'Wine Pills' That Help to Treat Alzheimer's in the Offing

A new study has found that red grape seeds extract may offer a new treatment option for Alzheimer’s patients.

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that a compound known as polyphenolics derived from red grape seeds may be useful agents to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Scientists believe that the new find would help in developing ’wine mimetic pills’ that would replace the recommended beneficial glass of red wine a day for AD prevention.

"Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive impairments in memory and cognition," said Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti, senior author and Director of the NCCAM-NIH funded Centre of Excellence for Research in Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Alzheimer’s Disease at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

"The study used a naturally derived grape seed polyphenolic extract and demonstrated its efficacy to reduce AD-type A? neuropathology as well as cognitive deterioration in the Tg2576 AD mouse model.

"This natural compound is immediately available to be tested in AD clinical settings to prevent or treat AD," she added.

The team led by Dr. Pasinetti tested the hypothesis that certain molecules contained in red wine, in particular in red grape seeds currently being developed with the name of Meganatural AZ, might offset disease progression in mice genetically modified to develop Alzheimer’ disease.

"Meganatural AZ grape seed extracts significantly reduced Alzheimer’s disease - type cognitive deterioration in the Alzheimer’ disease mice through mechanisms that prevents the formation of a more complex form of a molecule known as amyloid in the brain," said Pasinetti.

"The implications of these studies, however, are not limited to patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, amyloid is present in everyone’s brain and whenever it comes together in a more complex structure it makes the brain to function less efficiently like in Alzheimer’ disease.

As a result, Meganatural AZ compounds’ ability to inhibit the formation of such ’more complex’ amyloid structures suggests that Meganatural AZ from red grapes might even help prevent memory loss in people that did not yet developed Alzheimer’s disease, " she added.

The study was published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Source-ANI
KAR