Irina Madaeva

Abstract: Recent studies have convincingly demonstrated the role of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in accelerating the aging process. These studies have also identified a new mechanism of action for proteins related to aging and age-related diseases. To further investigate this hypothesis, we evaluated the levels of the anti-aging protein klotho in patients with OSA and its relationship to sleep parameters. Materials and Methods: The study involved 29 male participants with a diagnosis of OSA of moderate severity at the Irkutsk Somnological Center. They formed the main group (OH) with a median age less than 45 years (38.5, 53). The control group (KG) included 20 healthy volunteers without OSA symptoms, matched for age (median 43.8, range 36-58). All participants provided informed consent to participate.. Standard polysomnography, enzyme immunoassay using a Chem Well device (USA) with a SEH757Hu commercial kit (Cloud-Clone Corp., USA) and statistical analysis were employed. All differences were considered significant at p<0.05 using the Mann-Whitney U-test. A Spirman correlation` coefficient was used for the correlation analysis. Results: The klotho protein level was 217 pg/ml (156-459) in exhaust gas and 272.5 pg/ml (210-459) in KG, with p<0.012. Correlation analysis demonstrated a positive linear relationship between klotho and sleep parameters such as deep sleep (3NREM) (r=5980, p=0.001) and REM sleep (r=4281, p=0.21), as well as a negative correlation with the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as measured by the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and the desaturation index (DI) (r=-0.7603, p=<0.000; r=- 0.4601, p=0.12). Conclusion: Our findings support the hypothesis that there is a decrease in klotho anti-aging levels in patients with OSA. This may contribute to premature aging.. The study revealed a positive correlation between the klotho protein and indicators of sleep patterns, as well as a negative relationship between this protein and the main trigger mechanism of intermittent hypoxia. This suggests that OSA can influence the processes of early and accelerated cellular aging.

Speaker: Irina M. Madaeva, MD, PhD, is a Head of Irkutsk Somnological center, chief researcher of somnological and neurophysiological department of Federal State Public «Scientific Center for Family Health and Human Reproduction Problems», Irkutsk , Russia. She obtained her Ph.D. (1994) and D.Sc. (2009) in sleep medicine. Research interests include relationship between aging and sleep, modifying factors of sleep disorders, molecular mechanisms of sleep disorders, melatonin circadian rhythms, ethnic aspects of sleep disorders. Madaeva I.M. is scientific supervision of 7 scientific theses. She is member of World Association of Sleep Medicine. She is the Heard of Scientific Committee of Russian Society of Sleep Medicine . She is author more than 200 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, from them 162 publications in bases Web of Sciences and Scopus, Q 1-2.