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Green tea and red wine extracts interrupt Alzheimer's

Green Tea and Red Wine Extracts interrupts Alzheimer's Disease Path...

Natural chemicals found in green tea and red wine may disrupt a key step of the Alzheimer's disease pathway, according to new research...

... the researchers identified the process which allows harmful clumps of protein to latch on to brain cells, causing them to die. They were able to interrupt this pathway using the purified extracts of EGCG from green tea and resveratrol from red wine.

... "When we added the extracts from red wine and green tea, which recent research has shown to re-shape amyloid proteins, the amyloid balls no longer harmed the nerve cells. We saw that this was because their shape was distorted, so they could no longer bind to prion and disrupt cell function.

"We also showed, for the first time, that when amyloid balls stick to prion, it triggers the production of even more amyloid, in a deadly vicious cycle," he added. [emphasis mine]

Tags: Alzheimer's, ECGC, green tea, red wine, resveratrol

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lillie on February 8, 2013 at 11:18pm

Thanks, Ruth. This is a very hopeful article. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and I have always had a terrible fear of getting it.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on February 9, 2013 at 12:14am

Yeah, when I read this I was relieved that I drink lots of green tea and take resveratrol. Maybe I don't have to worry quite as much.

Permalink Reply by Grinning Cat on February 9, 2013 at 12:30am

I resemble that remark! :) (You're the one who suggested resveratrol to me, in fact.)

One of my favorite vehicles for the caffeine, theanine, and general pleasure of green tea:

I call it the Jewish mother's ("eat") after-dinner ("ate") tea mug.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on March 6, 2013 at 11:28am

New research shows that the ECGC in green tea prevents metal-associated amyloid from misfolding.

Green Tea Extract Interferes With the Formation of Amyloid Plaques ...

Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain.

The aggregation of these proteins, called metal-associated amyloids, is associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The specific molecule in green tea, ( -- )-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, also known as EGCG, prevented aggregate formation and broke down existing aggregate structures in the proteins that contained metals -- specifically copper, iron and zinc.