Blog Posts

Could a diet high in L-serine stave of Alzheimer's disease till late in life?

2/19/2018

The WKU Herald is reporting a story about ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox whose research looking at the Ogimi people of rural Japan, suggests that a diet high in the amino acid L-serine may provide neuroprotection and even delay Alzheimer’s disease onset until very late in life. According to Cox “If we dose early, we can push off Alzheimer’s until you’re 115 to 120 years old,” According to the article, the "standard Ogimi diet consists of various types of seaweed, tofu and pork, and is the highest diet ever measured in L-serine". So should you load up on L-serine? Not so fast, but you may want to follow the clinical trials that are underway at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Link to original story on WKU Herald website.

Link to FDA website for clinical Trial

Cadmium exposure and Alzheimer's disease: could there be an association?

1/28/2018

An association between cadmium exposure and cognitive deficits in mice has been reported by Wang an colleagues. Exposure to cadmium was associated with impaired performance on hippocampus-dependent learning and memory tasks. An association between urinary cadmium levels and AD risk in human subjects has previously been reported by Peng and colleagues. Peng and colleagues suggested that toxicological studies were need to further elucidate their findings in humans. This new study in mice lends support to the hypothesis that there could be an interaction between these two factors shown to influence cognitive performance.

Link to Peng et al, 2017

Link to Wang et al, 2018

There are still no therapeutic interventions to prevent Alzheimer's

12/27/2017

An article by Denis Thompson of Daily Health News which appears this month on WebMd calls our attention to the unfortunate fact that despite the billions of dollars and years of time spent on research, medical science has still not discovered any way to prevent or stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Many genes and proteins have been implicated in the disease and yet known of these has been found to be a druggable target suitable for effective disease prevention. The good news is that exercise and lifestyle changes may at least help to slow disease progression and delay onset.

Link to story on WedMD

Smoking associated with an older age-at-onset of Parkinson's Disease

11/14/2017

The results of a new study by Gigante and colleagues (2017) published in the journal Parkinsonism & Related Disorders indicates that smoking is associated with an older in age-at-onset of motor signs in patients with Parkinson's disease. These new findings are consistent with our own also showing an older age at onset of PD among ever smokers (see Ratner et al. 2014). These data provide additional support for the hypothesis that exposure to chemicals can modify the progression of PD to influence age at onset of the disease.

Link to original article in PubMed

Estrogen provides neuroprotection from ALS

10/17/2017

Neurology Advisor is reporting on recent findings by Rooney and colleagues published in the journal Neurology which suggest that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) provides protection against ALS. This large case control study investigated subjects from Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands. It is important to recognize that the most common form of HRT currently in use contains conjugated equine estrogens. Animal models suggest that estradiol (E2) provides neuroprotection (Groeneveld et al., 2004). Future studies will be needed to ascertain if E2 provides greater neuroprotection than estrone (E1) in female human subjects.

Link to original story in Neurology Advisor

Link to citation in Pubmed

Treating Parkinson's with antioxidants early in disease process may slow disease progression

9/12/2017

Dr. Dimitri Krainc, the Aaron Montgomery Ward Professor and chair of neurology at Northwestern University and Dr. Lena Burbulla, a postdoctoral fellow in his laboratory, have shown that administration of antioxidants early in the disease process may break the degenerative cycle and improve neuronal function in Parkinson's disease. These authors identified a time-dependent pathological cascade in human neurons that begins with an increase in mitochondrial oxidative stress leading to accumulation of oxidized dopamine followed by lysosomal dysfunction and α-synuclein accumulation. This neuropathological toxic cascade was not observed in mouse model PD neurons. These results are consistent with my own research suggesting that compounds that increase oxidative stress have the potential to hasten disease progression resulting in a younger age at onset of disease. Most importantly, these observations point to an opportunity to slow subclinical disease onset through early changes in lifestyle such as avoiding exposure to toxic chemicals that increase oxidative stress.

Link to Original Story in Science Daily

Link to Article in Science

Did Glen Campbell's struggle with alcohol and drug abuse cause his Alzheimer’s disease?

8/17/2017

According to Glen Campbell's doctor Ronald Petersen in an interview with Today.com, saying alcohol or drug abuse caused Alzheimer’s disease is probably stretching it, "because it would mean that alcohol or drug usage actually leads to the development of plaques and tangles in the brain, and we clearly don’t know that". On the other hand, Petersen said, "severe alcohol use and certain drug behaviors can compromise the brain’s resilience. If we’ve had certain insults over our life — be it alcohol, drugs or head injuries — that may reduce the ability of the brain to compensate for the development of either aging or Alzheimer’s-type pathology. Other people who have not had those kinds insults might be able to compensate — their brains might be more plastic, more resilient — and stay functional at a higher level for a longer period."

Link to original story on Today.com

Another study reveals an association between occupational pesticide exposure and Parkinson's disease

8/15/2017

A team of researchers from UCLA has reported on an association between occupational pesticide exposure and increased risk for PD. The study known as the Parkinson Environment Gene (PEG) study showed that risk was increased with occupational exposure to various classes of pesticides, indicating that no specific chemical but rather a shared mechanism of action may be involved. Unfortunately, this study lacked the statistical power to examine gene-pesticide interactions. Risk increased with increasing years of pesticide use, and job tasks resulting in the highest exposures to pesticides such as mixing and loading pesticides. These new findings are consistent with those reported by Ratner et al., 2015 and lend further support to the growing body of literature indicating that PD risk is modified by chemical exposures at concentrations that typically occur in occupational settings and that there is a dose response relationship between exposure and disease risk.

Link to study on PubMed

Grenfell fire survivors may be at increased risk for Alzheimer's Disease

6/30/2017

Professor Chris Exley, of Keele University is warning that survivors of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in London were exposed to airborne aluminum which may increase their risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) later in life. Although aluminum is toxic and was once thought to cause AD subsequent research has not supported the hypothesis that aluminum cause AD. Neuropathological findings have been reported in a patient exposed to aluminum in Camelford, Cornwall where 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate was mistakenly discharged into the mains water supply (King et al., 2017). Bioaccumulation of aluminum in the brain has been associated with dialysis encephalopathy (Andrade et al., 2005). Increase aluminum concentration observed in brain tissue from subjects with familial Alzheimer's disease has rekindled the debate about the role this neurotoxic metal may play in this devastating neurodegenerative disease (MIzra et al., 2017).

Link to oringal story in Hippocratic Post

More Data Implicating the Role of Oxidative Stress in Parkinson's Disease

5/31/2017

According to a new study, entitled "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-like superoxide dismutase 1 proteinopathy is associated with neuronal loss in Parkinson’s disease brain" by Dr. Kay Double and colleagues at the University of Sydney, Australia, the SOD1 which has been implicated in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis mayday also play a role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s Disease.

The story also quotes Dr. Double, who said, "We believe this loss of neurons results from a combination of oxidative stress [cell damage] and a regional deficiency in copper, both of which occur specifically in vulnerable regions of the Parkinson’s disease brain."

These data and others continue to implicate genetic and environmental factors that contribute to oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease and emphasize the need for identifying those at risk early when efforts to reduce oxidative stress have the greatest potential to slow subclinical disease progression and forestall the emergence of debilitating clinically overt symptoms.

Link to original story by Dr. Joana Fernandes in Parkinson's News Today

Link to original per reviewed article.

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