Dietary supplement against Parkinson's?

Researchers at Tel Aviv University discovered that a well-known nutritional supplement may be effective against degenerative diseases of the brain and nervous system

In a recent study conducted at the Tel Aviv University School of Medicine, the researchers: Prof. Gil Ast and Dr. Ron Buchner, discovered that phosphatidylserine, a well-known nutritional supplement sold in every Teva store, improves the function of genes involved in degenerative diseases such as familial dysautonomia and Parkinson's.

"The phosphatidyl serine, which is extracted from soy or oysters, is recognized as a substance that inhibits dementia, and is approved for use by the American Drug Authority (FDA)," says Prof. Gil Ast, who serves as the head of the department of human genetics and biochemistry at the School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, "We tested the effect of the supplement on the gene involved in familial dysautonomia, a severe genetic disease that causes a wide range of symptoms. Our findings suggested that the supplement has a wider potential: it may also be effective against other diseases associated with the degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and nervous system, such as Parkinson's."

The research was published on April 1.4.2013, XNUMX in the scientific journal Human Molecular Genetics.

an orphan disease

Prof. Ast's laboratory investigates the genetic aspects of familial dysautonomia. "It is a disease of the peripheral nervous system, caused by a point mutation in DNA," he explains. "As a result of the mutation, which has already been identified
In 2001, the patients' brains did not produce the essential protein IKAP (whose exact role is still unknown). They are born with about a tenth of the number of neurons a healthy person has, and even these begin to degenerate and die at a young age. Phenomena that usually characterize the third age, such as tremors and instability, can appear in patients with familial dysautonomia already in their teens. And there are also other symptoms, such as vomiting attacks that last for months, resulting from the lack of control over the body's metabolism. About 50% of patients do not reach the age of 40."

Familial dysautonomia is considered an 'orphan disease', which pharmaceutical companies are not interested in investing in, due to the small number of patients. Therefore, in order to advance their research, Prof. Est and his colleagues decided to focus on existing and approved substances, which are already known to improve neural activity. Among other things, they examined the substance phosphatidylserine, which is found in the membranes of nerve cells, and is marketed as a food supplement to delay the decline in long-term memory in the elderly.

In a study conducted in collaboration with Enzymotech, a biotechnology company for nutritional supplements located in the Jezreel Valley, the researchers added phosphatidylserine to cells taken from tissues of familial dysautonomia patients, and multiplied in the laboratory. The findings, published in 2012, showed a significant increase in the normal product of the gene responsible for the disease, and in the normal IKAP protein in these cells.

The healing substance reaches the brain

Dr. Ron Buchner, who is part of the team of researchers in Dr. Ast's laboratory, advanced the research with another step: he engineered mice model for familial dysautonomia, in which a segment of the original gene was replaced with a segment of a human gene containing the mutation for the disease. It turned out that these mice remained healthy and even reproduced, and did not show any symptoms. However, it is possible to find both gene products in their bodies - the normal and the defective.

Dr. Buchner fed the laboratory mice with phosphatidylserine for three months - a relatively long period of time - and then tested the gene products and the IKAP levels in the various tissues of their bodies. "We discovered a significant increase, both in the protein and in the normal product of the gene responsible for the disease, in all tissues of the body, including the brain," he says. "The fact that the improvement was also discovered in the brain is particularly significant. Most of the chemicals we take as medicine enter the bloodstream and reach most parts of the body, but fail to cross the barrier between the blood and the brain. It turns out that this substance manages to reach and affect the nerve cells in the brain itself."

In the next step, Dr. Buchner wanted to examine if and how the phosphatidylserine affects other genes, mainly in the cerebrum, and discovered an interesting and important phenomenon: genes known to be involved in Parkinson's disease reacted to the substance in a particularly strong way, and their expression level in the brain decreased significantly.

"These findings are very encouraging," concludes Prof. Est. "They give us reason to believe that phosphatidylserine can have a beneficial effect on a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. There is an important potential here for the development of future drugs for these serious diseases, which cause great suffering to tens of millions of patients all over the world."