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Science Forum Index » Life Extension Forum » Folic acid protects motor neurons against the...
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 Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:05 pm |
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Neuropharmacology. 2008 Jun;54(7):1112-9. Epub 2008 Mar 16. Links
Folic acid protects motor neurons against the increased homocysteine,
inflammation and apoptosis in SOD1(G93A) transgenic mice.Zhang X, Chen
S, Li L, Wang Q, Le W.
Institute of Health Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of
Medicine and Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200025, PR China.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease
caused by selective degeneration of motor neurons. Mutations in copper/
zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) account for 20% cases of familial ALS
(fALS), but the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms are largely
unknown. Using SOD1(G93A) mice model of ALS, we demonstrated that
mutation in SOD1 caused a significant increase in the level of plasma
homocysteine (Hcy). To investigate whether Hcy-lowering therapy is
beneficial to this disease, we applied folic acid (FA) and vitamin B12
which are important factors involved in the Hcy metabolism to assess
the neuroprotective effect of FA and B12 in the SOD1(G93A) mice. Our
results showed FA or FA+B12 treatment significantly delayed the
disease onset and prolonged the lifespan, accompanied by the
significant reduction of motor neuron loss. Furthermore, we found that
FA or FA+B12 treatment significantly attenuated the plasma Hcy level,
suppressed the activation of microglia and astrocytes, and inhibited
the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and tumor
necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in spinal cord. Moreover, FA or FA
+B12 treatment decreased the levels of cleaved caspase-3 and poly(ADP-
ribose)polymerase (PARP) but up-regulated the level of anti-apoptotic
protein Bcl-2. However, B12 treatment alone did not show any
significant benefit to this disease. These results provide evidence to
demonstrate that elevated Hcy is involved in the pathogenesis of fALS
and FA therapy may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of the
disease.
PMID: 18436268 [PubMed - in process] |
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