{"id":484072,"date":"2026-06-09T15:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/484072\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:15:13","slug":"study-links-joint-pain-supplement-to-accelerating-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/484072\/","title":{"rendered":"Study links joint pain supplement to accelerating dementia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Glucosamine<\/p>\n

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image:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ramon Sun, Ph.D., and Matthew Gentry, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

view more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit: UF Health photo<\/p>\n

GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2014 New research has found an association between taking glucosamine, a popular over-the-counter supplement used for joint pain, and a higher likelihood of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

The finding by University of Florida neuroscientists is based on a large retrospective analysis of patients\u2019 records as well as supporting data from advanced imaging technology used to scan human brain specimens and Alzheimer\u2019s disease mouse models.<\/p>\n

While the results are preliminary and require validation in a human clinical trial, they provide yet another piece of a much bigger mechanistic picture involving metabolic dysregulation and neurodegeneration, according to the study published today in Nature Metabolism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the United States, there are about 7 million people living with Alzheimer\u2019s and millions more with related dementias such as Lewy body or frontotemporal dementia,\u201d said senior author\u00a0Ramon Sun<\/a>, Ph.D., director of the\u00a0Center for Advanced Spatial Biomolecule Research<\/a>\u00a0and associate director for innovation of UF\u2019s\u00a0McKnight Brain Institute<\/a>. \u201cA lot of these people actively take an over-the-counter supplement that could be making their disease progression worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

As glucosamine is widely available and commonly used by seniors for joint health, researchers set out to investigate whether it could have any effect in Alzheimer\u2019s disease and related dementias, known as ADRD.<\/p>\n

With collaborators\u00a0Yi Guo<\/a>, Ph.D., and\u00a0Jiang Bian<\/a>, Ph.D., the team used artificial intelligence to comb deidentified UF Health records from 2012 to 2024 for patients diagnosed with either ADRD or mild cognitive impairment, or MCI. They found that a significant proportion \u2014 8% \u2014 of both types of patients reported taking glucosamine: 1,896 with ADRD and 2,750 with MCI.<\/p>\n

After controlling for age, sex and demographics, the analysis showed that glucosamine use was associated with a 25% higher likelihood of progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia.<\/p>\n

In addition, researchers found that taking glucosamine was associated with a 25% increase in mortality risk, or the likelihood of death within a specified time frame, among ADRD patients. For the MCI group, there was no such impact, suggesting the impact of glucosamine may be greater in patients with established dementia.<\/p>\n

Notably, said Sun, researchers revealed that a metabolic process in which a protein and sugar-tagging pathway is overactive in Alzheimer\u2019s could be a new target for intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results suggest that altered metabolism is a significant contributor to Alzheimer\u2019s progression and, in addition, addressing the metabolic defect could be an important complement to approaches focused on Alzheimer\u2019s plaques and tangles,\u201d Sun said.<\/p>\n

These new insights were made possible by powerful new spatial technology developed by Sun\u2019s lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis technology allows us to examine thousands and thousands of molecules created when the body breaks down food or drugs and to uncover intricate pathways that otherwise would stay hidden,\u201d Sun said.<\/p>\n

To peer more deeply into these pathways, the research team focused on glucosamine, a naturally occurring sugar-related molecule that can cross the blood-brain barrier and feed into pathways that build complex sugar structures on proteins. In supplements, it can be made from substances such as shellfish shells or corn.<\/p>\n

The findings suggest that glucosamine\u2019s impact may depend on biological context, with the Alzheimer\u2019s brain appearing more vulnerable to this metabolic pathway than the nondiseased brain, said\u00a0Matt Gentry<\/a>, Ph.D., chair of UF\u2019s\u00a0Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology<\/a>\u00a0and a study co-author.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe electronic health record data are very provocative,\u201d Gentry said. \u201cWhile it\u2019s an association and not proof of causality, it does raise an important clinical question that now deserves much more attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

In genetically modified mice, the research team showed that glucosamine significantly increased the attachment of sugar residues to proteins in cells. Deficits in \u201csocial memory\u201d \u2014 or memory of recognition \u2014 worsened in glucosamine-treated mice. Conversely, when researchers chemically suppressed this attachment process, memory improved.<\/p>\n

Then, in collaboration with\u00a0Stefan Prokop<\/a>, M.D., the team found significantly increased sugar attachment in Alzheimer\u2019s brain specimens from the\u00a0UF Neuromedicine Brain and Tissue Bank<\/a>\u00a0compared with normal controls. Taken together, these results suggest that such metabolic dysfunction is not simply a secondary aspect of Alzheimer\u2019s pathology but a contributing driver, they reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cProteins are the cell\u2019s molecular machines, and many of them need sugar tags added in just the right way to fold correctly, travel to the right place and do their jobs,\u201d Gentry said. \u201cWhat we found in Alzheimer\u2019s is that this sugar-tagging system appears to be overactive. The Alzheimer\u2019s brain is adding too many of these sugar structures, and this seems to contribute to the disease rather than protect against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Journal<\/p>\n

Nature Metabolism<\/p>\n

Method of Research<\/p>\n

Content analysis<\/p>\n

Subject of Research<\/p>\n

People<\/p>\n

Article Title<\/p>\n

Hyperglycosylation is a metabolic driver of Alzheimer\u2019s disease<\/p>\n

Article Publication Date<\/p>\n

9-Jun-2026<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image:\u00a0 Ramon Sun, Ph.D., and Matthew Gentry, Ph.D. view more\u00a0 Credit: UF Health photo GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2014 New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,85,46,543],"class_list":["post-484072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}