The PENSA study concludes with a farewell event for its participants

Conducting more than a year of follow-up with a hundred people, sharing experiences, and achieving goals (solid results published in high-impact journals) leaves its mark. Bonds are forged between volunteers and researchers, and also among the volunteers themselves. This has been the case in the PENSA study, a project co-led by the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), the research centre of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, and the Integrated Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute.

To celebrate this success, on 14 October, at the Sala Josep Marull, an event was held to mark the end of the research and to pay tribute to its protagonists. It was a moment to present the study’s results, with the team led by Dr. Rafael de la Torre, and also to share the latest advances in the field of biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease, presented by Dr. Marc Suárez-Calvet, principal investigator of the Fluid Biomarkers and Translational Neurology Research Group.

Above all, it served to make clear that PENSA does not end here. Thanks to the results obtained, a follow-on phase is beginning with continued cohort follow-up (PENSA+) to consolidate the path opened by the study and broaden its scope.

Combining diet, physical exercise, cognitive training and a green tea compound against dementia

The PENSA study has shown that a multimodal intervention can offer sustained cognitive benefits in people at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Over one year, the more than one hundred participants were divided into groups according to different types of intervention. The programme that delivered the best results combined a lifestyle-improvement intervention with epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a compound found in green tea. Almost half of these participants improved their cognition. Moreover, these benefits were maintained after the end of the treatment.