Treatment with vitamin C dissolves toxic protein aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease
The brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease contain lumps of so-called amyloid plaques which consist of misfolded protein aggregates. They cause nerve cell death in the brain and the first nerves to be attacked are the ones in the brain’s memory centre.
“When we treated brain tissue from mice suffering from Alzheimer’s disease with vitamin C, we could see that the toxic protein aggregates were dissolved. Our results show a previously unknown model for how vitamin C affects the amyloid plaques”, says Katrin Mani, reader in Molecular Medicine at Lund University.
“Another interesting finding is that the useful vitamin C does not need to come from fresh fruit. In our experiments, we show that the vitamin C can also be absorbed in larger quantities in the form of dehydroascorbic acid from juice that has been kept overnight in a refrigerator, for example”.
There is at present no treatment that cures Alzheimer’s disease, but the research is aimed at treatments and methods to delay and alleviate the progression of the disease by addressing the symptoms.
That antioxidants such as vitamin C have a protective effect against a number of diseases, from the common cold to heart attacks and dementia, has long been a current focus of research.
“The notion that vitamin C can have a positive effect on Alzheimer’s disease is controversial, but our results open up new opportunities for research into Alzheimer’s and the possibilities offered by vitamin C”, says Katrin Mani.
Katrin Mani, MD, PhD, Reader, tel: +46 (0)46 222 40 77, mobile: +46 (0)70-295 86 22, email: katrin.mani@med.lu.se
Article: Suppression of amyloid beta A11-immunoreactivity by vitamin C: possible role of heparan sulfate oligosaccharides derived from glypican-1 by ascorbate-induced, NO-catalyzed degradation.
Fang Cheng, Roberto Cappai, G.D. Ciccotosto, Gabriel Svensson, Gerd Multhaup, Lars-Åke Fransson and Katrin Mani. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 286, 27559-27572, 2011.
Press contact: Megan Grindlay
Phone: +46 (0)46-222 73 08
Megan.Grindlay@er.lu.se
Media Contact
All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry
Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.
Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.
Newest articles
Trotting robots reveal emergence of animal gait transitions
A four-legged robot trained with machine learning by EPFL researchers has learned to avoid falls by spontaneously switching between walking, trotting, and pronking – a milestone for roboticists as well…
Innovation promises to prevent power pole-top fires
Engineers in Australia have found a new way to make power-pole insulators resistant to fire and electrical sparking, promising to prevent dangerous pole-top fires and reduce blackouts. Pole-top fires pose…
Possible alternative to antibiotics produced by bacteria
Antibacterial substance from staphylococci discovered with new mechanism of action against natural competitors. Many bacteria produce substances to gain an advantage over competitors in their highly competitive natural environment. Researchers…
