Reporting in the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, David Teplow, a UCLA professor of neurology, and colleagues show how naturally occurring compounds in red wine called polyphenols block the formation of proteins that build the toxic plaques thought to destroy brain cells, and further, how they reduce the toxicity of existing plaques, thus reducing cognitive deterioration.
According to a report, Teplow said his team discovered that polyphenols block the formation of toxic aggregates of amyloid beta-proteins and decrease the toxicity when polyphenols are combined with amyloid beta before it was added to brain cells.
"What we found is pretty straightforward," Teplow said in a statement. "If the amyloid beta proteins can't assemble, toxic aggregates can't form and thus there is no toxicity."
The work has been going on in the laboratory with mice so far. Human clinical trials are next. "No disease-modifying treatments of Alzheimer's now exist, and initial clinical trials of a number of different candidate drugs have been disappointing," Teplow said. "So we believe that this is an important next step."1q |