3 Promising Antioxidants in Treating LBD and MSA

[Guest guest]

A medical journal article was recently published; the details are:

" Antioxidant Compounds Have Potent Anti-Fibrillogenic and Fibril-

Destabilizing Effects for Alpha-Synuclein Fibrils In Vitro "

by K. Ono and M. Yamada in Kanazawa, Japan

Journal of Neurochemistry

April 2006

Here are a few excerpts from the abstract:

" The aggregation of alpha-synuclein (alphaS) in the brain has been

implicated as a critical step in the development of Lewy body

diseases (LBD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). Various

antioxidants not only inhibit the formation of beta-amyloid fibrils

(fAbeta), but also destabilize preformed fAb in vitro....These

compounds with anti-fibrillogenic as well as antioxidant activities

could be key molecules for the development of preventives and

therapeutics for LBD and MSA as well as Alzheimer's disease. "

(You can find the abstract by going to pubmed.gov and entering in

#16524383 in the " Search for " field.)

That's about as much of the article as I could comprehend, and while

I got the general meaning of those three sentences, I certainly

didn't comprehend the details. Fortunately there are bright people

out there to tell us what this all means!

Debby is the moderator of an MSA email list where I

occasionally " lurk. " She posted the following on the article by

Japanese researchers:

" (Another list member named) sent me a link to a very

interesting article exploring the role of antioxidants in preventing

and treating (LBD), MSA, PD, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Kudos to for detecting the significance of an article

titled " Antioxidant Compounds Have Potent Anti-Fibrillogenic and

Fibril-Destabilizing Effects for Alpha-Synuclein Fibrils In Vitro " !

(The article is)...a pretty heavy basic science read. The bottom

line, as distilled by and me, is that laboratory science

suggests that certain anti-oxidants have strong promise in preventing

and treating MSA and similar diseases. This article, which comes from

a Japanese team that has been working and publishing in the area for

several years, suggests that the most promising anti-oxidants are:

tannic acid (found in tea), curcumin (in the spice cumin, used

heavily in Indian cooking), and rosmarinic acid (from rosemary

leaves). points out that Alzheimer's rates in India are one

quarter of the rates in the U.S., lending some additional credence to

the protective role of cumin. "

According to a separate article I scanned tonight, the " top 8

antioxidants " are: garlic, vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids (most

sources of this antioxidant are vegetables and fruits, such as

tomatoes), polyphenols (most sources of this antioxidant are fruits

and vegetables, such as grapes, tea, and berries), alpha lipoic acid

(ALA), coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), and gingko.

Recently, posted about the use of ALA in treating dementia.

Recent articles on the NIH study on neuroprotective factors in PD

have mentioned CoQ10.