'Healthy' fatty acids could be linked to Alzheimer's

Published on Sunday 19 October 2008 22:14

A FOOD substance normally associated with good health may play an active role in Alzheimer's disease, research has shown.

Scientists have found a link between raised levels of the omega-6 fatty acid arachidonic acid and memory loss and behavioural changes in mice.

The discovery points to new ways of tackling Alzheimer's.

Fatty acids are rapidly taken up by the brain and incorporated into phospholipids, which shield the neurons in the brain from toxins.

Researchers compared many different fatty acids in the brains of normal mice and animals with a condition that mimics human Alzheimer's disease.

Study leader Dr Rene Sanchez-Mejia, from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Diseases in San Francisco, California, said: "The most striking change we discovered in the Alzheimer's mice was an increase in arachidonic acid and related metabolites in the hippocampus, a memory centre that is affected by Alzheimer's disease."

Arachidonic acid is released from phospholipids in the brain by an enzyme called group IVA phospholipase, or PLA2. By lowering PLA2 levels in Alzheimer's mice, the memory deficits and behavioural abnormalities associated with the disease were prevented.

Writing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the scientists said fatty acid levels could generally be regulated by diet or drugs.