Two Mediterranean Plants Might Help Fight Symptoms of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's

It is esti­mated that roughly 44 mil­lion peo­ple have Alzheimer’s world­wide. The global cost of Alzheimer’s and demen­tia amounts to $605 bil­lion, which is equiv­a­lent to one per­cent of the world’s gross domes­tic prod­uct (GDP). Just in the U.S., Alzheimer’s remains the sixth-lead­ing cause of death, with those afflicted with it pro­gres­sively los­ing their sense of self as all their basic cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties decline until they may not even be able to per­form rou­tine tasks.

On the other hand, Parkinson’s dis­ease, though not as fatal as Alzheimer’s, causes tremors, rigid­ity, bradyki­ne­sia and pos­tural insta­bil­ity to 6.3 mil­lion around the globe. People may need a wheel­chair or become bedrid­den upon the pro­gres­sion of the dis­ease.

Both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s dis­eases are clas­si­fied as late-onset dis­or­ders that share a com­mon char­ac­ter­is­tic: they are caused by the accu­mu­la­tion of gluey pro­tein clumps that viti­ate the ner­vous sys­tem over the course of time, strik­ing a blow to mobil­ity or mem­ory mech­a­nisms.

Cures for the two dis­eases have proved elu­sive, prompt­ing researchers to think out of the box. Now, two groups from Malta and France have found that Mediterranean flora might be an ally in the fight against neu­ro­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases.

Scientists from the University of Malta and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS/University of Bordeaux) who have long been screen­ing plants indige­nous to the Mediterranean basin in search of small mol­e­cules that inter­fere with the build-up of toxic pro­tein aggre­gates, have just dis­cov­ered that two Mediterranean plants, namely the prickly pear and brown sea­weed, can improve the symp­toms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“Most neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases are char­ac­ter­ized by the accu­mu­la­tion of sticky pro­tein clumps that are toxic to the brain,” Ruben J. Cauchi, senior lec­turer at the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry at the University of Malta, and lead author of the study that was pub­lished in the January issue of the jour­nal Neuroscience Letters.

“We found that both prickly pear and brown sea­weed have chem­i­cals that ren­der the pro­tein clumps less toxic, thereby ame­lio­rat­ing dis­ease symp­toms,” Cauchi told Olive Oil Times.

The research team first ran tests to deter­mine the effect of the plant extracts on brew­er’s yeast fraught with beta-amy­loid pro­tein clumps, which are typ­i­cal of Alzheimer’s dis­ease. After receiv­ing the plant chem­i­cals, the yeast’s health picked up, and the sci­en­tists thought the next log­i­cal step would be to eval­u­ate the chem­i­cals on fruit flies genet­i­cally mod­i­fied to develop Alzheimer’s symp­toms.

When fruit flies were treated only with sea­weed extract, they exceeded their median lifes­pan by two days. When prickly pear extract was given to them, their lives were extended by four days more. Taking into account that one day in the life of a fruit fly is tan­ta­mount to one year in humans, the results were sig­nif­i­cant, with even the mobil­ity of fruit flies ame­lio­rated by about 18 per­cent after treat­ment.

Apart from beta-amy­loid pro­tein clumps, the team found that prickly pear and brown sea­weed extracts inter­fered with the aggre­ga­tion of alpha-synu­clein pro­tein, a sticky pro­tein indica­tive of Parkinson’s: the plant-derived sub­stances pro­longed the lifes­pan of flies with brains laden with alpha-synu­clein by pro­duc­ing clumps less toxic to neu­rons, like what they did in the case of beta-amy­loid clumps.

“We still don’t know the exact nature of these chem­i­cals but we hope to find out soon,” said Cauchi. ​“What we know is that the chem­i­cals we stud­ied are presently incor­po­rated in nutri­tional sup­ple­ments taken by sports­men to reduce stress as well as cos­met­ics, includ­ing anti-aging creams. Our results extend the ben­e­fi­cial prop­er­ties of chem­i­cals derived from both prickly pear and brown sea­weed.”

The next step is to see if the results are con­firmed in clin­i­cal tri­als.

“Evolution has equipped plants with chem­i­cals to ensure their sur­vival. It there­fore makes sense that humans look at nature for inspi­ra­tion to attack dis­ease,” the researcher said. An inspi­ra­tion the Mediterranean can instill not only into poets and vaca­tion­ers but increas­ingly in sci­ence pio­neers as well.

• Ruben J. Cauchi


• Neuroscience Letters