ResveratrolConsumer
avert online
consumer fraud
ResveratrolQuiz
test your knowledge
New E-Book
How the world got lost on
the road to an anti-aging pill
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive email notifications when new articles are posted.
April 16, 2015: by Bill Sardi
Researchers announce in the Journal of Neuroscience that the use of a small synthetic molecule drug (difluoromethylornithine or DFMO) improves memory in laboratory mice by virtue of its ability to inhibit arginase, an enzyme that degrades the amino acid arginine. [MedicalXpress]
In 2009 researchers began to explore the role that a shortage of the amino acid arginine plays in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Arginine plays many roles in the body, enhancing immunity, controlling insulin activity and reducing inflammation, but arginine is largely known as the precursor for nitric oxide gas, a dilator (widener) of blood vessels.
Researchers recognized that arginase, the breakdown enzyme for arginine, may impair the biological action of arginine with advancing age leading to Alzheimer’s-like memory loss. [International Journal Clinical Experimental Pathology 2009; Biology Trace Element Research 2009] A gene mutation that results in greater arginase activity has been linked with Alzheimer’s disease. [Journal Alzheimer’s Disease 2010]
By the year 2011 researchers began to further explore the relationship between arginine and Alzheimer’s disease. They observed that when the memory-erasing drug scopolamine is given to laboratory rats that arginase, the enzyme that breaks down arginine, is greatly activated while nitric oxide gas activity is diminished which coincides with impaired memory. [Neuropharmacology Dec 2011]
Subsequent study revealed arginine metabolism is greatly altered in the regions of the brain involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. [Neurobiology Aging Sept 2014]
The red wine molecule resveratrol is a natural arginase inhibitor. [American Journal Physiology Lung Cell Molecular Physiology Aug 15, 2014] However, the research community is committed to development of synthetic molecules that generate patents and drive profits. So resveratrol is overlooked.
Another interesting side story to this report is that resveratrol and another similar natural molecule, quercetin, have been found to be effective treatments for a parasitic infection called leishmaniasis by virtue of their ability to inhibit arginase. [Antimicrobial Agents Chemotherapy Oct 2014; Experimental Parasitology March 2012] Leishmania infection is transmitted by sand flies generally in tropical lands.
So it is not surprising to learn that leishmania-infected mice exhibit brain degeneration. [Brain Behavior Immunology Jan 2015] — ©2015 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.
Posted in Resveratrol
Add comments »