Modified Korean MIND Diet: A Nutritional Intervention for Improved Cognitive Function in Elderly Women through Mitochondrial Respiration, Inflammation Suppression, and Amino Acid Metabolism Regulation.

Abstract

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. 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. The findings imply that the K-MIND diet improves cognitive function by upregulating key genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and downregulating pro-inflammatory cytokines.