| Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease at the University of California, Berkeley, California, report that resveratrol, a red wine molecule, activates the Sirtuin 1 gene which inhibits inflammation in brain tissue that leads to Alzheimer’s disease. A toxic form of beta amyloid plaque can form in the brain, robbing older adults of their memory and other faculties. Resveratrol inhibits this process indirectly by inhibiting inflammation in glial cells that surround brain cells (neurons). Small glial cells, called microglia, which are the protector immune cells of the brain, can produce an inflammatory protein (NF-kappa B) which resveratrol strongly inhibits. Without resveratrol, amyloid plaque activates the inflammatory factors in the microglia, which turns them into powerful neuron killing machines. |
