Mild Cognitive Impairment and Donepezil Impact Mitochondrial Respiratory Capacity in Skeletal Muscle.

Alzheimer's Disease (ad) associates with insulin resistance and low aerobic capacity, suggestive of impaired skeletal muscle mitochondrial function. However, this has not been directly measured in AD. This study (   = 50) compared muscle mitochondrial respiratory function and gene expression profiling in cognitively healthy older adults (CH;  = 24) to 26 individuals in the earliest phase of ad-related cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment (MCI;   = 11) or MCI taking the ad medication donepezil (MCI + med;   = 15).