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| University of Windsor PHD candidate, Krithika Muthukumaran and Professor Siyaram Pandey examine laboratory slides containing a brain section of a mouse with Alzheimer’s disease on May 27, 2016. |
University of Windsor researchers hope an antioxidant called CoQ10 will be shown to prevent Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in humans, now that they’ve proved it has that “amazing” effect on mice and rats.
The research showed that CoQ10 protected the death of brain cells in rodents with those two degenerative brain disorders. The results are “very important,” given the devastating impact these degenerative brain diseases have on victims and their families, and the rapid growth in Alzheimer cases expected in the coming years as the population ages, said Krithika Muthukumaran, a PhD candidate who has worked with CoQ10 for five years under the guidance of biochemistry professor Siyaram Pandey.
“It is not just going to affect the economy of the nations and families, it is going to affect caregivers as well,” she said. “Seeing their loved ones suffer from these diseases is not easy.”
The researchers found that feeding CoQ10 to rodents — the mice that have been genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s cost $500 apiece — kept their nerve cells healthy, avoiding the neurodegeneration (nerve cell death in the brain) that normally happens with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Additionally, none of them developed plaque (lesions on brain tissue), which is a symptom of Alzheimer’s. And when psychology department researchers led by Prof. Jerome Cohen ran the rodents through behaviour and motor skill tests, there was no observed memory loss (among the Alzheimer rodents) or loss of motor skills (among the Parkinson rodents), said Muthukumaran.
The tests were first done on Parkinson rodents, resulting in several published articles in academic journals in recent years. Based on their success with Parkinson’s, researchers mounted a similar study of CoQ10’s effect on Alzheimer’s.
“The result we got (in the Alzheimer study) was amazing,” almost like black and white, said Pandey. “It was very effective on preventing the plaques as well as preventing the memory loss.”
What needs to happen next are clinical trials “to see if it can help people,” he said. “We are hoping it will provide some dramatic effect.”
CoQ10 is a nutrient that exists naturally in the brains of young people — one of the antioxidants that help keep neurons healthy and prevent cell death, according to Muthukumaran. As people age, the levels of these antioxidants fall.
Different oil-soluble formulations of CoQ10 have been tested before with sometimes good results, but the dosages required to help rodents were so high that an equivalent dose for humans would have been well above U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards, said Pandey.
The formulation Muthukumaran worked with is a water-soluble version developed by a team at the National Research Council that included Pandey. It works in much lower dosages because it is easily absorbed into the bloodstream to reach the brain. So the dosage for humans would fall well within the FDA standards, Pandey said.
But he added he doesn’t want people to think they have discovered a cure, that they can go to the store and buy CoQ10 and avoid developing Alzheimer’s. The formulation used by the U of W researchers isn’t commercially available and the effect on humans is still unproven.
The licence for the formulation was recently purchased by a Canadian company, Next Remedies, whose CEO Jorge Santos said he’s now raising funds to start human trials to test CoQ10’s effect on recently diagnosed Parkinson’s patients. Several trials would cost $3 million to $5 million each. He said he doesn’t see CoQ10 as a cure.
“I could be wrong, we haven’t done human trials yet, we have no clue where this will end up. At this point, I see it as an improvement in quality of life and an extension of life.”
He said there have been at least 15 rodent trials done with his firm’s version of CoQ10 already. There’s strong toxicology research showing it won’t hurt you, and it recently received a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) designation from the FDA. He could start selling it as a supplement today, but without human trials, it would remain in a “grey zone,” where the firm couldn’t make claims about its properties.
He wants to focus first on Parkinson’s human trials because there is already lots of research backing up the positive effect of CoQ10. The Alzheimer results from the U of W is still quite new.
“There’s a long way between transferring it from mice to humans, but (the U of W research) is still an important piece of the puzzle in being able to understand things more,” said Rosemary Fiss, manager of education and support programs at the local branch of the Alzheimer Society.
The society estimates 7,120 people in Windsor and Essex County are living with some form of dementia, including Alzheimer’s, a degenerative disorder that attacks the brain, affecting memory, speaking and behaviour. And because the population is aging and dementias primarily attack older people, it’s estimated that by 2031 the number of people will climb to more than 10,000 among people 65 and over.
There are currently four medications used in Canada to treat Alzheimer’s but they don’t cure it, said Fiss. “They don’t fix the damage that’s been done, but what they do is help the person function at an optimal level.”
Researchers are looking for ways to stop the progress or prevent Alzheimer’s from starting, she said.
“We’re hopeful. There’s a lot of great research being done.”
The U of W research was funded by: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the family of Windsor tool and die entrepreneur Joseph Szecsei and professor Cohen, who provided $25,000 for the Alzheimer’s project.
Video:
http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/u-of-w-researchers-use-antioxidant-to-prevent-alzheimers-parkinsons-in-rodents
http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/u-of-w-researchers-use-antioxidant-to-prevent-alzheimers-parkinsons-in-rodents
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