Research Paper Volume 15, Issue 4 pp 914—931

Relationship between telomere shortening and early subjective depressive symptoms and cognitive complaints in older adults

Myung-Hoon Han1, *, , Eun-Hye Lee2, *, , Hyun-Hee Park2, , Seong Hye Choi4, , Seong-Ho Koh2,3, ,

  • 1 Department of Neurosurgery, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, Guri 11923, South Korea
  • 2 Department of Neurology, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, Guri 11923, South Korea
  • 3 Department of Translational Medicine, Hanyang University Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Seoul 04763, South Korea
  • 4 Department of Neurology, Inha University College of Medicine, Incheon 22332, South Korea
* Equal contribution

Received: October 28, 2022       Accepted: February 13, 2023       Published: February 17, 2023      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204533
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2023 Han et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Telomere length (TL) has been reported to be associated with depression and cognitive impairment in elderly. Early detection of depression and cognitive impairment is important to delay disease progression. Therefore, we aimed to identify whether TL is associated with early subjective depressive symptoms and cognitive complaints among healthy elderly subjects. This study was a multicenter, outcome assessor-blinded, 24-week, randomized controlled trial (RCT). Measurement of questionnaire and physical activity scores and blood sample analyses were performed at baseline and after six months of follow-up in all study participants. Linear regression analyses were performed to identify whether early subjective depressive symptoms, cognitive complaints, and several blood biomarkers are associated with TL. Altogether, 137 relatively healthy elderly individuals (60–79 years old) were enrolled in this prospective RCT. We observed an approximate decrease of 0.06 and 0.11−0.14 kbps of TL per one point increase in the geriatric depression scale and cognitive complaint interview scores, respectively, at baseline and after six months of follow-up. We also found an approximate decrease of 0.08−0.09 kbps of TL per one point increase in interleukin (IL)-6 levels at baseline and after six months of follow-up. Our study showed that both early subjective depressive symptoms and cognitive complaints were associated with a relatively shorter TL in relatively healthy elderly individuals. In addition, based on our findings, we believe that IL-6 plays an important role in the relationship between shortening TL and early subjective depressive symptoms and cognitive complaints.

Abbreviations

AUC: Area under the curve; BDNF: Brain derived neurotrophic factor; CAT: Catalase; CCI: Cognitive complaint interview; CDR-SB: Clinical dementia rating-sum of boxes; FMI: Facility-based multidomain intervention; GDS-KR: Geriatric depression scale revised Korean version; GPX: Glutathione peroxidase; HMI: Home-based multidomain intervention; IL: Interleukin; K-IADL: Korean instrumental activities of daily living; KQOL: Korean quality of life; MCP-1: Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1; MDD: Major depressive disorder; MMSE: Mini-mental state examination; MNA: Mini nutritional assessment; NfL: Neurofilament light chain; NTR: Nutrition questionnaire for elderly; PSQI: Pittsburgh sleep quality index; RCT: Randomized controlled trial; ROC: Receiver operating characteristic; SOD: Superoxide dismutase; SPPB: Short physical performance battery; TGF-β: Transforming growth factor β; TL: Telomere length; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor α; TREM2: Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2; VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor; YKL-40: Chitinase-3-like protein 1.