencies under the ECSEL joint undertaking (grant agreement: 876487). This research was funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI/10.13039/501100011033) Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) (PCI2020-112270) CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. IRBLleida - Fundació Dr. Pifarré

Alzheimer’s disease mutant mice exhibit reduced brain tissue stiffness compared to wild-type mice in both normoxia and following intermittent hypoxia mimicking sleep apnea

Background: Evidence from patients and animal models suggests that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and that AD is associated with reduced brain tissue stiffness. Aim: To investigate whether intermittent hypoxia (IH) alters brain cortex tissue stiffness in AD mutant mice exposed to IH mimicking OSA. Methods: Six-eight month old (B6C3-Tg(APPswe,PSEN1dE9)85Dbo/J) AD mutant mice and wild-type (WT) littermates were subjected to IH (21% O2 40 s to 5% O2 20 s; 6 h/day) or normoxia for 8 weeks. After euthanasia, the stiffness (E) of 200-μm brain cortex slices was measured by atomic force microscopy. Results: Two-way ANOVA indicated significant cortical softening and weight increase in AD mice compared to WT littermates, but no significant effects of IH on cortical stiffness and weight were detected. In addition, reduced myelin was apparent in AD (vs. WT), but no significant differences emerged in the cortex extracellular matrix components laminin and glycosaminoglycans when comparing baseline AD and WT mice. Conclusion: AD mutant mice exhibit reduced brain tissue stiffness following both normoxia and IH mimicking sleep apnea, and such differences are commensurate with increased edema and demyelination in AD.This work was supported in part by Fundació Marató TV3 (20143231), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness—Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS-PI14/00004, FIS-PI14/00280) and SEPAR (139/2015). This work was partially funded by the CERCA Programme of Generalitat de Catalunya