Study record
Insights into the Biomarker Potential of Humanin and Mots-c Expression and Telomere Length in Alzheimer's Disease
Rodríguez-Esparragón F, Cazorla-Rivero SE, Torrealba E et al. · Int J Mol Sci · 2025
What this study reported
Reported that blood and plasma transcript levels of humanin and MOTS-c, normalised to mitochondrial DNA copy number, differed significantly across groups and were lower in adults with Alzheimer's disease than in those with subjective cognitive decline. Found that plasma protein concentrations of the two peptides did not distinguish Alzheimer's disease from mild cognitive impairment. Reported in decay assays faster degradation of humanin mRNA and delayed but stable recovery of MOTS-c mRNA.
Limitations
Cross-sectional case-control comparison with no group sizes reported in the abstract, controls defined as subjective cognitive decline rather than healthy individuals, and transcript-level findings not corroborated by circulating protein measurements.
Study record
| Study model | Human observational |
|---|---|
| Substance studied | SeveralMore than one of these is central to the paper (common for reviews). |
| Species | human |
| System studied | Patients with Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment and individuals with subjective cognitive decline as controls |
| Population | older adults with Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, or subjective cognitive decline |
| Design | Case-control study with in silico and RNA decay assays |
| Sample size as reported | Not reported |
| Control group | individuals with subjective cognitive decline |
| Route (data field only) | Not reported |
| Endpoints measured | blood and plasma MOTS-c transcript levels; plasma MOTS-c protein concentration; humanin transcript and protein levels; mitochondrial DNA copy number; mRNA decay kinetics |
| Pathways measured | Not reported |
| Research areas | Nervous system · Aging · Mitochondrial biology |
| Evidence tier | B — Other human study |
| Publication types | Journal Article |
Appraisal
Each dimension is recorded separately and never combined into a single score. A study can be well controlled and still tell you little about people.
- Relevance to MOTS-c
- Direct
- Model applicability
- Human
- Sample size
- Not reported
- Controls
- Limited
- Outcome validity
- Exploratory
- Support for its own conclusion
- Moderate
Provenance
- Bibliographic fields retrieved from PubMed E-utilities efetch (title, journal, date, authors, DOI) on 2026-11-11.
- Annotated from the published abstract.
- Editorial review: approved (2026-11-11).
- Classification follows the site methodology; the record describes the study, not what MOTS-c does in people.