Scope: Mild cognitive impairment is associated with a high prevalence of dementia. The study examines the benefits of a modified Korean MIND (K-MIND) diet and explores biomarkers using multi-omics analysis.
Methods and results: The K-MIND diet, tailored to the elderly Korean population, includes perilla oil, milk, or fermented milk, and avoids alcohol consumption. As a result, the K-MIND diet significantly improves subjects "orientation to place" in the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination, 2nd edition test. According to multi-omics analysis, the K-MIND diet upregulates genes associated with mitochondrial respiration, including ubiquinone oxidoreductase, cytochrome C oxidase, and ATP synthase, and immune system processes, and downregulates genes related to nuclear factor kappa B activity and inflammatory responses. In addition, K-MIND affects the metabolic pathways of glycine, serine, threonine, tryptophan, and sphingolipids, which are closely linked to cognitive function through synthesis of neurotransmitters and structures of brain cell membranes.
Conclusion: The findings imply that the K-MIND diet improves cognitive function by upregulating key genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and downregulating pro-inflammatory cytokines.
Keywords: K-MIND diet; metabolome; mild cognitive impairment; multi-omics analysis; transcriptome.
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