(Press-News.org) COLUMBIA, Mo. -- According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Alzheimer's disease (AD) may affect as many as 5.5 million Americans. Scientists currently are seeking treatments and therapies found in common foods that will help stave off the disease or prevent it completely. Now, University of Missouri researchers have determined that a compound found in green tea, and voluntary exercise, slows the progression of the disease in mice and may reverse its effects. Further study of the commonly found extract could lead to advancements in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease in humans.
"In Alzheimer's patients, amyloid-beta peptide (A-beta) can accumulate and clump together causing amyloid plaques in the brain," said Todd Schachtman, professor of psychological sciences in the College of Arts and Science at MU. "Symptoms can include increased memory loss and confusion, agitation and a lack of concern for your environment and surroundings. We looked at ways of preventing or postponing the onset of the disease which we hope can eventually lead to an improvement of health status and quality of life for the elderly."
Increases in inflammation have been linked to Alzheimer's disease patients and recent studies have suggested the benefits of dietary antioxidants in reducing the risk of AD. Based on previous research conducted at Mizzou, researchers decided to investigate the effects of voluntary exercise and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a green tea extract, on memory function and A-beta levels in mice known to show plaque deposits and behavior deficits.
First, mice were placed in the center of a specialized maze and allowed to move around with the aim of finding the right hole, or "goal box." Schachtman and his research team, including Jennifer Walker, a graduate student in psychology, and Agnes Simonyi, research associate professor in biochemistry, watched the mice to determine whether or not they could find the goal box, demonstrating memory and cognition.
In the second test, small "nestlets," or squares containing materials to create nests, were placed in the habitats for different groups of mice. A day later, nests were scored based on shape and the amount of material used.
"Mice exhibiting symptoms of the disease had nests that were poorly formed or erratic," said Schachtman. "Further, we found that mice with Alzheimer's symptoms, much like people, can be apathetic about their habitat, or have forgotten how to 'nest' appropriately."
Researchers then administered EGCG in the drinking water of the mice and gave them access to running or exercise wheels. After re-administering the maze and nesting tests, they found remarkable improvements in the cognitive function and retention in the Alzheimer's affected mice that were given EGCG and were allowed to exercise.
Finally, a team of biochemists led by Grace Sun, professor emerita of biochemistry in the School of Medicine and the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at MU, and including Walker and Deepa Ajit, a postdoctoral fellow, analyzed mouse brain tissues to determine the effects of EGCG and exercise on A-beta levels in affected regions of the brain.
"Oral administration of the extract, as well as voluntary exercise, improved some of the behavioral manifestations and cognitive impairments of Alzheimer's," said Sun, who also serves as the director of the Alzheimer's Disease Program at MU funded by the National Institutes of Health. "We also are excited to see a decrease in A-beta levels in the brains of the affected mice as well as improvements in behavior deficits in mice with AD."
Consumption of natural products as potential remedies to prevent and treat diseases and to maintain human health is an ancient one, said Sun. Future studies of green tea extracts and other botanicals, also known as nutraceuticals, are being explored at MU and through collaborations with other international institutions.
INFORMATION:
The study, "Beneficial Effects of Dietary EGCG and Voluntary Exercise on Behavior in an Alzheimer's Disease Mouse Model," was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease with grant funding from the National Institute of Aging (AG018357) and NCCAM/ODS/NCI (AT006273). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of either funding agency.
Editor's Note: Sun has been invited to serve as a plenary speaker at the Nutraceuticals in Neurodegeneration and Aging Conference in Singapore in August 2015. More details may be found here: http://www.neuroscience.org.sg/conference/
(NEW YORK - May 4) Applying palliative care principles to emergency departments may reduce the number of geriatric patients admitted to intensive care units, possibly extending lives and reducing Medicare costs, according to a three-year analysis by Mount Sinai researchers set to be published in the May edition of Health Affairs, which can be found online.
"Data show that more than half of Americans ages 65 and older are seen in the emergency department in the last month of their lives, and that the number and rate of admissions to intensive care units among older adults ...
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- People with depression or bipolar disorder often feel their thinking ability has gotten "fuzzy", or less sharp than before their symptoms began. Now, researchers have shown in a very large study that effect is indeed real - and rooted in brain activity differences that show up on advanced brain scans.
What's more, the results add to the mounting evidence that these conditions both fall on a spectrum of mood disorders, rather than being completely unrelated. That could transform the way doctors and patients think about, diagnose and treat them.
In ...
Premature birth can alter the connectivity between key areas of the brain, according to a new study led by King's College London. The findings should help researchers to better understand why premature birth is linked to a greater risk of neurodevelopmental problems, including autistic spectrum disorders and attention deficit disorders.
The NIHR-funded study, published in the journal PNAS, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at specific connections in the brains of 66 infants, 47 of whom were born before 33 weeks and were therefore at high risk ...
PITTSBURGH, May 4, 2015 -- A study team led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who used specially developed technologies to "follow the zinc" have uncovered a previously unknown pathway the brain uses to fine-tune neural signaling -- and that may play a role in Alzheimer's and other diseases. Their findings appear online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists have long observed the presence of bubble-like vesicles that contain the neurotransmitter glutamate and zinc at the synapses, specialized contacts ...
In the mountains of Virginia, millipedes have bright yellow and black colors to warn enemies that they are toxic and not worth eating. Their cousins in California convey this warning in a very different way -- by glowing in the dark.
But bioluminescence at least in one millipede may have evolved as a way to survive in a hot, dry environment, not as a means to ward off predators, according to scientists publishing this week (Monday, May 4) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The discovery, based on a millipede that hadn't been seen in 50 years, shows ...
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. - May 4, 2015 - The May issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), features a meta-analysis pointing to botulinum toxin A as a possible obesity treatment; a study reporting that, in some cases, it may be safe to store endoscopes longer than five days after reprocessing; and an article reviewing a promising group of procedures for patients with advanced illness from gastric obstruction.
"Effect of intragastric injection of botulinum toxin A for ...
Scooting around in the shallow, coastal waters of Puget Sound is one of the world's best suction cups.
It's called the Northern clingfish, and its small, finger-sized body uses suction forces to hold up to 150 times its own body weight. These fish actually hold on better to rough surfaces than to smooth ones, putting to shame industrial suction devices that give way with the slightest uneven surface.
Researchers at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island are studying this quirky little fish to understand how it can summon such massive ...
A recent study reported in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine compared use of the novel Ga-68-PSMA-ligand PET/CT with other imaging methods and found that it had substantially higher detection rates of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in patients with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy. Discovering a recurrence early can strongly influence further clinical management, so it is especially noteworthy that this hybrid PSMA-ligand identified a large number of positive findings in the clinically important range of low PSA-values ( END ...
ITHACA, N.Y. - As greater atmospheric carbon dioxide boosts sea temperatures, tropical corals face a bleak future. New climate model projections show that conditions are likely to increase the frequency and severity of coral disease outbreaks, reports a team of researchers led by Cornell University scientists, published today (May 4) in Nature Climate Change.
Download study, FAQ and photos: https://cornell.box.com/coral-disease
Conserving coral reefs is crucial to maintaining the biodiversity of our oceans and sustaining the livelihoods of the 500 million people that ...
A new study published in Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), shows double-digit revenue growth for firms that create their own brand-specific online communities.
The study, Social Dollars: The Economic Impact of Customer Participation in a Firm-Sponsored Online Customer Community, is by professors Puneet Manchanda of the University of Michigan, Grant Packard of Wilfrid Laurier University, and Adithya Pattabhiramaiah of the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Engaging consumers through online social ...
