New Way to Stimulate Brain to Release Antioxidants

Neopallium writes "A joint research effort between researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, CA, and a team from Japan (Iwate University, Osaka City University, Gifu University, Iwate Medical University) has discovered a novel way to treat stroke and neurodegenerative disorders. This approach works by inducing nerve cells in the brain and the spine to release natural antioxidants that protect nerve cells from stress and free radicals that lead to neurodegenerative diseases."

Comments

Very promising research - but is it just PR?

[filenavigator]

The research even suggests that this therapy could help in the treatment of Lou Gehrig's, and Alzheimer's disease. This is some very interesting and promising stuff. Lets hope that this is not just some press release for a pharmaceutical company trying to push a drug they are working on.

Re:Very promising research - but is it just PR?

[frybacon]

The Burnham Institute is a non-profit academic research facility.

Re:Very promising research - but is it just PR?

[kfg]

. . .a non-profit academic research facility.

Whose raison d'etre is to patent and license their discoveries:

http://www.burnham.org/TechnologyTransfer/Overview .asp

Where on earth do people ever get the idea that a nonprofit is without profit motive? Trust me, I've served as an executive officer/director in both profit and and nonprofit corporations and they are both equally businesses before all else primarily concerned with grubbing money.

KFG

Woo-hoo...

[codeshack]

... pomegranite juice injections in my spine. Why don't they hook me up with a white wine IV and save themselves the trouble?

even if they can do 50% of the article claim

[Anonymous Coward]

Stimulating the brain on its own would be a great achievement for todays couch potatoes.. let alone releasing anti oxidants.

-Sj53

Not a Cure

[Voltageaav]

This won't cure anyone who already has it though. It's a preventative measure. It may get rid of these diseases in 30 years once it's been used widely, but it's not going to help anyone right now.

Re:Not a Cure

[janek78]

Not necessarily. If you have an ischemic stroke, some of the tissue will be lost beyond saving and undergo necrosis. There will however be a much larger region, called "the penumbra" (shadow) that will be subjected to a certain degree of ischemic damage. Much of this region will be damaged not by the ischemia itself, but by oxidative stress at reperfusion when blood with oxygen and nutriets starts flowing back into the tissue.

Much as been tried to limit this reperfusion damage, including calcium channel blockers (e.g. nimodipine) and different antioxidants, but to no great success. You could argue that enhancing your antioxidative capacity before the reperfusion damage appears could limit the extend of damage to your brain. I remain carefully optimistic.

This can't be good.

[Spazntwich]

Perhaps for treating specialized diseases, but like most drugs, if you force your brain to do things it normally shouldn't, like release more of a certain compound, you'll run into production and resistance issues, eventually requiring more and more for the same effect until bad things happen.

I remain skeptical.

Sounds familiar

[snookumz]

This sounds like protandim. Protandim was a nutritional supplement that was being touted as a life extension drug a while back. The idea was that the human body could never swallow enough anti-oxidants to make up for the fall off with age. Besides, acids in the stomach ruin most anyways. The researcher who made protandim got the idea of restimulating the bodies natural production of anti-oxidants. I believe they claimed a 400% increase in naturally produced anti-oxidant levels. There were quite a few scientific papers that showed beneficial effects to mice suffering from strokes. Unfortunately the company seems to have wavered on what their claims are. Over time, they stepped down from that less provable statement that it could extend lifespan. Still, I don't think anyone has refuted the positive effects. They just shouldn't have targeted the I want to live forever market.

Re:Sounds familiar

[snookumz]

Ah. While I was searching, I found this about it. So I guess it was proven as just another hoax. Probably should have looked it up before posting. Oh well. :)

Brain antioxidants

[possible]

One really has to wait for the study to be published before making any judgements.
However, there have been quite a few promising studies (in both rats and people) showing that antioxidants dramatically reduce the extent of damage to the brain in both diseases of the brain and traumatic brain injury.

Some of the studies I have read indicate that it should be possible to dramatically boost levels of brain antioxidants simply by ingesting antioxidants that are capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. Compounds such as alpha-lipoic acid (which is both fat- and water-soluble) and curcumin (a component of the popular curry spice turmeric) are cheap, safe, and very powerful antioxidants that have been studied.

From the press release, it sounds like the methods used in the study are pretty invasive expensive. I would like to see more long-term research using widely available antioxidant supplements. Unfortunately, since most medical research is funded by drug companies these days, we aren't likely to see lots of grants going to scientists who want to study non-patentable things like turmeric or vitamin C.

Re:I wonder if...

[GWSuperfan]

More likely is that years of smoking pot would make this less necessary. The most current research indicates that cannabanoids (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol being chief among them) stimulate processes in the brain that protect against both damage from chronic causes (i.e. Alzheimer's) and acute trauma. A Google search for "Alzheimer's" and "Marijuana" should yield some good starting points. And, pot has the added bonus of probably being much cheaper than any new drug or treatment that the pharmecutical companies are likely to come out with anytime soon. Just remember to fight terrorism and buy domestic.