(Press-News.org) Irvine, Calif. — UC Irvine researchers have discovered that markedly depleted amounts of an omega-3 fatty acid in brain tissue samples from Alzheimer's patients may be due to the liver's inability to produce the complex fat, also contained in fish-oil supplements.
Low levels of docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, have been associated with the chronic neurodegenerative disease affecting millions of Americans, but no cause had been identified.
In postmortem liver tissue from Alzheimer's patients, the UCI team found a defect in the organ's ability to make DHA from shorter molecules present in leafy plants and other foods. Previous studies have shown that most brain DHA is manufactured in the liver.
Non-Alzheimer's livers did not have this defect, said Daniele Piomelli, the Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences and director of the Center for Drug Discovery at UCI, who led the research with Giuseppe Astarita, project scientist in pharmacology.
"We all know Alzheimer's is a brain disease, but our findings – which were totally unexpected – show that a problem with liver fat metabolism can make people more vulnerable," Piomelli said. "They also suggest a reason why clinical trials in which Alzheimer's patients are given omega-3 fatty acids to improve cognitive skills have had mixed results."
The study appears Sept. 8 in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE.
DHA occurs naturally in cold-water fatty fish and seaweed. It is essential for the proper functioning of adult human brains and for the development of our nervous system and vision during the first six months of life. Omega-3 fatty acids are also part of a healthy diet that helps lower risk of heart disease.
"Additionally, we found that the greater the amount of Alzheimer's-related cognitive problems experienced in life by the patients, the lower were their liver DHA levels," Astarita said. "So we do see a connection."
Piomelli added that the results point to new diagnostic and dietary approaches to Alzheimer's: Specific blood lipid profile tests might identify at-risk persons, and dietary supplements with a chemically enhanced form of DHA may benefit early-stage patients.
"Our research isn't advocating that liver metabolism is a key to Alzheimer's," he noted. "The factors causing the disease are many and complex, but we feel this is another piece in the Alzheimer's puzzle."
###
Carl Cotman, Kwang-Mook Jung, Nicole C. Berchtold, Vinh Q. Nguyen and Daniel L. Gillen of UCI's Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders contributed to the study, along with Elizabeth Head of the University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging.
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UCI is among the most dynamic campuses in the University of California system, with nearly 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,000 staff. Orange County's largest employer, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.9 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.
News Radio: UCI maintains on campus an ISDN line for conducting interviews with its faculty and experts. Use of this line is available for a fee to radio news programs/stations that wish to interview UCI faculty and experts. Use of the ISDN line is subject to availability and approval by the university.
UCI maintains an online directory of faculty available as experts to the media. To access, visit www.today.uci.edu/experts. For UCI breaking news, visit www.zotwire.uci.edu.
END
Ghent, 9 September 2010 – Factoring the planet's multi-trillion dollar ecosystem services into policy-making can help save cities and regional authorities money while boosting the local economy, enhancing quality of life, securing livelihoods and generating employment.
This is the finding from a major international study, launched in a report by TEEB for Local and Regional Policy Makers, being released in Belgium, Brazil, India, Japan and South Africa.
In the Framework of the Belgian Presidency of the European Union, the Flemish Ministry of Environment, Nature and ...
University Park, Pa. -- Repeal of birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants would expand the nation's unauthorized population by at least 5 million over the next decade, according to a new report from the Migration Policy Institute.
The report's principal author is Jennifer Van Hook, professor of sociology and demographics at Penn State and non-resident fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based institute.
"While some are discussing an end to birthright citizenship as a means to reduce illegal immigration," Van Hook said, "repeal of birthright ...
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Armed with a decade's worth of satellite data, University of Illinois atmospheric scientists have documented some surprising trends in aerosol pollution concentration, distribution and composition over the Indian subcontinent.
In addition to environmental impact, aerosol pollution, or tiny particles suspended in the air, can be detrimental to human health by causing a range of respiratory problems. Aerosols can come from natural sources, such as dust and pollen carried on the wind, but the most hazardous aerosols are generated by human activity – soot ...
PHILADELPHIA –- University of Pennsylvania biologists studying human reproduction have identified what is likely the major contributing factor to the maternal age-associated increase in aneuploidy, the term for an abnormal number of chromosomes during reproductive cell division.
Using naturally aging mouse models, researchers showed that this basic fact of reproductive life is most likely caused by weakened chromosome cohesion. Older oocytes, or egg cells, have dramatically reduced amounts of a protein, REC8, that is essential for chromosomes to segregate correctly ...
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The U.S. economy is experiencing anemic growth, yet businesses are sitting on a mountain of cash worth nearly $2 trillion, according to Federal Reserve estimates. But this trend is nothing new for firms, who have been steadily increasing their cash holdings over the past three decades, a University of Illinois business professor says.
Finance professor Heitor Almeida says the fact that businesses are stuffing corporate piggy banks with spare cash for the proverbial "rainy day" is unrelated to the belt-tightening brought about by the continuing financial ...
Each year in August, the aptly named town of Twinsburg, Ohio, is the site of the largest official gathering of twins in the world. Open to all multiples — identical and fraternal twins, triplets and quads from newborns to octogenarians — the weekend's events include food, live entertainment, a golf tournament, and a twins' parade.
The event also has become an important site for field research by Kevin Bowyer and Patrick Flynn of the University of Notre Dame's Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Flynn has a twin sister, making this research especially relevant ...
An article just published in the scientific journal 'Osteoporosis International' introduces a validated new model that can be used to describe the current and future burden of postmenopausal osteoporosis in different national settings.
The model, published by researchers from the UK on behalf of the International Osteoporosis Foundation's Committee of Scientific Advisors, was developed and validated using Swedish data. It can be used to forecast the incidence and prevalence of fractures not only by age and calendar year, but also by BMD category. It provides a high degree ...
MIAMI — September 8, 2010 -- Operational forecasting centers produce climate predictions that provide input for important decisions regarding water management, agriculture, and energy. "Assessment of Intraseasonal to Interannual Climate Prediction and Predictability", a new report from the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, examines current capabilities for making climate predictions -- such as seasonal hurricane or longer-term drought forecasts -- and identifies opportunities for improvement.
The report finds that operational forecast centers could ...
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — One of the antibiotics most commonly prescribed to treat adolescent acne can increase attention spans and communication and decrease anxiety in patients with fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental impairment, according to a new survey study that is the first published on parents' reports of their children's responses to treatment with the medication.
Led by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute, the study examined parents' observations of their children's responses to minocycline — not the efficacy of treating patients ...
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Treating intensive care patients who develop life-threatening bacterial infections, or septicemia, with insulin potentially could reduce their chances of succumbing to the infection, if results of a new preliminary study can be replicated in a larger study.
A paper published online ahead of print in Diabetes Care reports that insulin lowered the amount of inflammation and oxidative stress in study participants who had been injected with a common bacteria, or endotoxin, known as LPS (lipopolysaccharide).
The study was conducted by University at Buffalo ...
